Robin88

How loud it is compared to our lasses system, hers is whisper quiet whereas mine has a constant hum that grows to a very loud whooshing noise when I play a game, whereas our lasses computer stays just as quiet as when it's idle. The K70 I have is wonderful to type on, but the LED's are dying, and I've lost about half of the LED's on it. I need a better CPU cooler, it's been great, but it's holding back my CPU from reaching the heights it can get to (I've had it running at 5GHz using 1.425V on a different board, but it was way too hot for the cooler so it stays at 4.5GHz until I can replace the cooler) And the Motherboard has some weird issues and sometimes changes how much voltage it gives the CPU, so sometimes it'll give the CPU over 1.5V, when it only needs 1.285V for 4.5GHz, but for some reason I can't get the motherboard to set it at that using fixed voltage because it simply won't boot, and offset voltage causes the above issue with changing voltages and I can't get it to use less than 1.35V without it failing to boot. Apart from that it's great, and it plays everything I throw at it with aplomb despite the aging GPU.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Mega Drive/Genesis, I was 5 at the time, I've worked it out, and after nearly 22 years, I've probably put close to 20,000 hours into that game, I still play it even now. The earliest game I can definitely remember playing though was Sonic the Hedgehog 1, and I was 4 when I first played that. I may have played some commodore 64 games, but I only have vague memories of that, and I certainly don't recall the names of the games on that system.

A 9" grinder, an oxy-acetalyne torch, a 10lb hammer and a cheese grater Not really, all you actually need as a bare minimum is a #2 Phillips screwdriver, but to make things easier you might want a pack of cable ties, a pair of scissors to cut the excess off the cable ties and some 99% isopropyl alcohol and paper towels for cleaning thermal paste off. You may also want an anti static wrist strap if you're worried about frying components with static, but honestly, I've built computers on a carpeted floor while wearing socks and a woollen jumper on a cold dry day and never killed a component yet, so I don't consider it worth the money to buy one.

It should all be good like that, but a few other things you can do to further prevent issues is to go into Services.msc and set Remote Registry and Remote Desktop (Unless you absolutely need these feature for managing the server) to disabled and then stop the services, this will prevent people from remotely gaining access to the server and messing with it. Another thing is make sure that Login credentials for your other computers are not stored on the Server, and that you make sure it isn't part of a Workgroup or a domain unless you need it to and disable Homegroup on the Server. (Also make sure all your other computers are password protected) Also make sure you use a password that is at least a minimum of 16 characters long for any Admin accounts on the Server and that those passwords are all different from each other, and if possible only log in as a non admin account. And finally, a DDOS cannot do any physical damage afaik, it would simply stop players from connecting to the server until the DDOS ends. Apart from that it should be fine, but I would first try using the server in a local only private session whilst disconnected from the internet and making sure that when you connect to it to play a game that you can't gain admin access, this would also help to ensure the Server is fast enough for your needs.

To fix the Windows is not genuine problem, follow these instructions below. 1. Open Windows Activation by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, right-clicking Computer, clicking Properties, and then clicking Activate Windows now.‌ 2. Click Show me other ways to activate. 3. Type your Windows 7 product key, and then click Next. 4. Click Use the automated phone system. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. 5. Click the location nearest you from the drop-down list, and then click Next. 6. Call one of the available phone numbers listed. An automated system will guide you through the activation process. 7. When prompted, enter the installation ID that's listed on your screen into your phone's keypad. 8. Write down the confirmation ID that the phone system gives you. 9. Type the confirmation ID into the space provided under Step 3 in the activation dialog, click Next, and then follow the instructions. 10. If activation isn't successful, stay on the line to be transferred to a customer service representative who can assist you. If your version of Windows was a genuine copy, then this will work first time and you won't have any problems, but if your Windows install wasn't genuine to begin with then you'll simply have to buy a genuine copy. But you really should have done a clean install, because as Jellepepe says, Windows really does not like new Mobo's, as it assumes it's being used on two systems at once. However, it's absolutely fine with CPU upgrades as long as it uses the same motherboard. The HDD was and still is fine, but it's because you didn't reinstall, and the system environment changed so drastically when you switched to a new Mobo that Windows couldn't load at all until you performed a System Recovery, which checked what had changed and compensated for it by loading new drivers.

I think that your issue is your power supply, Rosewill power supplies are poor at best and absolutely horrendous at worst, I would get rid of it even if it isn't the cause of your problems. What are the ratings of the PSU? Read the specs on the sticker on the PSU and type them here. Basically a good 650W PSU should only have one 12V rail and it should be outputting around 50/54Amps on that rail. If it has 2 or more 12V rails or it has less than 50Amps on that rail then it most likely isn't giving your GPU enough power to run properly. And that would cause your GPU to throttle in order to keep its power levels within what the PSU can output, which would cause your stuttering in games, and would also explain why when you lower the graphics details to low the stuttering happens a lot less frequently.

Interesting article, but I have to ask, was that photo of the office taken during an average work day or was it taken during crunch time when the deadline is looming and everyone is trying to finish up their work? Is he saying all these things because they're true, or is he a bitter ex-employee who's simply trying to ruin valves reputation? I've worked in terrible conditions as a fabricator welder, so I can totally sympathise if those things are true, and if they are true then Valve should be totally ashamed of themselves, and those of you who're blindly defending Valve, you're idiots imo, no workplace is perfect, no matter what a company tells us to the contrary, and I wouldn't be surprised if those things are true at least some of the time when the pressure to get work out on time is piling on. I seriously doubt though that Valve's offices are like that 100% of the time, but if those things are true, he should have taken his findings to whatever authorities deal with this kind of stuff in the US instead of just shit-posting on the internet. For example, if there's even a hint of a fire-hazard in Valves HQ due to cramped conditions, then HSE or it's US equivalent should have been notified immediately. And that's why I'm dubious of his claims, because instead of going to the local authorities, he posted his "findings" on a blog post, and that to me stinks of someone who is nothing more than a bitter ex-employee with an axe to grind. But if his findings are true, then Valve absolutely should be held accountable for it, and while I can't simply walk away from my steam account due simply to the sheer amount of money I've spent there, I'll start buying my games elsewhere if those things are true, as difficult as that would be.

I don't want you to think I'm running you around in circles, but so that I understand completely what you tried and didn't try. You're trying to run RAID 1. (That's pretty obvious) You first installed to the second drive in your list of drives but not as a RAID array, this was successful the first time around. You then tried reinstalling to both drives in a RAID 1 array, this is when it gave you your first uncorrectable error warning, subsequent installs to this array have failed with the uncorrectable error warning? This is when you deleted the RAID array and attempted to install Windows to the first drive in your list of drives, this was done as a single drive setup, and this also gave you an uncorrectable error, same as the RAID array, am I right so far? And you're going to attempt to install to the second drive in your list of drives as a single drive? Same as when you first got it working? Feel free to correct me on any of these if I'm wrong. If all of the above is the case, I would try installing to the single drive like you did the first time when it worked, and then when you get into Windows (if it works) try running chkdsk /f on the other drive that gave the uncorrectable error, and see if the drive actually works as a storage drive. If the drive cannot be used as a plain storage drive, then it is most likely a dead drive and you'll need to RMA it, and would be the reason why trying to install Windows to it fails. Also, just like with the JumpDrive, make sure you're not trying to use the UEFI boot options on any of the drives, not just your JumpDrive.

What RAID type are you trying to install to? Is it a Mirrored (RAID 1) or striped (RAID 0) or something else. I don't have a massive amount of experience with RAID, but I guess one thing to do is remove both drives from the RAID array (do this in the RAID config screen) Then boot the flash drive and see if you can get into the Windows installer where it gives you the options to format the drives. And use the format options to delete all the partitions from both drives, then quit the installer, and then go back into the RAID config screen and add the drives back into the array you wish to you use and try again. It could possibly be a problem with one of the drives, but if it worked before, then there's no reason why it shouldn't work again. I'm happy that you got past the first issue, and hopefully we'll help you get past this one too.

I've done a quick search for the BSOD that you're getting, and it sounds like an inaccessable boot device. A few questions, have you installed Windows and then changed the SATA ports from IDE to AHCI or vice versa? Was the Windows install a fresh install or was it done on a different system and then transferred into the new system? And have you changed anything else about the BIOS/UEFI configuration since installing Windows? First thing I would do is check in the BIOS to see if your hard drive is correctly recognised, which I assume it is because Windows is attempting to boot, but is giving a Stop error before it can fully load. Second thing I would do is check to see what mode your SATA ports are in, and change it to one of the other options and see if you can boot (My intuition is telling me that this is your issue) And finally if none of these things work, I would pull the drive and put it into a different system and attempt to run chkdsk /f from a command prompt to see if the drive has any problems, if you can't do this, then download and burn a live CD of a linux distro and see if the drive is accessable from within Linux. And if Windows was installed on a different PC and the hard drive transferred to the new one, then you'll have to do a fresh install, and there's no other way around it.

Then the system I mentioned should be fine, for gaming you need to put as much of your budget towards the GPU as possible, and light video editing should be fine on a FX6300, but if you can stretch to a FX8320 then that would be a huge boost in performance for video editing, but as it stands the system is more than powerful enough to start you off with, and you can always upgrade later on once you've got a bit more money to spare, and it'll play almost all games @1080p high at the very least. And if you want a small system then you're gonna need to go m-ITX, but that means a more expensive system as m-ITX motherboards are more expensive than most m-ATX boards, and m-ITX cases are more expensive as well. However, the Core 1100 case is really small, I bought the very similar Core 1000 for a budget build for a family member and it is tiny, it's so small it could fit inside my case with room to spare.

I think most of you are putting emphasis on the wrong components without really knowing what he intends to use the system for, especially for a 600 euro system. @RandomName, what are you going to use the system for? Games? Video editing or something else? If it's for gaming, I'd see about going with a system similar to this. (All of these prices are based on current exchange rates from GBP to Euro, the prices may be less or more so use these prices as a rough guide) AMD FX6300 CPU ~ 95 Euro Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Motherboard ~ 70 Euro HyperX Fury 8GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM ~ 70 Euro Fractal Design Core 1100 Case ~ 38 Euro Corsair CS450M Power Supply ~ 64 Euro WD Caviar Blue 500GB Hard drive ~ 47 Euro AMD R9 280X Graphics Card ~ 240 Euro Total = 624 Euros You won't need a CPU cooler with any of the choices that people have recommended you because they all come with a stock cooler, and get a power supply that's made by Corsair, Seasonic, FSP, Cooler Master, Fractal Design, and other highly regarded power supply manufacturers and you shouldn't have a problem.

I would love to win one of these, but good luck to everyone who's entered though

I apologise, I didn't make myself clear, those options are fine I would imagine. But on this page http://imgur.com/BPHWlJP Under "Boot Option 1" You're trying to boot "UEFI: (FAT) Lexar JumpDrive" as the first boot device. Click on the drop down list for "Boot Option 1" and change it to the legacy option for the Lexar JumpDrive so that "Boot Option 1" reads something like "Legacy: (FAT) Lexar JumpDrive" Or more likely just "Lexar JumpDrive (15280MB)" I hope that is a bit clearer to you.

I don't know if you've tried this, and I apologise if you have, but in your boot order, could you change the option for the lexar thumb drive from UEFI to legacy or BIOS (I'm not sure exactly what the terminology for your motherboard is) but it's basically a compatibility mode for devices that don't support UEFI boot. I've tried UEFI boot before and I've never got it working, because I'm either a complete numbskull, or it just plain doesn't work, so I always end up having to use the legacy version for a bootable device. Which in your case, you would have two options for the thumb drive, one called UEFI Lexar JumpDrive, and another called (along the lines of) BIOS Lexar JumpDrive. so try the second one to see if that works. If this doesn't fix the issue, then it's more likely a corrupt download of the ISO for Windows and reinstalling it with a fresh download might help. Good luck, and let us know how you get on

I can't remember exactly what compression Microsoft uses, but it's a proprietary algorithm that works incredibly well for the kinds of files that make up windows, however, once those files are compressed, they're completely unusable in that format, they need to be decompressed before you can run Windows (which is one of the many reasons that microsoft couldn't offer a live CD/DVD even if they wanted to), so it isn't as though you could use it all the time to make Windows only take up 4GB, and like all compression techniques, it only works correctly on files that weren't compresed to begin with, so it wouldn't work on most video/audio. Also like others have said, a lot of space in Windows is taken up by Hiberfil.sys, Pagefile.sys and System Restore, which aren't stored on the DVD/in the ISO, however, even if you delete Hiberfil.sys, reduce/remove Pagefile.sys, and turn off System Restore, Windows still takes up around 12-15GB, so as you can see, it's incredibly efficient at compression.

Hi brandynmagers, first off, if you don't know how to flash your BIOS/UEFI to the latest version, I would suggest you don't do this, you can seriously screw up your board if you aren't careful. And everyone who is suggesting this, please don't, BIOS flashing and reinstalling Windows should only be done as a last resort and even then, only if we know it fixes the issue (which we don't) and if everything else has failed to fix the problem, and besides, brandynmagers doesn't know how to flash the BIOS on his motherboard, so let's not try to make him run before he can crawl, but anyway, lets start with something simple first. So just to clarify, you've already updated your drivers, and it sounds like you're having issues with USB devices, specifically your headset keeps switching off/disappearing until you restart, Google Chrome freezes your PC and loading LoL causes your PC to also freeze? And you're also having troubles with the BIOS, and finally your Wireless card keeps disappearing from device manager? Am I correct so far? Now first off, are you running an overclock on your CPU or GPU? If you are, then reset your CPU to stock speed, and reset your GPU to stock speeds, don't overclock until you've fixed all the issues you're having. Now, assuming you had an overclock and you've returned everything to default, test everything and see if the isues persist, if they do, then follow the next instructions to see if these help. Now, if you're using windows Vista/7, open the start menu and type "cmd" without quotes into the search and right click on cmd and select "run as administrator" and in the window that opens type without quotes "SFC /scannow" and press enter and wait, this will run a scan on your SSD to check for corrupted files. In windows 8/8.1, bring your mouse over to the right side of the screen and the charms bar should appear, click on the magnifying glass and type "command prompt" without quotes and then right click on the top result and click on "run as administrator" and follow the rest of the instructions as above for windows 7. This will take a while and may not find anything, but once it's done it'll give a summary of the scan. If it mentions that errors were found that couldn't be fixed, take a screenshot of what it shows and let us know exactly what it says. If it doesn't, then test Chrome, Youtube and LoL to see if those specific issues continue, they probably will, but it's a simple test and it helps to start with the easy stuff before getting in over your head with stuff you probably aren't comfortable with. We'll get to the other problems later, but it's better to do one thing at a time instead of 100 different things at once, even if it feels like you're not getting anywhere. It may turn out to not be your motherboard, but we cannot rule anything out until we've tested everything. Let us know what happens in any case

It sounds to me like a faulty VGA to DVI adapter, can you not just use DVI or HDMI without an adapter? (I'm guessing not, but if you have access to a TV or another monitor, then try testing with that) I would probably try clearing CMOS before going out and buying a replacement adapter though, but that's your choice, I would also check that the motherboard isn't shorting out against the case (It isn't likely to be the problem, but you never know) and I would try reseating your GPU, sometimes a bit of dust or fluff inside the PCI-e slot can stop a device from being recognised/working, but imho it sounds like it's the adapter as it's worked 3 times and then stopped. Good luck fixing the issue, and try not to stress about it, the more you stress, the more likely you are to make a mistake and damage something, just take a deep breath and relax, all of your stuff is covered by warranty so don't treat this issue as though it's the end of the world, because it honestly isn't

This is an awesome feature, and I wish my motherboard had it about 2 years ago, We had a freak lightning strike near my mums home and while we weren't hit directly, it took out my current motherboards Ethernet port and fried out our Sky modem/router, thankfully everything else survived and I was able to get it repaired via Gigabyte support, but ever since then the board hasn't been quite right, randomly failing POST, and the CPU doesn't seem to overclock quite as well as it used to (used to get 4.5Ghz at 1.285V, now it needs 1.365V for 4.5GHz), it's too late now to RMA it again as the warrenty has expired and it isn't really worth paying to potentially get it back only for the issues to not be fixed so I just live with it, with the expectation of the board finally giving up the ghost at any point. I know I should have had a surge protector or a UPS, but I honestly doubt it would have protected against a lightning strike to the phone lines, so this feature is pretty awesome if it works imo. Great bit of news, and a great post btw, and if any Biostar motherboard is worth getting when I eventually replace my current rig I'll bear this neat feature in mind as it might sway my purchasing decision.

It's absolutely a voltage issue, but the thing is, it might be a CPU related issue, or a RAM related issue, sometimes they both show up as a 0x124 error. Edit: You'll need to go into your BIOS by holding delete just after you press the power button on your PC, there you'll find options for CPU Vcore, you'll need to reference your motherboard manual to find out where those options are. But I would try putting your CPU core valtage up by about 0.010V and testing using OCCT/Prime95 or IBT, if you still get a BSOD, then up it by the same amount again, until you reach a max of about 1.45V or your temps go over 80C (assuming you haven't already got it at this voltage at full load) if it's still giving this error, then dial back any overclock but keep the voltage the same until it is stable and then lower your CPU core voltage until it BSOD's again, then raise it by 0.020V and test again, and keep on raising your Vcore by the same amount until it is stable, if it's still not stable after trying those things, then check your RAM voltage, it should be 1.65V for your RAM, but double check with the label on the sticks to be absolutely sure. I've also had this issue overclocking, but it shouldn't result in any permanent damage, it's just annoying, especially if you're doing anything important. If you get a 0x101 (I think it is?) BSOD then you're almost stable, and a slight Vcore bump should be enough to make it stable. It has nothing to do with drivers, and you absolutely do not need to reinstall Windows, in this case it's voltage, and reinstalling Windows will never fix the issue. Those BSOD's will stop pretty much the instant you find the correct voltage for your CPU. Also, in future could you put your system specs into your sig please? And add what overclock you're running so that any issues are easier to diagnose, cheers, and good luck fixing the problem, it's should be fixable in less than a couple of hours if all goes well.

Nice job for a beginner, but some things I would do is zip tie the excess cable lengths to the inside face of the optical drive bays and have each cable only come out where it's needed. Then have the front audio and USB cables tucked under the motherboard if it fits (I've done this on a family members pc and it works fine, oh, and cut off the AC97 audio connector, it's useless) Then I'd replace the hard drive SATA cable with as short a length as you can find, you can get 15cm ones that would get rid of most of the excess cabling. Another thing I would do is zip tie the GPU cables to the back of the card so that they come straight down to the motherboard and then straight out to the drive bays and up to the PSU. (If that's not possible, then just go straight out to the drive bays instead) Also route as many fan cables along the case edges as possible, and remove any molex cables if possible, you've got one sticking out of the drive bays, if you can't unplug them cause you're using them, then you can zip tie the excess ones to the inside of the drive bays. You could make it look like there's almost no cables at all despite the lack of cable routing options, a lot of people seem to whine about lack of cable routing on older cases, but honestly there's so much you can do with cases if you take the time to do it right. One more thing, if you can fit them up there, then you can always stuff excess cables in between the top of the DVD drive and the case roof, that's honestly the easiest thing to do with cable excess. Still, you've done a pretty decent job nonetheless, and it's a big improvement on what your dad did

I know this is my first post, but I didn't make this account specifically for this giveaway, but anyway, I would love to win this, it'd be a great Christmas present Edit: I would use this for ripping my DVD collection to my NAS, and for other light audio and video editing.