My Scary incident

[IcKabodKraYne]

Yes, as most things are scary, most scary things come to an end. Happens to fall in my favor this one and only time.

So, i was enjoying one of my favorite eGO servers (italy i think or aztec) and I promise u guys..in the middle of me clicking my scout in like ON THE DUDES HEAD my computer turns into what sounds like a broken record. ackackackackackackackuckcukuckuckcukcuk pshoosh..done..of..dead.

now for those of you who havent heard me "very confidently" describe my pc build to other members; i dont have just a reguler go to best buy and pick it out off the shelf pc. I built mine..over months, as i'm sure a lot of the ppl who are hopefully reading this.

I built mine piece by piece ordered almost everything individually...i wanted a hoss. and i had one.. But only from december to until about 3 daus ago...i know right??

Build:
ASUS Sabertooth 990fx MB
AMD Phenom II 1100T Black Edition six-core processor(runnng at precisely at 4.20 ghz
Seagate 500gb HD(plenty of room for only 7 more so dont worry)
G skill ripjaw series ram(only 8gb but this stuff holds its own)
Corsair H80 liquid cooling(evryone knows these rocK)
EVGA 2.5 gb GTX 570hd
ASUS dvd burner
Apevia 680w "beast Power" power supply
8 assorted fans(most came in case)
all inside an and df900 series(clack and red and big with big side window)

Well anyway to make this long enough story shorter, ill explain what happened

once the pc wouldnt start back up i start watching my smart motherboard go through its POST...but to no avail...it kept sticking on the VGA led....sccccaaaaarrrrryyyyyyy..just paid 400 for that VGA card on december 23rd!!!!!

so..i keep trying..but with no success..so i called evga and they tried helping but wanted me to pay for a new one while they sent me a "new" one and then id get my money back when they get the broken one back...i was irritated..i dont have too much patience..

so i found a 512mb ati 4530 card..junk i know, but i had it.so i hooked it up expecting everything to be fine..almost..i get through POST and ABOUT to get to windows screen and poof shuts off again..

At this point i put 2 and 2 together and the answer to that is the only sheap part i bought for my ENTIRE build...the power supply..it had just had enough..dead.

So i called apevia who werent the nicest about it but were willing to do their toughly"1-2 month" rma...but i realize with my machine, if thats what the problem is..i dont WANT another apevia PSU..

so at 8:55 pm last night i realize this and speed to best buy.. they were closed when i got there..however i got mad and threw a temper tantrum and told them i just needed one thing...sp they let me in..

End of Story:::::: I decided to try out a Corsair gs700 (gs is "G"aming "S"eries
) and after about 2 hours of me rewiring everything, which looks much better and more organized now...my pc worked again..

Morale of the story::
If you build a beast pc and it had a lot of power hungry parts; dont be a cheapo like me and get a mediocre PSU. get something with some balls.. that can carry the weight of the hoss..

 

[DragonD]

Morale of the story::
If you build a beast pc and it had a lot of power hungry parts; dont be a cheapo like me and get a mediocre PSU. get something with some balls.. that can carry the weight of the hoss..

Alas, that is a common mistake. People spend all that money on fancy smancy parts, but then neglect to give it a beefy power supply.

the PS is one item that you should never really have to upgrade.

And you also, at the end, learned debugging 101. Take stuff out, test. Put other stuff in, test... That should have been done prior to testing.

 

[Naku_vamp]

Yes, as most things are scary, most scary things come to an end. Happens to fall in my favor this one and only time.

So, i was enjoying one of my favorite eGO servers (italy i think or aztec) and I promise u guys..in the middle of me clicking my scout in like ON THE DUDES HEAD my computer turns into what sounds like a broken record. ackackackackackackackuckcukuckuckcukcuk pshoosh..done..of..dead.

now for those of you who havent heard me "very confidently" describe my pc build to other members; i dont have just a reguler go to best buy and pick it out off the shelf pc. I built mine..over months, as i'm sure a lot of the ppl who are hopefully reading this.

I built mine piece by piece ordered almost everything individually...i wanted a hoss. and i had one.. But only from december to until about 3 daus ago...i know right??

Build:
ASUS Sabertooth 990fx MB
AMD Phenom II 1100T Black Edition six-core processor(runnng at precisely at 4.20 ghz
Seagate 500gb HD(plenty of room for only 7 more so dont worry)
G skill ripjaw series ram(only 8gb but this stuff holds its own)
Corsair H80 liquid cooling(evryone knows these rocK)
EVGA 2.5 gb GTX 570hd
ASUS dvd burner
Apevia 680w "beast Power" power supply
8 assorted fans(most came in case)
all inside an and df900 series(clack and red and big with big side window)

Well anyway to make this long enough story shorter, ill explain what happened

once the pc wouldnt start back up i start watching my smart motherboard go through its POST...but to no avail...it kept sticking on the VGA led....sccccaaaaarrrrryyyyyyy..just paid 400 for that VGA card on december 23rd!!!!!

so..i keep trying..but with no success..so i called evga and they tried helping but wanted me to pay for a new one while they sent me a "new" one and then id get my money back when they get the broken one back...i was irritated..i dont have too much patience..

so i found a 512mb ati 4530 card..junk i know, but i had it.so i hooked it up expecting everything to be fine..almost..i get through POST and ABOUT to get to windows screen and poof shuts off again..

At this point i put 2 and 2 together and the answer to that is the only sheap part i bought for my ENTIRE build...the power supply..it had just had enough..dead.

So i called apevia who werent the nicest about it but were willing to do their toughly"1-2 month" rma...but i realize with my machine, if thats what the problem is..i dont WANT another apevia PSU..

so at 8:55 pm last night i realize this and speed to best buy.. they were closed when i got there..however i got mad and threw a temper tantrum and told them i just needed one thing...sp they let me in..

End of Story:::::: I decided to try out a Corsair gs700 (gs is "G"aming "S"eries
) and after about 2 hours of me rewiring everything, which looks much better and more organized now...my pc worked again..

Morale of the story::
If you build a beast pc and it had a lot of power hungry parts; dont be a cheapo like me and get a mediocre PSU. get something with some balls.. that can carry the weight of the hoss..

thats rule one of pc building DO NOT EVER go cheap on the power supply, because doesn't matter how could the rest of the pc is if it doesn't have the energy to use it.

It would be like an Olympic athlete only ate like 500 calories a day before competing, chances are he's gonna pass out part way through

 

[a pet rock]

I just want to clarify what everyone else is saying, there is a difference between buying cheap and buying appropriate. You can buy a 1200W PSU thinking you're set for your rig, but if it's some crappy knock-off unit and it won't put out its rated wattages or handle the cross-load you're putting on it. Or you just buy a good unit that fits your build and not have any problems.

Basically what I'm saying is wattage =/= quality and to never ever EVER confuse the two, as happens so much.

 

[IcKabodKraYne]

thanks rock for understanding the point

:lol:rock thats exactly what i'm saying haha thank you for paraphrazing that perfectly i mean of course i was "gonna upgrade later" but as this was my first high end build/learning experience just make sure its up to par and go with reputable companies..every company produces lemons..i mean every single one of them sends out broken products. the apevia had decent reviews on newegg, but i was fully aware and ignoring the fact that for a little more(in the pc industry at least..$60 bucks isnt much) that i could get a good 5 star world known brand like corsair thats been proven to be successfull; a mistake that caused me so much stress..not to mention a bad power supply can ruin your ENTIRE PC..i got lucky and believe that the MB i have is very, very tough...well actually its TUF haha..

and dragon wut u mean "Take stuff out, test. Put other stuff in, test... That should have been done prior to testing. "

as u said earlier, i did test thats why i realized it wasnt that vga card that was causing the vga_led to light up because the old vga card i had didnt require external power and the boot up made it a lot farther..proving (in my mind at least that you could be 99% the culprit was the power supply) and no further testing was required.

IcKabodKraYne:thumbup:

 

[Ph?bus]

I just want to clarify what everyone else is saying, there is a difference between buying cheap and buying appropriate. You can buy a 1200W PSU thinking you're set for your rig, but if it's some crappy knock-off unit and it won't put out its rated wattages or handle the cross-load you're putting on it. Or you just buy a good unit that fits your build and not have any problems.

Basically what I'm saying is wattage =/= quality and to never ever EVER confuse the two, as happens so much.

This.

And buying a tower piece by piece over a long span of time is wasting money. Look back at how much you paid, and then compare that to what their prices are now (if even available).

 

[IcKabodKraYne]

well some of us don't have the means to buy a whole pc at once. i have a lot of bills. so with all respect intended please dont come here to tell me i wasted money, because honestly i have what i want and i'm happy, and i started this thread so other people who build their machines piece by piece(i mean waste their money) could learn from my mistake. i don't necessarily find your post helpful. actually not in any way at all to anybody, as you quoted something i already reiterated and agreed with publicly. but thank you for your opinion.

IcKabodKraYne

 

[IcKabodKraYne]

and i find it quite ironic that in your signature you have a guide on how to build your own pc. not to mention you obviously didnt observe or acknowledge the fact that my build was right around black friday. so most of my parts were on sale. and if you do indeed go back to reference their prices, i guaruntee you the performance of my machine is the same of the money you'd spend today. so again. thanks, but not necesary

IcKabodKrayne

 

[Naku_vamp]

I just want to clarify what everyone else is saying, there is a difference between buying cheap and buying appropriate. You can buy a 1200W PSU thinking you're set for your rig, but if it's some crappy knock-off unit and it won't put out its rated wattages or handle the cross-load you're putting on it. Or you just buy a good unit that fits your build and not have any problems.

Basically what I'm saying is wattage =/= quality and to never ever EVER confuse the two, as happens so much.

i meant high quality not high wattage.

and as said many people do upgrade later, but your power supply should be one thing you shouldn't need to upgrade i generally buy a very good psu thats a little more powerful than what i need some i have room to upgrade later

 

[Naku_vamp]

and i find it quite ironic that in your signature you have a guide on how to build your own pc. not to mention you obviously didnt observe or acknowledge the fact that my build was right around black friday. so most of my parts were on sale. and if you do indeed go back to reference their prices, i guaruntee you the performance of my machine is the same of the money you'd spend today. so again. thanks, but not necesary

IcKabodKrayne

Phobus knows his stuff, hes saying buying parts over time is a waste of money and it is, if you can't buy the whole pc, you should set money aside and buy it all at once because stuff you started with is going to be cheaper later meaning you could have saved money OR bought newer possibly better stuff for around the same price

 

[runo]

and i find it quite ironic that in your signature you have a guide on how to build your own pc. not to mention you obviously didnt observe or acknowledge the fact that my build was right around black friday. so most of my parts were on sale. and if you do indeed go back to reference their prices, i guaruntee you the performance of my machine is the same of the money you'd spend today. so again. thanks, but not necesary

IcKabodKrayne

You don't need to be so harsh to Phobus for his post. All he was saying is that you could have set aside the money you saved over each month and either gotten better prices or gotten more recent iterations of the tech you wanted (or bought entirely new technology to begin with). Is doing it your way wrong? No. Is it a bit odd? Yes, but the the overall point IS that you have a computer that you're happy with... but again, all Phobus was saying was that it would have been wiser, not that it was wrong.

I am pretty sure he wasn't specifically out to offend you.

 

[IcKabodKraYne]

i completely understand what his point is, and i somewhat agree, but i have a great machine that is actually comparable today for what i paid for most of it. and more importantly thats not the focus of the thread that i started. im not trying to get into a forum bashing frenzy i was trying to put some of what i thought was useful information out there so other people dont make the same mistake. im sure he knows his stuff hes been here for two years and has a tech talk award. Unfortunately the title of this thread isnt "How To Build The Most Cost Effective Machine..I'll leave that for him to discuss. However i did say that i didnt want any offense taken because i said all that with the most respect possible. But i'm picky and know what i want and try and work hard to get it. I'm not the guy who goes and buys a TV and then buy the sunday paper for the next 3 months making sure i didnt miss out on that..most of the time there is always a cheaper way to do anything. again. that is not the point of my thread. i have a feeling i may need to ask for this to be closed because it doesnt look liek its going to serve the purpose of what was intended. I'm sorry

IckaBodKraYne

 

[DragonD]

and dragon wut u mean "Take stuff out, test. Put other stuff in, test... That should have been done prior to testing. "

as u said earlier, i did test thats why i realized it wasnt that vga card that was causing the vga_led to light up because the old vga card i had didnt require external power and the boot up made it a lot farther..proving (in my mind at least that you could be 99% the culprit was the power supply) and no further testing was required.

IcKabodKraYne:thumbup:

I has a typo.

Should read.. ""Take stuff out, test. Put other stuff in, test... That should have been done prior to calling. "

 

[IDigitalDeadI]

The Majority of the time I'd have to agree with Phobus, since i've been wrong before as well, but not in this case. While it is strange to buy parts over time, sometimes its for the best. For example in my situation, I need to buy another CPU/MOBO/RAM. I found both my memory and motherboard on sale for less than what they are now. It was a one day sale at microcenter and I really didn't have the money to spend on them, but I jumped on them anyway. If I would have saved to get all 3 parts at once, I would have missed out on the deal and it would cost more now to buy all 3 (in comparison to the day of the sale). Even though the CPU price went down, it doesn't cover the difference I saved buy 2 out of the 3 parts then. Even if the motherboard and memory dropped in price themselves by $10 each, it still wouldn't cover the difference, that deal was insane .

tl;dr Sometimes you have to go with your gut, and if you find a ridiculous deal, take it.

 

[Ph?bus]

well some of us don't have the means to buy a whole pc at once. i have a lot of bills. so with all respect intended please dont come here to tell me i wasted money, because honestly i have what i want and i'm happy, and i started this thread so other people who build their machines piece by piece(i mean waste their money) could learn from my mistake. i don't necessarily find your post helpful. actually not in any way at all to anybody, as you quoted something i already reiterated and agreed with publicly. but thank you for your opinion.

IcKabodKraYne

So just save your money and buy it all in bulk. Usually, you won't lose that much money, but still. Saving as much as possible is preferred for most people. Nothing personal against you.

and i find it quite ironic that in your signature you have a guide on how to build your own pc. not to mention you obviously didnt observe or acknowledge the fact that my build was right around black friday. so most of my parts were on sale. and if you do indeed go back to reference their prices, i guaruntee you the performance of my machine is the same of the money you'd spend today. so again. thanks, but not necesary

IcKabodKrayne

I dunno. It's possible, and I'm too lazy/busy to check right not, but I kind of doubt it with the release of the 600 series. Then again, the availability of the 600 series is dwarfed by that of the 500 series.

Phobus knows his stuff, hes saying buying parts over time is a waste of money and it is, if you can't buy the whole pc, you should set money aside and buy it all at once because stuff you started with is going to be cheaper later meaning you could have saved money OR bought newer possibly better stuff for around the same price

Thanks for elaborating.

You don't need to be so harsh to Phobus for his post. All he was saying is that you could have set aside the money you saved over each month and either gotten better prices or gotten more recent iterations of the tech you wanted (or bought entirely new technology to begin with). Is doing it your way wrong? No. Is it a bit odd? Yes, but the the overall point IS that you have a computer that you're happy with... but again, all Phobus was saying was that it would have been wiser, not that it was wrong.

I am pretty sure he wasn't specifically out to offend you.

Everyone can learn from past experiences. I'm quite embarrassed looking back at my first PSU purchase. I did much the same thing the OP did: buying a not-very-good PSU. I only bought it because it had free shipping and was in my price range (like $60 lol). I'm lucky my system didn't even need half of the rated wattage.

The Majority of the time I'd have to agree with Phobus, since i've been wrong before as well, but not in this case. While it is strange to buy parts over time, sometimes its for the best. For example in my situation, I need to buy another CPU/MOBO/RAM. I found both my memory and motherboard on sale for less than what they are now. It was a one day sale at microcenter and I really didn't have the money to spend on them, but I jumped on them anyway. If I would have saved to get all 3 parts at once, I would have missed out on the deal and it would cost more now to buy all 3 (in comparison to the day of the sale). Even though the CPU price went down, it doesn't cover the difference I saved buy 2 out of the 3 parts then. Even if the motherboard and memory dropped in price themselves by $10 each, it still wouldn't cover the difference, that deal was insane .

tl;dr Sometimes you have to go with your gut, and if you find a ridiculous deal, take it.

This entirely. I suppose I should update that into my build guide. I want a general rule, and I should acknowledge that sometimes buying something when it's on sale is okay, even if you can't buy the rest of the system.

 

[IDigitalDeadI]

I couldn't pass on the deal. I got an AsRock Extreme 3 Gen 3 motherboard for Half off and essentially got myself 8GB of G.Skill's Ripjaws DDR3-1333 for free, due to my dad buying an all in one printer as well. Must have been some kind of Inventory sale, but since then, prices haven't got that low or even remotely close. Like I said, even though buying parts over time may be strange, you gotta jump on those deals. I saved $100 (Board originally $124, memory about $40) that's going towards my CPU, which is going down in price now.

Just need to wait on a sale for power supplies, toss this Raidmax out lol.