First one to laugh gets it...

£62 Ecute cube micro atx case with 650w psu - new
£55 Skipper's lightly-used Asus motherboard M3A78-EM and 2GB RAM - used
£88 AMD Phenom x4 9650-2300Mhz quad core cpu - new
£60 Two SATA 250Gb hard drives - refurb
£60 Another 4Gb RAM (6Gb total) - used
£15 Sony Optiarc DVD +RW - refurb
£15 Logitech MM Keyboard - refurb
£8 Various cables
£85 - OS
£7 - drive bay multi card reader
Priceless - Lesson learnt :D

That's about it so far...


Arthur
 
What, that last bit :LOL:

If and when it all goes together and works, it may be a bargain - for now, just an excercise in spending pennies!

Arthur
 
so Arthur, when it's up and running will it be super-dooper spec?
I hope you get it going soon :)
 
Andy - no, it won't, I suspect i7 is silly-fast compared to this but for me and Mr average I think this is plenty fast enough. Especially with the RAID array which should halve hard drive read access times (though write is a tad slower I think).

Another open question... just been reading up on RAID arrays and it seems RAID1 is pretty much the best for me. If I add another 250Gb drive for backup purposes, will it confuse the controller? I know we laugh about RAID not being backup but it is, isn't it? Not in the full sense of the word but it does rather take care of a drive failing (as long as the failed drive is replaced right away)... I am thinking you see of just getting the number three drive and not implementing it at all, just leaving it in the case unconnected so if (when, in my case) one of the RAID drives die, I can flick over straight away to the spare drive. Is that a plan? I know it's not the way we should do things, but this is only a home system...


Arthur
 
Ambermile said:
Andy - no, it won't, I suspect i7 is silly-fast compared to this but for me and Mr average I think this is plenty fast enough. Especially with the RAID array which should halve hard drive read access times (though write is a tad slower I think).

Another open question... just been reading up on RAID arrays and it seems RAID1 is pretty much the best for me. If I add another 250Gb drive for backup purposes, will it confuse the controller? I know we laugh about RAID not being backup but it is, isn't it? Not in the full sense of the word but it does rather take care of a drive failing (as long as the failed drive is replaced right away)... I am thinking you see of just getting the number three drive and not implementing it at all, just leaving it in the case unconnected so if (when, in my case) one of the RAID drives die, I can flick over straight away to the spare drive. Is that a plan? I know it's not the way we should do things, but this is only a home system...


Arthur
Click to expand...

i wouldnt expect RAID to speed up your system significantly unless youre working with small files. in fact mirroring is actually slower due to writing to 2 (or more) drives at once. otherwise the marginal increase in speed in striping is generally not worth the cost.

no raid is not a backup. it does not protect against fire or theft for starters. i have seen server level raid controllers fail and destroy all data on all mirrored drives forcing a restore from tape (that was a very late night/early morning) so it is not indestructible. you would be foolish to have it as your only copy of data. if you really want to use raid i would get an additional USB drive to backup to.

but for the most part in a mirror if one drive fails then the other will continue to operate (albeit at a degraded speed) automatically. but if the other drive then also fails (again another reason for additional external drives) your data is toast.
 
Ah - if I read the RAID stuff and you above right (and not wanting to get into striping) I am best to use the twin drives as a RAID1 pair and use number three drive for the periodical (standard) backup? Or are you saying that the backup drive is better being external (off-premises and all that)? OK yes, the business stuff will go on the system but is that not paranoic-level security? I am aware you will say what's your data worth to you, how much would a total lost cost you, and so on but still...

Arthur
 
OK, will go chase an external drive then!

Thanks Neil :D
 
Don't trust a hard drive for long term storage of important data, at the very least also back up to good quality DVD.
 
OK. New drives and psu here.

Turn on. Nothing. No monitor on even. OK, reset BIOS as likely previous owner had it on other than VGA. OK, get to bios, load defaults and let it go. Nothing. At all. Turn power off and on, turn on. I get no monitor, and a post beep code of 2-5, never heard of it. Take out RAM, nothing, no beeps, no monitor. Put some in, beeps, no monitor. Remove drives, nothing. Replace drives, get beeps, no monitor.

Read manual, make sure boot drive (CD) is in SATA1 - it is. Reset BIOS, make sure drives are set to SATA not RAID in BIOS, restart, nothing but 2-5 beep code. ASUS/Award bios, and there is very little keeping me from dumping this out of the window...

Windows needs clean install, right? I got SATA drives that need an OS to work!
 
Ambermile said:
OK. New drives and psu here.

Turn on. Nothing. No monitor on even. OK, reset BIOS as likely previous owner had it on other than VGA. OK, get to bios, load defaults and let it go. Nothing. At all. Turn power off and on, turn on. I get no monitor, and a post beep code of 2-5, never heard of it. Take out RAM, nothing, no beeps, no monitor. Put some in, beeps, no monitor. Remove drives, nothing. Replace drives, get beeps, no monitor.

Read manual, make sure boot drive (CD) is in SATA1 - it is. Reset BIOS, make sure drives are set to SATA not RAID in BIOS, restart, nothing but 2-5 beep code. ASUS/Award bios, and there is very little keeping me from dumping this out of the window...

Windows needs clean install, right? I got SATA drives that need an OS to work!
Click to expand...

now you have to go into fault finding mode!

Disconnect everything from your mother board except the essentials (PSU, one stick of ram and the CPU....erm, am I forgetting anything here?). Now boot up, you should get ONE beep. If not, count the beeps and look up the mobo manufacturers website as the number of beeps corresponds to the problem.
 
Not so easy, there's only one published beep code...
 
you have got all the PSU leads connected to the mobo? once i tried to boot a system with just the 24pin connector and not the 4pin also connected.. didnt get too far.

how many beeps are you getting? long/short beeps?
 
Well, 2 short and 5 short. Both indicate a new board is in order...
 
Have you tried loading each strip of memory into the first bank?

Both 2 beeps and 5 beeps seem to possibly be memory related
 
Have tried everything, on close inspection the RAM that came with the board has some of the connection strip missing but none of the RAM I have will allow the board to fire up. Looks like I need a new board - and I mean new this damned time :thumbsdown:
 
take the mobo out and scrutinise it all over. I scrapped a board in the past by rubbing it over a metal mounting point and scraping a copper track
 
It's all checked OK, cannot see anything wrong, just will not take any of the RAM I have here, in any configuration from 1Gb up to 6Gb. No other choice but to assume the board is toast.
 
... don't tell me there's a mobo fairy...

No other option here, I can get nothing from it, which is pretty annoying since I bought all the other parts only because I had bought this board... dammit.


So, anyone got any ideas for a very cheap AM2+ motherboard then? Not AM2 else it will cut the speed.

Arthur
 
Might be worth buying a strip of the correct RAM first.

Will be less than a MoBo and you could use it as part of your system.
 
Yes, Neil is probably right.

My Asus board needs one strip in B1 or, if two strips, then A1 and B1.
 
I have read the manual and done everything it says,

Mikesphotaes said:
Might be worth buying a strip of the correct RAM first.

Will be less than a MoBo and you could use it as part of your system.
Click to expand...

the RAM I have was supplied with the board and is confirmed to have been running in it. The manual says for 1 strip, A1 or B1, for 2 A1 and B1 and for 4 A1, B1, A2, B2. I have tried all those combinations, in every combination of the RAM I have here (2x 2Gb and 2x 1Gb. Nothing.

If no memory issues, both 2 and 5 indicate board issues, the link you supplied Neil states that... now all I get is one long, 2 short - no matter what I do with the RAM.
 
No - I have memory here from the original, some new, and some from another placed used. That's three different sources... if it *is* the memory then it must be the board that has killed all that I have here same as it killed the PSU!
 
Yup - checked against the manual's spec. They are even on the good supplier list in the manual. I think I am just going to have to find another board and be done with it :(
 
Looking at a Foxconn at the moment, same RAM, same socket, SATA with RAID 0,1 and 10 support (and ide), and also micro-atx so ticks the right boxes.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this company before I commit? Will have to be soon, it is getting hard to explain mountains of PC kit on the dining room table...

Arthur
 
personally id stick to asus, gigabyte, DFI etc.. although i did stick my neck out a little and go for a make i didnt know a whole lot about with my new system.. zotac. no issues so far..

what sort of budget do you have for a replacement?
 
neil_g said:
personally id stick to asus, gigabyte, DFI etc.. although i did stick my neck out a little and go for a make i didnt know a whole lot about with my new system.. zotac. no issues so far..

what sort of budget do you have for a replacement?
Click to expand...

Agreed, I've had a couple of Foxconn mobo's in the past and they've been spot on, but Asus and Gigabyte have also been faultless. The big difference is the support, Asus and Gigabyte have loads on their websites and its easy to use. I've only ever had issues with one brand, MSI, where I had huge compatability issues on a fairly straightforward Core2Duo system:bang:

You'll stuggle to get better value than the £33 - £36 ones on EBuyer, Asus & Gigabyte are both on there
 
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