Obvious question; will the larger fan actually fit in the box?

CoolerMaster Elite 333 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU *SPECIAL OFFER*
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161317

Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.6GHz Socket 775 800FSB 2MB L2 Cache OEM Processor
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166192

Crucial 2GB DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Ballistix Memory CL4 2.0V
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166117

Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124228

LG GH22NS40 22X SATA DVD±RW/DL/RAM Black Bare Drive - OEM
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151999

Black Multimedia Keyboard - USB/PS2 Connection - UK Layout
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/125784

HANNS.G HW173AB 17" TFT Monitor Widescreen 1440x900 250cd/m2 500:1 8 ms VGA Black/Silver 3 Year On Site Manufacturer Warranty
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126874

Labtec classic optical mouse - USB
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145879

ASUS P5N73-AM GeForce 7050 Socket 775 onboard Graphics 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151482

Akasa AK-956SF Socket 775 heatsink with fan Cooler
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/115662

Total: £303.37

Thats what i would get.
cheers boothy

Well, that was all a bit interesting to say the least. I got four huge boxes from Ebuyer delivered this morning, so I set about trying to build this beast!

As JJW009 pointed out, the larger fan simply did not fit, despite what Ebuyer advertised on the case's product page. Therefore, I've had to forfeit a front intake fan, but I don't suppose it will make a huge difference since the case doesn't actually have any vents at the front for the air anyway!

I slotted everything together happily enough and connected it to the mains power. I was relieved when the machine booted up and everything seemed to be working. I put the side back onto the case and set about installing the operating system.

After a couple of minutes, a strong burning smell came from the computer and smoke poured out of the back. It took a lot of investigating until I found that the source of the burning was the wire connecting the internal case speaker to the motherboard. It is definitely connected the correct way around into the correct port on the motherboard.

Any ideas why this has burnt, please? That said, it doesn't really matter because I have simply disconnected it now!

Thanks,

Peter.

That must have been quite worrying. Does everything still work OK?

The speaker is usually connected to 5v and an open-collector transistor which drives the other end of the speaker to ground in a square wave when activated. I imagine the 5v line was shorted to earth somewhere, possibly by bad design or perhaps the cable was damaged on a sharp edge. I often cut myself on the thin folded metal sheet used in less expensive cases, so it could easily damage a wire.

The speaker wire is not supposed to be polarity concious!

Oh - Congratulations on a successful build

Your challenge now is to install Windows and an Office suit, and optimise it for the fastest boot and load times

It was more embarrassing than anything else! I was building the computer at work, so the whole office of 200+ people had to be evacuated


From what I can determine at the moment, it works absolutely fine. I have connected the computer to the monitor and it displays a picture.


Good point. It is a very cheap case with sharp edges, so that is a strong possiblity.

Thanks,

Peter.

Embarrassing for you, but a great story which amuses me. Thank you for sharing that classic moment

+1

Hello all,

I am just setting up the PC and have installed the operating system and chipset drivers.

Whenever I attempt to install the wireless card driver, the computer freezes and will not boot again at startup. There are no more up-to-date drivers, so I don't understand this.

Any ideas, please?

Peter.

What's the operating system? I'm guessing XP? Do you know what service pack?

Make sure you do all the Windows updates first, if you haven't already. That includes SP3 - this could take a few hours and several reboots.

Is it a PCI card? If so, try moving it to a different slot. That might cause it to use a different interrupt, which may possibly be the problem. It's certainly worth a try, since it's simple to do. Are there any other cards installed?

If there's anything you're not using which you can switch off in the BIOS, then that would free up resources.

What is the exact model of the wireless card? There may be known issues and advice on other forums we can search for. It's unlikely you're the only person to have had the problem.

If all else fails, cards are relatively cheap. A brand new one might save a lot of hassle if it turns out yours is problematic.