Posts by Charles Bennett5

I went ahead and reset the CMOS on that new motherboard, and wouldn't you know it? Now the RAM actually works. Nothing changed, really. Thanks for all the advice, everyone, I guess. The board is heading back to service... damn.

So, I picked up this motherboard and it’s already giving me grief. The BIOS beeps are telling me there's a RAM issue. Is it actually possible that it's just the memory? How on earth did my previous board recognize it without any problems?

I mean, I figured as much. I was just HOLDING OUT hope that it might be something else entirely, but honestly? That's a dead end because I’ve practically exhausted every single possibility.
But look, there are plenty of smart people on this forum, so why shouldn't I ask? Maybe someone here actually knows what they're doing and can help me out.

Everything has been running smooth as silk until now. My motherboard is only six months old and has been performing flawlessly. I’ve had my SSD and HDD combo for about a year and a half—zero issues there. Then, about a month and a half ago, I decided to upgrade the power supply and grab some new RAM. I’ve already played around with the memory; tried one module at a time, then the other, then even swapped the sticks from slots 1 and 3 over to 2 and 4 (moving them from the blue slots to the black ones).
I pulled the GPU out and reseated it, but nothing. The fans on the card spin fine, but there’s no POST, no beep codes, and certainly no Windows. So, I pull the GPU out entirely to see if that helps? Still nothing. No beeps whatsoever. I just let the machine sit there running for maybe five or six minutes; all the fans are doing their jobs perfectly—CPU cooler, case fans, even the power supply fans are spinning.
I even pulled the CMOS battery out for fifteen minutes and popped it back in, but it’s the exact same story. Nothing changed.

I don't really need to blow the dust out of the PC because I maintain positive pressure inside the case, but I still make sure to clean the filters every week or two. Inside, the whole thing looks practically brand new.

Man, yesterday my PC booted up without a single beep. I started thinking, maybe the internal speaker just died? So, I rebooted the thing. Same exact issue. It wouldn't even let me touch the BIOS, didn't show any boot info at all—just went straight into Windows.
Today? Now the PC won't even POST. All the fans are spinning, including the PSU. Nothing.

I tried pulling out the RAM and the GPU, but still no beep. Then I yanked the HDD and the SSD... still dead silent. Did the motherboard finally kick the bucket?

Specs:
Intel Core i5 Dell Inspiron
Asus M5a97 R2.0
2x4GB HyperX 1866MHz
Nvidia GTX 970
SSD+HDD
EVGA SuperNOVA

Any kind souls out there have some advice?

Based on what I’ve seen in a few reviews, the Raijintek Aidos performance is roughly in the same ballpark, but you're looking at a 92mm fan versus Hyper's 120mm setup.

Since I'm already here—and I'd rather not clutter things up with a new thread—I have to ask: would my rookie brain be making a mistake if I tried adding another fan to my Hyper 212 EVO? Is that actually smart? Does it even make sense from a cost-to-benefit standpoint?

I let Prime95 run for a solid eight hours while I was catching some Z's, and wouldn't you know it? Not a single error popped up.
As for the hardware, I've been sticking with MSI for basically every build I've put together since back in 2001. Since I was just a kid, I've never dealt with a single failure or malfunction, so I figured I'd grab this board too—especially since I wasn't planning on pushing any overclocks or messing around with the settings anyway.
But man, that damn stock cooler was loud enough to wake the dead. So, I picked up a Hyper 212 instead. I headed over to see that guy at Genie PC, and I think he pushed it up to 4.285 GHz at 1.3V. That got me thinking, though... maybe I should actually read up on overclocking and see how much I can squeeze out of it myself.

Timothy Kim60 said:Charles Bennett5, just go with the 280. Honestly, even at full load, it probably wouldn't pull more than 400w...
By the way, what motherboard are you running, and what voltage are you pushing the CPU to hit 4.5?

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

Timothy Kim60 - if I recall correctly, I've got an MSI GTX 970, 1.35v

Good evening, guys. I could use a little assistance here.

Here is my current setup:
An FX6300 overclocked to 4.5GHz.
Cooler Master Hyper 212
EVGA GTX 970
2x 4GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM
2x SSDs and 1x HDD
4x 120mm Gentle Typhoon fans
OCZ MoXStream Pro 500W 80+

Anyway, after about two years, it’s finally time to swap out my graphics card. I'm really eyeing the prices on the EVGA GTX 970 and the GTX 1050. My question is, would my current power supply actually handle an EVGA GTX 970, or should I just play it safe and go with the GTX 1050?

I'm running a 20" 1080p monitor, which works fine for me.
As far as demanding titles go, I play Total War: Rome II and Dragon Age: Inquisition, and I'm planning on picking up The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt soon.

Thanks in advance for the help.