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[Thief^]

That video card specifies a PCI-Express 3.0 slot. That board only has PCI-Express 2.0. I don't think that matters too much, but you might want to read up on the differences. I think it just runs the card at a lower clock speed or something.

It's only capable of using PCI-E 3.0, it doesn't require it. It'll be backwards compatible with 2.0. To be honest, it'll just slow loading times slightly.

[SeriousConcentrate]

I've messed about a bit on some more websites. What do the more technically-inclined people think about this build? Also this pre-built one might be good, but I'd prefer to get opinions from people who know better before I start throwing money around. Although, it looks like I'd have to buy and install an operating system on it. There's also this one... Ugh, wish I was more computer savvy. >.<

[gimlet]

The 1st one is pretty crap, and uses parts that were obsolete 5 years ago. DDR2?  Core 2 Duo?  Good stuff in the day, but really....   Can you even get driver updates for a 5830 nowadays?

The 2nd one is better, I really liked the 945 back in the day.  6850 is kind of anemic,  and I'm not a big fan of Cooler Master power supplies.  Green drive is pretty bad for interactive desktop use (green drives are slow spinning drives meant as secondary drives to store stuff you don't access constantly)  Also note it doesn't include windows, so plan on shelling out for that too.  If you've gotta buy and load windows and all the drivers yourself, and then test it all, you might as well build the damn thing yourself using exactly the parts you want.

Edit:  3rd one, better, hmm R7 240 = HD7750, that's still kind of weak - I mean geez even 7870s used to be less than $100 on sale.  "450 Watt Peak High Efficiency ATX PSU" is on the low side, and no brand name is a huge red flag that he used some cheap junky one since everybody looks at cpu, video card and memory speed but nobody looks at the PSU brand that could fry it all

2nd Edit:  Oh and if you're even THINKING of building one, shell out a buck for a piezo speaker so you can hear the beep codes.   http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=motherboard+speaker&_sop=15   $1 for TEN if you can wait 2 weeks while they ship from China, $3 or so if you need one in a few days.

Also, do you live in/near a city with a Microcenter?  You can get some pretty screaming deals on parts there...

[gimlet]

Also, this hierarchy (and the accompanying article about various price points) is a decent way to start to evaluate deals:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

You should be in the top 8 boxes, even 7.  You can get a R7 265 for $150 or a 750ti for $140 without even shopping around much, so there's no reason at all to faff around with anything much lower than that tier.  So forget those 10 year old 5830's  and the guys trying to shave $20 by using 7750's (a card 5 tiers lower). 

So step 1 - look up the graphics card on the chart and make sure it's in a decent zone - top 8, extra points if it's higher.

Also look over the various site's "tier builds" to get an idea of the components at various price levels and reasoning behind them.  Like here, a $619 (WITH withdows) pretty decent gaming build:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/budget-gaming-pc,3854.html
Just don't follow these blindly, they shave $$$ on some important stuff to hit their price points - often with the power supply.  Spend the few bucks more and get a good brand with a little room for growth.  As mentioned in the article, it'd be better with a recent Pentium.  In-store deals at microcenter have a G3258 + mobo for $99, newegg just had a similar combo.

[SeriousConcentrate]

Also, do you live in/near a city with a Microcenter?  You can get some pretty screaming deals on parts there...

Not trying to be insulting, but most of your post went over my head. It's, uh... consider it like trying to teach a three year old calculus. I have so little knowledge about the subject that I have no clue what you mean. But in response to that quoted part, no, I live out in the middle of nowhere, at least an hour away from any decent-sized city and given that this is Kentucky I'm pretty sure neither of the two cities have a store like that. I do appreciate you trying to help; it's clear to me you know what you're talking about even if I don't. ^^^;

I'll mess around with those sites after I get my next paycheck so I know how much I can expect to work with (overtime bonus is going to come in handy, I can already tell...) and see if I can come up with anything hopefully decent for hopefully cheap.

[lordcooper]

How about something like this?

I'd highly recommend swapping the GPU for an R9 280  if your budget can stretch a little, but this should provide decent bang for your buck.

[SeriousConcentrate]

It looks pretty good, though I'll have to get an operating system with it; Windows 7 came pre-installed on this computer and I don't have the disc. I may have to wait another two weeks to get one, though, since apparently an extra 12 hours of overtime at $13.50 an hour equates to about $45 added to my paycheck.

[SeriousConcentrate]

OK, paycheck is in, tried a new build on iBuyPower. What do you guys think about this one?

ASUS M11AD    565    1    565
Case    1 x ASUS M11AD Case
iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion    -
Processor    1 x Intel® Pentium G3258 Dual Core Processor (2x 3.2GHz/3MB L3 Cache)
Processor Cooling    1 x Certified CPU Fan and Heatsink - G10AC/M11AD/M51AD
Memory    1 x 8 GB [4 GB x2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Major Brand
Video Card    1 x AMD Radeon R7 240 - 2GB - ASUS
Free Stuff    1 x [FREE] - 10 ft. Braided HDMI to HDMI Cable (Shielded Cable for maximum interference rejection; 4K resolution ready) - FREE with any System
Free Stuff    1 x [FREE] - Turtle Beach Z1 Headset - FREE with ALL iBUYPOWER Systems ($29 Value)
Free Stuff    1 x [FREE Game Download] - AMD Never Settle Forever Bronze Reward - Select 1 Free Games - Free with purchase of AMD Radeon R7 240 and R7 250 Series Graphics Cards
Motherboard    1 x ASUS H81M-E/M11AD
Power Supply    1 x 400 Watt - Standard
Primary Hard Drive    1 x 2 TB HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200rpm, 6.0Gb/s - Singe Drive
Data Hard Drive    -
Optical Drive    1 x ASUS 24x Supermulti DVDRW
Media Card Reader / Writer    1 x 6-In-1 Built-in Card Reader [M11BB]
Expansion Cards    -
Operating System    1 x Windows 8.1 + Office 365 Trial [Free 30-Day !!!]
Keyboard    1 x ASUS USB Keyboard
Mouse    1 x ASUS USB Mouse
Mouse    1 x iBUYPOWER Standard Gaming Mouse
Monitor    -
2nd Monitor    -
Speaker System    -
Webcam    -
Warranty    1 x Standard Warranty Service - Standard One(1) Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support
Rush Service    1 x No Rush Service (Usually Ships in 5-10 business Days)

[gimlet]

Decent, a bit expensive for what you're actually getting ($565 is the price right?).  Which version of Windows 8.1?    The graphics card is definitely on the weak side, for nearly $600 you should be in the top 7-8 tiers of that tomshardware graphic card hierarchy. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html  - the R7 240 is in tier 17, so ehhhhhh.  And they don't list the brand of power supply, which is a red flag for me that they use some cheap $10 noname.

[SeriousConcentrate]

So, yeah. I did eventually get a new computer off the Cyber Monday sales. It came in on Wednesday and I got all my stuff on an external hard drive and ready to port over and everything, I unhook the computer I'm using right now, and I hook the new one up. The problem is that it won't start. The power switch on the back is flipped correctly (I can tell because the mouse that comes with it has internal lighting, so if it's on I'm assuming the computer is - or should be - as well) but the fans don't spin, there's no start-up sound, and my monitor just says "No Signal" before hibernating - which if there wasn't a signal to receive, it would just say "Cable Disconnected" or something similar.

This is the one I got. Any advice? Is there maybe another power button I'm just missing somewhere? Or did I buy a lemon?

[Thief^]

There should be a button on the front somewhere to actually turn it on. A "soft" power button. The one on the back is a "hard" power switch, and actually cuts the power totally, you don't normally use it.

EDIT: Taking a look, it might be on the top near the USB sockets.
EDIT2: If that doesn't work, it's most likely that the cable for the power button has come loose inside. If that's the case, it can be a pain to connect correctly if you don't have the manual for the motherboard.

[SeriousConcentrate]

There was a thing (I say thing because it was more of a slider than a button, and didn't look like a power button) but I tried manipulating that a few times to no effect. As for the front, it's completely solid; I don't see anything on it... unless there's a compartment that opens up or something, but I haven't found one.

EDIT: Nevermind, I'm an idiot. Fixed that problem, then another one came up about Windows not wanting to install... but luckily I managed to fix that one on my own. Thanks for everything, guys. I'm going to go ahead and lock the thread.

[SeriousConcentrate]

OK, re-opening this thread for a new question. Last night, I had just gotten Lords of the Fallen downloaded off Steam, I started it up (settings were everything on High except for shadows, which were Low because I don't care about those and they're graphics intensive from what I've heard), played it for a few seconds, and then it crashed completely to black. My monitor claimed 'no signal', so I turned off everything, waited a few minutes, then started the machine back up and tried playing it again. This time, I managed to play for about a minute before a green bar appeared across the middle of the screen, then it went black and 'no signal'. I've switched my monitor's plug-in port from the one I was using (which I assume is the main one) to the upper port (which was originally labeled for store display). It works, but I'm stuck at a much lower resolution than I prefer, and the computer acts like there isn't a graphics card: NVIDIA control panel won't start, GeForce Experience can't find appropriate drivers, etc. Trying to use the lower port just returns it to 'no signal' and nothing else.

Is the damn thing bricked?

EDIT: Oh, and my card is a NVIDIA GTX 750Ti. The link to the computer itself is a few posts up.

[Sensei]

Is the new port you're using on the motherboard, instead of the GPU?

[SeriousConcentrate]

I'm not the most computer literate, but I believe so. My tower has a window of sorts on the left side and I'm pretty sure the port I used to use connects to the graphics card. I've been in touch with the NVIDIA customer service people, no help there, and talked to some other people I know on Bay12 and Solymr says it's likely my card is fried. I hope not, but I'm starting to think this is the case since everything I've been told to try (mainly reinstall drivers and so forth, but the drivers keep saying there's no compatible hardware and don't install) so far has been no help.