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[Rose]

Then your only legitimate option at this point will probably be buying a new copy of windows.

[Graknorke]

Windows sometimes freaks out if hardware gets replaced. Your best bet is probably contacting wherever you got it from.

If that doesn't work and you don't want to shell out for another copy of Windows, you could try a free UNIX/Linux based OS and see if that does what you need it to. It's not like you'd be locked in, and there's a chance it could save you £80.

[Cheesecake]

Meh, I'll just live with the interruption. It only happens once or twice a day anyway. Thanks for the help, guys!

[Lord Shonus]

In general, should it be necessary to remove anything from the case in order to replace a graphics card?

That depends on what you mean.  Are you asking if it should be necessary to permanently remove something? If so, this is rare, and if you do have to remove something (other than the old graphics card, obviously) you're probably putting in more card than you're capable of cooling anyway.

If you're asking if you have to take something out temporarily, this is more common - many cases have fancy methods of holding their expansion cards in, and it is also often necessary to take out cables and reroute them.

[Graknorke]

If you're asking if you have to take something out temporarily, this is more common - many cases have fancy methods of holding their expansion cards in, and it is also often necessary to take out cables and reroute them.

Alright, cheers. I'll hold off finishing the cable routing then, since cable management is not at all an activity that I enjoy.

[i2amroy]

Just a note, but before you start swapping any of the internal guts of a computer here's what you should do:
1) Unplug the computer totally.
2) Press and hold the power button for a handful of seconds, like you were trying to start the computer.

This discharges (most) any residual electricity in the machine and makes you much less likely to accidentally brick your computer. It's not quite as important when just swapping out expansion cards like RAM or Graphics cards, but it's still a very good habit to get into. For things like laptops you're going to generally want to disconnect the battery completely before you start swapping parts out, since it will provide power to parts of the machine even while it's turned off.

[Tellemurius]

Just a note, but before you start swapping any of the internal guts of a computer here's what you should do:
1) Unplug the computer totally.
2) Press and hold the power button for a handful of seconds, like you were trying to start the computer.

This discharges (most) any residual electricity in the machine and makes you much less likely to accidentally brick your computer. It's not quite as important when just swapping out expansion cards like RAM or Graphics cards, but it's still a very good habit to get into. For things like laptops you're going to generally want to disconnect the battery completely before you start swapping parts out, since it will provide power to parts of the machine even while it's turned off.

While unplugging is a good thing to do, motherboards nowadays operate at such a low voltage there's hardly any residual electricity after shutdown. Your common problems are still either a powered psu or static shocks. Just keep a hand on the case and make sure you are using anti-static mats.

[Sensei]

I'm building a computer. I have a GTX 970 and i7 4790k. These have TDPs listed as being less than 200 watts, but apparently they can use more than 300 watts each under load? (For example.) Should I be factoring this in when buying a power supply? Or should I just be using the TDP values? Notionally, it seem like the two of them running full tilt, plus other motherboard and such, could use close to 750 watts.

[gimlet]

Honestly the safe play is to assume the worst and leave some headroom - the cost difference isn't THAT much compared to the total system cost.  Also do buy a quality PSU and it'll be likelier to be able to handle the rated load for extended periods.

[Rose]

yeah, never buy a cheap PSU. That's a one-way-ticket to a fried mobo.

[Sensei]

I definitely wouldn't buy an off-brand PSU. I'm just thinking of what wattage to go for.

[Thief^]

Their power usage graph is for the whole system, measured outside the PSU. That CPU you picked out is only a <100W part, if it was peaking to 300W on its own something would fry.

Edit: nVidia themselves say the 970 is a 145W part (they don't use the term TDP, they say "graphics card power"). Based on the power connector limits, it can't draw more than 225W (both the PCIe socket itself and the 6 pin connectors are rated at 75W, and it has two 6-pins).

A decent PSU will handle transient spikes outside its rating, so don't worry about that.

[Sensei]

Their power usage graph is for the whole system, measured outside the PSU. That CPU you picked out is only a <100W part, if it was peaking to 300W on its own something would fry.

Ooookay, that's good to know.

Edit: nVidia themselves say the 970 is a 145W part (they don't use the term TDP, they say "graphics card power"). Based on the power connector limits, it can't draw more than 225W (both the PCIe socket itself and the 6 pin connectors are rated at 75W, and it has two 6-pins).

Heh, the one I got has a huge cooler, with one six-pin and one eight-pin. But yeah, it looks like I don't need to worry about power much.

[Bohandas]

I think my email account may have been hacked. I recently got a bunch of "Undelivered Mail Returned To Sender" messages for emails that I'm sure I didn't send (for one thing, they're in Russian). I'd change my password but it's my old email from college and because I graduated over two years ago their website won't let me log into the account management utility anymore (I'm pretty sure the fact that the account is still up at all is an oversight).

I could always just close the account and get another one elsewhere, but then I would have to go through and change my contact info with everyone I know and every service I use and I'm sure that I would overlook something during that process. I could also try to contact the college to get the password changed, but that might result in the account being closed instead (unless maybe I can find some kind of short cheap one-shot course that I could take there to justify extending the time I get to stay on the account for). I could also, additionally leave a message in the saved drafts box with the header "Иди к черту, говнюк" and the contents "Отвали, мудак" (google's russian translations of the phrases "go to hell shithead" and "fuck off asshole", respectively) for them to find, but that might be a bad idea if they saved  copies of any of the things that were in my sent items folder (which I've since cleared) that had personally identifying information in them.

[Lord Shonus]

I think my email account may have been hacked. I recently got a bunch of "Undelivered Mail Returned To Sender" messages for emails that I'm sure I didn't send (for one thing, they're in Russian). I'd change my password but it's my old email from college and because I graduated over two years ago their website won't let me log into the account management utility anymore (I'm pretty sure the fact that the account is still up at all is an oversight).

I could always just close the account and get another one elsewhere, but then I would have to go through and change my contact info with everyone I know and every service I use and I'm sure that I would overlook something during that process. I could also try to contact the college to get the password changed, but that might result in the account being closed instead (unless maybe I can find some kind of short cheap one-shot course that I could take there to justify extending the time I get to stay on the account for). I could also, additionally leave a message in the saved drafts box with the header "Иди к черту, говнюк" and the contents "Отвали, мудак" (google's russian translations of the phrases "go to hell shithead" and "fuck off asshole", respectively) for them to find, but that might be a bad idea if they saved  copies of any of the things that were in my sent items folder (which I've since cleared) that had personally identifying information in them.

Close it. Even if you managed to get control of it back, it will likely appear on a lot of blacklists and cause you more headaches down the road.