Page 1 of I`ve just bought a "Tiny" PC-***UPDATE**** I Should Have known better, HELP----

well, i never ever thought i`d utter those words :/ But i just couldn`t turn it down, heres the scene.

i`m in bowlers computer fair (manchester) to get all the kit for the pc i`m building for myself, the budget is very tight & i know i`m not gonna be able to get all the stuff i want, so i`m getting prepared to trawl all the stalls, when i go in the first stall is huge, in fact it takes up the space of around 20 normal stalls & it`s All ex-tiny stuff (both new & used) inc loads of brand new factory sealed base units, my eagle eyes see this buried right at the back :)

AMD XP3500 64bit athlon
1gig ddr400
200gig sata drive
sony dvd rom
sony dvd re-writer
floppy
built in 9-in-1 card reader
fx5300 128mb pci express gfx card (not integrated)
on board sound,lan,sata raid & ide
keyboard mouse etc etc inc oem windows xp home +sp2

for £283 (:¦ brand new & sealed

no way could i build it for that :¦ whith only 2 drawbacks that i can see.

1. only a 30 day warrenty (but tbh, that disne bother me to much)
2. i would have liked an sli ready mobo, but i can add that later if i need it :)

waddaya reckon, did i get a good deal :D

EDIT= dunno why but the titles been edited so the title didne make sense :/ so i`ve partialy edited it back without naming the ltd (which i assume is the reason it got edited, dunno why tho)

This item was edited on Sunday, 11th December 2005, 10:59

:o
Fantastic deal. Good spot.

Ste

they had loads of stuff inc hundreds of base units, there where traders buying 5 & 10 at a time :¦

one other thing caught my eye as well, MSI do a multimedia barebones system, it`s a little cube case with built in mobo,radio lcd display etc etc, it`s one i was thinking about getting myself, they normaly go for around £200, they where doing the retail pack (with the Tiny brand stamped next to MSI) for £85 :o all you have to do is add a cpu, memory & drives. it even comes with a media centre remote 8) if i had the cash i`d have got one for myself.

as it is i`m just fitting my 512meg fx6600 & uping the memory to 2gig ddr400 (& the mobo supports duall channel :) ) so i can (hopefully) play F.E.A.R. :D

You lucky, lucky bast.....proper gaolers pet aren`t we ;)

At one of the computer fairs down here (Whitchurch, Bristol) I notice a load of Tiny/Time gear turning up, but nothing that good!
I`ll have to go and have a look next time now!

LB2

Have you tried switching it on........?

What changes you gonna make to the Tiny PC, Ogster? You leaving the GFX card as is?

Great spot, by the way!!!

Nick

allready upped the gfx to 512meg fx6600 & the memory is @ 2gig in dual channel mode


:D

Nice one.

Tha`s done all reet there!

Nick

just installed F.E.A.R. :D it runs superbly now 8)

there is just one thing on the spec sheet that was wrong, instead of 2 sony dvd drives it`s a sony dvd rom & an NEC writer, which suites me better cos i prefer the NEC drives anyway :B

This item was edited on Saturday, 10th December 2005, 15:03

re= the update in the title.

last night while playing F.E.A.R. the pc crashed after about 5mins of play, now, pc`s do seem to crash a lot whilst running Fear so i didn`t worry to much so i just re-booted & started it up again, but lo & behold about 5mins in (but at a different point in the game) it crashed again, & again on the next attempt, so i get p***ed of with it & play unreal for a bit instead, assuming Fear needs updating/patching/whatever, however, the same thing happens in unreal 2004, a game that i know is installed correctly & has been running for ages on my old pc without problems, always about 5mins into the game, i`d already upgraded the drivers for the graphics card (fx6600 512meg) & the card runs perfectly under "normal" windows tasks, but as soon as you ask for more power out of it it seems to lock up, i tried the original gfx card (fx5300 128meg) to see if the same thing happens again, tho i only ran it through unreal as i`m pretty sure fear won`t run on that card, & i had no problems at all, so this (to me) points to the fx6600 card, this particular card has no fan, just a large heatsink, but saying that it doesn`t seem to be getting very hot, in fact it`s cool compared to the heat my old agp fx5600 churns out, but i tried running it wit a fan right next to it just to make sure it`s not overheating, but the same thing happened, so i re-booted & left the pc running overnight (as i always do) downloading stuff, i wanted to see if the pc crashed "just" running windows.

when i go to the pc this morning it`s shut down but a single red light is flashing on the front of the case, the pc won`t boot up at all, i do the usual stuff like fully unplug the power for a minute then try again, no joy, so i unseat the card & put the fx5300 back in, the pc boots but won`t output any video to the monitor (it deffo goes through the motions tho, as you can hear the hard disc running & the monitor led stops flashing for about 10 secs as tho it`s about to come on)

so, i`m getting p***ed of now. i try swapping the cards over with the same results each time, in the end i remove the card & short the cmos jumper, then boot without either card in (the mobo seems to have onboard vga but won`t output) then shut down & installed the fx5300, this did the trick & the pc booted up flawlesly & has now been running for 25mins without issue (touches head/wood)

my thinking is the obvious culprit is the gfx card is faulty But could it also be the power supply unit ? it`s only 350watt (my old pc ran happily on this but was no-where near as powerfull) or maybe the mobo just does not like the card ?

i`ve already emailed the seller i got the fx6600 from to see if he`s had any problems & to explain the situation but any ideas from the more technicaly minded guru`s here would be very apreciated.

thanks in advance & sorry about the huge post, but i figured the more info the better.

All along you were saying gfx card and I was thinking PSU. And then you said PSU too. That`s what I think it`s leaning towards.
Certainly, for the 6600GT, I`ve seen 480 suggested as the minimum supply (although officially I think they only say 300). Does your 6600 have a molex power conector on?

Ste