First-time PC Builder - Need helpful tips & a couple of answers

[staffsMike]

The guru stuff is just software. It gives tempreature read outs etc.. There isn't any hardware for it other than the motherboard itself afaik anyway lol

Well done on the the build.

[Pob255]

Conga rats on the new build, not so hard is it

[2Cold Scorpio]

Naaaaaahhhhh...except the cabling (it still looks like crap because of lack of room and half of the cables were too short), and the part where 3 of the pins in the HSF came out and it fell 3/4ths of the way off...lnothing seemed to be damaged and the thermal paste (which I didn't reapply afterwards) seems to be holding up fine.

Now if I could just figure out how to get RivaTuner to tell my my video card's temps and set up fan profiles...

[Thorsson]

Now you know why some cases & PSUs are popular. Cases with room are easier to build and easier to keep tidy, and modular PSUs help with that, plus getting the right, and right length cables to match the case, is pretty important.

With cases it's certainly true that beauty is only skin deep.

[999tigger]

well done on the build.

[2Cold Scorpio]

Now you know why some cases & PSUs are popular. Cases with room are easier to build and easier to keep tidy, and modular PSUs help with that, plus getting the right, and right length cables to match the case, is pretty important.

With cases it's certainly true that beauty is only skin deep.

My PSU is mostly modular; the cables you have to use are locked in, but they did tend to get in the way. The case itself is a pretty decent-sized mod-tower, but things are extremely cramped in there. I haven't bothered trying to clean up the cabling yet because I'd yet to see the CPU or case temperature run above 30c. Its freakin' COLD in there! Also when trying to use RivaTuner, I somehow got my graphics card's fan to spin at 100% all the time in XP (maybe Vista too? I don't have RivaTuner on Vista yet), even with RT is OFF. :| Oh well, keeps things even cooler; my 8800GT was idling at 40c like that.