Having spent the morning drilling holes in my case to mount my water-cooling kit (Coolriver 120mm one -

Sounds more like something is shorting out ?

Static can cause allsorts of fun - it varies between totally dead & hard-to-repeat.

You should be able to get something for those parts for sure - that's not that old yet, and probably good quality stuff.

Have you tried taking out the board?

Is there a thermal protection on the watercooling setup? Some hold down the reset line, although that's normally done on 'real' coolers

I'd perhaps look at the fitment of the motherboard onto the case's tray or onto the case itself. I've had problems in the past where boards have been touching the bare metal of the case and shorting out. Have you tried running the board outside the case with either PSU? Any monitor/status lights on the board itself?

Good luck....

Steve

As above, try running the board with absoultely nothing plugged into it - that includes video cards, memory, maybe even the CPU. Start with bare bones and see what happens...

You are gonna need CPU/RAM in the board as minimum - pre-ATX you could do without, now it's not recommended

The CPU requirement I would agree with, but not the RAM. In fact I do this with builds I'm doing - check the board & CPU are functioning before spending time building up the case and inserting cards etc...

Steve

400w is adequate to run the system you are stating and as you have also tried a separate psu I doubt the psu is a problem. Do you have an led on the mobo? that will at least let you know you have power going to it. You could also try resetting the bios (consult mobo manual- or just remove the battery for a couple of minutes then replace). Other than that do as already stated.

If you do manage to get it running let us know what the cool-river is like. I was thinking of getting the new corsair watercooling solution but thats almost twice as expensive!

GL

In the office again, for internet access ...

Thanks all for replies . I've tried taking out the board, refitting the board, re-seated the CPU and cards etc, all to no avail. I've also tried fitting my old CPU cooler, in case there is some sort of diagnostic as part of POST that checks a cooler is connected (originally I had the fan on the radiator connected) but still no luck...literally it doesn't begin POST, nothing happens at all, apart from the strange almost inaudible beeping whenever it's plugged into the mains.

Unfortunately no diagnostics LEDs on the board. I did also reset the CMOS. Still no luck . I'm out of ideas for the moment, although SWMBO will bring back her mum's PC so I'll try the mobo out of that later. Hopefully I won't destroy that as well, or I'll never hear the end of it :sofahide:

I'm a bit undecided actually if I want an A64 3500+ and 6600GT now, or if (assuming it is the mainboard) I should just buy a cheap S478/AGP board and stick with what I've got until the next mid-range GPU generation is out... :rubchin: Any thoughts on the 660GT appreciated - I'll only ever want to run games at 1280*1024 as I have a TFT, does it have enough power for AA & high details, or should I wait a few months?

Yeah the coolriver kit is impressive really, and an absolute bargain, plus it is already assembled and hence no leaks (due to my own cack-handedness at least). I can't comment on the cooling power (obviously ) but I did run it for a while to check for leaks, and with the included PCI bracket I could run the fan very quietly while still getting reasonable airflow. The pump itself is completely silent, I didn't even think it was working at first and it mounts on little rubber legs to deaden the (very slight) vibration.

The fan has a solid aluminium shroud that is bolted to the radiator, I wanted to mount it to the rear 120mm mount on my PC but I was unsure if this would vent enough air through the radiator and out of the case on it's own (my PSU fan barely spins at all, but with a non-ultra quiet PSU you would probably be OK) so I stuck another 120mm fan on the other side and stuck four bits of M4 threaded rod through the whole assembly to bolt to the case (using rubber tap washers/grommet type things from a hardware store to eliminate any vibration).

Both fans and pump combined running right under my nose made far less noise than my (supposedly quiet ) Zalman CPU cooler on it's own . Inside the case, I'd expect it to be completely inaudible. According to a couple of reviews I've read, cooling power is not on a par with high-end water-cooling kits, more comparable to high performance HSF's, but it's compact and easy to fit inside a case and it's

Good luck - I'd personally go for A64 as it will be a lot quicker for gaming purposes. You don't really have to spend that much on a PCIE gfx card initially, can always upgrade it I guess at a later date.

I'd check out what will work for you with that resolution, it's not that high I suppose so you can probably get away with a lower priced gfx card Nice side-effect

The biggest benefit of A64 is that the socket will be around for a bit

If you don't wanna spend a lot you can always go the Sempron route on the AMD platform, cheaper than Intel 478 and you can still use the AGP card and so on?

What kinda performance do you need for your cheap solution ?

Good luck - I'd personally go for A64 as it will be a lot quicker for gaming purposes. You don't really have to spend that much on a PCIE gfx card initially' date=' can always upgrade it I guess at a later date.

I'd check out what will work for you with that resolution, it's not that high I suppose so you can probably get away with a lower priced gfx card Nice side-effect

The biggest benefit of A64 is that the socket will be around for a bit

If you don't wanna spend a lot you can always go the Sempron route on the AMD platform, cheaper than Intel 478 and you can still use the AGP card and so on?

What kinda performance do you need for your cheap solution ?[/quote']

Sorry, I meant buy a

Hehehehe - looks like the second slippery path

Silly me forgot you've already got the CPU and stuff P4 wise, which is the most expensive bit by far

Lemme dig up a link for ya

Aria motherboards category

How is this one as one for a board for the short-term?

It's got integrated sound, vid, LAN, works with all 478 CPU types. Just thinking it may be worth going for that so you can get rid of the gfx card (sell it ) and use a low-height case for media box if you wanted to. Your gfx card should work in it though

Just a second... :coder: ...nearly there... :smash: :lamer: :cussing:...it works!!! :woot: :drive:

Don't know what the problem was :confused: , took all apart and rebuilt reconnecting only the essentials as suggested above, and seems to work fine.

Cheers all for suggestions

Ah the old, "take it apart put it back together trick" eh??

Yep, strange but true, has happened to me on a couple of occassions. Good stuff mate, pleased for you

Have fun!

Steve

Past experience tells me water and electronic goods equals BANG.......... got a degree in electronic engineering which was a bit of a haze due to what i have been doing tonight ...Beer consumption....

That's always at the back of my mind to be honest, when people mention PC watercooling. But at least in this case it's come pre-assembled. He just has to wait for it to spring a leak now!

Steve

That's always at the back of my mind to be honest' date=' when people mention PC watercooling. But at least in this case it's come pre-assembled. He just has to wait for it to spring a leak now!

Steve[/quote']

LOL yes it's pre-assembled - but it is by far the cheapest kit available, at about one third the cost of the next cheapest comparable kit!!

Though, I'm sure it will be fine - I don't worry that the brake fluid will spontaneously leak out of my brakes, and that would be more disastrous :P