GRcade

I have a 1050ti and mine is powered directly by the board with no additional cable.

oh wow thats quite cool - didnt realise these new gfx cards were so efficient!

Yes that model runs just off the motherboard, useful if you have an OEM psu.

About the two 1" or so molex connections on the small fan, the other one is for daisy chaining another fan because you can run at least 3 fans and probably a lot more from a single 12V. They're wired in series. You're probably either missing a modular cable to the psu for this or its in use elsewhere e.g. Optical drive. However you can sandwich it in between other devices, that's how it works, the fan "piggybacks" current of something else because it doesn't use much power.

The smaller fan connectors go to the motherboard because those can often be speed controlled. Standard fans that connect to the power supply are just on all the time.

<]:^D wrote:im confused by your questions tbh :lol:
the graphics card always plugs directly into the PSU for its fans these days; there should be two cables that plug directly into the card itself.
if the 8mm fan has a molex connector then that too can plug directly into the psu

does that help?

Yeah I thought that might happen

As Death's Head says, the GPU runs completely from the PCI slot so that's the easy part! All my fan questions are about case fans, specifically the little one I have on the side, which has a molex connector like the one on the far right below:



All the other fans I have are the tiny 3/4 pin ones. I got confused over it when I put the computer together originally, and I was spending a lot of time away from home so I didn't really have time to really get into it. The PC worked so I just cracked on as is. When you only have two days a week living at home you don't want to spend your free time fiddling around with cables!

GG - that's interesting as I did note last night that the optical drive did have some serial connectors, and I do have some unused modular cables. Some are quite clearly for graphics cards, but others may fit the fan. That may be the way forward...

Thanks to all for your help. I'll get that fan hooked up to the PSU and see how hot it gets. I have a plan to make the optical drive bays into a front fan grill for a big front intake, but I don't really want to have to do that right now as that involves a trip to B&Q and then a bit of DIY, and my son takes up a lot of my time at the moment!

good advice from GG, and check your motherboard instruction book/manual - it will have a diagram showing where you can plug in fans etc.

Success! In the box with my motherboard manual was a big long modular cable of serial fat molex connectors, which made the process a lot easier! All installed, just need to mess around in the settings to get everything tweaked. Thanks again for the advice

Sure np. I've never actually had controlled fans, mine are all antec tricool with 3 speed selectors sometimes built into the case and they never need to be on more than low. Automatically revving fans would probably just annoy me. They all have 2 or 4 pin molex. The good ones are designed to plug inbetween something else meaning less cables in you system, but I usually have 1 modular cable just for fans to keep things simpler.

You can hook up LEDs and cold cathodes to those molex connections too, if you're into that sort of thing.

Hey all,

Looking to pick up an UltraWide monitor with a budget of around £400.

Currently looking at this one and was wondering if I could get some opinions from those more in the know?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-Ultrawide-A ... h+FreeSync

It's only 60hz, would it be worth trying to find something with 120 or 144 instead?

Thanks

It's IPS. Fine if you want to use it for design work or media and don't plan on doing any fast competitive gaming. If you want a high refresh rate IPS monitor that kind of size be prepared to spend a lot more. Actually, high refresh IPS is kind of rare in itself; I'm not sure how many if any ultra wide models are available.

Meep wrote:It's IPS. Fine if you want to use it for design work or media and don't plan on doing any fast competitive gaming. If you want a high refresh rate IPS monitor that kind of size be prepared to spend a lot more. Actually, high refresh IPS is kind of rare in itself; I'm not sure how many if any ultra wide models are available.

Yeah, ultrawide IPSs at higher refresh rates are generally considerably more than £400 unfortunately:

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/34-acer ... HNEALw_wcB

(£800)

I see, thanks for the advice guys! I'm not into fast, competitive gaming, usually just play RPGs and MMOs (with a bit of Rocket League thrown in). Would the above monitor be ok in for those?

What graphics card have you got?

Hi Albear! I'll be using a GTX 1060 6GB.

Does it have to be ultrawide? I've got a 1070gtx paired with a dell gsync monitor and it's amazing.

Hi!

Does it need to be ultrawide? Just thinking for 400 you can buy a gsync enabled monitor which will work with your card as opposed to a freesync one which won't unfortunately.

Great minds etc...

Thank guys, (nice timing there). It doesn't have to be wide-screen if you think I would benefit from going for something gsync instead. I guess from my perspective I'm more interested in 'immersion' than anything else.

Would be happy and grateful for suggestions if you chaps have the time though. What's the thoughts on curved screens?

I got a 27" G-sync IPS monitor with 120hz refresh and 2560 x 1440 revolution. It was two year old second hand model, though. I woudln't be able to afford anything like that kind of specification new. You should be able to get one like it for around £350, although obviously buying used tech is taking a bit of a gamble.

I saw amazon doing refurbished models of this for £450 a while ago about the stock ran out fast. Maybe worth keeping an eye on.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0766159CT/ ... D3TA&psc=0

Thanks Meep, I'll keep an eye out on that page.

My girlfriend is after a new laptop in the new year. Her budget is probably around £600-£700. Doesn't have to be a brand spanking new model, but I know she'd like a lightweight one. Her current one is a real chore to carry around, so she wants something nice and portable. Mostly for Word and internet stuff, so doesn't need to be too high spec. Just a reliable laptop brand that will last her a good few years. Any recommendations? I don't really know what laptop makes are good.