Because I haven't installed a mobo in so long: do I need to do anything other than just place it down onto the separator pins and just screw it in? Is there a washer that goes on before the screws go into the pins?
I actually have the same question. It's been like five or six years for me.
I can't remember ever owning a case or mobo that came with any sort of washers.
As for putting the proc and heat sink on first, I have found that those typically get in the way when you are trying to screw down the mobo and it is more convenient to leave them off. Plus, you shouldn't attach the proc heat sink until after the mobo is screwed down so that the board does not flex any and separate the silicone heat transfer stuff from the proc.
...and when you are done with that; take a folding
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
0
acidlacedpenguinInstitutionalizedSafe in jail.Registered Userregular
has anyone successfully set up asus's smart cache? (using an SSD as a cache drive for your spindrive) I was trying to install the latest driver on my parents new breadmaker machine last night but it was saying that my computer doesn't meet the minimum requirements. The mobo in question is the P8H77-I and it's most certainly listed as a feature. It's a 1tb 7200rpm seagate spindrive and a 64gb samsung 830.
GT: Acidboogie PSNid: AcidLacedPenguiN
0
Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
Newegg is starting to really irritate me with their near-constant reminders to "LOCK IN" my purchase of Windows 8. I do not want this shit. I can get it legitimately for free and still do not want it.
Is anyone here planning a Windows 8 build?
We're thinking about picking up a cheap Dell for my wife to use for her job (works from home), but they all seem to come with Windows 8 now with no option for 7, so now I'm rethinking that. She'd be the one having to use it, but she's not the most computer literate person, and I'd have no idea how to fix stuff on it, and really have no desire to learn Win 8. Maybe I'll just get a Windows 7 disc from Newegg and format it.
So I'll probably be in the market for an upgrade in the next couple of months and wanted to get some opinions. Here's my current setup:
AMD Phenom II x2 (unlocked to x4) 3.1GHz
ASUS M4A77TD
2x2GB RAM (OCZ, rated at 1600, but hard locks randomly at anything over 1066)
Radeon 6970
Antec Earthwatts 650W PSU
Antec 300 Illusion case
I'm thinking of switching to Intel for this one (ugh, after 11 years of being a loyal AMD customer, but the recommendation seems to be Intel nowadays). Thinking maybe i5-3570K and an ASUS motherboard. Would I need new RAM? Is it generally cross compatible today? This is the RAM I have, for reference. Also thinking of picking up a Hyper 212 and overclocking, but may wait on that. Budget is probably $500-$600.
Is this a good idea? Would I see a decent performance increase? I can generally run most things on high now, but some things chug a little occasionally. What would be a better time to buy; Cyber Monday, before Christmas, after Christmas?
Because I haven't installed a mobo in so long: do I need to do anything other than just place it down onto the separator pins and just screw it in? Is there a washer that goes on before the screws go into the pins?
I actually have the same question. It's been like five or six years for me.
I can't remember ever owning a case or mobo that came with any sort of washers.
As for putting the proc and heat sink on first, I have found that those typically get in the way when you are trying to screw down the mobo and it is more convenient to leave them off. Plus, you shouldn't attach the proc heat sink until after the mobo is screwed down so that the board does not flex any and separate the silicone heat transfer stuff from the proc.
Wouldn't there be more chance of bending after you mount the motherboard? That's pretty much the OT reason I thought of installing the chip and cooler first...plus the cooker is the Hyper 212 which is tall and heavy.
Drez on
Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
0
Just_Bri_ThanksSeething with ragefrom a handbasket.Registered User, ClubPAregular
edited October 2012
I guess either way would work, but check your clearances for the motherboard to case screws before you do it so you know if you can reach past your cooling solution with a screw driver. For my case, I needed to put the mobo in first.
Just_Bri_Thanks on
...and when you are done with that; take a folding
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Newegg is starting to really irritate me with their near-constant reminders to "LOCK IN" my purchase of Windows 8. I do not want this shit. I can get it legitimately for free and still do not want it.
Is anyone here planning a Windows 8 build?
We're thinking about picking up a cheap Dell for my wife to use for her job (works from home), but they all seem to come with Windows 8 now with no option for 7, so now I'm rethinking that. She'd be the one having to use it, but she's not the most computer literate person, and I'd have no idea how to fix stuff on it, and really have no desire to learn Win 8. Maybe I'll just get a Windows 7 disc from Newegg and format it.
So I'll probably be in the market for an upgrade in the next couple of months and wanted to get some opinions. Here's my current setup:
AMD Phenom II x2 (unlocked to x4) 3.1GHz
ASUS M4A77TD
2x2GB RAM (OCZ, rated at 1600, but hard locks randomly at anything over 1066)
Radeon 6970
Antec Earthwatts 650W PSU
Antec 300 Illusion case
I'm thinking of switching to Intel for this one (ugh, after 11 years of being a loyal AMD customer, but the recommendation seems to be Intel nowadays). Thinking maybe i5-3570K and an ASUS motherboard. Would I need new RAM? Is it generally cross compatible today? This is the RAM I have, for reference. Also thinking of picking up a Hyper 212 and overclocking, but may wait on that. Budget is probably $500-$600.
Is this a good idea? Would I see a decent performance increase? I can generally run most things on high now, but some things chug a little occasionally. What would be a better time to buy; Cyber Monday, before Christmas, after Christmas?
The 6970 is probably overkill, I would be looking for a Phenom X4 965 Black, best Phenom out there left for the $90 price (wish i could find 1090T's ever). I wouldnt put less than 8GB in it
Newegg is starting to really irritate me with their near-constant reminders to "LOCK IN" my purchase of Windows 8. I do not want this shit. I can get it legitimately for free and still do not want it.
Is anyone here planning a Windows 8 build?
We're thinking about picking up a cheap Dell for my wife to use for her job (works from home), but they all seem to come with Windows 8 now with no option for 7, so now I'm rethinking that. She'd be the one having to use it, but she's not the most computer literate person, and I'd have no idea how to fix stuff on it, and really have no desire to learn Win 8. Maybe I'll just get a Windows 7 disc from Newegg and format it.
So I'll probably be in the market for an upgrade in the next couple of months and wanted to get some opinions. Here's my current setup:
AMD Phenom II x2 (unlocked to x4) 3.1GHz
ASUS M4A77TD
2x2GB RAM (OCZ, rated at 1600, but hard locks randomly at anything over 1066)
Radeon 6970
Antec Earthwatts 650W PSU
Antec 300 Illusion case
I'm thinking of switching to Intel for this one (ugh, after 11 years of being a loyal AMD customer, but the recommendation seems to be Intel nowadays). Thinking maybe i5-3570K and an ASUS motherboard. Would I need new RAM? Is it generally cross compatible today? This is the RAM I have, for reference. Also thinking of picking up a Hyper 212 and overclocking, but may wait on that. Budget is probably $500-$600.
Is this a good idea? Would I see a decent performance increase? I can generally run most things on high now, but some things chug a little occasionally. What would be a better time to buy; Cyber Monday, before Christmas, after Christmas?
The 6970 is probably overkill, I would be looking for a Phenom X4 965 Black, best Phenom out there left for the $90 price (wish i could find 1090T's ever). I wouldnt put less than 8GB in it
Those stats are my current rig. The stuff below is what I'm thinking of upgrading to. I have since decided I should probably get new RAM and go 2x4, since it's fairly cheap.
Well another question
Starcraft 2 really messed up my other hard drive. I was running a SSD as my main but I was using my HHD as the one I ran all my games and no operating system off of.
From what I can figure out when it{SCII} attempted to place itself on the SSD after it was installed on the HHD during the optimization phase. My comupter freaked out and reset. The HHD was locking it up because it was trying to do a scan disk/repair
So I let it and tried to reformat it
Only it will not let me. Windows says it is working properly It says I must format to use it. When i format it, it goes to the end and says Windows cannot complete the format.
In short is the drive screwed?
0
Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
edited October 2012
It sounds like you might need to boot into the BIOS and do a 'full' or 'deep' format, whichever your mobo manufacturer calls it. Then try again on the freshly blank drive.
Donovan Puppyfucker on
0
Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
Yay, this thread is still here and will never die! Can I get some build advice?
What kind of computer do you need?
Just a good, solid gaming PC.
What's your budget for this project?
Around $1500, but I'm flexible within a couple hundred dollars if it gives me a lot more bang for the buck, particularly in terms of longevity.
What needs to be included in that budget?
Just the PC parts and Windows. I have a leftover Office install from a 3-pack, and all the other components (keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.) are already available.
What are your performance needs?
I play pretty much everything, so it's hard to scope this out properly. I would say that in general, I lag about 6 months to a year behind on the bleeding-edge FPS games like CoD. That being said, I pick up games like The Witcher 2 and Shogun pretty much right when they come out, and those aren't exactly resource-lite games. I don't need to run everything at max settings, but obviously the closer to max I can get the better.
Do you have any partiality towards specific manufacturers, like Intel/AMD, AMD/NVIDIA, or perhaps specific vendors?
Nope. I'm all about performance & bang for the buck. Don't care about the name as long as it does its job well.
Do you have any specific needs?
It would be nice if I could upgrade the PC relatively easily, but to be perfectly honest I would probably just build a brand new one in 2 years instead of trying to keep the old one alive, as it's been my experience that upgrades become pretty marginal once you really need them at a price you're willing to live with.
Also, I haven't built a computer in well over 5 years. I assume things haven't changed much, but I'm well beyond the point of caring about spending 20 hours of my life fine-tuning an overclocked processor and getting the perfect layer of Arctic Silver on it or finding the perfect RAM timings. I want to just put the thing together, plug it in, install Windows, and get to doing stuff. Perhaps in a year or so I would be open to overclocking, just to get more performance at its end-of-life, but it's not something I'm looking to do right off the bat.
Also: Do you install the CPU and CPU cooler before screwing the motherboard in? What about the PSU?
Assuming the case is relatively well laid out (that is, there's no parts where you must subvert the order to actually install everything), I'll usually get everything in the case except the power supply, and everything on the motherboard except the CPU cooler and any expansion cards, then do those last. I find cable routing for stuff like case cables and SATA power to be a lot easier without the CPU cooler and GPU cards in the way.
Course, that all depends on how big of a cooler I'm installing. If it's a stock cooler, might as well just snap it on before the mobo enters the case.
install the cpu and ram into the motherboard before putting it into the case.
as for whether you install the psu before the motherboard, or put the heatsink on before putting the motherboard into the case. Well those depend on what case you have, what heatsink, and how much room you have. Some cases you need to plug in the aux cpu power cable, or screw down the motherboard before the heatsink is on or you can't get your hand around it.
generally I go with this plan:
1. cpu and ram into motherboard.
2. heatsink backer/base plate if it has one.
2. dvd drive
3. hdd
4. screw down motherboard into case
5. psu
6. run all my cables and get it as neat as I can
7. heatsink
8. video card
9. double check everything is plugged in and screwed down
10. plug in cables to power/monitor/keyboard/mouse/etc.
11. power on, and hope you didn't miss anything.
Thanks for the advice, all! Video card arrived from Fed Ex! Now, just the CPU needs to arrive, and I need to finish my project and leave work. Hours to go on that front.
Also, how does HDMI audio out work with the GTX cards? My Radeon HD 5870 can do this. Though it is finicky, and I usually need to pull out the HDMI cable to get my PC/Radeon to recognize it (for audio) even though the display is working.
Thanks for the advice, all! Video card arrived from Fed Ex! Now, just the CPU needs to arrive, and I need to finish my project and leave work. Hours to go on that front.
Also, how does HDMI audio out work with the GTX cards? My Radeon HD 5870 can do this. Though it is finicky, and I usually need to pull out the HDMI cable to get my PC/Radeon to recognize it (for audio) even though the display is working.
It works, about the same as on AMD. Sometimes HDCP auth goes all finicky, but for the most part it will be fine.
Yay, this thread is still here and will never die! Can I get some build advice?
What kind of computer do you need?
Just a good, solid gaming PC.
What's your budget for this project?
Around $1500, but I'm flexible within a couple hundred dollars if it gives me a lot more bang for the buck, particularly in terms of longevity.
What needs to be included in that budget?
Just the PC parts and Windows. I have a leftover Office install from a 3-pack, and all the other components (keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.) are already available.
What are your performance needs?
I play pretty much everything, so it's hard to scope this out properly. I would say that in general, I lag about 6 months to a year behind on the bleeding-edge FPS games like CoD. That being said, I pick up games like The Witcher 2 and Shogun pretty much right when they come out, and those aren't exactly resource-lite games. I don't need to run everything at max settings, but obviously the closer to max I can get the better.
Do you have any partiality towards specific manufacturers, like Intel/AMD, AMD/NVIDIA, or perhaps specific vendors?
Nope. I'm all about performance & bang for the buck. Don't care about the name as long as it does its job well.
Do you have any specific needs?
It would be nice if I could upgrade the PC relatively easily, but to be perfectly honest I would probably just build a brand new one in 2 years instead of trying to keep the old one alive, as it's been my experience that upgrades become pretty marginal once you really need them at a price you're willing to live with.
Also, I haven't built a computer in well over 5 years. I assume things haven't changed much, but I'm well beyond the point of caring about spending 20 hours of my life fine-tuning an overclocked processor and getting the perfect layer of Arctic Silver on it or finding the perfect RAM timings. I want to just put the thing together, plug it in, install Windows, and get to doing stuff. Perhaps in a year or so I would be open to overclocking, just to get more performance at its end-of-life, but it's not something I'm looking to do right off the bat.
Huh. This PSU wattage calculator is giving me 421W with a single 560 Ti and the rest of the parts I want, and 542W with two 560 Ti's. Seems low, but then apparently most people overestimate their PSU wattage needs.
Huh. This PSU wattage calculator is giving me 421W with a single 560 Ti and the rest of the parts I want, and 542W with two 560 Ti's. Seems low, but then apparently most people overestimate their PSU wattage needs.
sounds about right. with every die shrink the power usage of chips goes down a little, 99% of builds today don't need more than 600W.
I guess I'd go for a bench case if I lived on my own (ie. if I could trust that no one would mess with it, and/or a cat wouldn't get in there and wreak havoc).
Thanks! One thing I'm wary of are compatibility issues... Is it safe to assume that everything along the same row is compatible, or do I have to go through all the user manuals, etc. to confirm compatibility?
Wow. It took me about 4 hours, but I didn't fuck that up! I think that might be the first time I ever successfully booted up a new PC on the first try. Awesome.
I mean, I'm only in BIOS so far, but that's a good sign.
Also, do the i7-3770k's come pre-OCed? BIOS lists the CPU frequency as 3900. Unless I'm misunderstanding.
Wow. It took me about 4 hours, but I didn't fuck that up! I think that might be the first time I ever successfully booted up a new PC on the first try. Awesome.
I mean, I'm only in BIOS so far, but that's a good sign.
Also, do the i7-3770k's come pre-OCed? BIOS lists the CPU frequency as 3900. Unless I'm misunderstanding.
Anyway, I'm preparing to reinstall Windows 7.
Intel Turboboost (tm) it ups the multiplier as you need the power and depending on heat. it will go lower once your idling in windows.
Yay, this thread is still here and will never die! Can I get some build advice?
What kind of computer do you need?
Just a good, solid gaming PC.
What's your budget for this project?
Around $1500, but I'm flexible within a couple hundred dollars if it gives me a lot more bang for the buck, particularly in terms of longevity.
What needs to be included in that budget?
Just the PC parts and Windows. I have a leftover Office install from a 3-pack, and all the other components (keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.) are already available.
What are your performance needs?
I play pretty much everything, so it's hard to scope this out properly. I would say that in general, I lag about 6 months to a year behind on the bleeding-edge FPS games like CoD. That being said, I pick up games like The Witcher 2 and Shogun pretty much right when they come out, and those aren't exactly resource-lite games. I don't need to run everything at max settings, but obviously the closer to max I can get the better.
Do you have any partiality towards specific manufacturers, like Intel/AMD, AMD/NVIDIA, or perhaps specific vendors?
Nope. I'm all about performance & bang for the buck. Don't care about the name as long as it does its job well.
Do you have any specific needs?
It would be nice if I could upgrade the PC relatively easily, but to be perfectly honest I would probably just build a brand new one in 2 years instead of trying to keep the old one alive, as it's been my experience that upgrades become pretty marginal once you really need them at a price you're willing to live with.
Also, I haven't built a computer in well over 5 years. I assume things haven't changed much, but I'm well beyond the point of caring about spending 20 hours of my life fine-tuning an overclocked processor and getting the perfect layer of Arctic Silver on it or finding the perfect RAM timings. I want to just put the thing together, plug it in, install Windows, and get to doing stuff. Perhaps in a year or so I would be open to overclocking, just to get more performance at its end-of-life, but it's not something I'm looking to do right off the bat.
Thanks, everyone!
Should be pretty easy to get a nice build with that kind of money.
NOTES:
1) The SSD is obviously optional
2) You can find a cheaper case, but I personally really like the Arc Midi (I have one, actually). It has a ton of room inside and decent cable routing. It is made of steel though, so it is heavy.
3) The motherboard supports SLI, so you may be able to snag another 670 at a very good price and give yourself a bit more headroom whenever the next gen launches. Currently though, for about $60 more you can get a 680; they used to be $120+ more but there has been a price drop. It may be the better deal right now.
Soggybiscuit on
Steam - Synthetic Violence | XBOX Live - Cannonfuse | PSN - CastleBravo | Twitch - SoggybiscuitPA
+1
AlectharAlan ShoreWe're not territorial about that sort of thing, are we?Registered Userregular
Yay, this thread is still here and will never die! Can I get some build advice?
What kind of computer do you need?
Just a good, solid gaming PC.
What's your budget for this project?
Around $1500, but I'm flexible within a couple hundred dollars if it gives me a lot more bang for the buck, particularly in terms of longevity.
What needs to be included in that budget?
Just the PC parts and Windows. I have a leftover Office install from a 3-pack, and all the other components (keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.) are already available.
What are your performance needs?
I play pretty much everything, so it's hard to scope this out properly. I would say that in general, I lag about 6 months to a year behind on the bleeding-edge FPS games like CoD. That being said, I pick up games like The Witcher 2 and Shogun pretty much right when they come out, and those aren't exactly resource-lite games. I don't need to run everything at max settings, but obviously the closer to max I can get the better.
Do you have any partiality towards specific manufacturers, like Intel/AMD, AMD/NVIDIA, or perhaps specific vendors?
Nope. I'm all about performance & bang for the buck. Don't care about the name as long as it does its job well.
Do you have any specific needs?
It would be nice if I could upgrade the PC relatively easily, but to be perfectly honest I would probably just build a brand new one in 2 years instead of trying to keep the old one alive, as it's been my experience that upgrades become pretty marginal once you really need them at a price you're willing to live with.
Also, I haven't built a computer in well over 5 years. I assume things haven't changed much, but I'm well beyond the point of caring about spending 20 hours of my life fine-tuning an overclocked processor and getting the perfect layer of Arctic Silver on it or finding the perfect RAM timings. I want to just put the thing together, plug it in, install Windows, and get to doing stuff. Perhaps in a year or so I would be open to overclocking, just to get more performance at its end-of-life, but it's not something I'm looking to do right off the bat.
Thanks, everyone!
Should be pretty easy to get a nice build with that kind of money.
NOTES:
1) The SSD is obviously optional
2) You can find a cheaper case, but I personally really like the Arc Midi (I have one, actually). It has a ton of room inside and decent cable routing. It is made of steel though, so it is heavy.
3) The motherboard supports SLI, so you may be able to snag another 670 at a very good price and give yourself a bit more headroom whenever the next gen launches. Currently though, for about $60 more you can get a 680; they used to be $120+ more but there has been a price drop. It may be the better deal right now.
I get where you're coming from, you don't need and SSD for the system to run, but if someone spends $1500 on a PC, they should get an SSD. I also prefer the Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H to the P8Z77-V LK. Just a nicer board, in my opinion.
Also, he could easily get away with 650W, even assuming he wants to SLI 670s. I'd go with one of Seasonic's new semi-modular units.
General OCing question: how do you know when an OC is "stable?" I know you do things like run Prime95 for extended periods, but what determines how stable the OC actually is? Number of errors? BSODs?
Also: are people generally finding they can get to ~4.5ghz on Ivy Bridge chips at the stock voltage? How much are they having to increase it to get there, if so?
Posts
I can't remember ever owning a case or mobo that came with any sort of washers.
As for putting the proc and heat sink on first, I have found that those typically get in the way when you are trying to screw down the mobo and it is more convenient to leave them off. Plus, you shouldn't attach the proc heat sink until after the mobo is screwed down so that the board does not flex any and separate the silicone heat transfer stuff from the proc.
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
We're thinking about picking up a cheap Dell for my wife to use for her job (works from home), but they all seem to come with Windows 8 now with no option for 7, so now I'm rethinking that. She'd be the one having to use it, but she's not the most computer literate person, and I'd have no idea how to fix stuff on it, and really have no desire to learn Win 8. Maybe I'll just get a Windows 7 disc from Newegg and format it.
So I'll probably be in the market for an upgrade in the next couple of months and wanted to get some opinions. Here's my current setup:
AMD Phenom II x2 (unlocked to x4) 3.1GHz
ASUS M4A77TD
2x2GB RAM (OCZ, rated at 1600, but hard locks randomly at anything over 1066)
Radeon 6970
Antec Earthwatts 650W PSU
Antec 300 Illusion case
I'm thinking of switching to Intel for this one (ugh, after 11 years of being a loyal AMD customer, but the recommendation seems to be Intel nowadays). Thinking maybe i5-3570K and an ASUS motherboard. Would I need new RAM? Is it generally cross compatible today? This is the RAM I have, for reference. Also thinking of picking up a Hyper 212 and overclocking, but may wait on that. Budget is probably $500-$600.
Is this a good idea? Would I see a decent performance increase? I can generally run most things on high now, but some things chug a little occasionally. What would be a better time to buy; Cyber Monday, before Christmas, after Christmas?
Steam Support is the worst. Seriously, the worst
Wouldn't there be more chance of bending after you mount the motherboard? That's pretty much the OT reason I thought of installing the chip and cooler first...plus the cooker is the Hyper 212 which is tall and heavy.
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
The 6970 is probably overkill, I would be looking for a Phenom X4 965 Black, best Phenom out there left for the $90 price (wish i could find 1090T's ever). I wouldnt put less than 8GB in it
Joe's Stream.
Steam Support is the worst. Seriously, the worst
Starcraft 2 really messed up my other hard drive. I was running a SSD as my main but I was using my HHD as the one I ran all my games and no operating system off of.
From what I can figure out when it{SCII} attempted to place itself on the SSD after it was installed on the HHD during the optimization phase. My comupter freaked out and reset. The HHD was locking it up because it was trying to do a scan disk/repair
So I let it and tried to reformat it
Only it will not let me. Windows says it is working properly It says I must format to use it. When i format it, it goes to the end and says Windows cannot complete the format.
In short is the drive screwed?
What kind of computer do you need?
Just a good, solid gaming PC.
What's your budget for this project?
Around $1500, but I'm flexible within a couple hundred dollars if it gives me a lot more bang for the buck, particularly in terms of longevity.
What needs to be included in that budget?
Just the PC parts and Windows. I have a leftover Office install from a 3-pack, and all the other components (keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.) are already available.
What are your performance needs?
I play pretty much everything, so it's hard to scope this out properly. I would say that in general, I lag about 6 months to a year behind on the bleeding-edge FPS games like CoD. That being said, I pick up games like The Witcher 2 and Shogun pretty much right when they come out, and those aren't exactly resource-lite games. I don't need to run everything at max settings, but obviously the closer to max I can get the better.
Do you have any partiality towards specific manufacturers, like Intel/AMD, AMD/NVIDIA, or perhaps specific vendors?
Nope. I'm all about performance & bang for the buck. Don't care about the name as long as it does its job well.
Do you have any specific needs?
It would be nice if I could upgrade the PC relatively easily, but to be perfectly honest I would probably just build a brand new one in 2 years instead of trying to keep the old one alive, as it's been my experience that upgrades become pretty marginal once you really need them at a price you're willing to live with.
Also, I haven't built a computer in well over 5 years. I assume things haven't changed much, but I'm well beyond the point of caring about spending 20 hours of my life fine-tuning an overclocked processor and getting the perfect layer of Arctic Silver on it or finding the perfect RAM timings. I want to just put the thing together, plug it in, install Windows, and get to doing stuff. Perhaps in a year or so I would be open to overclocking, just to get more performance at its end-of-life, but it's not something I'm looking to do right off the bat.
Thanks, everyone!
Assuming the case is relatively well laid out (that is, there's no parts where you must subvert the order to actually install everything), I'll usually get everything in the case except the power supply, and everything on the motherboard except the CPU cooler and any expansion cards, then do those last. I find cable routing for stuff like case cables and SATA power to be a lot easier without the CPU cooler and GPU cards in the way.
Course, that all depends on how big of a cooler I'm installing. If it's a stock cooler, might as well just snap it on before the mobo enters the case.
as for whether you install the psu before the motherboard, or put the heatsink on before putting the motherboard into the case. Well those depend on what case you have, what heatsink, and how much room you have. Some cases you need to plug in the aux cpu power cable, or screw down the motherboard before the heatsink is on or you can't get your hand around it.
generally I go with this plan:
1. cpu and ram into motherboard.
2. heatsink backer/base plate if it has one.
2. dvd drive
3. hdd
4. screw down motherboard into case
5. psu
6. run all my cables and get it as neat as I can
7. heatsink
8. video card
9. double check everything is plugged in and screwed down
10. plug in cables to power/monitor/keyboard/mouse/etc.
11. power on, and hope you didn't miss anything.
Also, how does HDMI audio out work with the GTX cards? My Radeon HD 5870 can do this. Though it is finicky, and I usually need to pull out the HDMI cable to get my PC/Radeon to recognize it (for audio) even though the display is working.
It works, about the same as on AMD. Sometimes HDCP auth goes all finicky, but for the most part it will be fine.
I mean computer... Computer...
$1500 will get you a pretty nice box. Check this for a good scale of current PC builds and prices:
http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af150/The_FalconO6/CurrentLogicalPCBuyingGuide/Guide.png
sounds about right. with every die shrink the power usage of chips goes down a little, 99% of builds today don't need more than 600W.
ASUS Maximus V Gene
i5-3570k
eVGA GTX 680 Classified 4GB
8 GB memory
256 GB OCZ Vertex 4
256 GB Crucial M4
Now to get Steam running...
And why do you have a 1960s portable video camera sitting on your desk?
Ha! I actually have a Super 8 instamatic that's probably around a third to a half the size of that thing, if I'm judging the scale correctly.
Uhhhhhhhhh...awesome.
i5-3570K
That is a biiiig motherfuckin' video card... Mine is almost normal sized next to that behemoth!
Thanks! One thing I'm wary of are compatibility issues... Is it safe to assume that everything along the same row is compatible, or do I have to go through all the user manuals, etc. to confirm compatibility?
I mean, I'm only in BIOS so far, but that's a good sign.
Also, do the i7-3770k's come pre-OCed? BIOS lists the CPU frequency as 3900. Unless I'm misunderstanding.
Anyway, I'm preparing to reinstall Windows 7.
Intel Turboboost (tm) it ups the multiplier as you need the power and depending on heat. it will go lower once your idling in windows.
I want to thank everyone for their advice over the last month and especially the last few days. It was extremely helpful.
Should be pretty easy to get a nice build with that kind of money.
Something like this:
Case: Fractal Arc Midi - $109.99
Solid State Drive: Corsair Force GT 240GB - $214.99 (OPTIONAL)
Hard Drive: WD Black 1TB - $109.99
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V LK - $149.99
Processor: Intel Core i5 3570K - 229.99
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212+ - $29.99
Video Card: EVGA GTX 670 FTW 2GB - $409.99
Power Supply: Corsair TX750 V2 - $109.99
Memory: Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB DDR3 1600 - $39.99 (Currently free with the motherboard, though)
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium - $99.99
Total: $1464.91
NOTES:
1) The SSD is obviously optional
2) You can find a cheaper case, but I personally really like the Arc Midi (I have one, actually). It has a ton of room inside and decent cable routing. It is made of steel though, so it is heavy.
3) The motherboard supports SLI, so you may be able to snag another 670 at a very good price and give yourself a bit more headroom whenever the next gen launches. Currently though, for about $60 more you can get a 680; they used to be $120+ more but there has been a price drop. It may be the better deal right now.
I get where you're coming from, you don't need and SSD for the system to run, but if someone spends $1500 on a PC, they should get an SSD. I also prefer the Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H to the P8Z77-V LK. Just a nicer board, in my opinion.
Also, he could easily get away with 650W, even assuming he wants to SLI 670s. I'd go with one of Seasonic's new semi-modular units.
Battle.net
Also: are people generally finding they can get to ~4.5ghz on Ivy Bridge chips at the stock voltage? How much are they having to increase it to get there, if so?