Building a PC, requesting help.

I don’t mean to brag or anything, but 600$ seems a bit too cheap if you want a beasty PC. I built my own as well and spent around 1200$

P.S. I just realised I’m bragging, sry for that.

I suppose but I was thinking of really old speakers. Like I said I had these speakers for over 10 years and they still work well despite a few annoyances.

I’d rather wait for some good speaker to go on sale or something. I just don’t want to spend a lot when the ones I have still work. Either I get ones for cheap or I suck it up and stick with my current.

Well I have a week to kill while I wait for the parts so I guess I’ll just keep asking questions. And I have a lot.

I know about the static thing, but how do you mean ground myself constantly? Just keep my feet flat on the ground and touch the case to remove static? I planned to build it in my kitchen that has a hard floor so should I still worry about static build up?

How should I hide the cords? Just pull them out of the way? I think I saw some ties so I guess I have to tie wires together and pull them to the side.

Also I asked about maintenance in an earlier post but I guess it got overlooked. Any maintenance over time I need to do once I get my rig up and running? Like once a month remove the side of the case and just blow dust away or something?

If you build in your kitchen, or on any hard floor you should be fine. Take socks off. Touching the case, where not painted should remove static. It shouldn’t be a huge deal, but do it every once and a while.

The cords can be routed through the back of the case, and then back to the front where they need to be. You may get some zip ties as well so that can help. And if I recall correctly the power supply you ordered is modular, meaning that some of the cords can be removed entirely and not restrict airflow.

Maintenance is fairly low. There are a few guides I recommend checking out and I will post them as you get closer. Especially for the SSD. You may have to have some compressed air, maybe like every 3 months to clean it up a bit, but it shouldn’t be too much of a worry if you check your temps and they seem normal.

All this techy stuff is giving me a headache. I got a 600$ laptop and it fits most cpu intensive games…

So source games :stuck_out_tongue:

Okay. What exactly does overclocking do? I heard it pushes the graphics card and CPU and all that to it’s absolute limit but what benefit is that?

Well how I have it spec’ed out, you cannot overclock the CPU and RAM. Basically it makes the silicon operate at a faster speed and therefore perform operations faster. It does however create more heat, and use more power as well. The benefit is in the 5-10% range for most people. It can damage the CPU but not post of the time.

The GPU on the other hand can be overclocked on most systems with a simple tool. Hell your GPU may have came bundled with overclocking software by its manufacturer. I have a minor overclock on my GPU, but I rarely see the benefits, as I play mostly CPU based games now.

The first thing I think is important is to turn off automatic defragmentation for your solid state. You should never have to defrag it and doing so actually harms the thing.

As for maintenance? Not much really. I go years without thinking about dust and such. You really only need to think about it when you hear your fan working harder than normal to keep the system cool.

Antivirus? The usual jazz? I guess that’s it.

All right, so never defrag. With my old computer I kept the case open just to be able to constantly check on the fans and whatnot inside. I shouldn’t have to do that with this one right?

http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds

That will help

I can confirm - they’ve replaced my ram twice, both times it was PSU issue related.

If going with Windows 7, you can download Microsoft Security Essentials for free.
If with Windows 8, it is built in.

I’ve been using it for years and have had no issues.

Got my motherboard and SSD in the mail yesterday, will be expecting more tomorrow and friday. This Sunday I should have time to put everything together. I hope Kyle is on for me to complain to, haha.

Also, stupid question considering I bought it without even looking into it myself, but what does the SSD do?

Just happens to be that I was experimenting with a ram disks a few days ago and did some speed comparisons between my WD Black 1TB Hard drive, A Samsung 120 GB SSD, and a virtual ram disk. Check this image out: (look at the tranfer rate speeds) https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17330385/AE/disk%20speeds.JPG

This is a decent article explaining the difference: http://snurre.hubpages.com/hub/SSD-vs-HDD-pros-and-cons

I won’t be around. Anime Expo is happening right now and I will be gone for 2 days I’d say.

I wish I could go to anime expo! It’s so far away from where I live… :frowning: Oh, well. I’ll just have to wait for Sakura Con!

Alright well, I started to put everything together and I’ve run into 2 problems.

  1. I either have to get a CD drive that’s compatible with my motherboard, or I’m completely lost as I don’t see any way for me to connect my Optical Drive. In my old computer I had this long belt-like connector that connected my motherboard and CD drive. But, this motherboard doesn’t have the same thing so I’m not sure what to do. Should I buy some new compatible one?

  2. I don’t have any plugins specifically made for connecting into the 12v power connector. Of course I have the thick cable that connects into the ATX, but there’s nothing for the 12v. Reading the guide, I’m assuming I basically need that to power my motherboard.

Other then that, I THINK I’ve connected everything right. But I’m sure I can’t power it on to check until I get that cable. I noticed my CPU already comes with a fan and after looking over all the parts with the CPU Cooler I have, I decided to keep it in the box and use the fan it came with. Seriously, it looks like a pain in the ass to install the cooler. But if someone insists I do it then I suppose I will.

It was frustrating just putting the damn thing together. Then it’s disheartening to think I’m still not done buying parts.

If anyone would help me that would be lovely. I’ll provide any info you need.

There is a solution to your first issue without the need for a new drive. I suggest driving to your nearest Fry’s or other computer part retailer for an adapter.

This is an example one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232004

For your fan, I really do suggest installing it. The default CPU fan is often pretty crappy. It was a massive pain for me too. You have to take EVERYTHING out of the dang computer because it likely needs to mount onto the motherboard itself.

Your second issue? I’m not as clear on. I’m looking at the image of your motherboard and I believe I see the 12v port on it very close to the ports that poke out the back. Near the cpu. Your power supply should come with a cable for that slot. It is kind of important.

Edit: I think I know the issue your having. I checked the power supply. It uses the 8 pin version of the 12v power line. That should connect to the 4 pin slot on the motherboard just fine. It does not need all pins. The others are there for fan control on the CPU.

Okay, I don’t really have any local electronics store so I’ll probably find one online.

As for the power, I’m not sure what you mean by 8 pins. I don’t have time to mess around with my PC until Friday or Saturday, whichever I have off, but the 12v slot is basically the white 4-hole plugin that is right behind the ports for internet, keyboard/mouse, etc. I don’t have any connectors that have 4 but I do have a couple that are 6 slotted. But I’m not sure which way to plug it in because the very middle top of the 6-slot plug looks to be useless and only there for sake of fitting in. I wasn’t sure if I could plug it in because, you know. Common sense indicates that a 6 slotted plug wouldn’t benefit a 4 slotted plugin.

Sip, according to the Newegg images of the board he has, it is a 4 pin slot. No problem Nek, the 6 pin power cable you have is meant to attach to that 4 pin slot despite the stupid number difference. Your motherboard’s manual should have said something about it.

For example, my motherboard uses the 8 pin slot that sip posted, but my power supply only has 4 pin supply. They work anyway. This slow is called ATX2 on my board.

On my board, with the ports for internet, keyboard/mouse, etc on the left, it numbers the pins 1 on bottom left, 2 to the right of it and so on. This should mean you have to match the power cable’s arrow to the 1 pin. (The arrow shows which pin is 1)

I hope this helps but I bet the better instructions are in the manual.