Computer build questions - uh oh

Yaz4Ever

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My 14yo son has been saving his money doing odd jobs for the past year and is very excited about building his own computer.
 
Below is a list of parts and the prices he's found for each.  If anyone can help look it over and offer advice (get a better x / y is just as good but half the price / you're completely forgetting this / etc), I'd greatly appreciate it.  I used to build 386 then 486 and eventually pentium systems, but as you can see by the first part of this sentence, it's been a LONG time since I did my own build.
 
Prices include shipping but not tax:
 
Motherboard - Gigabyte LGA 1150 Intel Z87 for $117.64
Processor - Intel i7-4770k for $314.99
Case - Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (he likes it because it's windowed and has a blue LED fan in front) - $49.99
Video card - EVGA GeForce GTX760 for $239.99
RAM - Crucial 16GB kit (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz - $139.99
Hard Drive - WD Blue 1TB 7200RPM (doesn't want to spend the $$ on SSD at this time) - $58.24
Power Supply - Corsair  CX Series 750 Watt ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Bronze - $79.99
Monitor - ViewSonic VX2270SMH-LED 22" - $149.99 (likes because he'd like to go HDMI and wants at least 20")
Optical Drive - Asus 24x DVD-RW - $21.80 (couldn't care less about having an optical drive, but thinks he'll need it to load OS and possibly other software)
OS - Windows 8.1 64-bit OEM - $94.57
Keyboard/Mouse - Logitech wireless combo MK270 - $17.99
 
He's at about $1300 plus tax but was hoping to keep it below $1200 ($1000 would be even better).
 
Any thoughts on this build?
 
He'd be using it for 3D Graphic Design, Video Editing, some gaming (minecraft, for example, nothing crazy), PhotoShop, and other regular stuff like Internet, Office, etc.
 
TIA for any help.
 

Couperin47

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 I'm probably in trouble when I'm getting intros... anyway... nothing wrong about any of this, just comments:
 
Yaz4Ever said:
My 14yo son has been saving his money doing odd jobs for the past year and is very excited about building his own computer.
 
Below is a list of parts and the prices he's found for each.  If anyone can help look it over and offer advice (get a better x / y is just as good but half the price / you're completely forgetting this / etc), I'd greatly appreciate it.  I used to build 386 then 486 and eventually pentium systems, but as you can see by the first part of this sentence, it's been a LONG time since I did my own build.
 
Prices include shipping but not tax:
 
Motherboard - Gigabyte LGA 1150 Intel Z87 for $117.64  - All Z87 mb are fairly similar, and it's one of the big 4 : Asus, MSI, Gigabyte and ASrock, but this mb is not oriented to overclocking, if that's of no interest then it's fine.
 
 
Processor - Intel i7-4770k for $314.99 - i7 are overkill for most, in gaming especially, for high end design OK, but buying the "K" version is a total waste unless you intend to overclock (which is stupidly easy and quite safe, you change 2 settings in the BIOS). If he intends to OC, a step up mb better suited to make this easy is another 20-30 bucks, if he's not, then save $20 and do the 4770 (the only difference is you pay extra in the K for unlocked multiplier in the cpu to allow OCing), not K version. If he does the K version and overclocks, budget another 20-30 for a better cooler, the CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ is an inexpensive solution used by many.
 
Case - Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (he likes it because it's windowed and has a blue LED fan in front) - $49.99 - OK case but only 1 usb 3 front socket when your mb header offers 2 and you should have both, also the single fan is totally inadequate even without overclocking, you need at minimum a 2nd fan on back or top. In same price range Corsair 200R or Rosewill Redbone U3 offer a lot more for the same sort of money.
 
Video card - EVGA GeForce GTX760 for $239.99 Serious card, but mating this to the chosen monitor is like jamming a small block Chevy V8 into a Yugo.
 
RAM - Crucial 16GB kit (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz - $139.99 Good price and 8x2 will make OCing easier.
 
Hard Drive - WD Blue 1TB 7200RPM (doesn't want to spend the $$ on SSD at this time) - $58.24 This is WD's cheapest line of drives and if he gets just 1 1TB drive he will A) fill it insanely quickly b) since this has to contain the OS, apps and all files it will be VERY slow (it has to read app modules AND write to workspace at the same time). It's crazy to build this high end machine and not spend at least $80 for a 128 Gig SSD. For this build he should do a 240 Gig HD as boot for around $110-130, then he's unlocked the potential of the other hardware. If he's trying to avoid some of these issues with the 16 Gig of ram, he won't, most apps will not load all modules into ram until needed, even if there is room for them.
 
Power Supply - Corsair  CX Series 750 Watt ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Bronze - $79.99 - Fine option
 
Monitor - ViewSonic VX2270SMH-LED 22" - $149.99 (likes because he'd like to go HDMI and wants at least 20") This is a low end IPS monitor, OK but by today's standards rather small, otoh, he can graduate to a bigger better one and I never run less than 2 monitors anymore...
 
Optical Drive - Asus 24x DVD-RW - $21.80 (couldn't care less about having an optical drive, but thinks he'll need it to load OS and possibly other software) Commodity item, fine choice, handy to have available.
OS - Windows 8.1 64-bit OEM - $94.57
 
Keyboard/Mouse - Logitech wireless combo MK270 - $17.99 - I assume he understands he's not going to be doing any serious gaming with these... Also not a fan of wireless keyboards & mice but will let him find out why for himself...
 
He's at about $1300 plus tax but was hoping to keep it below $1200 ($1000 would be even better).
 
Any thoughts on this build?
 
He'd be using it for 3D Graphic Design, Video Editing, some gaming (minecraft, for example, nothing crazy), PhotoShop, and other regular stuff like Internet, Office, etc.
 
TIA for any help
 
If he buys wisely over a period of time he can save a few hundred, much of this stuff does go on sale, his prices look quite good.
 

Yaz4Ever

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Couperin47 said:
 I'm probably in trouble when I'm getting intros... anyway... nothing wrong about any of this, just comments:
 
 
If he buys wisely over a period of time he can save a few hundred, much of this stuff does go on sale, his prices look quite good.
He could care less about overclocking, so I'm not too concerned about those issues.  
 
The wireless keyboard and mouse were simply cheap options, he hates wireless as well because of battery use but this says the keyboard will give you 2 yrs and the mouse 1 yr on one battery install.  He's not much into gaming (other than minecraft), but he'd love to get into coding/programming games himself.
 
I'll have him look at those other cases, but he was planning to add an additional two fans anyhow (my omission in OP) but he talked about rubber fans (?) that are super quiet.
 
I asked him if he heard of liquid cooling.  He had, but knew next to nothing about it.  Not sure if that's even worth consideration.
 
I'm surprised he didn't ask for any LED lighting to illuminate through the window, but he said that wasn't a big deal to him.  Thought the fan was cool (blue LED) but good enough.
 
Would you recommend going with a 128GB SSD for OS and programs and an external HDD for large files?  Internal HDD slaved to the SSD?  Also, with an SSD does the additional HDD being only 5400rpm matter?  Does it matter even without the SSD?  I'd rather get more TB for him, if possible, without bumping the price too much.
 
The video card is a monster (and has two fans) but could he still do what he wants to do - 3D graphic design, HD video editing, PhotoShop, etc with a lesser card and reinvest the savings into a better monitor/SSD/etc?
 

Curll

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DO NOT GET AN i7!!!! Unless your kid is doing computational astrophysics, it is unjustified even in gaming.
 
Save the money. Invest it in a GPU, get an i5. 
 
http://logicalincrements.com
 
I've got an 8320 and it kills everything. The only bottleneck is my 7870....
 

Yaz4Ever

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Curll said:
DO NOT GET AN i7!!!! Unless your kid is doing computational astrophysics, it is unjustified even in gaming.
 
Save the money. Invest it in a GPU, get an i5. 
 
http://logicalincrements.com
 
I've got an 8320 and it kills everything. The only bottleneck is my 7870....
Even if he's doing 3D Graphic Design?  I know the GPU will make a huge difference, but doesn't the CPU matter as well.
 
Also, the 8320 also brings into question AMD vs. Intel.  I tried to talk him into going AMD to save money, but he's convinced that an Intel i5 / i7 is a far better choice.
 

Bongorific

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it's been a long time since i bought a new mouse, but I much prefered wired.  I did try a wireless at one point and while convenient for having one less wire behind the desk, it had drawbacks for both gaming and photoshop editing.  The batteries make it too heavy and accuracy is compromised so doing fine detail work in photoshop or FPS gaming is a challenge.  Maybe the newer wireless mice have come a long way, but 5 years ago I found the wired much better.
 

SumnerH

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There is zero chance he gets a year on a set of batteries in the mouse. Keyboards go forever, but he'll be lucky to only change the mouse every two months.
 

Couperin47

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As others are saying, the issue is this selction is ...unbalanced, he has mated some extremely high end parts to a design that drags it's performance down and is just cheap in some respects. The I7 and the video card are simply "let's get the most powerful" (well within reason, Intel makes a few $1000 cpus that are barely more powerful than their top i7, but only complete fools even consider those...). Then he added a lot of memory, which I also do, but he could probably do as well with 8 or 12 Gig. Then he cheraped out on everything else... the stuff is not horrible or stupid, just decent quality budget build. BUT: the decision to skip an SSD and run it all thru a single hard drive cripples all the performance everything else gives him. Win8 plus a decent selection of apps (before we add any big games) will take up around 45 Gig. Rule of thumb: you never fill an SSD beyound 80% of it's capacity or performance and lifespan fall off a cliff. Tons of sales on 128 Gig SSD in the $80-$99 range: Intel, Samsung, Crucial, Plextor all good: for a boot drive Marvel controlers (or Samsung's own) generally perform better than the Sandforce many other makers use. Some decent 240 Gig SSD are on sale in the $130-140 range if he wants to load a bunch of games too. Then you add a HD to hold files: the sweet spot in size/price is 2 Tb, but he can live with 1.
 
Anything from an i5-4430 or 4440 (at the moment Newegg will sell you the 4440 for less than the 4430...) makes more sense. A better 23" IPS would also be nice...
 
Yaz4Ever said:
PNY XLR8 SATA 120GB 6Gbps for $58.99 - that's pretty good for an SSD, no?  Or is it a piece of shit?
 
A very cheap, slow SSD using the standard Sandforce controller, not shit, just a false economy when a good one will run you tops $20 more...
 

Couperin47

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Yaz4Ever said:
Even if he's doing 3D Graphic Design?  I know the GPU will make a huge difference, but doesn't the CPU matter as well.
 
Also, the 8320 also brings into question AMD vs. Intel.  I tried to talk him into going AMD to save money, but he's convinced that an Intel i5 / i7 is a far better choice.
 
He's correct, AMD's current cpus are 1 1/2 generations behind, they try to compensate for underpowered cores by throwing 6 or even more inside. This doesn't work any better than trying to use 9 pregnant women to get a baby in one month...
 

Yaz4Ever

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A quick look on Amazon shows that I can get the i5-4460 for the same price as the i5-4440 - $189.95.  That would be a no-brainer, no?  The savings from moving down from the original i7 would allow him to buy a decent SSD.  I'll continue to look at monitors for him as well.  He's been asking me to refresh this thread every 8 seconds :)
 
 
edit:  Speaking of which, this plus the i5-4460 come out to about the same as the i7 alone.
 

Couperin47

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Yaz4Ever said:
A quick look on Amazon shows that I can get the i5-4460 for the same price as the i5-4440 - $189.95.  That would be a no-brainer, no?  The savings from moving down from the original i7 would allow him to buy a decent SSD.  I'll continue to look at monitors for him as well.  He's been asking me to refresh this thread every 8 seconds :)
 
Sales on Intel cpus generally offer, tops $20 off, the only way to beat Newegg or Amazon is at actual Microcenter stores that generally have these for an extra $20 off, and yes, their sales often make the next lower option silly. Without overclocking the included heatsink is fine with sensible fans/ventillation in the case...well aside from the entire plastic pushpin design that he'll have fun with...
 

Yaz4Ever

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Monitor - is the HP Envy 22xi a better choice?  I literally don't have any idea what features are important for his purposes here, so it's tough for me to help him other than to go with Amazon, CNET, etc reviews.
 

Couperin47

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Yaz4Ever said:
A quick look on Amazon shows that I can get the i5-4460 for the same price as the i5-4440 - $189.95.  That would be a no-brainer, no?  The savings from moving down from the original i7 would allow him to buy a decent SSD.  I'll continue to look at monitors for him as well.  He's been asking me to refresh this thread every 8 seconds :)
 
 
edit:  Speaking of which, this plus the i5-4460 come out to about the same as the i7 alone.
 
 
BINGO one of the very best 240 drives.
 

Couperin47

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Yaz4Ever said:
Monitor - is the HP Envy 22xi a better choice?  I literally don't have any idea what features are important for his purposes here, so it's tough for me to help him other than to go with Amazon, CNET, etc reviews.
 
Don't be fixated on the 22' size, the sweet spot are 23" monitors and many of those are the same prices as 22 or better. You see to be using Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008DWITHI/?tag=extension-kb-20
this also currently has a $20 rebate, makes it CHEAPER than all the options you have mentioned so far...
 

Yaz4Ever

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Couperin47 said:
 
Don't be fixated on the 22' size, the sweet spot are 23" monitors and many of those are the same prices as 22 or better. You see to be using Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008DWITHI/?tag=extension-kb-20
this also currently has a $20 rebate, makes it CHEAPER than all the options you have mentioned so far...
Sweet.  Just showed him and he liked it a lot.  It says $20 rebate, but it seems like it's only $10 unless I missed something when I looked at it very quickly.
 
We're going to look at cases (your recommendations) next, but when looking at an HDD, I came across this one - thoughts?  2TB, but I don't know if the WD Black is as necessary with the SSD or if a cheaper Blue or Green (or another brand like Seagate) would be a better choice in order to save a few bucks.
 

Yaz4Ever

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ok, so now we've changed things up a bit thanks to the advice in this thread.  Here's where he's at:
 
case - Rosewill Redbone U3 with three built in fans - $49.99
motherboard - Gigabyte LGA 1150 Intel Z87 for $117.64
CPU - Intel i5-4460 for $189.99
SSD - Samsung EVO 840 for $134.99
Video card - EVGA GeForce GTX760 for $239.99
RAM - Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB kit (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz - $139.99
Power Supply - Corsair  CX Series 750 Watt ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Bronze - $79.99
Optical Drive - Asus 24x DVD-RW - $21.80 
OS - Windows 8.1 64-bit OEM - $94.57
Keyboard/Mouse - Logitech wireless combo MK270 - $17.99
Monitor - Asus VS239H for $155.43
 
Still need an HDD.
 
Did I miss anything that was recommended differently?  Any other thoughts?  Still trying to talk him out of the wireless keyboard and mouse.  I'm sure he'll give in as he doesn't like them anyhow, but he was just trying to be cheap with that.
 

Couperin47

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Yaz4Ever said:
Sweet.  Just showed him and he liked it a lot.  It says $20 rebate, but it seems like it's only $10 unless I missed something when I looked at it very quickly.
 
We're going to look at cases (your recommendations) next, but when looking at an HDD, I came across this one - thoughts?  2TB, but I don't know if the WD Black is as necessary with the SSD or if a cheaper Blue or Green (or another brand like Seagate) would be a better choice in order to save a few bucks.
 
OK HD. we really only have 2 companies left: WD and Seagate and currently I am not a fan of Seagate or their other brands (Samsung HD is now the cheap brand for Seagate and has nothing to do with the company that makes the SSD you just chose...)
 
WD Blue drives have a 2 yr warranty, the Black have 5 and now they charge quite a bit for those. There are a whole range of drives branded Toshiba, open their boxes and the labels say HGST which stands for Hitachi Global Storage Tech... and guess what ? WD owns them all. Toshiba/HGST 7200 rpm drives all have 3 year warranties and seem to actually be better than WD's own Blues, generally for the same or a few bucks cheaper.
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Deskstar-3-5-Inch-Internal-0F12115/dp/B004AM6TKY/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1402275639&sr=8-11&keywords=hgst+7200+rpm
 

Couperin47

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On sale he can get a decent wired keyboard and mouse for under $15 if/when...pocket change....btw when he does... consider a ps2 keyboard, he's going to find that on even the most modern motherboards, sometimes at initial boot, they don't immediately recognize USB devices... this can make hitting DEL or F1 or whatever to get into the Bios problematical when the mb doesn't actually 'see' the keyboard yet... the only simple solution is a PS2 keyboard...a REAL PS2 keyboard...ones that are USB but add a green adapter plug often won't work either....
 

Yaz4Ever

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Couperin47 said:
On sale he can get a decent wired keyboard and mouse for under $15 if/when...pocket change....btw when he does... consider a ps2 keyboard, he's going to find that on even the most modern motherboards, sometimes at initial boot, they don't immediately recognize USB devices... this can make hitting DEL or F1 or whatever to get into the Bios problematical when the mb doesn't actually 'see' the keyboard yet... the only simple solution is a PS2 keyboard...a REAL PS2 keyboard...ones that are USB but add a green adapter plug often won't work either....
will do
 

Yaz4Ever

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Couperin47 said:
 
OK HD. we really only have 2 companies left: WD and Seagate and currently I am not a fan of Seagate or their other brands (Samsung HD is now the cheap brand for Seagate and has nothing to do with the company that makes the SSD you just chose...)
 
WD Blue drives have a 2 yr warranty, the Black have 5 and now they charge quite a bit for those. There are a whole range of drives branded Toshiba, open their boxes and the labels say HGST which stands for Hitachi Global Storage Tech... and guess what ? WD owns them all. Toshiba/HGST 7200 rpm drives all have 3 year warranties and seem to actually be better than WD's own Blues, generally for the same or a few bucks cheaper.
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Deskstar-3-5-Inch-Internal-0F12115/dp/B004AM6TKY/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1402275639&sr=8-11&keywords=hgst+7200+rpm
Ok, found this one - HGST Travelstar - for only $68.99.  It's only 1TB and a 2.5" drive, but does that matter?  Just need an adaptor to fit it in a 3.5" bay, correct?
 
His new total is $1311.34 (plus tax) but it's far better than what we started with in the first post.
 

Couperin47

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Yaz4Ever said:
Ok, found this one - HGST Travelstar - for only $68.99.  It's only 1TB and a 2.5" drive, but does that matter?  Just need an adaptor to fit it in a 3.5" bay, correct?
 
His new total is $1311.34 (plus tax) but it's far better than what we started with in the first post.
 
LOL Travelstars are laptop drives... is that drive 7200 rpm ?
 

Couperin47

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Yaz4Ever said:
Yes - here's the link.  I know it's for laptops/ps3/etc but a cheap adaptor will fit it in the 3.5" bay, no?
OK I was checking, they are silent about warranty, but these also have 3 yrs. Yes an adapter will work fine, just be careful on 2.5 " drives it's easy to break connectors, they assume they will just slide into a slot, not have separate SATA cables plugged into them.
 

JerBear

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If you live near a micro center you can usually get an awesome deal on Intel CPUs. They don't ship them though, you have to pick up in store.
 

SumnerH

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Curll said:
DO NOT GET AN i7!!!! Unless your kid is doing computational astrophysics, it is unjustified even in gaming.
 
Save the money. Invest it in a GPU, get an i5.
DO NOT GET A GPU!!! Unless your kid is into gaming, it's unjustified even in scientific and graphic editing applications.

Save the money. Invest it in an i7, onboard graphics are fine.
 

SumnerH

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Seriously, that advice is very myopic. My new machine is an i7 with onboard graphics. The faster CPU helps with absolutely everything. Unless you're a gamer or into a handful of other applications, the GPU is completely worthless. If you are a gamer it's huge, but it's a terrible general purpose recommendation at the expense of something that is generally useful.

You have to know the user's expectations before making a recommendation, but if you don't the faster CPU is useful to everyone, while the GPU is a pretty niche item (albeit huge in that niche). If you don't know the user's pattern, the advice should be for the part that's more generally useful.
 

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Couperin47 said:
On sale he can get a decent wired keyboard and mouse for under $15 if/when...pocket change....btw when he does... consider a ps2 keyboard, he's going to find that on even the most modern motherboards, sometimes at initial boot, they don't immediately recognize USB devices... this can make hitting DEL or F1 or whatever to get into the Bios problematical when the mb doesn't actually 'see' the keyboard yet... the only simple solution is a PS2 keyboard...a REAL PS2 keyboard...ones that are USB but add a green adapter plug often won't work either....
A lot of modern motherboards don't even come with PS/2 keyboard ports anymore. Anything with UEFI will detect a USB keyboard on boot just fine and allow access to the menu.
 

Couperin47

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Red Sox Physicist said:
A lot of modern motherboards don't even come with PS/2 keyboard ports anymore. Anything with UEFI will detect a USB keyboard on boot just fine and allow access to the menu.
 
The Gigabyte mb he is buying does have a PS2 port as do most current motherboards, a quick check shows Newegg lists 119 Z87 chipset mb, all but 6 (all very high end ASUS) have a PS2 port. The Z97 is Intel's
latest and greatest chipset, Newegg lists 70 boards, a quick check shows exactly 4 omit the PS2 port (3 ASUS and 1 EVGA). Yes, they are trying to phase out that connector, but it hasn't happened yet, and PS2 keyboards never fail to be recognized.
 

Yaz4Ever

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The graphics card, SSD, monitor, power supply, and optical drive (all ordered yesterday with the other items) arrived already.  
 
The motherboard (that's not too important, right :) ) will likely not arrive until next Wednesday, but everything else (case, HDD, keyboard, RAM, OS) should all arrive tomorrow.
 
He's very excited about this build.  Any idea what something like this would've cost him if built by someone else - twice as much?
 

Couperin47

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Yaz4Ever said:
The graphics card, SSD, monitor, power supply, and optical drive (all ordered yesterday with the other items) arrived already.  
 
The motherboard (that's not too important, right :) ) will likely not arrive until next Wednesday, but everything else (case, HDD, keyboard, RAM, OS) should all arrive tomorrow.
 
He's very excited about this build.  Any idea what something like this would've cost him if built by someone else - twice as much?
 
Hard to compare, no one will build that level of box, every prebuilt option uses something distinctly inferior for some part: a mediocre power supply, a case with few features, high end gaming rigs are the only ones to offer that kind of high end video card and those boxes would have run him over $2000 easily.
 
Tips for the build:
 
1. Via some other puter google Memtest 86+ and download this and burn it to a cd.
2. Remind him that static is not a major threat but there is no need to touch the conductive parts, don't touch the underside of the cpu, the bottom of the ram strips etc.
3. If the case comes in in one piece, great, Rosewell cases have a nasty habit of showing up damaged...often Newegg/Rosewill will send a new one without requiring return if it's really munged and you send pix.
4. mount PS in case
5. separately insert CPU, have fun attaching hs/fan (the pins on this will annoy the shit out of you, while doing this don't forget to orient the hs/fan so the fan leads come off in the proper position to easily get to the fan header, many get so frustrated, by the time they finally have it seated correctly, they realize it's set wrong to get those leads to the header...also remember to remove the plastic covering the preapplied hs compound on the heatsink, of course...) insert memory, place this on cardboard or thin plywood atop case on it's side, this will let you attach mb to powersupply: see that it starts and doesn't instantly stop: it will beep because there is no video card. If it runs, now mount in case, insert video card and attach cd/dvd
6. Attach monitor and boot using the memtest86+ cd you burned.
7. I have had bad memory from EVERY major supplier in last 2 years, except Kingston, the memcheck the mb does is superficial, that's what memtest 86+ is for
8. One iteration of all 7 tests on 16 Gig of memory will run over 4 hours, let it do 2 runs, most errors show up in tests 5-7. If you get ANY errors a stick is bad, they are supposed to be a matched set, send them both back for new
ones. If you get 2 clean runs, you're good to go, you can finish the build.
9. Make SURE in the BIOS of 2 things before you go to install Windows: That the mb is recognizing the memory as 1600 Mhz, many will default to lower and you have to use BIOS settings to point to the XMP settings to get the mb to use the 1600 settings. Also make sure the mb is in AHCI mode, NOT IDE for hard drives: only AHCI (and RAID) modes allow the OS to implement the TRIM function which will keep the SSD running at peak efficiency, also if you install Windows under IDE and then switch the BIOS to AHCI, it will NOT boot and while there are hacks to overcome this... you don't want to start off creating issues for yourself.
 

Yaz4Ever

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Couperin47 said:
 
Hard to compare, no one will build that level of box, every prebuilt option uses something distinctly inferior for some part: a mediocre power supply, a case with few features, high end gaming rigs are the only ones to offer that kind of high end video card and those boxes would have run him over $2000 easily.
 
Tips for the build:
 
1. Via some other puter google Memtest 86+ and download this and burn it to a cd.
2. Remind him that static is not a major threat but there is no need to touch the conductive parts, don't touch the underside of the cpu, the bottom of the ram strips etc.
3. If the case comes in in one piece, great, Rosewell cases have a nasty habit of showing up damaged...often Newegg/Rosewill will send a new one without requiring return if it's really munged and you send pix.
4. mount PS in case
5. separately insert CPU, have fun attaching hs/fan (the pins on this will annoy the shit out of you, while doing this don't forget to orient the hs/fan so the fan leads come off in the proper position to easily get to the fan header, many get so frustrated, by the time they finally have it seated correctly, they realize it's set wrong to get those leads to the header...also remember to remove the plastic covering the preapplied hs compound on the heatsink, of course...) insert memory, place this on cardboard or thin plywood atop case on it's side, this will let you attach mb to powersupply: see that it starts and doesn't instantly stop: it will beep because there is no video card. If it runs, now mount in case, insert video card and attach cd/dvd
6. Attach monitor and boot using the memtest86+ cd you burned.
7. I have had bad memory from EVERY major supplier in last 2 years, except Kingston, the memcheck the mb does is supeficial, that's what memtest 86+ is for
8. One iteration of all 7 tests on 16 Gig of memory will run over 4 hours, let it do 2 runs, most errors show up in tests 5-7. If you get ANY errors a stick is bad, they are supposed to be a matched set, send them both back for new
ones. If you get 2 clean runs, you're good to go, you can finish the build.
9. Make SURE in the BIOS of 2 things before you go to install Windows: That the mb is recognizing the memory as 1600 Mhz, many will default to lower and you have to use BIOS settings to point to the XMP settings to get the mb to use the 1600 settings. Also make sure the mb is in AHCI mode, NOT IDE for hard drives: only AHCI (and RAID) modes allow the OS to implement the TRIM function which will keep the SSD running at peak efficiency, also if you install Windows under IDE and then switch the BIOS to AHCI, it will NOT boot and while there are hacks to overcome this... you don't want to start off creating issues for yourself.
Thank you!
 

Yaz4Ever

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All of the parts have arrived and we've assembled the computer.
 
Just attempted to start her up and we seem to be getting intermittent power.  The fans on the power supply, graphics card, and back of case are turning on and off.  The fan on the CPU isn't doing anything.
 
Any ideas on what we screwed up?  I'm assuming a cable is incorrectly connected somewhere, but where?  power supply?  motherboard?
 
I didn't print your instructions, so I didn't follow them precisely with step 5.  The CPU went in smoothly, so we just moved ahead.  I didn't try to power anything up until we installed all components.  Not sure if that affected anything negatively, but figured I'd share it for full disclosure.
 

soxfan80000001

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Feb 11, 2003
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Remove and reinstall the RAM to make sure it's seated properly (only put in 1 stick for now)
Remove the video card and plug the monitor into the onboard video for now.
 

Couperin47

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That's why I always build and test in stages, and sounds like you didn't test the memory. You built it the way all noobs do, and now you get to disassemble and try and find out where you screwed up.
1. remove the video card and disconnect it's additional connector to the PS, you problem is NOT connected to the video card at present.
2. Understand, since you didn't check the memory the way I suggested: with 16 Gig you can have faults on one or both sticks, the machine may wind up booting and acting normally until you start using a lot more memory, at some point when it encounters the bad cells, it will lock up or blue screen and your machine will be unaccountably unreliable all the time. "Experts" will suggest obscure infections and other faults, but it's bad memory, it was inherent from the start, but since you're not willing to listen....
3. If the fan on the cpu is not spinning, the mb is going to shut down almost immediately. NO Intel mb will run unless the cpu fan is operational, the cpu starts to overheat immedately, crowbar circuitry cuts voltage to the cpu, so it can't destroy itself from thermal runaway. Until you have that fan running on a BARE BOARD (which is why I told you to do that prior to an install) you're going nowhere:
 
possible problems: you installed an "extra" standoff in the wrong place and that is shorting to the underside of the mb. You didn't install the secondary 4 or 6 pin power connector from the PS to mb and the mb is not getting enough power to run correctly. Give me the exact model # of the mb you are using.
 

Yaz4Ever

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if I'm understanding you correctly, it's an 8-pin connector and it is plugged in.  This comes directly out of the power supply along with another bundle of wires sheathed in fabric.
 

Yaz4Ever

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Yes, the CX750 has two things hardwired inside - the 8-pin I'm using as mentioned above and the 24(?) pin for the power to the mb.
 
 

Couperin47

Member
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If that connector and the main 20 pin are both seated and your cpu fan isn't running...you have to unmount the mb from the case because something is VERY wrong, generally it's the result of having somehow shorted the mb in some way sorry.. yes those are the 2 things "hard wired' because EVERY modern mb requires those 2...
 

Couperin47

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to test we have to have the mb, OUTSIDE the case, carefully insulated sitting on cardboard or thin plywood (NOTHING plastic or foam) with those 2 connectors attached and the small signal connects so the power switch can turn the mb on...
 
The CPU fan should start immediately if it does not... something is very wrong... if it starts but almost immediately stops that's a sign the hs is not properly mounted, not making good contact with the cpu and it's shutting off because it's overheating. But if the cpu fan never even starts to move, we have a bigger problem.
 

Yaz4Ever

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ok, I've taken everything apart, removed the motherboard from the case and the only things that are plugged in are as shown in the pictures below:
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2l8x3ybxd1cab6m/2014-06-12%2020.57.13.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p6c51aj25hy5qq2/2014-06-12%2020.57.22.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3rytw3a965ta8uy/2014-06-12%2020.57.27.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fyjd5ejut9pz0sp/2014-06-12%2020.57.35.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cn6ea6h6v7z3fq0/2014-06-12%2020.57.40.jpg
 
Same thing is still happening as seen in this short video:
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jlw304gy3oyf366/2014-06-12%2021.04.53.mov
 
I also tried to swap out the RAM, but it's the same thing with either of them installed.
 

Couperin47

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Hmm, the vid was choppy and only allowed me to play twice before it stalled, I'm now downloading it to look more closely but it's going slowly. meanwhile you had the cam poointed at the PS so I didn't see the cpu fan when he turned it on, also when you did pan over I thought i saw the fan blade move slightly, then stop as if it was jammed...does it move freely by hand ?? and dropbox is trickling this to me pathetically
 

Yaz4Ever

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sorry for the dropbox use.  
 
The fan on the CPU starts but moves about 1/8 of an inch before stopping, the whole thing shuts itself down, and repeats.  Trying to power off with the power button on the front of the case doesn't work, so I have to turn it off with the PS switch on the back.
 
the CPU fan does move freely by hand.