Building a Computer

[Rem-13]

I have only done a few small upgrades on my computers before now (Ram, Video Card, Hard-drive) so I'm pretty ignorant in this arena.

I've been pounding my face into my computer screen for a week and have come up with this;



So, like, is this good? Am I missing something painfully obvious? Any particularly good step-bys to help me through the assembly?

Also the old question, Nvidia or Radeon? I haven't kept up in the past few years.

[Blue]

Looks good to me. Then again, I just bought a Dell laptop for about a grand, after military discount.

[Jonathan Meer]

I'm not an expert.

But 5400 RPM on a desktop hard drive is low-end (I'm assuming this is a gaming rig?). If you're planning on getting a solid-state drive for your games (ideal, as I understand), then it'd be fine, but if you want to run games off it, you're better off going for the 7200 RPM [EDIT:] which is pretty much the desktop standard.

EDIT2: What are your plans for OS?

[Rem-13]

Windows 7 x64


I'll look around on hard drives a bit more. 2TB for 90 bucks just sounded really nice.

[Jonathan Meer]

Do you already have Windows 7, or is that something you'll be purchasing extra?

If you're going to be purchasing it extra, getting a pre-made is more cost-effective.

[Rem-13]

Nah, I'm good on the OS front.

[Waffuru]

Not a huge difference in read/write times on the 5400 vs the 7200 with a big cache (at least 8mb on a 2TB I hope) on the drives now. Get the most amount of memory you can in the slowest supported speed (probably DDR3 800?) because the speed benefit in way faster memory just isn't there. You pay a lot for faster memory that doesn't mean much in anything and means zero in games. If you are running CAD then maybe. I'll run over the specs a bit closer once I've slept but it looks pretty good ATM.

[Waffuru]

Early, since apparently I don't sleep but I digress.

First thing I'd suggest to grab is one of these (if you don't have one); http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6899261005. It's a tiny investment to protect a much larger one, static damage doesn't happen often (touch your case or something grounded before you handle any sensitive electronics) but you'd feel like a huge ass if you broke something because of it.

Hard drive: If you are going to be only running a single hard drive, that one is a great drive (I have the 1TB version in this machine) and it has enough space for most people. If you were to get one, a solid state drive should really be used to load your operating system. Your most commonly used files will most benefit from the increased transfer speed.

Memory: The speeds are a memory industry myth tbh. In all the tests I've ever seen the best memory gets you fractions of seconds benefit over the slower stuff. That's why I suggest getting the most GB you can at a speed your motherboard will support. It looks like what you've got is the cheapest 4GB set but if you have more money to move around in it then look at different speeds for more RAM. Looks like the move to 8GB is $79 and 16GB is $199 (only using 2DIMMS because that's what you have... you also have the option to run 4 sticks though).

Mobo: as long as it has enough USB for you and fits into what you wanna do... MSI is a good brand, I've used them before.

PSU: Antec is my go to brand, and 620W is easily enough for this build.

Sound Card: fyi, your motherboard has built in sound... so this isn't REQUIRED, but if you want better sound (and have good speakers) then by all means. But it could also wait and become an upgrade if you feel it is needed.

Processor: AMD isn't my area but this is probably best bang for your buck. The only real upgrade to be had is the $199 3.2ghz Hexacore version.

Heatsink? Stock heatsinks are usually just fine (though I have not seen this generation AMD heatsink) but I always like to get one that is a bit more robust, especially if you want to try any overclocking. You'd need to get some Arctic Silver, which is a synthetic silver used to transfer heat (might be worth buying anyways, the thermal paste included usually blows dix, this change alone can drop temps by 3-4C) or some nicer heatsinks come with it. Best noise/cool ability is the Noctua NH-D14, which is also the heatsink I am planning to get for my Sandy Bridge build. Sadly, it will run you $90, so it might not be an option here.

It seems to be just fine to me, the guide I originally used when I built my first computer is probably horribly dated and I can't find it on the internet anymore anyways but it's pretty damn simple. I am happy to help if need.

[Rem-13]

Sound card was definitely something I wasn't sure about, and the PSU. Very informative thank you.

[Waffuru]

Let me know if you need more help.

[Rem-13]

Halp!

I put everything together to the best of my abilities but I'm not getting anything in the way of power. No fans whirring no lights on the mobo, nothing. I tried plugging just the PSU in to the wall and turning it on, no activity, though I have no idea if that means anything.

Any methods for troubleshooting? Its hard to tell if the power supply was just DOA or if I screwed anything up seeing as its my first time.

[Vad]

Did you put the spacer screws between the case and motherboard?

[Kole T. Merr]

Did you flip the little switch on the power supply to | instead of O?

[Belle Hibiki]

Did you flip the little switch on the power supply to | instead of O?

I've failed at this before.

Boy was my face red.

[Waffuru]

I tried plugging just the PSU in to the wall and turning it on, no activity, though I have no idea if that means anything.

That means nothing.

[Rem-13]

Thanks for the help, I have limited freetime to dive in and take cracks at it.


There's an eight pin socket and I have no eight pin cords, just one with two four pins, I plugged the four pin in there but no dice. Do I have to get an adapter? The internet is divisive on the issue.

[Waffuru]

You should be able to plug the 4 pin into the 4 pins nearest the CPU (shouldn't fit in any other way) but an adapter would be better.

edit, what motherboard did you end up with? Because looking at the 870A-G54 there is only a 4-pin CPU connector.

[Rem-13]

[Spoiler][/spoiler]

This right here. I can plug one of the 4 pins in but not both due to spacing. It doesn't fix the issue when I do, so maybe its just incidental.

[Waffuru]

I think you should be able to boot with just the 4 pins on the left side of it. The side next to the chip labeled '1R1'. The optional pins should have had a cover over them.

Also, looks like your RAM is in slots 3&4. You should fill the black slots (on this motherboard) before the blue ones.

Are you getting any lights on the motherboard when it's plugged in? I think there should be some on the edge by the DIMMs there. (Page 2-23 in the manual)

Kinda looks like you might've missed a screw on top there. But unless that's causing a short, shouldn't prevent you from booting.