My new computer build commencing tomorrow

[Ilmiont]

Hi guys,

 

Tomorrow I am finally going to be building my first computer! Here are the specs so far if anyone is interested...

 

Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88X Extreme4+

CPU: AMD A10-7850K

Case: Corsair Carbide 200R

PSU: Corsair CX500M

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 1600MHz 8Gb (2x4Gb)

SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 120Gb

HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE 320Gb

ODD: Samsung-Toshiba TS-H653

Wi-Fi adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800

 

All of the above is bought new except for the HDD and the ODD which are both salvaged from an old computer.

I will be using the processor's integrated Radeon R7 graphics for a few months until I can buy a dedicated card - hopefully a Radeon R9 270X or Radeon R9 290X to CrossFire with the processor.

My immediate upgrade plans are to get some more fans (Corsair AirFlo LED) and an NZXT Sentry 3 fan controller. The case only comes with 2 120mm (1 intake, 1 exhaust) made by Corsair but I am going to put 2 140mm blue LED on top and 2 140mm blue LED on side, 2 120mm red LED in front as exhausts and then probably a white 140mm at the bottom to illuminate the inside in a clear light and either a white or purple 120mm exhaust.

Beyond that I will be looking to upgrade the CPU cooler, add another 8Gb of Ballistix Sport 1600MHz to give myself 16Gb RAM and, of course, add the graphics card mentioned above.

I think it should be pretty nice for my needs as it is, however, although I am a little dubious of the two supplied case fans - anyway, I'll get more of them at the end of the month with a Sentry 3 fan controller.

The SSD would ideally be larger but I only bought that today (Amazon Express delivery for tomorrow!) as Amazon slashed the price right down so as a pleasant surprise I could buy it.

The OS will be Windows 8.1 Pro, transferred from my retail license on my laptop.

I will be using an AOC e2050Sn monitor... its only 20" and 1600x900 and is also on my "Upgrade soon" list... at least the A10 will have no problems powering it on its own! The one thing I really like are my peripherals: a CoolerMaster CM Storm Recon mouse and Cherry Infinity KM300 keyboard picked up from Gadget Show Live last year at bargain prices.

I will let you know how I get on and how it is running once it is built tomorrow - awaiting Amazon delivery of the SSD, promised by 1pm tomorrow!

 

Thanks if you bothered to read this,

Ilmiont

[spacer]

Congratulations on building your first computer! It's fun to put it together yourself, and so satisfying when everything is done and working.

 

Don't go frying your mobo now! Ground yourself!

[Ilmiont]

Don't go frying your mobo now! Ground yourself!

Haha. I'll be careful. I'm well aware of the risks... I'll keep touching the case and, of course, only hold components by the edges... I'm going to connect the power supply to the mains too and leave the switch off as recommended by some people.

[Andre S. Veteran]

The integrated GPU would have benefited from faster RAM. At least don't forget to apply the profile in the BIOS like I initially did with my Trinity build last year. :P

[T3X4S]

I just saw Corsair is about to release their AX 1500i flagship PSU for $450 -   I think you need to get that  ;)

 

 

You mention going up to 16GB  - why ?

Are you planning on running VMs or a RAMdrive?

[Boo Berry]

Uhhh, why recommend a 1500w PSU for that build?!? That's SERIOUSLY overkill for a system like he's building - that's more suited for powering 4 Titan Blacks or 2 295X2s with a custom water loop!

[gohpep]

Uhhh, why recommend a 1500w PSU for that build?!? That's SERIOUSLY overkill for a system like he's building - that's more suited for powering 4 Titan Blacks or 2 295X2s with a custom water loop!

Maybe he's joking?

[Ilmiont]

I just saw Corsair is about to release their AX 1500i flagship PSU for $450 -   I think you need to get that  ;)

 

 

img_9378.jpg

You mention going up to 16GB  - why ?

Are you planning on running VMs or a RAMdrive?

Hmmmmmmmm I think 500W is more suited to my needs right now... maybe at some point in the future I'll get that <wishful thinking>. To be honest though I don't understand why flagship PSUs are modular down even to the 24pin and 8pin 12V ATX connectors... you are going to need them so why make them modular? That is Corsair's thinking on my CX500M... all is modular except 24pin/8pin ATX connectors. Then you have a lead with 3 sata, a lead with 2 sata, a lead with 2 pcie (pleasant surprise, I only thought it had one) and a lead with 4 molex and a floppy dangling on the end. Only one I need so far is the 3 satas.... SSD, HDD, ODD.

 

Regarding the RAM... well, I run Visual Studio Ultimate 2012 and think it could benefit from it but I guess I'll see... up until later today my only machine will have been a Compaq Intel Pentium B950 laptop with 4Gb RAM... Visual Studio is noticeably slow in operation - even dropping a menu down takes time if you haven't already done it and loaded it into RAM... which pushes something else out and slows down another area of the IDE.

[Ilmiont]

Uhhh, why recommend a 1500w PSU for that build?!? That's SERIOUSLY overkill for a system like he's building

 

Haha loving the subtle reference to the fact that it is a budget build... I am well aware of that but it is the best I can afford and I'm happy with it... total cost not including P&P and other 'extras' I bought -- anti static stuff etc -- is around ?410.

I don't think many people will call it a budget build once I get the R9 in there in a few months after saving a bit though... total cost will be nigh on ?600 then and it should perform fine in anything I task it with... for what I do I don't really need an immensly powerful system. Doesn't mean I don't want one though... its my hobby all this stuff and I will keep upgrading and building this 'rig' for years properly. Its a never-ending project in my opinion.

Right now I'm just hoping that Amazon's "guarantee" of the SSD getting here today on 1 day delivery will actually happen....

And that I don't bend a pin dropping the A10 into the socket later :)

[T3X4S]

Uhhh, why recommend a 1500w PSU for that build?!? That's SERIOUSLY overkill for a system like he's building - that's more suited for powering 4 Titan Blacks or 2 295X2s with a custom water loop!

I guess its kinda hard to read sarcasm, as mastercoms was so dubious to point out - it was a joke.

Why on earth would I recommend a $450 PSU to someone that barely spent that on all the other components ?

 

Maybe he's joking?

Exactly

[binaryzero]

I remember building my first 386  :s .

 

Good luck.

[leesmithg]

Hi guys,

 

Tomorrow I am finally going to be building my first computer! Here are the specs so far if anyone is interested...

 

Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88X Extreme4+

CPU: AMD A10-7850K

Case: Corsair Carbide 200R

PSU: Corsair CX500M

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 1600MHz 8Gb (2x4Gb)

SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 120Gb

HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE 320Gb

ODD: Samsung-Toshiba TS-H653

Wi-Fi adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800

 

All of the above is bought new except for the HDD and the ODD which are both salvaged from an old computer.

I will be using the processor's integrated Radeon R7 graphics for a few months until I can buy a dedicated card - hopefully a Radeon R9 270X or Radeon R9 290X to CrossFire with the processor.

My immediate upgrade plans are to get some more fans (Corsair AirFlo LED) and an NZXT Sentry 3 fan controller. The case only comes with 2 120mm (1 intake, 1 exhaust) made by Corsair but I am going to put 2 140mm blue LED on top and 2 140mm blue LED on side, 2 120mm red LED in front as exhausts and then probably a white 140mm at the bottom to illuminate the inside in a clear light and either a white or purple 120mm exhaust.

Beyond that I will be looking to upgrade the CPU cooler, add another 8Gb of Ballistix Sport 1600MHz to give myself 16Gb RAM and, of course, add the graphics card mentioned above.

I think it should be pretty nice for my needs as it is, however, although I am a little dubious of the two supplied case fans - anyway, I'll get more of them at the end of the month with a Sentry 3 fan controller.

The SSD would ideally be larger but I only bought that today (Amazon Express delivery for tomorrow!) as Amazon slashed the price right down so as a pleasant surprise I could buy it.

The OS will be Windows 8.1 Pro, transferred from my retail license on my laptop.

I will be using an AOC e2050Sn monitor... its only 20" and 1600x900 and is also on my "Upgrade soon" list... at least the A10 will have no problems powering it on its own! The one thing I really like are my peripherals: a CoolerMaster CM Storm Recon mouse and Cherry Infinity KM300 keyboard picked up from Gadget Show Live last year at bargain prices.

I will let you know how I get on and how it is running once it is built tomorrow - awaiting Amazon delivery of the SSD, promised by 1pm tomorrow!

 

Thanks if you bothered to read this,

Ilmiont

Will this PC be for browsing the internet and really nothing else?

[Raa]

Good choice on the storage, at least. :)

[Ilmiont]

Well guys I just finished building this, um, build...

 

Everything has gone perfectly! The 200R is a great case to build in... loads of space, lots of light everywhere inside to see what you're doing and loads of cutouts and holes for cable routing... all in all it looks pretty tidy inside and, more importantly, works!

Time to configure the UEFI and then get Windws installed... using a 8.1 installer with a KMS key and then use change product key once installed to put in my 8.0 key.

 

I'll let you know how it performs once an OS is installed.

[DaveGreen93]

To be honest though I don't understand why flagship PSUs are modular down even to the 24pin and 8pin 12V ATX connectors... you are going to need them so why make them modular? That is Corsair's thinking on my CX500M... all is modular except 24pin/8pin ATX connectors.

 

Some people like to use custom cables, rather than the stock ones included with the PSU :)

[CG-88]

Some people like to use custom cables, rather than the stock ones included with the PSU :)

 

Exactly correct. Colours, styles etc, there will always be people wanting to customise which is perfectly understandable :)

 

My PSU came with the 24pin connector and the 8pin mobo connectors non modular which is a pity, but my current build was the first one I have done in almost....4 years I think so there is room to learn. I am already starting to replace parts for better and more customisation such as PSU/Coolers and Case. Main hardware is fine though.

 

To the OP, congratulations on your first build. It really is an awesome feeling when you first power on your computer and everything works first time, fans whir up, lovely sound of no post errors :)

 

Any question, this is the correct forum to ask them, so many knowledgeable people who at one point were in the same position as you :)

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

My PSU came with the 24pin connector and the 8pin mobo connectors non modular which is a pity, but my current build was the first one I have done in almost....4 years I think so there is room to learn. I am already starting to replace parts for better and more customisation such as PSU/Coolers and Case. Main hardware is fine though.

 

When are you ever not going to use those 2 cords? I just call that silly.

[Ilmiont]

 

To the OP, congratulations on your first build. It really is an awesome feeling when you first power on your computer and everything works first time, fans whir up, lovely sound of no post errors :)

Well it went as perfectly as you could hope for in my opinion. Everything was fine, got the cables nice and neat, booted into the UEFI as soon as the power button was pressed for the first time! Actually although I say perfectly there was one small non-critical issue on my part... this lunchtime I noticed finally that the HDD activity LED wasn't doing anything... turned out I had the connector in the wrong way round :)

[typu]

AMD cpu? is that a good choice nowadays? i chose a i7 back then and never regret it (i7-3770k @3.5ghz)

[CG-88]

When are you ever not going to use those 2 cords? I just call that silly.

 

 

I know but as a few people mentioned, people like to customise their cables with different coloured ones etc so I can see the appeal of getting a PSU that has the option for replacing those two cables, even though every computer needs them. And looking through a few project builds on the overclockers forum, a few people actually remove these cables to replace the wire surrounds for colours that suit their project and the only way they can do this is with them being modular.

 

For me, im not 100% committed to getting a fully modular PSU just to have fancy cables everything else I want to do can come first.

 

Well it went as perfectly as you could hope for in my opinion. Everything was fine, got the cables nice and neat, booted into the UEFI as soon as the power button was pressed for the first time! Actually although I say perfectly there was one small non-critical issue on my part... this lunchtime I noticed finally that the HDD activity LED wasn't doing anything... turned out I had the connector in the wrong way round :)

 

Awesome :D that's good to hear. And I actually did the exact same thing with my HDD activity LED. haha

[sinetheo]

Why bother with an ATi 7850 APU? It's performance rivals a Pentium IV but with mediocre graphs.

 

An i3 would be much much faster or an I5 even better.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Why bother with an ATi 7850 APU? It's performance rivals a Pentium IV but with mediocre graphs.

 

An i3 would be much much faster or an I5 even better.

 

You want to back up this information? No benchmarks I can find are showing me this.

[sinetheo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructions_per_second

 

AMD E350 which is based upon is 10,000 mips. A new i5 is 70,000 mips

[Andre S. Veteran]

Why bother with an ATi 7850 APU? It's performance rivals a Pentium IV but with mediocre graphs.

 

An i3 would be much much faster or an I5 even better.

Please don't spread nonsense. Each core of an A10 7850K is way faster than a Pentium 4, the A10 has 4 of them, and the A10 has unrivaled integrated graphics.

 

Anyway, it's pointless to make recommendations at this point because the parts were already chosen and the build already made.

[binaryzero]

Well it went as perfectly as you could hope for in my opinion. Everything was fine, got the cables nice and neat, booted into the UEFI as soon as the power button was pressed for the first time! Actually although I say perfectly there was one small non-critical issue on my part... this lunchtime I noticed finally that the HDD activity LED wasn't doing anything... turned out I had the connector in the wrong way round :)

 

Good stuff buddy. I remember the feeling of satisfaction when I built my first box and worked first time. 

 

And for those who are questioning his build - so what? Judging by his profile he's 15. I don't expect him to be super cashed up, so for his first build I think he's done alright. I'm sure he'll improve next time.