Just started assembling my first computer build last night...., Critiques and tips welcome Options

[Fastbird]

Pretty cool. I haven't ever built one from scratch before, though I've swapped cards and what not. It was a little confusing at first with getting all the wire pinout confirmations, but after that I got into a groove and moved pretty good. I've been wanting to do this for a LONG time and got the push with the kid on the way, figured I wouldn't have time or money to do it anytime soon.

Here's the system overview:

Case -- Ultra Microfly BX6 -- came with a Ultra modular 600 watt power supply -- 2x front USB 1 x front Firewire, 2 5.25 bay, 1 3.5 bay, front CPU temp display
CPU -- AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition -- 2.5 gig quad core 125v
Motherboard -- Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H -- This is a SWEET mobo. HDMI, HDCP compliant, great onboard graphics and sound, copper jacketed, expandable like a mofo
HDD -- Westerd Digital Caviar Black 750GB 32mb Cache SATA
Optical Drive -- LG Black Blu-Ray/HD DVD Drive, DVD/CD Burner, litescribe, SATA
Fan/Heatsink -- Ultra X-Wind 120mm copper (used OCZ Freeze paste)
Memory -- OCZ Platinum DDR2 Dual Channel, 4 Gigs (2 x 2 gig), PC6400 (800 mhz), 4-4-3-15 timings
Card Reader, internal, 3.5" bay -- PowerUp AIO USB 2.0, black
Monitor -- ASUS VH242H 24" (23.6 actually) 1920x1080, full HD

Just putting it together currently. Made a slipstream XP SP3/SATA Driver included installation disk last night, even with SP3 cut out a bunch of stuff and got the install down to 356MB (haven't installed yet, not planning on success first shot). Going to get a bluetooth keyboard w/integrated mouse (Logitech diNovo Edge -- pricey but AWESOME) and a 5.25" bay storage box (most awesome idea ever) in the near future. Down the road will add a larger HDD for archiving.

Point of the rig? My Dimension 8100, circa 2001 w/ a P4 1.3, 768K Rambus RAM, is on it's last legs. Need a new desktop for storage, and wanted the power for photo/video editing. That, and with a newborn joining the house in a couple of months, I'll be upstairs more and wanted something to watch hulu/blu ray's on in the office next to the nursery.

Anyway, just bragging a little because I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. Never built one before, and by compiling parts over the last four months (save for case that I bought 1.5 years ago) the financial impact is minimal. I have a grand total of $800 in it so far.

So....thoughts, critiques, suggestions?

This post has been edited by Fastbird: Jun 5, 2009 - 2:46 PM

[Sinyk]

I can't read it clearly, but does that 600w PSU you have say it has a 35A 12V rail on it? That's pretty small. A Corsair 650W has a 52A rail.

I didn't look at the case ahead of time to see that it was a small case. I understand about the heatsink now.

As for stress testing apps, there's a bunch you can look into. Prime95 is a good one that can test multiple cores. SuperPi isn't bad, but you have to run multiple instances of it to max out your CPU. SiSoft Sandra has a plethora of tests you can run on your CPU, memory, Hard drive, etc. 3Dmark06 is a good gaming benchmark. PCMark05 is also a good one. If you are running vista, you can try the 30Mark Vantage or PCMark Vantage. There's other stress testers out there, but you don't have to try and run all of them to see if you are stable. I usually stick to prime95. my system overclocked was stable for 10+ hours so I think I am fine. some people would consider 24 hours up to a week a sign of stability, but my computer isn't on 24/7 and running at 100% anyways.

[MercuryFree]

I can't read it clearly, but does that 600w PSU you have say it has a 35A 12V rail on it? That's pretty small. A Corsair 650W has a 52A rail.

I didn't look at the case ahead of time to see that it was a small case. I understand about the heatsink now.

I'm running a core 2 quad system, overclocked, with 4gb of ram, 3 hard drives and an 8800gts 640mb on a 500W enermax liberty with a single 32A 12v rail from 2005. Have NEVER had it kerplode on me. People with 700W+ power supplies without multi-gpu are wasting their money.

He'll be fine methinks.

This was my newbishness showing big time. There was an extra integrated cable on the PSU, what looked to be an 8 pin. I discounted it thinking it was redundant and my 24 pin was all that was needed. Upon closer inspection, the 8 pin was actually two connected 4 pins, and I hadn't connected the CPU power connector by the processor.

lol my mate just built his first computer a fortnight ago and did the same thing. Lucky I was there to help or he'd have been pretty sad!

This post has been edited by MercuryFree: Jun 8, 2009 - 4:30 AM

[Sinyk]

I can't read it clearly, but does that 600w PSU you have say it has a 35A 12V rail on it? That's pretty small. A Corsair 650W has a 52A rail.

I didn't look at the case ahead of time to see that it was a small case. I understand about the heatsink now.

I'm running a core 2 quad system, overclocked, with 4gb of ram, 3 hard drives and an 8800gts 640mb on a 500W enermax liberty with a single 32A 12v rail from 2005. Have NEVER had it kerplode on me. People with 700W+ power supplies without multi-gpu are wasting their money.

No actually it's not a waste of money. It is quite beneficial in a couple ways. One is that you are not taxing your PSU at near 100% capacity all the time which helps to reduce heat generated as well as stresses the PSU components. Most PSU's are also more efficient when not running at 100% load, so if your PSU is rated as an 82+ or an 80 Plus, you may want to see where it runs most efficiently because I'm sure it won't be at 90-100% capacity.

Also, I would be much more comfortable running an Enermax (quality brand) closer to 100% load than some PSUs that comes pre-packaged in cases.

Two is that you have upgrading headroom. You may not have multiple GPU's when you build the system, but that doesn't mean you won't have multiple later on. Or what if you decide to upgrade a year or two down the road? That's one less part that you will have to replace.

Also, having a single rail PSU is a better idea than a multi-rail PSU as it is easier to manage the power load and there are no potential losses. Here's a little info about multi-rail PSU's from the PCPC website:

8. ARE MULTIPLE 12-VOLT RAILS BETTER THAN A SINGLE 12-VOLT RAIL?

With all the hype about multiple 12-volt rails (ads claim that two rails is better than one, five is better than four, etc.), you'd think it was a better design. Unfortunately, it's not!

Here are the facts: A large, single 12-volt rail (without a 240VA limit) can transfer 100% of the 12-volt output from the PSU to the computer, while a multi-rail 12-volt design has distribution losses of up to 30% of the power supply's rating. Those losses occur because power literally gets "trapped" on under-utilized rails. For example, if the 12-volt rail that powers the CPU is rated for 17 amps and the CPU only uses 7A, the remaining 10A is unusable, since it is isolated from the rest of the system.

As for Seagate, they had some firmware issues with their 7200.11 series of 1TB hard drives. Those issues have since been resolved and their 7200.12 series work just fine. They actually have denser platters than the 7200.11 series offering better performance. I have been a longtime user of Seagate HDDs and I still find them to be some of the quietest drives you can get. I went WD because of the performance but they are definitely louder than my other 4 Seagates.

This post has been edited by Sinyk: Jun 9, 2009 - 12:34 PM