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

[jason]

not a fan of onboard graphics - but not too bad!!!

any system that nice for under a grand is an accomplishment!

i personally HATE the dell BT keyboard i have at work here - ALWAYS locks up when im typing and i get the rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrepeated key effect

should fit your needs and then some for the next 8 years lol

congrats!!

[Fastbird]

Well, I'm going to see how the OB Graphics do first, and if the Blu-Ray playback suffers then I'm going to get a compatible Graphics card and do a crossfire setup. That should fix any issues.

[96bluevert]

"CPU -- AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition -- 2.5 gig quad core 125v"

Nice!

AMDs been looked past recently. But it's is still a really good brand (just can't OC it as much).

Hey what's the speed of the HD? jw

Looks like a good system for your first build.

[Fastbird]

7200 RPM. I didn't want to drop the coin for a 10K RPM drive.

[Sinyk]

Is that hard drive the caviar black? Do you have a need for quad core? The new Phenom II's use less power and overclock like champs. I hope you don't run into issues with your motherboard and RAM. I have read many forum posts of people having issues with OCZ ram on gigabyte motherboards.

I just built a new one myself but I've been having too much fun overclocking it and benchmarking it that I haven't bothered installing windows for keeps yet.

My setup:
AMD Phenom II X3 720BE 2.8GHz || Overclock: 3588 MHz @ 1.475v (17.5x205), 2255 CPU-NB @ 1.275v, 2050 HTT, 5-5-5-15-25-2T - 1066 @ 2.1v
Sunbeam CCTF heat sink
G.Skill Pi 2 x 2GB PC8500 5-5-5-15 DDR2
Corsair TX850w PSU
Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P Motherboard
Coolermaster Centurion 534 Case
Galaxy GeForce 8800GTS 512MB 740/1041 Graphics Card
Soundblaster Audigy2 ZS
WD WD6401AALS 640GB x2 Raid-0 (short stroked 40GB) and Seagate-320GB
LiteOn 16x DVD+RW
LG L203WT 20.1" LCD
Panasonic TH46PZ800U HDTV (not really part of the computer, but still hooked up to it!)


Computer pics: http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x236/Si...d/Phenom%20Rig/

And THIS is a heat sink:




You will learn a lot by building your own system. I have been doing it for 11 years and it's still an adventure every time! Enjoy it!

[Fastbird]

The HD is the Caviar Black. Yes, doing video editing I anticipate using the quad core. That and the Blu-Ray will tax it a bit too. I'm keeping my fingers crossed about the memory vs. gigabyte because I found out a little too late about the compatibility issues. I was actually looking at a heat sink like yours but this is a mATX build and that Ultra X-Wind was known to fit the case and work quite well given the lack of airflow space.

I just got it put back together, pretty happy with how the wiring turned out. Don't know if I'll fire it up and start loading tonight or not yet, just got done cleaning up all the extra crapola from the boxes, ect.

[LewFX]

whered you get your parts and how much, i love newegg for the prices and fast shipping.

[Fastbird]

whered you get your parts and how much, i love newegg for the prices and fast shipping.

Everything came from New Egg except the Case, Memory, Heatsink/Fan, thermal paste, and card reader. Tiger Direct was the winnah there!

I'm almost scared to fire it up.

[lagos]

dont worry, you cant damage anything, even if you make a mistake. its all pretty easy to do.
the only tricky part is having good trouble shooting skills if the system doesnt want to boot up because the ram isnt seated correctly or something like that.

In the future, look for mother boards without onboard video. The ones with built in vid are mostly for the consumer market and will sometimes lack the more advanced tweaking and overclocking features.

after you build the system and install the OS, look around for some stress test apps. running a few instances of something like Prime95 (google it) or other stress apps, and leaving them running over night will help you figure out if you have a nice and stable system, or if you have to tweak the memory timings or voltages to help smooth things out.

other than that, good job! Now go install Linux on it like the rest of us geeks !

[Bitter]

get a better PSU, the ones that come with cases are not very good usually.

[Fastbird]

Here's a couple of pics of the parts:


The Box:


All put together as neat as I could do for a first timer:

[Fastbird]

dont worry, you cant damage anything, even if you make a mistake. its all pretty easy to do.
the only tricky part is having good trouble shooting skills if the system doesnt want to boot up because the ram isnt seated correctly or something like that.

In the future, look for mother boards without onboard video. The ones with built in vid are mostly for the consumer market and will sometimes lack the more advanced tweaking and overclocking features.

after you build the system and install the OS, look around for some stress test apps. running a few instances of something like Prime95 (google it) or other stress apps, and leaving them running over night will help you figure out if you have a nice and stable system, or if you have to tweak the memory timings or voltages to help smooth things out.

other than that, good job! Now go install Linux on it like the rest of us geeks !

One of my settling points on the Gigabyte was the fact that they're very tweakable. Good info on the test apps Art, I'll check those out. We'll see how my trouble shooting skills are when I fire it up though because I doubt the windows slipstream I did will work. No Linux for me though, I'm not that advanced and I like my programs and don't know what works on linux vs. windows.

get a better PSU, the ones that come with cases are not very good usually.

This is actually a quality piece. It's a 600w XVS modular and came with array of the modular cables. I think I'm only using two of the six ports on it right now.

[MercuryFree]

Well, I'm going to see how the OB Graphics do first, and if the Blu-Ray playback suffers then I'm going to get a compatible Graphics card and do a crossfire setup. That should fix any issues.

The graphics card doesn't do the blu-ray decoding unless it's a certain type and if you set it up like that, so you'll be running it off of your quad core instead. Which should handle it no worries if my 2 year old q6600 can do it fine . Although if it's anything like the 9400gt we have in our media pc here, the 3200 built in to your motherboard would be capable of offloading it (basing this on the fact that most mobos are bundled with 9400's, not too up with the ATi side of things at present)

get a better PSU, the ones that come with cases are not very good usually.

Generally true, but afaik Ultra PSU's are well regarded.

This post has been edited by MercuryFree: Jun 5, 2009 - 10:44 PM

[Fastbird]

Amazing.......I get one computer built, and now my wife's laptop is torn down to the mobo. It's a HP DV1000 that's got a recurring issue with the diode at PL1 frying. I"m going to try to fix it again but I think it's time for a new mobo (for $100 or so, but I can upgrade from a 1.3 to a 2.0 Pentium M for $40 at the same time). It's ALWAYS something.

I never fired the new computer tonight. My buddy stopped by to pick over some things on the vette for a while, so I got distracted with my "real" hobby.

[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.

[Galcobar]

35A isn't bad for a 12V rail, if it's a multi-rail system. Cheaper to make, and not an issue if you're running components whose individual draws aren't that great.

That said, I like my EliteXStream with its single 60A 12V rail for the flexibility, but when I originally built this computer I had a 700W GameXStream with multiple rails and it managed the draw from my 8800 GTS 640MB just fine -- at least until I returned it due to the fan developing a whine. The trick is of course to ensure that you're not overloading one rail and underusing the others. Some PSUs are good enough to have the side label tell you what connectors are on what rail; it helps when the manufacturer puts high-draw connectors such as two PCI-E on separate rails.

Edit: Just looked up the Ultra XVS and it turns out my comments don't apply; it is a single 12V rail. That's unfortunate, as it limits your video card choices should you need to pursue that route. From what I can find, an HD 4850 requires 21A for a single card.

This post has been edited by Galcobar: Jun 6, 2009 - 2:52 AM

[Bitter]

wow, tiny tiny case!

i prefer large roomy cases like my coolermaster stacker 810 means i can also fit large coolers for overclocking and large video cards and have alot of airflow, etc etc.

you should seriously consider getting some air moving past that hard drive, just a little airflow lowers that caviar's temp by about 10c which can greatly greatly extend the life of the drive. i have a pair of the 640 AALS in RAID0, they run only a few C over ambient with a 120mm fan blowing through the HDD holder in the case, without the fan just setting in open air (was formatting them) they are about 15-18C above ambient temp.

[Fastbird]

35A isn't bad for a 12V rail, if it's a multi-rail system. Cheaper to make, and not an issue if you're running components whose individual draws aren't that great.

That said, I like my EliteXStream with its single 60A 12V rail for the flexibility, but when I originally built this computer I had a 700W GameXStream with multiple rails and it managed the draw from my 8800 GTS 640MB just fine -- at least until I returned it due to the fan developing a whine. The trick is of course to ensure that you're not overloading one rail and underusing the others. Some PSUs are good enough to have the side label tell you what connectors are on what rail; it helps when the manufacturer puts high-draw connectors such as two PCI-E on separate rails.

Edit: Just looked up the Ultra XVS and it turns out my comments don't apply; it is a single 12V rail. That's unfortunate, as it limits your video card choices should you need to pursue that route. From what I can find, an HD 4850 requires 21A for a single card.

You guys are talking geek to me with the "rails" and such. That's new info to me. I'm an amateur builder here, this was a tinkering endeavour to put a new setup together.

wow, tiny tiny case!

i prefer large roomy cases like my coolermaster stacker 810 means i can also fit large coolers for overclocking and large video cards and have alot of airflow, etc etc.

you should seriously consider getting some air moving past that hard drive, just a little airflow lowers that caviar's temp by about 10c which can greatly greatly extend the life of the drive. i have a pair of the 640 AALS in RAID0, they run only a few C over ambient with a 120mm fan blowing through the HDD holder in the case, without the fan just setting in open air (was formatting them) they are about 15-18C above ambient temp.

I hate huge cases. I know they're good for cooling and working on, but I don't need one. I'm going to keep an eye on temps and if I can't keep them reasonably under control, I"ll mod the sides of the case for a fan in each.

[Galcobar]

Roughly, think of a rail as a circuit in your house. A circuit can only handle so much current, so you can only plug so many lamps, appliances, etc into one -- this is why using power bars to hook a couple dozen devices to one outlet is a bad idea.

Multi-rail power supplies means multiple circuits. For instance, my old GameXStream was a four-rail PSU at 18A each on the 12V (big drain devices need 12V) rails. If I ran two video cards, I'd want them on separate rails since their combined draw is greater than one little rail can handle. On the other hand, my current EliteXStream has one 12V rail capable of handling 62A; if this were a house circuit, every device in my entire home can be plugged into one outlet.