Building a new PC

writhziden

writhziden

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My old PC is now four years old, and the motherboard I used in it has caused me too many problems over the years. My USB ports yet again sent the system into a weird power state that required a hard shut down and the PSU to be turned off/on to reset. PSU checks out fine, and I have been connected to a high-end UPS to ensure clean power: Amazon.com: Tripp Lite 1500VA UPS Back Up, AVR, LCD Display, 10 Outlets, 120V 900W, Tel & Coax Protection, USB (SMART1500LCDT): Home Audio & Theater

Here is my planned build:

Amazon.com: GIGABYTE GA-Z270MX-Gaming 5 LGA1151 Intel Z270 2-Way SLI Micro ATX DDR4 Motherboard: Electronics

Amazon.com: Intel 7th Gen Intel Core Desktop Processor i7-7700K (BX80677I77700K): Electronics

Amazon.com: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz C16 Desktop Memory Kit - Black (CMK16GX4M2A2400C16): Computers & Accessories

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 AMP Edition, ZT-P10600B-10M, 6GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Dual-link DVI, Display Port, HDMI IceStorm Cooling Gaming Graphics Card

Crucial MX100 512GB SATA 2.5-Inch 7mm Internal Solid State Drive with 9.5mm Adapter

Samsung 850 EVO 1TB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E1T0B/AM)

HAUPPAUGE WinTV-quadHD PCI Express TV Tuner Card 1609

LG Electronics 12x SATA Blu-Ray Disc Combo Internal Drive with 3D Playback and M-DISC (Black) UH12NS29 ​

Only the first three items are new. The rest I am moving from my current system. The prices on some of those items have gone up astronomically since I purchased them, especially the GTX 1060 card.


Any concerns?
 
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Do make sure the CPU and RAM with the same specs are listed on the QVL for the motherboard.

I don't see an OS. New computers need new licenses. The only exception is full retail licenses can legally be transferred, as long as previous installations are removed. So, if you bought an OEM/System Builders license (by far, the most common) for your old system, you cannot legally transfer it to this new one. And that includes W10 if you upgraded to W10 based on the old qualifying OEM license.

That K version CPU does not come with an OEM cooler.

I don't see a PSU. I recommend using the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator to determine your minimum and recommended power supply unit (PSU) requirements. Plan ahead and plug in all the hardware you think you might have in 2 or 3 years. This might include extra hard drives, a bigger or 2nd video card, more RAM, etc. I recommend setting Computer Utilization to 16 hours per day and CPU Utilization to 100%. These steps adjust for capacitor aging and ensure the supply has adequate head room for stress free (and perhaps quieter) operation. These steps also add a little buffer for unplanned future upgrades or added hardware demands.

Note that all power supply calculators tend to pad their results to avoid ever recommending an underpowered supply. It is always okay to buy too big a PSU (except maybe for the budget) but always bad to buy too small. But the eXtreme PSU calculator is, by far, the most conservative (a good thing) when it comes to padding results, and that is due, in part, because it has the most flexibility.
 
Digerati said:
Do make sure the CPU and RAM with the same specs are listed on the QVL for the motherboard.

I don't see an OS. New computers need new licenses. The only exception is full retail licenses can legally be transferred, as long as previous installations are removed. So, if you bought an OEM/System Builders license (by far, the most common) for your old system, you cannot legally transfer it to this new one. And that includes W10 if you upgraded to W10 based on the old qualifying OEM license.

That K version CPU does not come with an OEM cooler.

I don't see a PSU. I recommend using the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator to determine your minimum and recommended power supply unit (PSU) requirements. Plan ahead and plug in all the hardware you think you might have in 2 or 3 years. This might include extra hard drives, a bigger or 2nd video card, more RAM, etc. I recommend setting Computer Utilization to 16 hours per day and CPU Utilization to 100%. These steps adjust for capacitor aging and ensure the supply has adequate head room for stress free (and perhaps quieter) operation. These steps also add a little buffer for unplanned future upgrades or added hardware demands.

Note that all power supply calculators tend to pad their results to avoid ever recommending an underpowered supply. It is always okay to buy too big a PSU (except maybe for the budget) but always bad to buy too small. But the eXtreme PSU calculator is, by far, the most conservative (a good thing) when it comes to padding results, and that is due, in part, because it has the most flexibility.
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CPU and RAM both are supported by the motherboard and the CPU supports the RAM frequency as its maximum, according to Intel. Other users have used higher frequencies, but I'm leaning toward the safe side to stay at 2400 MHz for my DDR4 RAM.


PSU - Recommended PSU Wattage: 428 W
Amazon.com: Corsair Enthusiast Series 650-Watt 80 Plus Bronze Certified Power Supply Compatible with Core i3, i5, i7 and platforms - TX650: Electronics (5 years old and still ticking)

CPU Cooler - Amazon.com: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan: Electronics

Windows 10 retail licenses are now attached to our Microsoft accounts. I have dozens of licenses attached to my account due to Microsoft MVP upgrades from Windows 7, 8, and 8.1
 
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EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G2, 80+ GOLD 650W
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Great PSU. I have used several in recent builds. I have the smaller 550W sibling in this system. BTW, don't get excited about that free power on self tester. It is just a little plastic jumper to trick the PSU into thinking it is connected to a motherboard. It only tests to make sure the PSU will turn on. It does not test to ensure all the necessary voltages are present, or within tolerance specs.

Windows 10 retail licenses are now attached to our Microsoft accounts. I have dozens of licenses attached to my account due to Microsoft MVP upgrades from Windows 7, 8, and 8.1
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Again, those tied to upgrades from W7 and W8.1 (never was allowed from W8) are not transferable if those W7 and W8.1 were not full retail.

I prefer downward firing cooler to ensure the heat sensitive devices surrounding the CPU socket get the ventilation expected with OEM coolers. But side firing EVO are good coolers too. Just make sure your case is providing a decent front-to-back flow of cool air through the case.
 
Digerati said:
EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G2, 80+ GOLD 650W
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Great PSU. I have used several in recent builds. I have the smaller 550W sibling in this system. BTW, don't get excited about that free power on self tester. It is just a little plastic jumper to trick the PSU into thinking it is connected to a motherboard. It only tests to make sure the PSU will turn on. It does not test to ensure all the necessary voltages are present, or within tolerance specs.
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Yeah, I figured it probably wasn't a full test system since it's not shown in any pictures. I'm glad to hear that the PSU is great; I thought about getting the next one up that has a ten year warranty, but I like the idea of going a little more green with my systems on as much as they are.

Digerati said:
Windows 10 retail licenses are now attached to our Microsoft accounts. I have dozens of licenses attached to my account due to Microsoft MVP upgrades from Windows 7, 8, and 8.1
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Again, those tied to upgrades from W7 and W8.1 (never was allowed from W8) are not transferable if those W7 and W8.1 were not full retail.
Click to expand...

MVP keys are treated as retail keys, so no problems there. I've moved them to several systems, already. And while you are correct that Windows 8 cannot be upgraded directly, the Windows 8 keys were usable in the Anniversary edition of Windows 10 to activate a Windows 10 system after Windows 10 was already installed. I clean installed Windows 10 Anniversary on several old systems with that method just before they removed the upgrade option following the Anniversary release.

Digerati said:
I prefer downward firing cooler to ensure the heat sensitive devices surrounding the CPU socket get the ventilation expected with OEM coolers. But side firing EVO are good coolers too. Just make sure your case is providing a decent front-to-back flow of cool air through the case.
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I am currently using the same cooler in my case with an older processor that runs hotter than the 7700k will, at least in theory. It should be more than adequate. If not, any recommendations for a downward firing cooler?
 
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Side firing cooling cool the CPUs just fine. It is just that motherboard designer cluster many heat sensitive and heat generating components around the CPU socket with the anticipation they will receive some air movement from the OEM downward firing fan. It is not a problem if the case is providing an adequate supply of air flowing through the case.

I am not a gamer and don't do any extreme overclocking any more so I don't buy "K" versions of processors. I will never see never "see" any performance gains in the tasks I do - only in benchmarks which I don't bother with. So I buy CPUs that come with OEM coolers. Today's work great and are extremely quiet too.
 
Digerati said:
Side firing cooling cool the CPUs just fine. It is just that motherboard designer cluster many heat sensitive and heat generating components around the CPU socket with the anticipation they will receive some air movement from the OEM downward firing fan. It is not a problem if the case is providing an adequate supply of air flowing through the case.

I am not a gamer and don't do any extreme overclocking any more so I don't buy "K" versions of processors. I will never see never "see" any performance gains in the tasks I do - only in benchmarks which I don't bother with. So I buy CPUs that come with OEM coolers. Today's work great and are extremely quiet too.
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This is actually a work computer, but I do a lot of CUDA processing for video and 3D video/image analysis for my job. I've found that gaming systems are the best designed for robotics applications without having to break the bank to get the industry-level hardware that corporations might use for the same tasks. As an independent contractor, $3,000 - $10,000 display cards are a bit out of reach for me.
 
QVL for the 'board lists the RAM as compatible as a single stick @2133 from what I can see (CORSAIR 8GB 1Rx8 CMK16GX4M2A2400C16R SS 16-16-16-39 1.2v v v v 2133), I can't find any further info from the Corsair site.

DDR3/4 is usually highly compatible on Intel but slightly less so when dual/quad sets are used, esp. when at the capacity limit. For 2x DIMMs on a 4x slot 'board it's probably going to work fine. Load the XMP profile and check that it's set for the correct specs @2400.

I'd also opt for a good top flow cooler where compatible, keep a close eye on the 'board temps/voltages too - I don't trust that the current fad for covers over VRM etc. components is actually assisting cooling.
 
satrow said:
QVL for the 'board lists the RAM as compatible as a single stick @2133 from what I can see (CORSAIR 8GB 1Rx8 CMK16GX4M2A2400C16R SS 16-16-16-39 1.2v v v v 2133), I can't find any further info from the Corsair site.

DDR3/4 is usually highly compatible on Intel but slightly less so when dual/quad sets are used, esp. when at the capacity limit. For 2x DIMMs on a 4x slot 'board it's probably going to work fine. Load the XMP profile and check that it's set for the correct specs @2400.

I'd also opt for a good top flow cooler where compatible, keep a close eye on the 'board temps/voltages too - I don't trust that the current fad for covers over VRM etc. components is actually assisting cooling.
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Huh, didn't notice it said 1Rx8. That's odd since it clearly includes it as the set of 2x8 as the part number. :huh: Why would they even test it that way and include it as compatible unless both worked?

EDIT: Looking closer, I don't think the 1Rx8 means what you think it means. It does seem to say that it works with 2 dimms/sockets. If you look at the 32GX, it says that it works with up to 4 sockets and says 2Rx8. # of Ranks x DRAM devices refers to the rank and the number of banks on the chip, not how many chips are compatible. See more: What is a memory Rank? - Crucial Community​

I have very good airflow through the system with two 120mm pulling air in across the board and one 92mm pushing warmer air back out. MB temps are nominal on my current build.
 
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Good catch, Mike. That makes your new rig fine by my reckoning.

[Why do they have to make the lists so consumer unfriendly!? Brand, capacity, #, - and then the tech. details... would be too easy I guess.]
 
I don't know. At first glance, I thought the same thing you did. It wasn't until I started digging into the rest of the table that I realized it might mean something different. At least it was a learning experience. :grin1:

Good thing they're compatible. I was going to be very disappointed since the RAM arrived yesterday (I had picked out an ASUS board that is being sent back since it was clearly already opened and returned; I think the seller did me a favor by sending the already opened board because further research showed it was a coin toss that I might get a bad board).
 
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Hello :)

I do a lot of computer building over at Croatian forums, so I know my way around a computer :)

I see you have stated that this is/will be a work computer, if that is the case, I highly recommend getting either 8 core Ryzen or 6 core i7.

I'm not surprised by the fact that the prices of 1060 have gone up. It's very popular because RX570/580 cards have been off the market because people went crazy for them because of cryptocurrency/mining.

I highly recommend an EVGA PSU, very high quality.

As far as the MB is concerned, what is it that you need of the features they have to offer?

Let me know if you have any questions either here or via PM :)
 
softwaremaniac said:
I see you have stated that this is/will be a work computer, if that is the case, I highly recommend getting either 8 core Ryzen or 6 core i7.
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My current processor is a six core i7, but the LGA2011 motherboard I have is a bit of a lemon (my case wasn't an isolated case with this board). I honestly think the 4.5 GHz speed will take me further than the six cores at 3.6 GHz i7s offer (for most of the work I do). The six cores was nice at times, but I've really only utilized the parallelization in a few specific cases, and 8-12 threads isn't that much of a drop off from 12-18 threads.

softwaremaniac said:
As far as the MB is concerned, what is it that you need of the features they have to offer?
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I just need something that will be reliable when plugging/unplugging USB 3.0 devices. I use a USB 3.0 peripheral for work that is a bit finicky with power, so the DAC-UP USB 3.0 ports should help a lot. Yesterday, I had all my peripherals in the system light up in Device Manager due to a power issue when disconnecting my device for work.
 
Aha, okay then, yes, take the i7.
I've had similar experience with ASRock boards. I'd recommend a Gigabyte board, because they seem to have good customer support in the event something happens, but I've had good experience with Asus, Intel and Gigabyte boards.
 
I put the system together today. A couple issues, the first of which is a bit of a nuisance:
  • The i7-7700k runs a bit on the hot side. It's a known issue based on a cursory search. Mine isn't as bad as what others are reporting, so I obviously did something right with my cooling, but I'm seeing very fast ramp-ups in temperature. It idles at about 23 C, which I think is awesome, but the fan spins to maximum every few seconds when the processor does anything; even a minute rise in processor usage sends the processor into the 50-55 C range. It maxes out at about 65-70 C when under heavy load. Others have reported issues with it spiking up to 90 C, so I count my blessings.

    The annoying part of this behavior is my CPU fan is almost constantly at 100% speed. The concern of fatigue of the motor over time is prevalent.

  • I couldn't remember which Windows key I used for this system, and it complained when the hardware changed. I ended up just grabbing a retail version of a Windows 8 Pro key and throwing it in. System's happy now.
 
softwaremaniac said:
So it works fine after a reinstall? :)
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I just used the "Change Product Key" feature. I tried going through troubleshooting, and choosing the option that I changed hardware, this is the system I'm using (they give a list of possible systems which I presume are tied to my Microsoft account), etc. Troubleshooting failed (it seems to rarely succeed anymore with any automated troubleshooting feature), so I changed my product key to a new one.
 
Everything is mostly sorted. I do need to find a way to quiet this thing down. It's like sitting next to a quiet vacuum cleaner (as in it isn't that loud, but it's louder than what I'm used to).
 

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