About to click buy on new PC opinions before end of day

[Lamp]

Nope. Can't find a case I like. Well, I have found several cases I like, but none of the custom-PC sites have them as options on their drop-down lists. They all seem to stock the same old cases.

Why can't I just say "Look, all your cases suck, THIS is the case I want. Order it, put the PC in it, and I'll send you a stack of cash". You know what customer services are like at these places. Think Dell, PC World, etc. You get some idiot at the end of the line probably based in some sweatshop in India, who has no idea what you're on about, they lose your emails, and you end up with your PC inside a baked bean can.

There's no way on earth I'm going to be able to build a PC from scratch, which means I guess I'll have to compromise on the case. A pity, cos the cases on these sites are either butt ugly, too large, and/or lack dust filters and noise dampening.

 

[Gahn]

Unless you are able to build it from scratch there's really no chance on choosing a case. You can find some sites sellling Custom PCs (like this https://www.arbico.co.uk/product_customize.php?pid=100617) and they offer some variations on cases, ofc they aren't Dell or any other "solid" company and that's at your own risk.

 

[Aada]

My pc is in testing and should be dispatched tomorrow next day delivery. Pumped

 

[Krazeh]

There's no way on earth I'm going to be able to build a PC from scratch

Why not? It's really quite simple to do.

 

[Lamp]

Why not? It's really quite simple to do.

I have no idea what parts are compatible with others. How do you check all your components will fit the motherboard? How do you know you are buying the right motherboard? How do you know whether you need 500W or 850W of power?

In which order do you connect everything up? What connectors do you need to buy? Where the feck do all the bloody wires plug into? I wouldn't know where to start! How do you fit the motherboard to the case? Am I going to need a bloody soldering iron? How do you know if the board will even fit inside it? What happens when you turn it on and nothing happens? Have you short circuited something? I could end up wiring it all up 50 times and I still wouldn't know what bit's wired up wrong. I wouldn't know how to connect the SSD or hard drive to whatever they plug into!

Then you have to worry about cable management, heatsinks & glue, how many fans to put in, what size, where they go, what type of fan. Whether the GPU needs its own set of fans & coolers.

For a complete n00b, its a mindfuck. I'd sooner get someone who knows what they're doing to assemble it. I'm not spending £1500 on bits only to end up short-circuiting it lol...and if I run into problems, there's no one I can ask for help.

 

[Aada]

I have no idea what parts are compatible with others. How do you check all your components will fit the motherboard? How do you know you are buying the right motherboard? How do you know whether you need 500W or 850W of power?

In which order do you connect everything up? What connectors do you need to buy? Where the feck do all the bloody wires plug into? I wouldn't know where to start! How do you fit the motherboard to the case? Am I going to need a bloody soldering iron? How do you know if the board will even fit inside it? What happens when you turn it on and nothing happens? Have you short circuited something? I could end up wiring it all up 50 times and I still wouldn't know what bit's wired up wrong. I wouldn't know how to connect the SSD or hard drive to whatever they plug into!

Then you have to worry about cable management, heatsinks & glue, how many fans to put in, what size, where they go, what type of fan. Whether the GPU needs its own set of fans & coolers.

For a complete n00b, its a mindfuck. I'd sooner get someone who knows what they're doing to assemble it. I'm not spending £1500 on bits only to end up short-circuiting it lol...and if I run into problems, there's no one I can ask for help.

Lol glad i aint the only fucking retard here, i tried building my own PC a few years ago, it didn't end well no idea but the motherboard was fucked according to the local PC shop i took it too.

 

[ileks]

It's really easy! You just read the instructions and plug shit in.

As for compatability issues, I find the best strategy is to check a forum like Overclockers UK to see what components people are buying. There are loads of "check my build" type threads. Have a look under "General Hardware" on their forum (not sure if linking to other forums is allowed).

If you run into any installation problems, google it. 99% of the time someone has already had the same problem. There are also loads of videos on youtube that show you how to install a CPU cooler etc.

 

[Dudley52]

Nope. Can't find a case I like. Well, I have found several cases I like, but none of the custom-PC sites have them as options on their drop-down lists. They all seem to stock the same old cases.

Why can't I just say "Look, all your cases suck, THIS is the case I want. Order it, put the PC in it, and I'll send you a stack of cash". You know what customer services are like at these places. Think Dell, PC World, etc. You get some idiot at the end of the line probably based in some sweatshop in India, who has no idea what you're on about, they lose your emails, and you end up with your PC inside a baked bean can.

There's no way on earth I'm going to be able to build a PC from scratch, which means I guess I'll have to compromise on the case. A pity, cos the cases on these sites are either butt ugly, too large, and/or lack dust filters and noise dampening.

PCSpecialist allow you to send your case to them and they build it for you.

 

[Aada]

PC turned up this morning, graphics card wasn't seated correctly good job the side door of the case is clear, any tests i should run to make sure everything is running correctly before i fire up the GTX670 on games?

 

[BloodOmen]

Not sure about other tests I always start the most graphic intensive game I have up tho to test card temps (battlefield 3 if you have it is a good one to test it on)

 

[Aada]

Need to get BF3 then.

 

[BloodOmen]

well I use BF3 I'm just using it as an example just throw your most graphic intense game at the 670 and see what happens with temps basically, play it for 30 mins or so to let temps even out.

 

[Aada]

Just ran the Heaven DX11 Benchmark maxed everything i possibly could temps were about 72 is that ok?

idle temp is 42

 

[Keitanz]

That's completely fine, worry when it gets to around 90-95..

I bought a GTX480 a few weeks ago and it reaches about 80-85c on bf3, worrying

 

[Aada]

Ok thanks, just running 3d mark 11 as well. Will order Max Payne 3 seems a good one to stress a machine?

Got a score of P7906 whatever that means heh

 

[BloodOmen]

never ran my new one on 3d mark 11 tbh, i'll do it now curious now!

 

[Aada]

1346 on Heaven DX11 Benchmark everything maxed tessallation on normal.

 

[MYstIC G]

full memtest is always a good one imho

 

[Aada]

What about GPU fanspeeds? should my fanspeed always be higher than my temp?

 

[BloodOmen]

gpu fan speeds generally auto adjust when it needs to be higher, its recommended to leave it as that to prolong the life of the fan on it so they say, i always leave mine running manually at 55-60% tho as new cards heat up like fuck and sometimes it doesnt give you the right fanspeeds when you leave it on auto so your stuck with a high temp card and only 40% fan speed or something. I'd look into it more before you decide to do what I do tho, I know the risks and if my fan screws up I need to find a replacement.

 

[Aada]

Well when my GPU hits 85 degrees the fan is usually on 60%

 

[BloodOmen]

it should never get to 85c really, if it goes up another 5c i'd start worrying.

 

[Aada]

So should the fan be doing a little more work or is it something to worry about?

 

[BloodOmen]

I don't know, its odd that it would go up to 85c with a complete new rig to start with, is the card overclocked at all or did it come at stock speeds? if its overclocked that might be why and you may need to get some additional cooling, if its at stock speeds however I really don't know i'm not 100% tech savvie, I know just enough to get me by, perhaps one of the hardcore techies on FH can shed some light.

All I can really say is if it was my PC and my brand new card was running at 85c it would set some bells ringing.

 

[Aada]

Now your getting me paranoid

 

[BloodOmen]

try not to be, start worrying if one of the guys that knows something on here says its going to explode and your house is going to burst into flames

 

[Aada]

If the fan works at 70% it says around 70 degrees, just wondering if the fan works like that while its gaming will it fuck the fan up after a while or that's what it's designed to do right?

It's not like am gaming 12 hours a day though only on a weekend will i be playing for 3-7 hours at a time.

 

[BloodOmen]

70-75c is alright, that's what mine ran at before i got this new case and it caused no issues, runs at 68c max now tho (ATI 7970) again I'd just wait until someone that knows what he's talking about to give you some advice if I was you don't rely on my advice.

 

[Aada]

Too late i've packed the PC up and sending it back! joking, but those thoughts are running through my mind right now.

tbh i think i may have went with the wrong case Coolmaster Elite 430 looks pretty tight in there and not much room for decent cable management.

 

[caLLous]

FFS Lamp, grow a pair!

I have no idea what parts are compatible with others. How do you check all your components will fit the motherboard?

They will, it's all standardised. Standard power fittings from the PSU, standard (SATA) data cables for the drives (optical and HDD/SSD), standard PCI-E slots for graphics cards, standard jumper fittings from the case to the motherboard.

How do you know you are buying the right motherboard?

Ask here if in doubt, other people know these things if you don't. First off, forget about AMD. Ivybridge CPU's (Core i5-3xxx, i7-3xxx) go on Ivybridge boards (Z77 chipsets).

How do you know whether you need 500W or 850W of power?

Depends. 500 isn't enough, 850 is too much (for a single graphics card solution).

In which order do you connect everything up

RTFM. There isn't a right order. There's a logical order sure: CPU onto motherboard, heatsink onto CPU, fans onto heatsink, RAM onto motherboard, motherboard into case, graphics card onto motherboard, everything else like drive connections, PSU connections, case connections (power button, activity LEDs etc) after that. Heatsink on before you put the motherboard into the case because you might (read: probably) need to get to the back of the motherboard to fix a fixing plate for the heatsink and not all cases have access to the back of the mobo once it's installed (cough Lian-Li do cough).

What connectors do you need to buy

You don't, they all come with either the motherboard or the components (unless you're buying a silly amount of hard drives or something in which case you might well need more SATA data cables). Get a decent modular PSU and you can add power cables as required.

Where the feck do all the bloody wires plug into? I wouldn't know where to start!

RTFMRTFMRTFM.

How do you fit the motherboard to the case

RTFM. Case on its side, lower motherboard into it, line up screwholes in motherboard with spacer thingies on the case (RTFM because you might need to add spacer thingies to the case beforehand). The rear-panel (with all the external connections) will slip gracefully into the hole in the case (make sure to add the port shield bit) and then apply the screws to the screw holes, apply the tip of a screwdriver to the screws and apply a clockwise rotary force to the screwdriver. Unless you're going with Lian-Li in which case it's thumb screws all the way.

Am I going to need a bloody soldering iron?

No. Jesus.

How do you know if the board will even fit inside it

It will most likely be an ATX standard motherboard going into an ATX case. You do the maths.

What happens when you turn it on and nothing happens?

You probably fucked it up.

Have you short circuited something?

No, at worst you will probably have just not connected the power up properly (the 24pin and the 8pin) from the PSU to the motherboard. RTFM.

I wouldn't know how to connect the SSD or hard drive to whatever they plug into!

I feel like I have said this before, but RTFMRTFMRTFM.

Then you have to worry about cable management, heatsinks & glue, how many fans to put in, what size, where they go, what type of fan. Whether the GPU needs its own set of fans & coolers.

Jesus, glue?! Please don't put glue in your computer *anywhere*. The only "stuff that comes in a tube" that should go anywhere near your computer is thermal paste between the CPU and the heatsink. Fans are easy, 120mm or 140mm probably, Noctua or BeQuiet. Cases come with intake and exhaust fans fitted, you need 1 or 2 for the CPU heatsink (which will probably be included with it if it's a decent heatsink).