Finally about to build my PC...

[Monsieur Tirets]

some of you may remember me mentioning building a pc back during the summer, well, im finally getting around to it. i have all the parts except for the cooler and some case fans that are in the mail. FWIW, it is a skylake build based on a 6600k and a fatality k6 mobo with 16g of ram and a r9 390. yea, i went full atx rather than the mitx as originally planned. i figured even if i dont use the added functionality and expansion capabilities, you still get more for your money.

anyway, i have a question, it appears the mobo is running the bios it originally shipped with at released back in august, and since skylake mobos were a bit iffy out of the gate, im wondering if i should immediately update the bios out of the box or should i install windows and everything first and see how it goes?

also, feel free to offer any tips you think a first time builder could use.

 

[Crystallas]

If the newest bios shows more support for the hardware you use, then I would update it. Just look out for support regressions that might kill compatibility with other hardware. This is rare, but does happen.

With newer bios roms, you're pretty safe updating the bios from within windows. Also if you want to install first, that's fine, it wont make a difference when you decide to update the bios. The only time this was really a concern(doing the bios after a clean install), was IIRC back in the evergreen days when people would install an over-drive and then have instability with win9x, or having a draft AGP compliance finalize with the bios when adding expansion cards that required those standards.

Tips? IDK, everyone brings their own set of knowledge to start and finds out later what they overlooked within the build. Keep wire management in mind as you put it together. In fact, most people will build the system in their head starting mobo/cpu, that is a bad approach, you should always work within the PSU and the wiring as a priority. That way you'll be able to tuck away everything not used and have no worries about space or blocking airflow.

If you're running a spinning HDD. With Windows machines, I'll usually clean it up and install all the core programs and updates, then defrag anyways. This way the base system files will moved to the fastest part of the disk.

 

[Monsieur Tirets]

If the newest bios shows more support for the hardware you use, then I would update it. Just look out for support regressions that might kill compatibility with other hardware. This is rare, but does happen.

With newer bios roms, you're pretty safe updating the bios from within windows. Also if you want to install first, that's fine, it wont make a difference when you decide to update the bios. The only time this was really a concern(doing the bios after a clean install), was IIRC back in the evergreen days when people would install an over-drive and then have instability with win9x, or having a draft AGP compliance finalize with the bios when adding expansion cards that required those standards.

Tips? IDK, everyone brings their own set of knowledge to start and finds out later what they overlooked within the build. Keep wire management in mind as you put it together. In fact, most people will build the system in their head starting mobo/cpu, that is a bad approach, you should always work within the PSU and the wiring as a priority. That way you'll be able to tuck away everything not used and have no worries about space or blocking airflow.

If you're running a spinning HDD. With Windows machines, I'll usually clean it up and install all the core programs and updates, then defrag anyways. This way the base system files will moved to the fastest part of the disk.

thanks.

 

[botfly10]

Congrats boss! May the silicon lottery treat you well.

 

[botfly10]

oh, here is a nice video on the r9 390

[video=youtube;k9cKZiJw6Pk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9cKZiJw6Pk[/video]

 

[botfly10]

Also, don't skimp on your psu. Buy a name brand. Check this thread out:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

I personally recommend the EVGA G2 series.

 

[botfly10]

Oh, also, if you are looking to save money, might want to think about a i5 4690k

Performance for gaming will be almost the same as the 6600 but it uses DDR3 ram which is way cheaper than DDR4 ram. And from what I have seen DDR4 ram doesnt seem to do anything for gaming when using a discrete gpu.

 

[Monsieur Tirets]

Oh, also, if you are looking to save money, might want to think about a i5 4690k

Performance for gaming will be almost the same as the 6600 but it uses DDR3 ram which is way cheaper than DDR4 ram. And from what I have seen DDR4 ram doesnt seem to do anything for gaming when using a discrete gpu.

already got all the parts, just waiting on cooler and case fans. figured might as well go skylake rather than with a dead platform, considering price difference would have been like 50-75 bucks total anyway. perhaps not even that much since the 4690k is still 200-250 and i got the 6600k for 220 and ddr4 prices have dropped with the ddr3 equivalent to the kit i got costing only 3 bucks less at a lower speed.

as for the psu i went with the evga 750 b2, solid psu and got a really good deal on it. superflower internals and a 9/10 johnnyguru score. before the g2 was released he said there wasnt a better 750w on the market.

 

[Mitchapalooza]

Nice. I still use the pc I built 5 years ago. I really wanna build again. What case did you get?

 

[Monsieur Tirets]

Nice. I still use the pc I built 5 years ago. I really wanna build again. What case did you get?

nzxt s340

 

[botfly10]

**** yeah, I really like that case.

 

[Monsieur Tirets]

goddamn cooler and fans have been on a truck the next town over for the past 4 hours according to tracking. im getting impatient.

 

[botfly10]

You should post pictures when you are done

 

[Monsieur Tirets]

its alive!

ill try to get some pics at some point, but like ive said, i dont even own a cell phone, nor do i have a digi camera. PCs are about as high tech as i get. lol

anyway, build wasnt too bad. some of the connectors fought back a bit, the cooler didnt want to mount properly at first, and in the end my cable management isnt the best but the s340 hides it all in the back. other than that all seems well, knock on wood, so ill hold off updating the bio.

oh, and i need to get used to typing on a mechanical keyboard, its registering my inputs way too fast resulting in repeated letters unless i take my finger off the key immediately. maybe i messed with a setting? anyway, im going to go play around with some things.

edit:realized i turned on the keyboards acceleration mode earlier while messing with the back lighting. now i can type normally. lol

 

[Crystallas]

good work. Now time to frag n00bs

 

[Monsieur Tirets]

good work. Now time to frag n00bs

thanks man.

 

[Monsieur Tirets]

oh, and while i havent installed any temp monitoring software yet, the bios is reporting a cpu temp of 32-35... that alright for a stock 6600k in the bios right?

and speaking of temp monitoring software, any recommendations? thanks.

and i just thought of one more question, the very corner of the fan on my cpu cooler touches a heatsink on the motherboard, thats not a big deal right?

 

[Crystallas]

oh, and while i havent installed any temp monitoring software yet, the bios is reporting a cpu temp of 32-35... that alright for a stock 6600k in the bios right?

and speaking of temp monitoring software, any recommendations? thanks.

and i just thought of one more question, the very corner of the fan on my cpu cooler touches a heatsink on the motherboard, thats not a big deal right?

Good temps and you're fine with touching heatsinks. Heatsinks can touch unless they are active,[this is the TL;DR warning] which you wont see in consumer hardware. Active heatsinks(not to be confused with active cooling) is when a heat spreader is dual purposed and used as a circuit/ground/current gap. In your case, there is nothing that diverts power to your heatsink, so your cpu cooler in really considered overkill, and will now benefit the other heatsink it is touching by adding more thermal dissipation area. You'll even see some designs will connect all heatsinks on a board with heatpipes to spread out cooling while keeping a low profile.

The motherboard manufacturer sometimes has a great tool for active OC/temp/fan control, so I would start there, but HWmonitor is also fairly good. I haven't used windows in my own home in years now, so my info may be outdated for you. G/L.

 

[Monsieur Tirets]

Good temps and you're fine with touching heatsinks. Heatsinks can touch unless they are active,[this is the TL;DR warning] which you wont see in consumer hardware. Active heatsinks(not to be confused with active cooling) is when a heat spreader is dual purposed and used as a circuit/ground/current gap. In your case, there is nothing that diverts power to your heatsink, so your cpu cooler in really considered overkill, and will now benefit the other heatsink it is touching by adding more thermal dissipation area. You'll even see some designs will connect all heatsinks on a board with heatpipes to spread out cooling while keeping a low profile.

The motherboard manufacturer sometimes has a great tool for active OC/temp/fan control, so I would start there, but HWmonitor is also fairly good. I haven't used windows in my own home in years now, so my info may be outdated for you. G/L.

its actually the plastic frame of the fan thats touching the heatsink, and i may just be being paranoid, but my concern was that it could start to melt.

anyway, windows seems to already be giving me shit. it tried to update, failed something, so then i manually updated and it said updates were installed but that "app is being restored to default" without actually say what app it was. then when i tried to download and run msi afterburner my system completely locked up forcing me to do a hard shut down which i really wish i didnt to have to do this soon. which brings me to another question, can a hard shutdown damage hardware or is simply a risk of data lose/corruption?

 

[Mitchapalooza]

You don't own a cell phone? Lol wut. Do you just call people from the house phone?