Gaming Computer Build

[Rukdafaidas]

As mentioned in the video card thread, my son is getting ready to build his first computer. He has an online buddy that he games with that builds his own PC's and he has given him a list of components that he recommended he use. He's spending his own money on this and I wanted to make sure he gets good components and that they're compatible.

Component List:
Ryzen 5 5600
MSI Geforce 3060 TI TRIO 8GB
MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus ATX AM4 motherboard
G SKill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2x8GB) DDR 3600 CL18 memory
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal HD
Samsung 970 EVO 500 GB M.2-2280 EVME SSD
Fractal Design Ion+ 560W 80+ ATX Power Supply

Does this look like a good setup? Any concerns or ideas? He mostly plays CS:GO and I realize this gaming card is probably overkill for that game, but he also plays wants to play games that require a better GPU. He basically wants to build a system that will play any game that's currently out there. He also wants something that can be easily upgraded in the future, when needed.

We haven't begun to look at cases or monitors. I think the case will depend on which graphics card we end up finding. I know the MSI Trio that was suggested is huge, but we can get a smaller case if we get a 2 fan version. Any suggestions on monitors as far as hertz and resolution? He doesn't need anything very big, he's going to be sitting right in front of it.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Rukdafaidas

Ok, we finally received a new GPU back from NZXT. This one is a PNY XLR8 3070 instead of the Gigabyte 3070. Any difference there?
He's been playing it for a couple of hours now and all seems to be fixed. It's screaming. His old computer would only run 60 FPS on a certain map in CS:GO and this computer was running 399 FPS on that map.
I do have a question, though. A couple of weeks ago, when the tech asked us to install a fresh copy of Windows on the PC, thinking that may be the problem. It wouldn't allow us to install Windows without getting rid of an MBR partition, whatever that is. It had like 3 or 4 different partitions on the computer. We ended up having to youtube the issue and when we did what they asked, there was only 1 partition remaining. Do we need to do anything to correct this? Do we need an "MBR partition"?

Not really much difference between different 3070 models. Some have 2 fans, and some have 3. 3 would be preferred, but there's really not a huge amount of different in performance. Like small percentage difference in performance.

CS:GO running 399 FPS Bad ass!

Regarding the tech asking to reinstall Windows.. Windows hard drives can been partitioned in either MBR(old) or GPT(new) format scheme. GPT is technically preferred. But if you have an older system that was upgraded from an older system, it's going to be in MBR partition format. The MBR format has some specific limitations though, specifically it can't handle a disk size of over 2TB. If you have a disk over 2TB, it's going to have to be GPT partition scheme. Otherwise, it really makes no difference. Unless you have a drive larger in size, there's really not any legit reason to convert it. I would absolutely not delete any partitions from your system though, as those may be needed by Windows. It's normal to have 2-4 different partitions on a Windows drive. It will normally create a recovery partition, that will allow you to fix any Windows issues you have if Windows should fail to boot. As well as a EFI System partition. Not sure why they would recommend deleting any partitions at all. It's hard to say if that messed anything up. If you're not noticing any issues after restarting, then it's probably OK. But hard to say.

There are apps available to convert a system from MBR to GPT, but they're kinda risky and I definitely wouldn't recommend it unless you had to for file size reasons.

[Rukdafaidas]

Thanks for the info guys.
Srvy, we bought their prebuilt Streamer PC.
The Gigabyte and the PNY are both 3 fan models. It's still doing very well. He's happy.

[Fish]

FYI, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT was released today. 12GB. 2.2Ghz. But only half the cores of a 3070, and a smaller bus. Probably not anything near the performance of the 30X0 line cards, at about the same price. But Micro Center has some available today. And Newegg is doing a shuffle drawing for a bunch of them. I'm going to wait for an NVidia...

[Bill Brasky]

Anyone remember when a mid/high end GPU was $280? Pepperidge Farm remembers. I'm so disgruntled with the GPU market.

Glad you got a gaming pc in this market!

[DaneMcCloud]

The motherboard is supposed to arrive tomorrow, so I'll get started on the build and install Saturday morning. I've never installed Windows from a thumbdrive before so I'll need to read up on what's involved but I suspect it can't be too difficult.

I do have one question, which is probably a silly question but I haven't been able to confirm. Is it cool if I install more than one NVMe drive? I currently have 6 hard drives but I could really use another 1TB SSD for sample libraries. Is it cool if I drop another NVMe drive in next to the 500 GB I purchased for the system drive?

Thanks in advance!

[Fish]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

The motherboard is supposed to arrive tomorrow, so I'll get started on the build and install Saturday morning. I've never installed Windows from a thumbdrive before so I'll need to read up on what's involved but I suspect it can't be too difficult.

I do have one question, which is probably a silly question but I haven't been able to confirm. Is it cool if I install more than one NVMe drive? I currently have 6 hard drives but I could really use another 1TB SSD for sample libraries. Is it cool if I drop another NVMe drive in next to the 500 GB I purchased for the system drive?

Thanks in advance!

Just looked at the mobo specs. It has 3 NVMe slots. So you can install 2 more NVMe drives if you wanted to.

Installing Windows from USB is a piece of cake. Microsoft has a tool that automates the entire process, you just need a machine already running Windows and a USB flash drive with 8GB+ capacity to create an installer. Go here and download the tool for "Create Windows 10 installation media." Run that. Plug in your USB drive. It will download the Win10 image to the drive and make it bootable. You will need your Windows key to input during the install process or afterward if you want, Windows doesn't really care.

On the new PC, you have to configure your BIOS to allow booting from USB. Make sure Secure Boot is not enabled. Boot the machine tapping the F12 key to select your boot source, and select the USB drive. Follow instructions for installing Windows. You'll have to format your new NVMe drive during the Windows install process. That's straightforward and they walk you through it, you just select the drive you're wanting Windows installed on, and do a quick format. FYI, it will normally create 3 partitions during setup, a recovery partition, a system partition, and a data partition. The recovery and system partitions are very small, the normal data partition where you want to install Win10 will be obvious by the size.

[Pants]

Originally Posted by Fish

Just looked at the mobo specs. It has 3 NVMe slots. So you can install 2 more NVMe drives if you wanted to.

Just make sure you're not slotting anything into a shared SATA/M.2 lane.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Fish

Just looked at the mobo specs. It has 3 NVMe slots. So you can install 2 more NVMe drives if you wanted to.

Installing Windows from USB is a piece of cake. Microsoft has a tool that automates the entire process, you just need a machine already running Windows and a USB flash drive with 8GB+ capacity to create an installer. Go here and download the tool for "Create Windows 10 installation media." Run that. Plug in your USB drive. It will download the Win10 image to the drive and make it bootable. You will need your Windows key to input during the install process or afterward if you want, Windows doesn't really care.

On the new PC, you have to configure your BIOS to allow booting from USB. Make sure Secure Boot is not enabled. Boot the machine tapping the F12 key to select your boot source, and select the USB drive. Follow instructions for installing Windows. You'll have to format your new NVMe drive during the Windows install process. That's straightforward and they walk you through it, you just select the drive you're wanting Windows installed on, and do a quick format. FYI, it will normally create 3 partitions during setup, a recovery partition, a system partition, and a data partition. The recovery and system partitions are very small, the normal data partition where you want to install Win10 will be obvious by the size.

Wow man, thanks again for all of the details! This is fantastic news about the drives, so I'll definitely order at least one more of the NVMe drives that you suggested earlier. That transfer rate is insane so I just can't imagine having any issue streaming huge projects from a drive at 2,000 MB per second!

Originally Posted by Pants

Just make sure you're not slotting anything into a shared SATA/M.2 lane.

Thanks! I'll be sure to carefully read the motherboard manual so that I don't set in the wrong slot.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

The motherboard is supposed to arrive tomorrow, so I'll get started on the build and install Saturday morning. I've never installed Windows from a thumbdrive before so I'll need to read up on what's involved but I suspect it can't be too difficult.

I do have one question, which is probably a silly question but I haven't been able to confirm. Is it cool if I install more than one NVMe drive? I currently have 6 hard drives but I could really use another 1TB SSD for sample libraries. Is it cool if I drop another NVMe drive in next to the 500 GB I purchased for the system drive?

Thanks in advance!

I just installed Windows from a thumb this weekend. Nothing to it. Put it in your pc before you boot, it will automatically recognize it and install. Easy easy. (Typed while watching Motley Crue movie on Netflix. Love this flick).

[TambaBerry]

What if I want to get a new mobo and cpu? Easiest way to keep my shit that's already on my drives

[Fish]

Originally Posted by TambaBerry

What if I want to get a new mobo and cpu? Easiest way to keep my shit that's already on my drives

Drives? You would only need to backup your Windows drive. If you have other drives/partitions, you can reinstall Windows on the system drive/partition without affecting the data on other drives/partitions.

If you're just looking at transferring your Windows drive, there's quite a few alternatives, depending on how much time you want to spend. If you just need to back up your documents/pics/downloads/desktop/Windows settings from your system drive, Windows Migration Wizard would probably be the easiest method. But you'd have to reinstall all your apps and games on the new system. If you're wanting to transfer your Windows system and retain all your currently installed apps and basically have an exact copy on the new drive, it's doable but it will take considerable time and resources. Generally it's much better/cleaner to start from scratch or just use Windows Migration Wizard to copy your basic data and desktop settings. You'll need an external USB drive large enough to save the backup to.

If you are wanting an exact copy on the new drive, there are also options but not really recommended. You could technically put your Windows drive into a sysprep state, shutdown, then install the new mobo and cpu. That will allow the system to boot without catastrophic boot failure, so you can then install all the necessary drivers and such. It's a really dirty solution that will leave lots of unnecessary junk on your system and will take up unnecessary resources and drive space. But I've done it a few times. Could cause future problems, but might run just fine with zero issue. Try at your own risk, but if you're interested I can instruct you how.

There's also some apps you can buy that will do this for you. But they're usually rather pricey, and still have lots of risk involved.

[TambaBerry]

Originally Posted by Fish

Drives? You would only need to backup your Windows drive. If you have other drives/partitions, you can reinstall Windows on the system drive/partition without affecting the data on other drives/partitions.

If you're just looking at transferring your Windows drive, there's quite a few alternatives, depending on how much time you want to spend. If you just need to back up your documents/pics/downloads/desktop/Windows settings from your system drive, Windows Migration Wizard would probably be the easiest method. But you'd have to reinstall all your apps and games on the new system. If you're wanting to transfer your Windows system and retain all your currently installed apps and basically have an exact copy on the new drive, it's doable but it will take considerable time and resources. Generally it's much better/cleaner to start from scratch or just use Windows Migration Wizard to copy your basic data and desktop settings. You'll need an external USB drive large enough to save the backup to.

If you are wanting an exact copy on the new drive, there are also options but not really recommended. You could technically put your Windows drive into a sysprep state, shutdown, then install the new mobo and cpu. That will allow the system to boot without catastrophic boot failure, so you can then install all the necessary drivers and such. It's a really dirty solution that will leave lots of unnecessary junk on your system and will take up unnecessary resources and drive space. But I've done it a few times. Could cause future problems, but might run just fine with zero issue. Try at your own risk, but if you're interested I can instruct you how.

There's also some apps you can buy that will do this for you. But they're usually rather pricey, and still have lots of risk involved.

I just want to get a new 5600 or 5800 and a mobo, probably buy a bigger psu as well so once I can finally get a gpu I'll be ready to plug and play. I just don't want to have to reinstall everything again. Do you have any recommendations on mobo that will work without flashing the bios?

[DaneMcCloud]

So, today, I put together the computer. The case was smaller than I expected so it was pretty time consuming to get everything to fit, especially all six fans. The Noctua Cooling fan is HUGE and posed a few problems with positioning but I got it all figured out.

So, I triple checked all of my power and case connection, plugged in a keyboard, mouse and monitor but as soon as I plugged it into the wall, it started up immediately and went to a blank screen. No Bios, no nothing. I took it back upstairs and double checked the Case connections, just in case (it came with an adapter in which I inserted the case cables for Power LED +/-, Reset and Power). I took it back down, plugged it in and it immediately started again. The power button and reset button did nothing, so I went back up, reversed the wiring and tried again. Same result.

The motherboard is powering all 6 fans, including the Noctua fan, the NVMe drives are seated properly and there's an LED on the motherboard that's lit. I decided to shut down for the night and start fresh tomorrow.

Any ideas? It seems like there's an issue with case and its wiring to the motherboard but I supposed it could be a defective motherboard, which certainly wouldn't be the first time that's happened to me. I'll try re-seating the Intel chip tomorrow as well but this one is a stumper. Any time I've experienced this in the past, it's always been a defective motherboard but damn, could my luck be that bad?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and thanks again!

[vailpass]

Oh man that’s frustrating. Hopefully one of our builders here can help diagnose. I hope you didn’t lose the silicone lottery.

[Fish]

Bummer.

First thing to do would be to eliminate everything except only what you need to boot and install windows. Remove all drives except the one you want Windows installed on. Remove all other PCIe cards except your video card. Remove RAM sticks to include only what you need to boot. Clear your CMOS, then try to boot again.

Just noticed this advice/limitation for your mobo as well:

Note: When the top M.2 slot is populated, it will disable SATA port 0. When the middle M.2 slot is populated, it will disable SATA ports 4-5. When the bottom M.2 slot is populated, it will reduce bandwidth to the bottom PCIe slot to x2

It is worth noting that the default behavior of the BIOS on this motherboard does not automatically follow Intel's CPU power limit guidelines, so when building systems with this board we manually set those power limits based on Intel's specs for whatever processor is being used.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/parts/M...Vision-D-13627