Greetings
There comes a time in the life of a person when they have to build a PC. Since Christmas came early this year, for me that time is now. Big thanks to Sparx and Joxeon for helping me pick up the parts, as well as giving me some advice.
Components:
MSI MAG X570 TOMAHAWK WIFI (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 ATX Motherboard
Team Group 8Pack Edition 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C16 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor
Corsair RM Series RM650 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply
ADATA 2TB XPG SX8200 Pro PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280
ARCTIC LIQUID FREEZER II HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU WATER COOLER - 280MM
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER WindForce OC 8192MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card
ECLIPSE P500 AIR ATX CASE TEMPERED GLASS DRGB SATIN BLACK
LG 27GL850-B 27" 2560x1440 NANO IPS 144Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Compatible Widescreen LED Gaming Monitor
The number of videos on PC building I watched in the last couple of days made me pretty confident. I thought I was prepared enough. Ignorance is bliss.
Apparently, it's a good thing to start with the motherboard so I did just that. I managed to install the CPU and cooler pump, as well as the RAM. However, when I wanted to install the NVMe SSD, I encountered a slight problem.
There are two slots for an SSD NVMe - the upper and the lower one. In the video I watched, the person assembling the PC said that it is a good practice to install the SSD into the upper one. The problem was that I couldn't secure the SSD onto the standoff because the heatsink was longer than my SSD and I didn't have an extra screw for the "middle" standoff, which was strange.
After a long deliberation about what I'm gonna do, I realised that my old PC might have an NVMe slot with a screw so I checked and it did. Took that screw out and used it to install the SSD. I felt so proud of myself. Well, only until I found the small plastic bag with four standoff screws. Yeah.
Anyway, I was ready to get that MB and cooler into the chassis. Had no issues there.
After that followed PSU. No problems there. I was a bit confused about which slots to use for CPU and GPU (on the PSU) but it's running so I guess the ones I used are fine. There were also ones designated as "Peripherals&SATA" and "Peripherals". I used the former for powering the front fans but I should probably use the latter. If it's an issue, tell me and I'll switch them.
Then I moved onto connecting the front panel, which gave me a bit of a headache. Most of the cables were separated from that huge chunk so I knew which ones to plug in. Only the SATA for power and fans were not (not RGB cable). I wasn't sure if or how were they interconnected. The RGB was interconnected but the fans were not, so I had to plug in the fans separately - one into each slot on the MB. I realised that after I powered up the PC and only RGB came on.
Then I finally mounted the GPU and tried to do some cable management from the inside. Not sure if it's going to be a problem but the rear (PCI ports) of a GPU is slightly tilted down. Not sure if that's because of the weight. It is mounted properly and secured so I dunno. Let me know your thoughts.
Once I thought I had everything connected, I tried to power it up and it didn't even flinch. I got a bit nervous, not gonna lie. Found the culprit - I used wrong pins for the front panel power cable.
I tried to power it up again and it did but the screen didn't turn on. There was a flashing light on the MB notifying me of the issue - the boot drive. I inserted the USB stick in the front panel but it didn't recognise it (maybe I plugged the front USB cable into the wrong slot on the MB?) so I put it in the MB port and that worked. I also noticed front fans not spinning. I plugged those in and everything seemed fine so I could move onto the cable management in the back and close the case up.
I was nervous when I saw all those cables but them velcro ties are a godsend.
It took me about two minutes to sort those cables (thanks you velcro god) which you can probably tell by how it looks but I'm OK with it. If you are disturbed by that one cable going over that velcro tie, I was too. I noticed that only when I looked at the picture and sorted it out but was too lazy to take another one. Apologies. I also took out the three SSD holders cause I thought there was no point in having them there.
Finally, I put the rear panel back on, front one too, and fired it up.
I installed the OS but I'm still waiting for the key so when I get that, I'll be able to install the updates, drivers, and all that. Looking forward to testing some games on that beautiful screen.
If you read all that then thank you for your time and if you have any advice or questions, just ask.
There comes a time in the life of a person when they have to build a PC. Since Christmas came early this year, for me that time is now. Big thanks to Sparx and Joxeon for helping me pick up the parts, as well as giving me some advice.
Components:
MSI MAG X570 TOMAHAWK WIFI (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 ATX Motherboard
Team Group 8Pack Edition 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C16 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor
Corsair RM Series RM650 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply
ADATA 2TB XPG SX8200 Pro PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280
ARCTIC LIQUID FREEZER II HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU WATER COOLER - 280MM
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER WindForce OC 8192MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card
ECLIPSE P500 AIR ATX CASE TEMPERED GLASS DRGB SATIN BLACK
LG 27GL850-B 27" 2560x1440 NANO IPS 144Hz 1ms FreeSync/G-Sync Compatible Widescreen LED Gaming Monitor
The number of videos on PC building I watched in the last couple of days made me pretty confident. I thought I was prepared enough. Ignorance is bliss.
Apparently, it's a good thing to start with the motherboard so I did just that. I managed to install the CPU and cooler pump, as well as the RAM. However, when I wanted to install the NVMe SSD, I encountered a slight problem.
There are two slots for an SSD NVMe - the upper and the lower one. In the video I watched, the person assembling the PC said that it is a good practice to install the SSD into the upper one. The problem was that I couldn't secure the SSD onto the standoff because the heatsink was longer than my SSD and I didn't have an extra screw for the "middle" standoff, which was strange.
After a long deliberation about what I'm gonna do, I realised that my old PC might have an NVMe slot with a screw so I checked and it did. Took that screw out and used it to install the SSD. I felt so proud of myself. Well, only until I found the small plastic bag with four standoff screws. Yeah.
Anyway, I was ready to get that MB and cooler into the chassis. Had no issues there.
After that followed PSU. No problems there. I was a bit confused about which slots to use for CPU and GPU (on the PSU) but it's running so I guess the ones I used are fine. There were also ones designated as "Peripherals&SATA" and "Peripherals". I used the former for powering the front fans but I should probably use the latter. If it's an issue, tell me and I'll switch them.
Then I moved onto connecting the front panel, which gave me a bit of a headache. Most of the cables were separated from that huge chunk so I knew which ones to plug in. Only the SATA for power and fans were not (not RGB cable). I wasn't sure if or how were they interconnected. The RGB was interconnected but the fans were not, so I had to plug in the fans separately - one into each slot on the MB. I realised that after I powered up the PC and only RGB came on.
Then I finally mounted the GPU and tried to do some cable management from the inside. Not sure if it's going to be a problem but the rear (PCI ports) of a GPU is slightly tilted down. Not sure if that's because of the weight. It is mounted properly and secured so I dunno. Let me know your thoughts.
Once I thought I had everything connected, I tried to power it up and it didn't even flinch. I got a bit nervous, not gonna lie. Found the culprit - I used wrong pins for the front panel power cable.
I tried to power it up again and it did but the screen didn't turn on. There was a flashing light on the MB notifying me of the issue - the boot drive. I inserted the USB stick in the front panel but it didn't recognise it (maybe I plugged the front USB cable into the wrong slot on the MB?) so I put it in the MB port and that worked. I also noticed front fans not spinning. I plugged those in and everything seemed fine so I could move onto the cable management in the back and close the case up.
I was nervous when I saw all those cables but them velcro ties are a godsend.
It took me about two minutes to sort those cables (thanks you velcro god) which you can probably tell by how it looks but I'm OK with it. If you are disturbed by that one cable going over that velcro tie, I was too. I noticed that only when I looked at the picture and sorted it out but was too lazy to take another one. Apologies. I also took out the three SSD holders cause I thought there was no point in having them there.
Finally, I put the rear panel back on, front one too, and fired it up.
I installed the OS but I'm still waiting for the key so when I get that, I'll be able to install the updates, drivers, and all that. Looking forward to testing some games on that beautiful screen.
If you read all that then thank you for your time and if you have any advice or questions, just ask.
