Best practice after building PC

[Dean037]

Hi everyone recently purchased the list below for my son for Xmas

Antec CX500M RGB M-ATX Mini Tower Black

AMD Ryzen 5 7600x 6 core / 12 threads AM5 38MB Cache upto 5.3Ghz max boost

MSI B650M Gaming Plus WIFI MATX Motherboard

Team Group G50 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E

Crucial Pro DDR5 Ram 32GB 2x16GB 6000 mhz CL36 overclocking gaming memory

MSI Mag A650GL PSU 80 Plus Gold

B Grade Sapphire Radeon RX 7600 Pulse Gaming 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express GPU

Thermalright Assassin King 120 SE ARGB CPU cooler 120mm

I have been trying to watch some.youtibe videos to refresh my memory as been years since built a PC and didn't have nvme ssds etc.

Any hints or easy mistakes that are usually made like what os the best slots for ram in motherboard etc and how much thermal paste still a pea size or do most do a X and should I then spread out iver the cpu with a glove or something similar.

Also once all together what's next I have made a windows 11 is drive so hopefully it works. Should I leave disconnected from Internet so don't need to sign in etc.

Once windows installed do I need to download all drivers for my hardware and what else does anyone recommend ?

Sorry just been so long since had a PC .

Thanks dean

 

[Kelt]

The mobo manual will tell you the best slots for the ram, usually 1 and 3 for two sticks.

For paste, I usually Google what method for the relevant CPU.

I normally have the newly built PC connected to the internet for all the drivers/updates it will require.

 

[Dean037]

The mobo manual will tell you the best slots for the ram, usually 1 and 3 for two sticks.

For paste, I usually Google what method for the relevant CPU.

I normally have the newly built PC connected to the internet for all the drivers/updates it will require.

I seen a few situations didn't want to connect or should I say sign in when installing windows so everything isn't signed in to a certain account.

All drivers for motherboard cpu and gpu will need downloaded from there sites ?

Also do I have to change bios to up speed of the ram as usually set lower ? I won't be overclocking cpu or gpu at all yet as hopefully not required but I imagine makes sense to use ram at speed it is supposed to be ?

Thanks dean

 

[darael]

After powering on the motherboard, one of the first things I check is the BIOS version and whether there is an updated version out. Tweaking the BIOS before realising you'll have to reset it after updating it can be frustrating to say the least. Currently the latest version for your motherboard is 7E24v18, released on 19/12/2024 - so it's probable your motherboard doesn't have the latest BIOS installed at the time of installation.

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

If you use rufus to create your windows install usb
It has options to bypass some of
The things Microsoft is doing to try to make you
Use online account etc

Windows will install most of your drivers
But just in case I shove the required drivers for
Wifi and ethernet on the windows usb too
Once connected motherboard manufacturers site for drivers
Gpu manufacturers site for graphic drivers
Hard drive/ssd/nvme manufacturers site for whatever toolbox software
And so on

Yes bios to set ram to xmp/expo etc
As will default to lower speed

And after all that
One thing I would definitely say is best practice
Make an image once windows, drivers and software is installed
Disaster recovery from an image is way, way faster
Than having to reinstall everything again

 

[Dean037]

If you use rufus to create your windows install usb
It has options to bypass some of
The things Microsoft is doing to try to make you
Use online account etc

Windows will install most of your drivers
But just in case I shove the required drivers for
Wifi and ethernet on the windows usb too
Once connected motherboard manufacturers site for drivers
Gpu manufacturers site for graphic drivers
Hard drive/ssd/nvme manufacturers site for whatever toolbox software
And so on

Yes bios to set ram to xmp/expo etc
As will default to lower speed

And after all that
One thing I would definitely say is best practice
Make an image once windows, drivers and software is installed
Disaster recovery from an image is way, way faster
Than having to reinstall everything again

Hi again got the PC together and windows 11 home installed eventually, I have then stopped the msi software as nearly installed Norton so then downloaded msi center and downloaded the drivers on there.

I then downloaded adrenalin edition from AMD and downloaded drivers hopefully for my graphics card

What else any cpu drivers or would that be covered on the amd adrenaline?
Struggling for the nvme drivers and found one driver that said for windows 7 extracted that and nothing happened.

Any other drivers I will require or settings you think I require ? Any other software or windows setting to change.

Should I change my ram speed from auto ? Current dram frequency is 5200 mhz , it says A-XMP and EXPO both disabled should be be enabled ? Also at top left of bios says A-XMP 1 and 2 and EXPO 1 and 2 ?

If so is it in bios then OC then dram frequency? I will also create a image for windows to boot to.

Thanks for the help
Dean

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

Hi again got the PC together and windows 11 home installed eventually, I have then stopped the msi software as nearly installed Norton so then downloaded msi center and downloaded the drivers on there.

I then downloaded adrenalin edition from AMD and downloaded drivers hopefully for my graphics card

What else any cpu drivers or would that be covered on the amd adrenaline?
Struggling for the nvme drivers and found one driver that said for windows 7 extracted that and nothing happened.

Any other drivers I will require or settings you think I require ? Any other software or windows setting to change.

Should I change my ram speed from auto ? Current dram frequency is 5200 mhz , it says A-XMP and EXPO both disabled should be be enabled ? Also at top left of bios says A-XMP 1 and 2 and EXPO 1 and 2 ?

If so is it in bios then OC then dram frequency? I will also create a image for windows to boot to.

Thanks for the help
Dean

Don't have a msi board
But if their software is anything like my asus one
It finds drivers but they are usually older
So would check either the motherboard page
Or go direct to amd page for chipset drivers
Usually the amd page will have newer drivers than motherboard manufacturers page
Things like audio drivers etc I don't mind the ones off the
Motherboard software
But chipset drivers would rather have the most up to date ones

Nvme drivers windows installs those anyway
So unless the manufacturer of the nvme drives lists a driver for it
Wouldn't worry too much over that one
Tried in the past the generic windows driver vs specific Samsung driver
Both scored basically the same in testing

Should be EXPO in bios I think
Only got ddr4 so can't double check that bit
Would try EXPO 1
Am assuming 1 will be lower than 2
If works on EXPO 1 note what frequency that runs at
In cpuz
EXPO 2 may be above the 6000mhz mark
Though again I am assuming that may be the case
Would make sense to me to have one at the rated ram speed
And the second be an overclocked profile
Though technically enabling xmp,EXPO etc is in itself overclocking
So the second one a slightly higher overclock shall we say