Build Log - New i7 gaming setup.

Stevolution · 10 Jul 2013 at 18:14

OK... Ordered my parts:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** £239.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD250BW) £137.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £131.99
1 x Cooler Master HAF X Gaming Tower Case - Black (RC-942) £129.95
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV316G213C1K) £119.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x Akasa Venom 750w Modular '80 Plus' Power Supply £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £49.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
1 x BitFenix Spectre 200mm Fan Red LED - black £11.99
Total : £1,332.95 (includes shipping : £20.10).

Half the order arrived today :rolleyes:

Apparently they put the case on the wrong delivery truck, so its spent the day banging around the back-end of a delivery van.
Hopefully arriving tomorrow.

2 bags of Haribo for >£1300.... disappointed to say the least

CPU cooler is awesome - and rather damn huge, I hope that fits the case OK.

A few questions if I may...

Is it best for me to assemble all the parts... graphics card, drives - the lot.
Then boot and dive straight into the Bios and make sure it has identified everything correctly (correct memory size, processor etc).

Then if all looks well, reboot and install Window 7, and supply the drivers as it asks.

I assume once in Windows, it will run on default graphics until I install the graphics card drivers disk (or will it ask during Win 7 install?)

Any pointers helpful as its been a while since I built a system, and it wasn't anywhere near as posh as this!

Stevolution · 10 Jul 2013 at 19:57

Yea... Trouble is I took the 2 packets out of the box and the Mrs had them away before I even got one

Stevolution · 10 Jul 2013 at 20:39

Thanks Jasseh - Just as I thought.
Really annoying having a pile of kit here... and no case! Want to get on with it.

I have a wealth of fans in this case. Not sure which way they will be set up, but I am thinking the top pair of 200mm fans sucking air into the case, and also the front 230mm sucking air in as well.
Then having the rear 140mm and the side 200mm as exhaust fans.

Stevolution · 10 Jul 2013 at 22:36

Ok... Done some research on the cooling fans.

Looks like the better option would be front 230mm as an intake, and then the two top 200mm fans as exhausts.
The rear 140mm as exhaust and the side 200mm as an intake, but running reasonably slowly so that it doesn't cause air flow disruption over the heatsinks.

Stevolution · 11 Jul 2013 at 19:20

Send it back? Its only just arrived!
They have apparently sorted out the fan issue. I will see how it goes.
Not starting to send things back before even trying them

Stevolution · 11 Jul 2013 at 19:23

Let the build commence

Stevolution · 11 Jul 2013 at 20:01

OK.. First stupid issue. Why the heck isn't there an arrow on the spare 200mm BitFenix
fan I bought? How the hell are you supposed to know which way it runs?
Oh ... and no screws with it either

Stevolution · 11 Jul 2013 at 21:00

Err.. plug it into what! No power supply to hand. I am assuming the fan sucks from the face with the logo.

Yep... first time at this and its just a case of going steady.
Little rubber grommets with a locating bit on the back that came with the CPU cooler just don't fit the motherboard holes at all.

Don't even really know which way the cooler should face. Only fits 2 different ways however

Stevolution · 11 Jul 2013 at 23:02

OK... coming along fine.

Can't find a socket for the 1394 on the motherboard - assuming there isn't one.

Question for the clever folk...

I can't find a power rating for the motherboard fan controllers anywhere in the book. Do you think I will be OK running 2x 200mm fans off one fan controller on the motherboard?

Also, a lead came with the motherboard for the fan led - but no indication of where the heck it fits. Its a simple 2 pin male to female thing. Probably not needed.

Does anyone ever fit the VGA bracket?

Thanks

Stevolution · 12 Jul 2013 at 17:17

Thanks all.
Got the CPU cooler in place - correct direction.

The grommets were supposed to fit the motherboard holes, before the cooler is bolted through. The grommet 'protrusion' on the rear didn't fit the holes in the board.

The top of the cabinet has the factory 200mm fan, and I have added another. My question is can they both be put on the same CPU fan controller socket (using a splitter), or will that bugger up the speed sense connection?

I seem to remember reading somewhere that each fan output was 10w rated, but can't find it now.

Well there is a two pin lead coming from the 'led on/off' button on the front of the case, and it leads down to the factory fitted illuminated fan.
Not sure if that is a simple switch that turns that set of leds on, or if its actually +12v and ground that I can use for my other led fan.

Might have to wait until boot up and get the multimeter out.

Shame about the Firewire port, as my camcorder uses that.

Oh yes... the graphics card has a 6 pin and an 8 pin power input socket.... do I need to use both? I suppose it doesn't hurt to do so. Nothing in the manual.

Finding the supplied manuals pretty lacking in a lot of departments. Great if you do this stuff all the time, but if you don't... thank God for Google.

Stevolution · 14 Jul 2013 at 18:56

Sorry all.. been away for a couple of days. Build going fine.

Ordered a couple of fan splitter cables on Ebay, so that should sort the 5x fans on 3x pins issue.

Wondered into Maplins yesterday and they were clearing out a PCI 1394 3+1 card for £9.99. Done... has an internal 1394 port on it so I can now get that front panel 1394 port connected nicely.

Two top 200mm fans extract, side 200mm fan intakes, front 230mm fan intakes and rear 140mm fan extracts.

If I get time tonight, going to make myself some red led internal illumination strips with the high brightness leds I got for a few quid of Ebay.

Also planning to mount the IR receiver for the wireless keyboard and mouse in the bottom removable front tray.

Cable management in this tower seems pretty good - bags of space.

Stevolution · 14 Jul 2013 at 23:17

Connected the front 230mm fan directly to the PSU tonight just to check the led connections (I wanted to know if the pre-wired front panel led switch was simply a push on/off switch, or if the cable actually supplied 12v to the fan leds).

These fans run really slowly don't they (or is mine a dud!) Quiet, but a lot slower than I thought they would be.

Stevolution · 15 Jul 2013 at 18:31

I will get a new keyboard and mouse soon... but not yet.
They will have to be wireless and these work fine. Not spanking £140 on something I already have.

Stevolution · 17 Jul 2013 at 23:51

Sorry for the update delay.. been working away.

OK. All assembled (pics to follow).

Booted to Bios. Noticed the displayed fan speeds on 2 and 3 were jumping all over the place, so you can't 'share' a motherboard fan connector. I have disconnected one of the feedback cables on the splitters so it only reads the speed of one of the connected fans.

Question... front page in Gigabyte Bios says Memory frequency 1600Mhz. These are 2133Mhz memory modules. Why the wrong reading?
Memory box says they are 2133... perhaps I am missing something.

Is there any way to over-ride the fans and get them up to full speed - just to see?
I thought you set the fan control to manual, but it makes no difference.

Steve

Stevolution · 18 Jul 2013 at 23:06

OK.. Any help appreciated here.

Windows loaded, Gigabyte Easytune software...
The fans on sys fan 1, 2 and 3 just run at a constant speed. They are 3 pin fans.
Is it only 4 pins fans that allow speed control? I can't get any variation of speed.

Trouble is.... I keep getting a pop-up box telling me all my fans are running at below 1500RPM
Thanks

Stevolution · 19 Jul 2013 at 18:06

Mmm.. Really would have thought the Coolermaster CPU fan would have been 4 pin, but it isn't.
So, what it the point of having 3 pins fans? OK, it tells you how fast its going, but if you can't change it... who cares?
Not sure why it can't alter the speed by varying the 12v supply.

Stevolution · 19 Jul 2013 at 23:22

Well I was hoping for a good photo update tonight.... but its all gone **** up.

Firstly... thanks Win7 for that 1.5hr update when I rebooted. What the hell are you installing? (Even though I unticked the check for updates box)

That appears to have screwed my DVD drive. That now randomly appears and disappears from the system (not a loose wire).
Its not listed in Win explorer, and is unaccessable.... then out of the blue it will suddenly reappear 15 minutes later.
Checked the driver and reinstalled it... no luck. Suggestions?

And these poxy fans. They must be speed controlled on 3 pins, as they are varying is speed.
However the lowest 'alarm' you can set in the motherboard software is 0 RPM.
Well for some reason, the top fans sometimes stop (or the RPM drops so low they stop).
This gives me a failed fan warning.

The 4x main fans are only 700 RPM max anyway. I tried them directly off the PSU and they just don't spin that fast (but I am sure they are efficient).

I just think its odd that the tops fans stop

Any help?

Stevolution · 20 Jul 2013 at 21:27

Well after last nights 1.5 hr Windows update... gee thanks MS... we had some issues.

HOPING they are sorted out now. Lost the DVD drive, but I think that has been resolved now.

Fans.... selected 'Extreme' in the Coolermaster Windows App and they all span up faster. They are not very loud at all, so I will leave them on that.
Says the CPU is 27 deg at idle.

Planning to stick a fan controller in anyway now.

Stuck Skyrim on there last night... very nice on Ultra high setting. Time to get modding.

Home-made leds worked well. I made a small PCB that switched a clean 12v through for the added leds via the case switch. Thought it best to have its own decent supply.

My Ebay card to connect the Firewire never arrived. So cancelled that and I will get another one.

Apologies for the blurred pic!

Stevolution · 20 Jul 2013 at 22:20

Err... what does that have to do with anything?