Components assemble! - First time PC build

r00s73r

r00s73r

r00s73r

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9 May 2014
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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.
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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.
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pcbssd01.jpg

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.
pcbnvmescrw.jpg

Anyway, I was ready to get that MB and cooler into the chassis. Had no issues there.
pcbcase.jpg
pcbmbcool.jpg

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.
pcbcmdefault.jpg

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.
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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.
pcbraw.jpg

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.
pcbcmfinished.jpg

Finally, I put the rear panel back on, front one too, and fired it up.
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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.
 
Great build mate, like it! Told ya the P500A was nice to work with and cable manage :p

GPU sag is common, you can try prevent it by ensuring the PCI-E power isn't tugging it down at all. And ensure the bracket screws are positioned properly to screw it in firmer whilst straight.

Makes me wanna buy the P500A (white model) myself and move my rig into it. Might also invest in some mesh CableMod cables to make it look even better. You might like the look of them too, bit of an expensive aesthetic though :)
 
Sparx said:
Great build mate, like it! Told ya the P500A was nice to work with and cable manage :p

GPU sag is common, you can try prevent it by ensuring the PCI-E power isn't tugging it down at all. And ensure the bracket screws are positioned properly to screw it in firmer whilst straight.

Makes me wanna buy the P500A (white model) myself and move my rig into it. Might also invest in some mesh CableMod cables to make it look even better. You might like the look of them too, bit of an expensive aesthetic though :)
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Thanks and you definitely did. I'm glad it was so easy because I was pretty tired by the time I got to it and I just wanted it to be over with. I'm not bothered by GPU sagging if it's just a visual issue. I'm just worried it won't cause any damage.

I'm afraid to use anything white because keeping things tidy and clean isn't one of my strong suits. I bet it would look nice. I saw someone using one of those CableMods in one of their builds and it did look slick but it feels like that's just too much for me. Haven't leveled up enough. :D

Quartz said:
Get yourself some 180 degree power adapters for your GPU to prevent the cable pulling or pushing it down. It also makes it look cleaner.

Another way of helping prevent sag is to put a tension screw in the bottom of the faceplate.

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Those adapters look neat, though I don't think that's what's causing the sag as it was like that before I connected the cables. I tried to do that trick with holding it up and screwing only the top screw but it didn't help. It seems that my problem is that one where I need to put something between the GPU and the case. Funny thing is that case came with this metal bracket that you install from the back that helps support the GPU and I installed that but it still sags. Maybe I'll have another look at it.
 
ryhoper1 said:
hope you had the avengers theme playing when you powered it on for the first time
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More like "Ride of the Valkyries" by Wagner but yeah. ;)

EDIT: I checked the temps on the CPU and they seem to be all over the place. I don't suppose this is normal? Maybe I'll need to re-apply the paste? These values are for IDLE (well, I'm downloading some stuff but nothing else)
temps.png
 
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3700X temps do fluctuate a fair bit - I have mine under a custom loop and it runs 12° hotter on average than my 2080Ti, even after an hour of the loop running. Idle, the GPU sits at 36°C, with the CPU anywhere from 40-47°C. I think it's just one of the quirks of Ryzen:

 
the temps look fine, you might want to see how it handles under load, see where it settles, if its too hot then you should consider to reapply the paste but it looks fine
you can try prime95 to put it underload, but it will get very hot, keep ryzen master open to get the temps, if it gets above 85c then stop it and shout back here with the results
i dont really worry about idle temps tbh
also let us know if its sitting near those temps for awhile if you dont feel much heat from the rad or the fans are not kicking it fully then again it might be something that can be improved

you have done a great job looks really neat, mine is just a web of madness these days lol
 
RedMogg said:
3700X temps do fluctuate a fair bit - I have mine under a custom loop and it runs 12° hotter on average than my 2080Ti, even after an hour of the loop running. Idle, the GPU sits at 36°C, with the CPU anywhere from 40-47°C. I think it's just one of the quirks of Ryzen:
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I did some googling and it seems that such is the case with these CPUs so that's a bit of a relief.

That looks very nice. Love that purple.

IceStorm said:
the temps look fine, you might want to see how it handles under load, see where it settles, if its too hot then you should consider to reapply the paste but it looks fine
you can try prime95 to put it underload, but it will get very hot, keep ryzen master open to get the temps, if it gets above 85c then stop it and shout back here with the results
i dont really worry about idle temps tbh
also let us know if its sitting near those temps for awhile if you dont feel much heat from the rad or the fans are not kicking it fully then again it might be something that can be improved

you have done a great job looks really neat, mine is just a web of madness these days lol
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Thanks for the advice. I ran the test for about 15-20 minutes and the temperatures would settle at 57 or 62 degrees. I didn't feel any heat whatsoever and fans didn't seem to be going crazy either. I have a default profile selected so no OC on the CPU. I did turn on the XMP on the RAM if I remember correctly (not sure if that would have any effect). Seems my idle temp is around 37 degrees now (using ryzen master).

My old one is like that too and I can't be asked to do the cable management there. I did go back to redo it on this new one a little bit. There's only so much I can do with stock cables and limited skill and patience.
cmredoback.jpg
Looks a bit better but not sure if worth it.
cmredofront.jpg
I also tried to bring that PCIe cable from the top, hoping it would be able to "pull" on the GPU and get rid of that slight sag but I don't think it did and it even made it look worse.

pcieredoins.jpg
I brought the cable from the back instead. Not sure if it looks better than the first one (bottom) but I feel like I won't be satisfied no matter what so I'm gonna leave it like that.

Moreover, I added one extra RGB fan in the back to help with the airflow and have a little bit of colour on the other side too.
pcieredoside01.jpg


sadat said:
That is a really nice build mate. Awesome job.
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Thanks mate. Glad you like it.
 
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