Help! Son wants to build a gaming PC and I am clueless

I think an hour is optimistic.

I rarely build PCs and I think my last one took way over an hour.
Watch YouTube vids. Lots.

Plan ahead carefully.
Which wires are you plugging in where?
How do they get there neatly?
Which way does the CPU go?
Direction of the cooler fan?
Best slots for ram?
How you set them.
The correct slot for the GPU.
Sure the GPU fits the case on top of the motherboard?
Take it really slow.
 
Confused PArent said:
The Asus PSU has dropped to £80, should I get that over the Phanteks ?
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750w for £80 and 850W for £90. both come with 10year warranty and gold rated...phantek is 7yrs I believe unless it's changed, so yes, I'd get the asus. 750 for your build..if you think down the line you'll get a more powerful gpu (psu will last 10years so really will do next upgrade as you'll be upgrading the gpu way before the psu expires(if your son carries on gaming), spend the extra £10 and get the 850w now...rather than find out you need a more powerful psu in future and have to upgrade that again
 
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Craig_d1 said:
750w for £80 and 850W for £90. both come with 10year warranty and gold rated...phantek is 7yrs I believe unless it's changed, so yes, I'd get the asus. 750 for your build..if you think down the line you'll get a more powerful gpu (psu will last 10years so really will do next upgrade as you'll be upgrading the gpu way before the psu expires(if your son carries on gaming), spend the extra £10 and get the 850w now...rather than find out you need a more powerful psu in future and have to upgrade that again
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Unfortunately the 850 is OOS
 
Confused PArent said:
The Asus PSU has dropped to £80, should I get that over the Phanteks ?
Click to expand...
Phanteks is 8 year warranty, so you get a extra 2 years with Asus.

Not sure how good either warranty is as i have never had to RMA anything to them.

Do OCUK deal with the entire warranty period? If so you may as well go with the cheaper Asus and get a extra 2 years warranty.
 
Merry Christmas everyone!
I'm back and we have put it all together

We have turned it on and whilst the fans are spinning they aren't lighting up, is this something I can sort once it's done the first boot and I have windows etc on there?
 
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Confused PArent said:
Merry Christmas everyone!
I'm back and we have put it all together

We have turned it on and whilst the fans are spinning they aren't lighting up, is this something I can sort once it's done the first boot and I have windows etc on there?
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Aye, you're probably just missing a non critical power connection somewhere.

Get everything installed and up and running first, but after that check for a power connection point for a fan/rgb hub assuming the case has one.

Might just need you to plug in a SATA connector or something.
 
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Confused PArent said:
I have a red CPU light on
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Is the PC working, or is it just running with all the fans on?

I'd double check the power connector above the CPU first, often gets missed and hangs the system.

What motherboard/CPU do you have? There's a small possibility that it doesn't support it "out of the box", but would need more information to confirm that.

Make sure the RAM is in the right slots as per the manual too.
 
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Tetras said:
Is the PC working, or is it just running with all the fans on?

I'd double check the power connector above the CPU first, often gets missed and hangs the system.

What motherboard/CPU do you have? There's a small possibility that it doesn't support it "out of the box", but would need more information to confirm that.

Make sure the RAM is in the right slots as per the manual too.
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I redid the cpu and now the red light is DRAM.
Tried raking them out and putting back in again but no joy.

Haven't put the SATA in yet, should I do that and see if that helps? Not sure if that could possibly be related.

No idea if working as not connected to a monitor atm, had to bring it back downstairs to sort red-light as upstairs is carpeted.
 
You said the fans didnt light up but were spinning, was the PC booting at that point?

Is it now not booting at all?

Power on and leave it for 15mins for the RAM to possibly train.

If nothing on screen after that (you have the video cable plugged into the GPU not the motherboard yes?) then try a CMOS reset and do that again, if the light still says RAM after that 2nd time then try each stick on its own in each slot.
 
First boot for AM5 can take a good 10-15 minutes too, just to add. It's due to the way RAM is set up, so if things don't immediately work on launch don't be too worried.

Go make a cup of tea, come back in half an hour after powering on to be safe. If nothing is happening go back to the drawing board.
 
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Sorry! We gave up and watched a film.
I've brought the monitor downstairs now.

Video cable is plugged into GPU.

Powered on and its saying 'no signal' on the screen. All fans are spinning, still no lights and back to red CPU now. Hoping I can figure this out, our son is gutted.
 
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Tetras said:
Is the PC working, or is it just running with all the fans on?

I'd double check the power connector above the CPU first, often gets missed and hangs the system.

What motherboard/CPU do you have? There's a small possibility that it doesn't support it "out of the box", but would need more information to confirm that.

Make sure the RAM is in the right slots as per the manual too.
Click to expand...
We have the Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX and AMD Ryzen 5 7600.

Tried turning it on and leaving it for 20 mins or so but still no signal on monitor and red light cycles from CPU to DRAM then sticks there.
 
If all the power cables has been properly plugin, cpu 12V eps cable, gpu pcie cable.

My guess is bent pins on the cpu socket, the pins can easily get damage/bent during installation if not careful.

The cpu needs to be aligned, slowly and carefully fitted to the socket otherwise the pins get bent, gone are the days of easy cpu installation compared to the AM4 platform.
 
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freddie64 said:
What is the full spec you ended up buying?

A few photos of the internals may help.
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This is the full spec.

I'll get some internals, what pics would be helpful?

Motherboard - Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor
Memory- Corsair Vengeance EXPO/XMP 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit
Case - Montech XR ATX Mid Tower Case with fans - Black
Storage - Team Group MP44L 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive
Power supply - Asus TUF Gaming 750W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply
Graphics Card - Zotac GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge 8GB Graphics Card

Should I take it all apart and start again?
 
Confused PArent said:
This is the full spec.

I'll get some internals, what pics would be helpful?

Motherboard - Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor
Memory- Corsair Vengeance EXPO/XMP 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit
Case - Montech XR ATX Mid Tower Case with fans - Black
Storage - Team Group MP44L 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive
Power supply - Asus TUF Gaming 750W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply
Graphics Card - Zotac GeForce RTX 4060 Twin Edge 8GB Graphics Card

Should I take it all apart and start again?
Click to expand...
Take the CPU out of the motherboard and check the socket on the motherboard for bent/misaligned pins.
 
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