My new desktop build!

[Ziggy]

2023 update here: viewtopic.php?f=49&t=52782&start=10#p1184841

Pics added here: http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 8#p1147548

The Background:

I've posted this in the PC Build Thread, but for those that haven't read, my main desktop turned 10 this year and is running Windows 7 which Microsoft will drop support for at the end of the year. All things considered, I decided to build a new desktop before the year is out. But my old PC started giving me some problems the past few weeks. And being that I plan to build a new PC anyway, I don't care to spend any time or money on this old rig just to get it to hold on for a few short months. I also posted in the PC Build Thread that I decided not to wait for the third generation Ryzen to release along with the new chipset. Mainly because I'd much prefer stable releases with a good feedback base, and I'd have to wait several months after release to have that. Also, NewEgg had several deals going on this weekend so I decided to pull the trigger. I took it as an omen.

The Parts:

CPU: Ryzen 7 2700X - I ultimately decided to not make myself nuts over which CPU to get. I could have gotten any i7 or Ryzen 7 and it would have been a huge performance increase over my current i7 965. Also, NewEgg is giving away The Division 2 Gold Edition & World War Z for free with the 2700X right now.

Motherboard: ASUS Prime X470-Pro - It's funny. I picked out the CPU and this mobo and then when I was going to add them to my cart I noticed that NewEgg has a combo deal right now for these two items. So I saved an extra $40!

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) - Went with this because it was on the qualified list. Not much else to say.

PSU: Seasonic FOCUS Plus SSR-650PX - I decided to spend a few extra bucks and went with the 80+ Platinum. 650 watts should be plenty. That's what my last PSU was.

Boot Drive: SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS 500GB - 'nuf said? I love the new M.2 form factor, and I'm excited to see what the PCIe speeds will do. My last desktop had SATA 2.0, so this will be a huge increase.

Data Drive: WD Blue 4TB - My last desktop had a SSD and 3 mechanical drives that didn't total half of this 4TB drive. I can't believe the price of HDDs these days. I wasn't planning on getting this high of capacity, but it just wasn't worth getting less.

GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB SC - This is actually coming out of my current build. My monitor is 1080p 60hz, and I don't have any demanding games, so no sense in getting a new GPU just yet.

OS: Windows 10 Pro - I went with Pro for Remote Desktop. Also, NewEgg had 10% off OSes this weekend!

Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 750D Airflow - Don't judge me! I know this thing is a beast, but I've watched a few videos and it looks like it will be money well spent. I just couldn't find anything that I really liked in the mid tower size. And I think this case can last me the rest of my life as long as the ATX form factor sticks around.

So there it is, my initial build. I have a few ideas for upgrades that I'll make in the near or far future, of course, but this should get me by for quite a while.

[bmoc]

Looks good man. That NVMe SSD is gonna be a HUGE upgrade over a SATA II drive. Good call on waiting to upgrade the GPU. I'd have done the same in your situation.

[Jagosaurus]

Dig it! Once everything is in... Pics or didn't happen!

MoBo specs: Aura Sync LED Lighting - Yes

LED lighting acting as a nightlight for your feet is a must!

Seriously... bookmarking this. I use laptops so much, but always tempted to go all out.

[Ziggy]

Looks good man. That NVMe SSD is gonna be a HUGE upgrade over a SATA II drive. Good call on waiting to upgrade the GPU. I'd have done the same in your situation.

Yeah, I'm very excited to experience the faster SATA and PCIe speeds. SATA 2 is 3 Gbit/s, which is all I had for my SSD (although I suppose I could have gotten a PCIe card). SATA 3 is 6 Gbit/s, and it looks like PCIe x4 will even blow that away!

I'm also stoked for USB 3.1. My last build had only USB 2.0, and for whatever reason I never dropped a USB 3.0 card in there. It's funny though. I've kept an eye on the tech over the past 10 years. You use to have only two USB 3.0 ports on the mobo, with the rest being USB 2.0. Now, boards don't even have USB 2.0 ports. They have headers so you can add them, but the I/O only has USB 3.1 Gen 1 and Gen 2. I didn't come across any AM4 or LGA1151 boards that had USB 2.0 ports. I was thinking about getting a USB 2.0 bracket because it seems like a waste to plug my keyboard and mouse into USB 3 ports LOL.

Dig it! Once everything is in... Pics or didn't happen!

MoBo specs: Aura Sync LED Lighting - Yes

LED lighting acting as a nightlight for your feet is a must!

Seriously... bookmarking this. I use laptops so much, but always tempted to go all out.

I'll definitely post some pics when it's all in!

The RGB stuff is unavoidable! There isn't a single X470 board that doesn't have RGB LEDs! I'm just hoping you can turn it all off! Although I will have to say that there was one purpose that seemed halfway practical. Apparently one of the settings is to sync the LEDs with CPU temp. I could see that being useful, but I'll still turn everything possible off. That case I picked out has a side window, and I really don't care to have my room glowing when I turn off the lights. I'll either have to shut off all RGB lights, and if there's still too many LED indicator lights shining through the window I'll just have to tint or cover the window LOL.

My main complaint when picking out a mobo this time around was the lack of actual choice. I understand that there's an AMD or Intel chipset, so the features a board can have are pretty cut and dry. But it use to be that each board manufacture had their own style, at the very least their own aesthetics. Now, EVERY single board from EVERY manufacture looks IDENTICAL! Black PCB, exact same layout, exact same RGB nonsense. If I showed you a picture for a second each of a Asus, Gigabyte, ASRock, and MSI board you wouldn't be able to tell the difference! Just look at the new X570 boards that are coming out (scroll down a little), there's hardly any visual difference between them! If you Google image search "X58 motherboard" (that's the chipset of my last board) you can see that there's a variety of style going on.

[Ziggy]

Ahhhhh... New motherboard...

New Motherboard.jpg (257.34 KiB) Viewed 35111 times

All of the parts came today, but they will have to wait. For now, I will just marvel at them. Mostly because it's almost 7 PM and my eyelids will start to get heavy in as little as 2 hours. I don't want to rush. The last time I had a build for myself was 10 years ago. I want to savor it! I might wait until Saturday to put it together. So for now, just a teaser pic, but don't worry, I'll be sure to take lots of pics during the build!

[Ziggy]

First post from my new desktop!

Just got Windows 10 installed and have only begun to install apps and tweak settings. So far so good, this computer is running super snappy! Boot up time is crazy fast. I took a bunch of pics during the assembly and I'll be sure to post them when I get the chance.

[Ziggy]

Sorry it took so long to post some pics of the build!




Here's a shot of the CPU and HSF first mounted on the motherboard:






Just a close up shot, now with RAM installed:






This made me laugh a little. I've seen modular PSU cables come in a bag with a draw string before, but I've never seen the power supply itself come in a material bag. You know something is high quality when they go all out on the packaging!






First POST!






IT'S ALIVE!!!!! IT'S ALIVE!!!











I was a little dissappointed with how cheap the back I/O plate was...






It looks especially cheap installed in the most expensive case I've ever owned...






Got the mobo and PSU installed in the case and am starting to route all the power cables:






Got everything mostly installed at this point...
















And I just realized that I should have taken a couple of pics of the outside of the case, but here's a few stock pics of it!











Some thoughts...

The reason you see a 9800 GT in the pics is because I was just using a spare video card to make sure it would POST without issues before assembling everything inside the case. It's much easier to install the CPU and RAM outside of the case. And more importantly, it's a good idea to test everything to make sure something isn't DOA before you go all out installing everything in the case. You'd waste all that time if it turns out the mobo was DOA. You can see my 960 in the pics once the mobo is installed in the case.

The I/O plate is really cheap, but I don't really care. I guess they gotta make up the cost somewhere for all of those LEDs! I did miss having power and reset buttons on the mobo though. I had to go old school and use a small screwdriver to short the pins, which is fine because that's what we all use to do back in the day. And this mobo doesn't have POST code display, which is fine, but it doesn't even have a speaker! The cases don't seem to come with speakers anymore. So if this computer wouldn't POST I would have no idea why since there's no POST code display or beep codes to listen to. Luckily I had some of those little dongle speakers (you can see it installed in the pics).

This was just the bare bones build to get it up and running, I will be adding more parts as I go along.

Look at how small the full size ATX mobo looks inside this monster of a case! LOL. It looks like when you put a mini ATX inside a mid size case.

I would have taken better pics during the build process, but I was just so excited that I kept forgetting to take pics along the way.

[sevin0seven]

looks great Ziggy! love the clean look internally.

[Xeogred]

Sexy pics! Love it Ziggy... but yeah that GPU looks out of place.

Nice case, well... kind of. It looks a lot like mine except mine has more of that grated mesh for the whole front, which after years of use has become a bit of a dusty nightmare, even with some dusters and air dusters... not sure I'll go for this style next time.

The case I have is NZXT Technologies SOURCE 220 CA-SO220-01.

[Ziggy]

This is actually the "air flow edition" or something like that. This case originally had a closed off front, then they made this version. It might end up collecting a lot of dust, but better there than inside the case! The front grill actually removes and cleans easy though. I don't wanna link pics cause I'm on mobile right now, but it has a push-push to click on and off.