First Gaming PC

[Furnace Inferno]

I've been lurking on this website for a while now eyeing all the machinery and after 6/7 years of the same consoles, ridiculous DLC prices (that almost never get reduced), expensive proprietary hardware etc., I decided it was time to dump my PS3 and 360 and get some more freedom and significantly more power in the PC world.

The initial cost might be expensive but I figure if I play 100+ games again I'll make that initial hit back anyway so I've sold all my console stuff this last week and now I play the waiting game.

So today's postal delivery was:

 

[Josh Weston]

Moved to Project Logs. This way you can add pictures as more packages arrive, etc.
Rig Galleries are generally for the 'finished product'.
Best of luck with your build

 

[Whaler_99]

Welcome to the club of PC Owners.

 

[andrevautour]

Good luck with your new build

 

[Furnace Inferno]

Moved to Project Logs. This way you can add pictures as more packages arrive, etc.
Rig Galleries are generally for the 'finished product'.
Best of luck with your build

I did think that but I wasn't sure since I won't really be building anything.

Thanks for the warm welcome guys.

 

[Josh Weston]

It's more the way this thread is developing. You're showing pictures of the items you've ordered as they're being delivered, and if you wished you could show yourself building the computer step by step etc.
When the finished product is completed you could always post a new thread up in the Rig Gallery.

Hope this has cleared some things up

 

[CPMFW]

good luck with your build mate

 

[SuB]

Welcome to Pro land nice to have you

 

[Furnace Inferno]

Got back after collecting my PC yesterday. Had two more packages, checked everything and I'm missing the DVI to HDMI adapter so I couldn't even use it :banghead: .

So I decided to move stuff around and tidy the cables up, not that I've done it before but I decided how hard can it be!

The first shot is before and the second after. The easy part was getting the front looking ok, turns out you need to tidy the back as you go if you want that to look pretty.

 

[jamesriley94]

Gaming rig with WiFi? You need to sort that

You'd be better off with powerline adapters. WiFi is a bit unstable still for gaming.

 

[Furnace Inferno]

Unfortunately it is my only option as the router is in a different room and I don't really take competitive multiplayer seriously anymore, the console communities just killed all my desire to play with other 'people'.

 

[jamesriley94]

Powerline adapters? The router doesn't need to be in the same room. At home, mine's downstairs, PC is upstairs and they give me a far better connection.

Not just in gaming I'll add - WiFi is pretty terrible all round on a desktop.

 

[Furnace Inferno]

If I have issues then I will switch to that but I may as well try it first.

I've found a DVI to VGA adapter so I hooked it up to my TV, first issue I turn it on and it just shows the Windows 8 logo and I assume it was frozen since it didn't do anything else for 5 mins and there was no loading icon.

So I restart and load into the Bios to check the settings, in a default profile it is showing as the Vcore being manually set to 1.45v surely that is ridiculously high?! The idle temp was at 38C though, I looked at a profile set to 4.5GHz OC and that also is at 1.45v and the temp went up to 39/40C

Then I backed out and Windows now loads this time but it did take a while considering the OS is on a 128GB SSD. Once on the desktop I looked around to see everything was being detected fine, which it was. It detected my TV as 1024x768 native so I switched it to 1366x768 and went on the Hitman Absolution benchmark with everything at stock settings it ran but only at 62fps avg.

Next I tried AC3 and I just get a blank screen as my TV no longer detects any signal but everything seems to be running fine with the activity LED blinking on the front I/O and the motherboard LED's just show AA.

I didn't have any sound plugged in so I'm not sure if it was actually doing anything and had frozen again or if it was trying to output a resolution the TV couldn't handle over VGA.

Will a fresh install alleviate these issue as I bought it 2nd hand or is there an issue with the hardware? I'm pretty sure I need to be changing the Vcore though.

 

[Whaler_99]

Sounds like something been messing with the BIOS - first off, see if you can reset it to defaults. That way, you know if you have other problems, like in windows, most likely not the BIOS or the overclock.

Second - a TV? I might think it is having problems handling the output from the computer. Is this your only display on it? I would really recomend a monitor so again, you can rule out a signal issue or the TV.
Loading up games, they may try and run at the default they detect your graphics card can handle, which is no where near what a TV can do.

But, first up, I would get the BIOS reset. Also, yes, a fresh install would be in order if second hand. You have no clue what other "tweaks" may have been done in Windows. Also, before you re-install, first go and download the latest drivers for your mobo, sound, video, etc., say onto a USB stick, so you all set to go when you start the rebuild.

 

[Furnace Inferno]

Yeh, there is something odd going on with AC3, there is audio and I can alt-tab out, Hitman is fine though.

I changed the bios settings and got 4.7GHz at 1.375v and that was working fine until I updated the bios and now it crashes in windows after 10 seconds with any OC.

I can't work out what is going on, idle temps were about 37-38C and then when I tried prime95 it instantly jumped to 88-91C and instantly drops to 50C when I stop it.

At stock it goes up to 60C. Does it sound like a mounting issue with the cooler or just a weak CPU?

 

[Whaler_99]

You could always try redoing the thermal past and see if that helps with a good quality one.

 

[Furnace Inferno]

I've done another run through with prime95 stock, idle ~33C/load ~60C. Now stock the 32GB Kingston Hyper X Genesis memory runs at 1333MHz 1.5V, when I switched it to 1600MHz 1.65v my load temps were up 10C to 70C before any overclocking.

So that seems to be the main cause, where should I proceed from here?

 

[Whaler_99]

I am not sure if those temps are good with the H100 or not. You are getting temps similar to my one system with the Antec Khuler 920. Are the fans on your Corsair spining up? Maybe swap in some better fans to bring the temps down.

 

[Furnace Inferno]

I have the fans on the lowest mode and they do spin up, the middle and top setting are overly loud for me.

I also remounted just to make sure and the temps are still the same. At the stock 3.8GHz turbo it says it is drawing 150-160W in prime and that raises the temp to 71C on the hottest core.

An overclock of 4.4GHz ups that to 170-180W and then it hits 91C before I stop it and goes up to 1.426v.

I wouldn't bother overclocking were it not for the fact that in the Hitman benchmark I go from 67fps avg, 54min at 4.5GHz to 55fps avg, 42min at stock.

 

[Whaler_99]

You may also just gotten the short end on the silicon lottery on that CPU and it just wont overclock well. But, if the fans are too loud, definately look at some better ones. This will help temps and stay quiter.