PC Building Guide and Discussion #11 (everything is expensive...)

[Kestrel]

I went with the X370 and now I'm locked in. Now I just need to wait and then find a time to build it with a friend.

I think if I can build it this weekend is going to depend on whether or not they have Motherboard + Memory in stock in Toronto area or not.

Right on - I hope it all gets there this week for you - when you're ready to do a build, waiting a weekend can be a killer

 

[Knave]

Right on - I hope it all gets there this week for you - when you're ready to do a build, waiting a weekend can be a killer

It's going to be tight. It's all about the RAM now. I ordered something at lunch Tuesday from NJ and it claims it will be arriving tomorrow night. I ordered the RAM early this morning.

The motherboard is definitely coming from Toronto so I should get that tomorrow. The RAM has not given me a tracking number yet and was billed separately despite being in the same cart so I suspect that's NJ. If I get a tracking number and it's shipped to NY before tonight, there's a chance I'll get it Friday.

All I know is Purolator's tracking is lacking compared to the major courier services (which I would assume might charge more?). I've ordered a lot of stuff that has come through DHL and Fedex in the past and they are very good at updating what exactly is going on, when it goes on and they have great networks so usually you don't have something sitting for a full day. But Purolator updates are like: 9:50pm EST, arrived at sorting facility.

 

[Kestrel]

It's going to be tight. It's all about the RAM now. I ordered something at lunch Tuesday from NJ and it claims it will be arriving tomorrow night. I ordered the RAM early this morning.

The motherboard is definitely coming from Toronto so I should get that tomorrow. The RAM has not given me a tracking number yet and was billed separately despite being in the same cart so I suspect that's NJ. If I get a tracking number and it's shipped to NY before tonight, there's a chance I'll get it Friday.

All I know is Purolator's tracking is lacking compared to the major courier services (which I would assume might charge more?). I've ordered a lot of stuff that has come through DHL and Fedex in the past and they are very good at updating what exactly is going on, when it goes on and they have great networks so usually you don't have something sitting for a full day. But Purolator updates are like: 9:50pm EST, arrived at sorting facility.

The update thing... I think that's Canada Post wide, not just Purolator. I won't complain too much though - I like the delivery speeds I get from Canada Post/Purolator. USPS on the other hand... amazingly horrible tacking! I won't do UPS/FedEx from the US because of brokerage fees - I will do USPS, but only for items I can wait for, and won't have an anxiety attack over if there's no tracking. FedEx/UPS within Canada - I usually still don't use them, because of having to be there to receive shipments, but yeah, the tracking is usually a lot better!

Is this your first build? You probably said, but I don't remember.

 

[Knave]

The update thing... I think that's Canada Post wide, not just Purolator. I won't complain too much though - I like the delivery speeds I get from Canada Post/Purolator. USPS on the other hand... amazingly horrible tacking! I won't do UPS/FedEx from the US because of brokerage fees - I will do USPS, but only for items I can wait for, and won't have an anxiety attack over if there's no tracking. FedEx/UPS within Canada - I usually still don't use them, because of having to be there to receive shipments, but yeah, the tracking is usually a lot better!

Is this your first build? You probably said, but I don't remember.

Yeah first ever. Thought about it before but I just bought premade ones. The Ryzen and powersupply arrived at lunch.

 

[Kestrel]

Yeah first ever. Thought about it before but I just bought premade ones. The Ryzen and powersupply arrived at lunch.

My number one pointer then - when you first push that power button - if it doesn't power on, or if it powers on but you get nothing on your monitor - don't panic. Even as someone who has built and upgraded a number of computers, I can often forget to plug something in. It's not at all unusual to forget something even when you're experienced - on your very first build, it's almost a rule I'm also embarrassed to admit that on my Threadripper build, I put some of my RAM in the wrong slots - I had never built a 4 channel system before, and I just assumed that if you only had 4 sticks of RAM, it all went on the same side of the processor... not the case.

Anyhow - I think you'll be even more pleased with your computer because you built it, just make sure that you're ready to not panic if things don't go exactly as you think they should the first time through.

 

[Knave]

Still no word on the RAM. So likely next week.

 

[Kestrel]

Still no word on the RAM. So likely next week.

That sucks! Go steal a stick from a friend

 

[Knave]

The SSD drive is tiny.

Also RAM has a Purolator number, is in New Jersey and has now been "packaging" for 2 full work days.

 

[Kestrel]

The SSD drive is tiny.

Also RAM has a Purolator number, is in New Jersey and has now been "packaging" for 2 full work days.

What did you get for an SSD? Is it a 2.5" drive, or is it an m.2 drive?

 

[Knave]

What did you get for an SSD? Is it a 2.5" drive, or is it an m.2 drive?

It says m.2 on it. It's still compatible, right? RIGHT? I got the 1TB one. It's shorter than my finger and only slightly wider.

 

[SniperHF]

It says m.2 on it. It's still compatible, right? RIGHT? I got the 1TB one. It's shorter than my finger and only slightly wider.

Yeah m.2 drives are tiny (SATA drives are tiny too they just have a giant shell around them and a bigger PCB).

If you got this board you linked earlier:
ASUS Prime X370-Pro AM4 AMD X370 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 HDMI ATX Motherboards - AMD - Newegg.ca

It has an m.2 slot and will work just fine.

Storage Devices

SATA 6Gb/s
8 x SATA 6.0Gb/s ports (gray)
M.2
AMD Ryzen Processors:
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242 / 2260 / 2280 / 22110 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x4 mode)

AMD 7th Generation A-series / Athlon Processors:
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242 / 2260 / 2280 / 22110 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x2 mode)
SATA RAID
0/1/10

 

[Knave]

Yeah m.2 drives are tiny (SATA drives are tiny too they just have a giant shell around them and a bigger PCB).

If you got this board you linked earlier:
ASUS Prime X370-Pro AM4 AMD X370 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 HDMI ATX Motherboards - AMD - Newegg.ca

It has an m.2 slot and will work just fine.

Yeah I grabbed that one. I just assumed hard drives were hard drives and lucked out on getting the right motherboard. That could have gone really wrong.

 

[Kestrel]

It says m.2 on it. It's still compatible, right? RIGHT? I got the 1TB one. It's shorter than my finger and only slightly wider.

Haha you sound worried. As far as I'm aware, I believe pretty much all X370 boards will take at least one m.2. That's one thing I do like about my X399 board, it'll take 3 - but I wouldn't pay $500 just for that feature

Just for the future - if you ever start looking at adding another SSD drive, check to see if you have another m.2 slot or not - if you've got the board Sniper is giving specs on, it sounds like it only has the one slot. If that's the case, unless you are replacing the original m.2 drive, you would want to get a 2.5" drive instead. But, at 1TB, I think you'll be fine for awhile!

 

[SniperHF]

I won't buy m.2 drives myself. Maybe if I was building a SFF system but even then most of them can take a 2.5 drive.
I like being able to take a drive from any system and put it in any of my desktops/laptops.

A few extra SATA cables is a small price to pay to be able to do that.

 

[Kestrel]

I won't buy m.2 drives myself. Maybe if I was building a SFF system but even then most of them can take a 2.5 drive.
I like being able to take a drive from any system and put it in any of my desktops/laptops.

A few extra SATA cables is a small price to pay to be able to do that.

Makes sense. My new system will probably be low on drives for quite a long time since my Plex server is already rocking tons of storage, but I get in an "I want to be able to stuff as many drives in this system as I can" frame of mind. If I remember correctly (which I might not), I think my motherboard will handle 3 m.2's and 8 SATA drives simultaneously, so I don't see myself ever actually maxing it out, but... you know, once you get certain PC building habits, they're hard to fight

 

[SniperHF]

frame of mind

I had 5 in my main system at one point but I cannibalized 2 of them for something else.

The shell on one of my old external drives went bad a few years back and the still working drive is just sitting around. I should probably connect it to my NAS and see if it goes.

 

[Knave]

So should I start building without the RAM and then snap that into place after I come home from work Monday?

Or just wait for next weekend?

 

[Kestrel]

So should I start building without the RAM and then snap that into place after I come home from work Monday?

Or just wait for next weekend?

Definitely up to you on that one... if it were me, I'd rather it be all ready to go as soon as RAM comes in if my other choice is waiting for another weekend.

 

[Knave]

Definitely up to you on that one... if it were me, I'd rather it be all ready to go as soon as RAM comes in if my other choice is waiting for another weekend.

Alright I'll start putting some of the stuff in the case I think (bluray and 3.5 hard drives). Should I remove bottom HDD bay if I don't plan on using it ever? I think one cage is more than enough.

 

[Kestrel]

Alright I'll start putting some of the stuff in the case I think (bluray and 3.5 hard drives). Should I remove bottom HDD bay if I don't plan on using it ever? I think one cage is more than enough.

Depends... are you wanting to remove it to make room for something else? I guess it doesn't hurt to remove it, but I generally wouldn't bother unless I needed the room for something.

 

[Bocephus86]

Newegg has a couple of decent weekend sales on GPUs (I think, forget how much these used to be before the mining craze but I think they are both close to normal):

1050ti 4 gig: $235 (GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1050 Ti DirectX 12 GV-N105TWF2OC-4GD 4GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 ATX Video Card - Newegg.com)

10606 gig: $370 (MSI GeForce GTX 1060 DirectX 12 GTX 1060 GAMING X 6G 6GB 192-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready ATX Video Card - Newegg.com)

 

[Knave]

Depends... are you wanting to remove it to make room for something else? I guess it doesn't hurt to remove it, but I generally wouldn't bother unless I needed the room for something.

I borrowed some from brother's computer for like 20 minutes once I had everything else set up. The m2 drive is not in because I'm not sure how to install it or if I need an adapter (the motherboard said I need a separate adapter?).

It didn't turn on because I forgot to hit the back power switch but once that was on, it turned on. I then grabbed a monitor and took the HDMI cable from my TV to plug it in.

So now I'm thinking - do I need to go to Canada Computers and buy an adapter for the m2 drive and I'll likely need to pick up at least 1 monitor adapter while there. Might as well pick up a large USB drive too. So if I'm there and if they have the same brand is getting an extra 16GB of the same ram possible or worth it? I'm not in a major rush but if the extra 16 will help performance (not a giant jump but a noticeable performance)... I could get it up and running this weekend.

Here is it

 

[SniperHF]

I borrowed some from brother's computer for like 20 minutes once I had everything else set up.

It was DDR4 and clipped in properly?

The m2 drive is not in because I'm not sure how to install it or if I need an adapter (the motherboard said I need a separate adapter?).

Shouldn't?

What's the exact motherboard and m.2 drive you got?

It didn't turn on because I forgot to hit the back power switch but once that was on, it turned on. I then grabbed a monitor and took the HDMI cable from my TV to plug it in.

So now I'm thinking - do I need to go to Canada Computers and buy an adapter for the m2 drive and I'll likely need to pick up at least 1 monitor adapter while there. Might as well pick up a large USB drive too. So if I'm there and if they have the same brand is getting an extra 16GB of the same ram possible or worth it? I'm not in a major rush but if the extra 16 will help performance (not a giant jump but a noticeable performance)

I don't think more than 16 GB Ram would actually help you much (more likely at all even)

 

[Knave]

It was DDR4 and clipped in properly?



Shouldn't?

What's the exact motherboard and m.2 drive you got?



I don't think more than 16 GB Ram would actually help you much (more likely at all even)

Yeah it was DDR4 and similar enough to what I'm getting.

As for the m.2 drive, I clipped it in to a slot which says it's m.2 I guess I'll find out Monday. If more RAM isn't going to make much difference I'll probably wait it out.

 

[Kestrel]

Yeah it was DDR4 and similar enough to what I'm getting.

As for the m.2 drive, I clipped it in to a slot which says it's m.2 I guess I'll find out Monday. If more RAM isn't going to make much difference I'll probably wait it out.

I agree with Sniper - the only reason I have 32 GB of RAM is that my computer runs 4 channels of RAM - that, and I really did not want to buy 4 GB sticks, and a 32 GB kit came on sale just when I was looking fro RAM. If I had had a two channel motherboard, I would have gone 16 GB. In my case, running a two stick kit would have cut my bandwidth in half, but that's a Threadripper thing - if anything, I believe that running only two sticks will make things easier in your case - it will be easier to get the RAM running its advertised speed - or to overclock it if you decide you want to (unnecessary, but some people would want to anyway).

The m.2 drive should work kinda like lego - it should just fit in the slot that says m.2, and use a screw to lock it into place. If you're not sure, can you type exactly what the motherboard manual said about an adaptor? I'm confused by the idea that it would need one... unless - I think you got an ASUS, and I remember that some of the ASUS boards have a PCIe card available, that will let you run four NVME m.2 drives, I believe in RAID - if that's what it's about, that's not at all what you are trying to do.