My First PC Build

This blog is long and is intended to be a humorous account of my first PC build. Maybe being blatantly honest about where I went wrong can help someone someday :)

Enjoy!

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So a few weeks ago, I was sitting on my couch googling random curiosities when I came across an article on VR. I wish I could tell you what the article was but I didn’t actual read it. It simply reminded me that VR gaming is something I’ve been interested in for a while.

Now, I’m not a gamer. Not even remotely close. The only game I ever got good at was Mario Kart (which I still love playing to this day) so I have no credibility in the gaming world and have had no reason to buy a PC with the power to support such things. I am a programmer though. So, I may not have a gaming PC but the machines I own do have some serious processing power. I’ve been hoping for a while that one of the VR systems will be supported by one of my existing machines so I have periodically been looking up the required specs for the different VR systems. Running into this article sent me back down that rabbit hole. The answer was still no (at least not yet).

This thought train led me to looking at different PCs and found a website that lets you pick out everything from the wattage to the memory and CPU. I quickly discovered that while I knew that generally more is better, I was basically flying blind. I didn’t like that feeling very much and was also staring at computer priced at over $4k so I decided to look into building my own.

I spent the next week asking my “hardware nerd” friends a million questions and googling everything under the sun. I probably spent over 15 hours researching different parts and comparing products. I will say that this guide helped me out significantly -> https://lifehacker.com/5828747/how-to-build-a-computer-from-scratch-the-complete-guide. While some of the content is rather out of date, many of the concepts still apply and were backed up when I asked around about some of them. I decided my initial build was not going to be top-of-the-line everything but enough of everything to support both VR gaming and development while also having the ability to enhance down the line.

Then came build day. Here is what I bought (~$2300)

Motherboard — MSI X299 Tomahawk AC (https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/X299-TOMAHAWK-AC.html)

CPU — Intel I9-7920 X-Series (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core/x-series/i9-7920x.html)

GPU —Gigabyte AORUS Radeon RX 580 (https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Graphics-Card/GV-RX580AORUS-8GD-rev-10-11#kf)

Heatsink — Enermax ETS-T50 AXE (http://www.enermax.com/home.php?fn=eng/product_a1_1_1&lv0=49&lv1=103&no=322

RAM — Corsair DDR4 3200 MHz 2X16GB (https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/Memory-Size/Vengeance-PRO-RGB-White/p/CMW32GX4M2C3000C15W)

SSD — Samsung V-NAND DDS 860 PRO (https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/global.semi.static/Samsung_SSD_860_PRO_Data_Sheet_Rev1_1.pdf)

HDD — WD Blue 3.5" Hard Drive 2TB 6GB/s (https://www.wd.com/products/internal-storage/wd-blue-pc-desktop-hard-drive.html)

Tower — Thermaltake View 71 RGB ATX (https://www.thermaltake.com/products-model.aspx?id=C_00003129)

Power Supply — RMx Series™ RM1000x — 1000 Watt 80 PLUS® Gold Certified Fully Modular PSU (https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Power/Plug-Type/RMx-Series/p/CP-9020094-NA)

When I got home with all of the supplies, I watched a few build videos and got to work.

The Tower

The first thing I opened is the tower. It was definitely interesting getting it out of the box as it weighs over 40 lbs and it packed in there tight. After getting pretty creative with it, I finally get it out and on my table and start inspecting it. I pulled out the instruction manual to make sure I understood what was what and immediately found a warning on heatsink height (couldn’t be over 190mm).

“Awesome, well that would have been good to know on the outside of the box! I checked my heatsink and… whew… 160mm.”

I then proceeded to take both side panels and noticed they hinged from the bottom instead of the back like the manual and pictured. I thought it was odd but must have been a recent revision and moved on.

The CPU

After feeling content with my tower inspection, I got the motherboard out and put in on the box it came in. I quickly found where the CPU goes and followed the instructions to put it in it’s spot. Then ensued my first minor panic attack. I had double and triple checked the position of the CPU but closing the motherboard brackets was proving to take much more force than I was comfortable with. Worse yet, it was making a weird crackling sound when I applied even the least amount of pressure. I thought for sure I was breaking the most important part of the computer. I stopped and did some research on how much pressure should be applied and eventually found a video that mentioned that applying some pressure is expected. Falling right into confirmation bias, I took the video at its word and clamped down the CPU. I then went back to my build video I had been following and the next thing the guy says is “you shouldn’t have to apply pressure”.

Well… Shit. Nothing I can do about it now, might as well keep going.

The Heatsink

Only on step two and I’ve already made a mess-

Next, I opened up the heatsink. It was much bigger than I anticipated. I pulled out its manual and started following it step by step. Everything was fine until it told me to watch out for the direction of air flow but didn’t tell me which way it should be flowing. I understood that this was probably because different towers have different airflow and motherboard locations but also needed some indication of what “normal” is. I even tried placing the motherboard in the tower so I can figure it out by making the airflow go out the back of the tower only to realize, I have no idea how to situate the motherboard. Ugh. I ended up finding a image in the manual that had the flow direction indicators visible and how they applied it to the motherboard so I decided to just match that and fix it later if it was wrong. Finally, I got the heatsink all applied and locked down but there was this extra wire hanging from the fan that didn’t have any instructions referencing it or obvious purpose.

This sent me for a loop. I thought for sure I installed something wrong or missed a step. I went back through all of the steps and found nothing. I then googled everything I can about this heatsink and didn’t find anything until I happened upon a review that mentioned an “awkward hanging button”.

“OHHH!! It’s a button!!”

I then proceed to press the button and realized it’s there to change the LED settings on the fan. Man I felt like an idiot. Problem solved! As an added perk, I’ve also fine-tuned my cross-checking how-to guide method —

Putting the Motherboard in the Tower

Ok, I had already punted on this once but it was officially time to figure out how the motherboard gets situation in the computer. I found a video that told me to find the little plate from the motherboard box that snaps into the tower. Found the plate… look at the back of the tower… huh????

I’ve got to be missing something. I proceeded to spend the next hour taking every part of the tower I could apart before punting on this… again. Needless to say, this process isn’t making me feel very smart so far.

Moving on, I continue following the instructions to put the motherboard in the tower (now lying on it’s side). I find the screws and manage to line them up and as I’m placing the motherboard in it’s spot I find the missing opening I was supposed to put the plate in to… on the bottom of the tower. I immediately thought that was strange.

“How are all the cords going to plug into the PC on the bottom? Maybe I should have done more research into this tower.”

I temporarily dismissed the thought and was just happy to finally know where that plate was supposed to go. I put the plate in and secured the mother board.

Power Supply

The power supply was pretty straightforward. I quickly found the spot it belonged and started aligning the screws. I noticed that the plug for the power supply was also on the bottom like the motherboard.

“Well, at least they are consistent.”

I finished placing the power supply and stood the tower back up. I then compared the placement of the parts to an image in the tower’s manual and it hit me.

I’ve had the tower on it’s back this whole time. GO FIGURE! The side panels do not hinge on the bottom and the cords don’t come out the bottom, I just don’t know which way is up! (if you look back on the picture of the mess, you can see the tower lying on it’s back — super obvious if you’re looking for it).

Feeling very humbled and quite a bit relieved in my buying choices, I moved on.

Video Card

So this particular tower comes with a vertical mount for the video card.

Not sure what the benefit of vertically mounting is and not wanting to add any complication, I decide to avoid the vertical mount and just mount it normally. This worked fine until I realized that the video card doesn’t fit in the “regular” mounts with the vertical mount still in place. I then looked into removing the vertical mount but found that it would take a really small screwdriver (like, really small) and I didn’t have it on hand.

“Ok, I guess I’m vertically mounting the thing. But how do I connect it to the motherboard?”

I eventually found that I need a PCI-e extender to do this. I don’t have that either. Guess I’m going back to the store. I mount the video card vertically without connecting it to the motherboard and run to Microcenter. I bought both a screwdriver with all of the smallest interchangeable bits and their last PCI-e extender (no one knew what I was talking about what I said “PCI-e extender” but they understood “vertical mounting kit”… I still don’t understand that one).

I get back home and immediately try to connect the video card using the PCI-e extender but find that no matter what I do, it just doesn’t fit right. Admitting defeat, I open up the screwdriver kit and proceed to try to remove the vertical mount only to find that not even the smallest bit will unscrew it. Baffled, I google around to see if anyone else has run into this and… nothing. After a solid 30 minutes, I eventually look at the other side of the screw to find that I’m been trying to unscrew the wrong side. Wow… just wow. Looks like I didn’t need the screwdriver set after all but I finally have a connected video card.

SSD HHD and RAM

Luckily, connecting the different types of memory and storage was pretty straightforward. It took me a little while to figure out all of the motherboard connections and my fingers were starting to hurt but there was a light at the end of the tunnel!

BOOTING IT UP!

I had started this process at 8am and it was now 11pm and I was super determined to finish this. Now came the moment of truth but remember, I’m still scared I may have damaged the CPU in step 1. I plug it all in and everything appears to boot up but the monitor gives me…. nothing. Shit.Oh wait, I forgot to plug my monitor into a power supply.

“Geez, what’s wrong with me? I suppose I have the excuse of being tired now at least.“

I plugged the monitor in and… nothing. Well I wasn’t about to give up so I start researching dead parts and what could cause the computer to start the monitor to show nothing. It took me a while to realize the very handy debug code on the motherboard that said “03”. What the heck does that mean? Something about memory…. hmmmmm. I pick up the motherboard box and look at the memory requirements again and it says DDR4 4266.

“What?? I swear I made sure my memory (DDR4 3600) was compatible!!”

Feeling defeated, I start looking up places to buy the appropriate RAM while trying to come to terms with the fact that I won’t be able to solve the problem immediately. Sending me into further defeat, I find that no store in Houston sells RAM higher than 3600 and Amazon will take a week to ship it. I reluctantly order the parts and send a quick vent text to a friend (you know, one of the “hardware nerds” I mentioned earlier). Needing reassurance, I pull out the motherboard manual and start looking at the rest of the requirements and found the truth. The motherboard’s real RAM requirements are DDR4 2666+.

“What?? Why did the outside of the box say something different?? So frustrating!”

Well, talk about an emotional roller coaster but that obviously wasn’t the problem. I eventually found that I didn’t put one of the sticks of memory in DIMM1 and once I fixed that, I got the BIOS screen and we were rocking and rolling. It took me a little while to set up a bootable USB drive because I didn’t get a CD drive (who uses CDs anymore??) but hit success and got the minimum installs done by 1am.

Whew. Time for bed!