[SOLVED] Built my first PC. Whats next?

[Greenczar]

Hello Everyone

3700x
B450 Tomahawk
16GB 3200
MSI 2070 Super

I just finished up my first build yesterday and was able to successfully boot and install windows. I have already update windows to its latest version as well as update Nvidia drivers. Whats next? What other drivers should I be downloading? What stress test should I put my system through? What temp monitor software should I download? What temperatures should be normal during idle and during heavy loads. All help is greatly appreciated.

 

[tennis2]

Windows update takes care of everything you need except the GPU drivers.

I like OCCT for stress testing since it has both GPU and CPU stress tests.
I use F@H GPU-only folding for stress testing GPU settings....

I prefer HWMonitor for system temps. GPUz is nice for GPU stats.

You're likely to download MSI Afterburner, which has it's own system monitoring features.

 

[DrummerManSpike]

Chipset drivers for your CPU are recommended, as well as audio, ethernet, and any other drivers recommended on your motherboard manufacturer's website. You can find them here.

Ryzen Master is a great utility for Ryzen CPUs. It allows you to monitor the performances, temperatures, settings etc. and even has built in functions for testing overclock settings (which aren't saved upon restarting) and stress testing. Another great monitoring software is hwinfo64, which goes extremely in depth with your system stats and performance for every component, while having minimal performance impact itself.

For stress tests and benchmarks that show detailed results and scores, check out CineBench20 for CPU benching, and 3D Mark's Time Spy, which benchmarks both CPU and GPU performance.

If you intend to overclock your GPU, MSI Afterburner is a great and widely used resource to edit clock speeds and set a custom fan curve for the GPU.

For your case fans, the manufacturer will let you know which programs to install for setting curves, and LED settings if applicable. For example, Corsair's LED fans use the iCue software for controlling both speeds and lights. The CPU cooler fan(s) should be set in BIOS for safe measures, but can be controlled in DragonCenter, which should most likely install with your chipset driver.

Many people try to stay under 60 for CPU idle temps, however the important one to keep an eye on is the max load temps. Anywhere 90 and above is considered dangerous, and most Ryzen CPUs have a built in failsafe designed to completely disable the chip if it reaches 95. I believe this feature can be disabled in BIOS but like, there's no reason to do that lmao

For your GPU, it can depend on the block manufacturer (like MSI, PowerColor, XFX etc) and the chip manufacturer (AMD and Nvidia). It's generally best to assume the GPU temperature safe zone aligns with the CPU, however there are outliers like AMD's 5700 series GPU's, which have been stated to safely run at about 110. You'll want to keep average temps for it as low as possible though, as the higher the temperature is, the more performance will show a decrease.