Gaming Build Advice for a first time builder

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Dr Clockworks

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Dec 6, 2011
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Hello, everyone! As the title of this thread reads, I am needing some help with my build.

Purchase Date: As of right now I am planning on purchasing every part of the build during the second week in January.

Budget: I'd like to keep it at $1000.00 but if it seems like this isn't enough then I can go a little higher. So I'd cap it off at $1,200.00

System Usage: It will almost be entirely for gaming. The only games I won't play on it will be FPS. I'd rather play FPS games on a console. The majority of games that I will be playing will be MMORPG games, such as Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2. A few RPG games, such as Skyrim and The Witcher 2. And a few other games with interesting multiplayer like LoL and DoTa 2. I know that The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2 haven't been released yet so I guess with MMORPG games the most difficult to run as of right now would be Rift? I've been out of PC gaming for quite a while now so I'm not really sure.

Parts Not Required: Mouse, Keyboard, Speakers. The OS will be Win7 home 64 bit.

Country: United States

Parts Preference: I have almost no preference as of right now. I've been back and forth between AMD and Intel for the past 3 months that I feel that I really don't have a clue.

Preferred website: I'd really like to get everything from Newegg. I live in a very rural community so there are no retail shops that I know of where I could buy any of my components. Other than a Best Buy but from what I looked at they didn't have much of a selection of anything.

Overclocking: Maybe for the CPU but I won't OC anything else.

SLI/Crossfire: Maybe in the near future. But for now I am only looking to use one card.

Monitor Resolution: 1680x1050

Comments: I really want a large case. Plenty of room for future upgrades, fans, and a nice window to view it all. So far the Cooler Master HAF X is what I'm set on at the moment. If anyone has any opinions on it or a better case please do say so. Multiple large fans and LED's are a must. I do love my flashy lights.

I pretty much need advice on every component. I understand what each part does and I understand what most of the details on each component mean but since this is my first build I really don't know anything in terms of build quality or performance from certain brands as compared to others.

I really appreciate any help that I can get on this subject! Please let me know if I left anything important out or you may just ask!
 

Doesn't the motherboard control the fans? Or does that depend on the motherboard? The Extremem IV Gene Z has a bunch of 4-pin plugs on the mobo that are referred to as CPU fans - I was assuming "it" controlled them vs. another piece of HW...
 


Yes the pre testing is usually done before installation and you should have a little tiny speaker to plug in that came with your mobo that beeps when your board posts.
You should have your ram,cpu,gpu,psu,and monitor all hooked up and then turn on your system.
Some boards would require that you jump the power over the two power pins on your mobo ,but your maximus has the handy start and reset buttons to use. When it comes on you will hear a beep when it posts but if not using the speaker you can just watch the screen and you will see the asus flash screen and your bios screen should load. If this happens you are set to go. If it doesn't, you can look at the little led display on your mobo (beside the reset switch) and look up the code you see there in your mobo manual to see what is causing an issue. could be bad ram or just not seated well in the slot, or any other loose connection.
All of this being done before actual install can save you the trouble of having to remove it if a faulty board.
Once you are sure your board posted you can turn it off by either switching the on off switch on your psu, or just unplugging from the wall. Then you are ready to install it all.
It is not a required step to take , just a handy trouble saving step.

Just how bad is your i\o shield alignment? Have you double checked to make sure that you have snapped the shield plate fully into place? Also are you sure that the mobo is screwed down in the right standoffs?

I assume that you have the right standoffs in place but one of the most normal mistakes to make for a new builder is to have an extra standoff somewhere that they should have removed that is touching a solder point on the back of the board. When they power up for the first time they short out and ruin most of their brand new components
 



Yes on the maximus iv gene-z , there are 4 4pin fan headers spread out on your board for chassis fans.This is in addition to the two for your cpu fans.
If your fans are plugged in to them you have software utility called ai suite II that came with your mobo, that has fan controls where you can extensively control fan functions.
If your fans dont have the little 4 pin connectors you can plug them into whatever plug they fit from psu for now and then order adaptors from your fan connector to the 4 pin headers.
Here is a link to a really good case mod sight with a large supply of cable extensions and adaptors
http://www.xoxide.com/
the adaptors only cost a buck or two each.
 


Ok - I'll make a go of that (POST) - I need to put in the PSU and GPU, plug in a monitor - should be easy.

The standoffs that were in place I used -and I had to add the 2 extras for the mATX. Otherwise there are no "extras" under the mobo.

The i/o shield snapped right in - it's just that as I look at it right side up, the audio plugs to the right are not centered in their holes... they are right up against the "southwest" shield holes. As you look at the shield moving towards the left it gets better until the far left looks pretty good. Just weird since I used the standoffs that came with the case and I assume all motherboards are flat (lol). I'll see if I have any trouble plugging anything into any of those more "right" sockets after I try the POST test.

No comment on "Action Pack"?

Thanks and "Happy New Year!" :bounce: Elmo
 



Not familiar with action pack! What is it?
 


Does it provide you with access to licensing on future versions of windows or something, or maybe just allow multiple applications of windows for a busness with multiple servers?

either way it seems expensive.
 
Haha, it took me 8 hours to put it all together with the help of my friend who is also building his. My Mobo speaker came with my case, not the motherboard. So the speaker is probably in a small box with the other parts that your case came with.
 


Yeah ,I got one with both case and mobo ,I tagged the mobo because I knew he got the same.

So what do you think of it so far?
Also what kind of system is your friend building?
 
I love it so far. Still getting a few drivers because my internet speed is trash. The rear fan is a bit loud but I expected it to be. The Mobo is reading my RAM Speeds at 1333 but I can fix that.

He is building one pretty much exactly as mine. However, he is putting his together in a Mini Tower.
 

The mobo does that because 1333 is sandybridge's maximum non oc'ed ram level. Obviously it's just a simple change though, so it really doesn't matter.
 
667mhz is how it is "really running". I don't know how to explain it, because I don't know, but ram runs at half the speed its set in the BIOS. In this case its running at 1333mhz, and half of that is 667. If you want to change it, it is in the bios. Honestly, you wouldn't see a difference either way. Either look around your bios, or read the manual to figure out where to change it. Or ask rusty guy because he has that mobo.
 



Hey there ,hows it going.

Did you resolve the issue?

I have never specifficly worked with my ram timings etc. I just plugged it in and it works.
If you downloaded the whole software package from the Asus that came with the mobo then the only thing I could suggest is to power off your system ,Push and hold the cmos reset button on the back of your systom on i\o panel hold it in just a second or two. This will make sure that factory settings are applied to your bios . Then boot up to windows and open ai suite II, choose auto tuning if you want to overclock and the software will overclock your ram along with your cpu to whatever level you choose.
Mine i chose extreme and you just watch while it restarts and configures your settings a little at a time.
It will give you a percent increase accomplished while it sets to a higher setting and a timer will show how many seconds till it tries for a higher setting. It will continue this process until it tries a setting that is unobtainable. At this time It will shut down and you may have to turn it on manually. Start windows normally and the Ai tuner will either show the last successful oc %age and or continue the process of trying to obtain a higher setting. You just have to hit the stop button to save yourself at current settings.

Mine ,with i5-2500k and crucial ballistix sport 1600 oc'd up to 4.4 gigs for a 34% increase by doing it automaticly. trying to go higher always resulted in failure , but I think with voltage timings adjusted and a few other tweeks ,a much higher clock would be obtainable. but would have to be done manually.
This process also tweeked my ram frequency. It started out like raptorx said at 1/2 my freq. so 800mhz
and is @824.2mhz now. I didn't have any problem with the mobo being set for 1333 and halving that tho.
 
Well, almost there... plugging in the drives and being my same old anal self. I see on the motherboard the data is labeled SATA3 and SATA6 - but I'm starting to think they are all SATA3 - and have xfer rates of 3Gb/s or 6Gb/s. Is that a correct assumption? If so, I'll plug the SSD and HDD into the SATA6's and the CD/DVD into a SATA3. I don't want to "pop" anything!

As for the POST test, I haven't heard any beeps at all, but the codes on the mobo change until they stop at 34. The quick-LEDs go through CPU - RAM - VGA - and then stop on BOOT which I would expect since no drives were attached. Sound good?

If everything is ok, I really like the case and the mobo - plenty of room to work and the case fans are nice and quiet. The GPU card is slightly noisier than everything else combined. (and the white LEDs on the fans are cool to see if totally non-functional - LOL)
 



Yeah, sata III (6.0gb\sec.) and Sata II (3gb\sec.)have the same plug and either device will work in either plug.
The only difference is the transfer rate capability. If you want to take advantage you need to make sure that the device is sata III and is plugged into Sata III port and you should use the cables supplied with the mobo for Sata III connection (Supposed to support higher transfer rate).
However there is not, as of yet, allot of difference that you will notice.

If I remember right you chose sata III hdd and ssd, so the way you have it plugged is good as long as you are using the high transfer cables.

As far as your Post test, sounds like all is well and ready to go.
after you have it all together in case,power it on and continnuously hit Delete until your bios opens. My mouse worked the first time so you should be able to use yours unless it requires a special driver.
From here you can set up boot sequence,raid properties etc.
Just follow the mobo manuals instruction to set up your ssd with SRT (smart response technology) and then save and exit bios. Load your win7 disc and then power down your computer.

While powered down, unplug your hdd from the mobo to guarantee that windows will not accidently be loaded to it. Then restart computer. If all goes well you should see windows loading and not have to wonder if it is on the right drive or not.

After windows completely has its way with you for the next little while then you can remove the win7 disk and put in the mobo disk.
Open manually and find drivers for chipset and lan run those setups and immediately following, (if you have internet hooked up),your computer will start downloading windows updates.
While you have the mobo disc in, close it and reopen autoplay It is worth it to let Asus load all of the software package as a group rather than to load seperate programs.
I think kapersky av is a seperate download and is good if you don't already have paid subscription somewhere else.
You can also then go to the driver section of the the autoplay and you can load that whole package as a whole as well.
In this manner you make sure all aspects of your board that need a driver ,have one and will work. You can then upgrade all of those.
After all of that,you should turn computer off and plug back in your hdd. Hopefully it will maintain its place in the boot sequence and if not ,you just go back and set it up again.

In the end your hdd should be recognised as dr.c and all future program downloads etc. should default to this drive.




 
Yes - I have wired the HDD and SSD with the "SATA 6" cables, so just about ready to go for Windows.

I feel like I want to load Windows to get up and running, but use the CD's that came with the mobo, CD/DVD, GPU - instead of whatever Windows might do to me. Once I have the "real" drivers, etc loaded, *then* letting Windows do all its updates. Does that make sense?
 


Yes. I always load drivers for mobo from disk and then update as necessary. Sometimes though I go to nvidea or amd for gpu drivers.
It just saves me from having to update and I know what Im downloading, so its not like windows is in control.

As far as your mobo, load from disk and then check versions on Asustec sight from this page under downloads
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/Maximus_IV_GENEZ/

Make sure the drivers are all up to date from there, and definately don't let windows update any of them.

Once you get your bios all set the way you want with all the right drivers you can save it and if something corrupts bios in the future, you won't have to go back and find it and fix it. You just load saved profile.
 


Great! Thanks once again!

I got stuck on Windows because I have a key for 7 Pro 64, but no disc - I thought I had an OEM, but it's 32-bit. I need to see if I can use the DLM link to get the license I have installed on a thumb drive and then maybe I can ge this box loaded from that...

Another tidbit is that I have a 1394 cable hanging loose (from the 500R front panel) since the ASUS mobo says not to plug into a USB spot - so is that just not usable on this board? (not that I have any firewire stuff anyway...)

AND tyvm for the ASUS link, I'll use that for sure.

E
 


I think the 1394 is useable because on page 2-30 of the mobo manual it says cables purchased seperately, so that suggests to me that it is useable. Where you plug it in at is another story.Maybe shoot a message to product support @ the sight I linked. I asked them about my video card and they responded by the next day.

I don't use a firewire either and it may be one of those things where you just hide the cable and forget about it. My case didn't have a cable ready 1394.
 


Yeah - I don't have a use for it anyway at the moment - so I'll bag the 1394 for now.

Everything is wired up, cleaned up and boy is the mobo side clean!!! I don't think this thing will ever overheat! lol OH - Dr. Clockworks - as I think rmiii already said, no problem with the memory and the CPU cooler. I'd guess that's been engineered the way it is to accommodate most coolers - I have 4 - 4Gb stick of the Vengence that have the high fins, and they end up right in the path of the fan's airflow...perfect. You have to install the cooler first though! (Saying all that after I know you're WAY ahead of me! LOL)

I got the BIOS to show up on the monitor - this is just way too cool. -and I have no idea what I'm doing with all of this stuff I can look at and change. This will definitely be an experience. I love the monitoring, that it has detected everything I installed, etc. etc. I am a little overwhelmed with all of this and how to deal with "tuning" the performance. I see the EZ menu where I can pick power-saving, normal, or performance - but of course I don't see much from the BIOS screen. I hope I can set it to normal and load everything - then come back later to play with performance and more custom settings...

Anyway, looks like I need Windows to see the CD - then I can load Windows. I only had a key for an upgrade (and no CD), so I just bought Ultimate so I had a good CD version - not cheap 🙁

I'll load Win7 and then work on the ASUS CD - I also have CDs for the ASUS CD/DVD and EVGA GPU - so I'll have to see where those line up in the process.

So, time to reread your current and past notes...


 
Status update...

I saved/exited the BIOS, loaded the Windows 7 CD, powered off, unplugged the HDD and powered up. Windows setup complained about a drive not being connected, so I tried again wit the HDD plugged in - and its moving. I picked "Custom" for a new install and could at least identify the correct drive to install on because of the sizes - but otherwise it would have installed on the HDD!

So... we're moving, but I won't know what happened for sure until I see it when it's complete! (Reminds me of times when I always did my own math becaue I didn't trust the calculator - LOLOLOL)
 
Ok - I tried to install all the driver CDs I had before connecting to the internet. Everything seems to have gone fine except that the ASUS CD/DVD driver failed. Oh well - the drive works - good enough for now. So, now going through the windows install (oh, and loaded my EndPoint secuurity in the middle..)

So far so good, but I think I'll be staring at the back o my eyelids soon. At this rate, everything should be loaded tomorrow - still curious about "tuning" the system - I'll have to address that later...
 
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