I need TIPS and HELP for building my first ever powerful Gaming PC

[mfradu123]

So, here is the story and my questions for you.

In my country, the PC component shops and corporations are generally very superficial. I am about to build a €2000+ PC but the very bad reviews for local PC assembling services made me decide to build it myself, at home. I am currently a student at Electronical Engineering and Computer Scienece University and I fixed smarthphones before (like galaxy s3, s4), so I'm a little above the Noob Rank at electronics and how to handle them. The reviews reminded people like me that the guys in my country that work at pc assembling services are hurrying everything up, are not careful with the components, and very often they even break pins on the motherboard while building the PCs. In other words they are billions of light years away from anything that is professional. And for a 2000 euro PC, I don't really want to pay extra 80€ so they'll break my PC even before it arrives to my house. I just know that if I'm careful and I pay attention to all the necessary things I have to do while building my PC, I can do a far better job than those 'specialized' morons.

So, that being said, these are the things I want to know:

- I know a pretty big problem is static electricity. I know it's definitely forbidden to build your PC on a plush carpet. I was thinking about bringing a wooden table in the middle of the room, put it right on the laminate parquet and also not wear socks and preferably short-sleeve t-shirts. I also saw people having a metal brace around their wrist. What about that?
What other things do I need to do?

- I intend to buy an i7 7700k with water cooling and a NZXT H440 case. What is the best airflow fan mounting way? Like the front side fans to bring air into the case, the back fan pulling air out of the case? Or the other way around. What about the water cooler? I've seen different mounting ways, like, (from top to bottom): case top, fans, radiator or case top, radiator fans? Also, how should the water cooler fans blow the air for the best CPU temp results? Inside or outside the case?

- The GPU will be gtx 1080 Ti or gtx 2080 (or 1180, depends on their code choice ), if it's released soon. Sometimes, I noticed that because of the weight of the card it stays a little lop-sided on the right side. Any way to prevent this?

- Is a 750w modular Corsair Power Supply enough for the above specs, the entire cooling system and also a
128GB SSD and a 3TB 7200rpm HDD?

- What is the best mounting order of the motherboard? First CPU + GPU on the motherboard and then screwed inside the case or first placed inside the case?

- What other tips do you have to assure the safety of the components while building the PC?

Thank you in advance!

 

[gaius_iulius]

All your questions can be answered by watching the channel 'Linus Tech Tips' on YouTube.

They have dozens of videos with advice and tips on how to build your own PC, including full videos with step-by-step instructions.
And they know what they are about.
Entertaining, too, Linus is a funny guy.

 

[Kawaii Penguin]

I do agree with Gaius. Linus is very good at explaining and is entertaining as well. ;-)

Static electricity is an easy way to dunk hundreds of dollars. Work on a non-carpeted floor, or have a plastic mat under your feet if you have to be on carpet. There are mats that you can lay down on the floor that are anti-static, but they're expensive. Personally I just bought what looked like a plastic mat over at a Home Depot for.. err... I don't remember. I don't think it was very cheap though, but it wasn't as expensive as those anti-static mats for sure.

As for that wristband you mentioned, that's known as an anti-static wristband. Here's a cheap one from Newegg.

I would also highly recommend an anti-static mat that you can put the computer case on top of. These mats go on top of your work-table, not on the floor, and the computer lays on top. This, combined with the wristband, will prevent static discharge almost entirely if done right. I got my anti-static mat at Fry's Electronics (U.S only I believe) for around $20.

Check out this table ESD mat here.

(ESD, incase you didn't know yet, is electrostatic discharge)

As for grounding, I hook the prongs of both the wristband and the table mat to a piece of metal that can transfer electricity into the ground, hence, 'grounding'. Personally, I have a metal clamp that's attached to a table that touches the ground. Nooot sure if this is the greatest idea, but I'm pretty sure it works out.
I heard that you can connect the prongs to the computer case as well, but I would do more research on this beforehand.

Also, make sure that the metal you attach the prongs to is paint-free. This will make it a clean current and not hindered by the paint's non-conductivity.


Next off, your cooling method.
I personally will never trust water cooling, especially with expensive rigs, so I can't give you much information here. I can, however, tell you that it is much more tedious to set up; but provides greater benefits if done right. You must take into account the air flow of the interior of the case, and how those big bulky water-tubes will interfere.

The air flow of a case is highly dependent on how you manage the fans, obviously, so you'll want to take extra care with how the air goes through your PC. Make sure your rig is in an open area as well so that it can circulate properly, and almost always swap out the stock fans that you get from a case unless reviews say otherwise. The stock fans are generally very cruddy.

My best advice is that you use your best judgement and feel the air flow, picture where all of it goes and make adjustments with that.

The lopsidedness of the GPU will not matter, to my understanding, because the PCI slot that you're inserting it into will secure it in place very well as it is. Let's pray that the company doesn't use a PCI-E slot instead for the GPU. I don't know this data unfortunately, but I could tell you that a PCI-E slot would not be able to compensate nearly as well for the lopsidedness of a card.

Be wary that you might have to go higher (or lower?) than a 750W. The wattage sounds about right, but just to be sure, try using this site here , which will give you a very flexible way to see the overall wattage of the build, how compatible everything is, etc.

I would also get a second opinion regarding compatibility on the forums, as this website is sometimes inaccurate.

The motherboard connects everything together, so it will be the first thing to be mounted. Mount is onto the case, and then start putting stuff together.

Personally, this is what I do, in this order.

1. Motherboard
2. Processor
3. Ventilation fans (do this near the beginning to prevent hassle later on when trying to install inside of a cramped case)
[strike]4. CPU cooling[/strike] (do for step 8 instead since you're water cooling)
5. Memory sticks
6. Hard drive
7. Graphics card
8. Water cooling
9. Power supply

A good rule of thumb is to:
Always do the motherboard first
Go from least to most bulky parts

Lastly, take your time. My first PC rig took several hours. The hardest part was connecting all the cables.

Speaking of which, you should do a little research to find out what goes where.

Some quick tips regarding connecting cables:

The biggest, 24-pin cable is to directly power the motherboard. You will see a very clear area to insert it at.

You will need SATA cables, 2 in this case, that connect from your board to your hard-drives. The board should have multiple slots to fit in multiple SATA cables. These cables are meant for data transfer.
Another cable you will use will be used for powering the hard-drives. It's 1 cable, and it has multiple different insertion slots along the way; I forgot the name of it though.

Next off, another tricky set of cabling would have to be the small 1x1 pins that you connect to the motherboard for things like the power button, audio, immediate restart, etc.

My advice for any of this cabling would be to search up the motherboard itself, do a ton of research, and consider getting a fully modular power supply.
A fully modular power supply is more expensive, but will help you out a lot. You get to chose what cables you need, whereas a semi-modular power supply will give you the option to move stuff around on the power supply, but you are limited to an extent (if I recall). A non-modular power supply means that the wires are 100% connected to the power supply, and you can't move anything. This is a nightmare for cable management, mind you.

Also, get something with a good certification rating and good reviews. If your power supply is f*cked, then your entire rig could be in danger of a possible fire hazard. Don't go cheap on the PSU, basically.

Also realize that it'll be sort of difficult to have a major f--up, like a fire, from occurring. When I built my first one, I was surprised it didn't explode. Still, take good caution when cabling everything up.

That's all. Hope I helped.

 

[gaius_iulius]

About the anti-static strap:
Don't buy one which fastens to your wrist, but rather get one for the ankle. Having it attached to your wrist is highly annoying while trying to build a PC.
Also make sure the cable is long enough ... the clamp needs to be earthed, maybe on your radiator, and you want to be able to move around while using it ... without stumbling and knocking your mobo off the table.

About Motherboard Assembly:
You definitely do not mount it to the case before you have installed the CPU and CPU Cooler onto it.
That's one of the most basic things in PC building.
Also, install the RAM before mounting the CPU Cooler ... or you might find that you'll have to remove the cooler again, because it blocks some RAM slots. A good CPU Cooler is a bulky mother.
Once CPU and CPU Cooler are mounted on the board, pick it up (grabbing the CPU Cooler, not the board!!) and install it in the case.
Watch Linus' video on how to build a PC, it has valuable instructions.

About Water Cooling:
If ever there is a leak (and it can happen easily enough), you'll have 2,000 bucks worth of shorted-out components.
Water cooling is fancy, but not really necessary.
A good regular CPU cooler will do a sufficient job, is way easier to install ... and it will never flood your PC.

Cheers,
Gaius

 

[mfradu123]

Thank you for your efforts to write complete explanations, it really helps me a lot and it actually might save me some money, because after all, all I have to learn first is how to assemble the PC without frying some components because of static electricity. Thank you again

 

[Kawaii Penguin]

Thank you very much for correcting me. I'm glad to know some of this information.

I had no idea they had ESD gear that strapped onto your ankle! How convenient. I'm gonna buy one for sure.

I took a class on computers awhile back and our teacher had mentioned latching the prong of ESD equipment to the case.. but never mentioned any vulnerabilities with this. Why exactly do you not latch on to the case until the CPU+cooler are hooked on? Are they prone to ESD? I would like to know this personally.