new PSU opinions wanted

[acerinpa]

Mike- I ordered the MOBO I linked , with the fatality case, and some thermal compound. Not sure what else you can do for me - I hope to be up and running by the end of next week. Thanks anyhow.

Although I have never put together a PC using existing parts other than a new mobo. So not sure on the first post/boot - do I just go into the mobo Bios and set the boot order to HHD ( if it is not already that way) and then just let it boot normally?

 

[PP Mguire]

Fractal case lol and yes. The two boards are similar so Windows shouldn't give you any issues.

 

[acerinpa]

LOL- wow - I missed that. Had to read it twice to see what I did and why you commented. I have a very bad habit of doing that- fingers are not doing what the mind is telling them to do.

 

[acerinpa]

Ok - received case, began moving stuff over- And immediately noticed there was no bond between aftermarket cooler/heatsink and the CPU - so I will bet that was the problem and the MOBO is not "fried" after all. I must have pushed on the cooler when installing the new GPU -it was pretty tight in the old case. I hope the CPU is OK. Also noticed there is very little thermal compound on the heatsink and the CPU as well. I will make sure the seal is tight the right amount of Thermal compound is between the cooler heatsink and the CPU this time. SO far - the new MOBO and the thermal compound is still in California- UPS has not updated location since the 17th= NICE. They still say expected delivery on 5/22.

A question- the Seasonic 750 watt PSU I recently purchased is semi modular- the PCI-E cables, the 24 pin mobo, and a (4 x 2 = 8) pin cables are coming out of it - the rest are modular separate cables - I assume the 8 pin is the CPU power supply - however it looks like it is not long enough to go behind ( good cable management) the mobo and up through the other side to the top and come back out above the MOBO to plug into the 8 pin power plug. So, can I use an 8 pin modular cable instead that is marked CPU on one side and PSU on the other which is longer and will reach around for proper cable management? I assume this is ok - but just want to make sure.

I will also have to locate a new SATA cable as I had also purchased a new HHD - WD blue 1TB drive months ago for $55 that I will put into the new case as well. Unfortunetly - it did not come with a Sata cable- shouldn't have that come with it? I will have questions on how to configure the BIOS /Boot etc. So I can use both drives. Best Buy should have one - are there any quality/speed differences in a Sata cable?

Really like the new Fractal case so far. Cable management is sooooo much easier. I took 3 fans off the old case and installed them in the new one as it came with a 140 mm in front and a 140 mm in the rear only. So, now I have 2 front ( 120 and a 140 ), 2 top ( both 120) , and one rear (140). Debating on a side fan or not as there is one more 120 in the old case. These Sently case fans are pretty quiet - and I am in the basement anyhow- usually with headphones in or playing loud enough that a bit of fan noise would not be noticed.

 

[PP Mguire]

Do you mean that the CPU cooler was not making contact with the CPU by bonding?
Proper amount of TIM would be a grain of rice sized dot in the center of the CPU. No little and no less. Do not spread. The pressure of the heatsink spreads it out evenly.

Yes as long as it's marked CPU it'll be fine. The 2 8 pin configurations usually aren't interchangeable anyways.

SATA cables come with motherboards. Check your motherboard box for spare cables. Otherwise, any kind of SATA cable will work if you have to purchase one.

 

[acerinpa]

I mean that as soon as I loosened the screws on the cooler it came off the CPU. It was not stuck. While I have never taken apart a PC - the videos talk about having some difficulty getting the Cooler unstuck form the CPU. So, I figured that was "normal". Yes I have seen the grain of rice vids - So I guess if you take the amount of paste in both the CPU and the cooler it would have been about that much after all. What concerns me is that they were not stuck together at all.

ok - no worries on the SATA cable then - at least one should come with the new MOBO.

 

[PP Mguire]

Being stuck depends on a lot of different things. THe type of paste used, the pressure, and the duration the paste was on there. Usually becoming stuck only happens with a thick paste that has dried up after months of usage.

 

[acerinpa]

ohhh kay..... so maybe it was ok and the mobo is the issue. New mobo is supposed to be here later today. picked up some 91% isopropyl alcohol today to clean the CPU and the cooler . So, I am ready to go ....

ok- so post/boot up into existing hhd = default with win7 already installed and all the drivers for the other mobo. Then do I update drivers for this mobo? should I update Bios first ,last , never?

update- MOBO arrived - had to use RAM slots 2 and 4 due to Cooler overlapping the first RAM slot. Otherwise I would have to use only one side fan on the cooler. Hopefully this should not make any difference. I forgot how large the Corsair A70 cooler is.

update- posted fine = yeah. So I completed the build/install with all drives and GPU - posts fine again via HDMI out of the GPU. But windows failed to start properly- windows is "trying to auto fix start up" - it failed - and then it asked me to pick a restore point. So i did. It then did its thing and says the restore was successful and I should restart. But, reboot and get the same start up window saying it is trying to fix windows start up = now it is saying it is checking the drive for errors and this could take an hour.

Bios looks fine other than it is not using the proper video driver= way too large. Bios= p2.90 , it sees the 2500K CPU fine at 3.3 GHz, it sees the Ram = 8 MB but it is clocked at 1333 not 1600.

Dont know what to do now.

 

[acerinpa]

ok - yes I know double post- but if I just update again - then thread does not show anything new.

OK have been reading and apparently just moving the old drive to a new MOBO can be problematic. So, I did back up on an external Harddrive about 2 weeks prior to the MOBO dying. Since I have the new drive installed I could just unplug the Sata cable from the old HHD, install win7 to the new HHD - if my win7 disc will let me, and proceed with a restore from the backup external drive. Hmmm.... need some advice/help.

 

[PP Mguire]

If it's doing that to you then you'll need a fresh install of Windows. Kind of stupid considering the two boards are almost identical.