About to begin my first build

[jantar]

Well, I ordered my parts; here they are:

CPU: Q6600
HSF: Xigmatek HDT-S1283
Thermal paste: Arctic Cooling MX-2
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-P35 DS3L
RAM: Patriot LLK 2 x 2GB DDR2 800
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce 8600GT, 256MB GDDR3
Hdd: 2 x Seagate 7200.11 500GB
Optical drive: Lite-On 20x LH-20A1L Sata
PSU: Corsair 520HX
Case: Cooler Master 690

I ordered from 4 online stores and so far only my PSU, graphics card and DVD burner arrived.

But I already have the first question/problem:
I put the PSU on the table, plugged it in and turned it on but the fan doesn't spin! Is that how it's supposed to be or is there something wrong?

I'm sure I'm gonna have more questions later and I'd really appreciate any input, thanks!

 

[Snake91839]

Since there is no power being drawn, it will not spin. When you hook it up to your motherboard and turn on your PC to where it has to put out power, then it will spin.

This is not a problem

Good Luck

~Snake~

 

[jantar]

Thank you for clearing this up! I was a little concerned but couldn't believe that brand new Corsair 520hx could be DOA.

 

[Snake91839]

lol, well the other thing to remember is... Don't freak out of some parts are DOA. It's fairly common believe it or not.

And if you do happen to get some of these, please don't leave a negative review on the site that you bought from because of that They will replace it, and don't judge until you get a good working one.

If you need any more help, I, and the rest of TF, will be happy to help you

Once again, Have fun

~Snake~

 

[jantar]

Finally I made myself to write this relation of my build. (It's really a challenge for me to write in English.)

Well, I couldn't wait any longer for that Xigmatek cooler and ordered a Scythe Ninja plus instead.

So I applied MX-2 paste using the "line method", recommended by Arctic Cooling for quads. I had to mount the cooler two times because at first it was wrongly oriented. The fan is mounted vertically and it blows air through the heatsink towards the rear exhaust fan. And the cooler is rather big: the fan overhangs the ram slots and actually rests on one memory stick. So if I had bought Ballistix tracers or OCZ Reapers I wouldn't be able to mount the fan vertically.

After installing the CPU and cooler and memory, I put the motherboard into the case and screwed it in. Then I installed the PSU and realized that there is no way to connect the 12V power connector to the mobo! There was no room for fingers because of that big Ninja. I had to unscrew the mobo, take it a little away of the top of the case, plug the connector and screw it back.

Then I installed the graphics card and connected all the cables. I must say that CM 690 is a really nice case and cable management was a real fun to do. I'm a complete beginner and yet I managed to do it pretty neatly IMHO. Sorry, I don't have a camera so I can't provide any pictures.

With beating heart I pushed the power button. Nothing. Blank screen. The fans were spinning but there was apparently no video signal. I turned it off and on two or three times with no result. And then accidentally I pushed the reset button. And what do you say - the monitor lighted up and I saw my board doing the POST! But then, after turning is off and on again it's the same. No video until I hit reset button. Very strange. After a while it turned out that the graphics card was not fully seated in the slot. Don't know how it could happen, I was very careful installing it.

Then I put the hard drives and DVD in without further problems. The whole thing took me some 12 hours and it was fun.

Here are the screenshots with temps:

First when the system was idle:

And running prime95's Small FFT (four threads):

What do you think, are those good temps? The ambient temperature was 23C (73F).


Also, there is a problem with one of the hard drives. It works fine but very often, maybe even most of the time there can be heard some tapping noise at regular intervals of about half a second. When I touch the drive then I can feel the shocks. Do you think I should try to RMA it?

 

[NightSurge]

I would definitely RMA the drive if it is doing what you say it is. I was also going to mention that sometimes graphics cards will only produce video out of a certain port on the card. I have had 2 video cards and on the first start up, I had to use the bottom DVI port in order to get the initial video signal instead of the more obvious top port. For some reason cards can be finicky like that.

 

[Redmo0n]

Turn of speedstep (C1E and EIST) and start to overclock

 

[jantar]

I've already tried to overclock (without turning off speedstep). 3 ghz (9x333) with prime95 running for several hours with no problem. The top temps where 56C.

Why should I turn of speedstep while overclocking?

 

[Redmo0n]

I thought it effect voltage or clocks, unsure now

Also, why such a good machine with a crappy/medial video card, 8800gs is like $20 more and 20x better. (exaggeration)

 

[veg1992]

I'd say its 3x better.... and it is..