Question Considering build around Intel i7 10700F

[balloonshark]

The i7 10700F is on sale for $230 on Amazon today. (see hot deals forum)

Is this the best bang for the buck CPU at this time and do you think it will change anytime soon as in are prices going to drop on certain CPUs soon? How much does a decent MB cost, what features do I need and do any have future compatibility? This CPU is not overclockable correct?

I'm thinking about using my current case, PSU and 2 WD HDDs. I'll also be using my R9 Fury until GPU prices drop. That means I need the CPU, MB, 16 or 32GB RAM (I'm assuming my DDR4-2400 RAM isn't usable?) and a SSD. Would that be around $600 and does that sound like a smart buy? Would my Thermalright Macho Rev.B Cooler work or do I need another cooler?

I'll mainly be using the machine for surfing, gaming and occasionally photo editing. I'm not a bleeding edge gamer and wait for game prices to drop before buying.

Any suggestions are welcome. I bought the CPU so I need to know if I should cancel the order or not.

 

[blckgrffn]

A2 with one stick. A2 and B2 with 2 sticks. My A2 isn't working best that I can tell. I think I even tried my 2400 stick from my old rig.

Well, sounds like return time to me. That's a bummer.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

That’s tricky is the memory listed on the motherboard compatible list?
Are you 1000% sure the memory was inserted properly and the appropriate spots?

 

[balloonshark]

Well, sounds like return time to me. That's a bummer.

No experience with Newegg returns. This should be fun.

 

[balloonshark]

That’s tricky is the memory listed on the motherboard compatible list?
Are you 1000% sure the memory was inserted properly and the appropriate spots?

The memory is listed as compatible on crucial's site. Asus' site is kind of wonky but I can find ram that has most of the part number. They list a 16gb stick with part number BL16G32C16U4B where mine starts with BL2K and the rest is the same. It's like they list the 16GB module when I have a 2x16 kit.I

I'm pretty sure it was inserted properly since it worked in other slots. I'm also sure they were in the right slots from the pic in the manual.

Edit: And my MB just went OOS because of the 10850k combo deal. Hopefully a new version is coming out that fixes some of the issues this MB has.

 

[balloonshark]

I sent out the MB return last Tuesday and today Newegg received and approved the replacement to be sent out soon.

Side note: I would juggle flaming chainsaws while walking a tightrope for a MSRP 3060ti or 6700xt to round out this build.

 

[blckgrffn]

I sent out the MB return last Tuesday and today Newegg received and approved the replacement to be sent out soon.

Side note: I would juggle flaming chainsaws while walking a tightrope for a MSRP 3060ti or 6700xt to round out this build.

I hear that. What is your GPU right now again?

 

[balloonshark]

I hear that. What is your GPU right now again?

It's a 4gb R9 Fury. It's not horrible but it could use a bit more ram and perhaps some of the newer features of the new cards.

 

[blckgrffn]

It's a 4gb R9 Fury. It's not horrible but it could use a bit more ram and perhaps some of the newer features of the new cards.

Ah yeah, but you could be a lot worse too... but at least you’ll be getting a big step up

 

[balloonshark]

It's Alive!

I guess the old MB was faulty after all. I was a bit worried it was my fault by missing something but I guess I didn't. Windows installed in 10 min. which is mind boggling. It boots super fast once the Asus splash screen disappears. In my old PC I had fastboot disabled because it didn't play well with a virtualization program so this is a welcome change.

I still have more set up to do in the BIOS and Windows so I may bump this topic if I get stuck. I also want to thank you all for your help and suggestions. I don't follow hardware trends so I was at a loss when we started. You picked the parts and all I did was throw it together.

 

[blckgrffn]

It's Alive!

I guess the old MB was faulty after all. I was a bit worried it was my fault by missing something but I guess I didn't. Windows installed in 10 min. which is mind boggling. It boots super fast once the Asus splash screen disappears. In my old PC I had fastboot disabled because it didn't play well with a virtualization program so this is a welcome change.

I still have more set up to do in the BIOS and Windows so I may bump this topic if I get stuck. I also want to thank you all for your help and suggestions. I don't follow hardware trends so I was at a loss when we started. You picked the parts and all I did was throw it together.

That’s awesome! I think part of that is that nice NVMe drive in action.

I am curious how feel games play. When I upgraded my CPU games really smoothed out when my GPU became a more consistent bottle neck. I think that Fury could have a solid second chapter of relevance until GPU prices straighten out.

 

[balloonshark]

That’s awesome! I think part of that is that nice NVMe drive in action.

I am curious how feel games play. When I upgraded my CPU games really smoothed out when my GPU became a more consistent bottle neck. I think that Fury could have a solid second chapter of relevance until GPU prices straighten out.

It's still taking about 20-22 seconds from the time I press the power button until all my systray icons are loaded. Most of the time comes before and during the MB splash screen.

I haven't plugged in my HDD's so no games yet. Windows is acting up every now and again. It's wanting to do it's own thing like unticking the 'enhance pointer precision' box. Logitech G Hub was acting weird and my calander app didn't show at boot. I ran Windows memory test with default setting and it passed. Maybe it's this standard account I'm using? Seemed to work fine on my old PC.

I don't know a ton about hardware but it looks like you have a real solid gaming machine. No idea if it can keep up with that sweet monitor though. I bet it's fun trying .

 

[balloonshark]

I'm having a lot of issues with this MB and need help please. I can't get my front audio jacks to work. One of the front USB 3.0 slots isn't working. I can't find the realtek control panel and dts:x in my standard user account. My HDD's weren't 'plug and play' and weren't showing in disk management until a reboot.

At this point I'm ready to reinstall windows and stick with an admin account and reinstall the official drivers from the MB site instead of the latest drivers from their forum like I did with this current install. This case, power supply and cables worked fine housing my old 6600k system. It was also fine with a standard account so I don't know what's going on. I fear this replacement MB also may be bad.

I have updated the BIOS to the latest beta version from the MB site. I'm going to reinstall windows with only the NVMe, keyboard, mouse and MB HDMI plugged in. After that I'm going to plug in the ethernet and fully update windows. After that I'm going to download and install the official drivers. I have a question about driver install order though.

1. Chipset
2. Intel Management Engine Interface
3. Intel ME
4. SATA Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology Driver Software (when do I need to install this? I don't plan on using RAID)
5. VGA (I plan on keeping the 10700k's HDMI plugged in until after this driver is installed and then change the HDMI to my radeon card and continue. Does this sound correct?)
6. AMD Radeon drivers
7. Lan (the internet previously with windows lan driver so not in a hurry for this driver)
8. Audio

Is anything missing or wrong? Will this install the realtek control panel? Do any of the utilities need installed right away?

 

[blckgrffn]

I loathe how sound drivers seem to trail Windows builds by so far. Mostly I have given up and just use the windows audio controls, and the Xbox Overlay (windows key+G) for game sound mixing.

Other than that, I confess to just installing VGA drivers usually and just taking what comes from Windows Update for the rest as needed.

I am sorry you are having so much trouble! All of my recent builds have been so easy - except when the motherboard or memory was bad and made it miserable.

 

[balloonshark]

I loathe how sound drivers seem to trail Windows builds by so far. Mostly I have given up and just use the windows audio controls, and the Xbox Overlay (windows key+G) for game sound mixing.

Other than that, I confess to just installing VGA drivers usually and just taking what comes from Windows Update for the rest as needed.

I am sorry you are having so much trouble! All of my recent builds have been so easy - except when the motherboard or memory was bad and made it miserable.

I didn't even know about the xbox overlay so thanks. It doesn't look to have the option/s I need though.

It seems like when people talk about drivers or driver order you get a different answer from everyone. One person recommends fully updating windows the installing drivers while another stays offline and installs the drivers from their MB support page and then another let's windows handle all drivers but graphics. Each method has its merits which can be confusing.

Later today I'll retry using the method above as it seems to be pretty solid from different sources.

 

[balloonshark]

Well that was mostly a waste of time. I did find out why my hdd's weren't detected when I plugged them in. There is a setting in the BIOS that allows you disable or enable each sata port and enable or disable hot swapping for each port.

Changing the audio drivers didn't help. The official driver doesn't install the realtek control panel or dts:x ultra. I went back with the one from the ROG forum as at least it tries to install them after the reboot. The problem now is they won't install and skimming over the reviews for each app points to many others having the same issue. Even if I did get them installed I'm pretty sure it doesn't give me the option to switch between the front and rear audio like the old realtek program did. Did I mention I hate apps?

One of my front USB 3.0 ports still isn't working. It just endlessly loops where shows for a brief moment in file explorer and disappears so I assume it's some sort of MB problem since the case worked fine with my old components.

Right now I'm not very happy with Asus MBs.

Edit: I did enable XMP last night and ran the default windows memory test and it passed.

 

[blckgrffn]

Well that was mostly a waste of time. I did find out why my hdd's weren't detected when I plugged them in. There is a setting in the BIOS that allows you disable or enable each sata port and enable or disable hot swapping for each port.

Changing the audio drivers didn't help. The official driver doesn't install the realtek control panel or dts:x ultra. I went back with the one from the ROG forum as at least it tries to install them after the reboot. The problem now is they won't install and skimming over the reviews for each app points to many others having the same issue. Even if I did get them installed I'm pretty sure it doesn't give me the option to switch between the front and rear audio like the old realtek program did. Did I mention I hate apps?

One of my front USB 3.0 ports still isn't working. It just endlessly loops where shows for a brief moment in file explorer and disappears so I assume it's some sort of MB problem since the case worked fine with my old components.

Right now I'm not very happy with Asus MBs.

Edit: I did enable XMP last night and ran the default windows memory test and it passed.

That is frustrating :/

What are you swapping with the front and back inputs? I have been mostly successful with Windows on moving sound around, having them treated as one output or dual outputs etc.

If I were you might be tempted to cut ties with that board. IDK what your options are but that has been a rough start!

 

[balloonshark]

That is frustrating :/

What are you swapping with the front and back inputs? I have been mostly successful with Windows on moving sound around, having them treated as one output or dual outputs etc.

If I were you might be tempted to cut ties with that board. IDK what your options are but that has been a rough start!

I want to be able to use my front jacks for headphones/mic for gaming or switch to the rear jacks for my speakers for sports. Every PC I have used in the past has had this ability. It wasn't always easy to find the option but it did exist. At one point I created a shortcut to the setting and placed it by my systray so it was easy to find/use.

I don't think getting another MB would fix the problem if other MB's are using the same Realtek app from the windows store.

 

[blckgrffn]

I want to be able to use my front jacks for headphones/mic for gaming or switch to the rear jacks for my speakers for sports. Every PC I have used in the past has had this ability. It wasn't always easy to find the option but it did exist. At one point I created a shortcut to the setting and placed it by my systray so it was easy to find/use.

I don't think getting another MB would fix the problem if other MB's are using the same Realtek app from the windows store.

Hmm, I am pretty sure that I use windows controls to just this. You are setting specific apps to play sounds out of specific jacks or are you changing the current default output device?

For example, I am pretty sure I can easily make all sound come out of my speakers even when the headphones are plugged in, and I can also (pretty sure) get Spotify to play on the speakers while I am on the headphones, for example.

 

[balloonshark]

Hmm, I am pretty sure that I use windows controls to just this. You are setting specific apps to play sounds out of specific jacks or are you changing the current default output device?

For example, I am pretty sure I can easily make all sound come out of my speakers even when the headphones are plugged in, and I can also (pretty sure) get Spotify to play on the speakers while I am on the headphones, for example.

I just want to be able to switch between the two. Right now the only way I have is to unplug one or other. In the past I believe I had to right click the speaker in the systray and disable one and enable the other in the past. There was also a setting or two in the realtek control panel that needed turned on. It was a simple thing to do once you knew where the options were.

 

[blckgrffn]

I just want to be able to switch between the two. Right now the only way I have is to unplug one or other. In the past I believe I had to right click the speaker in the systray and disable one and enable the other in the past. There was also a setting or two in the realtek control panel that needed turned on. It was a simple thing to do once you knew where the options were.

I definitely do that with the icon in the systray in W10. Left click on the little speaker, it brings up the volume and the current output devices available via drop down. That's without any Realtek garbage. I have to look and see where the setting is, but you should be able to set the front and back outputs as separate devices in Windows and that's the magic of it.

There is a command that brings up the old control panel for surround settings and such as well. It's like as they deprecate the old interfaces they don't get them all updated and leave the old ones buried. I had to find that to properly setup my 5.1 output.

*edit - I may have had to funk around with the Realtek setup stuff to get this to work actually, just one time. Sigh. It doesn't load the control panel, but I think I did something like this to make it happen, and now Windows just sees it this way:

How to separate headphone audio and speaker audio

Hello So what i want to do is separate my headphone audio from my speaker audio. I have an audio input in the back of my pc where my subwoofer and speakers a plugged into. In the front I have my headphones. But in windows 10 sound options they are all the same device "speaker" but i would...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[balloonshark]

I definitely do that with the icon in the systray in W10. Left click on the little speaker, it brings up the volume and the current output devices available via drop down. That's without any Realtek garbage. I have to look and see where the setting is, but you should be able to set the front and back outputs as separate devices in Windows and that's the magic of it.

There is a command that brings up the old control panel for surround settings and such as well. It's like as they deprecate the old interfaces they don't get them all updated and leave the old ones buried. I had to find that to properly setup my 5.1 output.

*edit - I may have had to funk around with the Realtek setup stuff to get this to work actually, just one time. Sigh. It doesn't load the control panel, but I think I did something like this to make it happen, and now Windows just sees it this way:

How to separate headphone audio and speaker audio

Hello So what i want to do is separate my headphone audio from my speaker audio. I have an audio input in the back of my pc where my subwoofer and speakers a plugged into. In the front I have my headphones. But in windows 10 sound options they are all the same device "speaker" but i would...

forums.tomshardware.com

Thanks. I'm pretty sure that option or something similar in name in realtek is what needs to be turned on for it to work. And from the way some talk in the app store reviews the new app doesn't have that option at this point.

Windows shouldn't have sound options in both the control panel, settings and still need to use realtek control panel to have functioning sound.

Also, I don't know what I did but I have no sound now . This is madness.

 

[blckgrffn]

What’s urn with your build at this point?

 

[balloonshark]

What’s urn with your build at this point?

I was doing the same thing over and over with the same results so I took a break. I was able to get realtek control panel installed but it won't run. DTS:X still won't install from the MS store. The sound did mysteriously come back the next day and I've been using my headphones since.

I bought my nephew a nice 10700f PC from the for/sale trade forum. I spent some time on Friday installing his 1060 6GB card and software. In some ways his PC is better than mine as he has a larger NVMe drive and PSU. Part of me wonders if I should have bought us a couple of xbox series x consoles with the graphics card situation. I'm not a fan of controllers though but he is pretty good with one.