Question My son built his first new PC

[In2Photos]

My 13 year old son, Colby, has been saving for a new computer for a while now. With prices not coming down anytime soon my wife and I decided to help share the cost of the parts. He was super excited to build it so we decided to record the process. If you're interested in watching the video here is the link. This is not intended to be a "how to" video, it is just my son learning how to build a PC.

Parts List
Ryzen 5 5600x
MSI B550 Tomahawk 32GB Corsair RGB Pro 3600MHz CL18
MSI GTX 1660
500GB WD SN750 SE M.2 Drive
500GB Crucial MX500 SSD
1TB Toshiba HDD
Corsair RM650x (We used an EVGA for the build as the Corsair was delayed)
NZXT H510 Flow
Enermax 240mm AIO
Enermax HF120 RGB Fans

 

[Whirlwind]

Very cool , I remember doing this with my son at about the same age...fun times indeed.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, I remember building my own PCs in Jr. High and HS. Back then, I had a 386DX-40 from AMD. No FPU!

 

[MadScientist]

Looks great. Short question, was he able to run the Corsair ram at its XMP profile of 3600Mhz? I have an Asrock B550 MB, 5600X cpu, EVGA Nvidia Geforce 1660 GPU, and 32 GB of Corsair ram. Ram will not run at its XMP profile 3600Mhz. Best I can do is 3200Mhz.

 

[In2Photos]

Looks great. Short question, was he able to run the Corsair ram at its XMP profile of 3600Mhz? I have an Asrock B550 MB, 5600X cpu, EVGA Nvidia Geforce 1660 GPU, and 32 GB of Corsair ram. Ram will not run at its XMP profile 3600Mhz. Best I can do is 3200Mhz.

Thanks! Yes we are running the 3600MHz XMP profile. Which slots are you using on the motherboard? Are you enabling XMP correctly? I believe the ASRock board will limit the speed to 3200MHz in non-XMP mode.

 

[MadScientist]

Using 4 x 8Gb sticks, probably one of the reasons why the Asrock MB will not run at 3600Mhz XMP, but when I use only 2 sticks in slots A2, B2, I get the same results. It defaults to 2667mhz, XMP enabled. Best I can do is to set it manually to 3200Mhz. I tried several tweaks and raised vdimm to 1.4V. Setting it to anything over 3200MHz it defaults to 2667Mhz. Passes all stress tests at 3200Mhz, so stuck there for now. Yes, probably the limitations of the Asrock B550 MBs or my CPU.

 

[In2Photos]

Using 4 x 8Gb sticks, probably one of the reasons why the Asrock MB will not run at 3600Mhz XMP, but when I use only 2 sticks in slots A2, B2, I get the same results. It defaults to 2667mhz, XMP enabled. Best I can do is to set it manually to 3200Mhz. I tried several tweaks and raised vdimm to 1.4V. Setting it to anything over 3200MHz it defaults to 2667Mhz. Passes all stress tests at 3200Mhz, so stuck there for now. Yes, probably the limitations of the Asrock B550 MBs.

Check the QVL on your boards website page and see if your kit is listed.

 

[MadScientist]

Check the QVL on your boards website page and see if your kit is listed.

Nope, only Corsair 3200Mhz ram. And yep, should have checked first but got these from Newegg on sale for less than 3200Mhz ram, and hoped they would run at 3600Mhz.
Memory QVL (Vermeer)

 

[In2Photos]

Nope, only Corsair 3200Mhz ram. And yep, should have checked first but got these from Newegg on sale for less than 3200Mhz ram so it is what it is.

We didn't check the QVL either before we purchased. Just got lucky I guess. Not sure how much performance you are losing, but would imagine it's not much. Enjoying your system otherwise?

 

[MadScientist]

System is running great. I salvaged a few parts from an old Intel i5-2500K build, case, the GPU, PSU, and 2 SSDs. Do some gaming, not as much as before.
Remember back many years ago helping my son build his computers.

 

[In2Photos]

System is running great. I salvaged a few parts from an old Intel i5-2500K build, case, the GPU, PSU, and 2 SSDs. Do some gaming, not as much as before.
Remember back many years ago helping my son build his computers.

Nice. My son was using a prebuilts with an i7-4790 previously. We salvaged the GPU and his drives only. Now my daughter is using the old PC.

 

[Whirlwind]

is he using free sync with his games and does it work well

 

[In2Photos]

is he using free sync with his games and does it work well

Yes he is. He has a 27" 1080p 144Hz monitor and has been very happy with the performance.