Tips for new PC

[fffblackmage]

No mechanical HDD can even come close to saturating SATA 3Gbps. Only the Crucial C300 actually has a sequential read speed high enough to even make some use of SATA 6Gbps, but even then, it's meh.

 

[FishAk]

Forget about SATA 6Gbps for now. There are simply no good chipsets out yet. Intel will probably leapfrog SATA III for lightPeak anyway, rendering SATA 6Gbs obsolete before it gets the chance to reach it's potential.

As already noted, a mechanical drive has no hope of saturating even SATA II, let alone SATA III.

 

[bigboym]

So, I have these two Sata 3 drives, which i dont think i`ll bother to change, but i`ll wont take sata 6 gb/s into consideration when choosing another mobo instead of the Sabertooth.

What mobo would you recommend?

Was thinking about the Asus P6X58D PREMIUM or if you say it isnt worth it then maybe the Asus P6X58D-E . I just want a stable, good performance mobo.

 

[mfenn]

Yeah, there's no reason to get rid of the drives. They're perfectly good at SATA 3Gb/s!

For the mobo, you don't have to worry about performance, all X58 mobos perform identically. I'd suggest a GA-X58A-UD3R, but you seem to have something against Gigabyte?

 

[bigboym]

Yeah, there's no reason to get rid of the drives. They're perfectly good at SATA 3Gb/s!

For the mobo, you don't have to worry about performance, all X58 mobos perform identically. I'd suggest a GA-X58A-UD3R, but you seem to have something against Gigabyte?

I had 2 Gigabyte boards a long time ago, during the AthlonXP Thunderbird and the Barton period. Those mobos gave me nightmares so from that moment on I only went with ASUS which didn`t let me down up till now with this Sabertooth.
I am thinking about the MSI Big Bang..... dont know tbh.

 

[FishAk]

The MSI boards have a bad rep for popping capacitors in the recent past.

All manufacturers and products have some bad apples, but it's a mistake to exclude an entire company due to a set of isolated product failures. In the end, you simply reduce your options to products you personally havn't had trouble with, but may still be trouble prone.

I don't know enough about boards to make a good recommendation, but I wouldn't give up on ASUS (or any other company) just because I had one bad product.

 

[mfenn]

The MSI boards have a bad rep for popping capacitors in the recent past.

All manufacturers and products have some bad apples, but it's a mistake to exclude an entire company due to a set of isolated product failures. In the end, you simply reduce your options to products you personally havn't had trouble with, but may still be trouble prone.

I don't know enough about boards to make a good recommendation, but I wouldn't give up on ASUS (or any other company) just because I had one bad product.

:thumbsup: This

 

[bigboym]

This has to be my most unlucky period when it comes to PC's.

I bought the ASUS P6X58D-E motherboard after I RMAd the Sabertooth and what happened? ... the motherboard fried when I turned the power on. I could sense horrible smell and a bit of smoke coming from where the Sata 6gbs connectors are. It just fried and I am now praying that it didn`t damage other components in the proces...

 

[mfenn]

This has to be my most unlucky period when it comes to PC's.

I bought the ASUS P6X58D-E motherboard after I RMAd the Sabertooth and what happened? ... the motherboard fried when I turned the power on. I could sense horrible smell and a bit of smoke coming from where the Sata 6gbs connectors are. It just fried and I am now praying that it didn`t damage other components in the proces...

I would be suspicious of your PSU at this point.

 

[bigboym]

I really dont know what to do at this point. I was thinking about sending back EVERY component I bought and have them assemble and test the PC before sending it to me. Its just going to be a bit painfull sending the whole thing.

If the PSU is respnsible for other components damages will the warranty still apply for all of them? I mean could I loose warranty of any of the components if they were damaged by the PSU but without my fault?

By the way should I be worried about the other parts getting damaged when the mobo fried? How likely is that?

Thank you!

 

[betasub]

Ithe motherboard fried when I turned the power on. I could sense horrible smell and a bit of smoke coming from where the Sata 6gbs connectors are.

Strange location - not normally a major power throughput. Could it be a short between motherboard and case in that area?

 

[Davidh373]

I've built an AMD system with a Gigabyte and one also with an ASUS, Both work perfectly fine... I wouldn't recommend EVGA for your motherboard though.

 

[bigboym]

Nah I wouldnt go with EVGA. I just still cant believe my bad luck... trying to get this PC to work for about a month now. I`m going to send every component back to Scan Computers for them to build it and test it before shipping it back to me.

I still cant figure out the reason why the motherboard fried when I turned the PC on...

 

[bigboym]

What are the chances that the motherboard might have damaged other components when it fried?

 

[mfenn]

What are the chances that the motherboard might have damaged other components when it fried?

It's certainly possible if it failed in the wrong way.

 

[bigboym]

If some other components failed as well then this is going to be a long RMA.

 

[bigboym]

Hello again,

Well, it seems everything is going to work out. Scan Computers tested all my components which are working, besides the fried motherboard. They are going to replace it, so I'll get everything back in perfect condition.

During this period I think I found out what happened with the mobo. It was all my mistake and this is mainly because I haven't built a system in years and I've forgotten a couple of things.
Basically, I completely forgot about the standoffs and I screwed the motherboard directly to the PC case..WHICH shorted it out. Yes.. how stupid can you get. Well, lesson learned..the hard way, although I am lucky enough to get everything back.

Anyone knows a good "How to build a system step by step" guide? I really want to check if I am forgetting something...

 

[mfenn]

MechBgon's guide is a little outdated, but still good.

 

[betasub]

Basically, I completely forgot about the standoffs and I screwed the motherboard directly to the PC case..WHICH shorted it out. Yes.. how stupid can you get. Well, lesson learned..the hard way, although I am lucky enough to get everything back.

D'oh! Looks like my guess back in post #111 was on target...

Glad Scan have helped you out with testing & replacement. Hopefully you are wiser now for your next attempt.

 

[bigboym]

Phew..finally..IT IS WORKING without a PC case atm because Scan forgot to send my Case back with my other components, so the stuff is now working on my desk..but what the hell. I can wait for 2 days for the case .

I have two more questions though:

1: My monitor is a bit slow or something. Whenever I watch a video or drag a window very fast, I can see the trails of it.. It is not exactly trails as if the monitor had slow response time..it more like jaggy. I have the latest nVIDIA graphics driver installed, so don`t really know what the issue is.

2: Do I need to enable AHCI for the SSD in BIOS and if yes, why is that? I`d like to know a bit more.

Thank you!

 

[mfenn]

They forgot the case? LOL

1. Not sure what you're referring to on this. Are you running XP or 7?

2. You should enable AHCI in the BIOS for best performance. That'll require a reinstall of XP or a registry edit to 7.

 

[fffblackmage]

1. I think I had that issue on my new build... it seemed to go away after I updated Windows 7.

 

[bigboym]

I have Windows 7 although I will try to update it.

Question: I really would need to format and reinstall Windows on my SSD. I did this twice already, although I do not want to damage it or something because I know SSD's need extra special care.

So, I would need to put a decent Windows 7 on my PC, but that requires a full format..is it advised? Will I damage the SSD if I`d format it and reinstall windows again?

 

[fffblackmage]

I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[mfenn]

I have Windows 7 although I will try to update it.

Question: I really would need to format and reinstall Windows on my SSD. I did this twice already, although I do not want to damage it or something because I know SSD's need extra special care.

So, I would need to put a decent Windows 7 on my PC, but that requires a full format..is it advised? Will I damage the SSD if I`d format it and reinstall windows again?

No you won't damage it. Your SSD's lifetime under even heavy use should be on the order of years.