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Computer build question

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  • Younggun

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    Brains

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    The case will nearly always include the necessary stuff, and they plug right into headers on the motherboard. Easy peezy.
     

    Younggun

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    Sweet!

    I was worried I’d end up nickel and dimeing another couple hundred bucks worth of bits and pieces. Probably gonna happen anyways with monitor, keyboard, etc.


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    Brains

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    One thing to help ease your mind, is there are standards in place here designed specially to make it easier to assemble components from many manufacturers. The ATX "family"of standards define the size of the motherboard, where the screw holes are, what the power connector size and pinouts are, etc. so you'll be able to mount it in the case and plug in the power supply. The PCI Express standard makes sure your video card will plug in and work (along with other PCIe accessories). Can't say what it's called, but I'm sure there's also a standard (maybe also ATX?) for the USB connector pinout on the motherboard since they've also been the same for a really really long time.

    Standards to get updated and revised of course, and things do change to keep up with tech advances (like memory and cpu sockets will change physically and not interchange), but if you match the spec sheets you can make sure it works. Asking here is good too, we have a lot of knowledgeable folks.
     

    Younggun

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    Well, my wife went to Microcenter yesterday. After an hour and a half drive and 2 hours in the parking lot she finally got to go in. Customer service there was great. She showed them the list I had printed and the guy gathered everything up for her.



    I didn’t make it home till around 630. Took a couple hours to get it all together. Got stuck a couple times but overall it wasn’t bad. Then we realized we had somehow lost the old keyboard that we haven’t seen in years. Luckily my sister lives nearby and had one.

    It’s about 930 now. Computer is plugged in to the TV via HDMI, PSU is plugged in, flipped the switch and waited for the magic smoke. Instead the bios screen popped up showing system info, fan speeds, and other cool stuff.

    Pulled out the Windows flash drive and started the install process, fucking Windows....


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    Younggun

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    Install seemed to be going well until the restart. Error after error. Reinstalled, same thing. Wiped the drive and clean install, still fucked.

    Did some googling. Waited for the error. Typed some shit from google, clicked som folders, changed a 1 to a 3 in some registry. Restarted the computer.

    SUCCESS!


    This put me at nearly midnight so I shut everything down and went to bed. Hopefully this evening I can get started on driver updates, and get my ram to work at it’s rated speed instead of the 2133mhz or whatever the bios is showing.


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    Brains

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    Good job! Wasn't that tough, right?

    But ... That shit right there is why it's so easy for folks like me to justify the "extra" money spent on a Mac.

    I use Windows, MacOS, and various Linux distros regularly but my primary work environment is MacOS. I switched for good in 2008, after forcing myself to learn OSX well enough to be useful. Took about two weeks to really unlearn all the goofy things I regularly did in Windows where I had lived for the past who knows how long (Since 3.1). After about two months I had an epiphany - I wasn't spending nearly as much time working ON the computer. Updates were a blip rather than an ordeal. Updates didn't break things! Upgrading the OS didn't move things around just to be different. Installing and uninstalling software was simpler, much more clear, and way faster. The more I unlearned, the more I realized all my knowledge I'd built over the years was basically wasted knowing how to get and keep the computer working well, rather than being productive with it. Productivity came as a result of those efforts, but it took a hard switch to realize just how much it cost to get there.

    Don't get me wrong, I keep talking myself out of building an AMD rig, and I hem and haw whether I'd put Windows or Linux on it. It's fun to build and tinker. But when it comes to paying the bills, I'm grabbing my Macbook Pro.
     

    Younggun

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    The explanation if “Mac V PC” that made the most sense to me was that Macs aren’t built with better parts or using higher quality magic smoke. It’s just that they are designed and build in a “closed environment” of Apple.

    PC on the other hand is the product of tons of manufacturers having their stuff mixed and matched with others and Windows attempting to make it all work together, which often leads to issues.


    This made sense to me, especially after shopping around for this build.

    Went easy enough for though and I’m happy. Fans aren’t as loud as I expected to I changed to a more aggressive profile. Installed a cheap HDD for bulk storage that I need to plug in. Hopefully I can get photoshop and a few other programs on it before long and put it under some kind of load to see how it does.

    Dreading the first time it gets an internet connection. I’m sure windows will be updating for fucking days.


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    Brains

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    The explanation if “Mac V PC” that made the most sense to me was that Macs aren’t built with better parts or using higher quality magic smoke. It’s just that they are designed and build in a “closed environment” of Apple.

    PC on the other hand is the product of tons of manufacturers having their stuff mixed and matched with others and Windows attempting to make it all work together, which often leads to issues.


    This made sense to me, especially after shopping around for this build.
    Yep, that's really it in a nutshell. The hardware is being manufactured in the same factories. The difference is Apple is selective with the hardware and spends more time doing the tinkering for you, so by the time it lands on your desk all the fiddly bits are already sorted out.

    I've built a few Hackintoshes over the years, and if I select the proper hardware they work just as well as if Apple had built 'em.
     

    Younggun

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    The fight continues!

    With much dread I connected to the internet so I could activate Photoshop. Got swamped with driver updated, new drivers, etc all trying to download and install at once. Half the shit I didn’t even know what it was. Not to mention extra controllers and crap from AMD, PowerColor, ASUS, etc.

    Now I’ve got a conflict somewhere causing kernel security, IRQL, and a couple other errors.

    Went through and checked again for driver updates and have Windows updates downloading. If that doesn’t fix it I don’t have much on it yet and it won’t kill me to start over.

    Still haven’t figured out how to get my ram up to 3600 either. Every time I correct the speeds either manually (might be doing it wrong) or automatically using DOCP I have a post failure and have to revert it back to the 2366, or whatever the basic stock setting it.

    Luckily I do get some joy out of troubleshooting things.


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    Younggun

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    Think I might have solved my issues. Looks like it was a RTFM problem with the hardware installer.


    I put the Ram in slots A1 and B1 thinking it would be the obvious location. Nope, A2 and B2. Shut everything down and moved them. Booted to bios and enabled the proper speed and got a good POST.

    Went to Premiere elements and slapped a bunch of clips together and saved at a different resolution to give it something to do. Ran without a hitch.

    Still have a couple windows updates that threw errors when installing that I need to retry.


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    ed308

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    Can't say I miss dealing with Windows shit. Moved to Macs eight years ago but kept a Window computer for videos and photos. Finally moved everything to the Mac via portable HDs. I don't have time to deal all the issues that come with Windows as a OS.

    I have 400 gigs of photos. Take a look at Lightroom. I like it better for processing and especially cataloging photos. I use it more than Photoshop. Unfortunately its only available as a monthly subscription.
     

    Younggun

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    Update 2: After much grumbling I I decided to wipe drive C and reinstall windows hoping the bios update would fix the previous install. It didn’t.

    After much googling I found people ha I guess issues with Win10 and onboard WiFi. Disabled the WiFi in bios and ran win install without a hitch.

    Use my laptop to go online and download/save the WiFi drivers to a thumb drive, installed drivers and BAM!, up and running.


    Left my phone connected overnight and all updates downloaded and installed correctly.

    Photoshop and Premiere elements both running smooth.

    Rise of Flight installed and running smooth.

    War Thunder is still pending due to the massive fucking updates required.

    Overall it seems to be running perfect now. I do have to go back and put all my pictures and crap back on the HDD since I forgot to unhook it before doing the win install and formatted the wrong drive, lol.


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    Brains

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    mbek180yxy931.jpg
     

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    Younggun

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    Lol.

    Been running and gaming without issue now. Playing Rise of Flight with graphics maxed out and recording to the HDD and no errors or blue screens.

    I think I’ve got it all ironed out now! Just need to struggle through the War Thunder download so I can get back in my Sherman and kill some NAZIs!


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    Brains

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    So I got "inspired" by your build. (translation: stupidity got the best of me)

    I figured my youngest (6, kinder) has been doing more with his computer since the pandemic. Online classes, some games, learning more programming in Scratch, etc. He uses a little Zotac ci327 Nano (fanless miniature PC), but it only has a Celeron N3450. Not exactly a screamer, but it runs well enough with Ubuntu and it's really hands off. He can do whatever he wants and I don't have to spend any time monkeying with it. He likes Minecraft though, and framerates are in the single digits.

    So I grabbed some older hardware from work, some stuff I had laying around, and cobbled together a machine. It's a Gen 2 Intel i5 based machine with 16GB ram and some sort of dedicated video card. The 500GB drive it came with has Windows 7 on it, figured lets upgrade it to an SSD and Windows 10. In typical PC fashion, I've been fighting for like a half hour already just trying to get a bootable USB drive to work.

    FWIW, my little 128GB SSD with Ubuntu on it runs nicely.
     

    Younggun

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    Lol.


    My wife got on my gaming computer...I mean, my wife got on the “video and picture editing computer” last night and started going through a bunch of old pics and videos on the external HD.

    Today I got a couple blue screens while playing ride of flight and again just checking some updates. Pretty sure it’s the external hard drive causing them. It’s pretty cheap and the only ones I’ve had since fixing the botched windows install have been with it plugged in.

    Yesterday I was running Rise of Flight at 1440p and the video settings maxed out without any faults and nothing was changed in between except for the External HD getting plugged in. I’ll find out tomorrow I guess when if I play some more.


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