Overall, this was pretty easy
I’m thankful that generations of enthusiasts have agreed (mostly) on standards, and written oodles of documentation and guides to make stuff like this easy. Seriously. To put things in some perspective, when I first started building and tinkering with desktops, I remember having to manually set IRQs when there was a conflict. It was stupid.
But that’s not to say everything is simple. You still have to screw all this stuff in. With a non-magnetic screwdriver, mind you. That could screw stuff up.
That and… Well, let’s call it a supply chain error.
It all begins with Microcenter
When I placed my initial order for the CPU and Motherboard with them, it sat around for about an hour, then got canceled. I called to ask why, and no one knew. So I replaced the order, and it was magically ready a few minutes later to pick up. They both sat on my desk while I waited for the rest of the parts to get shipped.
Around a week later, when I had most everything, and a few days off to tinker, I started assembling things. The case is a Fractal R5
But back to the supply chain issue! Here’s my motherboard box, unopened.
After a while of excited assembly, a few things started to add up.
I had the wrong motherboard in my box. In fact, I had an oddly beat up motherboard in my box.
If you look real close, someone had clearly returned or switched an X99 Pro motherboard and picked up an X99-E.
The first clue should have been when the back panel didn’t match the motherboard ports at all:
But I was excited, and I had already seated the RAM, CPU, and heat sink.
After getting most everything installed…
I got a motherboard error about the RAM. It wasn’t compatible.
The next big clue here? The x99-E doesn’t have a LED with error codes. I learned this after flipping through the manual in disbelief for a while.
Like I said, “supply chain errors”.
Back to Microcenter
They were… okay about me returning it, as long as I replaced it with another board. I sort of get it. When a guy who looks like me comes walking in with a few-hundred-dollar motherboard and a week-old receipt saying they put the wrong one in the box, it’s a bit odd.
On the plus side, they had another X99-E in stock, and this one had the right one in the box. I made them open it in the store this time.
Back home, and with the right motherboard, I put my day of work back together.
Fast forward to yesterday
And, for reference, yesterday is the 4th of January, year of our SMOD 2017. I finally got the last piece of the puzzle, the M.2 chip.
It’s a lot smaller than you’d expect.
This is what the final product looks like now
There are a few differences between the final build and what I planned on, but I’ll talk about those in another post.
Thanks for reading!
Brent says: you always read about how Apple gear is overpriced, and to some extent, I agree. However, when you factor in assembly time, it’s not all that bad of a deal. When something like the motherboard switcheroo happens, that can burn a ton of time, and your time is money. Well, not Erik’s time. He’s an employee, and as we all know, employee time is practically free. That’s why Erik is currently giving Ernie a foot massage.
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There’s nothing wrong with using a magnetized screwdriver for a PC build. It wouldn’t affect an SSD or even a mechanical drive (they have much stronger magnets inside them).
Most guides will lead people away from using magnetized tools for PC assembly.
See here for one example.
Given their choice of language for explaining their objections, I’d have to question the age & experience level of the authors, but YMMV.
You should totally write a build guide that explains why magnetic screwdrivers won’t mess stuff up.
That’d be especially invaluable to people like me who constantly drop tiny screws.
That feeling when you hear the sound of the tiny screw making contact with the case, knowing it’s probably rolled into some unreachable crevice.
These guys have built more PC’s than I ever will:
https://youtu.be/45xTRdgWUxQ?t=1m6s
https://youtu.be/bJAVkoPFTp8
http://www.pcgamer.com/tips-for-taking-the-pain-out-of-pc-building/
I always use chocolate to solve that problem. A tiny dab of a Hershey bar at the end of the screw driver, makes the screws stick. Also, the trace amounts of chocolate don’t make a mess.
Not to mention all those laptop repair/replace guides on YT – majority of them is using magnetic screwdrivers.
I have that same case and love it. So much room for activities.
I’m opening up a handball court in mine.
Just yesterday I finished building a new PC mostly for video editing. Went with Core i7-5820K (6 cores,) 32GB DDR4 RAM, and 250GB 960 Evo M.2 SSD.
Came in just under $USD 1,500 with all the peripherals: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/chahk/saved/Pr7CJx
So far I’m blown away by the 960 Evo – I’ve never seen Win 10 boot so fast. Haven’t installed any video software yet, can’t wait to see how it compares to my old machine (https://pcpartpicker.com/user/chahk/saved/Nd64D3)
Hi Dmitriy… normally the boot times reduces between HDD and SSD, but not soo much between SSD and NVMe drives, because most of the task while Windows starts, are based on QD 1-2… the SSD’s and NVMe drives show their muscles with QD 4 and above… that’s probably the reason you don’t see Windows boot much fast than before…
And something could probably bother you in the futuro… the 250Gb 960 EVO is the slowest in write speed of the new EVO’s NVMe series… for some reason Samsung has limited the write speed on each size of the EVO series… 250Gb write speed is about 250-300 MB/s… 500 Gb speed is near 550-600 MB/s, and the 1 TB model, goes over 850 MB/s write speed… the Pro series don’t have this kind of “speed limit” setted on them
Fixes:
* that’s probably the reason you’ve not see Windows boot much faster before…
* futuro –> future xD
sorry for my english assisted with Google Translate >.<
I’ve got a nice m.2 drive in my home PC, and boy does Windows load FAST.
But you need to be careful, some m.2 connectors only support treating the drive as a SATA drive vs a PCIe drive (and the drives themselves only support one or the other.) PCIe is FAR faster (according to benchmarks) than the SATA drives…
Yes, I got burned by this, my motherboard wanted PCIe, the drive I bought initially was SATA…
Erik Darling, can I get in line for the next foot massage after you’re done with massaging Ernie’s feet?
You’d have to schedule that with Brent. I signed my calendar over to him.
One of my most favorite gadgets: A Magetizer/Demagnetizer for under $5
http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/1000/f2/f2394038-4282-453d-af18-37fd21af0d60_1000.jpg
For when you’re sure/unsure? or just need to pick stuff up…lol
That picture is amazing.
Hi Eric! SQL will love your NVMe SSD 😀
Nice setup, btw… I builded one for myself recently too.. http://imgur.com/gallery/AbC0l/
The problem while building a computer, it’s not if something is magnetized or not, the real killer is the static discharges that can occur while touching components like the RAM memory and motherboard…
I love that monitor! That’s the curved 27″, right? I have two flat 27″ panels now.
Yeah, it’s from Samsung… i puchased one… my friend bought three… http://imgur.com/L23JhXa
Oh wow. That’s great looking. What kind of desk is that?
It’s from some store in my country.. it was the last one in showcase
Any chance you can get the details of this build
Jason – sure, they’re here: https://www.brentozar.com/archive/2017/01/build-build-things-id-different/
I approve of the Noctua cooler and fans! That cooler is a beast and worth the price. Also after installing the cooler and seeing how quiet their fans really were, I immediately ordered replacements for all of my other case fans from Noctua.
All the other stuff is cool too. However you should have splurged for a higher end video card for when SSMS VR is released. 😉
Yeah, Noctua makes great fans.
I’ll probably get a higher end graphics card later this year, when I need to start uh… rendering videos. Ahem.
It’s OK, you can say “play games.” Brent has better things to do than read comments anyways :p
That’s what you think!
I SAW THAT
ba-dum-tsss!
Watch out !
Some modder will tell you that you cable management skill sucks…
Nice system BTW
I’ve already acknowledged that, and fully expect the picture of my guts to end up as comment bait on technology enthusiast forums. Heh.
That certainly is a pretty dreadful cable management job. It’s really not that hard to route most of the cables under the motherboard on the opposite side of the case (away from the “top” side of the motherboard).
It just takes a little time and attention to detail. You can see the little rubber cutouts right next to your power supply. The benefit, besides aesthetics, is better air flow though the case.
Perhaps for the two cables going to the PSU, but the wires for the fans and the drives make up the majority of what’s going through the middle (five for fans, six SSD, one SATA). There wouldn’t be an easy way to loop those around, unless I bought absurdly long SATA cables, or added extensions to the fan cables. The case has seven fans, including the two for the heatsink, so I’m reasonably sure airflow won’t be a problem. As for aesthetics, well, the window side actually faces the wall under my desk, so I’m not missing out on much 🙂
Thanks again for your help with the hardware choices!
Try something like this… I have a non modular PSU, 3 HDD, 2 SSD, 1 DVD Drive… 6 sata cables (default lenght) + all the cables for SATA Power, PCI Express and fans… is not the best cable management… but it works… 😉 (and is worth the effort)
http://bit.ly/2jkynUm
http://bit.ly/2i1AQ4e
Great looking build!
Just to prove Michel MaherJanuary’s point: “Your cable management skills suck” 😉
Beside that, I actually find some satisfaction building my own system’s, and most pre-build systems I actually find sloppy, so no apple’s for me
( to prove the “modder” status: https://slader.nl/clear-box/DSCF5781.JPG )
Nice build man !