Let's make a gaming PC - The Bear and Badger

vicinity_of_pie

The fun starts now.

You're only successful if you get mega stressed and lost a few times before that first bootup of victory!

[Deleted User]

Fentonizer wrote:

Right, bought. Fuck Thanks for your help, guys

Join B&B Steam group and I'll send you a pressie.

Paul the sparky

Best of luck Fenton.

Paul the sparky

Fred Perry make PCs now?

Fentonizer

SpaceGazelle wrote:

Fentonizer wrote:

Right, bought. Fuck Thanks for your help, guys

Join B&B Steam group and I'll send you a pressie.

I'm already in this one? http://steamcommunity.com/groups/bearandbadger But you don't need to do that.

Cheers, Sparky. Cashed in my Amazon Prime trial and ebuyer next day delivery was barely any more money (at these levels anyway), so it's ALL coming tomorrow. This has all happened so fast, but still, I'm now on the cutting edge and don't need a fucking PS4 or XBONE.

Subbax

I have that Corsair case. Slightly bigger than I thought it'd be but it's a decent basic case. I have grand plans to swap out the two stock in/out fans but have never got around to it.

I built mine six months ago and it's a great feeling!

beano

Whole thread is full of feels.

WorKid

Could someone post a full list of parts they've picked with prices for maximum nosiness please?

It's been ages since I thought about it but fuck I'm actually considering a new pc now thanks guys.

Fentonizer

Done! Moving files now. Will write up full post mortem tomorrow as I'm fucking spent, but thanks all for the help and advice. Dare I say, relatively painless in the end? For a first timer anyway. Booted up first time, OS installed like a dream, and, well, here we are.

https://twitter.com/Fentonizer/status/443862190106615808

beano

Tell me about your fractal like coaster when you do your write up please.

[Deleted User]

Fentonizer wrote:

Done! Moving files now. Will write up full post mortem tomorrow as I'm fucking spent, but thanks all for the help and advice. Dare I say, relatively painless in the end? For a first timer anyway. Booted up first time, OS installed like a dream, and, well, here we are. https://twitter.com/Fentonizer/status/443862190106615808

Yay!

Fentonizer

@beano

Oh, that, yes. I made it from Hama beads using a circular board.

Here we go, looks kinds crap like this:

http://i.imgur.com/nQgcJyw.jpg

beano

I like it. I've never thought I'd have the patience for those things.

Fentonizer

OK:

First of all, I followed this tutorial for the build.

Spoiler:

I got lucky and a lot of the parts were comparable, especially the case which had two removable side panels.

First panic came when I tried to fit my heat sink onto the board. It had two clasps, one on each side, and they both had to wrap around tabs on the board and THEN, there was a plastic tab to lock it all into place. The bloody thing did not feel like it was going to go on without something snapping. I applied more and more pressure, each time convinced that any more would break the thing. It eventually went on.

Video card and memory applied next, which was easy to just slot in. Power supply hooked up for a test boot. This power supply is not modular, i.e., every single cable you may or may not need is hanging out of it and it's a fucking shambles.

Still, test boot went ok, despite me still thinking at this point I'd need a new monitor as the video card had no VGA port on it. I suddenly felt old and also a bit sad that VGA had gone out of the window.

Time to hook it all into the case. Attaching the motherboard to the case was the next biggest problem. It seemed like the holes didn't quite line up, and I had to physically push the board towards the back of the case to screw it in. As such, the back plate I just inserted to label all the ports bulged out. There were some metal tabs on the inside of the plate that gave way when I gave it a little push from the outside, but still, I wasn't happy. This was compounded by the fact it didn't look like with the MB in it's current position, the video card would actually fit, but again, a bit more forceful pressure than I was willing to use as an opening gambit and it slotted in like a dream.

The two hard drives (2TB 3.5 inch drive and the 128GB SSD) went in easy, the only issue was the mess of power cables from the power supply to hook them up with power and SATA. No fucking idea how you'd do this without baing able to remove both side panels.

Fiddly, thin wires for the power buttons were ok with a bit of cross reference to the MB manual, front panel USB 3.0 connectors and audio also just went right in. Fans, again reading the MB manual to check that I was in fact using the right connections, and I was pretty much done.

At some point I found a VGA adapter for the video card, which had me beaming that I would in fact get this tested in the bedroom that night and not the front room TV via HDMI.

Slotted in a standard CD drive (which I needed to rob a SATA cable from my existing PC as that doesn't come with one), gave everything one last check and boom. Booted up the the BIOS first time:

BijqT2EIgAAEDTP.jpg:large

Moved the boot priority to disk, put in my Windows 8.1 disc and that was pretty much it. Going to need to give it another open and do a bit of cable management now it's all definitely working.

And on that note, I don't know if I've done something egregious, but the power supply cable to the motherboard seems to be crazy short and is running over the top of the video card. This, and a few other reasons, has me panicked that in a few days something is going to go bang...

Fentonizer

beano wrote:

I like it. I've never thought I'd have the patience for those things.

They are a surprising ball-ache. I'll do another one now I've got some more beads, always wish I'd used a different green and I also ironed it for too long.

WorKid

Did it warp? My Mario warped.

WorKid

No pun intended but hey that's quite a good one.

vicinity_of_pie

Fentonizer wrote:

Attaching the motherboard to the case was the next biggest problem. It seemed like the holes didn't quite line up, and I had to physically push the board towards the back of the case to screw it in. As such, the back plate I just inserted to label all the ports bulged out.

That shouldn't happen, just to check you did put the stand off screws in first, right? (not all cases require them but it should fit perfectly). If you haven't done make sure they're not required for the case or you risk shorting the board!

Fentonizer

I was under the impression the mounting points themselves were raised instead. My case documentation makes no mention of these screws.

It's off right now; you've sufficiently panicked me.

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=120077

vicinity_of_pie

No, I've just watched a video and that case does indeed have raised mounting for the MB. Sorry to panic you! (i've seen someone make this error before).

Fentonizer

It's OK! Rather have a 2 minute panic than a flipping fried MB.

vicinity_of_pie

Any pics of the final build?

Tried any games on it yet? I recommend picking up the witcher 2 on a sale sometime for graphics that'll blow you away.

isanbard

My stand off mobo scews also came with a little adapter thingy so you could screw them in with a screwdriver and not try and use a bike spanner that would barely rotate them 3 degrees that only a complete arsehole would put up with… *sigh*

I got a mini ITX Asus Z87 mobo, 8gig, Asus GTX 760, SSD and HDD into a Coolermaster 130 so it was all a bit tight and sweaty too.

Quick highlight rundown;

1) mobo daftness with the mounting bolts was followed instantly with a similar ish sounding thing with the rear socket plate. It had a nice spongy, damped side that meant you had to give it a good shove and press, hold and quickly jam a screw in to get it to stay where it needed to be. Small case, lots of swearing many dropped screws later it was a good'un.

2) Mounting the 4670k always a daftly stressful experience really due to the costs of the bits; all went in easily enough after checking 18 times it was in the right way round. Small prayer to the baby roboJesus of PC building as you ratchet in the bastard though.

3) Mounting stock fan to CPU. Had four clippy things that just pushed through sockets in the mobo and went 'plik'. Then had to go 'un-plik' as I realised where the cable would need to go on the mobo headers. Swearing, sweating.. got to see how well the pre pasted themal situation was working; seemed to be a good smear so happy enough.

4) Trying to mount a fecking SSD in a predrilled little socket thingy under the optical drive hole was a complete arseache too mainly due to it looking as if the holes down the side were exactly centrally aligned. They obviously weren't. Took me far too fucking long to realise I'd have to mount it with the cables coming out the irritatingly difficult to get to side and all was good.

5) Trying to then mount a HDD too was now a git of a problem as it looked as if the cables wouldn't play ball either. Swearing eventually fixed that problem too.

6) Fairly sure there was some guesswork with the case lights and buttons connecting to the mobo socket adapter thingy. All the important bits (power button and front USB) seem to work though and I couldn't particularly care less if the rest is fucked. I'll guess and say I did it all right. Go me.

7) Booted first time into BIOS for true fist pump. Nerd points back in the black. Wahey.

8 ) Fucking around with drivers and bollocks took a couple of days as I didn't realise quite what was on the supplied install CDs. Coming form a recent Apple history the hunting down exactly the right driver sets was like walking down old memory lane.. not a particularly fun lane but hey ho. It's done now.

9) getting the right Gamma settings for my plasma TV has taken days of fiddling and following about eight different recommended guides. Quickgamma and more booze and swearing seems to have put my eyes into the correct mode to guesstimate things about right. Now the black bits are mainly black and the colour-y bit look kind of right rather than bleached to hell. Just in time for some Titty action which was another bonus! moment.

10) Not really much to add but a top 10 needs a 10 so.. err. . it runs pretty quiet, is small, has yet to have a problem with anything I've thrown at it and kept me off of BF4 on the PS4 for the last few days. Civ5, Rogue Legacy, Civ5, TF2.. and a much better user of the usb HDDs I have attached to an Airport Extreme upstairs than my Macbook ever managed (fuck you Bonjour) are just icing on the cake. Came with a magnetic Wifi dongle thingy too which seems rock steady so far. Great stuff.

Isanbard is the Steam handle iirc.

beano

For once more PC's have been born by forumers in the past week than kids have!

Congrats to the new parents (o:

I was always surprised at how heavy handed you have to be with the cpu fan clips and the modular bits, ram, sometimes cards. I'm nothing like that these days. Fact- I'm more likely to complain to the manufacturer about build quality if something does snap!

edit: ironing, yep zero patience!

isanbard

Quick question wise Windows people; is there a easy way to get a bluetooth headset t route chat audio in Origin/Steam/Titanfall natively? I heard some French dude very briefly last night in a Titty lobby but that's about the only chat I've heard at all.
As I understand it this is the kind of thing (and th simplicity of organising it) that consoles make work far more easily but I should have all the kit available. Is it a case of someone running a open mumble/Skype/Hangouts room for the party and bypassing the launchers altogether?

Subbax

For bro chat I'd say Skype is probably your best bet. Randoms in game, I'm not so sure.

I've got a turtle beach job that's grand for Skype chat.

Tempy

You never want to hear randoms, skype is the answer. Not many people chat on Titanfall anyway.

[Deleted User]

I've just bought a pair of a50's. Go me. Hello Tempy.

Bollockoff

Congrats Fentno. You went the less drunken rage route.

My monitor's native resolution is 1440x900. I should shop for a new one.

Tempy

SpaceGazelle wrote:

I've just bought a pair of a50's. Go me. Hello Tempy.

Hello, add me on Origin so we can fight the sick man who sends babies to fight us in Titanfall.

Howdy, Stranger!

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