First time building a computer

[Sergio0522]

G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) Ripjaws X

XFX RADEON 7870 1000MHz 2GB GDDR5

WD Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache - WD10EZEX

Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 4 Core LGA 1155 - BX80637I53570K

AS Rock LGA1155 DDR3 SATA3 USB3.0 Quad CrossFireX and Quad SLI A GbE ATX Motherboard Z77 EXTREME4

Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 700-Watt Power Supply (RS700-PCAAE3-US)

Lite-On Super AllWrite 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive - Bulk - IHAS124-04 Version C

And then my case...

Ok this is my first time building a computer, I've looked up tons of information read up on a lot of the threads here and most of them have answered my questions, but now I got some more direct question and I need some answers too...

1) Do I need to buy any extra cables or does everything I have already come with the cables? That's what I'm assuming...
2) What kind of tweaking do I need to do in the BIOS? I don't want to overclocked anything Nd rather just leave everything how it is.
3) Does setting "Voltage" and "Ram Timing" mean overclocking the RAM? From what I read, yes.
4) Since my i5 came overclocked already overclocked do I need to tweak any settings in the BIOS
5) My harddrive/disk drive came with no cables, do I need to buy the cables for them?

 

[Traciatim]

Generally your motherboard box will have at least 1 SATA cable in it. You may need to buy 1 for your 2 devices. It really depends . . . I usually order 5-10 SATA cables at a time when I do a Monoprice order so that if I ever need one (or a friend does) I have them around, they are only like 1 dollar or something.

If you aren't overclocking you probably don't need to change anything in the BIOS at all.

Yes, adjusting your RAM timings are a form of overclocking (or under in some cases), everything will just default to have the setting read off the RAM when you build your machine so you probably won't need to worry about any of that.

If you are buying from a manufacturer that is building your machine and overclocking it for you then everything will already be set. If you are buying all of the parts and building it then your CPU will not be overclocked when you install it, it will just run at it's default 3.4Ghz.

See first answer.

 

[larrym]

That mobo will come with 2 sata cables..I have bought two of them and both came with 2. If you have 1600 ram, your mobo will default to 1333 in the bios. You can change it to 1600 in the bios. Plus, Cooler Master PSU's are not really recommended, I would choose Seasonic, Antec, Corsair, or XFX to be on the safe side...but that's up to you.

 

[Sergio0522]

Ok perfect them I'm all set!

I'm building it myself so it should be fun.

How worried should I be about grounding? I live in south Florida and it'll be building it on a granite/wood table....

Also any tips are welcome

 

[nokiddingboss]

here's what i think
1.) NO. You don't need any more cables.
2.) it's already overclocked right? meaning someone already overclocked it for you? then NO you don't have to.
3.) depends on what you do to them. you can either undervolt it and loosen the timings or you can do the opposite which is increase it. still, i won't recommend it unless you really know what you are doing (and have experienced doing it) and not just read it up on the net (i'm assuming you only did read it up, sorry if i'm wrong).
4.) same answer as no. 2
5.) are you sure? it comes as a standard you know, otherwise they wont work at all if you don't connect them to the mobo.
closing remarks: thats a pretty good system. no need to do anything drastic if you don't know what to do with them. your psu might be a little bit high for that setup. a 500w~600w psu would do. otherwise don't let it bother you so much.

 

[Sergio0522]

That mobo will come with 2 sata cables..I have bought two of them and both came with 2. If you have 1600 ram, your mobo will default to 1333 in the bios. You can change it to 1600 in the bios. Plus, Cooler Master PSU's are not really recommended, I would choose Seasonic, Antec, Corsair, or XFX to be on the safe side...but that's up to you.

Any reason why the PSU isn't good?

 

[Traciatim]

As for grounding, I've never really worried about it all too much, if I come from a room with carpet I touch the screw on one of my AC outlets in my room and then the case before I work on a machine.

Also, unless you are going to be doing some crazy crossfire setup in the future I agree with the others that the 700watt power supply is probably overkill. My own machine is a 3570k@4.1, 7850@975, 8GB DDR-2133, 2 spinning disks and an SSD... for the life of my I can't get it to use more than 220 watts from the wall, so with my 82% efficient power supply that's actually pushing about 180 watts on the computer side of the supply.

 

[Sergio0522]

here's what i think
1.) NO. You don't need any more cables.
2.) it's already overclocked right? meaning someone already overclocked it for you? then NO you don't have to.
3.) depends on what you do to them. you can either undervolt it and loosen the timings or you can do the opposite which is increase it. still, i won't recommend it unless you really know what you are doing (and have experienced doing it) and not just read it up on the net (i'm assuming you only did read it up, sorry if i'm wrong).
4.) same answer as no. 2
5.) are you sure? it comes as a standard you know, otherwise they wont work at all if you don't connect them to the mobo.
closing remarks: thats a pretty good system. no need to do anything drastic if you don't know what to do with them. your psu might be a little bit high for that setup. a 500w~600w psu would do. otherwise don't let it bother you so much.

The Harddrive and disk drive came with nothing, I ordered both off amazon

 

[nokiddingboss]

Any reason why the PSU isn't good?

your psu isn't bad. its just that your system probably only needs 550w - max. unless you plan to SLI or Xfire, save a few bucks by buying the 550w variety.

 

[larrym]

Any reason why the PSU isn't good?

It may work for you..there are just a lot of people on here that have had issues with them. Here is a chart you can look at for good psu's.. I think that one is like a tier 4..

http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx

 

[Sergio0522]

As for grounding, I've never really worried about it all too much, if I come from a room with carpet I touch the screw on one of my AC outlets in my room and then the case before I work on a machine.

Also, unless you are going to be doing some crazy crossfire setup in the future I agree with the others that the 700watt power supply is probably overkill. My own machine is a 3570k@4.1, 7850@975, 8GB DDR-2133, 2 spinning disks and an SSD... for the life of my I can't get it to use more than 220 watts from the wall, so with my 82% efficient power supply that's actually pushing about 180 watts on the computer side of the supply.

I do want to do crossfire some time down the road, I already have everything Soo.. Lol

And my whole house is wood if that matters..

 

[nokiddingboss]

The Harddrive and disk drive came with nothing, I ordered both off amazon

okay if you say so. then you'll need to buy a pair of sata cables for them to work.

 

[Sergio0522]

After I put the puzzle together(and hope it turns on), do I still need to enter the BIOS? Or can I just put in the windows disk?

 

[larrym]

I do want to do crossfire some time down the road, I already have everything Soo.. Lol

And my whole house is wood if that matters..

Just touch the any metal part of the case before you touch any components..that's all you really need to do. I would not try to crossfire or sli with that PSU..it's not recommended for stressful situations.

 

[Sergio0522]

okay if you say so. then you'll need to buy a pair of sata cables for them to work.

As said above my moBo comes with 2 so I'm fine.

 

[larrym]

okay if you say so. then you'll need to buy a pair of sata cables for them to work.

The MOBO will come with 2 sata cables (black ones).

 

[Sergio0522]

Just touch the any metal part of the case before you touch any components..that's all you really need to do. I would not try to crossfire or sli with that PSU..it's not recommended for stressful situations.

Ok will do.

For now ill just not touch anything, I just wanna play BF3

 

[larrym]

Ok will do.

For now ill just not touch anything, I just wanna play BF3

It's a good game..just a lot of updates to download at first..took forever to get it going with all those updates.

 

[Traciatim]

After I put the puzzle together(and hope it turns on), do I still need to enter the BIOS? Or can I just put in the windows disk?

Theoretically you just put in the windows disk. I always go in to the BIOS to verify things like I plugged the HDD in to the right controller, the DVD Drive is detected, the RAM shows the right amount installed . . . those kind of things.

 

[Sergio0522]

It's a good game..just a lot of updates to download at first..took forever to get it going with all those updates.

Another question, drivers and such.. When I instill windows it'll do all those updates and what not correct?

And my MoBo came with a disk :O

 

[larrym]

I was talking about the updates for the game. All the DL content and origin updates. The drivers will be on the disk for the MOBO, but get the latest drivers for your GPU from the AMD website. They will be outdated on the cd you get with the GPU.

 

[Traciatim]

Another question, drivers and such.. When I instill windows it'll do all those updates and what not correct?

And my MoBo came with a disk :O

You may need to install drivers for your network adapter to get online. From that point you probably just want to download everything off the respective websites as the disks will probably be old versions anyway.

 

[Sergio0522]

I was talking about the updates for the game. All the DL content and origin updates. The drivers will be on the disk for the MOBO, but get the latest drivers for your GPU from the AMD website. They will be outdated on the cd you get with the GPU.

Ok will do it'll check there. I was gonna pay 250$ to have someone built it but I decided I can do it myself with no problem(hopefully) Ill have this website open just incase I run into issues! Thanks guys super helpful

 

[larrym]

yea, don't pay for it. The hardest part will be figuring out where all the wires from the case connect to the Mobo...then how much thermal paste to add...then how to hide all the wires...Once you do, it is smooth sailing from there. (once you do it, you will want to build another

 

[Traciatim]

Ok will do it'll check there. I was gonna pay 250$ to have someone built it but I decided I can do it myself with no problem(hopefully) Ill have this website open just incase I run into issues! Thanks guys super helpful

Helpful tip, always remember to put the stand offs in your case that hold your motherboard away from the metal . . . I was building a row of 10 or 12 machines one day and missed one of them due to a phone call or something so it got skipped in error... it was... hmmm.... colorful

Just don't rush and double check every step