Hardware New PC Build help required.

pwsincd

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Looking for a little advice before i go any further.

Bought the components in my price range to day to build a pc :

Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Mobo
I5-4670K 3.4 ghz overclocked to 4.2
Arctic freezer 7 pro custom cooling
8 gig of corsair vengeance-LP memory
Corsair 430 PSU
2Tb Seagate HDD

Im confident to a point in assembly of the components and have managed to get all the compontents into the case and powering.

I dont yet have any OS installed and was just trying the basics .. entering BIOS.

This is where im struggling , the Gigabyte - ultra durable splash screen appears and has the options to enter bios , boot info etc (and using the HDMI onboard GPU the splash screen seems zoomed in somewhat and cannot quite see all the image etc.

When i press any other buttons to enter any of the mobo features it blinks . a mouse pointer momentarily appears then it black screens with the words : please reboot and connect a bootable device (or words to that effect) - i dont have an optical drive connected as yet.

I was wondering if i should clear the cmos and try again , but im not sure what this will effect , would it effect the over clocked arrangement i have ? or am i missing something obvious... my first PC build for well over 10 yrs .. so just looking for a little heads up / guidance.
 

marcus134

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clear your cmos
look for uefi update on gigabytes website
set up the uefi like you want it but DON'T overclock.
install windows and the required drivers
If you want to overclock, now you can do it.

reason: even if the overclock let you go through the POST, it doesn't mean it's stable, and will crash during windows install, which will make you waste time or will corrupt windows files.

overclock by small increment, and check the stability with a cpu stress test at each step
 

pwsincd

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i bought the cpu , mobo and ram pre-assembled and overclocked , that had had 5 hrs stress test ran on it. - so im concerned that if i clear cmos .. ill lose that set-up .. or will i ?
 

FAST6191

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Edit. Really should press refresh. Oh well I will leave it. Note down the overclock setting uses (Voltages, clocks, linking, timings for RAM....) or if you can save it to something then do.

So you can get into the BIOS and fiddle with the various options all you like. The other stuff is what troubles you.

HDMI having borders or being cropped around the edges is more likely overscan/underscan. Are you connected to a TV by any chance, monitors may do it too but TVs are notorious for this?
If you have a DVI or VGA option for the time being it might be better to go that as it should dodge the issue (HDMI is great and it saves hassle with audio but at various levels it is still not the best connection method).
From the manual the options are
Esc -- Enter the BIOS.
F9 -- system info.
F12 -- boot options (so as to bypass boot order)
End -- Qflash (the inbuilt BIOS flashing tool)

F9 and F12 (and end I guess) should do something further, I can well believe that further will end with the "no boot options" result (you have no boot options unless you have a network boot server and most do not).


Equally why overclock right away (or indeed at all in 2014, especially on a budget motherboard, but I will leave that one for now)? Wait until you have an OS installed, maybe some bios updates and are stable enough to start fiddling as 4.2GHz is reasonably serious jump to make. Also yeah, resetting the CMOS settings will probably clear that. Alternatively did you mean you bought the I5 you say but the vendor said they have tested it as working at 4.2 GHz, I have not seen that for a while outside graphics cards but it is not my thing so that is not unexpected.

You should be able to boot from a USB drive as well -- though you can make a windows one easily enough these days it might be better to go for a linux one at this point.
 

trumpet-205

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Clear CMOS anyway. You will lose the settings but you need to do it to troubleshoot.

That being said, I would not overclock on a simple cooler such as Freezer 7.
 

pwsincd

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No i cannot enter BIOS , none of the options you gracefully listed do anything , i just end up at a NO boot options screen , i was going to insta a linux dist from usb initially , im assuming it would check all sources for a bootable device including usb .. well i guess its dependant on bios settings.
 

pwsincd

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well i took the advice of the aria PC tech dudes , i would like to think they have some clue what they are on about , and did question him heavily on the cooling with the over clocked setup. Im not saying he was honest or knowledgeable but i beleived him :)

edit : thats the cooler >> http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-035-AR&tool=5

So you guys think reset cmos and loose the overclock to debug ? or try a linux distro initially ?


this is what i bought : http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...Overclocked+Pre-Built+Bundle+?productId=58251

i paid £250 ..
 

trumpet-205

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No i cannot enter BIOS , none of the options you gracefully listed do anything , i just end up at a NO boot options screen , i was going to insta a linux dist from usb initially , im assuming it would check all sources for a bootable device including usb .. well i guess its dependant on bios settings.
Take the battery out on the motherboard. Wait for 15 minutes before putting it back. That'll clear CMOS.
 

marcus134

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if you don't want to reset your cmos, try to contact your reseller.

also, arctic cooling stuff are usually entry-mid level affordable after market solutions aimed towards quietness rather than performance and 4.2ghz is rather on the topside of what you can get on air cooling, though I wouldn't say the cooler is unsuitable without some testing.

Take the battery out on the motherboard. Wait for 15 minutes before putting it back. That'll clear CMOS.
it only works if you disconnect the psu or shut it off

actually, there should be a cmos clear button that you need to hold for 5 or 10 seconds
 

trumpet-205

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also, arctic cooling stuff are usually entry-mid level affordable after market solutions aimed towards quietness rather than performance and 4.2ghz is rather on the topside of what you can get on air cooling, though I wouldn't say the cooler is unsuitable without some testing.
Haswell runs very hot once you get past 4.0 GHz, especially if you didn't delid it. Combine that with the fact that it is a 92 mm heatsink rather than standard 120 mm one, nope it is not a suitable cooler.
 

pwsincd

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Ok i have win8.1 installed. Next purchase will be a GPU . im good for around £100 any suggestions ?

and what is this Crossfire slot on the mobo for , is like SLI ?
 

MrEl

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with that budget, I would suggest Radeon HD7850 (or possibly 7950 if you can find a good deal). But since you have intel cpu, gtx might work better. Your choice!

if you are low on budget, I would go for radeon :) I have HD7950 and very satisfied.
 

MrEl

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that's nice. by the way, you can always search for hierarchy chart for graphic card to compare nvidia and radeon.
 

CompassNorth

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But since you have intel cpu, gtx might work better. Your choice!
It doesn't matter if the processor is Intel or AMD, both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards work well on either one.

"Nvidia gets more perfomance on Intel and AMD gets more performance on AMD" is just non-sense.
 

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