Hardware Building first gaming PC, could use help

[Sicklyboy]

Almost all motherboards work fine with displaying on a TV via HDMI. The only time I've run into a problem with it is when running it through something like a stereo receiver, which is 4 HDMI in and 1 HDMI out to a TV (edit - to clarify, when I mention this, I specifically mean MY stereo receiver, a Yamaha RX-V371. Not all are guaranteed to behave like this, nor will all motherboards.) Windows will display over it, but the BIOS and POST info won't.

Only way to really know is to give it a shot

The only things you're really going to need to change when you start it up are Date and Time information, and possibly disable the "Show full screen splash" setting (or similarly worded, probably found under Advanced Boot Settings or whatever applies to your BIOS). All that will do is instead of displaying a nice, hard on the eyes splash screen saying MSI (in my case) and displaying all of the features of the mobo that the box does, it'll show you useful information, like POST progression and connected devices at boot time. I highly recommend switching the splash off, because it's great at seeing if/where something goes wrong in the boot sequence instead of just going straight to an error message, but to each their own.

Otherwise, you're gonna be getting into fan control and overclocking stuff, for the most part. Nothing you'll probably need to get into just yet.

 

[Originality]

I don't see why the TV wouldn't work. Either way should be fine.

 

[injected11]

I'm getting ready to install the PSU. There's a big opening and a fan on top of the PSU. I've read that since I have vents on the bottom of my casing, I should install the PSU with the fan facing downward, toward the vent, so that whatever heat it blows out gets sent directly out of the case instead of up into the case. Is this correct? It feels strange trying to install it up-side-down...

 

[injected11]

I've solved the PSU issue above, but now I'm trying to connect the PSU to my GPU, and I'm very confused.

The GPU has 2 power cord slots, an 8-pin PCI-E (I think it's called) and a 6-pin PCI-E. When I removed it from the package, there were already cables plugged into each of them. At the other (unplugged) end of the cord plugged into the 8-pin slot are 2x 6-pin PCI-E connectors. These are far too short to reach the PSU. The 6-pin slot on the GPU has a cord with 2 molex connectors at the end.

The PSU came with one cord that has a PCI-E 6+2 connector with an 8-slot connector at the other end. I'm assuming I plug this into one of the 6-slot connectors sticking out of the GPU. But why are there TWO 6-pin connectors at the other end of the 8-slot PCI-E? Do BOTH need to be plugged in? If so, why do I only have ONE cord that does so?

And the molex connectors I have several cords that look like they would connect. There are 3 molex slots staggered down the side of one cord, with a 6-pin PCI-E connector at the other end. Do I plug BOTH of the GPU molex connectors to ONE of these cables, then stick the 6-pin PCI-E into the PSU? Or do I need to use a separate molex-to-PCI-E cables?

The instructions that came with the PSU say to refer to the GPU instructions. The instructions that came with the GPU are absolute shit, linked below:
http://www.evga.com/support/manuals/files/EVGA_Manual_EN.pdf

Please, for the love of all that is just and good, help me out here. This is driving me nuts.

 

[marcus134]

the 4 screw on the psu's back aren't all placed in in each corner so usually case are made to place the psu in a specific orientation, although some case let you install it in both position.

the big fan on the flat side of the psu isn't blowing out hot air but sucking in cool air. The opening at the bottom of the case let your psu suck in cool air and the hot air is expelled from the back of the psu. If your case may let you place your psu the other way, then going that way would make sense if your comp will be used on carpet cause your case would sink in the carpet which would restrict the airflow coming in your psu.

I seriously doubt that placing psu's with the fan on the up side would significantly hamper the cooling of the psu's component cause you got a 12 cm fan blowing 10-15 cfm (cubic feet /min) in a box wich probably has at most 0.5 cubic foot

The GPU has 2 power cord slots, an 8-pin PCI-E (I think it's called) and a 6-pin PCI-E. When I removed it from the package, there were already cables plugged into each of them. At the other (unplugged) end of the cord plugged into the 8-pin slot are 2x 6-pin PCI-E connectors. These are far too short to reach the PSU. The 6-pin slot on the GPU has a cord with 2 molex connectors at the end.

those are adapter cable, they aren't meant to be plugged directly into your psu's modular cable interface but with with wires provided by your psu in case your psu doesn't come with the right wire

The PSU came with one cord that has a PCI-E 6+2 connector with an 8-slot connector at the other end. I'm assuming I plug this into one of the 6-slot connectors sticking out of the GPU. But why are there TWO 6-pin connectors at the other end of the 8-slot PCI-E? Do BOTH need to be plugged in? If so, why do I only have ONE cord that does so?

from the sound of it, it's possible that one of the cable could be a 12v cpu cable and not a 8 pin pcie
if you got the seasonic you were talking about, from the newegg description, it says you should have 2 6+2 pcie cable, if you aren't sure check your psu's manual for cable identification

 

[injected11]

the 4 screw on the psu's back aren't all placed in in each corner so usually case are made to place the psu in a specific orientation, although some case let you install it in both position.

the big fan on the flat side of the psu isn't blowing out hot air but sucking in cool air. The opening at the bottom of the case let your psu suck in cool air and the hot air is expelled from the back of the psu. If your case may let you place your psu the other way, then going that way would make sense if your comp will be used on carpet cause your case would sink in the carpet which would restrict the airflow coming in your psu.

I seriously doubt that placing psu's with the fan on the up side would significantly hamper the cooling of the psu's component cause you got a 12 cm fan blowing 10-15 cfm (cubic feet /min) in a box wich probably has at most 0.5 cubic foot


those are adapter cable, they aren't meant to be plugged directly into your psu's modular cable interface but with with wires provided by your psu in case your psu doesn't come with the right wire


from the sound of it, it's possible that one of the cable could be a 12v cpu cable and not a 8 pin pcie
if you got the seasonic you were talking about, from the newegg description, it says you should have 2 6+2 pcie cable, if you aren't sure check your psu's manual for cable identification

Thanks for responding. When I unboxed the PSU, the big fan was actually already on the bottom, judging from the words on all the stickers on it, so I put it in with the big fan facing downward.

I was starting to think the cords that came with the GPU were adapters. I was just having a panic moment. Spending hundreds of dollars and suddenly not having the slightest clue how I'm supposed to connect something to the PSU sent me off the deep end. Took a break, then when I came back, I noticed I had knocked one of the 6+2 PCI-E cables underneath my workstation. I plugged the 6+2 ends of the cables into the GPU (leaving the +2 out of the 6-slot connector) and plugged the 8-pin PCI-E ends into the PSU. I hope this is the correct orientation.

I'm plugging the front panel wires into the motherboard now, getting ready for the first boot. I think I need to call it quits for the night though, because if it doesn't boot up properly, I'm gonna lose my shit, I can already tell.

 

[Sicklyboy]

from the sound of it, it's possible that one of the cable could be a 12v cpu cable and not a 8 pin pcie
if you got the seasonic you were talking about, from the newegg description, it says you should have 2 6+2 pcie cable, if you aren't sure check your psu's manual for cable identification

Just to build on this, for clarification purposes (as I've seen first time builders get very, VERY confused by this), PCIe is 6+2, the two being optional; CPU is 4+4, the left most of which on the keyed side are optional (with the key facing towards the rear of the case, I might have this flopped though. Either way only one end will fit if your CPU only needs the 4 pin); main is 20+4, the +4 being optional.

Nothing else is going to have extra or fewer pins, if it does then you need to stop and check, double, and triple check that how you have it hooked up is right.

Your GPU is going to need two of the 6+2 PCIe leads from your PSU. If your PSU doesn't have 2 of the leads, the GPU should have come with two adapters to convert 2x 4pin Molex connectors to a single 6+2 PCIe (so you'll need a total of four extra 4 pin Molex leads).

Your CPU power, this day in age ought to take the entire 4+4. If it doesn't, only one half of it will fit properly anyway, just leave the other half dangling. The same for the main 20+4 connector, your mobo ought to take the entire 20+4, but again, on the off chance it doesn't, just leave the 4 extra dangling.

Firewire (1394) and USB2.0 headers are keyed the same, so make sure that you're not plugging a firewire header onto your USB2.0 ones for the front panel, and vice versa. Damage is possible to your motherboard, but I've never had it occur. Your mileage (and luck) may vary. Front panel audio, go for HD Audio over AC'97 and Azalia if possible (again, this day in age, you should be able to)(I've found front panel audio to almost always suck, pick up a cheap-o USB sound card for a few bucks from DX or Amazon anyway). If your front panel LEDs aren't working, flip their headers over. I make this mistake probably every time still.

Make sure your CPU is properly seated with your heatsink on and its fan connected to the mobo, go ahead and boot it without any drives attached just to make sure it can POST. At this point you can go ahead and set the date and time like I said, disable the full-screen splash if you want to (I suggest you do), save and exit, it should continue with the POST and tell you to insert a boot disk and try again.

Shut down, pop in a hard drive and dvd drive, go ahead and install Windows. Log in, and then put in any extra drives you have/want.

Provided you don't hit any snags, you should be good to go.

 

[injected11]

Just gave it the first boot. Motherboard is getting power, the CPU heatsink fan, GPU fan, and all 3 case fans work. There was a single beep on start-up. The motherboard has LEDs that are supposed to stay on next to the problem part if one is detected. It correctly detects the RAM, GPU, and CPU, but the "boot device LED" remains on. I'm not sure how I go about fixing this. Also, nothing came up on the monitor, but I assume that is because of the "boot device" error. Any insight?

EDIT: Cleared CMOS, no change. Google isn't very helpful so far.

EDIT 2: Unplugged the monitor from the motherboard connection and used an adapter to connect it to the GPU. Monitor now works and I can enter BIOS but the red "boot device" LED remains on, and this scares me.

WAIT A MINUTE! Is that on because I have no HDD with an OS installed? Am I freaking out for nothing?

 

[Sicklyboy]

A single beep is good, that's what you want to hear.

That LED would likely stay on if there's no boot device detected. Your GPU is connected to the TV via the mini-HDMI out, right? You're sure your TV/monitor was set to the right input? It should display video regardless of there being no boot device.

Edit - Real quick, what video card do you have? Wasn't it the 580 Classified?

In any case, if you can't get it to work, you might just want to give up for the night and pick back up tomorrow, because you might just be overlooking something simple. If absolutely nothing else, pick up one of these to plug your cable into. Your video card should absolutely boot over DVI like that (give me a few minutes, I'm gonna reboot with hdmi only plugged into my TV on my EVGA 560Ti SC and let you know what happens). Most retail stores sell those adapters in their electronics section (working for one, I know), they sell at Target for $17.09 + tax. I'd obviously caution against buying one and using it until the monoprice one comes in and returning the original (if you need it), because that's dishonest and would be taking advantage of a stores return policy, and I know that every single person here has not a sin to their name. As per Edit 3, you shouldn't need to bother with this adapter anymore.

Only downside with that adapter is your video card isn't gonna output audio over DVI like that, but if you want, set it up over DVI and then switch back to HDMI at the end once everything is up and running.

Yeah, give me a sec, I'll let you know how my boot goes.

Edit 2 - booted over HDMI to my TV, displayed POST info no problem. If your mobo has integrated graphics, what you might need to do is boot while hooked up to that, look through your BIOS options for what graphics adapter to use, and set it to PCIe instead of Integrated Graphics Adapter. Hopefully your board has HDMI, if not, then one of those adapters will be in order.

Edit 3 - Or, you know, I could take the guesswork out of your hands and reduce some confusion for you and take the two minutes I needed to look through the other two pages in this thread where you said you got the other stuff. So it was the 560Ti Classified, same series as my card (560Ti SC) so it should work just the same. Your motherboard does have integrated graphics, so try booting via that, because it does have an HDMI port, go into your BIOS, and choose your PCIe graphics as your primary display adapter. Save and Exit, shut down, switch your HDMI cable to your video card, and power back on, you should be good to go then.

 

[injected11]

A single beep is good, that's what you want to hear.

That LED would likely stay on if there's no boot device detected. Your GPU is connected to the TV via the mini-HDMI out, right? You're sure your TV/monitor was set to the right input? It should display video regardless of there being no boot device.

Edit - Real quick, what video card do you have? Wasn't it the 580 Classified?

In any case, if you can't get it to work, you might just want to give up for the night and pick back up tomorrow, because you might just be overlooking something simple. If absolutely nothing else, pick up one of these to plug your cable into. Your video card should absolutely boot over DVI like that (give me a few minutes, I'm gonna reboot with hdmi only plugged into my TV on my EVGA 560Ti SC and let you know what happens). Most retail stores sell those adapters in their electronics section (working for one, I know), they sell at Target for $17.09 + tax. I'd obviously caution against buying one and using it until the monoprice one comes in and returning the original (if you need it), because that's dishonest and would be taking advantage of a stores return policy, and I know that every single person here has not a sin to their name. As per Edit 3, you shouldn't need to bother with this adapter anymore.

Only downside with that adapter is your video card isn't gonna output audio over DVI like that, but if you want, set it up over DVI and then switch back to HDMI at the end once everything is up and running.

Yeah, give me a sec, I'll let you know how my boot goes.

Edit 2 - booted over HDMI to my TV, displayed POST info no problem. If your mobo has integrated graphics, what you might need to do is boot while hooked up to that, look through your BIOS options for what graphics adapter to use, and set it to PCIe instead of Integrated Graphics Adapter. Hopefully your board has HDMI, if not, then one of those adapters will be in order.

Edit 3 - Or, you know, I could take the guesswork out of your hands and reduce some confusion for you and take the two minutes I needed to look through the other two pages in this thread where you said you got the other stuff. So it was the 560Ti Classified, same series as my card (560Ti SC) so it should work just the same. Your motherboard does have integrated graphics, so try booting via that, because it does have an HDMI port, go into your BIOS, and choose your PCIe graphics as your primary display adapter. Save and Exit, shut down, switch your HDMI cable to your video card, and power back on, you should be good to go then.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I was just stressed and tired, so I wasn't thinking clearly. Relaxing with a bowl and some tv and calling it a night.

I was gonna use my tv, but my brother insisted I borrow his monitor, so I'm using that for the time being. Will be using my tv soon. To keep all my part build info consolidated, I put links to all the parts I'm using in a spoiler in the first post of the thread, just for future reference.

Just so I'm completely clear, "boot device" = something to load the OS from? As in a harddrive?
I saw the red LED stay on and just started panicking instead of calmly thinking things through. I'm just glad I didn't keep messing with it and break anything. The assembly guide I've been using had no such LEDs on the mobo and recommended trying the first boot without the HDD or optic drive installed. My experience slightly deviated from the guide and suddenly OMGWHYISTHISHAPPENING (table flip). Sleep time it is. Thanks for taking the time to do some POST testing on my behalf, and also putting my mind at ease. Seriously appreciate it.

 

[Sicklyboy]

Yeah a boot device is going to be something that contains bootable files, like a flash drive, SD card, disk drive, or hard drive. In your case your primary boot device is going to be your hard drive once Windows is installed. Until then it'll be your disk drive as that's gonna contain your Windows installation media, but that's just getting technical.

The only thing I am concerned with right now is getting some video output going for you, but like I said, I think that has to do with just disabling the integrated graphics.

Yeah I haven't seen a mobo with LEDs like that, mine has a two digit hex readout LCD panel showing various boot codes during the boot process, but both could serve the same purpose. They recommend to do the first boot to make sure it turns on properly, because everything leading up to that is where the most mistakes can occur. If you've got drives in there, you're just adding more peripherals that you have to eliminate from the equation one by one to figure out where the problem lies if it doesn't turn on at first.

 

[injected11]

Forgot to mention I have video output to the monitor. Found an adapter in one of the boxes, stuck the monitor into that and plugged it into the video card and voila, monitor displaying the BIOS menu. Went in and adjusted the time and saved, then shut it down for the night. Gonna stick the optic drive and HDD in tomorrow morning and hope for the best.

 

[injected11]

As some dude once said... IT'S MOTHAF#%@ING ALIVE!!! (maniacal laugh) (thunderclap)

Optical drive and hard drive went in with no problems, and the "boot device" LED now turned off, like it should. I'm currently installing Windows 7 and trying to hide the biggest, hardest nerd boner the world has ever known.

Huge thanks goes out to everyone who helped me pick parts and explained everything to me in idiot-proof details.
MASSIVE THANKS to Originality and plasma dragon007 for repeatedly coming back and dealing with my ineptitude. I couldn't have done this without your help.

 

[Sicklyboy]

Glad to hear it's all working now man. Post back in this thread if you run into anymore snags with it. It's always fun putting these things together lol

 

[injected11]

Glad to hear it's all working now man. Post back in this thread if you run into anymore snags with it. It's always fun putting these things together lol

I can't for the life of me figure out how to connect to the wifi network here. Went to Network and Sharing, then Connect to a network, and I expected to be given a choice between ethernet or a bunch of wireless networks, similar to what I remember doing on my laptop. There is no such choice given. When I hit the troubleshoot button, it tells me to connect an ethernet cable, and no other options. When I click "change adapter settings", then choose "Local Area Connection... Broadcom Virtual Wireless Adapter" and go to properties and hit configure, it says "This device is working properly". I have no idea what I'm doing wrong and google is of little help yet again. I've installed the drivers already.
FIXED! This edit was made via my new PC. Still not sure how to change to my GPU, as described below, though.

If I can just get this working, I should be set for a while.

EDIT: My Windows Experience Index is coming back with a whopping 1.0.
(Processor = 7.7, RAM = 7.7, Graphics = 1.0, Gaming graphics = 1.0, primary hard disk = 5.9)

I take this to mean it is not using my installed GPU and is instead using the built-in crap. How do I change this? I went into the bios and could not find anything that looked GPU-related.

 

[marcus134]

did you install your drivers

gpu: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

and the lucidlogix software

 

[injected11]

did you install your drivers

gpu: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

and the lucidlogix software

(Facepalm) Installed drivers for everything EXCEPT the GPU. Sigh. Thanks for the friendly reminder.

Now Graphics and Gaming graphics scores have both jumped up to 7.9 (aka the maximum). Friggin' sweet.

 

[Sicklyboy]

And your video output is connected through the graphics card, not the onboard graphics, right?

 

[marcus134]

And your video output is connected through the graphics card, not the onboard graphics, right?

to use the power of discrete gpu on mobo equipped with lucidlogix it's not mandotory to connect the monitor/tv directly to the discrete gpu, in fact if you want to use the lucidlogix software, you have to connect it on your mobo.

 

[injected11]

to use the power of discrete gpu on mobo equipped with lucidlogix it's not mandotory to connect the monitor/tv directly to the discrete gpu, in fact if you want to use the lucidlogix software, you have to connect it on your mobo.

@Plasma: Correct, monitor is connected to the GPU atm.

@marcus: I'm not sure what LucidLogix is, but I'll definitely look into it when I have some free time later today. I appreciate the suggestions. You guys make this whole process at least a dozen times easier.