How hard is it to build a PC?
Discussion
I want to upgrade my CPU and Motherboard and have some bigger/faster SSD drives and want a clean install of Windows.
I already have a 3090 GPU, a spare case and the RAM in my existing PC which I can use and have swapped out RAM, GPU's and power supplies before so have been 'hands on'.
My main concern is do I need to mess with the BIOS if building a PC from scratch as thats the bit that scares me?
Will it recognise 2 or 3 SSD drives automaticlly (won't be using SATA's or actually spinning disks) once built and is choosing the drive I want Windows installed easy to set up?
Will it recognise any fans including Coolmasters etc or will I need to turn these on somewhere on the BIOS and even set the speeds they spin?
Is it relatively easy to build a PC from scratch and get a fresh Windows installed or am I best just buying what I need and getting someone who knows what they're doing to build it for me?
I already have a 3090 GPU, a spare case and the RAM in my existing PC which I can use and have swapped out RAM, GPU's and power supplies before so have been 'hands on'.
My main concern is do I need to mess with the BIOS if building a PC from scratch as thats the bit that scares me?
Will it recognise 2 or 3 SSD drives automaticlly (won't be using SATA's or actually spinning disks) once built and is choosing the drive I want Windows installed easy to set up?
Will it recognise any fans including Coolmasters etc or will I need to turn these on somewhere on the BIOS and even set the speeds they spin?
Is it relatively easy to build a PC from scratch and get a fresh Windows installed or am I best just buying what I need and getting someone who knows what they're doing to build it for me?
I built my first PC a couple of weeks ago and it was quite simple.
Plenty of YouTube videos showing you how to do various things.
I have a 1TB SSD and a 2TB Hard Drive. I wanted windows installed on the SSD so I just unplugged the power and data cables to the HD before installing Windows.
To install windows you just need to download the tool to an 8gb USB stick (from another machine), plug the stick into the new machine and boot the PC up.
It will automatically start the windows installation.
Once it’s done just plug the HD back in and format the drive.
Plenty of YouTube videos showing you how to do various things.
I have a 1TB SSD and a 2TB Hard Drive. I wanted windows installed on the SSD so I just unplugged the power and data cables to the HD before installing Windows.
To install windows you just need to download the tool to an 8gb USB stick (from another machine), plug the stick into the new machine and boot the PC up.
It will automatically start the windows installation.
Once it’s done just plug the HD back in and format the drive.
I've built my desktops for years. I've not had any expensive problems when doing do, but have never attacked the BIOS, so can't help you there.
I was given a brand new, pre-built PC as part of a job I did and I more or less inherited it once the role was over. It was poorly put together, with just some of the motherboard spacers put in place and wires running all over the place. One of the HDDs had a catastrophic failure with one of the arms all but falling off. I stripped it for spares.
There are lots of YouTube how-tos and all the ones I've seen seem great.
The first thing I do is ensure I have everything I need - check twice. I put piece of card on the work top and turn the edges up as screws migrate. I take my time, doing a sort of dry run. I then fit the bits in as methodical manner as I can manage, putting the pesky connectors from the front panel in first. Routing the wire runs is the only thing that I tend to have to redo.
I'm reluctant to give advice, even I'd check it if I did, but ensure you have plenty of time to complete the task.
I have had the same computer for, well since the start of Win98. I've changed everything of course. I add 'stuff' every year, going minor bit, significant bit, minor bit, significant. It means I've got the impossible; a future-proof PC.
I always clone my C: drive and building my own computers means my back-up drive is in the case, disconnected, but being able to be connected easily for the clone, and the check. It's a silly little thing, but it's convenient. Build you own and you can do it your way.
I've got a decent CPU and m/b, with a middle of the range GPU, plus 64gb RAM, 1B M.2 SSD for C:, two 6TB HDD, and a 3TB HDD. I could not justify the cost as a one-off, but bought over time, with little inprovements, 6/8TB to replace the 3 next year, I've got exactly what I want and what I need+. And a 500gb SATA SSD for clone.
I've helped others build their own PCs, and they were converted to that way of doing things.
I was given a brand new, pre-built PC as part of a job I did and I more or less inherited it once the role was over. It was poorly put together, with just some of the motherboard spacers put in place and wires running all over the place. One of the HDDs had a catastrophic failure with one of the arms all but falling off. I stripped it for spares.
There are lots of YouTube how-tos and all the ones I've seen seem great.
The first thing I do is ensure I have everything I need - check twice. I put piece of card on the work top and turn the edges up as screws migrate. I take my time, doing a sort of dry run. I then fit the bits in as methodical manner as I can manage, putting the pesky connectors from the front panel in first. Routing the wire runs is the only thing that I tend to have to redo.
I'm reluctant to give advice, even I'd check it if I did, but ensure you have plenty of time to complete the task.
I have had the same computer for, well since the start of Win98. I've changed everything of course. I add 'stuff' every year, going minor bit, significant bit, minor bit, significant. It means I've got the impossible; a future-proof PC.
I always clone my C: drive and building my own computers means my back-up drive is in the case, disconnected, but being able to be connected easily for the clone, and the check. It's a silly little thing, but it's convenient. Build you own and you can do it your way.
I've got a decent CPU and m/b, with a middle of the range GPU, plus 64gb RAM, 1B M.2 SSD for C:, two 6TB HDD, and a 3TB HDD. I could not justify the cost as a one-off, but bought over time, with little inprovements, 6/8TB to replace the 3 next year, I've got exactly what I want and what I need+. And a 500gb SATA SSD for clone.
I've helped others build their own PCs, and they were converted to that way of doing things.
stabilio said:
I already have a 3090 GPU, a spare case and the RAM in my existing PC which I can use and have swapped out RAM, GPU's and power supplies before so have been 'hands on'.
If you have swapped out a PSU before you can definitely build a PC. As per the comments above watch a youtube video, refer to your motherboard manual, and just take your time. stabilio said:
My main concern is do I need to mess with the BIOS if building a PC from scratch as thats the bit that scares me?
Will it recognise 2 or 3 SSD drives automaticlly (won't be using SATA's or actually spinning disks) once built and is choosing the drive I want Windows installed easy to set up?
Will it recognise any fans including Coolmasters etc or will I need to turn these on somewhere on the BIOS and even set the speeds they spin?
You'll generally only need to flash the BIOS immediately if you are buying a recently released CPU and the motherboard needs updating to support it (for example a Ryzen 5000 series CPU and the motherboard BIOS only supports 3000 series until version xxxx). If you buy a motherboard with the BIOS flashback feature you can flash the BIOS without a CPU or RAM installed via a FAT32 formatted USB stick.Will it recognise 2 or 3 SSD drives automaticlly (won't be using SATA's or actually spinning disks) once built and is choosing the drive I want Windows installed easy to set up?
Will it recognise any fans including Coolmasters etc or will I need to turn these on somewhere on the BIOS and even set the speeds they spin?
On initial setup it's easier to only connect the drive you want to use for Windows. You can install the other drives but just leave them disconnected. That way you don't have to worry about which drive gets detected as the boot drive.
Fans will be detected and can be controlled as long as they are connected to the motherboard (either via a fan controller or directly to a fan header). They will run at the default speeds but you can tweak the fan profile in the BIOS later (refer to the motherboard manual)
130R said:
On initial setup it's easier to only connect the drive you want to use for Windows. You can install the other drives but just leave them disconnected. That way you don't have to worry about which drive gets detected as the boot drive.
Cheers all and think I will go for it.I'm going all out on this build then with a AMD Threadripper 3970X (providing anyone actually has any in stock!) and the 3090 GPU and want to have x2 M.2 drives fitted into the motherboard so I can lose all the unused bays in PC case, get the heat out better, cut down on cabling and get faster read/write speeds.
If i just fit the one M.2 drive to start with for the OS and install windows, will Windows detect it ok still like if I were to add a normal drive?
stabilio said:
I'm going all out on this build then with a AMD Threadripper 3970X (providing anyone actually has any in stock!) and the 3090 GPU and want to have x2 M.2 drives fitted into the motherboard so I can lose all the unused bays in PC case, get the heat out better, cut down on cabling and get faster read/write speeds.
If i just fit the one M.2 drive to start with for the OS and install windows, will Windows detect it ok still like if I were to add a normal drive?
The 3970X is a mega powerful CPU. Are you doing something that needs 32 cores? The 5950X still has 16 cores, better single core performance, and AM4 will be significantly cheaper than TRX40 generally.If i just fit the one M.2 drive to start with for the OS and install windows, will Windows detect it ok still like if I were to add a normal drive?
Connecting one M.2 drive as the boot drive is no problem. It's just like a normal drive.
130R said:
he 3970X is a mega powerful CPU. Are you doing something that needs 32 cores? The 5950X still has 16 cores, better single core performance, and AM4 will be significantly cheaper than TRX40 generally.
Connecting one M.2 drive as the boot drive is no problem. It's just like a normal drive.
I'm a video editor (as full time job) and will be my main work station so the more power I have, the more I can get done in less time.Connecting one M.2 drive as the boot drive is no problem. It's just like a normal drive.
The extra cores will help with colour grading etc and the 3090 GPU in render output times.
I was set to go down the Mac Pro route but I was looking at £15k (without a monitor) for the spec I needed so had a second thought. Maybe once they have the M1 chip or improved version I'll think about that again as you can lease them for business.
Edited by stabilio on Sunday 27th December 04:38
stabilio said:
Is it relatively easy to build a PC from scratch and get a fresh Windows installed or am I best just buying what I need and getting someone who knows what they're doing to build it for me?
Yes, it's easy - bit like putting lego together.However, if you're not confident, I found it only costs around £25 more for prebuilt vs bespoke.
stabilio said:
I'm a video editor (as full time job) and will be my main work station so the more power I have, the more I can get done in less time.
The extra cores will help with colour grading etc and the 3090 GPU in render output times.
I was set to go down the Mac Pro route but I was looking at £15k (without a monitor) for the spec I needed so had a second thought. Maybe once they have the M1 chip or improved version I'll think about that again as you can lease them for business.
Just make sure whatever you are using can support 32 cores - I’d imagine that’s a pretty rare configuration for a PC - I can’t think of anything outside server hardware that can use 32 real cores. Most “domestic’ parallel processes top out at about 12or 16! Would be cool to see something like that working properly hard....The extra cores will help with colour grading etc and the 3090 GPU in render output times.
I was set to go down the Mac Pro route but I was looking at £15k (without a monitor) for the spec I needed so had a second thought. Maybe once they have the M1 chip or improved version I'll think about that again as you can lease them for business.
Edited by stabilio on Sunday 27th December 04:38
rxe said:
Just make sure whatever you are using can support 32 cores - I’d imagine that’s a pretty rare configuration for a PC - I can’t think of anything outside server hardware that can use 32 real cores. Most “domestic’ parallel processes top out at about 12or 16! Would be cool to see something like that working properly hard....
A good point and it is overkill right now. However, the lesser Threadripper CPU seems out of stock everywhere (at least where I can get a VAT invoice) so this should see me good for the next few years - and I need something asap for work.Its also good to use lots of cores without maxing things out completely but I'm hoping the video editing software will evolve over time but have read that the these new threadrippers run *very* well with Davinci Resolve 17 and smash the newest Intel chips.
If you're going for a threadripper with an RTX3090 you'll need to ensure you have a high quality power supply first and foremost. Without knowing what else is going into that system I'd recommend at a bare minimum something like a Corsair RM850x or even a 1000W+ model
Threadrippers memory I/O system supports quad channel ram too - again I'd highly recommend using 4 sticks of DDR4 preferably at 3200MHz minimum, all matched sticks.
The majority of BIOSes now are UEFI - you can navigate them with a keyboard and mouse, the menus are pretty self explanatory but it would pay to read the manual for the board you go for. You can set the ram to use it's XMP profile which would set its speed and timings automatically (or if you were inclined you could set the timings manually using a ram timing calculator tool, I use Ryzen dram calculator)
As for the drives - it doesn't matter what interface you use (m.2 or sata) you can set the boot drive order in the BIOS, again with a UEFI bios it's a matter of clicking and selecting the drive priority.
You can create a bootable USB thumb drive using either the windows 10 usb creation tool or with a program like Rufus. Once created, ensure the USB drive is in the computer you're installing the OS too and as per above make that USB drive the first priority in the boot order. Some BIOSes will even allow you to override the boot order and manually select the USB drive as a one time option for booting. This is handy because you can then setup your main drive boot order, manually override that order once by choosing boot from usb, then once the OS is installed, it will boot off your main drive without the need to go back into the BIOS to change the boot order.
When you hook up your fans to the motherboard headers they'll just work, however you should be able to set custom fan speed curves if you wish to, through the BIOS. (Only if the fans are plugged directly into the motherboard and not via a molex to 3/4pin adaptor)
Threadrippers memory I/O system supports quad channel ram too - again I'd highly recommend using 4 sticks of DDR4 preferably at 3200MHz minimum, all matched sticks.
The majority of BIOSes now are UEFI - you can navigate them with a keyboard and mouse, the menus are pretty self explanatory but it would pay to read the manual for the board you go for. You can set the ram to use it's XMP profile which would set its speed and timings automatically (or if you were inclined you could set the timings manually using a ram timing calculator tool, I use Ryzen dram calculator)
As for the drives - it doesn't matter what interface you use (m.2 or sata) you can set the boot drive order in the BIOS, again with a UEFI bios it's a matter of clicking and selecting the drive priority.
You can create a bootable USB thumb drive using either the windows 10 usb creation tool or with a program like Rufus. Once created, ensure the USB drive is in the computer you're installing the OS too and as per above make that USB drive the first priority in the boot order. Some BIOSes will even allow you to override the boot order and manually select the USB drive as a one time option for booting. This is handy because you can then setup your main drive boot order, manually override that order once by choosing boot from usb, then once the OS is installed, it will boot off your main drive without the need to go back into the BIOS to change the boot order.
When you hook up your fans to the motherboard headers they'll just work, however you should be able to set custom fan speed curves if you wish to, through the BIOS. (Only if the fans are plugged directly into the motherboard and not via a molex to 3/4pin adaptor)
anarki said:
If you're going for a threadripper with an RTX3090 you'll need to ensure you have a high quality power supply first and foremost. Without knowing what else is going into that system I'd recommend at a bare minimum something like a Corsair RM850x or even a 1000W+ model
Threadrippers memory I/O system supports quad channel ram too - again I'd highly recommend using 4 sticks of DDR4 preferably at 3200MHz minimum, all matched sticks.
The majority of BIOSes now are UEFI - you can navigate them with a keyboard and mouse, the menus are pretty self explanatory but it would pay to read the manual for the board you go for. You can set the ram to use it's XMP profile which would set its speed and timings automatically (or if you were inclined you could set the timings manually using a ram timing calculator tool, I use Ryzen dram calculator)
As for the drives - it doesn't matter what interface you use (m.2 or sata) you can set the boot drive order in the BIOS, again with a UEFI bios it's a matter of clicking and selecting the drive priority.
You can create a bootable USB thumb drive using either the windows 10 usb creation tool or with a program like Rufus. Once created, ensure the USB drive is in the computer you're installing the OS too and as per above make that USB drive the first priority in the boot order. Some BIOSes will even allow you to override the boot order and manually select the USB drive as a one time option for booting. This is handy because you can then setup your main drive boot order, manually override that order once by choosing boot from usb, then once the OS is installed, it will boot off your main drive without the need to go back into the BIOS to change the boot order.
When you hook up your fans to the motherboard headers they'll just work, however you should be able to set custom fan speed curves if you wish to, through the BIOS. (Only if the fans are plugged directly into the motherboard and not via a molex to 3/4pin adaptor)
Cheers for the advice Threadrippers memory I/O system supports quad channel ram too - again I'd highly recommend using 4 sticks of DDR4 preferably at 3200MHz minimum, all matched sticks.
The majority of BIOSes now are UEFI - you can navigate them with a keyboard and mouse, the menus are pretty self explanatory but it would pay to read the manual for the board you go for. You can set the ram to use it's XMP profile which would set its speed and timings automatically (or if you were inclined you could set the timings manually using a ram timing calculator tool, I use Ryzen dram calculator)
As for the drives - it doesn't matter what interface you use (m.2 or sata) you can set the boot drive order in the BIOS, again with a UEFI bios it's a matter of clicking and selecting the drive priority.
You can create a bootable USB thumb drive using either the windows 10 usb creation tool or with a program like Rufus. Once created, ensure the USB drive is in the computer you're installing the OS too and as per above make that USB drive the first priority in the boot order. Some BIOSes will even allow you to override the boot order and manually select the USB drive as a one time option for booting. This is handy because you can then setup your main drive boot order, manually override that order once by choosing boot from usb, then once the OS is installed, it will boot off your main drive without the need to go back into the BIOS to change the boot order.
When you hook up your fans to the motherboard headers they'll just work, however you should be able to set custom fan speed curves if you wish to, through the BIOS. (Only if the fans are plugged directly into the motherboard and not via a molex to 3/4pin adaptor)
Heres the spec so far for parts orderded - hopefully they'll all play nicely together:
CPU: AMD Threadripper 3970X 3.7Ghz 32 core
Motherboard: MSI TRX40 Pro 10G
GPU: Geforce RTX Palit 3090 Gaming Pro OC
PSU: Corsair RM1000i
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X63
RAM: CORSAIR VENGEANCE LPX 64GB (2 x 32GB) DDR4 3600
Case: Corsair 750D Airflow Edition
Hard Drive 1: Samsung 980 PRO 1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2
Hard Drive 2: Sabrent Rocket Q 4TB NVMe PCIe M.2
Just on the cooler - Threadripper CPU's have a massive IHS so you might want to look at coolers specifically designed for that. The X63 might be ok but the Noctua TR4-SP3 (for example) is a dedicated version for Threadripper/Epyc and could give you better results (when setup with a second fan)
130R said:
Just on the cooler - Threadripper CPU's have a massive IHS so you might want to look at coolers specifically designed for that. The X63 might be ok but the Noctua TR4-SP3 (for example) is a dedicated version for Threadripper/Epyc and could give you better results (when setup with a second fan)
I did look at Noctua TR4-SP3 but thought the X63 would be quieter with not so many fans in the case. Do you think the X63 will be ok?xeny said:
If you care about performance and only need 64 GB, you really want 4 x 16GB, not 2 x 32GB so you can actually run all 4 DIMMS in parallel.
The RAM part has actually confused me most in the buying proccess. I didn't quite understand why some packs of 64GB came in more or less sticks.I have most things from Amazon so can return easily at no cost. Would you deffo advise in getting x4 sticks instead of x2?
Is 3600MHz speed also ok or should I choose 3200MHz?
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