New PC Build - Assembly and Setup

So all of the parts arrived in the mail, so I thought I'd share how the build went and how good the improvement is in the games that I play on a regular basis.

Aw yeah! 4k gaming screen and 2 supplemental monitors :3

So first of all, I had to strip out most of the components from my existing case, leaving the power supply and hard drives for recycling. This was a very cathartic experience, having held on to the motherboard, CPU and RAM begrudgingly for like 6 years now because I didn't have the cash to upgrade until now.

I donated those parts to a friend of mine who repairs computers for people on welfare in a deal with centrelink, so i know they'll find an appreciative home with a jobseeker or a senior in need of a cheap computer.

Then I had to figure out how to fit all the new components into the case. The motherboard was a little larger than my existing board, so I had to move a few motherboard riser screws and the CPU cooler was tricky to install, so I had to install the CPU and cooler before installing the entire lot on the motherboard in one go.


Then I ran ionto my first issue. When installing the RAM, there was a small cable that leads away from the IO faceplate that was too close to the RAM slots. I had considerable trouble tucking it away since whenever the RAM was in place, I didn't have access to the cable anymore to tuck it out of the way. Eventually, I managed to get it tucked out of the way, but it seems like a design flaw that needs changing in any future releases of this board.

The CPU, CPU cooler, RAM and motherboard all installed fine and I got the radiator installed on the rear of the case with a little experimentation to find the right orientation for the cooling tubes. The only issue I really had after the motherboard was installed was getting the hard drives plugged into the SATA ports on the motherboard. They're located on the front edge of the motherboard parralell to the rear of the motherboard rather than sticking straight out from the face of the motherboard. This made it tricky only because it forced me to re-route the sata cables underneath the motherboard tray and use tweezers in order to get the cables plugged in right because there's not a lot of finger room left over on that side.


After installing the other components without issue, I found a significant increase in performance compared to my old PC. I can now play in 4k resolution with roughly 4 times the frame-rate I used to get in 1080p on my old PC. Minecraft runs much smoother at 130fps @ 4K instead of 30fps @ 1080p and GTA 5 now runs at 100fps at 4K when before my CPU couldn't even handle the game with more than a few frames a second at 1080p.

Overall, I'm extremely happy with the new build and besides a new case, there's really nothing else I want in the short term for it. The 20cm fan didn't quite line up with the radiator screw-holes on the top of the case and I had to hot-glue it in place instead. Hopefully when I get a new case, it should accommodate higher airflow fans more readily.

Gluing components just feels dirty... >.>

The performance of the new system is good enough that I should now be able to play and review much more modern games and record lets plays for some as well. Leave a comment and let me know what you'd like me to review next and if it's in my library, I might just play it next! :D


*EDIT: The 20cm fan that I hot-glued in place unfortunately got it's cable tangled in the fan of the GPU and was pulled free of the hot-glue, breaking two fan blades in the process. The GPU fan however was fine. Once I get a new case, it should solve all the airflow issues.