Building a PC

I needed to plug in my XFX 7970 Black with double fans (very good card) to my old mainboard that does not have PCI Express 3.0 and it did run. I don't think it matters that much.

I have a GA-X79S UP5 now (it has PCI-E 3.0). It's a pretty nice mainboard and much cheaper than the Sabertooth.

I'll have to see if I can find a Finn site that sells those, the first couple I quickly skimmed through had none of it.


E: lol the first one I checked has them for 270e, allegedly cheapest some other site could find. Thanks!

SkyTime said:

Another quick question, I noticed that the 780 ti (which arrived today btw) uses a PCI-E 3.0 connection that the Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 doesn't actually seem to have, or at least it's not clearly listed there.

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Even if your board is only PCI-E 2 it wouldn't even matter, you wouldn't be able to saturate them (your fine either way). I have no idea what Ancalimon is talking about having to plug his GPU into a motherboard though since that makes no sense to me.

Your motherboard probably has a few extra 4 pin slots but that is for extreme overclocking, not for plugging in GPU's.


I stated earlier that X79 is a waste of money, purely in regards to gaming. There is no benefit to having more cores for gaming currently as there are not many games if any that utilize them, the only games that would are mostly RTS games that can actually use the processing power (which there aren't even that many games like this). Basically, it would be more ideal to just get an 1155 motherboard and use the extra money elsewhere, looking at your list you could also probably find more 1155 motherboards with PCIe-3 if you so chose. Again, PCIe-2 is fine since you won't be able to generate enough bandwith to actually fill the slow. I just googled and found an article demonstrating the difference between the two :

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Ivy_Bridge_PCI-Express_Scaling/24.html

The new PCI-Express 3.0 interface can provide around 1% performance boost for both HD 7970 and GTX 680. While this confirms that both cards provide working support for Gen 3, such a small improvement is clearly not worth worrying about. It certainly does not warrant buying a new processor or motherboard. PCI-Express is forward and backward compatible, so any PCI-Express graphics card will work in any motherboard's PCI-Express slot, no matter which version each component supports.

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God, 1% increase? dat improvement

I guess I'll stay with my current pick then if I got no real reason to go for PCI-E 3.

I also took a quick look at the 1155 socket processors and they're all a bit more expensive than the 2011 one I picked, at least on the site I use to pick my parts. Might be that I could find them cheaper elsewhere but I'm quite happy with the i7-3820 for 270e

I'm still fiddling and thinking, I'll try to take a real closer look at all the boards and differences come December, I'm sure I can find a lot more 2011 socket boards from other sites, I just haven't looked that closely yet.

My exam week just begun so I haven't bothered my self much with researching just yet.


E: I'm just looking through all the parts and I think I'm settled. The list is pretty much the same except that I chose an Asus P9X79 mobo (it was around the same price as my every other pick, somewhere around the middle), Corsair Hydro H110 and a Thermaltake Chaser Mk1 to fit all the junk I'll be ordering them later.
To anyone else getting some of those Corsair Hydros, suprisingly () not every case can even hold one, at least without more or less heavy'ish modifications, they have a thread in the corsair forums that has a couple of cases that can be fitted with one, with or without minor engineering. I felt kinda stupid when I realized this.

You've all been of tremendous help, would've taken a lot longer time to figure out all of this stuff. So, a huge thanks!

I won't be closing this thread just yet though since I'll probably have to ask something silly or simple, and perhaps post pics of the ready product.

Took long enough but I got all the pieces together. Just couldn't get the thing to start, the light indicating problem with RAM kept lighting up and we just couldn't get it to run. I came to the conclusion that the RAM isn't compatible with the motherboard.
Looking at Corsair's site, it does say that the RAM is optimized for 1150 and 1155 sockets or some ****, while mine is 2011. It's not on the QVL either so I do assume it's that, since we pretty much tried everything we could.

The motherboard ended up being an Asus P9X79 and the RAM  CMY8GX3M2A1600C9B, Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) Vengeance Pro DDR3 1600MHz, 9-9-9-24

I think the site I bought the RAM from still lets me change my purchase (I have like two days to solve this ****) and I found a pretty similar set of sticks that are on the QVL. CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9  Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) Vengeance DDR3, 1600MHz, 9-9-9-24, 1.5V

I'm just not sure if I have the right of it. Is it heard of that the RAM is not compatible with the motherboard? I'd rather not change stuff around if it won't solve anything since it does take time to ship these things around.


E: Also I kinda have a choice between 2x4 CL9 and 4x2 CL8. My mobo has 8 slots. How would I be best off setting them up really? Or does it even matter that much?

If your motherboard supports quad-channel memory then get 4 sticks, otherwise it doesn't matter much.

RAM is extremely picky so it's not necessarily surprising if it doesn't work, but I would make sure that it's the RAM because it should work anyways. Are you sure the motherboard's RAM settings are correct?

Don't forget that motherboards require the rams to be inserted in a certain order. For example the first ram might be needed to be insterted into the first slot and the second ram to the third slot.

Yeah, sorry, I've been quite absent lately due to enjoying my last days at Lapland.

We tried literally every possible way to have the sticks in the slots, starting from what was suggested in the manual. I'll take a closer look at the settings once I get home.


I'll get back to this in a week, thanks!

E: Also I'm pretty much 99% positive that it's the RAM, since the memOK led kept being lit up and the manual says there's a problem. At boot, pressing the buton causes the PC to work its magic to get the RAM working but it always ends up the same, the led being lit and the PC won't boot at all.

E2: lolfuk, every time I learn something new. Well I suppose in 15 years when I may perhaps build a new computer for the third time I actually know the **** I'm doing, and can expect the pieces to work. It never even occurred to me that some ram wouldn't perhaps do it for some motherboards. Perhaps it's time for me to sink some time in learning how computers work. Though I think I'll get this sorted once I get home, if not, then damn.

Can the computer enter bios? (although I don't think it's possible)  Maybe you need to manually set the ram settings.

It just won't boot. The screen doesn't power up etc. I also looked up some stuff and my motherboard supports quad channel memory.

That, the RAM not being on the QVL and being optimized for entirely different sockets (1150 and 1155 and I got 2011), though I don't know if this even means anything other than just optimization but hey at least I found something 

Just make sure all the cables are plugged in correctly and that the ram is in all the way. Make sure you plugged in the 24 pin connector into your motherboard as well as the 4 pin and make sure your gpu is seated in all the way and the nnectors are in as well (6+ 4 pin for yours iirc).

I've had computers not boot before simply because the ram was not in all the way. Your ram being dual channel won't mean it doesn't work on 2011 it just isn't optimized for it.

The sticks definitely were all the way in.

We looted some old DDR3 sticks but they didn't work either. I'll laugh if the slots are busted 
Anyway, my parents mailed the sticks back to Jimm's and I believe they will test them. Every cable goes where they're supposed to go, but I guess I'll go through everything once I get back, that'll be tomorrow.


E: Also, remember the borked hard disk on my old PC? Turns out I was dumb enough to install everything on the same disk and now nothing works lol gotta do it all again. Glad that there's a second hard disk so the friend shouldn't be too annoyed.

So, I ordered two 8gb sticks of RAM, probably be getting them on tuesday, I specifically asked for ram that should work with the mobo, the guy asked the model etc, and from what I've heard they're probably the best in the whole city when it comes to computers.

We shall see if they work, I hope they do.


Also I kinda dune goof'd with the processor. I got a 3820 and not a 3820k >.> That severely ****s up my plans to OC the thing, doesn't it? (assuming there even is a K version out of it)

The K series are unlocked, the non K models are not. This means you wouldn't be able to overclock it at all (might be able to use their turbo boost to get some speed but I am not sure if that would work or not).

You done goofed when you bought a 2011 CPU instead of the 1155 quad core ones.

Kevlar said:

The K series are unlocked, the non K models are not. This means you wouldn't be able to overclock it at all (might be able to use their turbo boost to get some speed but I am not sure if that would work or not).

You done goofed when you bought a 2011 CPU instead of the 1155 quad core ones.

Click to expand...

I have overclocked my 3820 to 4.2 ghz when in turbo boost simply by increasing the multiplier. So when I do a CPU intensive work it's frequency increases to 4.2 Ghz. I can also make the CPU run permanently in 4.2 Ghz but I think it's better to have the CPU slow down to around 1ghz when it's doing nothing.

It's also possible to overclock it to 4.65 GHz easily as can be seen here:  http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/18fjx4/guide_so_youre_trying_to_overclock_the_i73820_i/

Kevlar said:

The K series are unlocked, the non K models are not. This means you wouldn't be able to overclock it at all (might be able to use their turbo boost to get some speed but I am not sure if that would work or not).

You done goofed when you bought a 2011 CPU instead of the 1155 quad core ones.

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i7 3820 is quad core? Or am I missing something o:

I'm sorry, I do know quite a bit about computers, compared to the average guy out there but I'm still quite a pleb, even after all the questions asked and answered here 

ancalimon said:

Kevlar said:

The K series are unlocked, the non K models are not. This means you wouldn't be able to overclock it at all (might be able to use their turbo boost to get some speed but I am not sure if that would work or not).

You done goofed when you bought a 2011 CPU instead of the 1155 quad core ones.

Click to expand...

I have overclocked my 3820 to 4.2 ghz when in turbo boost simply by increasing the multiplier. So when I do a CPU intensive work it's frequency increases to 4.2 Ghz. I can also make the CPU run permanently in 4.2 Ghz but I think it's better to have the CPU slow down to around 1ghz when it's doing nothing.

It's also possible to overclock it to 4.65 GHz easily as can be seen here:  http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/18fjx4/guide_so_youre_trying_to_overclock_the_i73820_i/

Click to expand...

Ah, well that is all good then. I'll have to check out the link too once I get some temperatures out, I did buy a pretty badass cooler for the processor, Corsair H110 but you never know.

SkyTime said:

ancalimon said:

Kevlar said:

The K series are unlocked, the non K models are not. This means you wouldn't be able to overclock it at all (might be able to use their turbo boost to get some speed but I am not sure if that would work or not).

You done goofed when you bought a 2011 CPU instead of the 1155 quad core ones.

Click to expand...

I have overclocked my 3820 to 4.2 ghz when in turbo boost simply by increasing the multiplier. So when I do a CPU intensive work it's frequency increases to 4.2 Ghz. I can also make the CPU run permanently in 4.2 Ghz but I think it's better to have the CPU slow down to around 1ghz when it's doing nothing.

It's also possible to overclock it to 4.65 GHz easily as can be seen here:  http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/18fjx4/guide_so_youre_trying_to_overclock_the_i73820_i/

Click to expand...

Ah, well that is all good then. I'll have to check out the link too once I get some temperatures out, I did buy a pretty badass cooler for the processor, Corsair H110 but you never know.

Click to expand...

When I got the 3820, the only 2011 cooler I could find was a very cheap one. With it there is no problem when the CPU is running at 4.2GHz

Yeah.... Bought new RAM today, CL 11 and no heatsink but hell it was 160e for 16GB, worth it imo.

Didn't work. At first, I got super mad and went berserk on google. You don't ****ing believe what caused the memory errors. My cooler, Corsair H110 has 3 fan wires, two of them are 4 pin and one 3 pin. I had plugged the 3 pin one into a socket with 3 pins. Turns out I had to plug it into the 4 pin one right damn next to it. PC booted instantly, now installing Windows.

Mother****er. I could swear so much, I bet the earlier RAM I had would of worked just fine too, what's the damn difference between a 3 pin and a 4 pin fan things? Jesus christ.


Thanks for all the help, you made it so much easier. 

E: Oh and the final list of parts I ended up picking goes somewhat like this:

Intel i7 3820
GTX 780 ti
Asus P9X79
Corsair H110 cooler for i7
Seagate 2TB Barracuda 7200rpm
Kingston KVR16N11/8 1600mhz 8gb sticks times two
Some olde Kingston SSD I picked up a while ago, 250'ish gb
Thermaltake SMART 850W - 80plus Bronze modular stuff
and a Thermaltake Chaser Mk1 to fit it all in, I love this case. Too bad my mobo lacks any internal USB 3 connectors so I can't get the stuff on the case to work.

The estimated price I went for was 1600-1800e but I think it went up to 2000e due to a few variables (having to buy from different places when stocks went out for example)

That's all I think, and my windows just finished installing too.