So I'm building a desktop gaming PC..

Good news for me, I'm currently posting this from the first PC I've ever built. I'm unbelievably grateful for all of your assistance.

I hope I'm not being a nuisance, but I do have a couple more questions; my BIOS generally reads that my CPU temp idles between ~40 to ~43. A-Tuning and coretemp, however, tell me that it fluctuates in the mid-30's. Is this normal?

I also successfully installed Windows 8.1 onto my SSD, but it's not showing my HDD (the 1TB seagate) in the "This PC" screen, and I apparently only have my SSD to write things on. The HDD is properly connected and all since it shows up in my BIOS, but I don't seem to be able to access it. All I did was put them in and boot up the PC, is there something else that I need to do?

Not a nuisance at all, everyone has to learn sometime

Sounds about right for temps, but load temps are what really matters.

Go to Disk Management and assign the 1TB a letter, let me know if you need more details on that.

That got it to show up. It's called System Reserved (E and is only showing an available 316 MB out of a total 349 MB. Underneath a small blue bar it says 350 MB NTFS (Healthy), underneath a much larger blackbar it says 1862.67 GB (unallocated).

I'm so glad the temps are right, because I ended up having to apply the thermal paste myself. I assumed the pre-applied paste would be covered or something and my thumb got caked in some hard-to-remove paste.

What you'll need to do is assign that unallocated section as a new volume (right click in the bar to do so)

sortajan said:

That got it to show up. It's called System Reserved (E and is only showing an available 316 MB out of a total 349 MB. Underneath a small blue bar it says 350 MB NTFS (Healthy), underneath a much larger blackbar it says 1862.67 GB (unallocated).

I'm so glad the temps are right, because I ended up having to apply the thermal paste myself. I assumed the pre-applied paste would be covered or something and my thumb got caked in some hard-to-remove paste.

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Are you sure that the system will run without that spinning 2TB hard drive... meaning, is Windows completely installed on just the SSD? I'd make sure of that first before installing anything else. I may have missed something in the thread, but just saw your post and don't understand why System Reserved is on your disk drive instead of the SSD. Windows should be completely on the SSD.

g0dM@n said:

Are you sure that the system will run without that spinning 2TB hard drive... meaning, is Windows completely installed on just the SSD? I'd make sure of that first before installing anything else. I may have missed something in the thread, but just saw your post and don't understand why System Reserved is on your disk drive instead of the SSD. Windows should be completely on the SSD.

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Good catch, sounds like the HDD was on an earlier port than the SSD during the install.

Sortajan, if you're not too far in, I would reinstall without the HDD plugged in and then format the HDD when you plug it back in after the install is complete.

No such thing as being too far in to make the best of $1,500. I unplugged my HDD and, sure enough, had to reinstall windows on the solitary SSD. I did so, installed my MOBO's drivers, then plugged the HDD back in and formatted it. It was still called 'System Reserved', but I renamed in to 'Local Disk.' I then unplugged the HDD just to make sure and everything is fine now.

Never too late, but I certainly am glad all I had was my drivers, my browser, and my antivirus. Thanks a ton.

Can you post a screenshot of Disk Management now that you've made those changes?

Just want to make sure all is clear

Congrats on the first build. Building your own machine is so much more rewarding that buying one thrown together in some sweat shop in China. It also leads to a much greater understanding of how computers work. I always find a big difference in general PC knowledge between people who have built there own machines and people who haven't.

Unplugging your storage drive when installing Windows is one of those little things you pick up. I actually forgot to do it this last time around and had to wipe and start over when I replaced my storage drive and my Windows wouldn't boot anymore.

It is kind of odd that your bios temps are higher than what you see in Windows. They generally should be lower. Sensors can be finicky and so can temp software. Your temps are in the right area though especially for stock cooler.

Daleon said:

It is kind of odd that your bios temps are higher than what you see in Windows. They generally should be lower. Sensors can be finicky and so can temp software. Your temps are in the right area though especially for stock cooler.

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No, that isn't odd at all.
The BIOS has a slight load, where Windows idle doesn't.

MyBook and WDUnlocker are my external HD from which I'm getting all of the stuff I backed up on my other PC. Music, pictures, videos, that kind of thing. I'm putting it on my HDD.

And thanks for the congrats Daleon. I genuinely owe so much of it to this forum. You guys have been incredibly helpful. I've still got a lot to learn.

Looks like it's all partitioned out correctly

The learning never stops bud, I still learn on here!

sortajan said:

No such thing as being too far in to make the best of $1,500. I unplugged my HDD and, sure enough, had to reinstall windows on the solitary SSD. I did so, installed my MOBO's drivers, then plugged the HDD back in and formatted it. It was still called 'System Reserved', but I renamed in to 'Local Disk.' I then unplugged the HDD just to make sure and everything is fine now.

Never too late, but I certainly am glad all I had was my drivers, my browser, and my antivirus. Thanks a ton.

Click to expand...

In Disk Management...
On my "storage" drives I always delete all partitions (assuming they're not used), so that the unallocated space covers the entire drive. I then do a quick format, assign a drive letter and call it "Space" or similar.
If/when you ever go with drives larger than 2TB, you'll have to format as GPT instead of MBR, but for now, stick with MBR.

Glad we caught your original problem early.
What would have happened is if that 2TB drive died, your Windows OS wouldn't boot at all on the SSD since the MBR would have lived on the other drive... an annoying problem that could be fixed, but pointless to have it set up that way.

I haven't actually put the GPU in. I'm a bit confused. It has two 8-pin slots and the slots on my PSU that are labeled 'PCI-E / CPU' are also 8-pin slots (the 6-pin ones are labeled 'peripheral - IDE / SATA'; The PSU only came with 8 to 6 pin connectors. Do I need a cable with 8 pins on both ends? If so, what should I look for in them?

Yes, you should plug two of the 6+2 pin PCIe connectors into your GPU.

Oh, I actually mean that the connectors I got have 8 pins on one side and six on the other. The PCI-E inputs on both the GPU and the PSU are for 8 pins.

I thinking... should I plug the six-pinned sides into the 'peripheral - IDE / SATA' section of my drive, or should I find connectors with 8 pins on both ends?

One side should have 8 pins, and the other should be 6+2.
The 8 pinned side will go to the PSU, and the 6+2 will go to the GPU.

Oh wow. It's like I got in the car and couldn't find the steering wheel. Thanks, it's working perfectly. Drivers and all that installed perfectly. The 770 is so, so close to being too wide for my case though. But I'm not crunching any cables or anything, and everything is still running well. Thanks again for all of the assistance.

Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades

Glad its working for you!!

My new completed build

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=747921

I made this thread a little while ago, but I didn't want to run the risk of irritating people that might have been automatically subscribed to that thread or something (ugh what does he want now?). This probably isn't a much better option, but I'm just hoping not to offend anyone. This topic is nevertheless a continuation of that topic.

That being said, I did get all of the parts and I built my machine. Things have been going well since then, but I wanted to know a few things:

1. Am I getting the expected performance from my machine?

2. How can I take care of my new machine to keep it healthy and give it a long life?

For the first one I've played several games (only one of which was strictly to stress test the build). I did fairly long gaming sessions of Dragon Commander and Divinity: Original Sin on max settings with no performance issues whatsoever. My CPU temps and GPU temps never went over 65 and 75 respectively, according to the tool I'm using (Open Hardware Monitor). It stayed pretty quiet too. I don't know if those games are at all taxing.

I also ran the Metro LL benchmarking tool. I was able to crank all of the settings up to max with the exception of SSAA (which I left off) and tessellation (which I left at normal). That gave me a steady 60 FPS all the way through and my temps weren't much higher than with DC and D:OC (~70 and ~80 respectively through the three consecutive tests). I don't know if that's normal, but it's what I'm getting. I haven't really messed with the NVIDIA control panel options and I definitely haven't tried any overclocking.

Tessellation on High and SSAA on 2x got me ~50, usually between 40 and 60 fps. SSAA hurts.

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For the second point I've optimized my SSD for Windows 8.1 (used this tutorial). My computer is two feet off the ground and has a lot of open space around it to breath. I've also got canned air (which I spray at a distance for fear of getting any liquid on my parts), a small, very soft and completely unused paintbrush with which to.. brush, and I'll be watching to make sure hair and the like don't get in my fan. Also making sure I'm not simply pushing dust further into my computer with the canned air. I also shut my computer down (off, not sleep) every night before I go to sleep.

I was wondering what else I could do. Should I let temps dictate the length of my gaming sessions (particularly those weekend marathons my friends drag me into)? Is there a rule of thumb or a something else to look out for? I can handle driver/BIOS updates (and I also don't update drivers unless I see a clear benefit in the change log and see how the update has affected other people).

EDIT: This is the build I'm using by the way.