Gaming Computer Build

[DaneMcCloud]

The motherboard is supposed to arrive tomorrow, so I'll get started on the build and install Saturday morning. I've never installed Windows from a thumbdrive before so I'll need to read up on what's involved but I suspect it can't be too difficult.

I do have one question, which is probably a silly question but I haven't been able to confirm. Is it cool if I install more than one NVMe drive? I currently have 6 hard drives but I could really use another 1TB SSD for sample libraries. Is it cool if I drop another NVMe drive in next to the 500 GB I purchased for the system drive?

Thanks in advance!

[Fish]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

The motherboard is supposed to arrive tomorrow, so I'll get started on the build and install Saturday morning. I've never installed Windows from a thumbdrive before so I'll need to read up on what's involved but I suspect it can't be too difficult.

I do have one question, which is probably a silly question but I haven't been able to confirm. Is it cool if I install more than one NVMe drive? I currently have 6 hard drives but I could really use another 1TB SSD for sample libraries. Is it cool if I drop another NVMe drive in next to the 500 GB I purchased for the system drive?

Thanks in advance!

Just looked at the mobo specs. It has 3 NVMe slots. So you can install 2 more NVMe drives if you wanted to.

Installing Windows from USB is a piece of cake. Microsoft has a tool that automates the entire process, you just need a machine already running Windows and a USB flash drive with 8GB+ capacity to create an installer. Go here and download the tool for "Create Windows 10 installation media." Run that. Plug in your USB drive. It will download the Win10 image to the drive and make it bootable. You will need your Windows key to input during the install process or afterward if you want, Windows doesn't really care.

On the new PC, you have to configure your BIOS to allow booting from USB. Make sure Secure Boot is not enabled. Boot the machine tapping the F12 key to select your boot source, and select the USB drive. Follow instructions for installing Windows. You'll have to format your new NVMe drive during the Windows install process. That's straightforward and they walk you through it, you just select the drive you're wanting Windows installed on, and do a quick format. FYI, it will normally create 3 partitions during setup, a recovery partition, a system partition, and a data partition. The recovery and system partitions are very small, the normal data partition where you want to install Win10 will be obvious by the size.

[Pants]

Originally Posted by Fish

Just looked at the mobo specs. It has 3 NVMe slots. So you can install 2 more NVMe drives if you wanted to.

Just make sure you're not slotting anything into a shared SATA/M.2 lane.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Fish

Just looked at the mobo specs. It has 3 NVMe slots. So you can install 2 more NVMe drives if you wanted to.

Installing Windows from USB is a piece of cake. Microsoft has a tool that automates the entire process, you just need a machine already running Windows and a USB flash drive with 8GB+ capacity to create an installer. Go here and download the tool for "Create Windows 10 installation media." Run that. Plug in your USB drive. It will download the Win10 image to the drive and make it bootable. You will need your Windows key to input during the install process or afterward if you want, Windows doesn't really care.

On the new PC, you have to configure your BIOS to allow booting from USB. Make sure Secure Boot is not enabled. Boot the machine tapping the F12 key to select your boot source, and select the USB drive. Follow instructions for installing Windows. You'll have to format your new NVMe drive during the Windows install process. That's straightforward and they walk you through it, you just select the drive you're wanting Windows installed on, and do a quick format. FYI, it will normally create 3 partitions during setup, a recovery partition, a system partition, and a data partition. The recovery and system partitions are very small, the normal data partition where you want to install Win10 will be obvious by the size.

Wow man, thanks again for all of the details! This is fantastic news about the drives, so I'll definitely order at least one more of the NVMe drives that you suggested earlier. That transfer rate is insane so I just can't imagine having any issue streaming huge projects from a drive at 2,000 MB per second!

Originally Posted by Pants

Just make sure you're not slotting anything into a shared SATA/M.2 lane.

Thanks! I'll be sure to carefully read the motherboard manual so that I don't set in the wrong slot.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

The motherboard is supposed to arrive tomorrow, so I'll get started on the build and install Saturday morning. I've never installed Windows from a thumbdrive before so I'll need to read up on what's involved but I suspect it can't be too difficult.

I do have one question, which is probably a silly question but I haven't been able to confirm. Is it cool if I install more than one NVMe drive? I currently have 6 hard drives but I could really use another 1TB SSD for sample libraries. Is it cool if I drop another NVMe drive in next to the 500 GB I purchased for the system drive?

Thanks in advance!

I just installed Windows from a thumb this weekend. Nothing to it. Put it in your pc before you boot, it will automatically recognize it and install. Easy easy. (Typed while watching Motley Crue movie on Netflix. Love this flick).

[TambaBerry]

What if I want to get a new mobo and cpu? Easiest way to keep my shit that's already on my drives

[Fish]

Originally Posted by TambaBerry

What if I want to get a new mobo and cpu? Easiest way to keep my shit that's already on my drives

Drives? You would only need to backup your Windows drive. If you have other drives/partitions, you can reinstall Windows on the system drive/partition without affecting the data on other drives/partitions.

If you're just looking at transferring your Windows drive, there's quite a few alternatives, depending on how much time you want to spend. If you just need to back up your documents/pics/downloads/desktop/Windows settings from your system drive, Windows Migration Wizard would probably be the easiest method. But you'd have to reinstall all your apps and games on the new system. If you're wanting to transfer your Windows system and retain all your currently installed apps and basically have an exact copy on the new drive, it's doable but it will take considerable time and resources. Generally it's much better/cleaner to start from scratch or just use Windows Migration Wizard to copy your basic data and desktop settings. You'll need an external USB drive large enough to save the backup to.

If you are wanting an exact copy on the new drive, there are also options but not really recommended. You could technically put your Windows drive into a sysprep state, shutdown, then install the new mobo and cpu. That will allow the system to boot without catastrophic boot failure, so you can then install all the necessary drivers and such. It's a really dirty solution that will leave lots of unnecessary junk on your system and will take up unnecessary resources and drive space. But I've done it a few times. Could cause future problems, but might run just fine with zero issue. Try at your own risk, but if you're interested I can instruct you how.

There's also some apps you can buy that will do this for you. But they're usually rather pricey, and still have lots of risk involved.

[TambaBerry]

Originally Posted by Fish

Drives? You would only need to backup your Windows drive. If you have other drives/partitions, you can reinstall Windows on the system drive/partition without affecting the data on other drives/partitions.

If you're just looking at transferring your Windows drive, there's quite a few alternatives, depending on how much time you want to spend. If you just need to back up your documents/pics/downloads/desktop/Windows settings from your system drive, Windows Migration Wizard would probably be the easiest method. But you'd have to reinstall all your apps and games on the new system. If you're wanting to transfer your Windows system and retain all your currently installed apps and basically have an exact copy on the new drive, it's doable but it will take considerable time and resources. Generally it's much better/cleaner to start from scratch or just use Windows Migration Wizard to copy your basic data and desktop settings. You'll need an external USB drive large enough to save the backup to.

If you are wanting an exact copy on the new drive, there are also options but not really recommended. You could technically put your Windows drive into a sysprep state, shutdown, then install the new mobo and cpu. That will allow the system to boot without catastrophic boot failure, so you can then install all the necessary drivers and such. It's a really dirty solution that will leave lots of unnecessary junk on your system and will take up unnecessary resources and drive space. But I've done it a few times. Could cause future problems, but might run just fine with zero issue. Try at your own risk, but if you're interested I can instruct you how.

There's also some apps you can buy that will do this for you. But they're usually rather pricey, and still have lots of risk involved.

I just want to get a new 5600 or 5800 and a mobo, probably buy a bigger psu as well so once I can finally get a gpu I'll be ready to plug and play. I just don't want to have to reinstall everything again. Do you have any recommendations on mobo that will work without flashing the bios?

[DaneMcCloud]

So, today, I put together the computer. The case was smaller than I expected so it was pretty time consuming to get everything to fit, especially all six fans. The Noctua Cooling fan is HUGE and posed a few problems with positioning but I got it all figured out.

So, I triple checked all of my power and case connection, plugged in a keyboard, mouse and monitor but as soon as I plugged it into the wall, it started up immediately and went to a blank screen. No Bios, no nothing. I took it back upstairs and double checked the Case connections, just in case (it came with an adapter in which I inserted the case cables for Power LED +/-, Reset and Power). I took it back down, plugged it in and it immediately started again. The power button and reset button did nothing, so I went back up, reversed the wiring and tried again. Same result.

The motherboard is powering all 6 fans, including the Noctua fan, the NVMe drives are seated properly and there's an LED on the motherboard that's lit. I decided to shut down for the night and start fresh tomorrow.

Any ideas? It seems like there's an issue with case and its wiring to the motherboard but I supposed it could be a defective motherboard, which certainly wouldn't be the first time that's happened to me. I'll try re-seating the Intel chip tomorrow as well but this one is a stumper. Any time I've experienced this in the past, it's always been a defective motherboard but damn, could my luck be that bad?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and thanks again!

[vailpass]

Oh man that’s frustrating. Hopefully one of our builders here can help diagnose. I hope you didn’t lose the silicone lottery.

[Fish]

Bummer.

First thing to do would be to eliminate everything except only what you need to boot and install windows. Remove all drives except the one you want Windows installed on. Remove all other PCIe cards except your video card. Remove RAM sticks to include only what you need to boot. Clear your CMOS, then try to boot again.

Just noticed this advice/limitation for your mobo as well:

Note: When the top M.2 slot is populated, it will disable SATA port 0. When the middle M.2 slot is populated, it will disable SATA ports 4-5. When the bottom M.2 slot is populated, it will reduce bandwidth to the bottom PCIe slot to x2

It is worth noting that the default behavior of the BIOS on this motherboard does not automatically follow Intel's CPU power limit guidelines, so when building systems with this board we manually set those power limits based on Intel's specs for whatever processor is being used.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/parts/M...Vision-D-13627

[Pants]

Originally Posted by Fish

Bummer.

First thing to do would be to eliminate everything except only what you need to boot and install windows. Remove all drives except the one you want Windows installed on. Remove all other PCIe cards except your video card. Remove RAM sticks to include only what you need to boot. Clear your CMOS, then try to boot again.

Just noticed this advice/limitation for your mobo as well:

Yeah, that's what I was alluding to in my previous post about lane sharing.

I wouldn't think that would be the cause for the issues Dane is having but you never know. I am actually not sure what could be causing what he's describing.

If Google can't give you a good answer, Dane, you might want to go try looking on the mobo forum for clues and, worst case, create a thread. A lot of times, the nerdy folks on those forums are very helpful.

I have taken that path multiple times over the years of ****ing around with my builds.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Pants

Yeah, that's what I was alluding to in my previous post about lane sharing.

I wouldn't think that would be the cause for the issues Dane is having but you never know. I am actually not sure what could be causing what he's describing.

If Google can't give you a good answer, Dane, you might want to go try looking on the mobo forum for clues and, worst case, create a thread. A lot of times, the nerdy folks on those forums are very helpful.

I have taken that path multiple times over the years of ****ing around with my builds.

Originally Posted by Fish

Bummer.

First thing to do would be to eliminate everything except only what you need to boot and install windows. Remove all drives except the one you want Windows installed on. Remove all other PCIe cards except your video card. Remove RAM sticks to include only what you need to boot. Clear your CMOS, then try to boot again.

Just noticed this advice/limitation for your mobo as well:

Thanks, Guys!

I sat on hold for about an hour with Gigabyte, then finally put in my number for a callback in 3-4 hours. I just removed all of the Ram and both NVMe drives but as soon as I plug in a power cord to the computer, it automatically boots, doesn't respond to the case buttons and has a blank, black screen.

I'm kinda bummed about losing the SATA 1 spot to the NVMe because I have a total of six drives in total to add to this computer once it's up and running, but I can always add more via TB.

Gigabyte is supposed to call me back by 4pm PST. I've had issues like these when building in the past and it's always been due to a faulty motherboard. Hopefully, I'll find out before the end of the day.

[TambaBerry]

I'm very curious what this could be, it's really weird, you're saying it starts up as soon as you plug it in? Then nothing happens?