PC Build Advice/Review Thread

[Kalmado]

Um, no. If it's loose, it's not seated right. Assuming stock cooler, just check and make sure the cooler is seated the entire way and keep it steady as you push down on the four corner pins. Then twist them to lock them in place. Then rock the cooler gently, if there's still movement, then it's still not mounted right.

Possibly I've had a few that just never wanted to work right? I've only kept the stock cooler on a couple of builds, but more specifically on my Asus Maximus VI Hero the stock cooler would never sit completely tight.

[AidenCarby]

I'm assuming you're using the stock cooler? If so they definitely can be loose. Plus, they can be loud. If you can grab an aftermarket such as a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus/Evo or something similar. Most can be found as low as $9 after rebate to around $20. Definitely worth the investment.

I figured out why it was so loose I'm an idiot also I have a cooler master from last build. Should I use that instead?

[AidenCarby]

And yeah I missed the snap in part I twisted and called it good. Rig is up and running

[Arkanna]

Sorry Kal, my tone was bad but I didn't mean anything by it. I use the stock Intel heatsinks all the time because I rarely build machines for overclocking. My clients don't require any more than stock so they appreciate me keeping their costs down.

Those little black push pins should stick the whole way through to the underside of the board, and you should hear a firm "click" when you push down on each one. If you don't hear it, push harder. I've had to lay most of my body weight on them from time to time. Once you hear that "click", twist the top piece. Once all four are twisted, you should be able to grasp the whole assembly and hold it up by the heatsink.

[Weltall]

I keep finding bad reviewer after bad reviewer on every MB I look at. Can anyone vouch for this one before I buy it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3938566&SID=

[synistar]

Best I can say is that the Deluxe version of that board is used by ORIGIN PC builds so it must be decent for them to use. The only difference between the two boards I can see is the # of USB 3.0 ports and # of PCIe 3.0 slots.

[Gryffes]

I keep finding bad reviewer after bad reviewer on every MB I look at. Can anyone vouch for this one before I buy it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3938566&SID=

Why X99 over Z170?

[Kalmado]

Sorry Kal, my tone was bad but I didn't mean anything by it. I use the stock Intel heatsinks all the time because I rarely build machines for overclocking. My clients don't require any more than stock so they appreciate me keeping their costs down.

Those little black push pins should stick the whole way through to the underside of the board, and you should hear a firm "click" when you push down on each one. If you don't hear it, push harder. I've had to lay most of my body weight on them from time to time. Once you hear that "click", twist the top piece. Once all four are twisted, you should be able to grasp the whole assembly and hold it up by the heatsink.

Don't worry! I knew what you were saying. And as you said, you've had to lay your entire body weight on it for it to snap into place. Maybe that's where my problems have come from because I was always afraid to put my weight into it.

I keep finding bad reviewer after bad reviewer on every MB I look at. Can anyone vouch for this one before I buy it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3938566&SID=

Pray you don't have to deal with Asus customer service. Looks like a good board. Confusing they (as well as many other newer boards) put a ps2 port on it.

[Gryffes]

Pray you don't have to deal with Asus customer service. Looks like a good board. Confusing they (as well as many other newer boards) put a ps2 port on it.

You get full NKRO on ps2 when using a mechanical keyboard.

[Mrbeansman]

I keep hearing nasty things about Asus boards is it the boards themselves or customer service.

Also looking for recommendations on ATX full tower cases.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Arkanna]

ASUS makes a damn solid board, at least in my experience.

[Darus Grey]

Pray you don't have to deal with Asus customer service. Looks like a good board. Confusing they (as well as many other newer boards) put a ps2 port on it.

PS2 is a better interface for KBs than USB is the reason, so it's a popular request for gamer enthusiast boards. USB limits the amount of keys that can be pressed at the same time or the order in which they're registered in quick succession. For most players its a non-issue but becomes one for some competitive RTS players in particular.

Same reason almost all high end keyboards have PS2 as an option.

[Krandor]

Asus almost always has top tier products in every price range, but their costumer service is fucking awful beyond belief. Over the years I've only had to deal with it twice, but it's fucking painful.

Especially compared to a company like Corsair, who has some the best customer service and possibly the smoothest RMA process I've ever seen.

[Kalmado]

Interesting stuff about the ps2 guys. Thanks for educating me! And +1 to Krandor's last statement. Asus has had the absolute worst RMA process/experience I've ever been put through and that is why I'm trying to stay away from them moving forward. They also void warranty if you remove their stock coolers on gpus.

[Krandor]

Even knowing how awful it will be if something goes wrong, I still swear by alot of Asus products. My primary computer atm is a G751JY (and I've been using the G series laptops for like 5 years now, 3rd one I've gone with), and they're the only mobo brand I go with. I've gone with their GPUs over the years, but in recent years (and given Nvidia kind of asserting dominance via bullshit business practices) I've stuck with EVGA almost solely based on their amazing customer service.

[LinktheDeme]

My experience with asus has been nothing but crap. I hear they make great laptops though.


I've bought 3 ASUS motherboards, not shitty ones either the upper middle ones (the ones before the tier that get really stupidly expensive like I think sabertooth or something like that?) Every single one of them has had one issue or another two of them (different models) had issues with audio and audio driver related crap. The other one the thing that regulated the power ended up overvolting my cpu.


I tried RMAing them and nothing really gets done in the repairs they came back with the same issues and just smelled like some sort of alcohol or cleaning chemical. I'm sure people have okay experiences with their motherboards but I either have shit luck or their desktop mobo market is not up to snuff.

[Kalmado]

I RMA'd four Z77V-LK boards and as Link said every time they came back it had the same problem (could not run ram in dual channel). Every time I needed to RMA the refurb they sent for still not working it was like pulling teeth to get it processed and get a shipping label from them. Once I got a working one I sold it on craigslist and moved on. I only bought the Maximus VI Hero because it was $50. It overclocked my 4690k to 4.5ghz with ease. Probably could've done more but the H60 I was using sucked. Anyhow, sold the VI and used a Asrock Fatal1ty 990FX + FX-8320e for a bit. I'm no motherboard guru, but I immediately noticed the massive upgrade to sound the Asrock had. Received my Gigabyte Z97 Gaming 7 (bought off Reddit) and again, massive sound upgrade compared to the Asus.

I know for every story someone like myself or Link has there are 10 others (Krandor) that has had great products from Asus (or just insert any other company). I'm still using Asus DC2 R9 290x in crossfire, but as soon as I can move on from them I will (for sale if you want them!) since warranty is voided if you remove the stock cooler (can't even change TIM?!).

[LinktheDeme]

I RMA'd four Z77V-LK boards and as Link said every time they came back it had the same problem (could not run ram in dual channel). Every time I needed to RMA the refurb they sent for still not working it was like pulling teeth to get it processed and get a shipping label from them. Once I got a working one I sold it on craigslist and moved on. I only bought the Maximus VI Hero because it was $50. It overclocked my 4690k to 4.5ghz with ease. Probably could've done more but the H60 I was using sucked. Anyhow, sold the VI and used a Asrock Fatal1ty 990FX + FX-8320e for a bit. I'm no motherboard guru, but I immediately noticed the massive upgrade to sound the Asrock had. Received my Gigabyte Z97 Gaming 7 (bought off Reddit) and again, massive sound upgrade compared to the Asus.

I know for every story someone like myself or Link has there are 10 others (Krandor) that has had great products from Asus (or just insert any other company). I'm still using Asus DC2 R9 290x in crossfire, but as soon as I can move on from them I will (for sale if you want them!) since warranty is voided if you remove the stock cooler (can't even change TIM?!).

You know it's funny I always hear Asrock make solid boards but I always view them as a "lesser" brand when compared to MSI and Gigabyte because of personal bias probably. Isn't Asrock like a subsidiary of Asus?

[Kalmado]

You know it's funny I always hear Asrock make solid boards but I always view them as a "lesser" brand when compared to MSI and Gigabyte because of personal bias probably. Isn't Asrock like a subsidiary of Asus?

I'd have to look into it, but I swear I've heard that too. I've used three 970 Extreme 3 R2, 970M Pro 3, the 990FX Fatal1ty Killer and a H81M-ITX. Only had issues once with the 970 Extreme 3 R2 and returned it to Micro Center for the same board and had no issuesafter. Overclocked a Pentium G3258 on the H81 board to a stable 4.3ghz using the stock cooler. Also, using a Corsair H80i GT cooler with the 990FX and the 8320e I overclocked it to 5.2ghz unstable, but 4.6ghz stable which dramatically improved framerates while running Unigine Valley and in live gameplay. Great for a budget build if it can be found on the cheap. For me it was about $120 for both the processor and motherboard from Micro Center after rebate, tax, and buying the board as an Open Box item. It also came with a copy of Dirt Rally for Steam which I sold.

[Tyche]

As an update for the budget desktop for my mom, I went with a Core Store refurb. Apparently, they have amazing refurbs from the cursory interweb reviews I looked at.

$160 for a quad core i5-2500 with 8GB ram, 5GB HD, and Windows 7 pro (which I upgraded to windows 10 pro).

Was a hell of a deal.