Complete Begginer's Mid Range PC Build QUESTIONS

[cool noodles]

Hi guys, I'm a complete beginner when it comes to pc building, I've researched enough about reviews of components and used pcpart picker to check compatability with my parts, and ordered them, but I'm unsure as to if they will fit/work together regardless. I tried to spend more to avoid skimping on important parts(I have no idea!) Here's the build: 

 

Case: bequiet Dark Base 700

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600

Mobo: MSI b450 gaming pro carbon ac

GPU: XFX Radeon 5700 XT Thicc III Ultra 8 GB

RAM: Corsair vengeance RGB Pro 16gb(2x8) 3200C16

Cooler: Cooler Master ML360r liquid cooler

SSD: Samsung evo 860 1TB SATA

PSU: Corsair rm650 Gold Fully modular 650W

OS: Windows 10 home USB

 

As a noob I have a few questions, please bear with me!:

 

1. Obvious and a bit late since I've ordered, but will all the parts actually work with each other? Lol (pcpartpicker doesnt say anything, but its sketchy because it doesnt have the exact component name for some of the parts)

2. I've checked the dimensions of the case and my GPU, since it looks so bloody big I'm not sure if it will fit? The dimensions are confusing, or I'm just blind....

3. Everyone seems to be talking about thermal paste, and since I'm stupid and went with the complicated liquid cooling idk if I should use the one that comes with the cooler or buy another one? If CM provides one. 

4. Do I need to buy anything else? I have the peripherals(mouse, monitor and keyboard), but do I need any extra screws/cables? I read about magnetic screwdrivers and some anti static stuff for building, what do you guys reccomend? 

5. As I've never built before, how would I go about installing the water cooler(before I mount the mobo?) Most guides I've seen don't cover water cooling. 

6. Finally, if anyone would be able to estimate the avg performance/thermals my setup should normally produce(so I know if I need to return anything for warranty). Can I/should I overclock? I'd only use this to play games. Not sure if I should get a 2k or 4k monitor, can my setup support either?

7. General building tips for a complete beginner? Anything!

 

Thanks so much, I'm just really worried as I spent what I think is a lot on a pc, and being stupid don't know what I'm getting myself into. Any help appreciated! :)

[WickedStarfish]

4 minutes ago, cool noodles said:

Hi guys, I'm a complete beginner when it comes to pc building, I've researched enough about reviews of components and used pcpart picker to check compatability with my parts, and ordered them, but I'm unsure as to if they will fit/work together regardless. I tried to spend more to avoid skimping on important parts(I have no idea!) Here's the build: 

 

Case: bequiet Dark Base 700

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600

Mobo: MSI b450 gaming pro carbon ac

GPU: XFX Radeon 5700 XT Thicc III Ultra 8 GB

RAM: Corsair vengeance RGB Pro 16gb(2x8) 3200C16

Cooler: Cooler Master ML360r liquid cooler

SSD: Samsung evo 860 1TB SATA

PSU: Corsair rm650 Gold Fully modular 650W

OS: Windows 10 home USB

 

As a noob I have a few questions, please bear with me!:

 

1. Obvious and a bit late since I've ordered, but will all the parts actually work with each other? Lol (pcpartpicker doesnt say anything, but its sketchy because it doesnt have the exact component name for some of the parts)

2. I've checked the dimensions of the case and my GPU, since it looks so bloody big I'm not sure if it will fit? The dimensions are confusing, or I'm just blind....

3. Everyone seems to be talking about thermal paste, and since I'm stupid and went with the complicated liquid cooling idk if I should use the one that comes with the cooler or buy another one? If CM provides one. 

4. Do I need to buy anything else? I have the peripherals(mouse, monitor and keyboard), but do I need any extra screws/cables? I read about magnetic screwdrivers and some anti static stuff for building, what do you guys reccomend? 

5. As I've never built before, how would I go about installing the water cooler(before I mount the mobo?) Most guides I've seen don't cover water cooling. 

6. Finally, if anyone would be able to estimate the avg performance/thermals my setup should normally produce(so I know if I need to return anything for warranty). Can I/should I overclock? I'd only use this to play games. Not sure if I should get a 2k or 4k monitor, can my setup support either?

7. General building tips for a complete beginner? Anything!

 

Thanks so much, I'm just really worried as I spent what I think is a lot on a pc, and being stupid don't know what I'm getting myself into. Any help appreciated!

1. you might find you need to do a bios update on the motherboard, this can be done if you have a 2nd gen cpu, if not then a trip to the local tech store should do it for a little bit of money

2.as the case seems to fit a 360mm radiator it should be able to fit a full sized gpu (having a little trouble finding the dimensions of that gpu)

3.the one on the cpu cooler isnt completly trash, though if you would like to buy some to apply, remember to remove the old thermal paste and if you need a reccomendation Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut is my goto

4.a magnetic screwdriver is nice for some of the screws but its not 100% needed

5.there should be instructions that come along with the aio that explain what screws to use and where everything goes on both the cpu end and the radiator end

6.tbh i would use that system for 1080p or 1440p unless you dont really want great framerates, (i moved from a 2070 to 2080 super as i wasnt happy with the 60 - 100 fps i was getting in the game i loved at that time, though could have been a little cpu bottleneck but i gave the 2070 to my sister)

7. i wouldnt stress to much about creating static charges, also do NOT push the cpu in the socket, had a friend who went to push it in and i was like no no no no no no, its understandable as i told him to push the ram in and he just associated that with everything else

 

my other suggestion would be follow along with a pc builder guide, not the verge one, try a rog reboot, as it gives a bit of entertainment and it shows you some of the main things that are needed with a few jokes

[cool noodles]

19 minutes ago, WickedStarfish said:

1. you might find you need to do a bios update on the motherboard, this can be done if you have a 2nd gen cpu, if not then a trip to the local tech store should do it for a little bit of money

2.as the case seems to fit a 360mm radiator it should be able to fit a full sized gpu (having a little trouble finding the dimensions of that gpu)

3.the one on the cpu cooler isnt completly trash, though if you would like to buy some to apply, remember to remove the old thermal paste and if you need a reccomendation Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut is my goto

4.a magnetic screwdriver is nice for some of the screws but its not 100% needed

5.there should be instructions that come along with the aio that explain what screws to use and where everything goes on both the cpu end and the radiator end

6.tbh i would use that system for 1080p or 1440p unless you dont really want great framerates, (i moved from a 2070 to 2080 super as i wasnt happy with the 60 - 100 fps i was getting in the game i loved at that time, though could have been a little cpu bottleneck but i gave the 2070 to my sister)

7. i wouldnt stress to much about creating static charges, also do NOT push the cpu in the socket, had a friend who went to push it in and i was like no no no no no no, its understandable as i told him to push the ram in and he just associated that with everything else

 

my other suggestion would be follow along with a pc builder guide, not the verge one, try a rog reboot, as it gives a bit of entertainment and it shows you some of the main things that are needed with a few jokes

Thanks for the well thought out answers! About that thermal paste, do I need to purchase some type of remover for the old paste? Or just use a cloth? 

[WickedStarfish]

to add on

1. it cost me $40 aud to get a bios update on a motherboard that wasnt quite nice to me or the technician, he made mention of it when i picked it up, took him almost 3hrs to do

3. just a non scratch or micrfiber cloth should do

5. most cpu aio's have two sets of brackets that it comes with (usually one is attached and the other will be in a bag that will have a socket name on it, as your using a 3600 it will be the AM4 that you are looking to use)

6. the game i loved at the time was mordhau when it first released and i didnt really want to go lower than high for graphical settings

7. Dont be afraid to use the "free" version of windows until you can afford to pay for it (or not im a random on the internet not a cop, and i used the "free" watermarked version for my first 2 builds)

Looking at the motherboard you will probably need to open the manual to see where the front panel connectors connect to

The ram does sometimes require a tad bit of force to push in so as long as the connectors are in the right spot, push till it clicks

If the computer doesnt get power when you press the power button make sure the power switch is on, on the psu

If nothing is displayed on the screen but power is going everywhere a bios update will be needed

 

 

also welcome to the pc community (dont stress to much about building the pc, feel free to ask any questions or post again, generally most of the people on the website are helpful)

also i would call your system more mid-high ranged rather than just mid ranged

[WickedStarfish]

as im sitting here i keep thinking of things to add on lol, 

 

4. i only found the magnetic screwdriver was really nice for the motherboard screws as i built my pc laying down on the bench

7. i would build it first on the motherboard box to see if it posts (displays image to the screen basically, and if everything has power) if not its much easier to put it in the motherboard box to take to the local shop if a bios update is needed

If it comes with a Wraith Stealth, i would suggest using that to see if it posts as if you need to take it in, they usually want the cpu, cpu cooler and the ram, so you just unplug everything but the ram and the cpu and cooler and take that in.

[cool noodles]

Thanks so much for this help, it's given me a lot of peace of mind  I did buy the Windows USB stick already, but now I regret it knowing I could've saved 175$ for the free version lol. I was told by the technician who sold my motherboard it is compatible already, he just pointed to a sticker saying it was compatible and seemed annoyed though, so I guess I'll just need to find out using your method. So you're saying don't install the liquid cooler, install the stock cooler and connect it to my monitor and power supply and try to turn it on? And yeah, glad to know all I spent didn't make a budget low-end pc!  Just a quick question, in your opinion is there any part of my build that could of been improved, just wondering what are the parts I would be looking to upgrade in the future and the parts which are generally future proofed(like if my power supply is good enough to last, or if my RAM or GPU could use an upgrade in the near future). 

 

I appreciate the warm welcome, you've helped more than any technician I've asked! Thanks 

[berberries]

24 minutes ago, cool noodles said:

Thanks for the well thought out answers! About that thermal paste, do I need to purchase some type of remover for the old paste? Or just use a cloth? 

use a paper towel as thermal paste will proceed to likely permanently stain your cloth. you will need a solvent of some sort, use isopropyl alcohol, easily found at pharmacies.

[berberries]

2 minutes ago, cool noodles said:

Thanks so much for this help, it's given me a lot of peace of mind  I did buy the Windows USB stick already, but now I regret it knowing I could've saved 175$ for the free version lol. I was told by the technician who sold my motherboard it is compatible already, he just pointed to a sticker saying it was compatible and seemed annoyed though, so I guess I'll just need to find out using your method. So you're saying don't install the liquid cooler, install the stock cooler and connect it to my monitor and power supply and try to turn it on? And yeah, glad to know all I spent didn't make a budget low-end pc!  Just a quick question, in your opinion is there any part of my build that could of been improved, just wondering what are the parts I would be looking to upgrade in the future and the parts which are generally future proofed(like if my power supply is good enough to last, or if my RAM or GPU could use an upgrade in the near future). 

 

I appreciate the warm welcome, you've helped more than any technician I've asked! Thanks 

Install it with the stock cooler out of the case just to make sure it works. You will then need to remove the thermal paste with isopropyl alcohol and paper towel.

 

With only 1TB of storage you will run out pretty quick. consider getting some large hard drives to complement it. If you plan to go into 4K gaming then maybe your GPU will need an upgrade. Other than that it looks pretty solid for years to come.

[WickedStarfish]

1 minute ago, cool noodles said:

Thanks so much for this help, it's given me a lot of peace of mind  I did buy the Windows USB stick already, but now I regret it knowing I could've saved 175$ for the free version lol. I was told by the technician who sold my motherboard it is compatible already, he just pointed to a sticker saying it was compatible and seemed annoyed though, so I guess I'll just need to find out using your method. So you're saying don't install the liquid cooler, install the stock cooler and connect it to my monitor and power supply and try to turn it on? And yeah, glad to know all I spent didn't make a budget low-end pc!  Just a quick question, in your opinion is there any part of my build that could of been improved, just wondering what are the parts I would be looking to upgrade in the future and the parts which are generally future proofed(like if my power supply is good enough to last, or if my RAM or GPU could use an upgrade in the near future). 

 

I appreciate the warm welcome, you've helped more than any technician I've asked! Thanks 

if there is a sticker on the motherboard box it usually means that it left the manufacturer after the bios update came out, probably seemed annoyed as he has probably been asked the question 1000 times lol, but if you dont ask then you are worried and its a simple thing for the technician to answer

yeah as the air cooler takes a lot less time to install and uninstall if you need to do that, it is also easier to transport if for some reason the sticker is wrong (didnt know it had the sticker)

probably going a 3600x would have been a tad better as it does allow overclocking if you need a tad more power out of it

only just realised that the os was included in the post  

that psu should be fine for a while, i would wait 1 or 2 generations of gpu before you update as the performance gain probably isnt worth it unless you have the spare money to drop on a 2080 super or 2080ti and then again when the 30series comes out

i agree with berberries in that 1tb dissapears quite quickly when you start downloading lots of games and am a file horder like me (only recently got another 8tb drive for my pc thats why its all blue lol )

[cool noodles]

4 minutes ago, berberries said:

use a paper towel as thermal paste will proceed to likely permanently stain your cloth. you will need a solvent of some sort, use isopropyl alcohol, easily found at pharmacies.

Would you reccommend sticking with the liquid cooler's provided paste(I think it comes with some either pre applied or in a syringe) or buying a new one and removing using this method?

1 minute ago, berberries said:

Install it with the stock cooler out of the case just to make sure it works. You will then need to remove the thermal paste with isopropyl alcohol and paper towel.

 

With only 1TB of storage you will run out pretty quick. consider getting some large hard drives to complement it. If you plan to go into 4K gaming then maybe your GPU will need an upgrade. Other than that it looks pretty solid for years to come.

1. Does the stock cooler have pre applied thermal paste? (or should I use the CM one?) Sorry lol dont know which one has thermal paste. Otherwise I'll give it a go. 

2. How much storage would you reccommend? (not an SSD right)

3. What would be a good 4k gaming card to look out for during sales? 

 

Thanks for your replies, and sorry for the many questions! 

[cool noodles]

3 minutes ago, WickedStarfish said:

if there is a sticker on the motherboard box it usually means that it left the manufacturer after the bios update came out, probably seemed annoyed as he has probably been asked the question 1000 times lol, but if you dont ask then you are worried and its a simple thing for the technician to answer

yeah as the air cooler takes a lot less time to install and uninstall if you need to do that, it is also easier to transport if for some reason the sticker is wrong (didnt know it had the sticker)

probably going a 3600x would have been a tad better as it does allow overclocking if you need a tad more power out of it

only just realised that the os was included in the post  

that psu should be fine for a while, i would wait 1 or 2 generations of gpu before you update as the performance gain probably isnt worth it unless you have the spare money to drop on a 2080 super or 2080ti and then again when the 30series comes out

i agree with berberries in that 1tb dissapears quite quickly when you start downloading lots of games and am a file horder like me (only recently got another 8tb drive for my pc thats why its all blue lol )

So by connecting the air cooler and monitor and power supply it should work anyway? Would I need to connect my graphics card and everything else for it to boot for the test?

How long would you reccomend sticking with the 3600? If I was to overclock/game at 4k, is the 3600x the way to go?

Wow, that's a lot of storage  Coming from someone who's used a 1TB Playstation for years, never thought I'd need so much. I'll probably get a 8TB hard drive too then.

 

Thanks again  

[berberries]

16 minutes ago, WickedStarfish said:

probably going a 3600x would have been a tad better as it does allow overclocking if you need a tad more power out of it

 

the 3600 non x is overclockable too just so you know.

 

17 minutes ago, cool noodles said:

Would you reccommend sticking with the liquid cooler's provided paste(I think it comes with some either pre applied or in a syringe) or buying a new one and removing using this method?

1. Does the stock cooler have pre applied thermal paste? (or should I use the CM one?) Sorry lol dont know which one has thermal paste. Otherwise I'll give it a go. 

2. How much storage would you reccommend? (not an SSD right)

3. What would be a good 4k gaming card to look out for during sales? 

 

Thanks for your replies, and sorry for the many questions! 

1. yes it comes preapplied on all stock coolers and most AIO liquid coolers.

2. at least another 2TB HDD if you are not a data hoarder.

3. 2080 super or 2080 Ti

[WickedStarfish]

20 minutes ago, cool noodles said:

1. Does the stock cooler have pre applied thermal paste? (or should I use the CM one?) Sorry lol dont know which one has thermal paste. Otherwise I'll give it a go. 

2. How much storage would you reccommend? (not an SSD right)

3. What would be a good 4k gaming card to look out for during sales? 

 

Thanks for your replies, and sorry for the many questions! 

dont be sorry about asking questions

 

1. yeah most have it applied already to the cooler block, and it is good enough especially if you are not overclocking the cpuand need amazing heat transfer

2. most computers i price up i add a 2tb hdd to it, but if you have many games going a 3 or 4tb dive will hold them (games like gta 5 are almost 100gb, whereas battleblock theater is 1.8gb so its more which types of games you like playing)

3. 4k is quite difficult to play games smoothly on so going high end would be preferable (2080 super / 2080ti)

 

14 minutes ago, cool noodles said:

1. So by connecting the air cooler and monitor and power supply it should work anyway? Would I need to connect my graphics card and everything else for it to boot for the test?

2. How long would you reccomend sticking with the 3600? If I was to overclock/game at 4k, is the 3600x the way to go?

3. Wow, that's a lot of storage  Coming from someone who's used a 1TB Playstation for years, never thought I'd need so much. I'll probably get a 8TB hard drive too then.

1. you will need to put in the gpu, cpu, cpu cooler, ram, power and the power switch on the case unless your motherboard has a power on switch

2. from my knowledge when you go up to higher resolutions the biggest stress is on the gpu rather than the cpu so the 3600 would be ok until you decide to upgrade again (i would wait until the 4th gen or 5the gen ryzen)

3. yeah but its not needed in most cases, as i am a photographer for some events (external events, family events and friends events) i use the 6tb drive as photo storage, the 4tb drive is for my installed games, c drive is my windows drive (also main programs) and the 14.5tb drive (2x8Tb) is my video drive where i record gameplay to use for video i make and for backups. i use the 1tb xbox one x and i added a 4tb drive to that for my games (my list is quite large on xbox), its slowly becoming bigger on pc

3.

these are the games i currently have installed minus some microsoft games that dont create a shortcut for some reason, the main ones are sea of theives and forza 4 (from my knowledge), yeah i do kinda need to organise it a tad better

[WickedStarfish]

1 minute ago, berberries said:

the 3600 non x is overclockable too just so you know.

another thing i have learned today, i thought that the X had meaning like the intel K models, so what is the difference between the 3600 and the 3600x other than clock speeds?

[berberries]

Just now, WickedStarfish said:

another thing i have learned today, i thought that the X had meaning like the intel K models, so what is the difference between the 3600 and the 3600x other than clock speeds?

3600x is literally just a slightly higher clocked 3600. 3600x comes with a wraith spire while the 3600 comes with a wraith stealth cooler. That's all the difference iirc

[cool noodles]

12 minutes ago, berberries said:

the 3600 non x is overclockable too just so you know.

 

1. yes it comes preapplied on all stock coolers and most AIO liquid coolers.

2. at least another 2TB HDD if you are not a data hoarder.

3. 2080 super or 2080 Ti

Cheers for the help! I'll keep it in mind. Would you suggest I get a different branded thermal paste or just stick with what comes with my liquid cooler?

[berberries]

Just now, cool noodles said:

Cheers for the help! I'll keep it in mind. Would you suggest I get a different branded thermal paste or just stick with what comes with my liquid cooler?

just use the one on your liquid cooler, its usually good enough. If you really want to push every little bit of thermal conductivity, thermal grizzly kyonaut or noctua nth-1 is the way to go

[WickedStarfish]

1 minute ago, cool noodles said:

Cheers for the help! I'll keep it in mind. Would you suggest I get a different branded thermal paste or just stick with what comes with my liquid cooler?

if you have already ordered the parts, just stick with the liquid cooler thermal paste, if you havent then it is more a question on if you want to spend an extra $8ish on a tiny bit better cooling performance and if that is worth it to you

[cool noodles]

2 minutes ago, WickedStarfish said:

if you have already ordered the parts, just stick with the liquid cooler thermal paste, if you havent then it is more a question on if you want to spend an extra $8ish on a tiny bit better cooling performance and if that is worth it to you

 Wow that's a lot of games lol. My games would be limited to like Witcher, Tomb Raider, COD, PUBG, Total war etc. So I'll probably go with 8GB just in case lol. Just a note, that's one cool wallpaper! Have the link handy? haha.

 

I guess too much hassle for extra thermal paste, I'd probably damage something knowing myself..

 

Otherwise I really appreciate the help, thanks! Guess it's just a matter of putting it together and hoping my parts actually work and aren't faulty. 

[WickedStarfish]

Just now, cool noodles said:

 Wow that's a lot of games lol. My games would be limited to like Witcher, Tomb Raider, COD, PUBG, Total war etc. So I'll probably go with 8GB just in case lol. Just a note, that's one cool wallpaper! Have the link handy? haha

8tb?, i believe for the extra cost over a 4tb drive it isnt really worth going 8tb as with all my games installed i haven't gotten close to filling my 4tb drive (also have red dead redemption 2 installed but it doesnt have an icon either ._. ) 

the wallpaper is a dual screen 1080p wallpaper (3840x1080)

[cool noodles]

Yes, 8TB lol. About dual screens, how do they work exactly(do my two monitors need to be the same brand/model, or resolution?) Oh, and do you use a G-sync monitor, is it better than Freesync? Was thinking about monitor deals for christmas as I only have a 1080p 144hz monitor with Freesync atm. 

[berberries]

1 minute ago, cool noodles said:

Yes, 8TB lol. About dual screens, how do they work exactly(do my two monitors need to be the same brand/model, or resolution?) Oh, and do you use a G-sync monitor, is it better than Freesync? Was thinking about monitor deals for christmas as I only have a 1080p 144hz monitor with Freesync atm. 

Doesn't have to be the same. I have 2x LG 27in 4k 60HZ Freesync Monitors and 1x Dell 23in 1080p 60HZ Ultrasharp monitor. Works well together, planning to pick up an LG 34UC99 too :D. Freesync is almost the same as G-Sync so yea.

[WickedStarfish]

Just now, cool noodles said:

Yes, 8TB lol. About dual screens, how do they work exactly(do my two monitors need to be the same brand/model, or resolution?) Oh, and do you use a G-sync monitor, is it better than Freesync? Was thinking about monitor deals for christmas as I only have a 1080p 144hz monitor with Freesync atm. 

basically you plug in the monitors to different ports on the graphics card and it should autodetect them, if you are running a 60hz and 144hz you may need to adjust the 144hz one to 144hz rather than 60, also you may need to move them around if they open up back the front (right being left and left being right)

tbh i am not sure about the gsync / freesync, my left monitor is a cheap 1080p 60hz acer monitor that i picked up for i believe $125 for 2 aud prices (second one went to my sister when i upgraded my right one which is my gaming one), my right monitor is the acer predator XB240H which i got for less then $300 aud pricing (probably around the time the 241 came out). the predator was a impulse buy as i was at the shop to buy a 15m hdmi cord to attach my tv to my array and thought, thats a great price

[cool noodles]

2 minutes ago, berberries said:

Doesn't have to be the same. I have 2x LG 27in 4k 60HZ Freesync Monitors and 1x Dell 23in 1080p 60HZ Ultrasharp monitor. Works well together, planning to pick up an LG 34UC99 too :D. Freesync is almost the same as G-Sync so yea.

Sounds like a dream setup  

Do you use them all as one screen? I can probably only afford one lol, which one of your 4k monitors is your fav

[cool noodles]

2 minutes ago, WickedStarfish said:

basically you plug in the monitors to different ports on the graphics card and it should autodetect them, if you are running a 60hz and 144hz you may need to adjust the 144hz one to 144hz rather than 60, also you may need to move them around if they open up back the front (right being left and left being right)

tbh i am not sure about the gsync / freesync, my left monitor is a cheap 1080p 60hz acer monitor that i picked up for i believe $125 for 2 aud prices (second one went to my sister when i upgraded my right one which is my gaming one), my right monitor is the acer predator XB240H which i got for less then $300 aud pricing (probably around the time the 241 came out). the predator was a impulse buy as i was at the shop to buy a 15m hdmi cord to attach my tv to my array and thought, thats a great price

Nice, so how does gaming work then, do you only use one monitor? Cause of the different refresh rates and all. And is it possible to play a game on one monitor and do some youtubing on the other possibilities