Just bought the parts for a new computer

[Truthless]

I just bought the parts I need for a new computer on black Friday. This isn't the first time I've build a computer but it's never too late to learn new things so I figured I'd come here and ask: what are your guys tips and tricks/ best practices for a brand new computer and windows installation?

 

Some things I'm interested in: I haven't built a computer in about four years, what new things should I know about? I'm switching from Intel to amd this round, and I know ram is more important. I got 3200 mhz ram but will there be anything else I need to do? I remember reading about changing a setting in the bios, is that still relevant?

I never felt like I got the most out of my old processor (i5 6600k) what can I do to make sure that I am getting the expected performance from my computer? 

What drivers should I keep up to date? I remember reading somewhere that it's best to let windows handle drivers other than gpu, is that accurate? 

How do you handle your file structure? Do you let the installation wizard put things where ever or do you make specialized folders for everything? 

Any cool softwares you'd recommend? 

Sorry for this wall of text, I'm just excited to put my computer together and want to learn what I can. 

 

Here's the pcpartpicker for the new computer for those curious 

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/r2tHGc

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($244.99 @ Walmart) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition 57.3 CFM CPU Cooler  ($39.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4 ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($139.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($117.95 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8 GB FTW2 DT Gaming iCX Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case: Phanteks P300 ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply 
Total: $602.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-06 03:15 EST-0500

[martward]

Nice build!

Personally I only download drivers once directly after setup, the GPU drivers I do keep up to date of course.

You need to enable XMP in the bios, otherwise your RAM won't reach the advertised speed. 

You could overclock the CPU if you want to get everything out of your cpu, there are tons of overclocking guides.

In terms of software it depends on what you're planning to do. I mostly play games and use Blender and am planning to learn to develop using Unity. Gimp is nice for image processing though it's not that easy.

[dgsddfgdfhgs]

19 minutes ago, Truthless said:

How do you handle your file structure? Do you let the installation wizard put things where ever or do you make specialized folders for everything? 

Any cool softwares you'd recommend? 

its actually by trial and error, everyone wants the most "efficient" tool/ apps but end up downloading all craps & malware/ virus..

 

my advice, get the one you only need, ignore drivers unless you face some issues (time will tell)

reinstall windows is ultra fast so you really couldnt go wrong, just remember to backup.

 

only thing with ryzen , be careful with the pins on cpu, its blazing fast enough by default

 

[minibois]

Intel has pins in the board, while AMD has them on the CPU. Otherwise it's a pretty similar deal, line up the triangle on the CPU with the triangle on the socket, insert it with zero force and pull down the lever.

15 minutes ago, Truthless said:

I got 3200 mhz ram but will there be anything else I need to do? I remember reading about changing a setting in the bios, is that still relevant?

Yep. In the BIOS there should be a setting called XMP/XAMP. Turn that on, on a 3200Mhz profile. Otherwise it will run at 2133Mhz (base DDR4 speed), which indeed would not be preferable for AMD Ryzen systems.

16 minutes ago, Truthless said:

I never felt like I got the most out of my old processor (i5 6600k) what can I do to make sure that I am getting the expected performance from my computer? 

You can overclock, or just turn on PBO in the motherboard and let that deal with all the overclockng

17 minutes ago, Truthless said:

What drivers should I keep up to date? I remember reading somewhere that it's best to let windows handle drivers other than gpu, is that accurate? 

Keep the GPU drivers up to date at the very least, either via Geforce Experience or through manual downloading.

I have bad experiences with Windows doing video drivers (causing green screens in videos), so I cannot recommend letting Windows just deal with those drivers! The other drivers (e.g. networking, peripheral, etc.) seem fine via Windows.

19 minutes ago, Truthless said:

How do you handle your file structure? Do you let the installation wizard put things where ever or do you make specialized folders for everything? 

- Personally I have multiple drives with a folder structure for my personal use.

E.g. other than the Pictures/Documents/Videos/Music libraries, I also added some more specifically for 'artwork' that I make and the programming I do. Documents is kind of a place certain programs (particularly games) dump their files, so I try to rely on that the least I can.

- Programs I either let install on my C drive (SSD) in Program Files or on my HDD programs folder (just a folder I made). Same for games.

I see you don't have a HDD listed in this build, but you could partition it.. But not really nescecary. I have limited SSD size, so the decision whether to put the program/games on an SSD depend on if they will have a clear advantage to be on an SSD (shorter loading times for example).

22 minutes ago, Truthless said:

Any cool softwares you'd recommend? 

It really depends on what you are looking for. But some programs helpful to everyone are:

- HWMonitor

- CPU-Z

- Cinebench and 3DMark (Demo from Steam) to test your PC's performance

- CrystalDiskInfo to check SSD/HDD health status

- Your text editor of choice (Notepad is cool, but Notepad++/Sublime Text/Visual Studio/Atom.io can do so much more)

- Digital image manipulation programs (Gimp, Krita and Inkscape make it to any of my PC's)

- Video software (Davinci Resolve for video editing, Handbrake for video encoding, VLC to play anything)

- Some other cool software if you're into it: Waifu2x (image upscaling program), Fraps (to benchmark games and FRAFS to easily read out your benchmarks).