Micro Center's PC assembly service

[JugsOfHolyness]

So my house-mate was about to buy an NZXT pre-built PC when I told him that if he spent an extra $500 he could have a much better PC (including the cost of Windows 10 + cost to have Micro Center to assemble it).

 

So I looked at the parts that NZXT offered and tried to build him a better one within the budget of $999 + $500 like i promised (including Windows 10 & assembly). Two of the components consist of a 500GB NVMe and a 1TB SATA SSD; this will be important later.

 

Last Friday all parts arrived so on Saturday we took it to Micro Center to have them assemble it for $200. I also printed out a list of things to have them do for his PC:

 

 

 

Quote

 

1.   Update BIOS
2.   Update Windows 10 drivers
3.   Update Nvidia drivers using GeForce Experience  (please put GeForce Experience on the desktop as a shortcut)
4.   Ensure the RAM is running @3200 speed
5.   If its lower than 3200, please enable XMP so that it can run @3200
6.   Disable UAC
7.   Disable (as much as the settings will allow) Windows 10 Telemetry
8.   Replace me with the Windows key, d00d

 

 

 

 

On Tues they call saying its ready so we pick it up and bask in the awesomeness of his first PC ever.

 

Today, I remembered ONE thing I forgot to put on that list, but I'm like, "meh, they're professionals." I ask my room mate anyways just in case:

 

Me: "Yo, can you tell me what is the max size of your C drive."

 

RM: "465GB"

 

Me: "Oh cool, they did it right then. Your other drive is 900-something GB, right?"

 

RM: "There's only one drive."

 

Me in his room looking at the following two screens:

 

 

 

 

Me after: REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[LIGISTX]

11 hours ago, JugsOfHolyness said:

** snip **
do not quote the whole OP, it clutters the forum and makes it difficult to scroll.

Yea that sux. Thankfully, easy fix.

[JugsOfHolyness]

Easy fix? Imma have to reinstall Windows! MicroCenter charges $150 to assemble your PC, + $50 to install Windows 10. Not only did they install the OS in the SLOWEST SSD, they didn't even make that SSD show up for use AT ALL.

[Spotty]

9 minutes ago, JugsOfHolyness said:

Last Friday all parts arrived so on Saturday we took it to Micro Center to have them assemble it for $200.

From your post it seems that you have a relatively good understanding of computers and building them. Why didn't you assemble the PC yourself? $200 goes a long way and that money could have been spent on better components.

 

1 minute ago, JugsOfHolyness said:

Easy fix? Imma have to reinstall Windows! MicroCenter charges $150 to assemble your PC, + $50 to install Windows 10. Not only did they install the OS in the SLOWEST SSD, they didn't even make that SSD show up for use AT ALL.

They installed it on the nvme drive though...?

13 minutes ago, JugsOfHolyness said:

Two of the components consist of a 500GB NVMe and a 1TB SATA SSD; this will be important later.

Windows is installed on the 500gb drive and the 1tb drive is unallocated.

[dizmo]

17 minutes ago, JugsOfHolyness said:

Easy fix? Imma have to reinstall Windows! MicroCenter charges $150 to assemble your PC, + $50 to install Windows 10. Not only did they install the OS in the SLOWEST SSD, they didn't even make that SSD show up for use AT ALL.

Pretty sure it's installed on the 500GB, seeing as the other one isn't even allocated.

I, personally, can't believe you paid that much to get it assembled. Didn't you ever LEGO, bro?

[zeusthemoose]

It is on the NVMe drive? Looks like you just need to follow these steps to make the other drive show up.

[Chris Pratt]

9 minutes ago, JugsOfHolyness said:

Easy fix? Imma have to reinstall Windows! MicroCenter charges $150 to assemble your PC, + $50 to install Windows 10. Not only did they install the OS in the SLOWEST SSD, they didn't even make that SSD show up for use AT ALL.

No, the 500GB NVMe is listed as boot. That means Windows is there. Not sure what's going on with that System Reserved jazz on the other drive, but all you need to do is allocate the 1TB. No reinstall necessary.

[JugsOfHolyness]

15 minutes ago, Spotty said:

They installed it on the nvme drive though...?

Windows is installed on the 500gb drive and the 1tb drive is unallocated.

 

13 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Pretty sure it's installed on the 500GB, seeing as the other one isn't even allocated.

 

Disk 1 (C) is the only one that shows up under "My Computer". Disk 0 (the SATA SSD) shows up only in Disk Management with TWO partitions (one of them being unallocated)

 

....so they installed Windows on both SSDs?!

 

 

 

15 minutes ago, Spotty said:

From your post it seems that you have a relatively good understanding of computers and building them. Why didn't you assemble the PC yourself? $200 goes a long way and that money could have been spent on better components.

 

Same reason why I'm a cashier instead of an electrician like my friend who wanted me to study with him 4 years ago (who is now making bank as an electrician): I'm not very good with problem-solving/trouble-shooting things with my hands.

 

ie, a cash machine at a bank won't accept coins? I give it a good whack and press buttons.

 

Building a PC which requires careful handling of delicate exposed circuitry? PC will most likely die by my "trouble-shooting".

 

 

...this is also the reason why I don't clean out the inside of my PC for dust. Cuz when I use an aerosol can I sometimes see water droplets coming out and  water + electronics = bad (idk what i'm doing wrong to make water droplets come out instead of just air)

[Gohardgrandpa]

I’ve talked people thru building a pc over FaceTime that aren’t tech literate at all. $200 to build the pc is crazy.

Id love to see what the inside of it looks like. 

[zeusthemoose]

1 minute ago, JugsOfHolyness said:

Disk 1 (C) is the only one that shows up under "My Computer". Disk 0 (the SATA SSD) shows up only in Disk Management with TWO partitions (one of them being unallocated.

 

....so they installed Windows on both SSDs?!

No, it’s only on one sssd. They just didn’t go through the steps to make windows recognize the ssd. Follow this guide to enable it (no hardware changes needed) https://helpdesk.originpc.com/support/solutions/articles/9000124011-how-to-add-a-hard-drive-to-windows-10- 

 

2 minutes ago, JugsOfHolyness said:

Cuz when I use an aerosol can I sometimes see water droplets coming out and  water + electronics = bad

Then you are not using it properly. You are supposed to press the button thing in short bursts. Water comes out when you hold it down.

[dizmo]

3 minutes ago, JugsOfHolyness said:

Disk 1 (C) is the only one that shows up under "My Computer". Disk 0 (the SATA SSD) shows up only in Disk Management with TWO partitions (one of them being unallocated.

 

....so they installed Windows on both SSDs?!

 

Same reason why I'm a cashier instead of an electrician like my friend who wanted me to study with him 4 years ago (who is now making bank as an electrician): I'm not very good with problem-solving/trouble-shooting things with my hands.

 

ie, a cash machine at a bank won't accept coins? I give it a good whack and press buttons.

 

Building a PC which requires careful handling of delicate exposed circuitry? PC will most likely die by my "trouble-shooting".

 

...this is also the reason why I don't clean out the inside of my PC for dust. Cuz when I use an aerosol can I sometimes see water droplets coming out and  water + electronics = bad

....oy. PCs aren't hard to build. There's maybe 15 pieces to it, and it's all plugging things in. Not only that, if you never try, you're never going to learn any new skill.

I'm sure you weren't born knowing how to operate that cash register, either

As for the aerosol, don't hold it upside down, keep it level. Problem solved.

 

As for the other drive, just format it and then allocate it. It'll get rid of anything installed on it.

[JugsOfHolyness]

46 minutes ago, dizmo said:

....oy. PCs aren't hard to build. There's maybe 15 pieces to it, and it's all plugging things in. Not only that, if you never try, you're never going to learn any new skill.

I'm sure you weren't born knowing how to operate that cash register, either

As for the aerosol, don't hold it upside down, keep it level. Problem solved.

 

As for the other drive, just format it and then allocate it. It'll get rid of anything installed on it.

 

There's three things keeping me back from building a PC (based on previous attempts):

 

• Is the CPU pinned down and snapped in place? (insert image of me pushing down hard on the CPU to make sure its seated)

 

• Are the RAM sticks properly seated? (insert image of me REALLY trying to force the RAM in so that the "clips" make a nice "click" sound. And when I say force, I really used a lot of force and the "clips" just wouldn't make that sound)

 

• Is the GPU properly seated? It looks weird (insert image of me REALLY trying to force the GPU in)

 

• (me trying to replace my GPU with a newer one, but trying to preserve the old one so i can sell it) Whoa, how come this thing won't come out? (insert image of me REALLY trying to tear the thing out of the PCI Express socket)

 

 

Every incident except the GPU was circa 2006-ish. GPU was 2015? At no time did I ever exert so much force that it destroyed or bent any component, but I'd like to think that I was about to. So imagine me taking 30m-1h (rough estimate its been so long) to do something like trying to remove the GPU without breaking it.

 

48 minutes ago, Gohardgrandpa said:

Id love to see what the inside of it looks like. 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

What he was gonna get:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

What I made him buy instead:

 

• AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU
• Asus ROG Strix B450-F mobo
• be quiet! Pure Rock 2 Black CPU Cooler
• Thermal Grizzly Hydronaut
• G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Series 16GB
• Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB SSD
• Team Group GX1 960GB SSD
• Corsair CX750M PSU
• GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER MINI ITX OC 6G gpu
• MAINGEAR Vybe RGB Tempered Glass ATX Mid-Tower - Black
• ASUS PCE-AC56 PCI Wireless Express Adapter

 

[JugsOfHolyness]

48 minutes ago, zeusthemoose said:

No, it’s only on one sssd. They just didn’t go through the steps to make windows recognize the ssd. Follow this guide to enable it (no hardware changes needed) https://helpdesk.originpc.com/support/solutions/articles/9000124011-how-to-add-a-hard-drive-to-windows-10- 

 

46 minutes ago, dizmo said:

As for the other drive, just format it and then allocate it. It'll get rid of anything installed on it.

 

Do you guys know as to why there's a partition on the other SSD called "System File"? Cuz I accessed Disk Management for him fully expecting an easy fix (formatting the SATA SSD to make it show up) but I am perplexed as to what this "system file" partition is and that is what made me stop to seek advice on this forum before I reinstalled everything (if that was even the right course of action).

[Spotty]

2 minutes ago, JugsOfHolyness said:

What he was gonna get:

So he was going to get a 9400F + 1660 Ti for $1000

 

And you instead got him to buy a Ryzen 3600 + 1660 Super for $1500?

 

1 hour ago, JugsOfHolyness said:

So my house-mate was about to buy an NZXT pre-built PC when I told him that if he spent an extra $500 he could have a much better PC (including the cost of Windows 10 + cost to have Micro Center to assemble it).

When you said you were spending an additional $500 to get a "much better PC" I would have been expecting that a 1660Ti would be upgraded to a RTX 2070 Super or something at the very least. Not downgraded to a 1660 Super. Ryzen 5 3600 + mobo can't cost much more than a 9400f + mobo so I can't see how $500 would have been spent there. Looks like all of the additional budget was wasted on having a Samsung 970 evo NVMe SSD, a 750W PSU for a system that only draws 200W, and having MicroCenter assemble it.

Seems like your friend would have been better off with the NZXT build and saving the $500, though who knows if NZXT would have done any better than Micro Center on the installation and setup.

[JugsOfHolyness]

6 minutes ago, Spotty said:

So he was going to get a 9400F + 1660 Ti for $1000

 

And you instead got him to buy a Ryzen 3600 + 1660 Super for $1500?

 

When you said you were spending an additional $500 to get a "much better PC" I would have been expecting that a 1660Ti would be upgraded to a RTX 2070 Super or something at the very least. Not downgraded to a 1660 Super. Ryzen 5 3600 + mobo can't cost much more than a 9400f + mobo so I can't see how $500 would have been spent there. Looks like all of the additional budget was wasted on having a Samsung 970 evo NVMe SSD, a 750W PSU for a system that only draws 200W, and having MicroCenter assemble it.

Seems like your friend would have been better off with the NZXT build and saving the $500, though who knows if NZXT would have done any better than Micro Center on the installation and setup.

 

I thought the base speed of the CPU on the Ryzen being higher would give it the advantage =.=

 

EDIT: I also didn't realize the 1660 Super was inferior to the 1660Ti until too late too ;;

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

From your post it seems that you have a relatively good understanding of computers and building them. Why didn't you assemble the PC yourself? $200 goes a long way and that money could have been spent on better components.

 

They installed it on the nvme drive though...?

Windows is installed on the 500gb drive and the 1tb drive is unallocated.

Yep they put it on the fastest drive.  There are two SSDs.  Sata6 by definition tops out at sata6, so even if the nvme has slower reads and writes it’s still faster because it’s nvme.  Not actually usefully faster for gaming.  It’s why I don’t believe in nvme at all unless it’s cheaper than a sata6 ssd atm. (Could change.  Soon even)

 

now leaving the sata drive uninitialized, that was dumb.

[Chris Pratt]

13 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Yep they put it on the fastest drive.  There are two SSDs.  Sata6 by definition tops out at sata6, so even if the nvme has slower reads and writes it’s still faster because it’s nvme.  Not actually usefully faster for gaming.  It’s why I don’t believe in nvme at all unless it’s cheaper than a sata6 ssd atm. (Could change.  Soon even)

 

now leaving the sata drive uninitialized, that was dumb.

I've read this 3 times and I can't parse what you're talking about. What is "sata6"? Do you mean SATA 3? Or perhaps you're referring to the fact that it's a 6 Gbit link?

 

"Even if NVMe is slower". It's not. No NVMe drive is slower than a SATA drive. At a bare minimum you're going to get around 1200-1500MB/s off of NVMe, compared to an absolute maximum of 600MB/s on SATA, and NVMe can go as high as 3500MB/s, just on PCIe 3.0 lanes, 5000MB/s+ on PCIe 4.0.

 

"It’s why I don’t believe in nvme at all unless it’s cheaper than a sata6 ssd atm." How's that? What's to not believe in?

[Bombastinator]

16 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

I've read this 3 times and I can't parse what you're talking about. What is "sata6"? Do you mean SATA 3? Or perhaps you're referring to the fact that it's a 6 Gbit link?

 

"Even if NVMe is slower". It's not. No NVMe drive is slower than a SATA drive. At a bare minimum you're going to get around 1200-1500MB/s off of NVMe, compared to an absolute maximum of 600MB/s on SATA, and NVMe can go as high as 3500MB/s, just on PCIe 3.0 lanes, 5000MB/s+ on PCIe 4.0.

 

"It’s why I don’t believe in nvme at all unless it’s cheaper than a sata6 ssd atm." How's that? What's to not believe in?

1. Yes sata3 is frequently referred to as sata6

2. That makes some sense in that there was supposed to be a “the” in there.  That specific drive.  There are m.2 drives with slower native read/write than sata drives. ACTUAL read write of a slow nvme drive is still faster because sata though.  SSDs are so fast that even a craptacular SSD is the same speed as a nice one when the sata port is the bottleneck.

[JugsOfHolyness]

15 minutes ago, NZgamer said:

Ya know if you had any problems with it, we're always here to help people,

 

Since my friend has already installed one game on the C drive, when I initialize the second drive for him I'm gonna have him cut and paste the game files to the 1TB.

 

How do I change all file paths for the game from C to E (the 1TB) so the PC knows where to look for it? Also what's up with the 1TB having a "system file" partition and an uninitialized partition? wth is that "system file" thing? it won't mess anything up if i format it to one single partition, right?

[Spotty]

11 minutes ago, JugsOfHolyness said:

How do I change all file paths for the game from C to E (the 1TB) so the PC knows where to look for it?

Steam games? Don't just cut and paste them over. In Steam go to settings and then library options. Create a new library on the D drive. Right click the game you want to move from the library and select properties, then select move to a different location. It will copy the files over for you and point it to the correct install location.

From steam settings create the new Library on the other drive:

 

Then for the games you want to move right click and select properties then move them to the new folder:

Edited July 31, 2020 by Spotty
added pics

[Chris Pratt]

51 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

1. Yes sata3 is frequently referred to as sata6

2. That makes some sense in that there was supposed to be a “the” in there.  That specific drive.  There are m.2 drives with slower native read/write than sata drives. ACTUAL read write of a slow nvme drive is still faster because sata though.  SSDs are so fast that even a craptacular SSD is the same speed as a nice one when the sata port is the bottleneck.

There are SATA M.2 drives that might be slower than some other SATA drives, because not every SATA SSD is created equal. M.2 is a form factor, though. Not every M.2 SSD is an NVMe SSD. NVMe is hands down always faster than SATA.

[Bombastinator]

4 hours ago, Chris Pratt said:

There are SATA M.2 drives that might be slower than some other SATA drives, because not every SATA SSD is created equal. M.2 is a form factor, though. Not every M.2 SSD is an NVMe SSD. NVMe is hands down always faster than SATA.

Yes. That’s what I said.  It’s just that you can buy high quality drives with sata connections and low quality drives with nvme connections.  The low quality nvme will still be effectively faster though.  Sata vs nvme doesn’t make a useful difference for gaming though because they’re both fast.

[Intrafinesse]

Noob question - realistically how much difference in time does it impact the response time if the OS is installed on a 500GB NVMe  vs a 1TB SATA SSD.

 

How much slower will boot time be?

Once booted, will one notice any difference at all?

[Bombastinator]

Just now, Intrafinesse said:

Noob question - realistically how much difference in time does it impact the response time if the OS is installed on a 500GB NVMe  vs a 1TB SATA SSD.

 

How much slower will boot time be?

Once booted, will one notice any difference at all?

My understanding is small fractions of a second.  Even if the nvme is twice as fast as the sata if one is 1/8th of a second and the other is 1/16th of a second it seems like both are instant.

[Anarchyz11]

6 hours ago, JugsOfHolyness said:

What he was gonna get:

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

What I made him buy instead:

 

• AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU
• Asus ROG Strix B450-F mobo
• be quiet! Pure Rock 2 Black CPU Cooler
• Thermal Grizzly Hydronaut
• G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Series 16GB
• Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB SSD
• Team Group GX1 960GB SSD
• Corsair CX750M PSU
• GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER MINI ITX OC 6G gpu
• MAINGEAR Vybe RGB Tempered Glass ATX Mid-Tower - Black
• ASUS PCE-AC56 PCI Wireless Express Adapter

 

And what did you think made your build any better than the one he spec'd out?  It would have taken all of 15 minutes to do enough research to know his original build would have performed better than what you told him to get.  You basically had him spend $500 to get an extra NVMe, a better power supply, hyperthreading and somehow a worse graphics card.