My latest PC build was a letdown, considering gaming laptop. Thoughts?

[IcyWhite]

Hello, I've been trying to build a new PC these past few weeks, but I just ended up being disappointed.

What I wanted to build was a silent PC with decent performance.

 

I used Ryzen 5 5600x CPU, ASUS Dual 6600XT GPU and ASUS Tuf Gaming B550 Pro motherboard.

 

First problem was that the ports of the motherboard didn't align properly with the I/O shield in the case (Fractal Meshify 2 Compact), no matter how hard I tried to adjust it. Most likely the I/O plate wasn't cut out correctly. Then I bought Gigabyte B550 motherboard that came with mounted I/O shield, but that motherboard was sparking in the USB area when turning on the PSU. So now I was left out with 2 motherboards that I can't use.

I also tried testing the other components on the Asus motherboard and installing Windows, but turns out CPU fan wasn't quiet at all and was whining at around ~1000 RPM and was pretty loud at higher RPM (ARCTIC Freezer 34 Duo).

 

But the worst part was, that the GPU had quite loud coil whine in almost every game I tested, which was pretty unbearable, considering I wanted a quiet PC. It didn't do that however on my older PC and only a little on my brother's PC. Turns out that coil whine intensity can be different from GPU to GPU and can also depend on what motherboard you're using, on what PSU you're using and other components too.

At this point I am done and in the end I've decided to return all components back and sell the GPU.

 

I spent around 3 weeks trying to find correct components and build the PC that would suit me, however it didn't work out very well.

 

So right now I'm considering buying a gaming laptop that I would use as my current desktop, or possibly look into prebuilt PCs, but first I would like to hear your opinions on this matter and what would you suggest me to do.

[AbydosOne]

1 minute ago, IcyWhite said:

First problem was that the ports of the motherboard didn't align properly with the I/O shield in the case (Fractal Meshify 2 Compact), no matter how hard I tried to adjust it. Most likely the I/O plate wasn't cut out correctly. Then I bought Gigabyte B550 motherboard that came with mounted I/O shield, but that motherboard was sparking in the USB area when turning on the PSU. So now I was left out with 2 motherboards that I can't use.

Did you have standoffs behind the motherboard?

[IcyWhite]

Yes of course. I made sure to assemble everything carefully.

[Middcore]

1 minute ago, IcyWhite said:

First problem was that the ports of the motherboard didn't align properly with the I/O shield in the case (Fractal Meshify 2 Compact), no matter how hard I tried to adjust it. Most likely the I/O plate wasn't cut out correctly.

 

This is very confusing. Cases don't have I/O shields, they just have a hole where the I/O shield from the motherboard goes. 

 

 

1 minute ago, IcyWhite said:

Then I bought Gigabyte B550 motherboard that came with mounted I/O shield, but that motherboard was sparking in the USB area when turning on the PSU. So now I was left out with 2 motherboards that I can't use.

 

What do you mean by "the USB area"? A USB header on the board? The USB ports at the back I/O? In any case this sounds like a short.

 

1 minute ago, IcyWhite said:

I also tried testing the other components on the Asus motherboard and installing Windows, but turns out CPU fan wasn't quiet at all and was whining at around ~1000 RPM and was pretty loud at higher RPM (ARCTIC Freezer 34 Duo).

 

I have this same cooler in two PC's in the room I am sitting in right now and they're silent. 

 

 

[IcyWhite]

Sorry, let me correct some of my wording, since English isn't my native language. Motherboard's I/O plate when placed in the case didn't align with the USB ports correctly.

The Gigabyte motherboard was sparking behind the I/O shield.

And the fan was silent when at 500 - 600 RPM, however had a light whine at around 1000 RPM. It could be this specific one, I'm not sure.

[DrunkenPanda]

20 minutes ago, IcyWhite said:

Sorry, let me correct some of my wording, since English isn't my native language. Motherboard's I/O plate when placed in the case didn't align with the USB ports correctly.

The Gigabyte motherboard was sparking behind the I/O shield.

And the fan was silent when at 500 - 600 RPM, however had a light whine at around 1000 RPM. It could be this specific one, I'm not sure.

I mean....  "gaming laptops" aren't really a thing short of 2-3 grand... and the desktop you could build with that budget would absolutely murder its corpse... it sounds like you made some mistakes during your first build and you gave up instead of reading into why the mistakes happened... it's impossible for somebody here to diagnose what the actual root cause of your issues were but if you saw literal sparks coming from behind the I/O panel, you definitely had a short....

 

Short circuits occur when a low-resistance path is touching a high-volume current... typically in a computer build... there's a loose wire or solder from the motherboard touching the metal case... That's almost certainly what happened with the Gigabyte board whether you want to admit it or not... but for the root cause I have no idea where to tell you to look for that at... figure out what loose wire or solder was touching the case to cause that short and you've at least learned something from the failure... 

 

As for the original issue... it does sound like you didn't have the standoffs in if the I/O panel "wasn't aligning correctly" with the motherboard (and it would explain both problems because if the solder is sitting on the metal... and you turn it on.... that's a dead board) or you just positioned it poorly? I'd have to see a picture to see *how* they were misaligned to tell you further... I would advise you to diagnose the mistakes and if you have questions as you build... ask the forum as people are very helpful around here... take lots of pictures for issues you need immediate help with...

 

As for the fan... if you turn the fan on full blast, it's going to make a little noise... there's rarely a REASON to turn it on full blast, you just want air moving through the case/static pressure and a strong enough current on heat-sinks to dissipate the air from the fins...  but even Noctua fans make a small amount of noise at full blast... it's possible you got a defective fan, I guess... but if your prospective "gaming laptop" turns on it's fans... it's like a hair dryer... so.... yea  

[DrunkenPanda]

Now that I'm thinking about it.... one other plausible issue... and advice going forward...

 

what motherboard exactly and what power supply exactly?

 

It's unlikely, as they are mostly standardized nowadays and most are single-rail now, but they used to make power supplies with dual rails and some of them didn't have dynamic balance on the loads on the 12v lines... I've never heard of that causing a short, per say, but it would make for an erratic computing experience if you loaded everything on rail 1... and I wouldn't put it out of the reach of plausible

 

keep in mind that when a short happens, there's a number of components that can be affected... ur CPU, RAM, GPU, Drives... pretty much anything that was connected....... if you do pursue this project, I'd build the PC outside of the case to test all the components individually... break down a cardboard box and put it on your kitchen table or something, then build on that.... that'll give you access to everything to easily check each component and takes metal-metal contact out of the equation... do *not* try to reuse that gigabyte motherboard

[IcyWhite]

First of all, this was not my first build, I'm not sure why do you assume it was.

 

I realize that laptops will never be as powerful as PCs, but building the most powerful PC was never my aim in the first place. All I want is a quiet pc (or laptop). Coil whine is opposite of quiet. The screeching noise was quite unbearable at a times. And what am I supposed to do about that?

 

You need to understand that returning PC parts is a lengthy and pricy process and I don't have money, patience and time to do that over and over again.

When it comes to laptops, I know that their fans can get quite loud too, but I would assume that can be adjusted using a software to manage fan curves.

 

The spark behind the I/O shield didn't cause the system not to work. Bios booted and PC was running. The spark was happening inside of the enclosed I/O shield area, not outside where the board could be touching the case. I built the other motherboard the same was as the Gigabyte one and there were no sparks. And it's hard to mess it up in the first place, since every connector that goes to board is isolated and can go in only one way. Also, I'm not sure why are you trying to convince me that I didn't have standoffs behind the motherboard, since the case came with them preinstalled.

 

Here are some photos if the I/O shield.

 

[IcyWhite]

2 minutes ago, DrunkenPanda said:

what motherboard exactly and what power supply exactly?

ASUS ROG STRIX 850W GOLD and GIGABYTE B550 AORUS ELITE AX V2

[DrunkenPanda]

6 minutes ago, IcyWhite said:

First of all, this was not my first build, I'm not sure why do you assume it was.

 

I realize that laptops will never be as powerful as PCs, but building the most powerful PC was never my aim in the first place. All I want is a quiet pc (or laptop). Coil whine is opposite of quiet. The screeching noise was quite unbearable at a times. And what am I supposed to do about that?

 

You need to understand that returning PC parts is a lengthy and pricy process and I don't have money, patience and time to do that over and over again.

When it comes to laptops, I know that their fans can get quite loud too, but I would assume that can be adjusted using a software to manage fan curves.

 

The spark behind the I/O shield didn't cause the system not to work. Bios booted and PC was running. The spark was happening inside of the enclosed I/O shield area, not outside where the board could be touching the case. I built the other motherboard the same was as the Gigabyte one and there were no sparks. And it's hard to mess it up in the first place, since every connector that goes to board is isolated and can go in only one way. Also, I'm not sure why are you trying to convince me that I didn't have standoffs behind the motherboard, since the case came with them preinstalled.

 

Here are some photos if the I/O shield.

 

 

The standoff thing, without any pictures... very logically explained both issues you were describing... and I assumed you were a first-time builder because most experienced builders wouldn't give up and buy a pre-built/laptop because a motherboard was misaligned and they may need a better fan? 

 

So I've had some misaligned I/O panels like that before... a lot of times the I/O panel gets slightly unlatched when you're inserting the motherboard into it... taking it out and repositioning it normally fixes the issue... otherwise, the mother board looks to be sitting a little high... check your standoffs beneath it and make sure they are all the way in and didn't get hung on any threads... it's a minor issue but I know how annoying it can be

[CamoGeko]

I've had a Gigabyte B550M Aorus Pro board for over a year and have had no issues with it at all, you should have RMA'd your board as soon as you noticed the issue. Also Gigabyte Power supplies arent the best I'd send that back immediately... you're better off with an EVGA, Seasonic, Focus, Super Flower or even Corsair.

 

I had an Arctic Freezer 34 Duo for almost a year and had no whine or any kind, it was smooth and silent on my 5600X. You likely just got a one off dodgy fan, you should have sent the unit back and got a replacement.

 

It just seems like a bad turn of luck overall for you, and maybe a bit of user error in the process.

 

 

[Herman Mcpootis]

34 minutes ago, CamoGeko said:

you're better off with an EVGA, Seasonic, Focus, Super Flower or even Corsair.

This is not how it works. All of them have had their own fuckups before.

[CamoGeko]

7 minutes ago, Herman Mcpootis said:

This is not how it works. All of them have had their own fuckups before.

 

I know, you can literally say that for every piece of technology out there lmao

 

Gigabyte power supplies have a way worse reputation for reliability than any of those 5 brands I mentioned.

 

Re-read my comment, I thought it was pretty clear how I wrote it.

[DrunkenPanda]

15 minutes ago, Herman Mcpootis said:

This is not how it works. All of them have had their own fuckups before.

Brand name < Specific line name... Corsair makes some pretty good PSUs once you hit a certain level but their budget entries are absolute garbage.... and so are those "silent" gold-series ones they were putting out for a while... and if that offends anyone reading because you have some $34 Corsair power supply cause it was the cheapest thing somebody recommended you... not sorry... its garbage  ... EVGA's low end stuff wasn't terrible component-wise but the dual rail thing caused some issues with people that didn't know to balance rail load (despite the fact it was supposed to have dynamic load balancing built in)

 

It's *almost* a sweeping statement to say any power supply made in China is garbage but there's a select few that are actually good so I can't even broad stroke that... I don't prefer Antec, for instance, but their high-end stuff is good...

 

Typically I look for Japanese caps and where those are used, quality follows..... but even there... for a year or two they were shipping bad capacitors that were literally exploding lol... so that's not even a sweeping statement... XFX used to make some really good PSUs but I think they withdrew from the market...

 

So I typically just stick to Seasonic's fully-modular gold+ stuff now so I don't have to read the fine print on the labels... I've never used an Asus PSU to vouch for it but spec-wise it looks compatible with the motherboard

[Middcore]

In general yes all of the major PSU brand names have highs and lows in their product lineup.

 

However, Gigabyte is a relatively new player in this market, some of their units have gotten a lot of attention for being really catastrophically bad, and I am not aware of any units sold with their label that are considered particularly good. I don't blame anybody for advising to avoid Gigabyte PSU's in general. 

[DrunkenPanda]

3 minutes ago, Middcore said:

In general yes all of the major PSU brand names have highs and lows in their product lineup.

 

However, Gigabyte is a relatively new player in this market, some of their units have gotten a lot of attention for being really catastrophically bad, and I am not aware of any units sold with their label that are considered particularly good. I don't blame anybody for advising to avoid Gigabyte PSU's in general. 

I'm not doubting that... but I also have no idea why Gigabyte PSUs got brought up to begin with? He's using an Asus PSU and the Gigabyte motherboard was the scary issue