A Boring 'Red n Black' first build - Fractal, 6700K, MSI

[Volksdevil]

Hi from the UK 

 

Here is my first ever PC build so far!

 

Currently have:

• Fractal Design R5 blackout windowed case.
• Antec edge fully modular 650W PSU.
• MSI Z170A Gaming M7 motherboard.
• Samsung 950 Pro NVME 256GB M.2 - [For OS and Virus protection programs etc]
• Intel i7-6700K quad core CPU.
• Corsair ML140 Pro LED exhaust fan.
• Seagate Firecuda 2TB SSHD has literally just arrived as I type this!

 

There's a photobucket link if you click here to pics so far and I'll try and include a few of them below.

 

Thanks,

Neil.

 

MSI Z170A Gaming M7 MOBO.

 

Samsung 950 Pro M.2 256GB.

 

Fitted.

 

I7-6700K

 

Fitted.

 

I/O shield fitted into Fractal R5.

 

Motherboard fitted after screwing in the standoffs.

A note for other owners, the top left metal shroud needs the original (2) screws removing while placing the motherboard. Then you can use 2 motherboard screws in their place while refitting the shroud.

 

Antec edge 650w Modular PSU.

 

Fitted.

 

Random pics.

 

 

Cables so far...

 

Corsair ML140 Pro for exhaust fan.

Shown with the fractal one (Left) removed.

 

Fitted.

 

So here's how it stands so far...Currently waiting on my CPU cooler (Deepcaptain 240EX) which is taking longer than it should be! Have really, really enjoyed doing it. So much so that I almost want to split it all up, bag it up and do it again! Really happy with it.

Thanks, Neil.

 

[xephoneration]

I wanted to get that Motherboard too to fit my black and red theme. I am very envious of this 

[Guest]

Sorry. But I am waiting for someone to do a blue build.

[xephoneration]

1 minute ago, dexxterlab97 said:

Sorry. But I am waiting for someone to do a blue build.

Nah nah nah do a tampa bay lightening theme XDDDDD that would be interesting with the blue and white

[Thorimus]

THAT CABLE MANAGEMENT THOUGH  I know it's not done, but dayuuum, it looks so clean

 

Looks very nice, wish I had the funds to build a new PC from scratch. Made some very stupid part choices when I bought my pre-built rig.

[Volksdevil]

Thanks guys. I've got an idea I'm going to try regards cable management too. Either way I can't wait for the rest of the bits to arrive.

 

Still unsure which 2.5 1TB SSD to go with...

[Godlygamer23]

5 minutes ago, Volksdevil said:

Thanks guys. I've got an idea I'm going to try regards cable management too. Either way I can't wait for the rest of the bits to arrive.

 

Still unsure which 2.5 1TB SSD to go with...

Be careful of putting ESD sensitive components on the outside of an ESD bag. The outside of conductive, and if a charge gets applied to the outside of the bag, any electronic touching the outside will get hit by it.

[Volksdevil]

Strangely that's the second time I've heard that in two days, but I'd never heard or seen it mentioned before. I hope I haven't damaged anything...I did use a wrist strap while building up.

 

Do you mean 'Statically conductive'?

 

Thanks for the heads up, fingers crossed all is OK.

[Godlygamer23]

4 minutes ago, Volksdevil said:

Strangely that's the second time I've heard that in two days, but I'd never heard or seen it mentioned before. I hope I haven't damaged anything...I did use a wrist strap while building up.

 

Do you mean 'Statically conductive'?

 

Thanks for the heads up, fingers crossed all is OK.

It's probably okay. Yes, the outside of the bag conducts electricity. The bag forms a Faraday cage around the electronic inside, conducting the electricity around it only. 

 

I wouldn't freak out over it. Just an FYI for the future. 

[Volksdevil]

Great, appreciate the heads up. Thanks.

[Volksdevil]

The Seagate 2TB Firecuda SSHD.

[Volksdevil]

Hi all, 

 

Quick question regards which M.2 slot I should have the Samsung drive in? 

I initially plugged it into the lower slot which MSI label as M.2_1 as I thought it would be better suited sat underneath a graphics card and stay cooler.

 

But reading the MSI manual I'm a little confused as it mentions that having it there can slow things down. I'm not even sure how to interpret what it says. In fact here is a quote:

Quote

The M2_1 slot will only run PCIe 3.0 x2 speed when
M2_1 slot is installed with a M.2 PCIe device and
PCI_E4 slot is installed with a PCIe x1 device at the
same time.

Not only that but later in the manual when looking at SAT(e) ports, it gives combinations where some ports will be disabled. It only ever shows a single M.2 drive in the top (M.2_2) position...There it shows a table which allows all 6 SATA ports to be used. So is that where I should have it?

 

The only drives I'm going to use for now are a 2TB Seagate SSHD and a 1TB SSD, along with the M.2 of course. Have added some pics below...

 

 

 

 

[Snipeon]

Pretty simple actually, just plug the drive into the m.2_2 slot(aka the top m.2 slot). Consult the combination table you just posted as well if you are still unsure which ports would be available/unavailable on which m.2 config.

 

From what I can see, on pci-e, the m.2_2 slot has it's own dedicated lanes however the m.2_1 slot shares its lanes with the pci-e4 slot as well as the SATA 5 and 6 slots.

 

However, if you're using SATA on the m.2 slots(in this case, why would you even bother with m.2?!?), m.2_2 uses the SATA 1 and 2 lanes and m.2_1 uses the SATA 5 and 6 lanes as usual. Not sure if I'm completely correct on this, feel free to correct my mistakes on this matter. After all, I'm always open to have my knowledge updated. ?

[Volksdevil]

Cheers mate, that makes sense. And same here, if anybody else wants to chime in with anything it would also be appreciated.

[Volksdevil]

Si I've been having some issues, but anyway...

 

The deepcool captain 240ex cpu cooler turned up. Seems nice, it has a fan hub too which is a bonus.

 

 

 

 

HDD cages removed...

 

 

Deepcool cpu cooler fitted.

 

[Volksdevil]

Here you can see the wiring, and the fan hub that I've neatly fitted in the bottom left corner right beside the fans...

 

 

 

Bought an Orico hotswap bay too. I'm probably going to get a 5-6tb HDD for backups...Picked up some sleeved fan extensions/splitters too just in case they can help with the cables.

 

[Volksdevil]

The CMU16GX4M2C3000C15R Vengeance 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3000 MHz C15 XMP 2.0 RAM that I'm having problems with... 

 

[Volksdevil]

How it was looking...

 

 

I actually added the original fractal fans back in the front panel here, and I've set them to come on at higher temps... (Not pictured)

 

 

 

And today the Samsung 850 Pro 1TB arrived...

I've just this minute finished installing the two drives (Seagate Firecuda 2TB SSHD / Samsung 850 Pro 1TB) and initialising them etc...

 

I think I still need to map them folder wise yet, but need to educate myself on that. 

 

 

[Volksdevil]

So the MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X turned up. Wow! This thing is big, heavy and feels like good quality.

 

 

 

 

[Volksdevil]

The PCIE cable(s) bugged the hell out of me. Stiff, cumbersome and ugly looking...So I picked up some extensions that split the 8 pin from the 6 pin too. Really nice these.

 

[Volksdevil]

I initially had my top two drive caddy's fitted with the two drives. Samsung ssd in the top one, and the seagate sshd in the one below...

 

But I didn't like how the top of the caddy looked sort of 'unfinished' because normally the other caddy would 'slide' in on top of it...Also the seagate sshd seems to generate some heat so I wanted to split them with an empty caddy inbetween...Better than that I managed to use the feet from the caddy I'm not using as ssd feet!

 

Removed them from the unused caddy, cut off the little locating pins and screwed them directly to the samsung ssd. The ssd then slides right in where the spare caddy would have. So it now sits right on top of the caddy, then an empty caddy underneath...with the sshd below that.

 

 

Here you can see the slots where the unused caddy would have slid in...Now the ssd will slide in istead.

 

Like so...

 

The empty caddy between the hard drives now allows nice flow from the fan, and also routes my pcie cables. Win!

 

[Volksdevil]

And that's where I'm up to so far...

 

Still having some issues with the ram/xmp 

[Volksdevil]

Well...Finally putting the new PC to use! Now running an HTC VIVE perfectly! Bloody love it!

 

Attached is a test run of the SteamVR check.