Final Questions of an almost successful 1st time pc builder!

L

Ltor

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 7, 2010
Messages
159
In no particular order here are a few lingering problems and questions that arose over the course of my 2 day pc build:

Why the hell does closing the processor hinge and plugging in sata power require so much force? Literally spent hours trying to figure out what I was doing wrong on both these steps thinking it was giving me far too much resistance to be normal.

Should I remove the plastic tags on my heatsink cord that have a do not throw away picture and a warranty void if removed written respectively on each?

Does it matter which of the two pci slots I put my wireless n adapter in?

Does it matter if my processor power coord is touching the metal of my cpu heatsink?

My cpu cooler fan didn't fit facing my ram I had to put it on the other side 2 inches away from my back case fan and now they are just blowing right at each other, I assume this is bad, Can I reverse the direction of either fan somehow?

After installing windows 7 ultimate, it's updates, and driver updates my ssd is already out 28gb, is that normal and is there any extraneous data on there that I can do away with?

I still have black bars around my display even after installing latest gpu drivers...whats wrong? Possibly fixed: I set overscan to 0% is that the proper fix or am I loosing resolution?

My power cord is a bit short is it bad to plug it nto an old extension cord or to plug it into a power strip which i then in turn plug into a larger power strip?

It tell's me to install Intel ME Driver when I launch Control Center but the only dl I see is "Intel Management Engine Driver for P67/H67" My board is a Z68A though, do I download anyway?

Is 7.5 a good base score (via Microsoft's computer performance system) for a $1300 computer?

________________________
Components List:
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
XFX Radeon HD 6950 HD-695X-CDFC
MSI Z68A-GD55 (B3)
NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB)

If you can answer any of these questions I'd appreciate it and I'll check them off one by one.
 
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Ltor said:
In no particular order here are a few lingering problems and questions that arose over the course of my 2 day pc build:

1)Why the hell does closing the processor hinge and plugging in sata power require so much force? Literally spent hours trying to figure out what I was doing wrong on both these steps thinking it was giving me far too much resistance to be normal.

2)Should I remove the plastic tags on my heatsink cord that have a do not throw away picture and a warranty void if removed written respectively on each?

3)Does it matter which of the two pci slots I put my wireless n adapter in?

4)Does it matter if my processor power cord is touching the metal of my cpu cooler?

5)My cpu cooler fan didn't fit facing my ram I had to put it on the other side 2 inches away from my back case fan and now they are just blowing right at each other, I assume this is bad, Can I reverse the direction of either fan somehow?

6)After installing windows 7 ultimate, it's updates, and driver updates my ssd is already out 28gb, is that normal and is there any extraneous data on there that I can do away with?

7)I still have black bars around my display even after installing latest gpu drivers...whats wrong?

8)Is 7.5 a good base score (via Microsoft's computer performance system) for a $1300 computer?

________________________

If you can answer any of these questions I'd appreciate it and I'll check them off one by one.
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To the best of my minimal knowledge:

1)No idea. It's just one of those things. Probably they don't want anything pushing it out.

2)Gotta say no.

3)Check your mobo manual. If it's PCI, almost certainly no. If it's PCI-E, still almost certainly no, but there's no point in sticking your x1 wireless card into your x16 slot when there's a perfectly good x1 slot sitting open.

4)Probably, but I'd ask someone else. I take it that the cable was too short to run it around the back of the mobo through the cable area?

5)Yes, it's at least somewhat bad. How bad depends on your temps. The fans are (probably) being held on by screws attached to either the case or the holder depending on which fan you want to flip. Just unscrew them, flip the fan around, and rescrew them (and since a lot of times they don't have the grooves in them yet, expect to use a lot of force. because you're literally carving the grooves for the screw into the plastic). I did that with the 120mm fan on my 650D.

6)The Windows folder on my Win7 Pro install after 3 months is 25 GB, so I'm gonna say yes it's normal.

7) Don't have a clue. Post a thread over in the GPU forum with your GPU, display, connection cables, etc. At a (completely ignorant, totally wild) guess, make certain that your screen is set to the correct resolution in Windows.

8) My ~$2500 sig rig's 7.6 with Graphics as the limiting factor. (with CFX 6970's. WTF, Windows).

Hope this helps.
 
It shouldn't be that hard.

Well if you wanna void the warranty, remove them.

No it doesn't. Though I'd put it on the lowest slot possible, to give the GPU plenty of breathing room.

Doesn't hurt anything, but you should tidy up the cable management for maximum air circulation anyway.

Yes. Just take the fan off the heatsink and flip it. Though I believe it's better to have the air blowing THROUGH the heatsink. So you could slide the fan up to clear the RAM sticks on the other side (I did this with mine. My fan on that side sits about 3/8" taller than the heatsink, but I have another fan on the other side pulling air through as well. Just don't turn the rear/exhaust fan on the case around. You want air to blow OUT the back. (Assuming you have the CM 212+)

That seems about right. Sure, but you'll want to Google something along the lines of "windows 7 on a diet" to see what you can remove.

What do you mean black bars? As in the picture isn't covering the entire display? If so, try fine turning the size via the monitors controls. Though this should be automatic, I suppose it might need fine tuning.

That score doesn't mean anything really.
 
Two things that are probably taking up a lot of space on your SSD are the pgae file and the hibernation file (each of which will be the same size as your RAM, so likely 8GB each). You can easily turn off hibernation by following the steps on this guide:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920730

Otherwise, what Skillz and meyerkey said.
 
Alright, good stuff from everyone, appreciate the help guys. I can check most of that off, as for the cpu cooler and power cable: I can't raise the fan any or it wouldn't fit in my case and the cord does go around back through a hole but it's just a tight fit. (if i ran it the other way it would go right between those 2 fans and mess with airflow more and possibly make contact with one of the fans.
 
You are using the Phantom and CM 212+ right? If so, there should be enough room to raise the fan above the cooler and still be able to close the lid on the case. It's not that tight a fit inside it.
 
I could raise the fan an inch tops but that isn't high enough to clear my big'ish ram sticks. This thing is super loud too, I dunno if thats because its blowing right at another fan or if the cpu isn't intelligently throttling the speed but it sounds like I have a steady ac window unit going in my room. Hopefully I can orientate this somehow to improve the sound because this is a lot louder then I thought it would be.
 
Well the fan in the rear is blowing out, and the fan on the heatsink is "sucking" in which means they are essentially working against each other. (Trying to suck in the same air) This is bad for the fans, as it's putting more stress on them. So you should change the direction they are blowing asap.

What RAM did you go with? The heatpipes on my RAM are rather tall and the fan doesn't clear it completely but it's towards the top part which is a little thinner and presses against the RAM stick.
 
Can you post a pic of your setup? Or at least list off case, and current fan setup?

Off the top of my head, have you considered turning the cooler to point up-down instead of front-back? That might magically give you the clearance you need. It did for me. (Though measure it first). Or just set the back fan to intake.
 
Ltor said:
I still have black bars around my display even after installing latest gpu drivers...whats wrong? I set overscan to 0% is that the proper fix or am I loosing resolution?
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I'll take a stab. I'm not sure if this is your case, but here it is anyway. My friend had an issue plugging his video card into my monitor via HDMI. It would give a 1/2 inch to 1-inch black border around the picture, but the picture wasn't cut off, just crammed in. If he switched the connection to the DVI port on my monitor, it worked just fine.

Whereas my own card worked fine using either plug. I don't know why, just some fluke, anyway there's my .02
 
Skillz said:
Well the fan in the rear is blowing out, and the fan on the heatsink is "sucking" in which means they are essentially working against each other. (Trying to suck in the same air) This is bad for the fans, as it's putting more stress on them. So you should change the direction they are blowing asap.

What RAM did you go with? The heatpipes on my RAM are rather tall and the fan doesn't clear it completely but it's towards the top part which is a little thinner and presses against the RAM stick.
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Ram is CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB). Should I do what someone suggested previously and take apart the case dan and put it on the other way or is there a better solution?

meyerkev said:
Can you post a pic of your setup? Or at least list off case, and current fan setup?

Off the top of my head, have you considered turning the cooler to point up-down instead of front-back? That might magically give you the clearance you need. It did for me. (Though measure it first). Or just set the back fan to intake.
Click to expand...

I thought about it but the heatsink wouldn't fit that way with the ram. Even if it did it would be contending with the top case fan. I Updated my OP w/ my main components i'll see if I can upload a pic as well.
 
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I had to slide my fan up as well. See below: (click thumbnail for larger image)


Ltor said:
I could raise the fan an inch tops but that isn't high enough to clear my big'ish ram sticks. This thing is super loud too, I dunno if thats because its blowing right at another fan or if the cpu isn't intelligently throttling the speed but it sounds like I have a steady ac window unit going in my room. Hopefully I can orientate this somehow to improve the sound because this is a lot louder then I thought it would be.
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The rear case fan exhausting while the cpu fan pushes air through the heatsink and towards the rear exhaust fan is the optimal setup. If, for some strange reason, you can't get it setup that way, then setup the CPU fan so it pulls air through the heatsink and leave the rear case fan as an exhaust fan. Your case is 8.75" wide, so it should fit fine? My case is only 8.6" wide and although I didn't have to raise it an inch, there's enough room to, if needed. Did you try it, just to be sure?

As far as the acoustics, enable smart cpu fan in the BIOS.

Ltor said:
I still have black bars around my display even after installing latest gpu drivers...whats wrong? I set overscan to 0% is that the proper fix or am I loosing resolution?
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As for your screen, look for the overscan and underscan options in your videocard control panel. If adjusting those settings gets rid of the bars, and your res is still set to your monitors native resolution, then you're fine.
 
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Alright Engl, I'm stopping my sc 2 download now, gonna open her up and give it a shot.

Edit Alright, this is literally as tight as it gets. I can close the case but my heatsink fan is pressing against the ram and the side of the case is pressing against the fan. Fan only has about 1/3 of the upper clips on the metal heatsink. I'm worried this constant pressure against the ram is going to hurt it, what do you think?

Double edit It's hard to tell how much pressure if any, the side of the case is putting on the fan>ram. My other worry would be of the fan sliding off the heatsink but since its\'s got no where to go that at least doesnt seem like ti would be a problem.
 
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It isn't ideal, but you can always put the heatsink fan on the back of the heatsink and have it pull air through the heatsink (instead of pushing from the front side). At least that way your airflow is still all front to back. Don't change the rear case fan to intake - leave it exhausting the hot air from the case. Normally you want cool air to come in the front and bottom of the case, and hot air to exhaust from the top and rear.
 
How would I get the heatsink fan to suck instead of blow? Sucking air would obviously not work as well as blowing air through.Bbut would it be better, seeing as it is offset an inch high, so its not moving air through the bottom of the heatpipe as well. Which is where you want it the most.

Side note it's still real loud. Should have sprung for a better, quieter, smaller heatsink.
 
Just turn it around and clip it on backwards. If it is plugged into the CPU fan header on the motherboard, there should be a BIOS option to control the speed, as enginurd mentioned.
 
oh ok so just unscrew the plastic clips and put em on the other side, forgot i could do that. I'm uploading some sloppy pictures of what it looks like now.

Edit: http://imgur.com/a/7b8Kc/embed
 
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jeez, it looks like those vengeance are higher than ripjaws.

did you adjust the cpu fan speed in the BIOS?
 
enginurd said:
jeez, it looks like those vengeance are higher than ripjaws.

did you adjust the cpu fan speed in the BIOS?
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Wait so I have to go into the bios to adjust fan speed? I thought since i plugged it in to cpu fan controller it was supposed to automatically regulate speed based on load? Any way to access bois besides hitting delete during startup?
 
Ltor said:
Wait so I have to go into the bios to adjust fan speed? I thought since i plugged it in to cpu fan controller it was supposed to automatically regulate speed based on load? Any way to access bois besides hitting delete during startup?
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It can be temp controlled, but that feature may not be turned on in the BIOS by default. Look for something like CPU Smart Fan (not sure what MSI calls it). MSI might also have a Windows utility that allows fan control (similar to Asus' AI Suite and Gigabyte's EasyTune).
 
Ltor said:
Wait so I have to go into the bios to adjust fan speed? I thought since i plugged it in to cpu fan controller it was supposed to automatically regulate speed based on load?
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As I said earlier, you have to turn that feature on in the BIOS, since it may not be on by default. While there, you can also adjust what speed it throttles down to based on the CPU temps.
Ltor said:
Any way to access bois besides hitting delete during startup?
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What's so hard about hitting delete? :p As the computer is turning on, keep pressing delete until it either tells you it's entering setup, or it's already in setup. ;)
 
enginurd said:
As I said earlier, you have to turn that feature on in the BIOS, since it may not be on by default. While there, you can also adjust what speed it throttles down to based on the CPU temps.

What's so hard about hitting delete? :p As the computer is turning on, keep pressing delete until it either tells you it's entering setup, or it's already in setup. ;)
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Digging around in bios trying to find smart fan control now...i know it's here somewhere.

Edit: Alright I found It any suggestions on what to set everything to? Heres what I set it at...CPU Smartfan Target: 50C - CPU Min.Fan Speed% 37.5
and SYS Fan1 & Fan 2 I kept at 100% because I have case controls for them. Is 50 degrees C too low and can I go lower with my min fan speed?
 
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Ltor said:
Digging around in bios trying to find smart fan control now...i know it's here somewhere.
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It's under the Hardware Monitor settings. See page 3-18 of your mobo manual.

Also, according to page 2-13, you can install the Control Center utility to control the fans from within windows (I'm assuming).
 
Ok so after rebooting with these settings my fan is much quieter it must have been running at 100% the whole time before. Is 50 degrees too hot a ceiling to let my cpu reach before making my fan speed up?

Edit AlsoI updated my op with another question, (My power cord is a bit short is it bad to plug it nto an old extension cord or to plug it into a power strip which i then in turn plug into a larger power strip?
 
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Power strips plugged into power strips... the issue you want to look out for is overloading a single outlet. So, while daisy chaining power strips is fine for operational purposes, just be sure not to overload the circuit! You should really get at least as surge protector, if not a UPS. ;)

The ceiling temp before full throttle fan kick is up to you. Mine's set for 40°C, but my house and case run cool (ambient room temp is 72°F/22°C).
 
50C is fine. Make sure the extension cord you are using a 3-wire, and a decent size, but as long as it is, that is fine (not one of those crappy lamp cord extension cords).
 
Alright thanks for all the help guys, I totally do have one of those crappy lamp coords sitting in front of me I Figured theres no way that would be a good move. I'll just daisy chain the extra power strip to my surge protector until I can get a legit 3 foot 3 prong extension cord. Also I just downloaded the bios control utility and fan control utility so I'll see how hot my cpu gets when I'm gaming under these settings. Exited to see what sc 2 looks like at full settings!
 
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