Tutorials for Beginners in BIOS settings?

[Domingo]

I did buy some Noctua Y-adapters, in case we needed them. But then it didn't seem like they would work for any of the additional fans. I assume this is what you meant by "grouped in 2's", right? They're simply wired together (in series? err parallel? I dont know which). I imagine I need to have only variables paired up with variables and the same for constant RPM/Voltage fans, right? You couldn't mix and match those fans on a splitter and get any sort of fan control. What about mixing and matching 2 different types of constant RPM fans? Like say the CoolerMaster 120mm and Phanteks 140mm on the same Y-adapter? Or should it always be identical models for spec reasons?

I actually originally had no plans to use the Phanteks, but my brother-in-law thought it would be better since they're bigger. I originally planned to replace both of them with 120mm CoolerMasters for a total of 3 Noctuas and 3 CoolerMasters. The CoolerMasters get great ratings online, but I realize that's in large part because they're $10 for 4 fans. I don't know what the Phanteks are rated or if they can even be purchased apart from the case.

I do also have room in my case for at least 2 more fans, but 1 would be partially blocked by the optical drive and the other would be mostly blocked by the HDD cage/tray. I don't honestly know if I need more anyway. It's a full-size case. I don't have a cover over the PSU. I don't have a dedicated GPU, and I'm using a stock CPU cooler/fan. So it's pretty open in there.

Yup, just using Y-connectors. They're the ones built into my case (Carbide 540) and they're identical 140mm fans stacked on top of one another. It was a pretty easy solution rather than connecting them individually. The fan controls seem to have no issue controlling them both, although I probably wouldn't mix and match.

 

[fatryan]

oh sorry, yeah the other post.
re the above post, the splitters will have one missing pin so only one fan is providing rpm signal. the 140mm fans will probably push as much air as the 120mm just quieter will doing so.

OK thanks. Ill try to figure out what this case fan module does to see if its of any use. And I'll look into the Phanteks reviews if available, but I probably won't pull them unless there's a compelling reason to do so such as quality issues or fan control.

 

[Azrak]

Suggestion: When you observe high CPU usage and have the Resource Manager running, make sure to click on the "CPU" column so it sorts by CPU usage (you'll see a little down-arrow in the CPU column). That way the CPU hogs are always at the top making it easier to see what process(es) are using the CPU when you take a screenshot.
Suggestion: Turn off the Microsoft Store, or at least configure it to stop updating Apps automatically, unless you actually use it to download software and/or have Apps that you downloaded from the Store. I never use the Store, so I told it to stop trying to update stuff and then I unpinned it from the Start Menu and Taskbar so I no longer see it.
Suggestion: Turn off "Background Apps" unless you have a need for them. To do this, click on Windows Start button on lower left of Taskbar and then type "background" and choose "Background apps". Go through the list of Apps and turn off all that you don't want running in the background. In my case, I turn them all off and then set "Let apps run in the background" to "off" at the top of the config window. I mean, I don't know about you, but I can't see a reason to have the Calculator App running the background.

Be aware that Chrome has a background service/task that periodically runs and it will be a very high CPU and disk resource hog during its operation. The task is some sort of "scanning tool" that searches your computer for applications that are "not compatible" with Chrome, whatever that means. I see it on my old Windows 7 system whenever I start Chrome (which isn't very often as I'm a Firefox user usually). I assume this process exists on Windows 10 as well, so that is why I mention it.

 

[OliverQueen]

First things first, reset the BIOS/UEFI to load optimised defaults. This will then make sure that the BIOS is set up to work rather than an errant setting somewhere. You may find that it downclocks the RAM to a default timings/speed so leave it at those until the machine is running how you think it should be - then you can go in to the BIOS and change up to XMP if you want to for the full memory bandwidth.
In Task Manager, click the top label cell for CPU Usage so the highest usage application is listed at the top. It will probably jump around a fair bit but at least you will have an idea of what is hogging the resources. Windows has been developed to actually use as much RAM as it can as well as CPU cycles even when idle to do background tasks. Chrome used to have a problem with memory leaks, butalmost all builds from the past two years or so have been fine with memory resource allocation. A fresh install of Windows & drivers only to make sure that the basics are right first is always a good sign. Then install programs one at a time and make sure that everything is good before moving on to the next one. This way you can easily see which application is the culprit.

 

[Dan_D]

You have to be careful when resetting the BIOS defaults. He may have to go in and set the voltages manually even if he's using the XMP option. I've seen more boards than I can count that wouldn't do that properly.