Alright parts are on order, any tips or tricks while putting it together?

[Heartattaq]

Here is the final parts list on its way from NCIX

Cooler Master Haf 932 Full Tower
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W ATX 20/24PIN SLI Ready Modular Cables 135mm Fan 80PLUS Power Supply
LG GH22NS50 Black 22X SATA DVD Writer OEM
Intel X25-V 40GB 2.5IN SATA2 SSD Solid State Disk Flash Drive Retail Box
Western Digital WD15EARS Caviar Green 1.5TB SATA 64MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM
G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-4GBXL 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 Memory
Intel Core i5 2500K Quad Core Unlocked Processor LGA1155 3.3GHZ Sandy Bridge 6MB
ASUS P8P67 LE ATX LGA1155 P67 2PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 3PCI IDE USB3.0 Sandy Bridge B3 Motherboard
MSI GeForce GTX 460 Fermi Cyclone OC 725MHZ 768MB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini-HDMI DX11 PCI-E Video Card (from old case, will UG soon)

Now I have been reading guides and will be scouring the user manuals when my stuff gets here.

1. Setting up the SSD ad HDD. Do I just have to plug them in, or are there extra settings I will need to change. I want the SSD running my OS and a couple of my more played games (ie rift and Wow) and the HDD will be used for everything else.

I am also a little confused with AC97 and HD audio, particularly when hooking up the front panel in the case. Should I even worry about AC97 in this day and age?


Any tips and help for a new builder would benefit me greatly thanks =)


*Kinda bummed, for some reason NCIX didnt ship the H70 with the rest of the order, even though their online stock shows an abundance of them in the Toronto area where it was shipped from, but oh well, guess I can live with the stock cooler until the H70 comes in

[Heartattaq]

As well I have read some places, that it may be better to install the H70, so that it is exhausting air out of the case to help rid the case of warm air rather than intaking cool air through the rad, a test video I watched showed only a couple degree differance, I will try and find the video with the test results,

But what do you all think, if it is only a couple degree differance would it be a good idea to exhaust air out of the case with the H70, rather than suck outside air in, if im not overclocking?

[ilya]

You don't need a 700W PSU for your build, and that OCZ honestly isn't anything good. Not the end of the world though, it should manage just fine. But there are far better units that can be had for slightly more. (Corsair TX650V2 on sale at NCIX for $80 for example)

You need a certain amount of free space on your SSD to allow for effective wear leveling, otherwise you're looking at a noticeably reduced lifetime for your SSD. As for exact numbers, I think AKG mentioned something about them in his SSD guide on the storage forums.

WOW will eat up ~25gb, Rift ~8gb, you need a MUCH larger SSD. Keep in mind that after formatting, you'll have less than the "advertised" amount. Running games off a Green drive probably won't give you the best experience. If you can't afford a bigger SSD and the Green drive is really affecting game performance, just get a cheap non green HDD.

As for the H70, just make it work with your build. You can always experiment with fan placement to see what gives you the results you want. Generally speaking though, positive air pressure is better.

BTW, if you're not overclocking why did you get a K series chip and a p67 board? Pump that ton of performance out of that chip!

[Snarl]

Take you time

[Heartattaq]

Originally Posted by ilya

You don't need a 700W PSU for your build, and that OCZ honestly isn't anything good. Not the end of the world though, it should manage just fine. But there are far better units that can be had for slightly more. (Corsair TX650V2 on sale at NCIX for $80 for example)

You need a certain amount of free space on your SSD to allow for effective wear leveling, otherwise you're looking at a noticeably reduced lifetime for your SSD. As for exact numbers, I think AKG mentioned something about them in his SSD guide on the storage forums.

WOW will eat up ~25gb, Rift ~8gb, you need a MUCH larger SSD. Keep in mind that after formatting, you'll have less than the "advertised" amount. Running games off a Green drive probably won't give you the best experience. If you can't afford a bigger SSD and the Green drive is really affecting game performance, just get a cheap non green HDD.

As for the H70, just make it work with your build. You can always experiment with fan placement to see what gives you the results you want. Generally speaking though, positive air pressure is better.

BTW, if you're not overclocking why did you get a K series chip and a p67 board? Pump that ton of performance out of that chip!

The OCZ I bought, as it was on for 44.00, and gives me room to UG in the future,

Thank you for the info on SSD's as I still dont know a ton about them, I will look into getting a bigger one, and possibly a non green HDD as well.

the reason I got the p67 board and k series chip is even though im not overclocking now, I like to tinker and learn, I am trying to teach myself, so I wanted to buy parts that give me the option. The reason I said I wasn't overclocking atm, is because I really dont know how to do it properly yet, and don't want to mess around with components until I have researched and read, and fully understand what im doing. Being on disability I dont have the financial resources to go out and buy new parts if I fry them lol.

But thank you for your tips, I will research more into PSU's and SSD's and see where I can make some improvements

[dma0991]

A 40GB SSD cannot do much except installing the OS and any other programs that you need to use. Games on a SSD will take too much space and like ilya said you need some empty space as well. A 60GB SSD will do much better but personally I think the current ideal size would be 120GB. That way I could install 3-4 games at the same time and still have plenty of space.

I do not recommend getting a WD Green as a drive for you to install games. It is meant as a storage drive and it will slow down to conserve power which is not good if you want to play games on it. Get a Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB instead as it is fast and cheap as well.

If you want to upgrade your GC soon then get the GTX580 so that you can put your 700W PSU to good use. Anything less than that would just make the PSU look excessive.

Corsair recommends making it as an intake but I'd rather make it as an exhaust at the back although it will be less efficient if you compare it as an intake. If you want to make the H70 as an intake you must have more case fans to exhaust the hot air. If you're not going to OC that processor it is a waste really.

[Deviant]

Originally Posted by dma0991

A 40GB SSD cannot do much except installing the OS and any other programs that you need to use. Games on a SSD will take too much space and like ilya said you need some empty space as well. A 60GB SSD will do much better but personally I think the current ideal size would be 120GB. That way I could install 3-4 games at the same time and still have plenty of space.

I do not recommend getting a WD Green as a drive for you to install games. It is meant as a storage drive and it will slow down to conserve power which is not good if you want to play games on it. Get a Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB instead as it is fast and cheap as well.

If you want to upgrade your GC soon then get the GTX580 so that you can put your 700W PSU to good use. Anything less than that would just make the PSU look excessive.

Corsair recommends making it as an intake but I'd rather make it as an exhaust at the back although it will be less efficient if you compare it as an intake. If you want to make the H70 as an intake you must have more case fans to exhaust the hot air. If you're not going to OC that processor it is a waste really.

I agree with the SSD size....60GB SSD and with basic applications and Windows (Remember to disable hibernate, pagefile moved to HDD, and drop system restore to a few GB), I have 27GB available. So for a 40GB drive, you'd have ~7GB left after optimizing space and everything...

[Heartattaq]

so getting say a second 60g SSD would alleviate the problem?

[francisw19]

Yeah, I agree about the size of your SSD. IIRC, just installing Windows 7 alone will chew through a good portion of the 40GB capacity.

With SSD's in general though, just remember to not write any unnecessary data to them. Reading from the disk is not a big deal. For me, I keep the page file small (since I'm running 8GB of RAM), disable system restore (as I take regular disk images anyway), disable indexing on the drive, change the system temp folder to a mechanical disk, don't defrag the SSD, etc... I also run my browser in a program called Sandboxie which will isolate any disk writing activity while running the browser. After I close my browser, the data written to the disk is automatically deleted. Because of this, I install Firefox on my mechancial drive and setup a profile so that the browsing cache is also stored there too. With that, when I browse the internet, there is no activity on my C: drive. If you plan to run anything similar, just keep this in mind.

AFAIK, when you install Windows 7 and run the 'Windows Experience Index' thing, the OS will make some adjustments to optimize itself for an SSD. So, be sure to run this after you get windows installed.

Regarding the front panel audio, just plug in the header labeled 'HD Audio' to the front panel audio connector on your motherboard. AC97 is just the older standard, but most case manufacturers keep it around for people with older motherboards/sound cards.

Lastly, agreed with Snarl...take your time indeed. I would also suggest making sure everything works before you install it in your case. Just set your motherboard on the anti-static bag it came in and install the CPU (with cooler), RAM, and graphics card. Plug in the 24-pin power connector, the 8-pin CPU power, and power to your graphics card if needed. Connect a monitor and keyboard/mouse and start it up. If it POSTs properly, then you should be OK to put everything in the case.

[Heartattaq]

So far I have found this guide

How to: Setup SSD boot drive with secondary Hard disc optimization - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

to set up my drives, hopefully it works and is the proper way to do it for what I have