Just looking before I leap...new PC final thoughts.

GARoss said:

Looks like the Solo case comes with an 5.25" to 3.5" adapter. Solo is looking to be a good suggestion of yours, ignatzatsonic.:)

Dave76 said:

Check if the SSD comes with the 2.5" to 3.5" adapter, most of them do, if not velcro works

Thanks,
It appears the new case, Antec Solo, includes an adapter.

Commodore Pet said:

Glad to see you are now looking at SSD! You will not be disappointed.

sandman said:

The SSD Review | The Worlds Dedicated SSD Resource and Review Site. check this site out for anything you want to know about SSD and i would get a bigger case they are easier to work on and have more room for air circulation having big hand myself i find even the P-180's i have used could be bigger just my opinion. Enjoy your build.

Too late on the case .I did concider the 183 but it was more $$$. Everything is ordered & on its way including an Crucial 300-128Gb SSD.

Dave76 said:

Congrats, let us know how the build goes.

Count on it!

The MB arrived Saturday (I split the original order with 3 companies & saved $50+ so the MB arrived 1st). Going to spend some time watching U-tube how to videos today as I am nervious about overlooking & messing up something up. I've already received a great deal of great advice from SevenForum members but no matter how well prepared one can be there's always something. Hopefully, nothing too serious.

One thing I've learned about technology is one can never keep up. Sandy bridge is the hot one for now but I'm sure AMD will counter. In a few months SB will be old news as Intel will introduce something better. This is to be expected.

In your mind, divide it into 2 processes: before and after you apply power to the PC.

Before you apply power, not much can go wrong if you pay attention to the fair Gigabyte manual and the fair Intel CPU instructions.

The PSU is probably the first thing to go into the case.

The processor requires no force to put it into the socket, so be sure you have pin 1 lined up (lower left). Add RAM. Apply thermal paste. Mount heatsink. Screw standoffs into case. Set motherboard/CPU/RAM/heatsink combo down on standoffs. Use supplied screws to secure motherboard to standoffs.

Sort out and attach the applicable modular PSU cables. Mount all fans to their headers, paying attention to pin 1 per the motherboard manual.

The front panel connectors are very small, so you have to pay attention or LEDs and switches won't work.

It may be preferable to install hard drives and DVD drive before the motherboard---immediately after the PSU. It depends on clearance issues.

The moment of truth is when you apply power. You want to see fans spin and hear some hard drive action.

I'd go the first few hours or so without sound cards or video cards. Get the thing running and install Windows with on-board video and on-board sound. Add video cards and sound cards later. The fewer things in the slots, the fewer things you have to troubleshoot if it doesn't boot as expected.

If it powers up OK, go into the BIOS and make sure drives are acknowledged. Familiarize yourself with the BIOS generally. Look at fan controls in BIOS, RAM settings, etc. Default settings are certainly good enough until you get Windows installed.

ignatzatsonic said:

You may or may not be satisfied with the standard Intel cooler. It's fine for stock clocks or mild overclocking. It has a particular high pitched noise that might bother you. I just ordered a Scythe Big Shuriken heatsink to replace it and will swap when I get my replacement motherboard (due to the chipset recall issue) in a week or two. The Shuriken has a big slow fan that is effectively inaudible.

You probably won't notice the speed advantage of the new system under most circumstances if your prior PC is only a few years old.

Unless you have an unusual situation, you may not use more than 4 GB of RAM. I considered 8, but chose 4 and don't regret it.

I have the Scythe Big Shuriken and I am very pleased with it. It is a low profile CPU cooler with a height of only 58 mm. It's very quiet. Here is a YouTube link and the link to the Scythe websit that helped me in making my decision:

YouTube - Scythe Big Shuriken Low Profile HTPC CPU Cooler Unboxing

BIG Shuriken : CPU Kühler, Lüfter, Lüftersteuerung, PC Netzteile von Scythe