Hello World!

I built my first computer yesterday. This all started last fall with my most recent attempts to upgrade my tower. First was the computer case (ended up rendering my HP Pavilion 500-214 unbootable at all, and I had to replace the whole computer). Then last month, I tried putting in a new video card (didn’t work at all). So, a week ago, I decided to go ahead and buy the rest of the components and build my own computer. Anyway here’s the lowdown:

• AMD A12-9800 Processor. Could’ve gone with a Ryzen, but this one was initially released only a couple of years ago, and I found one dirt cheap on eBay. I’m sure I could upgrade it in the future, (I made sure that the motherboard was new).
• And cooling the aforementioned processor is an Artic Freezer 12. Since I went the cheap route on the processor, it did not come with a heat sink. And I realized that the cpu cooler I had lying wasn’t going to compatible with the AM4 socket. Fortunately, unlike my Hewlett-Packards, the motherboard didn’t need a proprietary cpu cooler, so installation was easy.
• Motherboard: ASRock X370 Killer SLI/ac. The processor is an older one, but it still works, but I made sure the motherboard was up the date. It has integrated sound, ethernet, wi-fi, and bluetooth. And it has enough open expansion ports that I can upgrade things when I can afford them.
• The case. I went with a Phanteks Enthoo Pro series PH-ES614PC_BK case. I had nothing wrong with my Hewlett-Packard towers. But there was no room for growth. I could only have one optical drive, and one hard drive. Not anymore. I currently have two hard drives in (the first time since fall of 2014) and two optical drives (the first time since I had my Gateway). The two optical drive are siginifcant, because I have a couple of spindle packs of lightscribe media lying around, and I have a lightscribe DVD burner. But I also have a Blu-Ray drive, too and now I can use both.
• As for the video card, it was going to be a Radeon™ RX 570 Gaming 4G, but the reason why I didn’t work when I tried to install it in the other tower was that it was DOA. Fortunately, I realized this when I still had two days left in the return process, and I am replacing it. Props to Newegg for the relatively painless return/exchange process (well I hope it’s painless…). In the interim, I’m running a Gigabyte GV-R725OC-2GI. I know the card is old, but it stll does the job, and I still get a decent framerate out of FSX on it…..
• 2 hard drives. Both 4 tB. And space (and SATA ports) for 2 more….
• And powering this all is a ARC 750W 80 PLUS® Bronze PSU. Especially when I’ve upgraded video cards in the past, I’ve run into problems with the power supply being overworked.
• And of course, my TV tuner (I took it out of my old tower). It still works for what I need it for, I see no need to upgrade it.

Hardware-wise everything works. So far. When I started this build, the only tool I had was my Swiss Army Knife. And yes, it is possible to take apart a computer with only a Swiss Army Knife, I reccomend that you at least get a normal screw driver. On my Hewlett-Packards, there were a couple of star bitted screws in that case that I needed the knife for, but this current case has only philips screws, and a household screwdriver will do the job handily.

The one lesson I learned from all this is DOUBLE CHECK YOUR CONNECTIONS! Got everything put together then plugged it in and turned it on. Ended up reseating the RAM twice, pulling out the video card twice (before realizing it was a dud). The last issue was the BIOS wasn’t seeing a hard drive, and it was because the SATA cable wasn’t all the way in.

I’m running Windows 10 Pro. I bought this last fall, when I thought I would need for my last computer, and due to me not looking at the fine print, I ended up over-drawing my checking account (which has since been straightened out). But I held on it, and it came in handy…

And yes, my new computer is working. After all, this post is being written on it….