Getting prepared for 1st build, need advice.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Back when people were still using Windows XP there was an actual need for a floppy drive if they wanted to install SATA drivers during the setup for example. But since Vista the setup has accepted also CDs as a source. Same sort of development has happened with motherboards, a floppy drive is obsolete.

[Bizman]

Thanks for the update on PSU's. Nevertheless, even they don't last forever, as I have noticed during these last 9 years earning my life supporting household computers. Thus, in the case of increased appetite in the form of overclocking and SLI'ing, a brand new PSU would be a good choice anyway. In the meantime some saving in the energy bill won't hurt anyone.

As for the floppy drive, I have one but haven't used it for years. My current build is about 7 years old now, upgraded here and there, and I can't remember when I have had the use of the floppy. Every reputable motherboard in the last 5 years or more has had the Windows application for flashing the BIOS along with the CD and USB-stick versions. Floppies really are obsolete! - One nice gadget fitting in its place is a memory card reader, if you like photographing.

[MADe]

You guys are all professionals.
There is still a floppy bus on the boards, at least mine have them. 1st thing I do is put in only the basic components, so I can enter the bios and see which version is employed and to select the boards hardware defaults. If the board is somewhat out of date. If the manufacturer has a newer bios version available, I update them before doing anything else. Then prepare for the OS install.

Whats common place for y'all, is not for the OP. Shoot, a flash drive can be more expensive than a floppy. The OP's old computer prolly has a floppy still in it. He can DL the bios, extract to floppy with current machine and he is ready to flash the new board if required.
I had to flash my P-45 board from ver F4 to F12. I had to do it, multiple times, had to do it incrementally because it would not do the deed in one jump. I had prepared multiple floppy discs with each version. Very cheap, and stepped up the bios in a matter of minutes. Same with my X58.

The OP's on a tight budget, he prolly already has certain things on hand, he will prolly buy a slightly out of date board. He wants to learn. I just say keep it simple. Of course there are more modern methods, but.......................... .....

My i7 920 is a 2.67GHz cpu. Its clocked to 4GHz and its only aircooled. If I had asked in these forums how to do it, I would have been told not too I'll bet. Machines 5 years old, rock solid, expect to get another 5 years out of it. Theres many ways to look at things. For a novice I offer simplicity and cheap.
And I keep yapping so the OP can see what choices he can make, and prepare accordingly. Theres much more to just buying parts, he must make them work with minimal frustration, yes? Your alls responses also school him.
 

[BaldEagl]

My i7 920 is a 2.67GHz cpu. Its clocked to 4GHz and its only aircooled.  If I had asked in these forums how to do it, I would have been told not too I'll bet.

That's a rather silly assumption on your part.  A good number of us as OC'd, most on air, and I've helped many OC as have others.

[Tinkles]

The only computer I had that still used a floppy drive was my ' ye ole ' windows 95.  This one doesn't have a floppy-drive.  Also, I don't plan on Overclocking, never done it, never seen a need.

 

[MADe]

That's a rather silly assumption on your part.  A good number of us as OC'd, most on air, and I've helped many OC as have others.

True statement, I did make an assumption. I would not say silly tho. Many folks do consider OC'ing a none starter. Not worth the possible consequences. For me it was part of the learning process. I bought the 920 DO, it was meant to OC. Read a lot of crap when researching the components. Same reason I RAID'ed my SSD's. Learned about RAID usage and SSD's at same time. If I could only wrap my brain around writing software..............

Tinkles, You OC to save dollars, IMO. I paid $286 for the i7 2.67GHz cpu. By pushing it to 4GHz, I got $1200 worth of performance. Around $1200 was what an i7 965 at 3.8GHz cost when I built this machine.

Once you get things together, use the new machine awhile. You very well might change your mind about OC'ing. Not saying you will, but its part of the knowledge progression. Knowledge is power, once you get it you want to use it and get more knowledge. If I was to start another build in future, and I prolly will. I would put a floppy in it if the mobo had a header for it. It just to easy and cheap. Obsolete or not.

Maybe its just me. I have been building things my whole life. Working as a builder/installer of stage plays, I have been exposed to a wide variety of materials and techniques. Wood, metal, plastics, fabrics, electronics, welding, woodworking, sewing, overhead rigging, machinery, it all same to me. I even build my own flight gear for the game. stick, peddles, throttle. I'm a master of nothing, but pretty dam good at everything.

When given a task, I learn what's needed to accomplish that task, then accomplish it.  Building computers is no different.
Similar to a safe landing, its all in the approach.
 
good luck with you new machine.

[Bizman]

The only computer I had that still used a floppy drive was my ' ye ole ' windows 95.  This one doesn't have a floppy-drive.  Also, I don't plan on Overclocking, never done it, never seen a need.

 

Words of wisdom! Although floppy drives are still available and motherboards still support them, floppies have become quite a rarity. I bought a couple packs several years ago when our local hypermarket dumped them. A quick search shows they now cost almost a dollar a piece! Blank CD's are much cheaper and more useful for various purposes. On one CD there'd even be space for literally hundreds of consecutive BIOS updates.

IMO overclocking should only take place as a last effort to elongate the life span of an eldering rig. There's always a risk in it. At the least you never can tell how high your very system can be clocked before trying. Building an underpowered computer compared to the current needs is short sighted saving. That said, there's nothing wrong with OC'ing per se, if your budget allows for voiding the warranty. Searching the limits of your computer is one hobby among others, and all hobbies have their cost.

Keeping it simple is sound advice!

[MrRiplEy[H]]

You guys are all professionals.
There is still a floppy bus on the boards, at least mine have them. 1st thing I do is put in only the basic components, so I can enter the bios and see which version is employed and to select the boards hardware defaults. If the board is somewhat out of date. If the manufacturer has a newer bios version available, I update them before doing anything else. Then prepare for the OS install.

Whats common place for y'all, is not for the OP. Shoot, a flash drive can be more expensive than a floppy. The OP's old computer prolly has a floppy still in it. He can DL the bios, extract to floppy with current machine and he is ready to flash the new board if required.
I had to flash my P-45 board from ver F4 to F12. I had to do it, multiple times, had to do it incrementally because it would not do the deed in one jump. I had prepared multiple floppy discs with each version. Very cheap, and stepped up the bios in a matter of minutes. Same with my X58.

The OP's on a tight budget, he prolly already has certain things on hand, he will prolly buy a slightly out of date board. He wants to learn. I just say keep it simple. Of course there are more modern methods, but.......................... .....

My i7 920 is a 2.67GHz cpu. Its clocked to 4GHz and its only aircooled. If I had asked in these forums how to do it, I would have been told not too I'll bet. Machines 5 years old, rock solid, expect to get another 5 years out of it. Theres many ways to look at things. For a novice I offer simplicity and cheap.
And I keep yapping so the OP can see what choices he can make, and prepare accordingly. Theres much more to just buying parts, he must make them work with minimal frustration, yes? Your alls responses also school him.
 

Flashing the bios is _not_ common place, you can kill your motherboard doing that if anything goes wrong. You should only update your bios if you know there is a problem. Sometimes new bios versions bring problems that were not in the old version for example.

[MADe]

Flashing the bios is _not_ common place, you can kill your motherboard doing that if anything goes wrong. You should only update your bios if you know there is a problem. Sometimes new bios versions bring problems that were not in the old version for example.

I just have to disagree on this. Manufacturers put out bios updates for a reason.
All companies in the computer industry sell product before it has been fully vetted/tested, from Microsoft to hardware manufacturers.
Its a known quantity. There are no absolutes about this. Could there be problems, sure.
All you have to do is Google to see millions of questions and possible answers, possible techniques.

[Kenne]

That's a rather silly assumption on your part.  A good number of us as OC'd, most on air, and I've helped many OC as have others.

where is you 'how to' thread about OC then?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I just have to disagree on this. Manufacturers put out bios updates for a reason.
All companies in the computer industry sell product before it has been fully vetted/tested, from Microsoft to hardware manufacturers.
Its a known quantity. There are no absolutes about this. Could there be problems, sure.
All you have to do is Google to see millions of questions and possible answers, possible techniques.

You can disagree all you want. Bios flashing is one of the only things you can do that can potentially kill your hardware if anything goes wrong. Bad checksum on bios file? Dead mobo. Power cut during update? Dead mobo. Windows freezes during update? Dead mobo. Download wrong bios version by accident? Dead mobo. Bios installer fails during update? Dead mobo...

So no, you're not recommended to flash your bios unless there is a clear problem which the bios update is expected to fix. You know the old saying: Don't fix it if it ain't broken.

[BaldEagl]

where is you 'how to' thread about OC then?

I just did a forum search and found two pages of posts where I discuss overclocking CPU's, GPU's and RAM and I know there's more but the forum search won't work with OC.  I don't have time to look through all of them so that's up to you.

[Kenne]

I just did a forum search and found two pages of posts where I discuss overclocking CPU's, GPU's and RAM and I know there's more but the forum search won't work with OC.  I don't have time to look through all of them so that's up to you.

thx

[guncrasher]

You can disagree all you want. Bios flashing is one of the only things you can do that can potentially kill your hardware if anything goes wrong. Bad checksum on bios file? Dead mobo. Power cut during update? Dead mobo. Windows freezes during update? Dead mobo. Download wrong bios version by accident? Dead mobo. Bios installer fails during update? Dead mobo...

So no, you're not recommended to flash your bios unless there is a clear problem which the bios update is expected to fix. You know the old saying: Don't fix it if it ain't broken.

ripley there's a zillion things you can do that can potentially kill your hardware if anything goes wrong.  just going barefoot on the carpet before fixing your computer can potentially kill your mobo.  installing/changing your video card can kill your mobo.  using a bad ps can kill your mobo.  you can damage your mobo installing a cpu.

it is not recommended to do a bios update from within windows.  the chances of something going wrong increase.  but if you read and do your homework, a bios update can fix some potential problems that you can have.  all 3 mobos that I have owned have needed bios updates.  from fixing problem with gaming mouse not working in bios to enhance/update some  some bios functions.  

chances are is that good portion of all mobos will need a bios update at one time or another.  it's up to everyone to decide if they are willing to do it or not. it can safely be done but just like overclocking.  sometimes crap happens.


semp

[MrRiplEy[H]]

ripley there's a zillion things you can do that can potentially kill your hardware if anything goes wrong.  just going barefoot on the carpet before fixing your computer can potentially kill your mobo.  installing/changing your video card can kill your mobo.  using a bad ps can kill your mobo.  you can damage your mobo installing a cpu.

it is not recommended to do a bios update from within windows.  the chances of something going wrong increase.  but if you read and do your homework, a bios update can fix some potential problems that you can have.  all 3 mobos that I have owned have needed bios updates.  from fixing problem with gaming mouse not working in bios to enhance/update some  some bios functions.  

chances are is that good portion of all mobos will need a bios update at one time or another.  it's up to everyone to decide if they are willing to do it or not. it can safely be done but just like overclocking.  sometimes crap happens.


semp

Obviously I wasn't talking about touching the hardware there