End of Year PC Build

Received my EVGA 1000 Watt P2 80+ Platinum PSU this afternoon about 30 minutes ago.....Looks like a very nice unit. The quality I've come to expect from EVGA. Now I can complete my build. I am going to work on cable management....really try and clean up the look if the inside of the case as much as I possibly can to hide the wires and give it all really clean appearance so that there is the best air flow and display of light/colours as possible.

Just a question of curiosity: Are you assembling in the case or outside and then placing in the case?

We should have....and normally we do, I mean that's Builder's 101, right? But no, sadly we did not and I realized that was a big part of the difficulty.

But continuing on....I can now say with Supreme Confidence that the only thing that works as it should is the RGB on the Board and the RAM....Windows would NOT install. Ergo, I am now almost certain that the issue is, eas and always has been my 970 m.2 (as you, I, and others pointed out previously)

But I'm done with PC causing Migraines...Inget them often enough with a Menieres attack, don't need them from PC too....so I am.going to pay Canada computers to deal with it. Pay whatever they want for them to get everything working perfectly even if I have to spend more money on two new M.2s and a Windows license.

And come He'll or high water this will forever be the very last PC I ever build.

I'm done.

Come now, that's hardly a wise decision. Make yourself a nice cuppa, sit back and think: Who else is going to put all that time and effort into building you a PC? A lovingly handcrafted PC is no mere machine, it's a piece of mechanical art.

I've always been more of a hardware enthusiast than software/troubleshooting/debugging fan. I like the 'putting together' aspect....I've always been hesitant to do the wiring of the various headers because of a lack in fine-motor control and fear of breaking the pins (which has happened to me before), and when situations get to what I feel is tooooooooo far outside of my personal comfort and range of knowledge for Troubleshooting/de-bugging....That is when I would rather pay someone else to find and fix my problems.

This is true....And generally I am border-line obsessive with how well I care for my things...especially things like PC stuff that is expensive.  The way I look at it, I go for the top end of the highest shelf that I can afford to reach for, and though this isn't the most expensive build in combined total dollars that i have ever built (my X99 Phoenix /Intel 6850 K build earns that top spot), part for part it is the better quality higher-tier build when I compare the specs of what I got.  However, I have to take into account that I purchased the Intel 6850K during the early summer of its initial release, the same with the Phoenix SLI motherboard, so of course you're paying top buck for things that are the new hot tech on the shelves.   And with the new build that i have, well, the Z490 Aorus Master was release on or about April 30th of 2020, so I am over a year behind....and the cost of that board can go either one of two ways:  Down, because there's newer stuff out to replace it that everyone wants.....OR UP because it's hard to find so if you really want it and you are lucky enough to find it, the seller will ask a premium.

But, if apples are compared to apples.....I paid 450 for the Phoenix SLI because the guy gave me a deal on what should ahve been a 500 + CAD motherboard when it was released.  Likewise, the Intel 6850K was 875.00 CAD MSRP and I got it (bundled with the Phoenix) for 825.00.  Then I paid about 300 for the 32gb DDR4 from Gskill (4x8gb chips, 15-15-15-35-2N @ 1.2 volts), plus I got a AIO, an SSD, a GTX 1080 FTW 2 (ordered directly from EVGA....for the cost of my kidneys, liver, spleen and pancreas), the EVGA 850 P2, a case (the still cute, but much maligned EVO XB Cube from Cooler Master)....the works.  Everything from the ground up.  Total after tax was about 4500.00.  

Now with my new build there were only a select parts I needed....I wouldn't be building everything from the ground up like the Phoenix build.

Searching parts for my new build on Amazon.ca, I paid 587.00 for the Z490 Aorus Master (after taxes and all that), and it was the same price as the Z590 Aorus Master that is out now, when it was brand new...and that is 519.99.  Likewise for the 10900KF I paid 650.00 on Amazon, and it was 599.99 CAD at Canada COmputers upoin its initial release......So all in all I didn't do that badly in pricing.  But I do figure that when comparing the quality/performance/specs etc of my Phoenix build to the Master build.....I do think the Master build has the better selection of parts.  Total cost after taxes has come to maybe 2500.00, but definitely the parts are better even if they are a year old already.

All that being said, I am extremely hard-core particular about how I care for my PC parts.   Even my Taylormade Aero Burner golf clubs that I also bought in 2016 (yeah...that was an expensive summer for me ) I am still very particular about being careful not to scratch or chip the club heads.  Where as my Dad....when he played.....he wuold just use them and play with them and throw them in his bag.....And if the face got chipped because he hit a rock while hitting the ball, or  because he'd decided to play his ball off the cart path.....Then so be it.  They are meant to be used and who cares what they look like.

But for me, if I spend that kind of money on good quality brand name stuff....no matter what it is, I am very particular about how I care for it because I want it to last and I want it to look as new as possible for as  long as possible.     So yeah......ALLL THAT to say that I agree with you about not really trusting other people to poke around in your stuff, because you don't know how they are going to treat it (Oops!  I just dropped an 5 lbs GPU on the CPU sockey and bent 24 pins....Oh well!  It's not mine, nobody will notice.  I just won't tell the customer!)....I totally get that.

But at the same time, there is only SO MUCH I know how to do or am comfortable with doing.  Like for example, editing the Registry in a way that won't totally blow-up the PC.....I don't like doing that.  I don't really know how to do it safely in a way that will maintain proper functionality.  Or *Flashing* the BIOS/UEFI.....Don't really know how to do that either, never really had experience or confidence in doing that.  In fact, I have always followed the rule "UNLESS your current BIOS is causing problems.....THe Manufacturer strongly recommends to use the Default/Factory BIOS and stick with it for as long as you own your PC.  DO NOT Flash the BIOS on your own unless you know exactly what you are doing and why, because if you do it incorrectly....well, that will cause major problems, and then the board will basically be garbage."   So I have always trusted my trained PC guys to do that sort of thing.   Once I go beyond my skill and knowledge, or so far  beyond what I am comfortable with doing myself......And if I have exhausted all my options in what I know how to do, and it still has not fixed the problems......THEN, I let someone else look at it who has the training, certification, background, knowledge and experience to deal with it.


I am betting that i will have to suffer the pain of RMA'ing my two M.2s back to Samsung.....OR maybe even just buying new stuff to replace them, so that might be another 500 bills.   All I know is I want this PC to work and work properly for a very, very long time (I know I'm pushing the limit....But I would like to say that I would like 10 years out of it.....Heck the Phoenix build has already lasted me 5 and the trouble, I'm strongly suspecting wasn't even with the MOtherboard after all like I originally thought so that means Gigabyte is still going strong.

My dad rags on me for buying Gigabyte....But after the 2013 debacle I had with the Maximus VI (Anti) Hero.....Nothing but BIOS issues, defective RAM slots, warped GPU slots, bending/warping PCB since the day I bought it....it was a nightmare.  I had it RMA'd 3x (two times ASUS claimed they'd lost it, never received it even though I signed for the shipping notification) and a 2 week job turned into 4 and a half months each time) and still the problems weren't fixed when it was finally returned......I vowed after all that that I would never buy ASUS again.   Though I do miss the good ol' days of ASUS actually living up to their slogan of "Rock Solid, Heart Touching".....Back in the early days of computing when ASUS was THE company to get a motherboard from.  The P5 series (the P5E Deluxe Gaming motherboard with the X58 chipset was one helluva awesome board, as was its successor, the P6T Deluxe.   Had my PC not been struck by lightning for the second time since 2008, which was why I upgraded to the P5E and the Intel 9650 Extreme....AMAZING) I never would have had to buy the Anti Hero because that P5E had thousands of cycles in her yet.

But after 2013.....When I built my Phoenix in 2016, I vowed to make the switch from ASUS and try somethign different.  I went with Gigabyte.   You see, the thing I don't like about ASUS' business model is that not only is their Customer Service completely atrocious and non-existent.....They flood the North American market with average build quality stuff, then charge a huge premium for it.  They have over saturated the NA market.  I mean just look at the stock levels at Canada COmputers.   And ASUS isn't really present in Europe or Asia.   Across the pond, it's Gigabyte and MSI that have the EU market, and among them.....it's a fairly even spread (speaking only of Motherboards) (This was according to a map of where the three major brands were focused, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI....back in 2016)


For my new buildI was considering the Z490 Maximus Hero and Formula, as well as the STRIX 590-E Gaming.....But they were more money and less features/connectivity than the Z490 or even Z590 Aoruas Masters.  I like Gigabyte as a brand, I think they make "Quality" stuff.  Build quality and longevity are my biggest factors.  As the old saying goes "they don't make'em like they used to"  and that rings true for so much of the world today--- even major appliances.  Stoves are the worst!   But back in the 1990s, you could buy an ASUS MB and it would be the most durable, dependible, reliable, sturdy, hardy piece of tech you would ever think of owning at the time.....Those things ran for years and years and were all-around, just good stuff.

Now they really seem to be hit and miss.   And the issues with MSI (or so I have been todl by several pepople at CC) is that MSI PCBs are really weak, because they don't put a lot of effort into strengthening their PCBs with materials like gold or copper, and they don't usually offer MBs with more than 4 layers, so there is a considerable amount of more flex and signal degradation in an MSI board, in comparision to their competition...ASUS and Gigabyte.  yet the absolute cheapest, least expensive MSI Board I have seen starts at 500 dollars CAD.   And then goes north to as much as 2200 CAD.



Why?    I've never understoood why MSI is so over priced, and their recent taboo faux-pas with the scalping of their own 30 series cards has only served to hurt them, or at least their image.  Again, I ask, why?


I know we all  have our niches and brand preferences, and that's okay.....I'm not saying ASUS is a bad company-- I've just been burned more times than I can count with defective garbage and horrible service.    I'm sure ASUS can make some beautiful, rock solid, kick ass motherboards......As can Gigabyte.   But in the end, in terms of tried and true "Quality" they're all the same, generally speaking.  It is merely the connectivity and feature-set that sets each company apart.  Some epople like what ASUS offers, or the way they do things like do some absolutely insane things with Memory. ......Others like myself like Gigabyte for the way they have design the VRM and power delivery system and really gone top-notch to make their motherboards as sturdy and reliable as an old Chevy, "like a rock".




Sorry for rambling.

They have divisions on every major continent and prices at each one seems so different and differently rated.
I want to think that MSI charges extra for their extremely complex BIOS UI and its confusing layout.

Well being a Pentium 4 would explain the fact of it being a flaming dumpster fire.

Uh, you don't say..
Depends on the stuff, but I hear you.
Well this. I've seen it, it happens. I might as well bugger it up myself.
What Temporal Vanguardian said.

You're right, it must be an North American thing...... (and specifically Canadian thing, LOL.....Canada always gets ripped off for so much)....But maybe the GPU skimming is localized to North America witht the subsidiary StarLight, though according to Jayz Two Cents, the scam started in Europe, I think, and the Corp HQ in China either feigned ignorance or really had no idea what was going on . 


 Anyway, here in North America.....MSI is a shady company.  I just talked a two guys yesterday that have told me that MSI has a history of shoddy building in their GPUs (their fans really *rickity tick tick tick* and suffer from coil while) and the PCBs in their Motherboards are quite weak and flimsy in comparison to Asrock, ASUS, Gigabyte and EVGA because most often, MSI doesn't offer anything more than 4 layers or maybe 6 in their PCBs (unless you go with their ultra high end Boards like the God-Like Z490, Z590 which are 1000 CAD or close to it which reportly have a 10 layer PCB) and they generally lack the copper and gold content that Gigabyte has which weakens connectivity and electrical signal.   Also, here in Canada MSI has poor quality control so while they have a rep for building premium Boards and selling them at top buck, the actual quality of each unit isn't a strong in quality or numbers of production with qualitative average worked in, in comparison to Gigabyte or ASUS.    Again, it might be different in Europe or even the US....I can only speak specifically to Canada.

I know most companies-- the good ones anyway, ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI, GSKILL etc...they're all based in Taiwan (for manufacturing anyway) and have been for many years. EVGA HQ is in California and the designs are there, then shipped to Taiwan to manufacture. I know. But either you missed my point or, perhaps--more than likely, I didn't quite explain myself as clearly as I thought I had. My apologies. My line of thought for that particular comment was that I was trying to recall a comment from a Jayz Two Cents video where he mentioned calling one of the larger corporate offices of MSI in China, since the US office was closed at 9 pm ET. He was speaking about the recent MSI card skimming scandal that went on with one the MSI subsidiaries.

I apologize for misquoting and any confusion. Here is the actual video, if you are interested....unless you have already seen it, I know by now it's old news.





But it Used to be back in the 80s that all the best stereo and electronics came from Japan (Sony, AKAI, Nakamichi, Fujitsu and many others).....And while that is true, now most stuff comes from Taiwan especially PC stuff.

Kingston RAM is partly man'd in China. Or Taiwan. The good stuff comes from Taiwan. If you get a batch that says it was made it CHina....watch out. That's all I was saying. I know all of these huge companies are based all ove rthe world but nearly all of them except for EVGA which has its HQ in California....The rest are all based out of Taiwan. That's why I look for boards or GPUs-- even RAM, that says "Made/Manufactured in Taiwan".

And yes, I've seen that video you posted 2x now....it is one thing that helped me decide on the Z490 Aorus Master. Cool stuff though! I like how he took it apart to bare bones and explained each piece and what it's for and why.

Anyhow, I apologize.