“Pro” Tip: Do Your Research Before You Buy Parts For Your PC Build

"Mercedes Streeter" (smart) 01/23/2018 at 14:29 • Filed to: Computers

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I’m biting off more than I can chew with this Mini-Itx build.

I bought all of the parts at the same time, only making sure the connectors are all right and the gpu isn’t a mile long.

I made a bad decision and bought an open box motherboard. This board turned out to have a couple bent pins that I only made worse by bending more pins. Oh boy...In response, I decided to replace the motherboard with a brand new one.

Surprise!!! Amazon sent me an ASRock J3455B-ITX instead of the H110M-ITX LGA1151 that I ordered.

Apparently this thing has an integrated Celeron J3455 quad core processor. This processor is low-power enough that it can be passively cooled.

Fine, whatever...I decided that I’d just save the G4400 Pentium for some future build instead of waiting for a replacement of the replacement board to come in through Amazon’s return process. So, all’s fine right? HA, no.

The nice power supply that I bought is an inch too long for the case. I would have to get rid of the cradles for the HDD/SSD/Optical drive in order for it to work. Even if the power supply were correctly sized, it has WAY TOO MANY cables and cable management would be utterly impossible in such a tiny case.

Fine, computer, you win. I’m washing my hands of this project before costs go really out of control.

I’m going to keep the GTX 750, the CPU cooler, HDD, and the Pentium G4400. The RAM stick I bought wouldn’t even fit in this board’s slots so I’m keeping that too, I guess.

I’m just going to sell the mostly put together unit as a bare bones system.

Final specs:

- Silverstone Sugo Series SG05-Lite
- Intel Celeron J3455 Quad Core (integrated into a DDR3, HDMI, ASRock board with a single PCI slot for a video card).
- Slim optical DVD/CD/RW drive.
- While the case is a one-fan design, the front fan will be the custom spiral Enermax LED fan from my DC-10-60 build, plus the stronger fan that came with the case.
- SATA adapter cable to connect to the optical drive (that red one).

I’ll also include the PSU I bought for it, but I’d recommend getting one that actually fits.

All the buyer would need to add is a GPU (or use the integrated graphics), a PSU (unless they don’t mind using the provided PSU externally), and a HDD.

If I get $150 for it, I’ll just about break-even on parts aside from buying a mobo twice. I hope someone scoops up the bent mobo for cheap to help recoup some of the costs associated with that.

As for the pink ring fan that I got for this Itx build? It now resides in the DC-10-60 so that the computer better matches my keyboard and mouse.

Future next gen S2000 owner > Mercedes Streeter 01/23/2018 at 14:56

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I’d just like to know why one of my monitors won’t come back on when my computer locks itself.

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > Mercedes Streeter 01/23/2018 at 15:13

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meanwhile i have four towers just sitting in disrepair covered in cobwebs and cat fur in my basement cause im pretty sure i shorted the motherboards

cmill189 - sans Volvo > Mercedes Streeter 01/23/2018 at 15:29

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That ITX case is huge. You just need to start zip tieing things. It really helps for cable management.

I have an idea for what to do with this PC, since you seem to like tinkering. Get a cheap SSD and double side tape it somewhere in the case so you have room for the larger PSU. An old 2.5" mechanical drive would suffice as well. Get a double or quad port NIC. Install pfSense and build yourself a kick-ass router.

Ilike_cougars > Mercedes Streeter 01/23/2018 at 15:52

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www.pcpartpicker.com is your best friend.. that is all//

Mercedes Streeter > cmill189 - sans Volvo 01/23/2018 at 15:52

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Good ideas! I briefly thought about turning it into a tiny server.

For how large the case is, that stupid PSU takes up maybe 50% of the interior space. I did consider taping/zip-tying the HDD to the side of the case and just forgetting about cradles and the optical...But then I realized I’d have to buy more RAM because I don’t have any 204 pin notebook RAM laying around. lol Eh, I’d rather just sell the thing and start over with a more unique build. Since I already have the gaming machine built I can go way out into left field!

At least I already have the more expensive parts!

Mercedes Streeter > Ilike_cougars 01/23/2018 at 15:56

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It sure is! Here’s my DC-10-50TI build before I upgraded the PSU and GPU on it:

https://pcpartpicker.com/b/TC4qqs

My mistake for this new ITX build was thinking I could undercut the prices listed on PCPartPicker. I undercut the prices by a decent margin, but I saved money in the wrong place (motherboard) and didn’t make sure I got the exact model number of PSU when I tried to undercut the price on that. Welp, lessons learned for next time!

His Stigness > Mercedes Streeter 01/23/2018 at 15:59

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A good newb tip is do a helluva lot more research on custom water cooling before you spend a shit ton of money on parts and fluids and then find out later you should have gone with something else. Also, pay attention to what you’re buying, even the slightest difference can screw everything up. But having done more research would have helped with the second problem too.

Nick Has an Exocet > Mercedes Streeter 01/23/2018 at 16:13

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I’m a bad friend and a good friend. I pushed my buddy to do his own build back in June. So he bought all the parts for a great $900 Ryzen setup. He followed a couple of online build guides since it was his first build. Big mistake. They had you bench assemble before putting into the case. Problem was, he got stuck expecting the pc to boot up when he turned the power supply switch on. Granted, that step got him far enough to diagnose a DOA power supply, but he couldn’t figure out why the PC was booting.

Normally, at this point, I’d pop over an help out. But I live 3000 miles away. Like I said, bad friend.

So come December when I went home, I had him bring it over (in parts, back in boxes). I assembled it from step to stern. I got down to wiring up the power button and said: “uh, Steve... when you tried your previous 5 times, did you wire a power button?”. He said “A different one from the one on the back? No....” And there it was. 6 months to diagnose “forgot the power button” - a step so obvious that it was overlooked 5 times.

At this point, he had already bought a new laptop and wasn’t ever expecting it to work. I sent him home that night with a little disappointment that he now had TWO working computers. I think his dad ended up buying the gaming tower off of him. See, good friend!

cmill189 - sans Volvo > Mercedes Streeter 01/23/2018 at 16:17

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I have an older Lian Li ITX case that’s the same way. It takes a standard ATX power supply so it eats into clearance for the cooler. The neat part is it has 8 drive bays somehow crammed into something about 1'x 1'x 1'. It used to be my NAS box but I am using server-grade stuff now and switched to a standard size case. Is this one supposed to use SFX? I’d be interested in the mobo if you can’t sell it as a lot.

Mercedes Streeter > cmill189 - sans Volvo 01/23/2018 at 16:36

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It’s supposed to use SFX, but an even smaller form factor SFX. Apparently not all SFX were created equally sized! lol

Sure! If I can’t sell the lot you can take the Mobo. As I warn though, it has an integrated CPU so no upgrading it.

Mercedes Streeter > Nick Has an Exocet 01/23/2018 at 16:42

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That’s a hilarious story! It reminds me of when I built the “DC-10-60" in the last pic. My “first boot” showed no life. The plug for the PSU made a quiet pop when you inserted it into a power strip, but the computer would not turn on.

Then I started going over everything. I stopped at the front panel header...I noticed my problem. I followed the case’s instructions for wiring the front panel instead of the motherboard’s. Considering the case is a cheap unit from China, it didn’t surprise me that the instructions were all wrong.

Then I got it to turn on, but it made an awful racket. Turns out the front fan was built to have blades so long they contacted the ducting...Ugh...kay...so I shaved down the blades by 1mm each. Lesson learned? Don’t buy the cheapest parts!

Ilike_cougars > Mercedes Streeter 01/23/2018 at 16:42

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Nice!! I would never spend so much on a desktop to be honest. I used PCpart picker to find compatible parts for a budget build I was doing.

I picked up most pieces from craigslist or ebay, I didn’t make a PC partpicker list, but it goes something like this

Asus p6t Deluxe V2 - $25 ( +6gb ddr3 ram thrown in for free)

Intel i7 - 945 - $30

Therlmatake 676w psu - $35

Toshiba 500gb laptop hdd- free had lying around for OS

Used Corsair Dominator GT 12GB RAM DDR 3 - $75

AMD R9 - 390 - $220 ( bought when prices were not hitting the roof)

2 - 4TB Whitelable drives $95 in RAID1

This PC does a bunch of my stuff.. runs as my NAS file server, Plex server. Some photo editing with Photoshop CC.. and some gaming

Mercedes Streeter > Ilike_cougars 01/23/2018 at 16:54

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See, now that’s something pretty awesome! Buying parts from a list is one thing, but cobbling together a great rig from parts found in thrift stores, CL, etc sounds fun!

In my case with the ITX rig, I tried to do that to a certain extent. The 1TB HDD is from my mum’s new **HP B009 all-in-one (replaced it with a 500g laptop drive I had laying around), the GTX 750 was from Goodwill, and so on.

feather-throttle-not-hair > Mercedes Streeter 01/23/2018 at 17:08

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Heyoooo who’s got two thumbs and has fucked this up in in the past?! Yeah that’s right, this guy!

BTW nice to see you back!

Boxer_4 > Mercedes Streeter 01/23/2018 at 19:00

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I’ve been there before; I once bought a case for an older ATX motherboard I had laying around without realizing the case I bought was a BTX case! I’d been working with computers on the hardware side for a good 5 years at that point, too, so I should have known better! At least the case was a cheap eBay purchase... it ended up evolving into this:

I built this with the help of a friend. I took the challenge to built a system using that case for as cheap as possible, which devolved into how much of a functional mess I could make it. It was an unholy marriage of Dell and Lenovo OEM parts, and many non-kosher assembly methods were used (see if you can spot some!). I used it as it progressed for 2 years, then semi-retired it to use as a HTPC. It still works, too.

I quite enjoy “unique” builds like this, but it’s not for everyone. The current build that I’m working on is a bit more “sane”. It’s all eBay/things I’ve gotten for free/had laying around, except for the case. It’s running, and I’m using it now, but I’m still waiting on a few key interesting parts before it is “complete”

e36Jeff now drives a ZHP > Mercedes Streeter 01/24/2018 at 10:17

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I’ve had the blade issue before, usually it’s because the screws were overtightened and warped the frame slightly. If you run into that again, try backing the screw out a little bit and see if it clears the frame.

e36Jeff now drives a ZHP > Nick Has an Exocet 01/24/2018 at 10:21

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I almost fell into this hole a few years back when my cousin was trying to put together a PC for 3d modeling. I convinced her that she could save a metric butt-ton of cash buy building it herself. She is a jeweler by trade, so she clearly has the hand-eye for it. We got everything assembled when to boot up, and nothing doing on the monitor. She was in TX and I was in MD, so it’s not like I could swing by and fix it real quick. After banging my head against the wall for a few days it turns out the monitor was hooked up to DVI2 on the GPU, which apparently on nvidia cards at the time was a no-no if DVI1 was unpopulated. Tried the other DVI and everything worked just fine.

e36Jeff now drives a ZHP > Mercedes Streeter 01/24/2018 at 10:42

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Did you get an SFX-L PSU? I think those are slightly longer than the regular SFX PSUs which would explain why it’s hitting your drive cage.

All the Birches Call Me Big Poplar > Mercedes Streeter 02/03/2018 at 15:19

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That’s a nice fucking case; my buddy just got one.

I’m in desperate need of a PSU...I’m using a 350 W PSU on my horizontally-mounted that just failed.

Running 4 x 120 mm fans and 2 x 80 fans. Stilll overheating without reason; what do you recommend?

Mercedes Streeter > All the Birches Call Me Big Poplar 02/03/2018 at 17:09

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What’s the cpu cooling looking like? Also, make sure those fans evacuate heat and pull in cool air. I’d have one or two of the 120mms on the front, being an intake. Then the rest of the fans elsewhere playing their role as an outlet.