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So ive been bouncing back and forth since mid 2017 on whether to buy a gaming laptop or desktop. I finally decided to go desktop since for the price of a gaming laptop I can get way more for my money with a desktop. And also because the bios in gaming laptops seem to be much more crippled and have alot more issues with all that hardware crammed into a tiny package. I got an 8700k and EVGA ftw3 icx gtx 1080ti and all the bells and whistles. What should i check once it arrives/ download first?? Hwinfo?? Anything else?? Im super excited and cant wait to start gaming on it. Any tips or anything i should look out for would be much appreciated.
Congrats on your purchase, sounds like its gonna be a BEAST!
If you have a link to full system specs, post it here and let us have a look. Is it a pre-build or are you building it yourself?
I was in the same boat as you, trying to decide whether or not go with a gaming notebook or a desktop. I chose the desktop in my signature and it's been a good choice. Well except for my GPU, it's been a struggle trying to keep the thermals under control but I'm gettjng there on it.
When you get it, join us on Mr Fox's post at the top of the desktop forum. There's a lot of posts in there with benchmark results Etc Etc...Plus all of us may be able to help you out if you ever need it.
Also for my screen i have a asus 144hz 1080p gaming monitor . Im so excited to get it words cant even describe. I think i made the right choice by going with a desktop instead of laptop.
Not yet but it should be here this week. I guess they are backlogged alot for desktops because i think alot of people arw going prebuilt right now because of how expensive it its to find a gpu right now. I cant wait to get it though its been the longest wait of my liife!
I notice that you paid a little extra for them to do an overclock for you. If you don't know about overclocking, then I would learn about it & then check the overclock they did for you - there's a good possibility that they ended up using way to much voltage than was necessary to stabalise your overclock, which will increase temperatures and reduce the life of your CPU - if you fine tune the voltage/frequency level yourself you might end up with a higher overclock at a lower voltage which could increase performance, reduce temperatures, and increase the life span of your CPU.
Congrats on the build, looks good!
EDIT:
In your original post you asked what you should check when it arrives. I'd do the following:
1) Everything there that you asked for & paid for?
2) Boot up & check temperatures immediately while at idle just to make sure nothing is stupid hot. Yes, HWInfo perfect for checking this.
4) Have HWInfo Sensors open during your step 3 above to check temperatures are ok. Also have GPUz Sensors open during your testing so you can go back and check what clock rates your GPU has hit during your runs.
5) Run some extended benchmarks on a loop to check maximum GPU and CPU temperatures to validate that you're happy with the cooling performance. For GPU run Firestrike Graphics Test 1 on a loop for 40 mins while having HWInfo Sensors and GPUz Sensors open. After the test you'd go back & check maximum temperatures and see what clock speed your GPU has settled at (clock speed will decrease as temperatures rise). To check CPU temperatures run wPrime1024 v1.55 as initial check to see temperatures ok, then run some Prime95 for 10-15mins to really stress it to check max temps (some people would disagree about Prime95 saying it's too harsh, and I agree it's too harsh if your CPU is getting into the high 80's and 90's, but hopefully won't get that hot).
6) Check what kind of a CPU overclock they've given you, find out what the CPU clockspeed and what the Vcore (voltage) in HWInfo Sensors is during a CPU stress test - actually do this as Step #3: you don't want your CPU to be using silly amounts of voltage.
Ok thanks. My system is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. I cant wait. For hwinfo and the other programs is there once central place to download all of this or different sites? Also when checking ny cpu settings overclock and voltage and stuff like that, is there a program i can download to see all of that? Or i just go into the bios? Sorry but i am a noob so this process will have a learning curve for me. Thanks again.
HwINFO64 will give you a lot of data you need without even needing to go into the BIOS, but I do recommend you do go into the BIOS on first boot. Check out what voltage and clocks they have applied to the CPU. Then boot up and check things out in HWInfo64 and then run some benchmarks like others have suggested, followed by gaming and productivity work or whatever you plan to use the desktop for.
Ha, well let us know how it goes. Show us some pics if you like, and let us know what you find out about your impressions, performance scores, overclocking, temperatures, noise, etc.
Once im up and running could some of you guys help me learn how to properly overclock my cpu on my own? I know alot of you are experts at this lol. Or even point me in the direction of somewhere i can learn more about it?
Read up first though on the general theory of overclocking so you understand the basics behind it (if you don't know already). Do a backup of your OS, maybe using Macrium Reflect before you start overclocking, that way if you get any operating system corruption from unstable overclocks you can quickly & easily restore your latest backup without having to do a clean install of the operating system.
Ok guys im up and running. Ill post pics later when i get a chance. Now im at the hwinfo.com site do i want to download the hwinfo portable or intaller?
What else shoul i check? Gpu? Download anything else to stress test?
Ok last night i downloaded hwinfo, as well as msi afterburner and rivatuner. Also downloaded steam but didnt have time to buy my first game yet. But i set it all up so that ill be able to see the on screen diagnostics when gaming.
Another question for you guys. I have the 280mm nzxt kraken liquid cpu cooler with 4 fans in a push/pull configuration. Do i need to download that nzxt CAM program to control the rgb of the cpu plate and also if i download CAM will that allow me to control the fan speed on the radiator as well?? If not how can i control fan speed on the 4 radiator fans? Thanks.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
