Computer building question

[cordex]

Just don’t rely 100% on the compatibility checks. They aren’t perfect.

[HeroHog]

I went laptops only years ago. My current workhorse is:

HP Notebook 15-dy1023dx
Product number: 7WR60UA#ABA
Serial number: 5CD9445GYJ

Intel® Core™ i5-1035G1 (1.0 GHz base frequency, up to 3.6 GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, 6 MB cache, 4 cores)

12 GB DDR4-2666 SDRAM (1 x 4 GB, 1 x 8 GB)

Intel® UHD Graphics, Integrated

Hard drive: M.2, Type 2280, PCIe, NVMe, 3D NAND, SSD
(later upgraded to a 1tb SSD)

15.6" diagonal HD SVA BrightView micro-edge WLED-backlit touch screen (1366 x 768)

Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11b/g/n/ac (1x1) Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® 4.2 Combo
Expansion slots

1 HDMI 1.4b; 1 headphone/microphone combo; 1 USB 3.1 Type-C™ Gen 1 (Data Transfer up to 5 Gb/s); 2 USB 3.1 Gen 1 (Data transfer only); 1 AC smart pin
Minimum dimensions (W x D x H)

HP TrueVision HD Camera with integrated dual array digital microphone

Windows 10 Home
(Upgraded to Win 11 Home)

Honestly, for what I do these days, it is quite adequate for my use. (Cruising the YouToobs, Here, a few other places, downloading anime and manga to read/watch on the laptop or cast to the 50" tv)

I DO have a 4tb (2 mirrored 4tb drives) SAN unit, an old Iomega (now Lenovo) Ix2-3 that came with 2 1tb drives and has been upgraded twice to 2 x 2tb then 2 x 4tb drives (last one was done yesterday).

[Calumus]

Bringing this back up because I just received a check for 3 custom builds for one client. It’s also steam rolling into a new build for me as they’re going to get most of the guts from my current system as one of their builds. I actually picked up the Fractal North case that dogmush asked about in his first post. Just waiting for the pair of aio liquid coolers i ordered to show up, then I’ll post a few pics.

[dogmush]

All the parts are sitting on my dining room table.  We're going to try for assembly Sun or Mon.

[Calumus]

All the parts are sitting on my dining room table.  We're going to try for assembly Sun or Mon.

Sweet. What parts did you end up getting?

[dogmush]

Sweet. What parts did you end up getting?

Pretty much what you suggested.

I dropped to an i3-12100 vs the i3-13100 because I found a deal on one that got it under $100
Arctic AIO from your list
MSI Pro B760M Micro ATX Mother Board Saved me $50.  I might end up wishing I had extra slots, but I was miserly.
The 32 Gb of G.SKILL RAM I got from AZRedhawk44
Samsung 970Evo Plus 3 TB for the OS
That same Corsair power supply you recommended
I added a 4TB Seagate spinny hard drive to move all the pictures, files, and movies I'm storing across three drives on the old computer.
and the Fractal North case.

There's a note in my list on pcpartpicker that I might need some USB header adapters to go from 2.0->3.2 Gen 1 -? 3.2 Gen 2, but I'll figure that out when I start opening boxes.

It was like $740 before the OS.  The PX sold me Win 11 Pro for $130. so like $870 all in.  A little more than I wanted to spend, but it should do the job for a while, assuming I can get it working.

[Calumus]

There should be USB headers on the motherboard to plug the case ports in to. That should solve that issue. The nice thing is that you have an upgrade path if you decide to beef up the system down the road. 14th Gen Intel is using the same socket, so with a bios update you could throw up to an I9 14900 in there... I did find out that if you went with a 280 cooler, you’re going to have to mount it in the front of the case. The top only supports a 240mm. If that’s the case, run it as an intake. Top mount, run as exhaust. Plus, if you go front mount, put the hoses on the bottom. That way the pump doesn’t suck up any air that might be trapped in the rad.

[dogmush]

It's a 240 cooler.

Also I just looked at my box, and I did go with the 13th Gen i3.  I had been going back and forth, and forgot which I decided on.

[dogmush]

Success!!

I am posting from the new computer.  The only hicups were I forgot to buy a wifi card (Or MB with Wifi On board) so there's an ethernet cable stretched across the office, and I need an adapter to go from USB 2.0 to USB 3.1 Gen 2 before the USB-C port on the front of the case will work.  The USB-A ports all work fine though.

Thanks for all the help picking parts.

[dogmush]

I spoke too soon.  Something has gone very wrong overnight.

It crashed, and on restart I just get a bunch of different BSoD errors as it tries to start Windows.  Automatic recovery fails, about every 10th restart the video driver crashes and I get red static, and about every 20th restart it'll actually boot to the Windows sign in screen, but then crashes if you try to sign in.

[dogmush]

Aaaand we're back!

I apparently made the Rookie mistake of installing the software that came with the motherboard.  After much googling about diagnosing hard drive failures it occurred to me that the last thing I had done before it all went to hell was accept the EULA and install MSI's Dragon Center to monitor all my new shiny.

Some googling led me to find out quickly that MSI software is a steaming pile of crap and MSI Center in particular can induce repeated BSoD and failures of random drivers.

I coaxed it through a boot cycle all the way to Windows, uninstalled all the MSI stuff and it's running solidly again.  Lesson Learned, don't automatically trust the hardware maker's software.

[AZRedhawk44]

Yeah.  Never install OEM mobo drivers, double-plus especially if they include system tray bloatware that loads on startup.

All the major mobo chipsets are supported by windows.

I guiltily admit to having an MSI mobo right now (though market forces kind of compelled it at the time; I couldn't find an Asus or Gigabyte in that chipset in 2019 when I built it), but they're just AWFUL with their driver update bloatware and sound card drivers.  Any windows update generic driver is far more tolerable.  Asus and Gigabyte have been my go-tos for probably 20+ years.

[Calumus]

Good to hear! AZ is right, the only thing I’ll install from the manufacturer is bios updates. Maybe network drivers in the rare case that Windows doesn’t have a generic. Now, let’s see a pic of your first ever build.

[dogmush]

And now I'm back to repeated BSoD crashes. 

I can see why some people might find this process frustrating.   

Any ideas for troubleshooting?  The failures seem to be random, or more properly a random choice of the same 5 or so faults.  "system thread exception not handled", "APSI Failure", "Kernel Security Check Failure" are the common ones but every once in a couple boots you'l get something else (I don't remember them right now.  I need to write them down)  The Crash seems to pretty reliably happen right after the screen where I could go into BIOS, but while the MSI logo is still on the screen.  If it gets to a full Windows startup, it'll usually run for a while.

Google has me leaning towards bad hardware, a driver conflict, or MSI BIOS not playing well with Windows 11, but I'm not really sure what to do about that second one. 

ANy ideas on things to check would be appreciated.

[cordex]

If it were me, I'd download Ultimate Boot CD, boot from that and run the hardware checks.  Memory, CPU, and GPU for sure.

Also, booting into a Linux environment and using it for a while might be interesting.  If you can repeatedly do that and use the system stably then it would definitely point to a Windows driver issue.

[lee n. field]

I'd start at a low level.  Set BIOS defaults, undo any overclocking, and run a RAM test.  Random extreme flakiness makes me think memory problem.

https://partedmagic.com/ includes memtest86 in the boot menu.

[dogmush]

I'll keep fiddling with it.

Unfortunatly, I'm on Mandatory OT at work, so I have like 20 min/day to play with this issue.

[RocketMan]

Did you change any BIOS settings when you set up the computer?  Specifically, what are the BIOS settings for memory?  Do they match the memory specifications?

[cordex]

Did you change any BIOS settings when you set up the computer?  Specifically, what are the BIOS settings for memory?  Do they match the memory specifications?

Even if they do, sometimes memory becomes unstable at the claimed rated frequencies.

[dogmush]

Did you change any BIOS settings when you set up the computer?

Nope.

  Specifically, what are the BIOS settings for memory?  Do they match the memory specifications?

Uhhh......That seems like a really good question.  I will definitely look at that when I get home.

[RocketMan]

A computer BIOS usually has an 'Auto' selection for memory timing, and this is set by default.  It can 'read' the memory stick specs if they exist on the sticks.  Many memory sticks have an SPD (serial presence detect) chip on them where those specifications reside.
Sometimes the settings it contains work just fine.  Sometimes they don't and you have to set the timings manually.

[WLJ]

A computer BIOS usually has an 'Auto' selection for memory timing, and this is set by default.  It can 'read' the memory stick specs if they exist on the sticks.  Many memory sticks have an SPD (serial presence detect) chip on them where those specifications reside.
Sometimes the settings it contains work just fine.  Sometimes they don't and you have to set the timings manually.

Many MBs set the mem speed to a certain min for max compatibility reasons and then it's up to to user to tell it otherwise.
For example a MB may default to running DDR4 3200 memory at 2333.

[RocketMan]

Many MBs set the mem speed to a certain min for max compatibility reasons and then it's up to to user to tell it otherwise.
For example a MB may default to running DDR4 3200 memory at 2333.

This is true, and sometimes memory does not like running under its rated timings.  Lots of variability in that.

[AZRedhawk44]

I'm going to caveat what I just said earlier about Mobo manufacturer drivers.

The CD they ship with their boards?  Throw it away.  Use it for skeet practice.  Do anything except run its software.

Try to get by with whatever driver Windows provides.  If that doesn't work, THEN go to the mobo manufacturer site and download their "chipset" driver package.  NOTHING ELSE.  Read it carefully during installation, and avoid anything that's an auto-updater or a startup program or a system tray utility.  You can get the mobo chipset driver from MSI without installing their bullshit suite.  I've had to do that while my mobo's chipset was in its early days back in 2019.

[dogmush]

Gotcha.


I haven't had time to mess with it since Teusday, but I will check all the things mentioned when I have some time to play with it.