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Nothing holds more promise than a brand-new PC. The hardware is fresh and full of potential, the OS is clean and clutter-free, and you have nothing but pure, unadulterated storage space awaiting your precious data. It’s an exciting time, indeed. But before you start dumping old files onto your new rig willy-nilly, and downloading every shiny bauble of an app that catches your eye, take some time to consider a more measured approach to moving in. After all, you only have this opportunity once.
The way you set up your new PC now will have a lasting impact on your experience over time. Do it haphazardly, and your experience will be plagued by disorder and regret. Do it thoughtfully, though, by following the course of action we prescribe on the following pages, and you will have a machine that’s primed and ready to meet your every need from the start.
If you’ve just built your rig or unboxed a sparkling-new PC, it’s always a good idea to verify the hardware specs to make sure all parts are actually performing as they should be. We’ve seen simple BIOS misconfigurations downclock chips by hundreds of megahertz.
Inspect CPU-Z's memory tab to see if your RAM is configured correctly for double- or triple-channel, and that the frequency is set to the level you paid for.
First download CPU-Z. This excellent free utility will query your CPU and report the model number, cache size, and clock speed of the chip in real-time. To test your CPU’s speed, put a load on it using, say, Prime95 and run a stress test. CPU-Z should report the correct clock speed for your chip. While you’re here, pull up Task Manager by hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del. Select the Performance tab and make sure that each of your cores, virtual or real, is represented. Believe it or not, we’ve seen Hyper-Threading turned off occasionally on some systems.
Turn off Prime95, but keep CPU-Z open. Click the Memory tab. You should see the memory frequency reported under DRAM Frequency. This is the base clock, so you should double it to get the frequency of the RAM. For example, if your DDR3/1600 is reporting as 667, your RAM is actually running at DDR3/1333 speed.
TechPowerUp's GPU-Z will tell you what speed the PCIe is running at.
CPU-Z will also report graphics speed, but we prefer GPU-Z for more detailed info. GPU-Z will generate a CPU-Z-like interface. Pay particular attention to the default clock speed and memory speeds for your GPU. If you paid for an overclocked GPU, check that it is running at the speeds you paid for. GPU-Z will also tell you if SLI or CrossFireX is enabled or not and also at what speed the PCIe slot is running. Yes, it's possible that a new machine will have the GPU running in a slower slot, which may impact performance.
If a component is going to fail, you want it to fail while it’s under warranty. For CPU stress tests, we prefer the free Prime95. Just download it and run the in-place stress test. A properly configured and cooled stock-clocked system should have no problem running Prime95 for hours on end. For GPU stress testing, FurMark is still quite popular, or you can run Unigine’s Heaven benchmark in a loop for a few hours. Keep in mind that stressing the GPU will also stress your PSU and cooling, so any shortcomings may crop up there, as well.
Did you know your motherboard has a special USB port that allows you to make BIOS updates without a CPU being installed? No? Well it’s right there in the frakking manual. One of the first things you should do with your new machine is to read the documentation, particularly the motherboard manual, that came with it.
Once you’re done building a new PC, collect the extra modular power cables, drive rails, special sound-dampening drive screws, and put them in one place. You could even store the extra parts in your case, as long as there’s room to spare and it won’t block airflow. You won’t thank us now, but you will in three years.
Comments are closed on this article
robear
February 02, 2012 at 8:34pm
I always check my memory sticks for manufacturing defects before installing the operating system. Personally, I use Memtest86+.
robear
February 02, 2012 at 8:33pm
I always check my hard disk drives for manufacturing defects before partitioning them or installing the operating system. Personally, I use GRC's SpinRite.
I also "wipe" all new hard disk drives clean immediately after checking for manufacturing defects. Personally, I use WipeDrive.
robear
February 02, 2012 at 8:18pm
Yes, thank the Geek Gods! Try Driver Genius Professional Edition or Driver Manager (or both, one in non-paid mode as just a double checker). Personally, I like Driver Genius Professional Edition's features of driver backup/restore. ALWAYS research their suggestion to verify, for your own sanity, that the suggested driver update is truly appropriate for your hardware before updating. ALWAYS backup your machine before applying the the update. ALWAYS create a restore point before applying the update (just in case).
Happy Updating!
mborland
January 04, 2012 at 7:57pm
I feel a better way to set up the user folders is to "right-click" the folders, select properties, and location tab, then "Move" the folder to a more "suitable" location. Having a 64gig SSD, I needed to make sure Nothing would write to C: that I didn't want to. MyDocuments, MyPictures, MyMusic, MyVideos, and all sub-folders created by other programs, looking for those default folders now reside safely tucked away on my trusty OLD mechanical drive. Temp folder, TIF, Contacts, Favorites, even the Live Mail Store folder.
aferrara50
January 03, 2012 at 5:27pm
That fan setup is actually pretty horrendous. Positive pressure is most important. You never want more intake than exhuast. No on in their right mind would pull air in from underneath the case.
thesaltydalty
February 04, 2012 at 7:12pm
I don't think they actually meant underneath, they probably meant lower portion of the case. And the way the picture displays the arrows was probably for layout purposes in the magazine.
firefox91
January 03, 2012 at 2:04pm
Yes! Route cables under the tray! My current computer has a case where the cables can be routed under the motherboard tray. It was a pain in the ass to get them all jammed in there. But a little work up front saved a ton of work later. There is so much empty space in my system that the air just flows free. There is very little dust build up and temps are good. I am overclocking a Core i5-750 from 2.8 Ghz to 3.4 Ghz just on air. I have had it like that for about a year and half and never a problem.
zepontiff
January 03, 2012 at 12:02pm
This hit some excellent high points thanks! Game Save Manager is something i need to check out. Looks great!
Also thank you for telling people how to correctly backup steam games. DO NOT USE STEAM BACKUP!!
kevaskous
January 05, 2012 at 1:13pm
Trillian is much better than Digsby for a much smaller system footprint.
Also you should take a look at AIMP3 in ASIO and not mode and see the difference in sonic quality compared to -all- other media players (Audio not video, for that Daum Pot Player, the rebuilt KMP player, is the best for video)
I got hella other software like this, no life and no care of crashing my pc allows me to test endless waves of software and find the best.
Oh and Pidgin is a much better alternative to digsby too, uses less resources than any of them last i checked (Though I no longer use it, as I prefer trillian myself) and I believe it is the most multiplatform capable messenger.
t.y.wan
January 02, 2012 at 10:27pm
God damn, the Google DNS speeds up youtube videos loading up significantly...
Did they throttle their services to non-google dns users? I am using a 100Mbps up and down ISP service, it works well, bittorrent reaches around 4MB/s most of the time, yet I can't watch youtube vids in 720p or 1080p (even sometimes, 480p) videos smoothly...
I really have no idea why couple months (4~5) back, it works perfectly fine withOUT the google dns...
I really hope this is just my problem, not google doing stupid restrictions for non-chrome users.
praetor_alpha
January 02, 2012 at 10:01pm
Last I checked (a minute ago) Filezilla does not have any kind of transfer limit. It's open source, not trialware.
markoramius1086
January 02, 2012 at 4:27pm
Great Article! I only wonder why you didnot include MSE and Threatfire like you all have in the past. The only other thing that I wish this article had was instructions how to set up faster bootup through Windows7. Wonderful article guys, I will definitely reference it when I finally get to my own build!
bowei006
January 02, 2012 at 4:16pm
The advanced display settings website is a little out of date. And a bit hard to use. The first slides sample pictures on the bottom show/ is not easy for noobs.
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/display_settings.php
Not to mention it calls 1920X1080p uncommon. and I should be careful bc my aspect ratio is not widely used. I h ave 16.9
