So, I will continue on with some of my build ramblings in the event it helps someone.
What I actually spent was €3000\£2650\$3700US
now, that is a lot of money...BUT it is waaaaaaay below my £3500 budget. And I did by a full RSN 10 license on top of the build cost. I plan on running RSN on 2 computers at once at times. I’ll probably have to double up on some REs
so, some foibles after the build in case it helps someone else.
I am proud to say that watched A LOT of Linus Tech Tips YT vids, and learned an immense amout. I couldn’t have done it without YT. I could have figured out how to put the parts together successfully...but I would have struggled to choose the parts in the first place. There is just so much to know that is changing fast.
1) The Seasonic Platinum PSU is treat of packaging. They include so much stuff: all the cables you’ll need, nice velcro ties, multiple high quality bags; the PSU is shipped in a velveteen branded bag! It is sheer class.
BUT the 8 pin ATX power cable is too short for my liking for this build with the Fractal R5. It does work, but it is
tight. Also, the 24 pin ATX main cable bundle’s shrink wrap is right where you need to bend the cable. That, and the USB 3 loom which doesn’t seat in the mobo very convincingly is in the R5 means it is very hard to use the R5 access holes for these 2 cable runs. It either is stressing the wires at the connector or the shrink wrap is blocking air. I’m not that concerned with looks, so I removed the middle drive bay chassis, ran the cables through a huge hole and velcro’d to the bottom of the top non-removable drive bays and it removes all the stress and ensures a quality mobo connection. I see the value in custom cabling and maybe some custom high end kits would sort this out.
2) locking the CPU in the mobo. I thought the mobo was gonna split! It really felt like I was doing something wrong. I quintuple checked. PC’s been running for about 5 days straight...temps at about 24 celsius.
3) Thermal Paste. I bought some Cooler Master stuff that I chose based on a video. The Noctua CPU cooler comes with high end paste included. Probly Wasted 10 currency units, there.
4) Rookie Stuff: I put everything together, put my new build in ready to go...and monitor wouldn’t come on. Back to the work table then
To track the issue down, I read all kinds of internet suggestions. Forget that...once you have CPU cooler and RAM installed and a keyboard and monitor connected, start POSTing....add one component at a time...POST and check BIOS.
5) In my case, the Fatal1ty mobo LED code readout was a blessing and a curse. I think the ASRock documentation could be better. It took me a while to realize that the mobo LED readout was telling me the STATUS of the POST. At first I thought the codes shown were ERROR codes. The documentation is not clear.
6) the reason my integrated gfx wasn’t displaying was a mobo BIOS setting. Neither hdmi port was sending any signal. Only by putting the components in one at a time did I track down the issue. It was the video card.
7) Windows 10 Pro USB. I specifically purchased this because of my incredibly slow internet connection. No way did I want to wait 3 days with Windows OS DLing! Well, blow me down, there was no avoiding the 72hrs of Windows 10 internet hog.
AND what a mess, dialog boxes on top of dialog boxes giving conflicting info about what updates need to happen when. To top it all off, I unwhittingly bought a French version (English version was about 3 times more expensive and much longer to be delivered). The OS version on the USB key was much more like Win Home than Pro. That said, now that all the updates are current, there are a lot more features.
so, I hope I helped someone with that novel