The next steps.

[christopherkelly907]

Firstly, let me say thank you to all the guys who regularly post answers to the many questions that are posted. The knowledge and patience is appreciated when dealing with first time buyers like myself.

I've spent two months cherry picking your knowledge for my PCS build. It's now "in testing" and should be with us next week.

It's for my teenage son so I'll be doing all the setup.

Can you guys give me a rough do's and don'ts for getting it ready ?

I've read that windows needs updated but do I need to update the Motherboard, Graphics Card and processor before he can get stuck in ?

Thanks in advance.

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard	ASUS® PRIME B450-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)	16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card	6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 SUPER - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!

 

[Scott]

It's down to the individual really. I think most enthusiasts would do a completely clean install of windows on receipt and then just start completely fresh and from scratch.

For me, preparation would be to download the latest version of windows from Microsoft themselves and install it on a USB stick (needs access to a PC and the internet).
When the PC arrived, I would switch it on and give it a quick once over. Maybe install 3Dmark and do some benchmarking while checking temps.
Install a game or 2, have a play.... make sure all temps are reasonable (All out nothing over 90C on the CPU. I would expect the 3600 to be way under that) and nothing over 85c on the GPU. This is pushing HARD, you shouldn't get close to these temps unless absolutely hammering the high end components. The 3600 and the 1660 Super should run VERY reasonably inside those max temps so it's a good guideline for starters.
I would download the Network drivers (Wifi or LAN) so that I had them available after fresh install.
After a play, and once I am satisfied, I would wipe the lot.... everything. Fresh install from the downloaded Windows installation.
Install the Wifi/LAN drivers if required and then allow ALL updates..... multiple checks, multiple downloads, multiple installs and multiple hours.
Once all that's done, I would install 3DMark and make sure the results were in the same ball park (better would be awesome).
From there.... it's game-time & software time. The system is good to go, time to get everything installed for the primary use of the PC.

 

[Oussebon]

If your 1660 Super gets to 85 you've got a problem - 88 is the thermal limit of the card, down from 94 in previous generations. if it gets anywhere near 80 degrees you should be concerned, even on torture testing.

But don't worry, it won't

 

[Scott]

Just checked, the Super is 83 for thermal throttling so as long as it's below that

I know it will be, but anywhere under that it's not a concern when absolutely hammering the card (likely synthetic).

 

[ubuysa]

As above, the critical thing to do once you've gone through the initial setup is to confirm that everything works. That means checking every port, checking your audio, checking the graphics (all options), some mild stress testing of the CPU and GPU (no need IMO to go to the extremes here), check the WiFi and LAN, and just to be on the safe side run Memtest on your RAM overnight.

What you want to do is to make certain that everything works properly as soon as possible to maximise your options should something not be working and whilst you can still send it back.