My Gaming PC II Renamed Raymond's PC

I built my Gaming PC II renamed Raymond's PC or RPC. I want to thank my dad, one of my dad's co-workers, uncle, brother, friend LastExlir, and friend Appu for advice. Here's the timeline detailing how I built my RPC below.

Sat Dec 27, 2014. My Gaming PC didn't turn on. I turned on the switch. No power. No noise. I begin troubleshooting. I checked all connections on motherboard.

Sun Dec 28. I continued troubleshooting. I checked hard drives on an external hard drive reader connected to my laptop. Hard drives were read. I used my dad's old PC to check the video card. Video card worked. I replaced cables connecting the motherboard to the hardware. I reset the jumper BIOS on the motherboard. My Gaming PC didn't turn on.

I checked the monitor by connecting my laptop. Monitor passed the test. I concluded the motherboard failed. I made the choice to upgrade.

I went to Fry's Electronics to begin price shopping and research.

Thur Jan 1, 2015. My dad's co-worker emailed me additional information on motherboards. I checked the power supply unit with a voltage meter following instructions from a YouTube video. The unit passed.

Sat Jan 3. I researched Intel and Crucial SSDs. I researched Intel i5 CPUs.

Sun Jan 4. I researched motherboards. Appu recommended ASRock motherboards because the company is up and coming.

Sat Jan 10. I researched SSDs, Nvidia video cards, and CPUs prices. I wrote Crucial RAM models and their prices to research online.

Sun Jan 11. I created an Excel spreadsheet to compare prices for SSDs and CPUs.

Sun Jan 18. I considered SanDisk SSDs.

Mon Jan 19. I researched prices at Central Computer.

Tue Jan 20. I purchased the Intel i5 4690S at Central Computer. My thinking was the CPU used lower power in comparison to other i5 CPUs.

Sat Jan 24. LastExlir convinced me to get the Intel i5 4690K because of the speed. Lower power meant nothing. There shouldn't be any worry about RPC overheating. It was worth the extra money paid.

Sun Jan 25. I returned the Intel i5 4690S to Central Computer. I purchased the ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X motherboard, EVGA Nvidia Geforce GTX 750ti 2GB GDDR5 GPU, SanDisk Extreme PRO 240GB SSD, and Thermal CPU solution at NewEgg.

Thur Jan 29. GPU, motherboard, and Thermal CPU solution arrived.

Fri Jan 30. SSD arrived.

Sat Jan 31. I choose to buy the RAM last because if the RAM was defective, I return the RAM not worrying about the number of days remaining in Fry's return policy.

Sun Feb 1. I mailed GPU and motherboard rebates.

Wed Feb 11. CPU arrived.

Fri Feb 13. I purchased the Corsair Vengeance DDR3 2X8GB RAM and SSD enclosure at Fry's.

Sat Feb 14. I installed the CPU incorrectly following the ASRock instructions. The Intel instructions were correct. I removed the 4-pin ATX power supply cord and installed the 8-pin ATX 12V power connector on the motherboard. All fans are powered on the motherboard.

There were problems installing Windows 7 on the SSD. The solution was removing the Windows 7 installation USB stick immediately after Windows 7 requires the restart. My dad told me Windows 7 installation is "flaky" sometimes. Never delete the System Files.

I installed the drivers including the network drivers from ASRock's installation disk. Windows 7 updates were downloaded and installed the entire night while I slept.

I planned installing all programs except games in the SSD.

Sun Feb 15. I installed Nod 32 anti-virus. My eBay auctions selling my old CPU, RAM, GPU, and motherboard went live.

Mon Feb 16. I installed audio drivers, INF V10.0.13 PC, ASMedia USB 3.0, Intel USB 3.0, and VGA drivers. I installed the video card drivers. I experienced problems. The GPU was bad. I confirmed the GPU was bad when I installed my old GPU which worked.

Two lessons learned. The first lesson was submit my rebates after all the hardware works. However, the rebate due date expired soon. Bad timing. The second lesson was sell my old hardware on eBay after the desktop is 100% functional.

Tue Feb 17. GPU RMA denied at NewEgg because the UPC was missing. I removed the UPC to mail my rebate. I requested a RMA at EVGA which was approved in minutes.

Wed Feb 18. I shipped the defective GPU to EVGA.

Mon Feb 23-Tue Feb 24. I shipped the CPU, RAM, GPU, and motherboard winning eBay auctions. Gross winning bids totaled $133.00.

Mon Feb 27. Replacement GPU arrived which was refurbished. Installation successful.

Tue Feb 28. I installed Chrome, 7-Zip, Adobe Flash, Adobe Shockwave, Adobe Air, Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP), Irfan View, FileZilla, CyberLink Power DVD, Evernote, HTML Kit, WinRAR, HP LaserJet 1200 Series Drives PCL5 via Microsoft Updates, and Office 2010 all in the SSD.

Sat Mar 7. I installed Adobe Acrobat 7.0, Logitech G930 Gaming Headphones, Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard, WolfKing Gaming Mouse, Sandisk Sansa Fuze downloading drivers online, and Logitech C920 Webcam. I also installed Firefox with Adblock Plus, Download Manager Tweak, Download Status Bar, Download Helper, Flash and Video Download, and No Script add-ons. All of the programs were installed in the SSD. I connected the 640GB and 1TB hard drives. The 2TB drive was connected to an external.

Sun Mar 15. I installed Steam and Team Fortress 2from Orange Box in the 1TB drive. I copied the folder Steam Apps from the old Steam folder to the new Steam folder.

Mon Mar 16. I installed Spyder 3 monitor calibration in the SSD.

Tue Mar 17. I installed MySQL in the SSD. I followed a YouTube video to install. There was no special installation and extra procedures needed. I created the night time Spyder 3 monitor calibration profile.

Thur Mar 19. I installed Adobe CS6 in the SSD. I downloaded desktop wallpapers from interfacelift.com. I continue downloading more desktop wallpapers indefinitely.

Mon Mar 23. I installed the four remaining games from Orange Box in the 1TB drive.

Fri Mar 27. I installed Crysis in the 1TB drive. Crysis was the video game I purchased in Dec 2008 to test Gaming PC I.

Sat Apr 4. I installed StarCraft II in the 1TB drive.

Sun Apr 12. My final configuration. I created the day time Spyder 3 monitor calibration profile.

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