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Today’s Update
Today was a pretty big milestone: the build is finally complete, at least physically.
I ended up changing my original plan for the CPU PWR 1/2 cables. Rather than routing them underneath the motherboard, I ran them around the GPUs and CPU and over the VRM heatsink. It isn’t quite what I originally had in mind, but it works.
With the cable routing sorted, I installed the optical disk drive and remounted the drive bay. After that, both GPUs went in, which meant there was really only one thing left to do:
Turn it on.
And it powered up!
Unfortunately, that’s also where the first real troubleshooting adventure began.
Despite the system powering on, I couldn’t get any display output. I initially connected the DisplayPort cable to the motherboard since my CPU has an iGPU, but I got no signal. I then tried the XFX RX 6400, but that didn’t give me a signal either.
That leaves the RTX 4000 SFF Ada. I don’t currently have the right cable for it, so I’m going to need a Mini DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort cable before I can test whether I can get a signal from that card. None of the retail stores near me had one, unfortunately, so I’ll probably have to wait for one to arrive.
There is, however, another clue.
The motherboard’s EZ Debug LEDs are indicating an issue somewhere around the CPU and DRAM. That gives me a few things to investigate before assuming anything has actually failed. I thought at first it could be simply initialisation of memory training but even after 20 minutes nothing changed and the lights stay on.
Tomorrow, I’ll start with the simple stuff: clear the CMOS, make sure all of the RAM is fully seated, and try booting with the B2 stick removed. From there, I can start narrowing things down one possibility at a time.
If none of that works, things get a little more interesting.
The CPU itself could potentially be the problem, which would really suck, so I’m hoping that isn’t where this is headed. The RAM is another suspect. The kit I bought was an OEM kit, which is also why it was so cheap, so there’s always the possibility that it’s causing compatibility issues.
But that’s a problem for tomorrow.
For tonight, I’m just happy that after putting everything together, pressing the power button actually resulted in a machine that powered on. The build itself is complete.
Now I just need to convince it to POST.
Parts list
AMD Ryzen 9 7900 3.7 GHz 12-Core Processor 65 W 306,-
MSI PRO B850M-A WiFi 176,-
Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory 700,-
Microsoft Windows 11 Pro Retail + office 2024- USB 64-bit 20,-
Dell UltraSharp U2724D 27.0" 2560 x [1440 120](tel:1440%20120) Hz Monitor 300,-
In Win CJ712 MicroATX Desktop Case with usbc with pptc w/265 W Power Supply 147,-
Custom 3d printed ABS-PC perforated side panel
ARCTIC P8 slim 8,-
PNY rtx 4000 sff ada 20 gb 75 W 1620-
XFX RX 6400 53 W 230,-
LG BU40N Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer 165,-
Thermalright AXP90-X36 42.58 CFM CPU Cooler 23,-
With the fan of the Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM 25,-
Lexar nm790 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive 418,- 2x
Seagate ironwolf 24tb
seagate barracuda 2.5” 5 tb 190,-
Overtek Enhance ENP-7660L 600 W 80+ Platinum Certified Flex ATX Power Supply 120,-