Thank you everyone for all the help so far!

 

I went ahead and ordered all my parts for my budget build (based on suggestions and feedback received from this awesome userbase). I will start documenting my build in the UCD section once I actually am able to start building and take pictures.

 

I've received everything except the case!! The PSU, processor, motherboard and memory are all here. Does it make sense to just setup everything on a table and run memtest or something to verify that the received parts work? Shipping wise I think it'll be atleast another 10-12 days before I receive the case!

 

Or should I wait to properly seat everything in the case so that I minimize any issues I might face with static discharge etc?

 

 

 

 

I set up on my desk while I waited for my case - didn't have any issues.

 

Sent from a phone, sorry for any typos

 

 

Everything booted up fine. Ran Memtest86+ and it ran 1 pass successfully without errors. So I'm thinking there shouldn't be any issues

 

My motherboard manual said to apply thermal paste on the CPU for even heat dissipation. Is this necessary? I don't have any handy right now so will probably have to order some if needed. BIOS showed my CPU temp @ 29 C and Motherboard temp @ 31 C after running Memtest.

 

So now just waiting for the case to arrive. I don't think I want to risk pre-clearing any drives without first mounting everything in the case. Don't want the risk of things getting bumped off the table!!

 

Also - curious here. Memtest shows "Single-channel" under settings (see attached image). Shouldn't it be dual-channel? I have 2 sticks of 2GB each. Is this something I have to set in BIOS?

My motherboard manual said to apply thermal paste on the CPU for even heat dissipation. Is this necessary? I don't have any handy right now so will probably have to order some if needed. BIOS showed my CPU temp @ 29 C and Motherboard temp @ 31 C after running Memtest.

 

You absolutely do NOT want to run without thermal paste.    HOWEVER ... your heatsink (assuming you used the stock Intel unit that came with the CPU) already has thermal paste applied => so you've already got it  .    You only need to apply it yourself if you ever (a) replace the heatsink with a 3rd party unit; or (b) remove the heatsink for some reason -- in which case you'll need to CAREFULLY clean all of the old thermal compound off both the heatsink and the CPU; then apply some new thermal compound.

 

 

So now just waiting for the case to arrive. I don't think I want to risk pre-clearing any drives without first mounting everything in the case. Don't want the risk of things getting bumped off the table!!

 

Unless you have kids or cats it should be fine to get your drives ready 

... and it's also an excellent test of the SATA controllers and the drives -- so you'll be that much closer to a fully ready-to-go system when the case arrives.

 

 

Also - curious here. Memtest shows "Single-channel" under settings (see attached image). Shouldn't it be dual-channel? I have 2 sticks of 2GB each. Is this something I have to set in BIOS?

 

Normally not, but it wouldn't hurt to "look around" in the BIOS and see if it is indeed a parameter you can change.  I believe you bought a board with only 2 memory slots ... but if not, you probably have the modules installed in the wrong two slots [if you have 4 slots, you typically have to use slots 1 & 3 to put the modules in different channels - but that's not always the case, so check your manual].  It's also possible that MemTest86+ simply doesn't "know" about your chipset and is miss-representing the configuration.    The latest version (4.20) is a couple years old and may need an update.

MemTest86+ works fine with Ivy Bridge => just realized I have a nice new Core i3-3225 system in the back room I'm setting up for someone else, so I booted an UnRAID flash drive on it and ran MemTest ... and it shows dual channel just fine.

 

So check your BIOS to be sure you don't have memory set to single channel -- or if you bought a board with 4 slots, move the 2nd module to the other channel.