PC Upgrade

jamo2oo9

Okay I am now looking to upgrade my gaming rig before I head away to college in September. I already have upgraded my GPU, HDD and PSU. Managed to get those for a good price and all working perfect now. All I need to do is upgrade my CPU and MoBo. Currently I have Pentium Dual Core with an intel g41 chipset. The MoBo won't be compatible with any of the latest CPUs as far as I'm aware. I was looking at Haswell cards and I'm thinking of getting i5 chip either 4670 or 4770. Not entirely sure at this stage but I don't know what MoBo should I get. The sockets on Haswell are 1150 IIRC. What suggestions does anyone have and do you recommend on getting Haswell or go to Ivy? The budget would be maximum of €200 but I can go a little over as long as its not insane.

Another thing, do I need to upgrade my RAM. It's 2GB and I'm not sure what the RAM take is on for gaming these days.

Cheers,
Jamie

tuxy

I recommend haswell if you are updateing you might as well get the latest from intel. If you are not overlcoking you will want a board with the b85 chipset. If you want to overclock you will need a board with the z87 chipset and a K series CPU. You will need DDR3 ram, currently you are running DDR2 which will not work. I don't think the I7 is worth the premium price over the i5. The performance difference is not big for most applications.

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-4430 Box, LGA1150|€173.32
ASRock B85 Pro4, Sockel 1150, ATX|€81.89
8GB G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-12800U CL10|€55.77
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€329.97

Way over budget but even if you were to go for an ivy bridge i5 it would only cut the cost by €30-€40
An I3 would still be much faster then what you currently have and is worth considering if you have to stay in budget.

jamo2oo9

My apologies, I have a 4GB DDR3 which is fine for now. As for the product you've listed, are there any cheaper MoBos for sale that can support i5 Haswell? Would it have to be B85 model as I can see those with B75 with sockets of 1155 however it's mini ATX. Will that have an effect on my system? I can wait till July for this upgrade where the price of the Haswell chips would be marginally cheaper and plus I would afford with it at that stage. Just looking at the possible upgrades I could have and I do know for sure that I want a Haswell chip as it would last me for the next three years approx.

jamo2oo9

Bump

Monotype

You just won't find any Haswell motherboard and CPU combinations to fit inside €200. I would avoid getting Ivy Bridge unless you planned to get a 3570K and not upgrade from there since upgrades could be hard to find later.

Have you considered AMD instead? You'll get better value for money with that budget. An FX6300 will handle most things you throw at it, or you might even fit in an 8320 which can challenge a 3570, if the applications are well multi-threaded.
Let me know if you want suggestions for boards.

tuxy

This is the absolute minimum you can spend on a Haswell setup right now

Item|Price
MSI B85M-P33, mATX, Sockel 1150|€60.17
Intel Core i5-4430 Box, LGA1150|€173.32
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€252.48

jamo2oo9

I'm not too sure about buying AMD. I don't really know much about them and I know Intel's CPU's work much better than AMD and I would prefer to have Intel just as much as getting AMD. Just would like to know what is the difference between an ATX and a mini-ATX?
What motherboards are suitable for overclocking. I'm aware that the CPU needs a K at the end of the model number. Looking at E213 for i5 4670K CPU and I would definitely be interested in overclocking it but I would like to know what motherboard is suitable for it and at what cost. I believe I should be going for Z87 chipset but I honestly don't know which are okay for OC'ing

Monotype

micro-ATX is just smaller than ATX. The usual difference is that they cut off a few of the PCI or PCI-E slots. Lower end boards have other things missing such as only two RAM slots, but they could do this with ATX motherboards too.

A micro-ATX motherboard fill fit into nearly every case. Some mATX cases (i.e., smaller ones) won't be able to support an ATX motherboard. Power Supplies etc., should all remain the same. You can use an ATX power supply with a micro-ATX motherboard.
Micro-ATX = mATX = µATX.

Z87 motherboards are for overclocking. Bxx/Hxx won't overclock... well actually there's a thing now on the Haswell CPUs where you can overclock by exactly 25% even if you don't have an overclockable CPU, you might still need the Z87 motherboard though - that's not really something to consider anyway.

In gaming, the graphics card is the most important thing for most games. If you can afford it, then the Intel CPU will give you the best power, at a cost though. However, AMD will give you a little less power for a lot cheaper. AMD tend to have more cores but each core is weaker than Intel. The result is that programs which use few cores, Intel will do better, but programs which are programmed to avail of all the cores, AMD will surpass the equivalent Intel CPUs. For example, AMD offers 6 cores (FX6300) for a similar price to what Intel is offering their i3s for (dual core with hyperthreading). AMD also has 8 cores (FX8320) for cheaper than Intel's quad cores.
Not so sure about AMD still? Well both the Xbox1 and PS4 will be 8-core AMD CPU, so games are likely to start moving towards using more cores. We're already seeing it in a few games such as Crysis 3 (more results with Ivy CPUs here).

If you have the money, yeah, I'd go for Intel since they'll offer you best performance across most areas right now. Expect to pay in excess of €300 though.
With AMD it can be done below €200 if you want to stick to your budget and still get an excellent system. You can overclock all AMD CPUs as well BTW.

jamo2oo9

Thanks Monotype! That was a nicely explained answer. I think I'll wait another month to order a bundle as I have a nice bonus coming up soon. What are the differences between the different Z87 chipsets? I can see some cheap and then not so cheap. What chipset does anybody recommend on getting for i5 4670K which will be OC'd in the near future? The games I play are CPU intensive rather than GPU based. These include FSX, FS9, EuroTruck Simulator and mostly web games.

Monotype

There aren't different Z87 chipsets, as far as I am aware. They usually only do that on lower end boards to bring in additional features and AMD do it a bit too on lower end boards - mix and match around parts.

Motherboards have different features... generally you pay more if you want more, although there's always a few outliers. Paying more usually gets you extra slots for SLI/Crossfire, possibly slightly better overclocking, extra stuff in the box, more USB/graphics/LAN/eSATA/mSATA ports, buttons and whatever else. After a while it gets stupid because you're paying an extra €50 for some port you're never going to use and some shiny heatsinks.

This board looks okay and is one of the cheaper Z87s if you want a suggestion. There's few reviews of any board up yet, so you just have to assume that they'll overclock much the same, which is usually the case.
http://www.hardwareversand.de/DDR3/79686/MSI+Z87-G43%2C+ATX%2C+Sockel+1150.article

As far as I can see, any modern CPU runs FSX fine. However, it looks like that there's no CPU there that will run it very smoothly when you install every add-on and there's a lot of stuff happening on the screen. It's kind of a poor measure of a system though. You have to remember that this was released in 2006 when dual cores were only just coming out. You have an old engine with new stuff being added on, but still not optimised to use the new hardware available today (better GPUs, more RAM, multi-cored CPUs).
Still, I suppose if this is what you're after, then you might be better off with Intel.
You could also maybe consider searching for a second hand 2500K or 3570K to save some money instead of going with Haswell. Haswell's not turning out so great for overclocking and it looks like you really need to push the CPU as far as it goes for FSX.

jamo2oo9

I'm aware of the current issues of FSX regarding CPU's but there are other simulators that will most likely replace FSX such as X-Plane 10 and Prepar3D, both which I will like to migrate too in the near future.

The reason why I'm looking to buy a Haswell i5 is because I will no longer be playing console games so I'm basically entering the gaming world on PC's now. I already have BF3 and it really struggles on my current system of GTS 240, Pentium Dual Core @3.20Ghz and G41 Intel Chipset. I have secured a EVGA 660 Ti SC from a friend so I'm left with CPU and MoBo at the moment.

indough

it has already been replaced by microsoft flight, or is that awful or something? havent played the franchise in years

jamo2oo9

indough wrote: »

it has already been replaced by microsoft flight, or is that awful or something? havent played the franchise in years

Flight was a total flop. Microsoft shut down the group that developed it after a few months it was released. It was developed as an arcade game which wasn't any good to anybody in the flight simming community so we've looked at Lockheed Martin's Prepar3D software which is almost identical to FSX and is nearly 100% compatible with the current add-ons available on the market today. X-Plane is coming along nicely but there's a huge difference between coding for FSX/P3D and X-Plane.

jamo2oo9

Okay I'm just after having a browse through the forums here and on overclockers.co.uk and everyone's saying that Haswell isn't good for OC'ing so I think I will sideline the Haswell upgrade for a while, maybe up to Christmas. For now, I would be looking at a possible i7 IvyBridge CPU that is overclockable and same with the MoBo. Anybody have any suggestions? Would like the cheapest there is.

Monotype

jamo2oo9 wrote: »

The reason why I'm looking to buy a Haswell i5 is because I will no longer be playing console games so I'm basically entering the gaming world on PC's now. I already have BF3 and it really struggles on my current system of GTS 240, Pentium Dual Core @3.20Ghz and G41 Intel Chipset. I have secured a EVGA 660 Ti SC from a friend so I'm left with CPU and MoBo at the moment.

I'm not surprised that it struggles with BF3; your problem is the graphics card. That's not much better than current integrated graphics (APUs anyway). The GTS 240 wasn't even a great card for the time as nVidia had recycled much the same card for three generations!

Graphics card is more important by far than CPU for the bulk of games. There'll always be a few exceptions like Flight Simulator, but it's not the rule - it's old technology that's been patched with new graphics tacked on rather than overhauled. It's not remotely efficient.

Hope they allow a hotlink...

From here: http://www.techspot.com/review/458-battlefield-3-performance/page7.html
You can see beyond a certain point, that CPU actually makes little difference in BF3. Now, there's a pretty good chance that these are offline results, and there'll be extra strain when you're playing with a load of people. You know, you'd probably notice the difference straight away if you put that 660ti into your old system - although that CPU would be likely to be the shortfall in the system at that point.

I think that you're probably at risk of falling into the trap of being new to PC games and thinking that it means you need to spend €2,000 on the best Alienware. Anything else won't run your games. Your allocation of money is more important than how much you spend.

I should just check your other components, that they're okay - what PSU and HDD do you have?

jamo2oo9

I have three separate HDDs, 500GB, 120GB, 1TB. I use the 120 for system back ups/time capsule in case of HDD failure or Windows crashing. My PSU is 1000W. Not sure what the make is. I'll check it tomorrow as I'm not home.


I've noticed on that barchart that AMD are just one FPS behind Intel CPUs. I think I should look more into that. Could you give me a suggestion list of what AMD CPU and MoBo I could get? i7 Ivy are looking quite dear now, dearer than i5 Haswell!

I bought the card two years as part of my custom build and I was more into CPU than GPU back then. I know that 660 Ti will make a massive difference when I put it into my system but I don't think it'll be used to its full extent unless I get a better CPU.

BTW I'm open to all suggestions really. Both intel and AMD. I will set the budget to €250 now.

Monotype

Okay, first of all, I should clarify:
The reason why the CPUs are so close in that chart is because beyond a certain point, the CPU is not going to make any difference - it's the graphics card that's holding the game back.

Imagine you're making a load of buns - you need 100g of flour, 1 egg and 100g of sugar for each one.
So 2 buns will need 200g of flour, 2 eggs, 200g of sugar,
3 buns will need 300g of flour, 3 eggs, 300g of sugar,... etc., you get the idea?

OK, now say if you have 9 eggs but as much sugar and flour as you want. You might be able to make 10 buns, maybe even 11, if you spread out the ingredients. But you're not going to be able to make 50 buns.

What I'm saying is that you could have the best CPU in the world and 64GB of RAM, but you're still going to need a graphics card that can handle the new games. Adding a bit of extra CPU power helps a little, adding faster RAM helps a little, but a faster graphics card usually helps quite a lot.

In the BF3 results, the CPUs are all the same because the game doesn't need any more CPU power.


Right, that's that idea out of the way. Next Intel i7s. i7s are not worth it for gaming. i7 = i5 + hyperthreading. Fewer games make use of Intel's hyperthreading than AMD's additional cores. Some games have even been known to have poorer results. You'd only be going i7 if you're encoding or folding or have some specific use for it.

After seeing some results around lately, I'm thinking that Haswell is not so great. If you saw a good deal for Ivy like second hand, you might be better of with that. The motherboards are good for Haswell though, and you have the opportunity to upgrade to broadwell.

Here's 4670K combination:
http://www.hardwareversand.de/DDR3/79686/MSI+Z87-G43,+ATX,+Sockel+1150.article
http://www.hardwareversand.de/Socket+1150/78027/Intel+Core+i5-4670K+Box%2C+LGA1150.article
~€330... you're just not going to fit that into €250.

3570K combination:
http://www.hardwareversand.de/Socket+1155/56296/Intel+Core+i5-3570K+Box%2C+LGA1155.article
http://www.hardwareversand.de/DDR3/59322/ASRock+Z77+Pro3%2C+Sockel+1155%2C+ATX.article
~€289

Here's a hexacore AMD:
http://www.hardwareversand.de/Socket+AM3/68997/AMD+FX-6300+Prozessor%2C+Boxed%2C+Sockel+AM3%2B.article
http://www.hardwareversand.de/DDR3/79812/ASRock+970+Pro3+R2.0%2C+AM3%2B%2C+ATX.article
~€166

Octocore AMD:
http://www.hardwareversand.de/Socket+AM3/68994/AMD+FX-8320+Prozessor%2C+Boxed%2C+Sockel+AM3%2B.article
http://www.hardwareversand.de/DDR3/79812/ASRock+970+Pro3+R2.0%2C+AM3%2B%2C+ATX.article
~€204

Octocore AMD with SLI board:
http://www.hardwareversand.de/Socket+AM3/68994/AMD+FX-8320+Prozessor%2C+Boxed%2C+Sockel+AM3%2B.article
http://www.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=48026
~€267
You don't have to spend quite that much on the board, just a lot of them are out of stock at the moment.

jamo2oo9

Okay, looking through those combos, I think I'll take Octocore AMD. Don't want to pay an extra €60 for SLI which will have no use for me. Just a question about the FX-8320, is it overclockable? 3.5 is a bit of a jump to what I have at 3.2 so I'd like to try 3.8Ghz for FSX if that's possible with AMD CPUs. I don't think I've heard of someone over clocking their AMD products before.

Okay I see your point on having a better graphics card is more important than CPU in terms of performance wise in gaming.

Gumbi

jamo2oo9 wrote: »

Okay, looking through those combos, I think I'll take Octocore AMD. Don't want to pay an extra €60 for SLI which will have no use for me. Just a question about the FX-8320, is it overclockable? 3.5 is a bit of a jump to what I have at 3.2 so I'd like to try 3.8Ghz for FSX if that's possible with AMD CPUs. I don't think I've heard of someone over clocking their AMD products before.

Okay I see your point on having a better graphics card is more important than CPU in terms of performance wise in gaming.

Stick a 28 euro hyper 212 on it and you'l have it at 4.5 :P

jamo2oo9

Good suggestion there! I'll definitely look into those fans. Just still want to know are FX-8320 overclockable?

marco_polo

jamo2oo9 wrote: »

Good suggestion there! I'll definitely look into those fans. Just still want to know are FX-8320 overclockable?

100% yeah, your very worst case is turning it into something a little bit faster than the FX8350 .

For a light overclock to 4.2 of thereabouts something like the Asus Extreme3 would be fine, but if you want to head north of 4.5 then its worth spending a bit more, something like what monotype suggested would be better

jamo2oo9

I think I'll stick to overclocking to 3.5-4Ghz as I don't want to put a strain on the card and it'll be my first time doing it.

Are there anything I could upgrade? Is my RAM okay? It's DDR3 at 4GB. Should I go up a bit more or is 4GB okay for current games?

marco_polo

jamo2oo9 wrote: »

I think I'll stick to overclocking to 3.5-4Ghz as I don't want to put a strain on the card and it'll be my first time doing it.

Are there anything I could upgrade? Is my RAM okay? It's DDR3 at 4GB. Should I go up a bit more or is 4GB okay for current games?

It probably fine for the time being really, especially if you close non essential apps while playing games, you can get another 4GB delivered for pretty cheap if needs be later. (You're PC will let you know when it needs more RAM )

Monotype

4GB is OK for now. I'd say we'll see more 64-bit games over the next while so 8GB could be useful quite soon. However, it's not high priority, especially since RAM has been going up lately.

All AMD CPUs are overclockable.
+1 on the suggestions above on getting a heatsink and picking an in-between board like the extreme 3 (Be sure to get the Revision 2 as it has a USB 3 header).

jamo2oo9

Cheers folks for all of your help. I really appreciate it! I'll be making the order next week or after that and I will post an update here to let you know of my progress.

Thanks all!

jamo2oo9

Okay, I was just about to order the AMD FX-8320 @3.5Ghz and ASRock 970 Extreme 3 but before purchasing it, I immediately noticed that the MoBo has PCI 2.0 slots. I have EVGA GTX 660 SC which uses PCI-E 3.0 slots. This means I can't use the MoBo suggested so does anyone have any other suggestions? (I'm planning to OC the CPU in future so it needs to be OC'able)

I'm also looking to upgrade my case as mine is quite small apparently. It was a tight fit putting my new GPU in yesterday and I don't like it the way all the cables are left to go nowhere else but underneath the GPU. So does anyone have a recommendation for a nice case. I'd like it to be ATX size and under E60. If possible, could the case be equipped with fans on the shell please.

Cheers

BloodBath

It's backwards compatible so you can use it still. There are no cards on the market going over the bandwidth of pcie2 yet. Your 660 will work perfectly in it.

As for the case this is good. It comes in a few colors and has other window options so look around. It comes with only 1 case fan though. Add more if you want better airflow. 2 additional ones should do.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/BitFenix-Shinobi-Midi-Tower-Chassis/dp/B004ULZA82/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372267343&sr=8-1&keywords=bitfenix+shinobi

jamo2oo9

You sure about that? I'm kinda of nervous about it.

For the case, that is very similar to the one I have except it doesn't have a fan and it's 2cm shorter in depth and height. Same in width. I'm kind of looking for something that won't be a tight fit inside my case when I put in my 660. 660 is huge in length (25-26cm in length. Very little room between it and the HDD tray.

BloodBath

Are you ordering from hwvs? This case is great for the money and comes with 3 stock fans. It comes in 2 other colors as well.

http://www.hardwareversand.de/Midi/73764/Cooltek+Antiphon+Black%2C+ohne+Netzteil.article

tuxy

jamo2oo9 wrote: »

You sure about that? I'm kinda of nervous about it.

Yes PCI-E 3.0 cards work just fine on a PCI-E 2.0 motherboard and you won't lose any performance unless you have a crazy expensive setup like running 3 high end cards.
Actually I'm running a GTX 770 which is a newer and faster card then what you have on a PCI-E 2.0 motherboard. I had not thought about it as it's not a issue.

jamo2oo9

Yeah I'm thinking of buying from HWV's. That case looks terrific! A little over budget but sure it's only E3. Hardly gonna break the bank!

jamo2oo9

Okay so I've ordered the components on Wednesday. Expecting them on Monday or Tuesday but my case came today. It's a Corsair Carbide 300R. In great condition considering I bought it from adverts.ie but anyway I want to ask something about my PSU. Previously the PSU was suspended at the top of my case, above the Motherboard and now it's at the bottom. However there is a side with a fan so that's facing up. Previously it was facing down towards the CPU. Will this be a problem or is it okay to have it upside down? Just want to check if its okay

tuxy

The fan on the psu should be facing down to line up with the vent at the bottom of the case. This way the fan will be taking in cool air from outside.

Rotate the psu 180 degrees.

jamo2oo9

tuxy wrote: »

The fan on the psu should be facing down to line up with the vent at the bottom of the case. This way the fan will be taking in cool air from outside.

Rotate the psu 180 degrees.

Cheers for that. Didn't see the vents at the bottom

jamo2oo9

Okay my motherboard came in yesterday and I was connecting the internal connectors leading to the front panel. These are power switch, LED and USB. The USB isn't alike other cases where they are 5x2 pin connectors with one in the corner missing. The one that came with my case Corsair Carbide 300R is 10x2 with one blocked. It won't fit into the three available USB pins on the motherboard. Where do I put it in?

Monotype

Sounds like a USB 3 cable.

What motherboard did you order?

Did you get the G43? That has a USB 3 connector. It's blue.

jamo2oo9

Monotype wrote: »

Sounds like a USB 3 cable.

What motherboard did you order?

The case is Corsair Carbide 300R and the motherboard is Gigabyte 970A-DS3

Monotype

Ah, OK. No USB 3 header on that. I probably would have suggested the Asrock Revision 2 ones which do come with USB headers. Edit: I did in post 24.

Not a huge worry, as you can still add in a PCI-E card to get those extra ports. €20 or so though... You'll get free delivery if you can bring the order to £25.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker®-Uspeed-Express-Connector-another/dp/B007SJGGAE/r

jamo2oo9

Do I need to have them connected or can I leave it out for the moment? I know it means that the front USB ports will be inop but I still have the back ones.

Monotype

No, you don't need them connected. It just means that they won't work.
That's not so bad if you have the USB 2 ports to use. A cheap way to get USB 3 functionality at the front is connect a USB 3 cable to the back ones.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Max-Value-2m-USB-Type/dp/B00692EFNQ/

Easy, more more cable mess.

jamo2oo9

Monotype wrote: »

No, you don't need them connected. It just means that they won't work.
That's not so bad if you have the USB 2 ports to use. A cheap way to get USB 3 functionality at the front is connect a USB 3 cable to the back ones.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Max-Value-2m-USB-Type/dp/B00692EFNQ/

Easy, more more cable mess.

I think I'll manage for now. After all I do have 8 USB ports at the back that are functioning so there's plenty to go around for me. Thanks for the help!

tuxy

Monotype wrote: »

N A cheap way to get USB 3 functionality at the front is connect a USB 3 cable to the back ones.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Max-Value-2m-USB-Type/dp/B00692EFNQ/

Easy, more more cable mess.

Why would he need a Micro-b usb connection, what does that type of connection connect to?

Monotype

Ah crap, that's the wrong one.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Max-Value-USB-Extension-Cable/dp/B00692ED1U

jamo2oo9

Okay CPU finally came in the post today after waiting for two weeks. Have it installed in the MoBo now and I started her up. Everything sounds fine but I can't get windows working properly. Window 7 is already installed on my hard drive from my previous PC. Is there something I need to do in BIOS. I tried Start Up Repair but its not working and keeps asking me to send info to Microsoft.

What should I do?

tuxy

New build so a fresh install of windows is highly recommended.

jamo2oo9

tuxy wrote: »

New build so a fresh install of windows is highly recommended.

I only have a license for one computer. Can I use it again?

Monotype

Yeah, you'll need a fresh install alright.

Is your old computer still working? If so, you can copy your activation over. See instructions in the Windows info link in my signature. You'll still need to install it from fresh again though.

If not, you'll have to install and ask Microsoft to authenticate it.

Edit:

jamo2oo9 wrote: »

I only have a license for one computer. Can I use it again?

A retail license? Yes, you can use it again.

Edit 2: Actually, I don't know if the activation copy thing will work. I've only used to reinstall to the same computer. Usually when switching from 32-bit to 64-bit.
You mightn't have to call Microsoft if you're lucky, but it doesn't take too long if you do. You'll only be doing this after you're finished installing. Back up any files that you need from the hard drive first.

jamo2oo9

Monotype wrote: »

Yeah, you'll need a fresh install alright.

Is your old computer still working? If so, you can copy your activation over. See instructions in the Windows info link in my signature. You'll still need to install it from fresh again though.

If not, you'll have to install and ask Microsoft to authenticate it.

Edit:



A retail license? Yes, you can use it again.

Edit 2: Actually, I don't know if the activation copy thing will work. I've only used to reinstall to the same computer. Usually when switching from 32-bit to 64-bit.
You mightn't have to call Microsoft if you're lucky, but it doesn't take too long if you do. You'll only be doing this after you're finished installing. Back up any files that you need from the hard drive first.

I have the CD that came with my previous build. It's a OEM System Builder Pack, intended for system builders ONLY. That's what it says on the cover. Is that the one?

EDIT: got it installed and it appears to be working. Thanks for the help!

tuxy

An OEM key can only be used on one system.

jamo2oo9

tuxy wrote: »

An OEM key can only be used on one system.

I seem to have it working on my new build.

I'm having a problem with the screen resolution. The programmes look funny and rather large. How can I change this. I've changed the resolution to its max, 1280x1024. The monitor is connected via a VGA graphics adapter.

Another thing, I can't get wifi even though I have the wireless adapter plugged into the MoBo and installed the drivers for it. Any suggestions?

Sorry if this is annoying you but it's my first time setting up a new build.

tuxy

No problems, that's what we are here for.
Do you have the aerial connected to the wifi adapter?

Do you have the latest drivers installed for your gpu, get them from either nvidia or amd depending on your make of card.