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Is it safe to power on a motherboard outside of its case?

I have a new motherboard which needs a BIOS update to support a new CPU.

Thankfully I have an old (compatible) CPU handy. My plan is to install the old CPU, update the BIOS, then install the new CPU.

I'd prefer not to have to mount the motherboard in a case just to do the BIOS update bit.

Is it safe to power up the motherboard outside of its case? My understanding is that the case provides grounding for the motherboard – could the lack of grounding be an issue?

What tools to test the reliability and stability of a newly built PC?

Just curious what everyone uses to stress test their machines.

How safe is building a computer yourself?

I'm interested in getting a new desktop computer soon, and I'm wondering whether I should build it or buy it. I'm very good with software, but I don't have much experience with hardware (recently, I successfully tore apart my Toshiba laptop to replace the fan and add new thermal grease, so I at least do have some experience).

I'm worried that if I build it myself, I'll spend ~$600 on parts and get a non-working computer. I'd rather not waste that much money if it is somewhat likely that it may not work. How safe is it to build it myself?

What's the best way to spray paint the inside of my case?

I was just wanting to spray my case black and someone told me that if the inside is not "grounded" something could quite possibly short out and/or fry. Just wondering if this is true and what type of spray paint I should use etc. My system is an Intel Core 2 Duo, ASUS P5KPL-CM mobo, Gigabyte 720W PSU etc.

Five year old unopened boxed CPU – is the stock thermal compound still good?

I have obtained an unopened, sealed, boxed CPU dating back to 2009. It’s an Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 with heatsink + thermal compound pre-applied. Is the stock thermal compound still OK to use after five years on the shelf?

Hooking up my power switch/reset switch/LEDs

I'm working on building a computer (first time for me). There are several plugs that I need to connect to the motherboard (Power LED, reset switch, etc). Of the two wires, they are either:

1. Color and white (reset switch, power LED, HDD LED)
2. red and black (speaker, power switch)

The manual for the motherboard has a nice diagram of where to plug them in, but has them labeled + or -. Which colors are positive, and which are negative?

How to build a quiet computer from scratch?

I like to build my own computers, but because I go for high spec parts they always end up being quite noisy.

I am always jealous of computers I use at work as they always seem very very quiet. However, I look on the suppliers website and they usually have a major caveat, such as no room for extra memory or no extra PCI slots.

Is it possible to build high spec PC's which run very quietly?

How do we assemble a computer properly?

As a follow-up question for advice when buying a computer, I would like to get another thing clear:

How do we assemble a computer properly?

• In what order do I need to put the hardware I bought into my computer?

• Do I need to watch out for static electricity? How can I avoid it?

• What are the common pitfalls when assembling a computer? How do I prevent damage?

• What is the bare minimum I need to connect to test that it works?

Does vertical position affect the lifespan or integrity of a hard drive?

I've noticed on many small PC cases that the hard drives are installed vertically. In midi cases, towers and others of a larger housing, they are in the horizontal position.

What impact on a hard drive does a vertical position have? Does it affect the life? Is it more prone to errors?

(Not of SSDs (solid-state drive), just plain hard drive with all its mechanical parts inside.)

Very high-pitched noise when computer does something intense?

"Intense" is the best word I can use to describe it because I'm not sure what it is, whether it's RAM, GPU or CPU.

If I pan the camera in unity:

A high pitched noise issues from the computer. The picosecond I start panning the sound starts. Stops the picosecond I stop panning.

If I start an infinite loop:

2.0.0p247 :016 > x = 1
 => 1 
2.0.0p247 :017 > while x < 2 do
2.0.0p247 :018 >     puts 'huzzah!'
2.0.0p247 :019?>   end
huzzah!
huzzah!
huzzah!

An identical high pitched noise can be heard. I don't think it's the GPU due to this simple experiment. Or any monitor-weirdness (although the sound does sound like one of those old CRT monitors if you're old enough to be young when those things were about) The CPU? Or maybe my SSD? It's my first SSD and the first time I've heard this noise.

Should I be worried? Regardless, what's causing this sound? I can't think what would cause such high frequency vibrations.

I built the PC myself. Not enough heat paste on the CPU? Too much? Just no idea what's going on.

Info:
CPU Type    QuadCore Intel Core i5-3570K, 3800 MHz (38 x 100)
Motherboard Name    Asus Maximus V Extreme
Flash Memory Type   Samsung 21nm TLC NAND
Video Adapter   Asus HD7770

What is a normal/safe temperature for an i7 2600K CPU? [closed]

I just completed my first build, and while I was finagling around in the BIOS I noticed, with some concern, that my CPU was sitting around 60 °C. Even when I set the maximum temperature to 55 °C, it didn't seem capable of going below 58 °C. Judging by the various threads I've found (for example) this is a little absurdly high for an idle temperature. I'm using the stock fan, by the way, which seems to go up only to 2000 rpm.

1. So ought I be concerned? I haven't installed the operating system yet, so I don't know how the temperature would change if I put some strain on it. But frankly I don't want to risk putting strain on it at this point.

2. What is the best way to get my CPU to chill out? I'm thinking I'll be investing in an aftermarket CPU fan at this point, so what should I do? Also advice on efficient airflow, etc. would be great.

My specifications:

• Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge
• Asus P8P67 Deluxe LGA 1155
• SuperClocked GeForce GTX 570
• G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8 GB (2 x 4 GB)
• Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500 GB internal hard drive
• COOLER MASTER Silent Pro Gold Series 800 W
• COOLER MASTER 690 (it's got room for three more fans, if that helps)

Is my recently acquired GPU broken?

A little more than a week ago, I acquired an ASUS Strix GTX970 4GB OC. I've been noticing alot of sporadic stuttering whilst playing games and I'm kind of puzzled to what it could be. Very frustrating.

I've monitored my system with HWiNFO64 and saw no abnormalities in CPU, GPU and RAM usage. Nor did I see any in CPU and GPU temperature. A friend of mine said I should look for abnormalities in temperature as he suspected that throttling would be the issue. I've also run Furmark but did not observe any faults either.

What I am noticing while booting up or playing games, is that the VRAM usage indicator on ASUS's GPU Tweak 2 goes no further than 6% an most of the times just idles at 0%, which is why I suspect the GPU to not function correctly. Could there be something I've missed?

Could it be the the powersupply that I recently purchased? I felt the need to purchase a new powersupply as my old one only delivered only 25A on the 12V rail. The minimum seemed to have been 28A and it said 38A was recommended on the card's box. I had no money to buy me a really good one, so temporarily went for a Corsair CX600M. I know that the chance of the powersupply being the culprit is very slim, but I thought I should state the potentially necessary.

I'll state the specifications of my system below to give you guys more clarity on this matter and help you answer my (very) vague question:

• Antec GX300 case
• ASUS P8H67 Motherboard
• Intel i5 2400 processor
• ASUS Strix GTX970 4GB OC
• Mushkin 240GB SSD
• Samsung 500GB 5400rpm HDD
• Corsair CX600M PSU

The system was recently clean-installed with Windows 7 Ultimate edition. Games tested include GTA V, MS Flight Simulator X and CS:GO.

EDIT

As suggested by Psycogeek, I have checked the current Link Width in the Main Board section of CPU-Z and saw something that might be remarkable:

The card installed into the lower PCI-E slot of the motherboard. Could this slot be defective? Should I try the other slot?

Why are so few SSD 3.5 inches? [closed]

I was looking around for a cheaper SSD on Newegg and the time I'm writing this they have almost 300 2.5-inch SSD but only 12 3.5-inch ones, 9 of which are sold out. Why are there so few 3.5-inch SSD? Is it just that the demand for these drives is mostly in laptops? Why should I have to pay more for a (physically) smaller drive and then have to pay more again for a mounting piece to stick it in my computer?

Do errors in Memtest86+ definitively mean something is wrong with my RAM?

I recently built a new computer for somebody. Everything seemed fine at first, but when I went to install the OS (tried both Windows XP and Windows 7), both installers would fail. XP failed with a BSOD, Windows 7 just said it could not read some file and the disk may be corrupt, although one time it BSOD'd as well.

I decided the next logical step would be to run Memtest86+ on it, so I booted into it and let it run for a while. I watched it for about 5 minutes with no errors reported, but I came back 45 minutes to an hour later and it was reporting over 15,000 errors. I opened it back up and removed/reseated the RAM. I even put them in the other set of DIMMs (dual channel with 4 DIMMs total).

When it came back up, Windows 7 installed and seemingly ran correctly. I thought "problem solved", but now, a day or so later, the system is back to BSODing. I have yet to run Memtest86+ on it again (haven't had time), but I suspect the same thing will happen.

Is it safe to say that the RAM I bought is faulty? Are there any other tests I should do to make sure that's the problem?

Why does my computer freeze and make a terrible buzzing noise every once in a while?

Twice now my computer has frozen, accompanied by a terrible, angry, buzzing/beeping noise through the speakers. It is my first build, and as such I'm not really educated enough to even make a guess as to what is causing it. It doesn't respond to any keyboard or mouse input and I end up needing to reset it. Here's what I've noticed:

1. It has only happens when I am online
2. It has only happens when a flash applet is running (once on chesscube.com, once on piq.codeus.net)

I know that might not mean anything, considering it's only happened twice, but I've put in like 20 hours on Steam and maybe 3 hours browsing online, so these crashes do seem connected with it. I've checked the temps and voltages after rebooting, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Here's my build:

• intel i7 2600k
• p8p67 deluxe mobo
• gtx 570 superclocked
• ripjaw RAM
• 800W power supply
• CM 690 case
• Zahlman cpu fan
• hard drive, disk drive etc.

All my drivers are up to date.

For some reason, I don't know why, I suspect my graphics card. Does anybody have any insight as to what might be causing this?

EDIT: also it has only happened when I've not been using head phones, as I only use my monitor speakers when not gaming. Idk if that's important, but there it is.