Just bought a new build-your-own PC, wondering if it will work OK

I've been using a pre-built budget gaming PC bought in 2012 and it's well beyond it's prime. So, earlier today I dipped my toe into the build-your-own-PC waters and I'm finding it both interesting and confusing. I bought the following items and am waiting for delivery:

Case: MasterBox 5
Cooling: Deepcool Gammaxx 400
CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake Quad-Core 4.2 GHz LGA 1151 91W BX80677I77700K
Graphics: Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 AMP! Edition ZT-P10800C-10P
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) F4-2666C15D-16GVB (DDR 4)
Motherboard: ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII HERO/Whetstone LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI M.2 USB 3.1 Z170 ATX
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 550 G2 220-G2-0550-Y1
Storage: SanDisk SSD PLUS (480GB)
Storage: WD Caviar Blue WD10EZEX (1 TB)

This is pulled mostly from a "Tom's Hardware" suggested $1500 build for July of this year, but with a different motherboard and CPU. Did I screw up big time in one or more pieces of this set, or will it all be likely to work together at least reasonably well when I go to put things together?

My guess is that POE will run just fine on this rig. Is that guess correct? On a related point, does this look VR-ready?

I have other peripherals already, including an older, but still working DVD player. Naturally, I need to buy Windows 10 Home and do a clean install with it.

Any insight you can provide would be appreciated.

The i7 7700k is a Kaby Lake-S CPU, and your motherboard has the Z170 chipset. The Z170 chipset requires a BIOS update to support such CPUs. Without that update it will fail to boot. In theory, your board may have it pre-installed. Or it could be older stock which predates the release of the update. I've no way or knowing. Do you have a Skylake CPU available if you need one?

Personally I would've gone for a Z270 motherboard just for the peace of mind.

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Sarno wrote:

The i7 7700k is a Kaby Lake-S CPU, and your motherboard has the Z170 chipset. The Z170 chipset requires a BIOS update to support such CPUs. Without that update it will fail to boot. In theory, your board may have it pre-installed. Or it could be older stock which predates the release of the update. I've no way or knowing. Do you have a Skylake CPU available if you need one?

Personally I would've gone for a Z270 motherboard just for the peace of mind.

Based on your feedback, I did some more reading and found what you're mentioning here. I'll speak with Newegg customer support tomorrow morning and see about fixing that up; nothing has been shipped yet, so hopefully the conversation will go well.

I picked out the following replacement motherboard:

MSI Z270 GAMING PRO CARBON LGA 1151 Intel Z270 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX

The reviews I found for it seem strong and it seems to be a good match for the CPU.

My guess is that the answers to other questions (with the new motherboard choice) would be POE can be run on high settings with no problems and that this DIY build should be VR capable.

Hopefully it works out in the end and thank you for your help!

You're spending far more than you need to for PoE to run well.

"VR ready" is mostly a marketing gimmick.

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Sarno wrote:

You're spending far more than you need to for PoE to run well.

"VR ready" is mostly a marketing gimmick.

I have no doubt that I'd be overspending if getting POE to run well was the main point of the purchase. Still, it's a useful reference point for a number of games that I currently play and I figured I'd better ask something related to POE when posting here. :)

I wasn't sure how much "VR Ready" meant, so thank you for clarifying.

been surprised to see the game now even runs on a gtx480 after my gtx780 died.

getting a new gtx1070 from gigabyte soon but the real problem seems to be getting a monitor that works well woth the respective card and gsync.

you're using your old monitor? reading reviews on the internet make it look like a good decision ;-)

also, it's the worst time to buy gpus at the moment with people driving up prices by using them for bitcoin mining. thats why i went for a 1070 instead of a 1080.

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vio wrote:

been surprised to see the game now even runs on a gtx480 after my gtx780 died.

getting a new gtx1070 from gigabyte soon but the real problem seems to be getting a monitor that works well woth the respective card and gsync.

you're using your old monitor? reading reviews on the internet make it look like a good decision ;-)

also, it's the worst time to buy gpus at the moment with people driving up prices by using them for bitcoin mining. thats why i went for a 1070 instead of a 1080.

I ran into exactly the problem with stockouts you mentioned, as the GPU I ordered suddenly went out of stock and I ended up getting backordered.

I couldn't get clarity about when that might clear up, so I canceled that order and ended up ordering the card from another vendor.

* Edit: I had a misadventure along the way, as I at first substituted a faster and more expensive GPU that I found out (later) would need a bigger power supply and perhaps a bigger / different case. I canceled that order and went for the original pick for a video card instead.

Wow, this "build your own PC" stuff is complicated.

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EnjoyTheJourney wrote:

Wow, this "build your own PC" stuff is complicated.

Heh.

Yes, it can get complicated quickly. However, by building your own machine, you achieve 2 things at least that you wouldn't otherwise get with just buying a box from where ever. You KNOW exactly what is in your box; each and every last little detail. This makes it soooo much easier down the line then when/if you want to upgrade something. And the other thing you get is the knowledge gained from researching everything. That in and of itself is probably worth it's weight in gold (well, if you could weigh that).

Stay the course...soak up as much info as you can; it will come in handy more often than you would think.

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EnjoyTheJourney wrote:

Wow, this "build your own PC" stuff is complicated.

Heh.

Yes, it can get complicated quickly. However, by building your own machine, you achieve 2 things at least that you wouldn't otherwise get with just buying a box from where ever. You KNOW exactly what is in your box; each and every last little detail. This makes it soooo much easier down the line then when/if you want to upgrade something. And the other thing you get is the knowledge gained from researching everything. That in and of itself is probably worth it's weight in gold (well, if you could weigh that).

Stay the course...soak up as much info as you can; it will come in handy more often than you would think.

This is pretty much on the mark, I think. It was a good learning experience, and fortunately with a good result in the end, as well.

My new PC runs all the games I play far better than my older, budget PC.

There are a few issues that may or may not be because of the upgrade. First, mouse cursors have become unreliable, taking on odd shapes from time to time (and turning into two smaller cursors sometimes, with the one on the left actually working and the one on the right doing nothing). Shutting the PC off works temporarily, but the cursor problem reasserts itself after a while.

Second, when running a Zana timed daily mission yesterday my computer was doing beautifully and then POE suddenly froze and then I got dumped into windows about 10-15 seconds later. I play hardcore so it was one of those "I wonder what will happen ..." moments, but my character made it out alive. Finally, whenever my monitor goes blank because the PC isn't being used long enough for the "screen sleep" function to activate, I need to power the monitor off and power it on again, and then press various keyboard keys and do mouse clicks to see what's on screen again.

My guess is that due to the complexity of upgrades like this, it you get through with zero issues then you're fairly lucky. I'm confident that I'll figure out fixes for these issues, at some point.

Following up ...

My new gaming rig works and it's really quick. But, there have been problems when playing POE and with the internet (lockups, getting kicked from POE to the login screen multiple times per day, slowdowns followed by speed ups while playing POE, ...). I've run diagnostics and the temps and operating parameters seem fine for both the CPU and GPU.

A tech at my internet company suggested that probably my surge protector had some static electricity build-up and he got me to unplug the modem power cord and the connection to phone line. The internet got dramatically better right after that. Then, after some more hours, I noticed that performance was deteriorating again (speed ups, slowdowns, latency spikes, suddenly getting kicked from POE to the login screen, ...).

Our home was up to code when it was bought, so there should be ground plugs where the computer is plugged into the wall; it is a 3-pronged plug into which my surge protectors are plugged. The most likely culprit does indeed seem to be the surge protector (which is old, I didn't realize how that might be an issue).

So, long story short, I started reading about surge protectors and ended up reading about HDMI protection, uninterruptible power sources, ... Is there a simple-yet-effective-and-not-overly-expensive option that somebody might recommend?

Any guidance provided would be helpful and appreciated.