I must be stupid (shut up Mark).

I have 8 ram slots, and a quad channel board. I can't get the system to boot with any more than 2 ram sticks installed.  6 empty ram slots just bothers me to no end.

Although, I have read that for gaming, over 16 GB ram is overkill.

I was given an Oculus Rift for Christmas. Runs real well on a 24 core system with an 8 GB gfx card. I is happy....

Now why would I do that, and miss out o the opportunity to agree  with you?

As for not being able to populate all your RAM slots, I had the same issue with my Intel i7 4790K rig.... wouldn't boot with all 4 slots populated.  I had no idea at the time as to why my rig would not boot up, but a friend who was visiting explained it, took out 2 of the sticks and fired it up.  I should have watched what he did after that (was busy with another guest) but he went into the BIOS, made some adjustments and rebooted with all 4 sticks in place. 

I imagine there would be some instructions on how to/do it somewhere on the net, it would just be a matter of typing in the right search terms, I expect

So, here are some of the pics I promised.

Firstly the new CPU, GPU and mobo....

These arrived a few days ago and now I'm just awaiting the RAM delivery.  As you can see, I took the mobo and graphics card out of their boxes.... cos I figured 3 unopened boxes weren't all that interesting on their ownsomes.

Next up is the other hardware I'm putting in the box.  Now some of you will think that I'm not going to get it all in there, but I have planned it all out and it'll fit/install very nicely.

The two larger items at top left: First is a 6 bay internal hot swap SSD caddy, and behind it is a USB front bay with 5 x USB3 ports, 2 x USB2 ports.  The 3 items to the far right belong to my SoundBlaster XZR.

The others are:

2 x PCI 4x SATA3 cards, to be mounted on the PCIE to PCI adapter

1 x PCIE 5 x USB3 card w. 2 internals;

1 x PCIE video capture card;

2 x PCIE x 4 PCIE riser;

1 x PCIE x 2 20 pin USB3 adapter;

1 x PCIE IDE adapter;

2 x IDE to SATA adapters;

1 x PCIE to PCI x 2 adapter;

1 x Crucial 525GB M.2 SSD;

1 x PCIE riser expansion card x 4 USB3;

I x PCI Winfast TV tuner card [still undecided on it, though].

Theres's also 4 x 120/2 x 240GB SSDs; plus 2 x 525GB SSDs and 15 HDDs of varying sizes.  Some of those HDDs are in fact IDE, as may be evident by the IDE converters in the pic.  I thought 'why the hell not use 'em'.  They've been packed away doing nothing for so long, and I have a big enough case to accommodate them, so why not.

Waste not want not, that's what they say.  

So this is the big beastie as it is with the Intel gear still installed.... just the HDDs have been removed.  I thought it'd be nice to show a before and after shot

The pics were done on Shaunna's iPhone 7 and aren't too bad considering the poor light, etc.

Something else, too!  In having a look recently at the updated Cosmos II, I'm so glad I got mine when I did.  Apparently the original is to be phased out and replaced with versions I think are nowhere near as good visually, aesthetically.  Yeah, there are some nice innovations, but the entire look has lost class and isn't as sleek looking.  Sorry CoolerMaster, but I'm sticking with the one I have.

Starkers, is your Crucial M.2 SSD NVMe? If not, you ought to consider saving your pennies to get one. NVMe uses PCIe lanes, up to 4 and has a theoretical data rate of 32Gb/ sec compared to SATA based SSD's which are 6Gb/sec.

Also, check out your M.2 slots. They are not always the same; some motherboards have one (NVMe) that connects directly to the CPU.

As well, sometimes you have to configure the slot to be 4X rather than the default 2X in the BIOS.

Speaking of the BIOS, you should install your OS in the new UEFI format rather than the old BIOS format; it's a bit faster booting and copying files and is a bit more secure among other things. There's a few videos on YouTube showing you how (using a USB stick and copying your OS onto it along with Intel Rapid Storage Technology). 

Yeah, I think so!  Not absolutely sure just now, being I purchased it a while ago, but I have an idea that I opted for one stated in the specs it had data transfers of up to 32GB.  I'll have a look in the morning, though, to be sure, to be sure.  If not, it's a likely purchase in the nearish future.

Thanks for the BIOS tip, and changing from 2 lanes to 4, I appreciate it.  It's something that I would not have thought of during setup.  As for installing the OS under a UEFI BIOS, I've been doing that since Win 8 and have continued through Win 10.  There are some who reckon it's not a good idea [MS Back-doors and Big Brother, etc], but I've not had any issues running with it, so will continue to do so.

No, unfortunately not.  I was looking at a NVMe M.2 at the time, but decided on the Crucial 525 GB instead because it came inside budget restrictions.  Thing is, it won't go to waste because I could easily install it in my Level 10 rig when I decide to purchase a NVMe SSD for the new build somewhere down the track.

On another note, I copped some criticism from an Intel fanboi about switching back to AMD.  He said it was a foolish move and a step or three down from the i7 4790K. 

Well that was his opinion, but the store owner, who also has a Ryzen 1700, soon shut that part of the conversation down, previously having a 4790K and switching to the Ryzen 1700 as well.  According to him, his [now] slightly overclocked Ryzen 1700 beats his 4790K hands down, in gaming, workstation commands and multi-media events.

After listening to that I'm not too perturbed about not waiting and going with a Ryzen 1800X or a Threadripper instead, thought I'd have been waiting a hell of a lot longer, had I done so.   I mightn't have the latest and greatest available, not that I could afforded it anyway, but the Ryzen 1700; the ASUS mobo; the RAM and graphics card will certainly meet all my needs and expectations..... and then there's all those add-ins, making it the go-to PC I always wanted.

Well my RAM arrived today and now I will begin rebuilding this magnificent beastie.  However, because this will be my last build, and I want it to be top notch, posting pics of the end result will take a while since I've ordered various accessories [colour coded cable ties, routers; conduits; fans and lighting] to give it a truly professional look. Some of those items are coming from China, etc, so I may not get them until early in the new year.

Anyway, I've gone for a red and black colour scheme... again, and it will look fabulous [if I do say so myself]. With all that I'm adding to the previous setup, there will be a lot more leads and cables, so my plan is to have them well ordered and locked in place so there's absolutely nothing loose to interfere with airflow, etc.

Yeah, I know, many will say 'why bother, when the case is closed nobody will see it', but I'll know what's going on inside.... and I am a bit of a perfectionist.  Besides, I want bragging rights for one of the tidiest builds, LoL.  I mean, just look at the pic of the previous build.... tidy as and yet completely functional.  Yes, it's going to take me longer to complete, but that's not important.  So what if it takes me a day or so longer due to a bit of trial and error, as long as I get the result I want.

Now bugger off and let me get to work.      

I will tell you now that, price for price, the Ryzen will treat you well. Intel is barely, if that, better in performance over AMD, but now that AMD is hyperthreading, the cost of Intel isn't worth the minimal performance gain.

 Running a Ryzen 5 1600 (6 core hypered to 12) on a rig running Oculus Rift, and a 12 core (hypered to 24) Xeon running HTC Vive, I love em both...lol.

I haven't really tested them otherwise. Just the VR stuff.

These two rigs are VR mainly, rigs. Steam VR and HTC Vive run well on the Xeon system.  Althought, for some odd reason, I get messages on both rigs that they don't meet the recommended requirements.

Not sure I get that, since they both surpass the recommended requirements. Bothe have 16 GB ram, and the Oculus system has a 3 GB Nvidia 1060 OC gfx card, the Vive system has an 8 GB Radeon card.

I've read several articles that say the same thing.... that AMD has gained much ground with Ryzen and more than gives Intel a run for its money.  Had to run some errands late yesterday and earlier today, so I've not started my build as yet, but according to Clint [ the PC store owner] I won't be disappointed with the Ryzen 1700., given that it is a great overclocker and maintains higher clock speeds using the stock cooler than previous versions ever did.

At one point, Clint had his 1700 almost rivaling the 1800x but thought better of it, given the heat it was generating, and wound it back to just over the 1700x to be safe.  Had the rig been liquid cooled, though, I believe he would have been able to maintain the higher clock speed at a cooler and more stable level.  Thing is, mine has the stock air cooler as well, so I very much doubt I'll be messing around with upper limit clock speeds.  I do have a decent liquid cooler, but that will stay with my i7 4970K for now.

Well I've begun.... 'and about fechen time', I hear from the peanut gallery.  Well that's okay, I still have accessories coming from China, and they won't be here for a while, so it's not like I'm in a hurry, is it?

Anyway, I've stripped out the Intel CPU and mobo, etc, and now I'm cleaning out the case.... and it's dirty.  It seems no matter how well you clean and maintain your PC, dust and crap finds its way into places you can't reach/get at, and it's only when you pull everything apart that you notice just how much dust and crap it has collected.  One thing is for sure, this build will have better dust filters on every fan and grill.

So enough of that and back to business.  Tonight I plan to install the new mobo, CPU and RAM, then install the front panel items and return the HDDs/SSDs to their respective slots.  As I do not have all the cables, connectors and conduits, etc, I won't be able to hook it all up tonight, but I do have some and at least I've made a start.

Oh, and there's one thing I WON'T be doing.... and that's a Jafo,  Now you all may well ask, what's a Jafo, and that's quite simple.  A Jafo [in PC building terms] is when you hide a multitude of cabling sins behind closed side panels and pretend they're not there.  Well that's it.... and I ain't doing one.... hence all the bits n' bobs I ordered from China and elsewhere to make it a classy looking rig.

The arse end of my machine ain't that bad....the rack of six HD bays were already pre-plumbed....so there was no room for me to fuck them up anyway...