System Build Time Suggestions From Experience

[MentalAcetylide]

Ok, I'm almost at the point now where I'm just going to pick up all of the parts from the shop and have someone else do the assembly. Most of the parts have been in for the past month and the only thing we were waiting on was an SSD storage drive and an APC battery backup unit. I also had the assurance that the system would be ready before the holidays. Called today and nope, it won't be ready. I was pissed, to say the least, but do understand that shit happens. Nevertheless, I did make it clear to them that if the build isn't completed by the next deadline regardless of what else crops up, I would be collecting the parts and have someone else complete the build in my area. Most of the parts(motherboard, CPU, RAM, RTX 3090, keyboard, monitor, speakers, case, etc.) I've already confirmed that they were acquired & new when I visited the shop a while back and looked over them. These are the parts:
*CASE: Lian Li O11DXL-X O11 Dynamic XL ROG Certified (Black) ATX Full Tower Gaming Computer Case
*CASE/RADIATOR FANS: Thermaltake Riing Quad 12 RGB Radiator Fan TT Premium Edition x10.
*PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 T2, 80+ TITANIUM 1600W
*MOTHERBOARD: MSI Creator TRX40 Motherboard
*CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
*CPU COOLER: Asus Ryujin 360
*RAM: DDR4-3200MHz CL14-14-14-34 1.35V 128GB (8x16GB)
*OS DRIVE: 2TB Rocket Q4 NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 Internal SSD Solid State Drive with Heatsink.
*STORAGE DRIVE: 4TB SSD (unknown at this time)
*GRAPHICS CARDS: EVGA Kingpin RTX 3090 w/ 360mm radiator, RTX A6000

Software
OS: Windows 10 Pro

Peripherals
*MONITOR: ASUS ROG Swift PG278QR 27" 2560x1440 165 Hz 4ms Monitor
*KEYBOARD: Corsair K95 RGB Platinum XT Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
*MOUSE: Corsair Harpoon RGB Wireless Gaming Mouse
*Speakers: Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 THX Certified Computer Speaker System

So from a labor/time perspective, how long should it take to assemble, install drivers/software, test(24-hrs. at least I would say), and get it done? I know he opined about the amount of wiring involved. Brilliant guy, but from what I've been experiencing & the excuses I've been getting, I think there's an issue with time management on his part and if I don't knuckle down on him, there's no telling when the system will get finished and I'll just be stonewalled with more excuses. After all, we started the process of ordering parts way back in April and had all of the critical components for the past month so at least some of it should be assembled already. This is an expensive build for sure, but I don't see anything exotic about it beyond having more RGB fans and fancy RAM sticks in comparison to a build that has a custom water cooling setup for the CPU + 2 graphics cards.
This really sucks, to say the least. I can only hope my laptop lasts that long, lol

 

[maxfly]

Your rig should have been done 48hrs after the components were dropped off. The majority of that time would be used to test hardware and install software. The build itself shouldn't have taken more than 4 to 6 hours on the high side.

 

[Fangio1951]

Ok, I'm almost at the point now where I'm just going to pick up all of the parts from the shop and have someone else do the assembly. Most of the parts have been in for the past month and the only thing we were waiting on was an SSD storage drive and an APC battery backup unit. I also had the assurance that the system would be ready before the holidays. Called today and nope, it won't be ready. I was pissed, to say the least, but do understand that shit happens. Nevertheless, I did make it clear to them that if the build isn't completed by the next deadline regardless of what else crops up, I would be collecting the parts and have someone else complete the build in my area. Most of the parts(motherboard, CPU, RAM, RTX 3090, keyboard, monitor, speakers, case, etc.) I've already confirmed that they were acquired & new when I visited the shop a while back and looked over them. These are the parts:
*CASE: Lian Li O11DXL-X O11 Dynamic XL ROG Certified (Black) ATX Full Tower Gaming Computer Case
*CASE/RADIATOR FANS: Thermaltake Riing Quad 12 RGB Radiator Fan TT Premium Edition x10.
*PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 T2, 80+ TITANIUM 1600W
*MOTHERBOARD: MSI Creator TRX40 Motherboard
*CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
*CPU COOLER: Asus Ryujin 360
*RAM: DDR4-3200MHz CL14-14-14-34 1.35V 128GB (8x16GB)
*OS DRIVE: 2TB Rocket Q4 NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 Internal SSD Solid State Drive with Heatsink.
*STORAGE DRIVE: 4TB SSD (unknown at this time)
*GRAPHICS CARDS: EVGA Kingpin RTX 3090 w/ 360mm radiator, RTX A6000

Software
OS: Windows 10 Pro

Peripherals
*MONITOR: ASUS ROG Swift PG278QR 27" 2560x1440 165 Hz 4ms Monitor
*KEYBOARD: Corsair K95 RGB Platinum XT Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
*MOUSE: Corsair Harpoon RGB Wireless Gaming Mouse
*Speakers: Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 THX Certified Computer Speaker System

So from a labor/time perspective, how long should it take to assemble, install drivers/software, test(24-hrs. at least I would say), and get it done? I know he opined about the amount of wiring involved. Brilliant guy, but from what I've been experiencing & the excuses I've been getting, I think there's an issue with time management on his part and if I don't knuckle down on him, there's no telling when the system will get finished and I'll just be stonewalled with more excuses. After all, we started the process of ordering parts way back in April and had all of the critical components for the past month so at least some of it should be assembled already. This is an expensive build for sure, but I don't see anything exotic about it beyond having more RGB fans and fancy RAM sticks in comparison to a build that has a custom water cooling setup for the CPU + 2 graphics cards.
This really sucks, to say the least. I can only hope my laptop lasts that long, lol

hi m8,

So, has he installed/completed any of the parts ??
or
Are all the parts still in their boxes ??

The outstanding SSD and battery b/u wouldn't stop him building the rest of the system, especially if it's the 4Tb storage unit.

 

[MentalAcetylide]

Your rig should have been done 48hrs after the components were dropped off. The majority of that time would be used to test hardware and install software. The build itself shouldn't have taken more than 4 to 6 hours on the high side.

No, you're misunderstanding. I did not order the parts myself. I had him handle ordering the parts, which he did a good job of acquiring when considering the conditions of the market. So not all of the parts came in at the same time, but rather over the course of several months. My issue is when it comes to the actual labor of putting it all together, I'm getting the impression that he's dragging his feet or something else is going on. First the fans were supposedly sent to the wrong place so that took another month, then recently one of his employees got sandwiched by a truck and is hospitalized, and now its he can't find help for his shop, work backed up, etc. He did say he was going to work on it over the holiday weekend, and assuming none of the parts have an issue, should have it ready by the middle of next week. I told him if its not, that was it. I would take the parts elsewhere for assembly. No more kicking the can down the road. Also, if I find out at this stage that a part has an issue, then we're going to have a major issue because the parts should have been tested.
The guy is credible and not a scammer as far as I can tell and has an established business in his locale that doesn't have any complaints that would raise a red flag, and nothing with the BBB. Also, like I said, I've been to the shop on multiple occasions & seen the parts. Shit happens, which is understandable, but I'm really beginning to think that either this guy has the worst luck or he's just terrible with managing his time.

 

[cadaveca]

but I'm really beginning to think that either this guy has the worst luck or he's just terrible with managing his time.

If he's got the VGA, the rest is easy. I'd have that system, built within a day (8 hrs), and a day for testing. That's with watercooling. Standard aircooling, and that system is built within an hour. I did work in a PC store doing nothing but building their prebuilts, however.

buut getting a VGA is really hard these days, so... could jsut be that. But why wouldn't he say so. I'd just pay for hte parts on go elsewhere if you weren't comfortable doing it yourself.

 

[Selaya]

The GPU's already arrived, according to the OP.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

A 3090 in hand is $2-3 grand in the bank that system should have been built months ago and been waiting for the odd part in its case packaging.

 

[Caring1]

Sounds like a scammer to me, especially if you paid up front for all the parts already.

 

[maxfly]

Did you sign a contract with him? Specifically stating when he was expected to have the build finished, what his fee would be etc? If not that's your problem.
When i have a client sign a contract with me there is always a deadline with which I am expected to adhere to. If i fail to meet that deadline, i forfeit a percentage of my fee.
If he doesn't have to follow any kind of build contract with you, he has no incentive to make you a priority. Particularly if he's short staffed and has a backlog of customers that DO have contracts.
Quality 2tb SSDs are a dime a dozen, as are a quality UPS. Sourcing them should be gravy for a shop owner. He should have suggested something of equal value to move the build along, if he can't find the specific units he agreed to.
You can bet your boots as a business owner, he wouldn't tolerate one of his vendors stringing him along the way he is doing to you.

 

[MentalAcetylide]

Sounds like a scammer to me, especially if you paid up front for all the parts already.

Normally, if this was being done online and I were dealing with someone hundreds or thousands of miles away, I would agree with you. However, the place is within a few hours driving distance and it would be a stupid thing to do on their part. Also, it would make no sense given there's a paper trail(receipts, checks) and I don't know of anyone with half a brain that would be willing to wreck their established business & reputation.

Did you sign a contract with him? Specifically stating when he was expected to have the build finished, what his fee would be etc? If not that's your problem.
When i have a client sign a contract with me there is always a deadline with which I am expected to adhere to. If i fail to meet that deadline, i forfeit a percentage of my fee.
If he doesn't have to follow any kind of build contract with you, he has no incentive to make you a priority. Particularly if he's short staffed and has a backlog of customers that DO have contracts.
Quality 2tb SSDs are a dime a dozen, as are a quality UPS. Sourcing them should be gravy for a shop owner. He should have suggested something of equal value to move the build along, if he can't find the specific units he agreed to.
You can bet your boots as a business owner, he wouldn't tolerate one of his vendors stringing him along the way he is doing to you.

How would you even write up a contract like that with so much uncertainty when it comes to getting some of the parts? There can't be a deadline agreed upon unless there's a general idea of when the parts will arrive. Even if a contract were drawn up, I would still be in the same boat. Its not so much about the money as it is in having the system completed, and he wouldn't accept more to complete the build faster, which is why its one of those "wtf is going on" things, and its not like its been difficult to get a hold of them on the phone. Communication has been weekly, sometimes more frequently.

I wanted to get a general idea of how long it takes to put together a system like mine and based upon what I've seen so far, three days of working on it off and on should be more than enough to get everything assembled, software installed(OS, drivers, control suites), and everything tested.

 

[cadaveca]

I wanted to get a general idea of how long it takes to put together a system like mine and based upon what I've seen so far, three days of working on it off and on should be more than enough to get everything assembled, software installed(OS, drivers, control suites), and everything tested.

Yep, three days is more than adequate for you to get top-notch quality service.

 

[bonehead123]

Once all (or most) of the parts are present, the actual assembly/installation/wiring etc.. on most NORMAL ATX sized case/mobo, should only take 4-6 hours max., not counting interruptions from phone calls, texts, emails ect...

Then the real time consuming stuff comes next ie installing/configuring/testing/troubleshooting the software/drivers/apps etc.. which could take 24-48 hours or so, again depending on interruptions and download speeds of course....

Therefore, under NORMAL circumstances, I would say 3-4 days max would be moar than sufficient to get your build done & ready for you to take home

I have built many, many rigs over the past 15+ years, and this has been my average timetable for the most part....

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

*PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 T2, 80+ TITANIUM 1600W

might i suggest you replace that with the corsair ax1600i, its currently the best consumer PSU money can buy, and its made by Flextronics, a king in the PSU market

*STORAGE DRIVE: 4TB SSD (unknown at this time)

Samsung 870 EVO ?

 

[MentalAcetylide]

Once all (or most) of the parts are present, the actual assembly/installation/wiring etc.. on most NORMAL ATX sized case/mobo, should only take 4-6 hours max., not counting interruptions from phone calls, texts, emails ect...

Then the real time consuming stuff comes next ie installing/configuring/testing/troubleshooting the software/drivers/apps etc.. which could take 24-48 hours or so, again depending on interruptions and download speeds of course....

Therefore, under NORMAL circumstances, I would say 3-4 days max would be moar than sufficient to get your build done & ready for you to take home

I have built many, many rigs over the past 15+ years, and this has been my average timetable for the most part....

That sounds reasonable. This is one of the reasons why I did not want to do the build myself since there are a host of things that can go wonky with throwing a bunch of differently branded parts together that I just don't have the skills, much less the patience, to deal with and properly troubleshoot.

might i suggest you replace that with the corsair ax1600i, its currently the best consumer PSU money can buy, and its made by Flextronics, a king in the PSU market


Samsung 870 EVO ?

The ax1600i was my first choice, but iirc the dimensions on the specs sheet I was looking at for it indicated that it is bigger(longer) than the one I picked, and it was completely unavailable at the time.
I'm not sure which SSD, but its definitely going to be faster than the 6TB Western Digital Black HDD that I wanted. He was insistent on going with the SSD and said the mechanical drive would slow the system's performance. I disagreed with him and said the speed is irrelevant for the rendering content & content databases I'm going to be storing on it, but when I think about the 900+ Gb of stuff that I will need to install on it, I'm probably better off going with the SSD. Plus that drive is going to have a partition for a "system restore".

 

[bonehead123]

If you are talking only pure STORAGE purposes, and NOT regular read/write I/O functions, then the 6TB (or larger) HDD would be fine, as it's speed would not really matter in that singular scenario.

Beyond that, I would strongly recommend staying away from spinning rust and go all solid state since you are building an otherwise high-end rig....

SATA drives are marginally faster than spinners overall, but the real speed increases would come from high-end nvme drives, as they are 8x-12x times faster (on a pcie gen 4 drive & mobo anyways) and your TR board should have more than enough lanes & bandwidth for that.....

 

[thesmokingman]

It took me two days to get the build below up and running. About a week to fine tune it.

Build: 3970x, dual 2080ti, 8TB m.2 RAID = Render Monster

I'm building a render machine for work on a variety of applications. It will be an investment in reducing completion times in rendering and content creation workloads. This is a build for an old college buddy who works in the industry. On to the component list. Also, going to start with two...

hardforum.com

 

[MentalAcetylide]

It took me two days to get the build below up and running. About a week to fine tune it.

Build: 3970x, dual 2080ti, 8TB m.2 RAID = Render Monster

I'm building a render machine for work on a variety of applications. It will be an investment in reducing completion times in rendering and content creation workloads. This is a build for an old college buddy who works in the industry. On to the component list. Also, going to start with two...

hardforum.com

What about these:
CASE/RADIATOR FANS: Thermaltake Riing Quad 12 RGB Radiator Fan TT Premium Edition x10.

Two sets containing three fans each will have to be swapped out(i.e. original fans will have to be removed and replaced with the Thermaltake ones on the EVGA Kingpin RTX 3090 radiator and the Asus Ryujin 360 radiator. I remember him saying about there being a lot of wiring involved with this. How much time would something like this add?

 

[thesmokingman]

What about these:
CASE/RADIATOR FANS: Thermaltake Riing Quad 12 RGB Radiator Fan TT Premium Edition x10.

Two sets containing three fans each will have to be swapped out(i.e. original fans will have to be removed and replaced with the Thermaltake ones on the EVGA Kingpin RTX 3090 radiator and the Asus Ryujin 360 radiator. I remember him saying about there being a lot of wiring involved with this. How much time would something like this add?

Your build is a simple air build. A skilled builder if that's their job, could crush this out in hours. The thing I built is 1000x more complicated.

 

[MentalAcetylide]

Your build is a simple air build. A skilled builder if that's their job, could crush this out in hours. The thing I built is 1000x more complicated.

I'm sure they could, but would that require any kind of rushing? I'm sure the last thing he wants to do is rush through a build and mess something up, particularly this one given the cost & difficulty of getting replacement parts. However, I'll be sure to mention this the next time I speak with him and give him the link to your build. If you can build something like that in a week, I don't know of any legitimate excuse as to why he's been unable to spend a few hours each day for the past 2 weeks gradually assembling it other than piss poor time management; especially given the fact that this whole process of ordering parts was set into motion like 8 months ago, so its not like any more recent customer requests for tech repairs/builds should be getting bumped up in front of my build to the point where there's no time to physically work on it.

 

[thesmokingman]

I'm sure they could, but would that require any kind of rushing? I'm sure the last thing he wants to do is rush through a build and mess something up, particularly this one given the cost & difficulty of getting replacement parts. However, I'll be sure to mention this the next time I speak with him and give him the link to your build. If you can build something like that in a week, I don't know of any legitimate excuse as to why he's been unable to spend a few hours each day for the past 2 weeks gradually assembling it other than piss poor time management; especially given the fact that this whole process of ordering parts was set into motion like 8 months ago, so its not like any more recent customer requests for tech repairs/builds should be getting bumped up in front of my build to the point where there's no time to physically work on it.

Hmm.... the build I did is not indicative of what you should expect. Most ppl don't work that fast. The point I was making though is that one could crank your build out in no time if they wanted to, or like if they were paid to more importantly. I don't know why it's taking your builder the time it's taken but it ain't cuz it's hard. I think the question for you is whether its time to cut your losses and move on or... I dunno?

 

[Mussels]

About 4 hours, more if you were fine tuning it (which stores never do, they get it together, turning on, and call it a day)

They just dont want to open any boxes and risk losing parts, before 100% of the order is ready to go


"CASE/RADIATOR FANS: Thermaltake Riing Quad 12 RGB Radiator Fan TT Premium Edition x10."

Dont. Don't over complicated the build with crap like that - those fans need special controllers, which means a heap more wiring mess and more labour.
Stay with the stock fans and get the system working and only worry about changings to it later.

Just change to a smaller SSD in the meantime, get the system up and running and add the 4TB SSD In later (I bet its a slow-ass samsung QVO)

 

[MentalAcetylide]

Hmm.... the build I did is not indicative of what you should expect. Most ppl don't work that fast. The point I was making though is that one could crank your build out in no time if they wanted to, or like if they were paid to more importantly. I don't know why it's taking your builder the time it's taken but it ain't cuz it's hard. I think the question for you is whether its time to cut your losses and move on or... I dunno?

That's what frustrates me. He's got all the parts, and I even offered him more money to move it along quicker.
Yeah, I'll definitley do that for sure. If he doesn't have it working and ready for me to pick up by next Wednesday, I'm collecting everything and taking it to someone else that can assemble it, because at that point, regardless of the excuse, there's no telling when it would get finished if I let him continue to kick the can down the road.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

About 4 hours, more if you were fine tuning it (which stores never do, they get it together, turning on, and call it a day)

They just dont want to open any boxes and risk losing parts, before 100% of the order is ready to go


"CASE/RADIATOR FANS: Thermaltake Riing Quad 12 RGB Radiator Fan TT Premium Edition x10."

Dont. Don't over complicated the build with crap like that - those fans need special controllers, which means a heap more wiring mess and more labour.
Stay with the stock fans and get the system working and only worry about changings to it later.

Just change to a smaller SSD in the meantime, get the system up and running and add the 4TB SSD In later (I bet its a slow-ass samsung QVO)

Even with the extra wiring and controllers for the fans that would only take an hour max.
I can understand the not wanting to start a project without % of the parts as a business I just forgot when I made my earlier post.
I have no patience so I always build things before I get everything in hand but as I said that's for myself.
Also I want to point out the case it's pretty well designed so I can say any wiring would be complicated though I've never built in one myself.
@OP your build is expensive but in no way complicated it has nothing custom and would be pretty much like building any other air cooled system.

 

[thesmokingman]

"CASE/RADIATOR FANS: Thermaltake Riing Quad 12 RGB Radiator Fan TT Premium Edition x10."

Dont. Don't over complicated the build with crap like that - those fans need special controllers, which means a heap more wiring mess and more labour.
Stay with the stock fans and get the system working and only worry about changings to it later.

Just change to a smaller SSD in the meantime, get the system up and running and add the 4TB SSD In later (I bet its a slow-ass samsung QVO)

Yea, true that. RGB can be a huge time sink. I lost more than a few hours dialing stupid RGB controllers and the Gigafail software sucks too. A lot of time is lost just figuring out how many extensions, mixing 5v or 12v, controllers and what not. It's not exactly hard just time consuming.

 

[Mussels]

Even with the extra wiring and controllers for the fans that would only take an hour max.
I can understand the not wanting to start a project without % of the parts as a business I just forgot when I made my earlier post.
I have no patience so I always build things before I get everything in hand but as I said that's for myself.
Also I want to point out the case it's pretty well designed so I can say any wiring would be complicated though I've never built in one myself.
@OP your build is expensive but in no way complicated it has nothing custom and would be pretty much like building any other air cooled system.

It's a waste of time and money when the system already has working integrated fans that do the job just fine

I will never recommend anyone use TT fans, after having a controller die in a clients system and being unable to source a new one - we had to toss 6 fans in the bin, because they wouldnt fit generic fan/ARGB connectors, only a proprietary TT one that they change every few years