so....
my cpu (7700X), ram, and ssd came! fuck it i thought i'll get started building the PC today! took everything out and put in the new parts.
first issue: one of the M.2 heat sink screws is stripped on my motherboard (gigabyte b650e master). i literally unscrewed it once to remove the heat sink and tried screwing it back in once i put my drive in. the thing is spinning. i didn't even try tightening it too much! so now it wobbles a little as its only being held on by one screw.
second issue: the fucking m.2 heat sink being so huge i couldn't get my cpu fan in. the fan has to come out to access the screws to mount it. when mounted i can't reach the screws of the m.2 heat sink. if i took the cooler off and removed the heat sink i wouldn't be able to get the heat sink back on. the only solution was to completely unplug everything from the motherboard, unscrew it, and take it out the case. then i could slide the fan in from the top.
honestly? not a huge deal. i can get all stand off screws out and in quickly. plus i know where all the cables go and plugging in the cpu power cables is so much easier than on my other board.
third issue: when i first booted it up the BIOS said something like CPU has been swapped and i need to reset the BIOS. also there was something about secure boot and having the reset keys? starting to think this board might be second hand... but i don't know. suppose this isn't really an issue unless...it is second hand!
fourth issue: tried installing windows and when it rebooted after doing the install from USB ... well it didn't reboot at all. it got stuck on some error code (which i couldn't find in the manual) and my screen was blank. powered off and booted up again but still nothing.
reset the BIOS and booted back into the windows usb and reinstalled windows again. this time after rebooting it took me to the proper installation. it asked me to name my PC so did that and then it rebooted and stuck on a blank screen. powered off and tried again which worked so i actually got windows installed!
downloaded windows updates and asked me to reboot. guess what happened? yup stuck on a never ending black screen. when i got it to turn back on it took me to a windows recovery screen.
OK maybe it's the BIOS that needs updated. finally managed to get back into windows. put the BIOS onto the USB. BIOS said it had to reboot. well shit, i know where this is going! yup the fucking thing got stuck again. got back into the BIOS and it finished updating.
now i'm in Windows so start to install the AMD chipset drivers. it has to reboot. it gets stuck. windows recovery screen. i get back into windows.
maybe it's my gpu drivers? try running DDU to wipe the shit Windows installed. DDU wants to reboot. i get fucking stuck again. can't even get the stupid PC to boot. clear CMOS. i can get into BIOS but not Windows. try disabling secure boot. that makes things worse can't even get into BIOS. the pc is now stuck in a loop where the monitor turns on and off and fans spin up and down. clear CMOS again. can get back into BIOS but still not into Windows.
at this point i give up for tonight. i don't have any hopes but i'll try again tomorrow. i'm so pissed off. feel like i've just wasted £1,000+ on this piece of shit.
i have a feeling the board is second hand and/or faulty. if i can't get it working i'll see if I can get a replacement board but if not the everything is getting sent back.