Hey all, last time I built a PC (5 years ago) TR helped out a lot. I did tons of research last time, checked everything was compatible, shopped around, etc...This time I kind of just impulse bought core components with some spare cash reusing a few from the old build. The problem is the system is a bit unstable right now and I figured I'd check y'alls opinion on what's going wrong.
Components (* when from old build and known working component)
i7 4770K
Asus Z87-A
2x8GB 1600 MHz DDR3, Crucial Sport Ballistix, BLS8G3D1609DS1S00
* 500 W Silver Stone SST-ST50F
* GTX 660TI MSI Power Edition
256 GB Samsung 840 Evo
* 640 GB WD HDD
Some cheap $30 case I got for free from a dorm buddy.
So major issues up front I was downright sloppy compared to last time. Memory is not certified with mobo (it was an impulse by from the deal of the week a few weeks ago) and the PSU is from the Core 2 Duo days and definitely not certified for Haswell, so expecting problems but hopeful it would work.
I do the new install, it tries to boot right when I plug it in without even pressing power button, figure that's a little weird, but it goes into a bunch of mini boot cycles all failing, (CPU fan spins up always) sometimes it makes it to GPU fan spinning up or HDD spinning up. I unplug it, plug it back in after doing a cable check, the same boot cycling happens, but on the third or fourth try it gets to bios. Bios is stable, I peak around and everything looks fine, no crazy temps, no weird settings I can see, no flashing warning messages, components registering, etc...
Reboot, not working again. The weirdest thing is all these automatic boot cycling but I figure it's just trying different failsafe modes. Every time I cycle power, it autopowers on without pressing the power button. Do a strip down to just CPU, one RAM stick, and HDD, doesn't work. Rebuild it back out. So I'm poking around with it and decide for some reason to turn it upright, when I start tilting it upwards, it boots up, and works, okay that's not suppose to happen, boot on tilt is definitely not a feature I've heard of before. Sure enough, if it's standing upright it works. Stable for about 10-15 minutes and then I powered it down and came here.
My guess is some sort of shorting of the mobo with the case, it's super cheap and has these built in mounds instead of standoffs that are way too wide/round for comfort compared to standoffs. Pretty sure they're meant as a replacement since with standoffs on top of the mounds it's way too high to fit ports into the io/slot or screw in a graphics card, and they worked fine for the old build.
So, I'm tempted to try a cardboard box/open air build to see if that's stable to get rid of the possibility of shorting but I was wondering what ya'll thought about this and whether you have other ideas.
Thanks!