Do you have any tips?

[DTV998]

Hi guys!

I made this topic, to see what things to watch out for and be careful when building my first PC.  :D 

So, yeah I'm building my first PC, do you have any good tips? I know alot of the stuff, but there is still ALOT I don't know. 

So I would be very happy and thankfull for all of your help. THANKS!  :lol: 

 

[qwertywarrior]

YEAH

I GOT SOME AWESOME TIPS BABY
LOTS AND LOTS OF TIPS
 

[DTV998]

YEAH

I GOT SOME AWESOME TIPS BABY

LOTS AND LOTS OF TIPS

 

B)

[Eddyall]

Murphy's law: don't close the side panel until you're finish completely, windows install, overclock and stability test included.

[TechTheWorld]

Dont use large font on online forums.

[SirReallySam]

The biggest tip I can give you from what didn't go well with me, is make sure that the motherboard stand-off screws are straight when you screw them in! Otherwise they break apart the thread in the stand-off and you have to take the whole things off and add a new stand-off! :o gggaggarrrggg. other than that, I think the online videos about it that people like Linus have done are perfect really :) of course you make your own style as you get better at it though :D

 

 

Oh I did a test bench before I installed everything, just to makes sure they worked first, that may help :D

Edited July 9, 2013 by SirReallySam

[Cacao]

Well let me just write down some stuff of the top of my head...

 

Ground yourself (touch a plugged in PSU).

Don't put the motherboard on top of the anti-static bag when testing.

Don't apply too much thermal paste, less is more.

Make sure you test the system's stability through the night once you're done building.

Do some benchmarks to make sure you're performing as you should be.

Route as many of the cables through the back of the case as possible, you don't want to see them when you open your case (or look through the panel).

Take your time, don't rush anything.

Make sure you keep all your original packaging in case you need to send anything back.

Buy descent thermal paste.

[Emkryan]

Don't work on a carpet and always ground yourself i.e. keep touching your case or plugged in PSU

[qwertywarrior]

jking aside

ill give you some tips

 

1.NEVER get cheap unbranded PSUs they are the most important part of the build that u can reuse over and over again

2.if your going to OC get a board with a good amount of VRMs and has cooling so it wont overheat and burn out

3.ssds are alot faster than HDs but ull sacrifice space and money 

[Langdon]

Don't forget to push down the levers for your RAM and PCIe slots.

In my nervousness, I forgot to push down the lever for my PCIe x16 slot and the slot came clean off! 

DON'T FORGET STEPS.

[grayperview]

To save time, instead of using a screw driver to screw the crinkly nail things in, use a big hammer.

[I'm Batman]

dont put the CPU on the motherboard put it on your SSD it works BETTER

[FireFox]

I've got some screwdriver tips laying around if you want

 

Be careful of ESD would be my main Top Gear top tip.

[TheBrenz]

Don't force the side panel shut, I've broken 5 sata cables and 3 sata power adapters.

[motomoto11]

If the side panel does not want to come off...try to put it back in place, then try once again. I bent mine, i sorta fixed it, all good now. Also, CLEAN Fingers! No greasy ones! I had some finger prints on my case, that took me awhile to get out.

[Eddyall]

Don't put the motherboard on top of the anti-static bag when testing.

 

That's really important for anyone, the bag conduct electricity AFAIK.

[Nicktrance]

That's really important for anyone, the bag conduct electricity AFAIK.

 

That's been debunked and especially doesn't matter if you're not turning the system on but I guess there's no reason why you should do it.

[Nicktrance]

Make sure to get a high quality power supply and a case with good cable management options, some cases are easier to build in then others so keep that in mind. Just make sure to do a lot of research and check out a few reviews before making your final choice.

[FireFox]

I have finger tips, does that count?

[Eddyall]

That's been debunked and especially doesn't matter if you're not turning the system on but I guess there's no reason why you should do it.

 

Well since a guy said that is was a terrible idea and he tested if a computer (CPU/MB/RAM) could run in a sink, while the tap was open, I took it for granted.

Anyway the trick is to use the MB box.

[EChondo]

1.NEVER get cheap unbranded PSUs they are the most important part of the build that u can reuse over and over again

I have to say this is the most important part. Some people base their systems on CPU's or GPU's, well that's part of it, but the most important part should always be your PSU. I'd rather spend $100 on a PSU that I know will last me a couple builds for ~5+ years than get one that will die in 2 months.

 

A personal tip, if you don't know what you're doing 100%, while building your computer watch a tutorial. There are some great ones out there that are 10 minutes to a hour long, I did it the first time to make sure I knew I was doing everything right and spot on.

 

Also, avoid idiots like this;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJx-C0-uL8c

[Rhotis]

Well let me just write down some stuff of the top of my head...

 

Ground yourself (touch a plugged in PSU).

Don't put the motherboard on top of the anti-static bag when testing.

Don't apply too much thermal paste, less is more.

Make sure you test the system's stability through the night once you're done building.

Do some benchmarks to make sure you're performing as you should be.

Route as many of the cables through the back of the case as possible, you don't want to see them when you open your case (or look through the panel).

Take your time, don't rush anything.

Make sure you keep all your original packaging in case you need to send anything back.

Buy descent thermal paste.

 

These are all great tips.  THe anti static bag *meh* been doing it for nearly 20 years and never had a problem but technically it is safer to not do it.  

 

Some more tips -  

 

Watch many videos on the cases you are interested in.  Do not just watch one persons video on it.  Watch as many as you can to make sure there is not a specific limitation someone found that might apply to your needs.  

 

Do not cheap out on the power supply.  Get a quality brand like Seasonic or Corsair and a min of 80+ bronze and go gold or platinum if you can fit it into the budget.  

 

Along with the case part,  research research and research all the parts you are looking to buy and research your specific needs compared to what you want.  Unless money is no issue do not buy something just because you "want" it at the expense of another part of the PC (aka don't buy a 4770K then chuck a amd 7850 in it unless you specifically need the CPU but not much on the GPU.  Otherwise build a balanced system.  

[Rhotis]

A personal tip, if you don't know what you're doing 100%, while building your computer watch a tutorial. There are some great ones out there that are 10 minutes to a hour long, I did it the first time to make sure I knew I was doing everything right and spot on.

 

I kinda envy people starting today because of what you can learn in forums and on youtube.  When I started tinkering with PCs if you did not know someone that had done it (I did not) you basically were just hoping you did not screw it up.  

[EChondo]

I kinda envy people starting today because of what you can learn in forums and on youtube.  When I started tinkering with PCs if you did not know someone that had done it (I did not) you basically were just hoping you did not screw it up.  

I started officially building about 4-5 years ago, but I've been tinkering since 2000. My dad is tech savvy and has built and ran his own servers(and hosted for others) so I've pretty much been learning stuff from him since I was 4-5 years old.

 

I know a lot of people personally that are still surprised when I say I build my own computers, like it's an alien thing to them, almost something that they can't even Google. I've been slowly converting some of my friends over from console gaming to PC gaming and they are interested in learning the hardware side of it, but they don't know how to Google something like it, like to be able to fully understand why this and that happens.

[Rhotis]

I started officially building about 4-5 years ago, but I've been tinkering since 2000. My dad is tech savvy and has built and ran his own servers(and hosted for others) so I've pretty much been learning stuff from him since I was 4-5 years old.

 

I know a lot of people personally that are still surprised when I say I build my own computers, like it's an alien thing to them, almost something that they can't even Google. I've been slowly converting some of my friends over from console gaming to PC gaming and they are interested in learning the hardware side of it, but they don't know how to Google something like it, like to be able to fully understand why this and that happens.

 

 

Yeah it amazes me that people still are a little afraid of the tech in 2013.  Not everyone is a tinkerer though.  I remember taking apart TVs and radios in the early 80s before I was even a teenager just to try to figure out how they work and see if I could put them back together again.  Not everyone is like us in that regard though and they just want to buy it and be done with it I guess.