What was your first computer?

[LemonSpice]

Its a Coolermaster K-380. Really liked the looks of this case, but i didnt do alot of research on this case and was left disappointed. I heard good things about coolermaster, and i expected this case to somewhat represent the quality, which people have told me that they delivered. I'm looking around for something around €100 now, and the Fractal Design R4 is one i've been hearing alot of good news about.

yea thats a very nice case you should try also looking at the h440 it has better cable management and airflow but its all up to looks for you

[Chillstice]

The first computer that I built was for a home computer replacement as well as functioning as a server machine for media and game servers.

 

No matter what I did, I couldn't get it to boot into windows for more than one session. Restarting the computer would cause it to start and instantly shut down. Replacing the CPU in the socket was the only clear, short-term solution as it would give 1 more session. It was total bs. Just one day it started working.

 

It was never operating at optimal performance compared to it's specs, so I decided to replace the TIM and check the CPU. Upon further inspection, there was a bent pin on the mobo. I used this video to bend it back, and now there are no more problems.

[Keudn]

First PC i built was this one (it has gone through some major upgrades). The only problem I had was my PSU was faulty and would randomly shut off for no reason. Took me a week to figure it out, but got a new PSU and everything works great. 

 

• Watch reviews on cases and power supplies
• Use PCPartPicker!!!
• Use cpubenchmark.net to see where the CPU you are looking at sits
• Find the game benchmarks of the games you want to play for the GPU you are looking at
• Get 8GB+ of RAM (unless you are on a really tight budget)
• Don't skimp on storage space, I got a 1TB drive and with a steam library at around 500GB now it is almost full
• Get an SSD if you have the budget for it
• Try to color match your motherboard, RAM, GPU, fans/CPU cooler, and case, it will look MUCH better, especially if the case has a window
• Don't get a Z77/87/97 board and a K cpu if you don't ever plan on overclocking!
• If you do get overclockable parts OVERCLOCK them, seriously its free performance even if its a moderate overclock
• When you build the computer follow a video guide, I personally used NewEggs how to build a PC videos but there are TONS of videos that explain step by step how to build it
• If you have problems do a Google search, if that fails post here someone will help

[questman]

What gpu where you using

an evga geforce gtx 660 superclocked

[LemonSpice]

Pcpartpicker is one of the best tools you can use for building a new pc as long as you arnt using socket 2011 because they do not have cpus or motherboards for those parts and motherboards

[LemonSpice]

put most of your budget towards your graphics card

[Camcognito]

My fist pc I built is the one I have now, and the only slight problem I had was the standoffs. My advice would be to try to have clean cable management, and do some research and post on the forums.

[Lynx]

my first built was for gaming and it was kinda stupid; intel core i5 760, MSI P55, AMD HD5670, 2GB RAM, when building it i didn't seat the RAM correctly because i worried it would break if i push it to hard, so of course the PC would not boot in, and only after i ask some help to my friend i realised my mistake, lol. and the PSU was a generic PSU that came with the cheapo case, i even tried to OC the cpu, well luckily no part get burn and the motherboard always reset to default setting when my OC gone wrong. also after playing Crysis for long period of time it would shutdown and won't turn on for a while thanks to the crap PSU.

 

When building your first PC, it's better get some direct help/recommendation from someone to make sure that you didn't skip in any part/step, and give some troubleshooting in case if something wrong, it could save you alot of time and headache.

[JoaoPRSousa]

My first build was the one I currently use, the one on my sig

[mariohead123]

I just recently built my first PC, one major tip is don't freak out if you're computer doesn't turn on or something happens that's not supposed to. It's probably just something really simple that you can fix if you have patience and are willing to. Example: I just tried to put in a dvd drive and in the process knocked my 24pin power connector loose, I didn't know that it was loose and I thought that I had shorted my motherboard haha.

[LogicalDrm]

I built one today for a friend. We had following troubles:

- Tight PSU cables. The Silverstone Strider PSU had really tight cables so we had couple of hickups while trying to get it started with loose cables.

- Quality faulty screws on 212. One of screws on 212 was faulty and resulted to removing almost installed cooler, cleaning it and reinstalling it.

- Insufficient screwdrivers. My friend had only too small screw drivers. This made tightening all screws bit hard. And loosening them too.

- SATA cables. If you get mobo with 90dec SATA ports, go for cables that are straight on both ends or have atleast half of them.

 

I'm slow and careful builder overall so I rarely have major issues while building.

[HectorPunch]

My first build was back in 2004 (I think) and had a single core AMD sempron, 512mb ram, ATI 9550, 80gb hdd I think, and I reused a case from an old family computer. Since then I've only built about 12 more for myself and friends. It's an expensive hobby but I can't see myself giving it up easily!

My tips would be: you can never do too much research, have a clear large enough space to work ( anti static etc) don't rush and keep calm at all times.

[LeopardChurch]

My first build was the one I’m using right now.

Processor:  I7 2600,

RAM: 8 GB Kingston value ram (kvrD3N9 1333Mhz)

 Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD65,

 PSU: XFX Black pro edition 1000W

 CPU cooler: Cooler master’s TPC 812

SSD: Kingston v200

HDD: Western digital green

GPU: MSI 660TI PE/OC

Case: Cooler master's HAF XM 932

Just by looking at that you could say that back then I had a poor judgment. I think you’re right, still regret nothing. As far as troubles while building I had none, just clumsy hands when installing the CPU cooler and applying the thermal compound.

For future builders I would say: work in a table with plenty of room, use ESD protection, keep all tools at hand’s reach and make sure you’ve got a bloody OS install media, I will never forget I put it together and had to take the SSD off, put it on my sister’s notebook and install windows on there because I only had a install disc and no thumb drive.

[Almercenary]

Top tip that you shouldn't be dumb enough to make if your not me: Plug the monitor, into the GPU, not the motherboard.

Also don't cheap out on stuff like PSU's and cooling.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

First build, my sig. Missed the socket when dropping in the CPU and scratched MOBO a bit by dropping screws and works fine. So don't worry when you build, it's not that fragile, but of course, don't do the stupid mistakes I made and get a magnetic screwdriver ha ha.

[TR0J4N]

My first one was a pentium 4 3.2 GHz extreme edition on some random foxconn 478 socket which died pretty fast so i found a gigabyte board that worked way better with a half a gig of ddr 400 and all pata drives with an agp nvidia 6800 gt. the most annoying part was rotating pata cables 180° to plug into the mobo.

 

I recommend if you have them laying around with older pc parts, they don't need to be powerful, and just getting a working system going linux still runs on really old hard ware. then you can also have a go with OCing  with out worrying about killing your new expensive hardware. or just watch all of linus' build guides. and research your parts so you know they actually work together or talk to the guys in your pc shop and they'll know if it works together or not.

[Joseph Yip]

Gonna build my pc at this coming monday. i'm just gonna help a little bit and leave the rest to the shop in case something happen because of me haha sry about my english

 

[evinta]

My current system. Youtube is your friend, do your research, talk to other techies. Know what your planning to use it for and build around that. Cheap parts don't necessity mean value. 

[LemonSpice]

My current system. Youtube is your friend, do your research, talk to other techies. Know what your planning to use it for and build around that. Cheap parts don't necessity mean value. 

The same happened with me i had almost memorized everything form watching so many build logs

[Rhyalex]

I may only be 14 and have only built one PC but this is a helpful tip.

 

DON'T CUT CORNERS

By that I mean don't but the cheapest hardware because it will get you by. Get the actual hardware first!!!

 

I didn't get an SSD straight away and installed the OS onto a 7200RPM HDD and it was way to slow!

so a week later I bought a 60gb SSD and had to re-install windows.

NOW I found that this 60gb SSD isn't big enough even just for my main programs and am now in the market to get a 240gb SSD.

 

So I should have just gotten the 240gb SSD in the first place. 

[Tech_Dreamer]

#SweetPCMemories

 

 

Mine was an old AMD (i really don't remember the model no), it was ddr1 ram about 512mb & a 40gig HDD (extreme High end at that time) along with a stunning case(some local company), seriously it looks good even now!

 

So Waht's yours? post it down below or simply leave a comment

[Bloodyvalley]

been done a least 100 times (this thread)

[AlwaysFSX]

/so easy

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/user/1744-alwaysfsx/

[Enderman]

i5 2500k

Sabertooth P67

Thermaltake 650W

ASUS GTX460SE DCU

Some air cooler

AZZA case

[Clyne]

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+

AMD Stock Cooler

2GB DDR2 RAM

320GB HDD

Geforce 6100(l upgraded to a HD5450 in the future)

Some OEM case(I used a OEM case, i didn't buy it pre built, had a OEM case lying around in my house so i used it)

Some ECS motherboard that has a AM2 socket.