Things you wished you would have known before building your first pc?

[VicRik]

11 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

You'll fill up a tiny drive faster than larger one.  

 

If you can afford it I'd suggest at least a 250GB for an OS drive.  Preferably Samsung (850 pro if possible since it'll last a very long time but 850 EVO is still good too and will last plenty long too.)

 

Also, make sure you have needed tools: a 3/16 inch nut driver for the motherboard standoff screws and a #2 head Phillips screwdriver and some short zip ties for helping with cable management.  

 

It took me 3 whole days to upgrade my first computer (bought as a prebuilt) because I was missing needed things like those tools and had to stop for the day twice because somehow I kept realizing what I needed but didn't have AFTER stores were closed.  ?

My dad has a giant toolcase so that shouldn't be a problem, thanks for the information though!

[Bleedingyamato]

8 hours ago, YamiYukiSenpai said:

LOL I got an 850 Pro in Newegg for about CAD150-175 (almost same price as the 850 EVO) right after I got an 850 EVO.  Ended up buying that one, and put the 850 EVO in my laptop.

That's a nice buy.  ?

 

8 hours ago, VicRik said:

My dad has a giant toolcase so that shouldn't be a problem, thanks for the information though!

That's good.  Though I'd ask him about the nut driver just to be safe.  I'm not an expert on tools so I have no idea how common it might be to have a nut driver or at least the correct size.  

 

Motherboard standoff screws are hex shaped so a nut driver is a life saver trust me.  lol

[PopsicleHustler]

I wish I knew what peak and continious wattage was.......

[VicRik]

5 hours ago, Bleedingyamato said:

That's a nice buy.  ?

 

That's good.  Though I'd ask him about the nut driver just to be safe.  I'm not an expert on tools so I have no idea how common it might be to have a nut driver or at least the correct size.  

 

Motherbosrd standoff screws are hex shaped so a nut driver is a life saver trust me.  lol

I'll confirm, thanks!

[VicRik]

Does that mean you got a PSU with a too low amount of watts? If so, how much did you keep as a buffer?

[Zeras]

Never build or work on a computer in front of the client if at all possible! 

[biker]

Wait another year or more.

[Evanair]

So many young posters...

 

I wish I knew what stuff was when I built my first computer. I was given a box of parts from a neighbor, back when the fastest computers on the market were 486 systems and 4MB of ram was a lot.  I sorted cards (yes, lets of them...) by port type (VGA, sound, modem, which I learned later) and by ISA/PCI (names learned later) and motherboards by what they looked like.

 

Actually got a system working... surprisingly.  Back before CPU coolers existed and so glad I didn't pull random jumpers

[Riddler356]

that the 700 series was literally a month away.

[Guest lilbman]

Don't buy a CPU that bottlenecks your GPU

[TheKDub]

I wish I knew that I wasn't going to give two shits about throwing much more in my rig hardware wise with the current components.

So much wasted space... I wish I went with mATX or ITX...

[Mince]

I thought all CPU's were compatible with all sockets
I also thought that all PSUs were the same length

I also thought that 750W PSU's were pretty standard and not overkill for one 1080 and a 6600k

 

Needless to say, I was stupid.

[KenTees]

I wish I got the 6600k since it's overclockable... Now I am stuck with this i5-6500...

I also wish I waited a day later to buy the GTX 770 off someone else, because 4 GBs of VRAM would soon be a requirement...

[Walkure]

I wish I knew modular PSU cables are most likely never compatible with another model, for that mistake I fried my HDD

[Lolucoca]

Don't fuck with the CPU voltage and multi jumpers if you're not an advanced user. 

[HelplmChoking]

Don't buy an FX8320 for rendering...

[MorganO]

On 2/4/2017 at 8:01 PM, PCGuy_5960 said:

That in X99 boards one side is upside down

please explain?

[NannerBeans]

I should not have been afraid to get used parts. Many of the brands like EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte, and Asus base their warranty by serial number so you still get warranty even if you buy used and you save a ton of money. I buy most of my parts used now. 

[NannerBeans]

6 minutes ago, KOMTechAndGaming said:

please explain?

He probably means when you put the cpu in the motherboard, the words on the cpu end up being upsidedown. 

[MorganO]

1 minute ago, NannerBeans said:

He probably means when you put the cpu in the motherboard, the words on the cpu end up being upsidedown. 

ahhh

[VicRik]

8 hours ago, NannerBeans said:

I should not have been afraid to get used parts. Many of the brands like EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte, and Asus base their warranty by serial number so you still get warranty even if you buy used and you save a ton of money. I buy most of my parts used now. 

I actually made another post about used parts XD. Do you mean by that, that you don't even need a receipt? (I don't know whether that is the right word so I hope you know what I mean)

[Satisfoxy]

How many bloody new/different connectors there were on motherboards now a days. As someone that used to work mostly inside pre-2008 hardware. Putting together a computer in 2016 was not fun.

[NannerBeans]

9 hours ago, VicRik said:

I actually made another post about used parts XD. Do you mean by that, that you don't even need a receipt? (I don't know whether that is the right word so I hope you know what I mean)

For certain brands yes, you do not need a receipt to use the warranty. 

[ThinkWithPortals]

- That you didn't need a 760W power supply for a 4690K + single GPU.

- That I didn't need a small PC and could have gone for an mATX or ATX config.

- That I didn't need a liquid cooler.

- That I wasn't ever going to overclock anything.

- That it's not worth spending £40 on extra fans.

[Sniperfox47]

Not to build a PC on carpet