First PC Building Experience

[Geekazoid]

Hey guys,

As you you all may (or may not) know I'm planning on buying a new PC some time this year, I initially was going to get it built for me but with the money you can save by building it yourself, I've decided to go ahead and BUILD MY FIRST PC. Yes, I know. A bit dramatic. But I've never done this before. So I was wondering, what was your first PC building experience like, did you do alright?

Thanks for in advance for sharing your experiences guys, really appreciate it.

[Tea1337]

I was scared out of my mind and not to ruin $1300 in parts, but it all went well. Don't stress out and DO NOT rush any part of the build.

[Jogostar]

I didn't build a new PC from the start. I just swaped, and upgraded a lot. until my new PC was finished.

I didn't do any mistakes, except forgetting to put in the power button cable. ^^

[Unhelpful]

Don't stress. Don't rush. Take your time. 

 

My cable management was horse crap but otherwise functional.

[WiiManic]

Seemed daunting at first, but the more I watched and read into it the more I realised its essentially big expensive legos. Ram in ram slot, GPU in GPU slot, there is really not much to do wrong.

 

Worst part for me was the heatsink, applying the thermal paste and then screwing it down, was just nervous as it was directly on the CPU.

[Thunderjolt]

Basically what everyone else has said. Take your time and if you're not sure don't be scared to google it and find out. I was confused on the backplate for the H100i wondering why it was too big for the holes on the motherboard when I didn't realise that you could adjust it to fit.

[ForsakenLive]

My first PC building experiences were on old hardware, and I was not rushy nor nervous to brake anything, so it went out very smooth. I also build a couple of computers for other people, no problems there.

My first personal gaming PC experience was a little bit different, It was a couple of years ago and I was very excited to start playing my games on higher resolutions with way better graphics, so I was both excited and wanted to get the job done quickly; It didn't even booted and I stood all night up just to find out I was missing a standoff. After fixing that problem my PC booted and I didn't have an issue with it again (hardware-wise).

My best advice to you is, don't hurry up, slowly and confident get things going, take all the time you need, find a nice clean space to build it, where people isn't going to bother you or walk around you. Take all the tools you might need (yes, even a kitchen knife) and don't hesitate on using guides and Youtube tutorials, even if they are two hours long. Prep the case and PSU correctly first, put the side panels on the case box, then do all the stuff you need to the motherboard on a static-safe environment before putting it into the case. Check your standoffs are correctly placed and don't force anything! If something doesn't work don't panic, just check again or head over to the forums

[Syraz]

Was at a computer shop I ended up help working at afterwords *gf's dads shop* learned a lot...he just told me what to do, I did it...btw watch Carey Holzman videos on youtube..

[Geekazoid]

Oh! Thanks guys, ya making it sound rather easy. What are standoffs? I guess I need to watch more YouTube videos on this. @ForsakenLive, why would missing a standoff prevent your PC from booting?

Oh heck, I have a heck of a lot of questions. But I know a lot of my questions could be answered by watching related YouTube videos.

[Hazy125]

Oh! Thanks guys, ya making it sound rather easy. What are standoffs? I guess I need to watch more YouTube videos on this. @ForsakenLive, why would missing a standoff prevent your PC from booting?

Oh heck, I have a heck of a lot of questions. But I know a lot of my questions could be answered by watching related YouTube videos.

Well, you don't want your motherboard directly screwed onto the case, that would just short circuit. Standoffs are small pieces of metal that separate the motherboard from the case

[Chris is awesome]

I read the instructions and forgot to put CPU power in. Then I failed at installing windows. I think I did well.

[ForsakenLive]

Oh! Thanks guys, ya making it sound rather easy. What are standoffs? I guess I need to watch more YouTube videos on this. @ForsakenLive, why would missing a standoff prevent your PC from booting?

Oh heck, I have a heck of a lot of questions. But I know a lot of my questions could be answered by watching related YouTube videos.

Standoffs are brass screws that act as screw holes for your motherboard screws to go, the motherboard is not directly screwed to the case.

It didn't booted because motherboards have not even surfaces (a lot of metal bits are exposed on the back), and it was making contact with the case on an area it's not supposed to (only the edges and screw holes don't mind touching metal). This causes power to go to the case (and ground through the PSU) and not were that metallic soldered bit at the back was supposed to drive. This can't burn your motherboard, but nothing will happen when you power the PC.

Linus has a couple of guides for PC building that can be helpful to begginers (like this one) , but there also lot's of good videos on other channels too.

[Geekazoid]

Well, you don't want your motherboard directly screwed onto the case, that would just short circuit. Standoffs are small pieces of metal that separate the motherboard from the case

Oh, yes. You wouldn't want that. Thanks for the explanation. I think I've seen standoffs in some PC building videos so I kinda know what they look like.

[Geekazoid]

I read the instructions and forgot to put CPU power in. Then I failed at installing windows. I think I did well.

Oh! Crap. I hope I don't mess up like that.

[Geekazoid]

Standoffs are brass screws that act as screw holes for your motherboard screws to go, the motherboard is not directly screwed to the case.

It didn't booted because motherboards have not even surfaces (a lot of metal bits are exposed on the back), and it was making contact with the case on an area it's not supposed to (only the edges and screw holes don't mind touching metal). This causes power to go to the case (and ground through the PSU) and not were that metallic soldered bit at the back was supposed to drive. This can't burn your motherboard, but nothing will happen when you power the PC.

Linus has a couple of guides for PC building that can be helpful to begginers (

) , but there also lot's of good videos on other channels too.

Ah! @Hazy125 beat you to the explanation but thanks for the further explanation on it and extra detail, very helpful.

[Geekazoid]

Thanks you all for sharing your experiences as well as the helpful explanations, it really helps a novice (I've only ever installed a CPU, GPU, RAM & HDDs once on various PCs) like myself feel confident in doing it. Ha, my dad has always said "I would love to build a computer, surely it can't be that hard" so maybe I'll get him involved as well. It's always said "two minds are better than one"(or something along those lines).