Building your own pc?

[Russ]

I stumbled upon www.buildyourown.org.uk which seems to be a great site if you are thinking of taking the plunge and building your own machine. Lots of useful tips and information!

If you have any other tips or advice, please post them here.

[Halcyon]

Yes that site is quite good.
I went there a couple of times.
Think it has videos too showing you how to do each step of the building process.

[NitroNutter]

Didnt see this on there
When selecting your components be absolutly sure they will all go together, as most component centers have re-handling fees for goods. generally about 25% aswell.
IE dont run out and buy the latest PCI-E graphics card accominied with a cheaper less modern AGP only motherboard.

While building a PC is in all senses very simple, do not take it light heartedly, and remember you will also need fault finding skills, which if its your first can be time consuming for you. Where as a skilled technician can resolve a problem in minutes.

You should also research your select components with some vigour for reliability as opposed to price. Theres many products out there priced so low to tempt you to save some more but they will only let you down.

[Halcyon]

Yeah I agreee with you on the researching.
I spent a good 3 weeks night after night going thruogh specifications of products and asking questions about compatiility.
Best thing to do when starting out is not to go hunting for lowest prices straight away. Just concentrate on finding the right products. Then once you know your spec, then you can go bargain hunting for the cheapest prices.

It gets fustrating going thruogh spec sheet after spec sheet, but it does pay off and you will see that once you build, you won't have made any mistakes or found you needed a certain part or that this part doesnt work with that part.

From tips I've been given in the past, I'd suggest:

- Take your time. Its not a building race. Your more likely to screw up if you rush things.

- Are you Screwing drive bays and punching back plates out from the case ? This can lead to bits of metal particles and dust in the case. Hoover it out before you go installing components. You dont want it causing an electrical short.

- If you are not one for book reading, do not skip on just this one book.
Read the motherboard booklet. It will save you messing up.

- Dont skip on the Power supply. Leaving it until last and spending £15 on it is not a good idea. This will be powering your system so you want a reliable power supply that has no chance of blowing up your PC.
Go for something above £50 and you are relitively safe.
Also aim High. Modern PCs need a big power supply so nothing under 450 Watts.

- Buy an anti static wrist strap. And connect to an earth. No use connecting to a radiator if you have plastic pipes. Think about this carefully as static is a component killer.

- Build on a big table with nothing around you. Clear the breakfast cereals, move the chairs away, and give yourself a big work surface to work on.
You'l need it.

- Fit RAM, CPU, and Heat Sink on the motherboard before it goes into the case. It will be musch easier to do.
Remember those stand offs in the case. The mothboard must not touch the case panel.

- Before closing the case for the final time, re-check cabling. Is the floppy cable the right way round ? Are all the fan power connectors plugged in ?
Have you used cable ties to hold cables together?
Have you connected the front panel ?

- Finally, when you switch on for the first time, leave your PC open or look through the window side panel. I'd reccomend you get two people.
You watch the screen to see if it boots up, and tell your friend to watch the fans. No fans spining up on the CPU and case ? TURN OFF NOW and re-check connections.
All spinning fine ?, good work.


Well thats some info that I'd reccomend, having completed my first build and is working nicely.
Its fun so go for it. you learn lots from it too.