Soon to be building my very first rig but I'm really nervous as the parts are not cheap! I keep going over all the things in my head of how I might mess up or what if It does not work out ect, even stupid things such as "what if I have sweaty hands and rub up my motherboard and kill it" So I am curious, on your first build(s) what went wrong, if anything? What is the most common mistake made on a first build? What is the hardest part of building your own machine for the first time? Just like to see what rookie mistakes I should avoid ect
You'll most likely forget to flip the switch on the back of the PSU and then you'll panic for a minute.
make sure front power switch is connected to the header on the correct pins, easy mistake also. double check that the eps12v connector is connected to the mobo aswell as the main 24pin atx connector. This one still gets me even to this day. The thing is not to panick too much, theres no big hurry, so take your time, double check everything, before turning the power on, and always have your hand ready at rear psu, incase of any major probs, then your there to immediateley turn the power off. On my builds i always hit the delete key if it starts up, to go to bios, to ensure cpu temp is ok, far quicker than going into windows to check temp. good luck, keep us all informed. Things should go fine.
Too much TIM on the CPU is one - you just need a small amount like a grain of rice. Trying to keep hold of the screws in tight spaces can be bloody hard sometimes. Get a magnetic screwdriver if you can. I've never had a problem, but most will say that you should ground yourself by touching something metal before handling your components. Otherwise static electricity can cause issues ...
Those are the ones that I like to do to myself as well. I had my rig apart the other day and got the power and reset buttons crossed up. It's still like it now, I just cant be bothered to pull it all out again and anyway, it's all coming apart again soon when my next project starts so I can live with it...lol
I build a new machine at the weekend. Forgot to flip the power switch! Also, the Gelid CPU fan wasn't spinning correctly. It must have worked loose during transit. The BIOS reported it as N/A and the CPU temp was climbing steadily. It turned out that the the fan blade was not quite clicked onto the spindle. I pushed it back on accidentally while re-attaching it to the heatsink. I heard a click, and it all works fine now.
When putting the RAM in, it will take some force. Don't be afraid to push down on it. Of course, makes sure you have it in the right way first Also, some heatsinks (especially stock) are a PIA to put in. Watch come YouTube videos about how to put in your heatsink, and to see how much TIM to put on. Think about how you are going to connect everything to your PSU, and take your time with wiring. A nice cleanly wired case will not only look good, but will also increase the cooling efficiency of your case. I remember my first build (about 10 years ago) when I knew nothing about proper wiring and it looked like a jungle in my case! Other than that, ask questions if you have them
I remember one time I was replacing my PSU. It was an OCZ one and the motherboard main power connector was a 20+4 connector and the motherboard needed all 24 pins. I plugged in the 20 and the 4 connector, closed up my PC, moved it back to the desk and switched on. Nothing. Checked the power switch at the back was on, tried again. Still nothing. To cut a long story short, that 4-pin connector had jumped out thus creating an open circuit and shorting out the motherboard.
Oh, and make sure the case manufacturer labeled the power switch properly. Got a Rosewill case, not exactly high end, but plenty of bang for very, very little buck. Took me 10 minutes to figure out that the Reset SW and Power SW connectors were labeled wrong. I attached the Reset SW connectors to the power pins on the motherboard and lo and behold the thing started up. *head desk*
Not sure if this is as rellevant nowadays, anyway. make sure you only have the mobo standoffs to match the positions on your mobo. It was/Is possible to end up with mobo spacers shorting out on the bottom of your mobo, sorry for bad explanation, but hope you get what i mean?
Make sure you connect the cpu fan,(as in connect to the mobo fan header) again may seem obvious, but it does happen, big mistake this one can be, dont wanna kill your cpu. Dont wanna rely on cpu overheat protection if you dont have too.
