PC Building Tips for Beginners?

[Fenris]

Does anyone have any general tips/tricks/advice/thoughts/etc. that might be useful to someone new to building PCs?

As far as I can tell there isn't a thread like this around, so I figured I'd make one, but feel free to delete or move it if I'm wrong. :)

I'm a Digital Media student (3D animation wooo), so I'm trying to get into the hardware and tech behind PCs, since it'll likely be useful for me to know in the future. The topic seems very complex however, and there are a lot of differing opinions on builds and rigs, and such. I've started to learn my way around the terms and various parts involved, but I figured I'd see if there are any tidbits of knowledge veteran rig builders might want to toss out for beginners like me. Thanks!

 

[New Eden]

I have built two different systems...though I used the same case each time. Can't go into recommended parts or anything since there are builds for every budget and need, and everyone is different in this regard. Building wise though, here's some things I'd suggest:

• Read the manual. Especially the motherboard's.
  
• Avoid messing with hardware on carpet with socks on (did mine in my kitchen barefoot.)
• Also ground yourself often by touching something metal. Often.
• Don't force hardware in. It's only designed to go in one way (the correct way.)
• It's safe to add two or so additional hours to your estimated time to build, especially if it's your first time. You might run into some complications.
• I actually spent most of my time on wiring, but other people may differ.
• Hearing your fans go for the first time is the greatest sound on the planet. Even better is seeing the system load into the BIOS.

Hope I helped...a little bit.

 

[Fenris]

Ah, that's actually really handy! Some of it I knew a bit of before hand, but the need for extra build time and wiring taking the most of your time are new to me. That's actually really nice to know! Nothing I've looked at so far had told me anything like that.

As for the grounding, I've heard there are specialized bracelets that work for that? Are they more reliable than the 'touch metal often' method?

Thank you for the tips by the way! They're really helpful. :)

 

[donavannj]

Ah, that's actually really handy! Some of it I knew a bit of before hand, but the need for extra build time and wiring taking the most of your time are new to me. That's actually really nice to know! Nothing I've looked at so far had told me anything like that.

As for the grounding, I've heard there are specialized bracelets that work for that? Are they more reliable than the 'touch metal often' method?

Thank you for the tips by the way! They're really helpful. :)

Those grounding bracelets are handy, and quite cheap if you know where to look for them. Much easier than consistently touching the outside of the case to ground yourself.

 

[Omicron]

They have given great advice so far. And I agree, make sure to ground yourself all the time.

And well, this isn't a tip for building but more of a maintenance tip. If you are going to clean the fans with a vacuum or compressed air, especially the processor one, make sure you disconnect them first. Vacuuming it will generate static and may fry your motherboard.

Other than that, the tips you've received are great!

Good luck!

 

[Fenris]

They have given great advice so far. And I agree, make sure to ground yourself all the time.

And well, this isn't a tip for building but more of a maintenance tip. If you are going to clean the fans with a vacuum or compressed air, especially the processor one, make sure you disconnect them first. Vacuuming it will generate static and may fry your motherboard.

Other than that, the tips you've received are great!

Good luck!

I didn't know that! That's actually really interesting. I'll try to keep the fan cleaning tidbit in mind for the future.

Glad to have another opinion chiming in. :)

 

[Tsutarja]

I'm sure this one is kinda common sense, but I'll pass it along anyways.. be sure that when you open your desktop, that there is literally absolutely no power going it at all, or any leftover power at all. That means when you unplug it, press the power button to let any leftover power out of the system to prevent electrical shock, and to also prevent anything from being fried as well.

 

[Brane]

Well if you want to take care of your PC follow all of the steps above. Google is also your friend. One tip I have is to cable manage the hell out of your desktop if you have the time and cable ties etc. It saves you a lot of time in the long run if you want to upgrade or swap something out without having to scrummage through cables.

And by cable manage I mean group all things properly, a lot of stores tend to just grab ALL the cables and tie them together (which is kind of counter-productive to the idea of being able to upgrade your PC).

I work in a similar field and if you ever upgrade or change parts out, KEEP the old parts. I have spare RAM, graphics cards and hard drives just in case anything screws up so I can attempt to get something working without being stranded and forced to empty pockets.

I find it funny though, the tech directors at my work are always changing or building desktops onsite and the amount of abuse that goes into them is quite hilarious, and they tend to survive a lot of it. So while they say don't be too rough on your parts, don't be scared to use a little force because wiggling it around unsure is probably going to do more damage. You'll notice with RAM, sometimes graphics cards and CPU fans etc that they need a bit of oomph.

But yeah, don't be scared to take your time.
(This is all coming from someone who is too cheap to buy a rack for his SSDs so he duct tapes them to the HDD racks).