I just experienced my first PC build. I thought I would share some random thoughts for those considering building their first PC. Maybe this will be of some help…
I feel I’m pretty handy, and I catch on quick. I’ve replaced HD’s, RAM a CPU a long time ago, optical drives so I figured I should be able to follow directions and build one from scratch.
The first hurdle was what to order, will it be compatible, etc. Originally I had planned to use CyberPowerPC, so I built specs, shared in their forums, and some folks gave me some direction. I almost pulled the trigger but then decided to build one myself. The list of parts from the build spec helped guide me what to get. I cleared the first hurdle.
Next, my concern was if I could figure it out. I found several tutorials online, so I decided I could. Cleared that hurdle.
The parts came, and I found the instructions that came with the case, the power supply, and all the parts were all I really needed, after what I read in online tutorials and a short 7 minute Newegg video, that’s all I needed. The Motherboard instructions were particularly helpful in installing parts, it went really well, although somewhat slow since I had not done this before.
The hardest thing putting it all together was routing the wiring and having it the right direction to fit the socket on whatever it was supposed to go on. Otherwise, piece of cake. Everything is labeled, it did take a bit of second looking at the illustration in the instructions and the cables and the board itself, but easy enough to figure out.
Some things that almost got me:
It went very well. The bios was easy to navigate, change, etc. The OS installed with little hitches. I did run into a Network issue, but then I realized I should pay attention to the CD/DVD that came with the Motherboard (all the proper drivers), they did provide that for a reason! Once that was installed, BAM, everything was working great, I had LAN, internet, etc.
I then decided to add my data drives now that the OS was in. I quickly realized they were not seen in the OS (even thought a quick flag by the clock said the drivers installed). Went to my computer, down through management and to disk management and formatted them – done with that!
Unboxing, laying out parts, opening more parts, reading back and forth between the motherboard instruction book and other parts instruction sheets, to final OS install and configuration and setup email and second data drives (and start copying data from old PC drives to get onto my new drives) was 5 or 6 hours. That includes wasted time trying to figure out why my video card wasn’t showing up, and remounting my SDD to a different location, and looking for the right cables to the right connections. I’ll bet I could cut that time in half next time I build a PC.
Great, great experience.
What I used, in case anyone is curious:
Thanks for listening, I don’t know if that helped, but I just wanted to encourage someone on the fence that they may be able to do it themselves and really enjoy the process.
--
Tim
http://myfotoguy.zenfolio.com - Gallery
http://www.my-fotoguy.com/ - Tips and Technique
I feel I’m pretty handy, and I catch on quick. I’ve replaced HD’s, RAM a CPU a long time ago, optical drives so I figured I should be able to follow directions and build one from scratch.
The first hurdle was what to order, will it be compatible, etc. Originally I had planned to use CyberPowerPC, so I built specs, shared in their forums, and some folks gave me some direction. I almost pulled the trigger but then decided to build one myself. The list of parts from the build spec helped guide me what to get. I cleared the first hurdle.
Next, my concern was if I could figure it out. I found several tutorials online, so I decided I could. Cleared that hurdle.
The parts came, and I found the instructions that came with the case, the power supply, and all the parts were all I really needed, after what I read in online tutorials and a short 7 minute Newegg video, that’s all I needed. The Motherboard instructions were particularly helpful in installing parts, it went really well, although somewhat slow since I had not done this before.
The hardest thing putting it all together was routing the wiring and having it the right direction to fit the socket on whatever it was supposed to go on. Otherwise, piece of cake. Everything is labeled, it did take a bit of second looking at the illustration in the instructions and the cables and the board itself, but easy enough to figure out.
Some things that almost got me:
- The CPU cooling fan didn’t click on one of the posts, so I started to push it down and got worried about getting it seated without cracking the motherboard. I then realized it was already seated (I simply comparing it to the other three posts).
- Some of the power cables that come with the power supply look similar. I had a cable labeled “GPU” for my video card but it didn’t match the power input on the card or in the manual that came with the card. It stopped me for a bit until I realized there were other GPU cables in the box. DUH!
- I almost started to mount the motherboard while the case was standing up. I was thinking “I better be real careful” then duh, I laid it on it’ side first so I could gently place the board down in before screwing it into place.
- The rest was easy, just a little bit nervous since I had not done it before, and so I wasn’t sure how to organize myself.
- We have a nice big foldable table I was working on, a friend suggested I not do it on the plastic table, so I put wood on top so there was less chance of creating static. I also had one of the static straps on me (got a nice $20 kit from Newegg made from Rosewill that had everything needed and then some).
It went very well. The bios was easy to navigate, change, etc. The OS installed with little hitches. I did run into a Network issue, but then I realized I should pay attention to the CD/DVD that came with the Motherboard (all the proper drivers), they did provide that for a reason! Once that was installed, BAM, everything was working great, I had LAN, internet, etc.
I then decided to add my data drives now that the OS was in. I quickly realized they were not seen in the OS (even thought a quick flag by the clock said the drivers installed). Went to my computer, down through management and to disk management and formatted them – done with that!
Unboxing, laying out parts, opening more parts, reading back and forth between the motherboard instruction book and other parts instruction sheets, to final OS install and configuration and setup email and second data drives (and start copying data from old PC drives to get onto my new drives) was 5 or 6 hours. That includes wasted time trying to figure out why my video card wasn’t showing up, and remounting my SDD to a different location, and looking for the right cables to the right connections. I’ll bet I could cut that time in half next time I build a PC.
Great, great experience.
What I used, in case anyone is curious:
- COOLER MASTER HAF 912 Case
- Thermaltake Toughpower XT TPX-775M 775W Power Supply
- ASUS P8Z68-V PRO Motherboard
- Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz
- CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600 Memory
- EVGA GeoForce GTX 560 1GB 256-bit Video Card
- Intel 320 Series 160GB SSD for the Operating System and Software
- Qty 2 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive for Data Storage
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Full
- Rosewill RX-358 V2 BLK (Black) 3.5" SATA to USB & eSATA Ext. Enclosure w/Int.80mm fan and Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive for backup (also use Carbonite)
- Sony Optiac CD/DVD
- Rosewill Card Reader
Thanks for listening, I don’t know if that helped, but I just wanted to encourage someone on the fence that they may be able to do it themselves and really enjoy the process.
--
Tim
http://myfotoguy.zenfolio.com - Gallery
http://www.my-fotoguy.com/ - Tips and Technique
