Building my new PC today

[Lusted]

And i would like your advice on how best to go about things, most of it is pretty easy for me to do thanks to the large instruction manuals which came with most of the parts, but still, if there's any useful tips you have then please share them.

[Belisarius]

Lucky sod, I have to wait at least 5 months to build mine. Good luck though, and any spare parts, send them over!

[Lusted]

Everythings gone okay so far, i've installed the cpu, hdd, dvd, gpu, and now i've got to install the power supply, which looks complicated.

[Belisarius]

Yup you have all those wires to connect, looks complicated on mine.

[Lusted]

It is bloody complicated, just working out where stuff from the case is meant to connect to the motherboard is hard enough.

[Belisarius]

I counted seven connections between my Mobo and case, your is probably more complicated. How I envy you though, I cant even play Oblivion.

[Lusted]

Mine is a lot more complicated, the psu has god knows how many leads coming off of it, my case is going to be very full of wires once i've finished.

[Belisarius]

Take a pic when your done of the inside.

[jegui]

Mine is a lot more complicated, the psu has god knows how many leads coming off of it, my case is going to be very full of wires once i've finished.

It's not that hard... u just need 2 leads from PSU to poer mobo and they are very well defined :-) the 24-pin ATX and the 8-pin ATX12v...

All other mobo connectors are for case (1 power, 1 reset, 1 HDD led, 1 PWR led), fans (1 CPU, 1 System) and USB/Firewall (look at manual)

As for wiring just try to put IDE/SATA/FD/DVD connectors out of front fan flow. Insert them in spare drive bays. The other wiring (case,fans) fix them to bottom of case and/or side panels... there u have a tidy up, non-blocking air flow system to avoid overheating when u OC it later on

[Lusted]

Don't have a digital camera so ill describe it. I've given up for a bit as im getting confused, only got to get the psu connected up, then im done. Oh, then i need to find my xp disk.

[Custor]

A bit late for the advice adn I'm sure you've installed everything correctly but i'll post anyway

Basics is to install mobo and PSU, then add CPU and heatsink/fan rememebering to plug fan into mobo and use thermal grease/arctic silver.
Add RAM and graphics card.
Attach power leads to mobo and graphics card as required.
Attach power on, reset and case speaker to mobo (edited as I forget these, credit poster below)

Boot into bios with these basic components to make sure that everyhting works at basic level and is detected.
If boot and detects ok, add DVDRom and HD's. Attach connecting cables and power supplies to HD/Roms.
Boot again to ensure detected.

Load operating system/Raid drivers/format HDs.

Load mobo drivers.

Add rest of periferals.
Update drivers and operating system with patches.

Go back and tidy leads up.

[Lusted]

So i can boot up the pc without an os on it? And i knew i'd forgotten to do something, i haven't applied thermal grease.

[Aristocrat]

So i can boot up the pc without an os on it? And i knew i'd forgotten to do something, i haven't applied thermal grease.

!!!!!!!
Now you get to undo all that hard work and start at the beginning...unless youd care to try and mount the heatsink while the motherboard is inside the case....and I haventy seen you mention ram yet...

[jegui]

So i can boot up the pc without an os on it? And i knew i'd forgotten to do something, i haven't applied thermal grease.

u don't need thermal grease if it is Intel stock fan, they already provide a thin layer under the metalic sink glued to the fan... just make sure there is no plastic covering it (you need to remove it) When you attach the fan/heatsink becareful to check that it actually clicked ok in hte mobo. I have read reports of people with overheating issues just 'cause one of the clipper didn't actually click in the mobo ;-(

I think u better apply the CPU + fan to mobo before installing it in case... u can than check underneath the mobo that all CPU fan 'clippers' have been correctly inserted through the mobo... just a tip ;-)

[Lusted]

My mobo had a 4-pin 12v connector not an 8-pin, but yeah i think i've finally connected everything up, and i've tidied up the leads a bit using cable ties.

[Freddie]

Make usre you earth yourself before you start handling the componants.

[jegui]

Make usre you earth yourself before you start handling the componants.

yeah that's very important... I used an anti-static wrist strap available in any computer shop...

[Lusted]

Heh, the cpu and mobo were installed a few hours ago. I haven't mentioned the ram as its freaking easy to install. Im not sure about one of the clippers for the cpu, it hasn't clicked, but it in as far as it will go.

EDIT; how do i earth myself?

[jegui]

EDIT; how do i earth myself?

You need connectivity from ur body to earth (ie... house radiator or metallic device connected to earth...) I think it's too late now since the crucial components were the CPU and RAM it should be alright though!!!

[Lusted]

Well it should be okay, haven't had any static discharges so it should be fine. Ill earth myself now to be sure.

EDIT; and can i just run the pc using the mobo drivers and stuff to check everythings running before installing xp?