Advice for my first PC build (parts ordered)

[hynat]

I've ordered these parts last night, and are on its way. Since I have no experience building a PC from scratch, I was wondering if there are any special tools I would need.

Would a plus screwdriver suffice?
Any tricky/delicate procedures involved?
Links to any guides appreciated.

Here are my parts:


MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
AMD 64 3500+ Winchester
twinMOS Dual 512MBx2 DDR PC-3200
NEC ND-3520A 16X Double Layer DVD-RW
eVGA e-GeForce 6800 GT PCI Expres
Antec P160
Seasonic 430watt PSU
Seagate 80GB IDE 7200RPM


Thanks!

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

A phillips (plus) screwdriver should be just about all you need.

Putting the heatsink on Socket A's used to be tricky. A credit card and a flathead helped with that. I don't think you need anything special for an A64 HS. (I'll be installing my first tomorrow)

Just go slow and read instructions your first time building.

Put the ram, CPU, HS/F, and videocard in the motherboard outside the case (don't connect harddrives, burners, etc.). Lay the mb on its box and the foam pad that should come with it.
Connect the powersupply and the Monitor.
Power it on by shorting out the pins you will attach the case power button to with your trusty screwdriver.

This way you'll know if something's wrong before you waste your time putting it in the case so you wont have to take it out if one of your parts is DOA.

 

[Duvie]

Looks good...except why not get an SATA HDD??? Really the price diff is neglible and the SATA will be slightly faster...Look at a seagate 80gb SATA model....

 

[wisdomtooth]

Originally posted by: hynat
Would a plus screwdriver suffice?
Any tricky/delicate procedures involved?
Links to any guides appreciated.

Good, solid parts. They should go together quite nicely.

Read the Hardware and System Guide for New Users thread stickied at the top of the general hardware forum. It has links to photo tutorials on putting together computers like Mechbgon's.

Since you are ordering a Seasonic PSU, I guess you want to build a quiet system? You might want to:

1) get a fan controller to slow down the motherboard's northbridge fan-- Spins too fast and makes too much noise.

2) And you probably want to replace the video card's fan and heatsink with something quieter as well.

3) Plus a quieter CPU HSF will also help.

4) If you are going to add additional fans to that Antec P160, make sure to get slow-speed fans like Panaflo L1A/BX, Nexus, etc.

HTH.