Originally posted by: Madwand1
Re-applying the thermal paste is pretty simple once you've done it. The part that irritates me the most these days is putting in the (stock) heatsink. Intel's are a lot easier to work with in this respect; I hope that AM2's are a big improvement. Not a huge problem, and sometimes you get lucky and it goes straight in, but often it's harder than it should be.
When it's all said and done, none of this is really hard, but there's a fair bit to do, and it can be easy to screw up a part installation (e.g. reverse IDE connectors, case connectors in wrong orientation / pins, floppy power connector misaligned, memory not seated properly, etc., etc.) -- these can, but typically will not do any damage, but will cost you some time and frustration in diagnosing and resolving. Experience helps. The only way to get experience is to do it.
Installing a new MB is about as close as you can get to rebuilding an entire system -- the main difference is that you're not installing a bunch of new unknown parts, but are installing stuff that had worked in the past. You will need to do a OS repair, including re-applying all the patches (which should be automatic over time), but this is easier than re-installing an OS and apps from scratch..
In the HW setup, you're best to adopt a very simple set-up methodology -- get the basics in - power, CPU, RAM, video, case connectors -- start up. Does it start? If so, power down again, switch off the power supply, and go further. If not, then at least you won't have to disconnect the drives, other cards, etc., to figure localize the problem further.
Another option is to buy the parts from a local store that will install it for you for a moderate price. It gets easier with experience, and stores doing the installation can save themselves some of the hassles from returns. Here, local stores are very competively priced with online retailers, assuming you don't go for "name-brand" retailers with their mark-ups.
