Top Mistakes made by newbie box builders

[EyeOfThe]

You tell me - I'm the newbie box builder!

I'm looking to build my next computer, what are the things I'm most likely to "F" UP? :disgust::Q:frown:

 

[Electric Amish]

LED headers on backwards
Floppy cable on backwards
Master/Slave jumpering of drives
Not installing the correct drivers...especially for the motherboard.
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Buying nvidia or creative products... ()

amish

 

[clumsum]

Hello, ............. welcome to AnandTech.

One of the major things is to purchase good quality case/power supplys (and motherboards) that are approved for the cpu you are using, so you start off right..........

IMHO ....... the next most important thing is to always get your mb to post (with just minimum components installed) outside the case, ............. so you know if you short something out while installing the mb and/or components into the case.

Good luck with your pc build!

 

[RSMemphis]

the list goes on

DDR-RAM going in backwards.
RAM installed while mobo in the case (sometimes they need a lot of pressure)
Heatsink installed while mobo in case (even more pressure)
AGP card not seated correctly.
Too much silver paste (Built two computers now with retail packages, and I am not opposed to thermal strips, although they are not as good)
Silver paste not spread enough
Silver paste on motherboard (that's a killer)
Not enough airflow due to flat ribbon cables.

EDIT: One more - slipping with the screw driver while installing the heat sink - ruining the motherboard.

Hmm, can't think of anything else right now

 

[jcmkk]

Newbies comming on crying because they think they got ripped off on their CPU since it is under its specification. In reality, they just have the FSB set to 100MHz instead of 133MHz (of course, if you're building a P4 based system, this doesn't apply).

 

[MasterHoss]

Not enjoying the creation of your new baby.

 

[toant103]

there's no such thing as cheap and good

 

[anthrax]

I would say the mistakes to be worried about is concerning the mounting of the CPU and the Heat sink..
mistakes there could kill your CPU or mother board.........

Installing.... DDR on back wards......you really have to be a dimwit to do that....its pretty hard its keyed so its pretty hard to install the wrong way round...

stuff like reversing the floppy cable isn't really serious......you could reverse it later with no ill effects.
drivers..its revsesible....

Get well documented stuff.......ASUS (A7V333 ) stuff now comes with inproved docutmentation for the mother boards..it could be helpful.....

 

[winterlude]

Ground yourself often, especially if you are standing on carpet. The last thing you want is to short your board.
Read the MB manual first. Some board makers have quirks or switch their jumpers around from model to model.
Power supply connections need a lot of force i.e. into the harddrive, CD RW etc and need to be put in the right way (check the color of the wires)
Make sure the ram and PCI cards are properly seated. I.e. if your video card or ram is not, you will get nothing on the monitor and different beeps from the onboard case speaker (assuming that you plug it in)

And don't screw on your case cover until you're finished tinkering and everything is working fine. That's not a major screw up, but just a pain if you put all the screws in then realize that the IRQ for your sound card conflicts with the slot you put it in etc.

 

[ObiDon]

Don't forget to plug in your CPU fan!

 

[jcmkk]

I think the biggest thing is to pick out the right parts. Go with well known brands. Make sure you research each hardware extensively, and figure out all of the problems with it before you buy it. The most important hardware choice is the motherboard. Every motherboard is gonna have some kind of problem. Just make sure you can live with it or know some way to fix it. It is also good to get popular hardware. They are popular for a reason, and if something goes wrong, there are plenty of people that have experience with that particular piece that can help you.

 

[WarCon]

And lets not forget leaving an extra standoff in the motherboard tray and then mounting the motherboard and shorting it out.

Another is to not remove the plastic cover on the pad that comes with the retail heatsink before mounting it.

Don't install any components with your powersupply plugged in, there is still power in it. (Some nice mobo manufacturers have a LED to show you that the board still has juice.)

Don't run your system even for a few seconds without a heatsink (just to see if it works).

Don't spit into the wind........... (Oops)

 

[winterlude]

One potentially big problem that is often overlooked is how to format the disk. If you are installing a brand new disk, most of them don't mention how to format it, and usually the motherboard manual won't say either (at least one's that I've seen). Make sure you have a bootdisk (i.e. a windows startup disk) handy so that you can fdisk.

 

[RagingGuardian]

listening to biased members on this board

 

[Tiger]

Buy high quality cases and power supplies.
If your going to be swapping parts a lot you'll thank yourself for getting a case with rounded edges.

As for mistakes I've made,.....

Floppy cable backwards.
Bent HD pins, they're a PITA to straighten.
Bent jumpers, see above.

All the really good stuff happens when you try to load an OS for the first time.

 

[cleverhandle]

<< All the really good stuff happens when you try to load an OS for the first time. >>



Exactly - apart from that, the only typical snag are the LED cables and such. Installing the heatsink and fan really isn't that bad just because there's such great, detailed documentation either included with the parts or on the web.

So, DO NOT INSTALL EVERYTHING AT ONCE! When people come in here crying about their systems not working, and then give you a laundry list of video/TV cards, sound, optical drives, RAID arrays... you don't even know where to start looking. Even if they installed stuff and pulled parts out in order to troubleshoot, who knows what kind of damage they did to their registry and system files beforehand? First, boot with a video card, CPU, RAM, and floppy drive from a boot floppy - that's it. If it works, add a hard drive and CD and install the OS. Then install your network component. Everything else comes after installing 4-in-1's and windows updates.

 

[majewski9]

Floppy cable backwards!

Master/slave settings!

Ram not seated properly!

LED connectors and power/reset switchs!

 

[The Sauce]

Installing the incorrect number of spacer screws underneath the mobo and shorting it out...seen that happen at least 5 times - even to experienced builders.

 

[Dreadogg]

<< Installing.... DDR on back wards......you really have to be a dimwit to do that....its pretty hard its keyed so its pretty hard to install the wrong way round... >>

do you know why this so common? the easyest thing to install but majority of the time people do not want to unplug all the wires on there PC and pull out the case etc. so they can get a good view at it, its almost half dark in thier case and they slam it in there!

 

[kgraeme]

Don't put the mobo in the case until it works. Lay the mobo on your table on the anti-static bag it probably came in. Put the cpu and cooler on, a video card in and run the plugs from the case to the board. Power it up and see if it posts. If it does, then put it in the case and try again. If it posts there, plug in some drives and install the OS. THEN after all that, start installing sound, lan, etc...

 

[PH0ENIX]

>>>listening to biased members on this board


Or, more to the point, listening to only 1 or 2 members, or the people who're telling you what you want to hear.
Thats the point of a forum after all - to hear people's opinions.

Generally speaking unless it's one of the well-known more technical members (you know who you are people - others will think they are but really they're just dreaming - Im very tempted to say such as myself - but i've been wrong before, and I'm not really well known unless you are an efnet freak ) then you should take the advice with a grain of salt, and weigh up everyone's responses.

That way you can be sure you're getting the right advice, before you commit yourself to trying something.

Alltogether useless info?
Possibly - but i'd say that taking soley one person's advice is the biggest newbie fault there is.

 

[CubicZirconia]

<< Don't forget to plug in your CPU fan! >>



Good advice. The first time I tried to get my system to post it wouldn't. So, I had to remove and replace the vid card over and over until it did post. Unfortunately, in the process I unhooked my cpu fan....then proceeded to install windows with it unhooked. You'd think I would notice, but the fans in my friend's pc provided ample noise so that I didn't. During the final windows restart, I noticed my cpu temp was 55, which I didn't like. At that point I finally noticed that the fan wasn't plugged in. Boy did I feel like a moron.

 

[CAMS]

<<

<< Installing.... DDR on back wards......you really have to be a dimwit to do that....its pretty hard its keyed so its pretty hard to install the wrong way round... >>

do you know why this so common? the easyest thing to install but majority of the time people do not want to unplug all the wires on there PC and pull out the case etc. so they can get a good view at it, its almost half dark in thier case and they slam it in there! >>


Stuff ups

Miscellaneous/memory is good.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

I'm with kgraeme on that one - get it to post with as little stuff as you can <outside the box> then put it in the box and do the same.

Add hardware bit by bit until it's all there. That way, you can tell what is causing any problems.

 

[EyeOfThe]

>>And lets not forget leaving an extra standoff in the motherboard tray and then mounting the motherboard and shorting it out.

>>Installing the incorrect number of spacer screws underneath the mobo and shorting it out...seen that happen at least 5 times - even to >>experienced builders.


Hey, I understand most of the things I read except for the ones above. Can anyone elaborate?