Sure, if you want to make it sound super technical or scary sure lol. I'm not trying to make light of these things, or suggest that you just toss the parts in willy-nilly :awe:
-manuals for these parts often contain information for a different part, or outdated/very poorly translated information. Mobo manuals are usually pretty awful, but may tell you where the power pins and reset pins are, which is important if you can't read the small writing on the mobo itself. Pretty much all parts are universal type connectors. Sure, one vid card might have a 6-pin AND an 8-pin, but even if I've only ever had a vid card that takes one 6-pin, I don't need to read the manual to tell me that I need to plug in both a 6-pin and 8-pin cord into this new one.
-exactly, you don't want to be smashing the HSF down onto the processor at weird angles and break things. Not that I've ever seen this happen, but I'd imagine it is possible. There are diagrams on how it clicks on, but it's usually pretty obvious the orientation it goes in because you can see the clips.
-I didn't think it was that bad... of course, the newer the system, the more pins and such. Treat your components with respect and obviously be gentle, and you'll do fine! I think this would come naturally, anyone who's building a computer would know that a processor is not a football or doorstop or anything
-yes, fans should be plugged in ("and attach power cables to everything.")... some motherboards have neat fan control settings in the BIOS, check these out if you have problems with fan noise or plan on doing some overclocking, but it doesn't sound like the OP would be doing that just yet. It's also common sense to plug fans in; I don't expect someone to leave all the fans disconnected, and not have it occur to them that they need to be plugged in to work. Configuring or fine tuning, yes, means you'll be in the BIOS.
-similarly, nobody's going to be pushing hard on the motherboard. It's going to fit in its allotted space, unless you accidentally get a mATX case :awe: in which case whoops! Nah, people realize when they see how complicated a motherboard is how fragile it must be. I always see first-timers handle them with such reverence you'd think it was an ancient, fragile, priceless artifact.
-yeah, front power and USB ports. Should take a couple minutes, maybe a flashlight to read where to plug in the power connectors. Everything's labeled, and again in the manual for convenience.
-I'm not saying go ahead and ram in the power cords with a lot of force, with no regard for how fragile the part might be. That's just common sense. People don't open their cellphones with all their strength, they're not gonna plug in a little fan power cable so hard it breaks the motherboard...
-BIOS can be important. Sometimes you plug your CPU, hard drive and everything in and it detects it the first time. In fact, with newer mobos, this happens more and more often. If you wish to tweak voltage, RAM timings, PCIe clock, NB clock/voltage, or anything else (fan control, ah yes!) or if the mobo is using the integrated graphics by default instead of your new fancy video card (which, the new mobos tend to detect which gpu has a monitor plugged in and won't purposefully frustrate you by using the wrong device). If the motherboard can't detect what's plugged into it then that's a sad mobo. Of course, there is a chance you'll want to alter something from the get-go, so BIOS could be a factor.
-Haha, I know what you mean about praying for a POST! That's always an exciting moment, and I swear it helps if you cross your fingers! I have had it too though with prefabbed computers being DOA, I mean any time you build or buy a machine there is that chance sadly...
I hope I didn't make it sound like you shouldn't use caution or be careful when building such an expensive machine, that was not my intent... I'm fairly certain I do things properly, I've done it so many times, and never broken, ruined, or damaged anything. No, I didn't guide him through every single step of plugging in all the components, but I didn't mean to make it sound like a "oh, this'll take 15 minutes, piece of cake!" kind of thing. You can plug the components in and test it, if you know what you're doing with the hardware and the build doesn't have a ton of fluff parts, in definitely under 8 hours, and do it right. Sorry if I made it sound like a trivial process, or one that you don't have to take at all seriously. I know my description of the process was simple. You could make a description as long as you want, for building a computer, how to drive stick, how to paint a house, you name it. This thread isn't meant as a guide for every step of the way to build a PC; I was only trying to say that building a computer isn't something that needs to be terrifying, that it's not an insurmountable goal. Anyone can do it, and we are here to help. I'm sorry if I've implied that one can just slap things together and be done with it, or that you don't need to be careful when doing this. I sort of assumed those were self-evident. I suppose to some extent though if you've never done it before, you'll know to be careful, but not maybe in all the right ways. So I hope that if he decides to build it instead of buy it, he asks for some advice with the specific parts!
It may take some time to get an appointment with an on-site support person. I don't know if paine works full-time, but I wouldn't be able to easily take time off for something like that. And even if they come to the house knowing your complaint, for instance my video card is bad, they'll need to verify that that's the issue, order the part, then come back and install it. The repair person probably won't have an EVGA GTX275 in their backpack, and I doubt the caliber of their expertise in any way matches the computer tech who originally put the Alienware computer together. Alternately, you can send the whole computer out to Alienware for repair. I did this with my Voodoo several times, and shipping's expensive for a whole computer. Whether you build it or buy it, it sucks if something breaks!! You got that right!
Yeah, it's an expensive... GORGEOUS computer... definitely overpriced though. I don't think I'd spring for an Alienware if I was super rich, I like having the options to customize every aspect of my machine myself and know where everything is and that it's set up the way I want it... to select my own RAM, edition/brand of vid card, HDD, mobo, PSU... they don't always have the option I'd ideally want in their config options.
(edit) Oh! Oh! We forgot this too- use a static wrist strap, or ground yourself, you don't want to be conducting lots of electricity into your parts.
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