Biggest mistakes when building a PC

The only mistakes I have done is buy a Cooler Master Elite 430 which was terrible so ended up having to get the Define R4. The other mistake I have done twice which is to leave the CPU header disconnected lol.
 
If using a 4pin CPU extension cable that you route behind the mobo/side of the case, remember to plug it in back there.
Took me a long time to figure out why something wasn't powering on with this mistake :( (everything looked fine as I could see it all connecting to the board!)
 
The biggest mistake had to be when I built my first PC on a 1ghz Thunderbird chip. I mounted the CPU cooler the wrong way round. If you remember the socket A chips, they had a slight step on the CPU bracket & cooler.

Well once I'd fitted it the wrong way round, it lasted 3 months before burning out :(
 
Have made one or two when first starting to build, but well worth it when it powers up and all is well.

1.Check you Have evertything handy and ready[tools,TIM,Coolant,etc]
2.Read Mobo Manual if need be.
3.Remove any plastic coverings of heatsinks and blocks.
4.Take your time, build in stages them check and take 5.
5.When measuring tubing measure twice then cut.
6.If you can take the two ends of the tubing that go to your Res for example with the rest of the loop conected up.Put your finger on one end
and blow through the other you will sharp know if you have a leak in the loop and fix.
7.Fill the loop as much as possible before turning on the pump, helps when bleeding the loop.
8.Before Powering up for the first time, Double check everything.
9.Cross fingers and switch on.
 
sybaris said:
Hi,

Having build a lot of machines over the past 25 years, I have my own ways of building.

I just wanted to know what tips other people utilise to avoid making mistakes that are either time consuming or damaging to parts.
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If your cable management is shoddy then your 25 years of building means nothing to me. :p
 
BinnsY said:
Out of curiosity, does anyone actually know of any instance where not doing this has broken anything? I've played with the hardware of quite possibly hundreds of PC's all without grounding and never once had a single issue. I've never met anyone that still uses any kind of grounding strip nor have I ever heard of static actually damaging anything.

I'm not saying it's bad advice, I completley understand it's the correct thing to do, I've just never come across not doing it actually causing any issues.
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Yeh, pretty much I've never killed anything like this. I do however have the habit of grounding myself by touching an earthed metal object before I start work on anything electronic.

It is more a danger for people at home who have lots of carpet. You could easily just pop into another room, generate a static charge from the carpet and kill a component on your return.

A pro tip is to wire up a plug only to earth, then connect this earthed wire to your PC case. Every time you start or restart work on your pc build just earth yourself on the pc case.
 
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I always find myself wishing that whatever screwdriver I'm using was strapped to my wrist in case I drop it...I once did a build using a very large and heavy Black & Decker rechargeable screwdriver which was a bit nerve wracking.

I remember my first foray into tinkering with PCs. It was about a year after my Dad bought our very expensive Pentium 200Mhz Compaq system with a 17" monitor and JBL speakers. I was fitting an Orchid 3Dfx Voodoo card or possibly another hard drive for a dedicated swap drive to try and make F22ADF play smoothly. Frustratingly as soon as the PIIs came out and my friend got one I realised it was pretty bad at running the newer games...so I had to get a PII 450 when they came out.

Anyway, I left it plugged in when I was working on it and the inside of it looked like Luke Skywalker did when the Emperor was attacking him with force lightning....it did it no harm whatsoever though!
 
A magnetic screwderiver is a must on my current board. Due to the thermal armour i found it hard to get the screws into place to secure the board. Doesnt help that im as blind as a bat and have sausage fingers.:D
 
If you need to hold something to something else during fitting, masking tape can be useful. It comes off cleanly and extremely easily afterwards.

For example, the CPU cooler I use (Noctua NH-U12F) is screwed into a backplate. You put the screws into pressure springs and then screw them in - the springs ensure that it's impossible to over-tighten the screws. Since you must have the cooler above the motherboard until it's properly screwed in (obviously - it'll fall off otherwise), that means you have to put the screws in directly downwards. So the pressure springs will fall off the screws onto the motherboard unless you fasten them to the screws. A bit of masking tape does the job and can be easily and cleanly removed afterwards.

If you're bothered about using a magnetic screwdriver you can blu-tac screws to a screwdriver. I'd just use a magnetic screwdriver, though. They're not very magnetic. If you don't touch components with the screwdriver, you should be fine. I think that it's less risky than not using one because the risk of damage from a dropped screw is higher.

Off the top of my head, the biggest mistake I can remember making was spilling about half a pint of fizzy, sugary lemonade over a PC that was uncased and powered up because I'd just built it and was fiddling with settings. It was back in the days when things like voltages and clock speeds were set with jumpers on the motherboard, so I routinely left the case off until I was satisfied with the overclock. The PSU was untouched, fortunately, and the drives were only slightly splashed. The motherboard was awash, though, lemonade bubbling and dripping off everything. I disassembled it, washed everything in plain water, blow-dried it, left it overnight to be sure it was dry, reassembled it and powered it up. It worked fine.

Back in the jumpers day, I mistakenly put a 100% overclock on a CPU by mis-setting jumpers.

There used to be more ways to mess it up, with the heavyweight champion of the world being the motherboard power connectors on the AT power supply. Two seperate unkeyed identical connectors, plugged in side by side. Each one would connect on either side. Get them the wrong way around and your motherboard was ruined the instant power was supplied.

Eh, when I were a lad :)
 
thanks, a lot of useful ideas.
I always note how many screws I have out and where they are all going. If I have any left over, I know I have missed something. Likewise if I have a screw hole but no screw in it, I know I have dropped one somewhere.

I also build where there is good light.

And my last tip is start with the connectors that are hardest to seat first. Nothing worse than getting all your drives and components in and then trying to squeeze your hand in to a tight fiddly space just to get a SATA lead in.
 
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