Im going to attempt my first build. Any advice welcome

Quartz said:
Dell used to build them well. My mother's Dell Dimension L800r (Intel P3-800) is still working just fine. This Christmas I'm replacing it with an Intel NUC from OCUK.
Click to expand...

They certainly do. I remember at the time it was between Gateway and Dell. Gateway had a logo about black and white cows. They even had a showroom in covent garden in London. Not sure what happened to them. However look at Dell now. Huge company.

I wont chuck my 720 in the skip though. Too bonded with it. I need to do something with it. Like frame the motherboard on the wall. Use the tower as a beer stand next to the sofa. Anything!
 
General Zod said:
Finally got round to ordering most of the gear for the new rig. Here it is below. Made a lot of changes after reading just about everything on this site. So a big thank you to everyone for your posts. Without them i would be stuck in no mans land.

20161214_112927.jpg


abd902f7-a05c-414b-b570-b0fce2a5d366.jpg


Its going to be a sad day tomorrow when i finally turn off my old dell xps 720. She's been running strong for 13 years plus and never missed a beat. I've never owned anything as old as her :( not even my annoying wife ;)
Click to expand...

Congrats man. You're really making it rain with the Corsair parts, huh? Not a bad choice. Quality brand.
 
foster grant said:
Shame you're not gonna use that Dell case ?
Click to expand...

I wished i could. The case is old but to this day its still one of the best quality cases ever made. I cant see one on the market that beats it for quality. The problem is only BTX mother boards fit it. BTX motherboards dont exist anymore. BTX was to rival ATX. It never took off and died.
 
1 tip, use the motherboard standoffs when you install the motherboard not like some guy did back in the day and screw the board directly to the MoBO tray and short it out! The only other possible thing you could do to totally screw things would be to bend the motherboard CPU pins but unless you're clumsy that impossible to do.
 
Last edited:
House said:
And wives are much more expensive to upgrade and getting rid of the old ones even more so. You cant just throw them up in the loft to gather dust.
Click to expand...

I've been tempted to put her in the back garden instead and put decking over her. Well thats what i keep telling her when she annoys me :D

DIABLO said:
1 tip, use the motherboard standoffs when you install the motherboard not like some guy did back in the day and screw the board directly to the MoBO tray and short it out! The only other possible thing you could do to totally screw things would be to bend the motherboard CPU pins but unless you're clumsy that impossible to do.
Click to expand...
Yep of course. I spent 3 years at uni learning electronics so i know all about shorting things out. Normally myself however. :rolleyes:

Going to start the build this afternoon. I'll post here if i get any problems or if it all goes well.
 
Been at the build for over 8 hours now. I'm stressed a little.

Instructions on all parts haven't been great. The power supply instructions was a joke.

I hit a few problems however.

The water cooler fans are huge. Once removed you cannot mount the RGB SP120 fans on the back of them. The RGB fans need to be mounted to the PC case and then the radiator is mounted behind them.

The other issue i had is that the SP120 RGB fans don't come with a power supply connector. No instructions on which type i needed as well. I spent a while online searching and i think i have found the adapter connector. I will get that in the morning for the 6 fans fitted.

I think i have the H115i connectors fitted correctly to the mother board. Like i say, the instructions was poor.

Other than that it should be up and running tomorrow.
 
You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble by watching a video on youtube involving similar parts.

8 hours for a build is a bit ridiculous. I can put a machine together in 15-20 minutes. 1 hour to 1 hour and a half if it's a complex build and I want to do really stellar cable management. If it's taking you 8 hours then you must really be struggling.

The fan connectors can either be connected directly to the motherboard's fan headers, or they can be connected to MOLEX via fan to molex adapters. These can be found cheaply online.

There are also fan controllers, which either sit in a drive bay or somewhere inside your case, and allow you to control the fans individually either through digital or analog controls. Some have fancy LCD displays as well.

Be very careful with your liquid cooler that you don't overly flex the tubing or take anything out of its socket. If those things leak they can ruin your entire build. I would have gone large air personally. Much easier to deal with and makes for a far less daunting first time build.

I think if you upload some pictures showing in detail where you're at right now we can help you finish up.

Happy new year!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom