Stupid build mistakes to avoid

I know it sounds like a pain but do a prebuild build, twice now i have fully put together a PC including watercooling and cable tidying only to find it didn't boot, this as you can imagine made it a lot harder to fault find!!

If im doing a new build now i usualy do a minimum build in the mobo box, CPU (with stock HS),MOBO, RAM, GPU and PSU just to see if i can get into bios, if i can im happy to procede (this takes about 5 mins to set up).

Once im happy eveything works i prepare the case, have a look to see if you can forsee any problems you might have and to work out cable routes.

Put the mobo risers in making sure they match up with the mobo.

Importantly measure at this point whether your 4 or 8 pin mobo PSU lead (the one near the CPU) is long enough, with the PSU usualy being at the bottom this is the PSU lead that takes the most thought.

The rest is really plug and play, good luck.
 
Last edited:
I was in exactly the same position 2 or 3 weeks ago with almost the same components as yourself and never having built one before. Fortunately, I received some very good advice from the members here before I started so, that made things a lot easier and I didn't feel left out on my own!

My build went surprisingly pretty much to plan - I built mine on a large piece of cardboard placed on the dining room table and pulled very close to a radiator so I could keep earthing myself to avoid any possible static build up as my room is fully carpeted.

I started by fitting the two optical drives, disk drive and card reader into the case with both sides removed and then placed the mobo on the table and carefully mounted the CPU and cooler, followed by the RAM sticks. Then I screwed in the mobo stand-offs after working out which ones would be used and then carefully installed and screwed down the completed mobo.
The 955 CPU stock cooler takes a bit of effort to get clipped into place, therefore I would certainly suggest assembling those with the mobo on the table and not in the case when installing. Also just be careful not to damage the thermal coating on the base of the cooler where it makes contact with the CPU.

After that it was just a case of carefully installing the PSU and working my way through all the power connections to the drives, mobo headers, front panel connectors etc etc.

As long as you work methodically and follow the schematics of the mobo connectors and what goes where, it's pretty logical and simple really.

I can see that there is a good argument for assembling the basic mobo etc outside of the case and testing to see that the main components are working as they should be before finally installing but, I took the chance of building it into the case and then testing and it was fine.

I fitted my PSU last but others might suggest differently but if you choose to fit it last, I would suggest however, slipping the PSU into position in the case before installing the mobo just to work out the routing for the various power connectors etc to get the best possible routes for the individual cables but other than that, it's quite simple!
Also be careful not to crimp any wires against the case edges which could possibly cut into them and cause a short when re-fitting the case sides if the drives fit sideways on as there was not a lot of room in my case.

Good luck although I'm sure you'll be fine.
 
sychnant said:
Just assemble the basics, (MB CPU and 1 stick of ram and GPU) on top of a cardboard box and test for Booting up OK.If everything is OK then assemble properly in the Case. That way you will know that if you have a problem booting when its in the case its not the components.
Click to expand...

this is a good tip
 
If I assemble everything (or the minimum as you say) outside the case, what's my working process for testing it?

Will it need to be plugged into the monitor and the bios screen should just come up? If so, what next? Is there any shut-down from the bios? Or would I just turn off, take it apart and rebuild into the case?

As great as Greywolf's guide is, it would be brilliant if it had a small section on the first boot-up, I've got no idea what to expect with that.
 
My most recent mistake, forgetting to put the motherboard risers in, took me a good 45 mins to realise why the hell my gpu wouldent fit lol
 
allewellyn said:
I should probably note that it looks as if the PSU is already installed in the case, is that a spanner in the works for a 'pre-build'?
Click to expand...

No, this isn't something to worry about. Just move the power cables out of the way when you fit your mobo and drives into your case. Then connect the power cables once everything is in.
 
I'm hooking up the front panel to the motherboard.

Rather than being lots of fiddly little plugs, they seem to be collected into two larger plugs.

One is labelled HD Audio, the other AC'97

They're both keyed the same, and look like they should fit alongside each other in the F_PANEL socket, but I'm not sure which way around to put them.
 
Just realised that's a completely different cable. The ones I thought it was were hiding around the back of the case.


Okay, so I have one of the tiny fiddly cables left over. It's labelled 'P LED' and is two small individual plugs (rather than two together like the others).

On the MOBO, there is a plug labelled 'pwr led', but it's on the other side of the socket from all the rest of the wires. Where the rest of the wires are, there's space for the two plugs and is marked as 'MSG'. As far as I can see I have no other little wires around.

Suggestions?
 
they are for power LED

no clue as to why they are seperate but i have always put them together and it has always worked for me.

if the light does not come on then just put them on the otherway round
 
They're only 2 plugs though, and the part on the MOBO that's labelled as 'pwr led' has three pins?

Another query...the case fan plug had a molex adapter on the plug, which I've taken off. The plug is a 3-pin chap, but the SYS_FAN socket on the mobo has 4-pins.

The 3-pin fits onto this socket fine, but there's that stray pin..is this something wrong, or will it be fine like that?
 
allewellyn said:
They're only 2 plugs though, and the part on the MOBO that's labelled as 'pwr led' has three pins?

Another query...the case fan plug had a molex adapter on the plug, which I've taken off. The plug is a 3-pin chap, but the SYS_FAN socket on the mobo has 4-pins.

The 3-pin fits onto this socket fine, but there's that stray pin..is this something wrong, or will it be fine like that?
Click to expand...

Slow your roll. Don't panic.

If there's only two plugs, but three pins for the front panel connector, it's all gravy. Your motherboard should have come with a sheet that shows you what the front panel connectors line up like. It's just a matter of matching the colours. I'm pretty sure there's a standard. If your front panel LEDs don't require three pins... they don't require three pins.

It'll be fine. There's two types of fan. 3 pin and 4 pin. 4 pin is PWM. Pulse width modulation. It allows the CPU and BIOS to dictate fan speeds due to increases in temperature and the like. Whereas 3 pin doesn't have this (that's what the 4th pin is for). So they usually run at one speed and one speed only, which you have to manually control, usually by a fan controller.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom