3 Things I learnt from assembling my first PC

Never tighten a screw too much, you will curse yourself if you ever open it in future
Do not let a screw fall inside the cabinet, you will end up searching everywhere including inside the PSU, afraid that it might get stuck in the wrong place, and will finally find it stuck between to motherboard pins
Brace yourself before you start, you might end up with sore back or aching legs or both

I learned that it's best if professionals do it which is still a risk because most of today's professional's just call themselves engineer by doing some crash course in hardware and believe that all computer problems will vanish by a simple hdd format.

@Cool Buddy, fixed those power cables? everything working fine?

and you called me yesterday?

Cool Buddy said:
Never tighten a screw too much, you will curse yourself if you ever open it in future

Do not let a screw fall inside the cabinet, you will end up searching everywhere including inside the PSU, afraid that it might get stuck in the wrong place, and will finally find it stuck between to motherboard pins

Brace yourself before you start, you might end up with sore back or aching legs or both

True, but I tighten them till they do not go anymore. Specially on the accelerators. I use a magnetic screwdriver...! Yea, back and legs ache like hell.

that your first PC is most probably on sacrificial altar, surrendering to volunteer for your experiments.

Sam said:
@Cool Buddy, fixed those power cables? everything working fine?

and you called me yesterday?

Yeah, I got your number from facebook.

I got really confused about the power switch and power LED etc. I couldn't figure out which way it would go. I was afraid that if I put it wrongly, I might damage the mobo. But when you said it won't start, I decided to go ahead assuming the colored wire was positive. It worked and is working fine.
And yeah, Thanks for that suggestion. I could have asked on the forum, but without the PC, that was a bit difficult.

^^ that is what we call LEARNING.

Things I learnt from assembling my first PC

1)Get a good pair of high enough high belted trousers .

2) Stay away from low cut jeans.

^^

freshseasons said:
1)Get a good pair of high enough high belted trousers .

2) Stay away from low cut jeans.

I am scared to ask you why

)

Op you might want to keep adding points to your first post for everyone's reference.

Except....ahem...the above one

Cool Buddy said:
Yeah, I got your number from facebook.

damn facebook.

Cool Buddy said:
I got really confused about the power switch and power LED etc. I couldn't figure out which way it would go. I was afraid that if I put it wrongly, I might damage the mobo. But when you said it won't start, I decided to go ahead assuming the colored wire was positive. It worked and is working fine.
And yeah, Thanks for that suggestion. I could have asked on the forum, but without the PC, that was a bit difficult.

when you asked about the power cable with +ve -ve i was puzzled cause i have assembled disassembled by PC many times, never seen any such thing. after sometime i felt you must be talking about the power switch wires. there are tricky, specially if you have a generic cabinet without any manual.

1. It's easier than it seems.
2. Be careful with static electricity.
3. It's still scary if it doesn't work right immediately.

Liverpool_fan said:
1. It's easier than it seems.
2. Be careful with static electricity.
3. It's still scary if it doesn't work right immediately.

point 2 is important but while opening cabinet static charge flows to the trunk.

1 imp point: don't panic if pc doesn't starts right. most likely you missed to connect the cpu cooler power or the ram got loose or the video out cable was connected to mother boards port, not the GPU's.

Liverpool_fan said:
1. It's easier than it seems.
2. Be careful with static electricity.
3. It's still scary if it doesn't work right immediately.

Please Elaborate

stonecaper said:
Please Elaborate

Static Electricity and Computers: Can static electricity damage a computer?

Graphics chips are most vulnerable.

Sam said:
1 imp point: don't panic if pc doesn't starts right. most likely you missed to connect the cpu cooler power or the ram got loose or the video out cable was connected to mother boards port, not the GPU's.

Hah in my case the MCB tripped when I powered on my PC for the first time (circa 2008), I panicked so much that I didn't dare to power it on and called a system engineer; bloody right I spent a sleepless night and a scary morning. Turned out he just powered it on and it was working.
Yes after doing all the Hard Work.

Wasted Rs.150 and a day.

Heck this incident should probably go to the dumbest thread.

Panic. Never ever panic. Ever. Period.

axes2t2 said:
I learned that it's best if professionals do it which is still a risk because most of today's professional's just call themselves engineer by doing some crash course in hardware and believe that all computer problems will vanish by a simple hdd format.

To be fair that does solve 99% Windows problems :lol:

Do not mix up Fan-out pins with JP2 jumper...

freshseasons said:
Stay away from low cut jeans.

Always

Sam said:
damn facebook.

I know many people don't even realise that their phone numbers are visible on their Facebook profile

Liverpool_fan said:
1. It's easier than it seems.
2. Be careful with static electricity.
3. It's still scary if it doesn't work right immediately.

I suppose standing or touching the ground with bare feet takes care of it.
------------------------------

One thing I discovered yesterday, when I put my computer to sleep, the power LED doesn't blink. Earlier it used to.
There were 2 connectors on the motherboard, one said PWR LED and the other said MSG LED. the manual said that if I connect to the message LED, it will be active during sleep, but it turns off. Any ideas?

1)Don't mess with that tine-tiny jumper key. Trust me, if it gets lost or you remove it by chance, you will end up assembling and disassembling and then start over until you miraculously discover that jumper key again, well..if it isn't lost yet.

2)Its a very good learning experience and easier than it seems.

3)Back ache.

yes, it is definitely easier than it seems. I agree
All my fears are gone now that I have done it once