ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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I'm doing this for the first time today 
What could go wrong and how can I not fuck up  I assume that the computer will only go together one way and that's the right way so it's not to difficult...
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corsaevu
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Registered: 4th Oct 05
Location: North Yorkshire
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you need to make sure that all the parts CAN work together. Certain parts go well together, some dont!!
I have a custom made pc which is awesome and cost under £400 with a yo graphics card; when a mate of mine bought the same spec one from pc world for over a thousand!!
So overall you save a lot of money!!!!
Good luck with it mate!!
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Skylined
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Registered: 27th Sep 05
Location: Sideways, Surrey
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Make sure you're anti-static.
Can blow boards and RAM up as soon as you touch it if your workin on nylon carpet or anything
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Jules
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Registered: 26th Nov 04
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Status: Happy
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I built my pc and it's all from being self taught, it's really not that difficult, just take your time and check that what you are doing is right.
The most irritating bits are when things like RAM can only be configured in certain ways in certain channels etc but if you ever get into a situation like that then take all the RAM out and put it in a stick at a time, or you have your drives master/slave jumpers done wrong - again take your time and work backwards if you have a problem and you'll be ok.
Some parts of building a PC require you to use a little force but obiously if you're having to really force something in then something is probably wrong somewhere, like you said most things are designed to only go one way but always always check beforehand to make sure.
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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Cool, everything has just arrived, it's fun un-packing stuff 
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Andrew
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Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
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Just be carefull with the CPU that you don't crack it. Everything else can take a bit of hammer really. Well not litrally like
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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only thing i would worry about really is installing the cpu and cpu fan - most of the time its an extremly tight fit!
Also make sure use a bit of artic silver on the cpu before you isntall the fan!!!
The rest of the stuff is just slot it it 
what system you just get then?
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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As above.
As you install the parts, read through the motherboard manual as there will be certain issues.
e.g if you only have 1or2 sticks of ram, it will want to be in a particular slot (it will tell you this).
Also, if your using a S-ATA hard drive, you will most likely need to disable the Raid function in bios before your PC will find the hard disk when trying to install windows. (no need to load SATA drives despite what anyone tells you).
The tricky bits which usually get me are connecting the case buttons to the mobo.
although it does tell you, its not always straight forward.
u2u me if you get any problems.
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dave17
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Registered: 3rd Sep 02
Location: Greater London
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quote:
Originally posted by Bart
The tricky bits which usually get me are connecting the case buttons to the mobo.
same here, i was so baffled for ages
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Andrew
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Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by dave17
quote:
Originally posted by Bart
The tricky bits which usually get me are connecting the case buttons to the mobo.
same here, i was so baffled for ages
I always have that problem too.
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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quote:
Originally posted by Bart
Also, if your using a S-ATA hard drive, you will most likely need to disable the Raid function in bios before your PC will find the hard disk when trying to install windows. (no need to load SATA drives despite what anyone tells you).
It depends on the controller the board uses so yes you do have to load drivers sometimes.
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
User status: Offline
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in some instances, yes. but its quite rare today, espically if you've got a brand name mobo and hard disc.
quote:
Originally posted by Andrew
quote:
Originally posted by dave17
quote:
Originally posted by Bart
The tricky bits which usually get me are connecting the case buttons to the mobo.
same here, i was so baffled for ages
I always have that problem too.
i tend to use a bit of trial and error. tbh i dont bother connecting up the hard drive LEDs etc, or even the reset, i think its more hassle than its worth.
Connect the power button thats it 
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Andrew
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Registered: 5th May 04
Location: Skoda Octavia Estate, Ford Puma
User status: Offline
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At work i'll get the PCs running and mess with them when i'm bored. But my home one has to br PERFECT 
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
User status: Offline
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i was quite the opposite, at work PC has to be perfect, and messed about at home, different OSs, formatting all the time.
Until i spent 1k on a new PC which i built myself, now the case never gets opened, and im always careful about it.
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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Grrrr... It worked, then I realised that it wouldn't install the RAID drivers directly off of the CD-ROM, so I fitted my floppy drive which I didn't think I would need to do. Now just before it tries to boot it hangs on the PCI check bit...  No idea what to do. Tried removing the floppy drive and put it back to exactly how it was before, but to no avail. Any ideas?
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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Hmmm, it boots onto a floppy disk... Maybe the DVD drive isn't happy about something? Though I can see it in the BIOS and in the device listing. This is complicated
A lot of people have recomended to update the BIOS and chipset drivers on theis motherboard so I'm going to try that....
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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Wooo, working
However, I don't think it's working in RAID 1 like I wanted it to...
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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you have more than 1 HD?
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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Yea, I have 2x 300gb Maxtor SATA HD's
I cannot even see them anymore when the system does the POST, I have enabled RAID 1 in the RAID menu but when I try to install Windows it says that there are no disks installed too 
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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It a;so says that there are no disks installed in the BIOS, they are in and they are plugged in correctly, I could see them before 
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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Fixed and running Had various driver issues which are sorted. Damn it's fast
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
User status: Offline
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whats the spec.
Any machine with a fresh OS is fast.
load some Apz on, and some stuff which will be added to your bootup, some resource hogging AV and it'll be back to normal
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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The Spec is:
BFG 7600GT 256mb GDDR3 Dual DVI PCI-E
Asus A8N-E SKT 939 NFORCE 4 AUDIO LAN PCI-Express ATX
2x CRUCIAL 1GB DDR PC3200 400MHz 184-PIN UNBUFF 128MX64 Memory
2x Maxtor 6V300F0 DiamondMax 10 300GB 7200RPM SATA II 16MB Cache
Logitech Black 2.4Ghz Wireless Desktop - Interference free Keyboard and Optical Mouse
LG GSA-4167BRL 16X Dual Layer Dual Format DVD ± RW Writer
AMD Athlon 64 (ADA3700DKA5CF) 3700 CPU Skt 939 San Diego
Hauppauge WINTV-HVR 1100 Digital and Analogue Tv and Radio int PCI card
2x Dell 15" LCD's (going to be replaced with some DVI 17" displays though...)
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Cybermonkey
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Registered: 22nd Sep 02
Location: Sydney, Australia
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sounds lovely ed  get sandra2005 installed and get some benchmark results, just to make sure its running at full speed.
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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It's got all sorts of Asus software installed. You can set it to overclock itself if it needs to I have that disabled in favour of the AMD Cool'n'Quiet software
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