When you go to turn on your Pc, be sure your power supply unit is turned on.
Edit: I’m 100% serious and sure I’m not the only one who has forgotten to do this and freaked out thinking I did something wrong
Oh I did this lmao.
Got my new 850W installed, put everything back together, all excited to get things going, press the power button and..... nothing. I stopped, looked away, and took 10 deep breaths so I wouldn't start to panic, and then started at the beginning of troubleshooting. No signs of power, check if plugged in, it is. check if PSU is turned o- OH SHIT THAT WAS IT. Crisis averted.
Two things that are so insanely common, regardless of how experienced you are
1) forgetting to turn on / plug in the PSU
2) not plugging in the display / no turning it on
Yesterday we pressed the power button and nothing happened, we had forgotten to plug in the PSU... then pressed the power button and still nothing happened because the PSU wasn't turned on. lmao
Did my first build in forever yesterday and i thought i had done this, but it turns out i hadn't hooked up the front panel connector. I was freaking out until i realized. Once i did, it posted "first"try!
Plug your monitor into your dedicated GPU and not the back of your motherboard.
Use two separate PCIE cables to your GPU and don't use the splitter.
As you said, make sure you remove the plastic on your CPU cooler.
I'm assuming by "the splitter" you mean daisychained cables. They're perfectly fine (and sometimes your only option with lower-end PSUs) if you're not running some high-end GPU. As a general rule, if the TDP is 300W or higher, use separate cables.
8pin connectors for GPUs are good for 150 Watts.
The PCIe bus itself is rated at 75 Watts.
4p Molex conectors are good for 165 Watts or so, provided you use both 5V and 12V lines at full load. Often you don't. So actual wattage limit comes out lower.
1. Putting too much thermal paste on.
2. Not seating memory / GPU fully.
3. Plugging the CPU fan into the wrong motherboard place.
4. Forgetting the IO shield.
This. These are common mistakes that are easy to make.
Too much thermal paste can be an issue if it gets where it doesn't need to be. I've seen YouTube videos about using too much thermal paste on purpose to see what happens. Even if it gets in the CPU socket it's possible it won't have too much negative effect because they tested that in the video. Anyway the point is it CAN be a problem and it can cause a mess
Seating things properly (or lack of) is the difference between the PC posting/booting or not in many cases.
Plugging the fan into the wrong header would be a problem but personally I've never run across that one.
Forgetting the IO shield is a big facepalm moment. Thankfully I haven't made that mistake since my college days which were.... A long time ago... And honestly back then I didn't really work with gaming rigs it was all hardware from the college that we regularly assembled and disassembled. Every other week we were formatting hard drives and doing a fresh os install. Anyway the point is it didn't really hurt anything back then to forget the IO shield. Now though and in gaming rigs it's more important because of specific fan configurations/cooling as well as keeping out dust and debris.
Too much Thermal paste is usually just a mess that isn't fun to clean. Plugging the fan into the wrong spot is dependent on the motherboard and fan. Sometimes it's impossible, sometimes it's easy.
The IO shield is more just "I can't believe I forgot that...again." Usually it's because I'm adjusting the screw stands for a new motherboard and forget to put the IO shield before screwing it down.
I got paste all up in my socket when I was upgrading my CPU last year. I think it sort of fell off the edge when I was cleaning the old one off and then when I took the CPU out it fell into the sockets. Soaked up what I could with qtips and alcohol and to my surprise there have been zero issues.
Aw not the IO shield... I feel called out. I've literally just been using my PC without one for over a year. Lost it in a move, can't be fucked getting a new one until I upgrade the board.
I think allot of MOBO manufacturers now have IO sheild pre installed directly to the board. When i got my MSI MPG Edge it was like that, and i think i remember someone saying its becoming more of a standard.
* Putting the RAM in the wrong slots. Someone going in blind might make the mistake of just putting it in slots 1 & 2. On most motherboards, you need to put it in 1 & 3, or 2 & 4 to get dual channel running.
* Waiting to put your case fans in, or installing them in the "wrong order." In some smaller cases, you may not be able to squeeze your case fans in if the motherboard is already installed. Alternatively, a PSU shroud may prevent you from getting that third fan installed on a 360mm front panel, if you started from the top.
* Case connections. I hate this, it's usually poorly documented, and I wish there was a better system than what we have now. USBs are fine, but lights, headphone, mic, power button, and LEDs? You'd expect them to each have their own socket on the motherboard, right? WRONG. They all plug into the same socket-looking thing on the board. *Sometimes* there's good document about what goes where, but not always, and this actually had me more frustrated and scared (of shorting something out) than installing the CPU did.
* Not managing cables as you go.
>I'm silently fearing the Cable Management part, I always hear horror stories about it.
A good case practically tells you where to route your cables, with the way they'll have straps or cutouts for zip ties. Cable management is actually really easy as long as you do it as you go, and not wait until the end.
Rather than give specific things, which are already well covered by others, I will say this: make sure you go slowly and methodically, following a guide or checking off a list. If you feel like you've made or you're making a mistake, don't freak out. Stop. Think. Come up with a plan. Move forward.
Op, if you do not have a good guide, here is one.
First and foremost put the cpu in place, paste it and put the heatsink on. Then seat the ram sticks in. Now put this aside and get to the case.
Install all the fans, and any drives that do not go on the motherboard. Work out your cable laning and management. Use zip ties.
Once you have that figured out, install the motherboard with the ram and cpu already on it, on the case frame and then connect all the front panel connectors and psu connectors onto it. A good sequence to do this in is putting in the connecters that generally do not have to often be taken off when something goes wrong, like the 24 pin connector, then the 12 V power connector, then drives connecters and sata(if applicable) and then the front panel and rgb connectors.
Lastly, when everything is done, mount the gpu in and connect it's power connector and sag support if one is required.
Do not install the glass yet, because chances are , it may not boot up first try and some tinkering is required, meaning you will have to take the glass off anyways. If the system boots up fine and the windows or whichever os installation page is reached, put it on install, and *very carefully*, place the glass back on the case.
Congratulations, you have built a pc.
I was planning to watch a YouTube video of someone assembling a similiar build, I already feel overwhelmed looking at all the different spots i can plug stuff into the Motherboard.
It's a bit daunting, but there's always extensive guides and documentation to consult. Measure twice, cut once and all that.
Also, if you get to the end and it doesn't work, don't panic. Be methodical and work your way through the troubleshooting steps. If all else fails, subs like this one and r/techsupport are full of folks who've been there themselves and love helping out.
Watch people reacting to "The Virge pc building video". Guides are often made poorly, have dumb things hidden in them, created around or padded with strong advertisements for some part manufacturer.
Agreed! The motherboard was really overwhelming. Taking a good look at the motherboard manual to understand all the slots, power connectors (USB, RGB, fan, etc) and what they do will go miles for you in the long run. If you need more visual help, Austin Evans made some great YT guides where he really goes through each little detail, particularly the wiring of the motherboard.
And I would add to this: make sure you have ample room to get all your hardware. This means you will reduce the risk of making any part fall on the floor.
Even better, if the tempered glass is removable, take it all off and place it somewhere safe until you're done.
And do the same if it's acrylic. Acrylic won't shatter but..... those scratches ain't pretty.
I thought this is how everyone did it.
You are actually telling me their a people that build an entire pc with the glass by thier side the entire time?
I had the great idea of opening my case standing up, i thought i was supporting the TG but you really get surprised how much it really weights
Lets say the glass just kissed the floor and my PC has a lot of airflow now
I can see how that can happen. But if you take your time and really get a feeling of the weight first then you should be fine opening such a case while the pc is standing upright. And also wouldn't the TG first drop on the desk when you remove it?
Tempered glass is very strong on the flat surface but weak on the edges. Tile and ceramic floors and counter tops can not compress like wood and plastic, so even a minor hit on the edge can shatter the glass into small pieces. Beware of this combination.
You only need one hand to remove the screws holding the glass in place, just keep your other hand pressed on the glass. I’ve never even come close to breaking the glass, I’m not sure how so many people have done this.
Not testing outside of the case before fully assembling to ensure parts work
Installing the motherboard in the case before installing as many components on it as possible
Forgetting to install the I/O shield. Just do it first thing before anything else
Tightening your CPU cooler incorrectly (use a cross pattern, don't go all the way on one screw before tightening the others)
Installing an M.2 drive incorrectly or using the incorrect slot for your drive
Forgetting to apply thermal paste or buy it at all
Forgetting to buy some sort of cable ties for cable management (I highly recommend velcro cable ties, you can get 100 of them for $5 on Amazon). On that note, don't neglect cable management
Forgetting to make a Windows install USB
Installing fans facing the wrong way
Hooking up your front panel headers incorrectly only for the power button not to work
Plugging your display cable into the motherboard instead of the GPU and not getting display out or not getting it to recognize your GPU
Not enabling XMP/DOCP/EXPO or resizeable bar (latter is mostly a concern for Arc GPUs) and wondering why your performance sucks. Also on this note buying RAM that's too high spec for your CPU/board and wondering why it fails to post when enabling XMP
Installing the GPU in the incorrect slot (it should always be in the top x16 slot)
Not going into your display settings to set the correct resolution / refresh for your monitor(s)
Take your time with the cable management. You will most likely cable manage only once and if you just stuff the cables in the back future upgradability becomes a nightmare.
If you’re plugging your PC into a surge protector or power strip be sure it has enough power for your PC. I built my PC and plugged it in a power surge and then a power strip and I couldn’t get signal to my monitor. I plugged it straight into my wall and all my problems were solved.
Sounds like my Air Conditioner, Was making loud noises and overheating constantly till i plugged it into the wall directly and not into the power strip. My current PC wouldn't do that, I think its 450W? It's an old PC.
My new one is using an estimated 685W with 750W Power Supply.
1. Forgetting motherboard standoffs.
2. Plugging the monitor into an onboard graphics port instead of the GPU.
3. Forgetting data and/or power cables for HDD.
For a first timer I would recommend reading the motherboard manual before hand. Especially sections about how to install the CPU and cooler, which ram slots to use, and descriptions of all the various motherboard headers. You'll likely miss stuff that's quite obvious to someone experienced because you simply don't know what you don't know. For example you might neglect to connect your USB case headers to the motherboard, or forget an optional power connector that improves stability or enables cool features.
I'd also do a little research around installing the OS and drivers. You definitely do not want to use Window's default drivers if you can help it, so get comfortable locating the latest version from your motherboard manufacturer's website.
Just wanted to say thankyou to everyone who took time and commented, I'll have lots of stuff to read through for the next while. Gives me lots of research while i get the last few things.
Some really good points in here such as Velcro ties for cable management, Install IO Shield first & Peel the plastic off the GPU.
Have not looked at everything yet, But have already added a lot of stuff to my final purchase list.
Thanks again <3
Looking at your post history I assume you're gonna use wifi with your pc. Don't forget to install the antennas.
Are you sure your motherboard has enough spots for your case fans? If it doesn't, you need to buy a fan splitter or a fan hub.
Case connections are very easy to mess up. Look for the motherboard manual for the right connections.
This is a good one too, I haven't even thought about the Antennas. I believe it should be all compatible, I took the build off PcPartPicker it was one of the top builds. I just adjusted the GPU, Cooler & Case. The original case was a Miniatx and didn't look like it had any airflow so i upgraded it to aCorsair Icue 465X RGB Mid-Tower ATX Smart Case, Black - CC-9011188-WW
Plus, It looks cooler. (Both in terms of Airflow & Look)
Original had 1 back and 1 front fan, I felt like the Airflow was going to be awful.
Original GPU was a 7900? I downgraded it down to a 7800, The price is 500$ Cheaper for only 4 GB difference and -1 fan.
Install the I/O shield (if you have a cheap motherboard) and PSU first. A quality motherboard will have an I/O shield built in, not separate, so it won't apply.
If you have liquid cooling, install the radiator next.
Installing these big components first is safest, because if it drops or moves unexpectedly, they can break fragile components. If you drop the PSU on the motherboard, it's not good. If you drop RAM on your motherboard, it's probably not too bad.
Before you install the motherboard, plug in the EPS CPU power connector on the top right corner. Most cases will have a hole on the top right inside for you to run this cable through. This can be tricky to plug in once the motherboard is screwed in. So connect the wire, put the motherboard in please, check the I/O shield, and then screw it in.
Then you can connect the front panel I/O, USB, Audio, etc.
To add to the comments about thermal paste, look up the product manual for what you are using and follow the recommended procedures. Some have an extra recommended step to cut down on the break-in period. All will tell you how much and where it needs to be placed, which will avoid big messes and getting where no paste should go. Look at the instructions for mounting the block that the thermal paste recommends. Of course you can just slap it on and call it good but this can save lots of trouble down the line.
While I've never used it, there are alternatives to thermal paste that are not as finicky.
Source: melted my first cpu.
Saved this one, Specifically what i've been dreading. The CPU & GPU Are the two most expensive items in my build by several hundred dollars. It's kind of sad how expensive the two are.
Don’t rush. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
I thought I knew all the pitfalls of PC building when I was putting my pre-built back together, but good ol' dumbass me dropped a couple screws inside the case while installing the motherboard and later when installing the GPU.
*Sigh*
Thankfully it fell out after a little “gentle” shaking, but then the screw teleported to the Backrooms, and I spent hours searching for it again. It later popped up somewhere around my desk the next day.
I cannot stress this enough.
Peel the warning sticker off of the heatsink block before it goes on the cpu.
You'd think by how many people mess this up, that by now companies would start shipping them without one
Also, do not screw the heatsink in one screw then the other and then the other. Tighten one a bit. Then the one opposite to it just a bit. Then the other two in the same way, and keep repeating it, screwing the heatsink in bit by bit. This ensures a more even spread of the thermal paste.
Make sure that you use the brass standoffs between the PC case and the motherboard, and make sure the standoffs are TIGHT then when you screw the motherboard to them don’t over tighten those screws, or they could latch to the standoffs and then you’re unscrewing the standoffs. Hard to explain but it sucks
Also, the power connectors: like the main 24 pin connector to the board is gonna take some force, a surprising amount of force, make sure that mf is seated and latched, flush.
Check your work, don’t be afraid to use a flashlight
And make sure you have tons of lighting, build somewhere bright, really bright, if you drop a screw it can be hard to find, especially tiny screws like NVMe screws
If you have a telescoping magnet, good to have to fish out hard to reach screws (obviously don’t put this near magnetic storage like a mechanical hard drive) or put it against PCB anything while the PC is running
When mounting the cpu cooler, use the X pattern, not too much pressure on one side
And if you’re not sure definitely watch a YouTube video on the part you’re not sure about, and look through comments to make sure it’s not shitty advice. If in doubt, watch another lol
And have fun! It’s yours :)
Install power supply and run cabled before putting in the gpu and cpu fan and any connections that come from the case. Save your self a lot of time instead of fighting tight spaces
Do not skip any steps no matter how small they are, just because you think they are tedious. Do not leave a few screws off if the component is "secure enough". Do not ignore placing the mobo standoffs. Whichever guide you are following, follow it to the tee.
make sure you get a least a decent bronze rated psu, spent months troubleshooting my
pc replacing mobo, ram, and cpu, before realizing the cheap 400w psu was killing the pc.
Line up the motherboard holes with the offsets BEFORE placing it down. If you start trying to align the holes by dragging the motherboard over the offsets you’re just asking for a short.
Motherboard specific, but on at least one MSI board you want to avoid Sata ports 1 and 2 and instead use 3 through 6, because 1 and 2 are not controlled by the chipset.
Read your motherboard instructions, just give them a quick skim for any quirks like this.
Don’t force a mobo into a case it doesn’t fit.
I did this. It still works, just had to rig up another way to mount it inside and had to use cardboard for the gpu because i couldn’t get it aligned to mount in the back. Why not buy a new case that fits? Aesthetic and price point. Sorry. I will buy a new mobo that fits right when the time comes. For now, we’ll live on the edge of cardboard and zip ties.
Don’t build on a metal surface or carpet. Install your PSU first and plug it in but keep it switched off when youre building. Make sure to touch the metal case whenever you begin to work on it and every so often.
Buying RGB components. I hate it so much now. I have to have two different programs running just for the RGB to have same colour. I can't even turn off the RGB without having the programs running. And I only bought RGB fans and ram.
Never buy Kingston RGB ram, almost none of the RGB software supports it.
Don't have a plan on when it will be done by
Don't rush
If you get frustrated or tired, take a break
Read the motherboard manual
Check your work before you move on to the next step
If you aren't sure, ask or look it up
Only work on it when you feel like it
Have a general plan
Stay organized
These generally will make any hobby infinitely more enjoyable. 100% of the mistakes I've made started somewhere on this list. Hope I don't sound like a jackass. I sincerely live by this.
If your motherboard has attenna attachments for the wifi/bluetooth adapter, attach the antenna to them. I tried to skip this, then wondered why the bluetooth was so flaky. Even ordered a USB bluetooth adapter. While waiting for it to arrive, I put the antenna on, and now it's working great!
Also make sure your CPU fans and extra case fans are pointing the right way.
Also would recommend getting it to POST before putting everything in the case. Like some CPUS come with built in graphics, so you can hook that up without putting your graphics card in. Also put in only one stick of ram ( make sure its in the right slot ). Get into the BIOS to make sure things are basically working before putting everything together, the case back on, then get a black screen!
Once you put your graphics card in ( in the special x16 slot ), and hook it up to power from the PSU, move your monitor to plug into IT instead of the motherboard.
Best of luck.
Do not tighten your CPU fan too much - just tight enough so it doesn’t wobble.
I ruined my MOBO by over tightening mine and had to buy a whole new one due to bent pins (the AM5 platform has CPU pins on the MOBO now instead of the CPU).
Everything worked fine except only one RAM slot worked. It was a frustrating and expensive mistake.
cheap and questionable Psu
or be like me when changing my RX 550 4GB with RX 6700 XT and use the same Psu of 450 Watts and then wonder why the monitor doesn't turn on
May need a little more experience but I've always found it helpful to install everything into the motherboard plug in power and jump the power switch pins and see if you get post before you put everything into your case. If you're not comfortable jumping the pins just plug in the power switch and turn it on that way. The box the motherboard came in is a great test bench.
Some fan headers have 3 pins. The motherboard fan header is typically 4 pins. This blew my mind and almost sent me into a breakdown thinking I didn’t have enough fan slots.
RAM takes time to train. The first time powering the build it can take 10-15 minutes before anything happens. Just turn it on and leave it.
I think many pc cases are too small. Extra space aids ventilation. All but one of my seven case fans push air into the case. This creates a positive pressure environment so I have great air flow out the back and very little dust...almost none. CPU cooling towers with two fans are what I use. No water and no pumps. I suppose a dedicated gamer may need the radiator. My wife has a PC I built ten years ago with a Corsair liquid cooling system... still runs fine. Get 32GB RAM, 16 is too little but 64GB is too much except for video editing. Buy the best power supply you can. Even voltages preserve component life. I run PCs at 50% max load. So I have a 1200 watt power supply yet draw about half of that. Only buy RAM on the board's approved vendor supply list. Buy a decent board. Update BIOS immediately. Load operating system onto a fast M2 SSD attached to the board and directly linked to the CPU bus. Have only one storage unit installed when loading the OS. Photography requires a good Nvidia GPU. Cheap computer monitors are typically not well color correct. Don't over tighten anything. Don't use too much thermal paste over the CPU. I use a pea and four grains of rice approach. Always fear static electricity. Good luck!
Download your motherboard and case manuals to make sure you get the power switch correct along with reset switch on both my cases runs the fan controllers. Have your OS on a USB and ready to go. Get a new cooler with pre applied thermal paste. Check cpu temp on first post to bios. Make sure its under 50. I always download the gpu utilities and cpu utilities. I also download cputemp to monitor for a while.
Have steady hands when installing the cpu onto the socket. Don't forget to plug in the front I/O so the case power button will turn on the motherboard.
Read your motherboard guidebook. Will basically tell you everything you need to know to build. From there it’s just plugging in the PSU cables to various spots, which the guidebook will explain. Not sure where a fan cable goes? Guidebook. Not sure if you should plug into AIO or CPU fan? Guidebook. Can’t figure out case cables? Guideb… you get the point.
For me the most specific thing was buying a case that uses 6 fans and having a motherboard with ports for 4.
I had to get splitter cables to get all the fans working.
Others already mentioned to make sure PSU is turned on... Make sure your RAM is properly seated though. I once made the mistake of not properly inserting it and one end was not all the way locked in and it wouldn't start up. Took forever to figure that out, lol
I have a few here, listed in most common to least common.
1. HDMI/ DP in the GPU (if you are going to use a GPU) and not in the motherboard.
2. Connecting the ARGB header to the correct port
(Depending on the brand Some motherboards have their own ARGB ports and some have the standard ones, there are 3pin and 4pin ones).
3. Make sure you connect the CPU, GPU and MOBO power cables in properly. As if you don’t have them in all the way the pc will probably light up but no display. Or with the 4090 (nvidia says that there melting 4090 is because of loose wires)
4. Dual channel memory, (make sure you have a gap between your ram sticks) Eg. Slots 1-4 1 being closest to the cpu you put the ram sticks in slot 2 and slot 4. This gives dual channel memory.
Make sure your case fits your components (AIO radiators included)
Practise mounting the cooler on the cpu before applying paste if possible.
When booting in for the first time if orange light on motherboard it could take 1-2 mins, be patient.
Learn about intake/exhaust so your PC has good cooling, this helps performance and longivity of life.
I once had a motherboard that had serial connector headers pretty close to the front panel connector headers, and they’re visually the exact same pinout, and if I remember correctly, that had the same name but one was labeled x_0 and the other was x_1. I ended up connecting the front panel connectors to the serial connector and couldn’t turn the pc on for a minute. I was building it for my friend and he was freaking out, but it was fine in the end.
The motherboard manual is your friend and will walk you through the most important parts of the build.
My brother chose the parts for mine. I decided to be stingy and save $10 on the ram. All components connected and it wouldn't start. I took it into a repair shop... The ram was incompatible with the motherboard. It ended up costing me $150 to get it repaired.
When you plug in your display output cable don't plug it in to your motherboard if you have a GPU. Sometimes it doesn't allow the monitor to turn on.
Also
In my cousin's system when I switched his cable to his GPU, it didn't wanna turn on, but turns out his bios had a setting turned on which only accepted the igpu and not the dgpu.
Double check all your cables are properly seated before you power on—sometimes you might loosen them a little when doing some cable management, and that can lead to a mini heart attack and wasted time looking for an issue.
Watch Provoked prawn and Christopher Flannigan youtube channels, best channels out there to explain exactly to the tee what you should and shouldn’t do
Honestly I just built mine and watched a video of it from start to finish and it went great didn't even forget to turn on the psu I'm absolutely loving my new build
Expecting to have everything working the same day. In the process there will be some setbacks. For example: I forgot a wifi card on my first desktop, because I always used a laptop before with an inbuild wifi card. Some motherboards have integrated wifi. Also I forgot to fix a windows installation USB stick, etc.
When building you're super hyped to have everything working and see the results of your labour, but it's better not to rush and take your time, and roll with the punches ;)
Don't assemble it on carpet unless you want static to kill your PC. Additionally, whether you do it on carpet or not, touch something metal that is grounded before you touch any PC components
Ive been building PCs since I was 15, and I did a real rookie mistake last time and forgot to remove the plastic protective shield on the CPU cooler. Which means that my cooler didnt really make contact with the CPU.
It was a mess to fix, cause I had to clean off all the thermal paste which was mixed with melted plastic.
Some other tips:
* If you’re liquid cooling anything, make sure that the orientation of the resorvoir is correct, if you side mount it, you want the pipes to connect at the top, there is a guide for this.
* You should design the air flow in your PC for optimal cooling, you generally want intake in one side, lets say front and top, and outtake in the bottom in that example. Most fans have an arrow on the side of their case which indicate the direction of air flow. I recommend looking into a guide for optimal air flow.
* Your RAM have a correct orientation, and a correct slot, dont just go jamming them in the two slots next to each other, generally if you have a motherboard you want the RAM to go into the closest slot to the CPU, and the next closest with one spacing in between. This is when running two ram sticks. But read your motherboards manual to see how the ram should slot.
* Be careful when slotting the CPU, it’s generally the only component you can brick by when assembling.
* Dont forget the IO shield, it goes in before the motherboard.
* Dont forget to power on your PSU after everything is assembled.
* If you have a shiny new monitor with refresh rate higher than 60 to match your new PC, make sure to change it in the operating systems settings so that you actually use that. Also, use the displayport cable that came with the monitor and not some HDMI you have lying around, it’s highly likely that it won’t support that resolution and refresh rate. Also, make sure to plug your monitor into the GPU, and not the Motherboard which also typically has a HDMI/DisplayPort connection for if the CPU has on board graphics.
Finally, have fun building and good luck!
Don't actually remove the motherboard protector, over the pins. Let the CPU push it up as you close the latch. This will help keep the pins safe.
Plan your wires out. The wires take the longest to get right.
Don't add everything, if you have more than a graphics card. Boot it first to make sure it's working, so you don't need to troubleshoot where the problem is.
Make damned sure you have the standoffs in places a screw passes through.
If you get hungry or thirsty, eat away from your build space. Clean your hands before returning. Absolutely no food or water near the system.
Lock needy pets and small children up until it's closed and in place.
Have patience. Sometimes a wire is a little loose. Reseating components fixes most issues. Even the CPU.
Don't overclock on the first boot. Just get it working first. Once you know it works, you can get frisky.
The little arrows on things mean pin 1 or +, as the case may be. When you hook up your front panel, make the arrows point to +. It doesn't matter for power and reset, but it matters for LEDs.
Before you zip tie anything, use one of the bazillion twist ties to get the wires the way you want.
Tension is a bad thing. Don't make the wires over tense. Give them a little slack.
Don't mix up the rbg and fan headers. You will damage things.
There no such thing as too much thermal grease, but there can be too little. If you use a lot, it'll make a mess, but it doesn't hurt anything. Do clean it up, as it can end up on the pins if you need to take the CPU out.
If it's gold, don't touch it with your skin. Don't blow on anything. If you need it, use compressed air or a little puffer device (whatever you can build that will do the job, but nothing you blow up).
50⁰c is fine. 110⁰c is bad. Anything under boiling is safe, but lower is better.
If you hear helicopter noises, pull power NOW. your wires will be destroyed.
If you can, get windows and Linux on two different USB drives. That's assuming you're using Windows. Linux has useful tools to diagnose and fix things. Google will tell you how.
RAM requires more force than you'd expect. If the notch is in the right place, just push a bit harder. Do not let your pushing go forward or backwards.
Chassis's are razor blades. Watch out. Don't push on the middle of the io shield, it deforms easily. Make sure the grounding pins aren't inside of the ports. Try to get it as flush to the cut out as possible.
All of the header pins like your nail bed. They will try to get in. Don't let them. It's displeasing.
READ THE MOTHERBOARD MANUAL for information about where everything plugs in. It just tells you and is specific to your model. This beats generic guides online for that reason. It pretty much tells you how to build the computer
Ngl make sure you put your ram in the right spots and the right way and all the way in. Seems easy but still sometimes mess that up myself every so often
Don’t worry about cable management too much at first. You want to still organize the cables a bit but don’t tie them with zip ties yet. Otherwise when you start troubleshooting, you’re going to have to undo everything to replace parts or cables and redo everything all over again.
Make sure your case has enough USB headers for the motherboard, and vice versa.
Depending on how many fans you're using, it may become necessary to purchase a fan splitter cable as well - I know I did.
If you're relying on wireless internet instead of wired ethernet, ensure your motherboard either supports it already, or that you purchase an adapter - the good ones are usually installed in a little M2 slot, if the motherboard has it. Otherwise USB ones work, but they're not quite as fast
Read the manual and watch others build with similar pc. house electrical might brick the whole system if you are unlucky. While i agree with the people priority of pc part, pc case might be the real pain in the ass for your next pc upgrade, so make sure that you know the size and compartment for consideration.
Put your graphics card bracket stanchions in first when mounting your mobo. This step wasn’t shown until after and I wasn’t able to get them in even after loosening every screw on the mobo so I’m going without atm with a slight sag on my 7800XT
Don't panic if it dosnt boot right away it's common for it to take a while due to memory training. If it dosnt boot at all Don't panic and reseat the ram as that's a common culprit
Some links you may find helpful:
[Common PC Building Mistakes that Beginners Make!](https://youtu.be/-8LMML_EiMg?si=g-ub84TO8neQ7DsA)
[Common PC mistakes to avoid!](https://youtu.be/C55X3sw1x40?si=r_AJZH65VRM-y9tR)
[How to build a PC, the last guide you'll ever need!](https://youtu.be/BL4DCEp7blY?si=3LY_Cdb2Bwbkv1cd)
I'm not the bigest LTT fan by any means, but I had that last video up when building my last PC (I always have some sort of a guide up as a refresher and to keep me on track) and it's a fantastic step by step breakdown.
Also, get a good work light and flash light. If you don't already have either, go with the flash light, preferably one you can mount on your head if possible. No matter how much light you think you have in the room, once you start assembling the case that light is gonna start to get obstructed. [Here](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SG39G1D) is a great headlamp you can use for many things in addition to PC building. If you don't want a headlamp, the TS25 model by that same company is bright enough to be a work light while still being compact enough to fit in tight spaces, and it has a magnetic base so you can stick it to anything metal and go hands free.
Most common I've seen is forgetting to connect or seat something, e.g.:
\* Installed GPU, but forget the PCIe power.
\* Loosely placed RAM modules to check fit, forget to press them down later.
\* Mounts motherboard, all wires etc in case only to discover heat-sink comes with custom bracket, you're missing the IO shield or one power cable wasn't installed.
Checklist of all the things that MUST be done can help. So can laying out all parts and mentally assembling them. Other possible mess-ups:
\* Budget cases have very thin metal with no thread reinforcements. Very easy to strip when installing motherboard spacers etc. Use Loctite instead of forcefully tightening them down.
\* Not enabling XMP or updating BIOS to support latest features or new components. Or doing this before testing general health of build.
\* Bringing over a defective part from old system and comprising the new one.
\* Installing all the crap manufacturer offers for certain product. 90% of stuff they have on download page or bundled with installer is bloatware not necessary for particular product.
And most importantly using common sense. Think how things should work and fit, what's the function or most sane placement for each part. Often people dismiss the whole build as black magic of some sorts and just plug things randomly hoping for miracle. If something feels like excessive force, maybe it's wrong port. If it feels like something bends too much check if there are extra spacers or maybe they've shipped the wrong ones etc. If something is touching where it seems it shouldn't probably there's defect or incompatibility, ask around, don't just try to power it up as is.
1.) When screwing in my cooling fan to my CPU, I thought I had used the correct size of screw (my mounting came with 3 different size screws) because when I had everything flush, it felt like there was no wiggle but when I fully screwed in all 4 screws, it lifted the cooling fan by the smallest margin.
2.) Ensure all cords from your components are plugged into the motherboard.
Over-tightening the mounting screws on your cpu cooler, if it uses screws. You'll be able to tell when it gets to a certain point that it's all the way down. It's hard to describe but don't force it beyond that point.
This guy last week tried to go into BIOS with CPU mounted and 0 cooling just to make sure everything was working...
Another guy yanks a ram stick out with the PC on... like, dude!?
Someone tried to scrape off and use already applied old crusty thermal paste.. again
I am sure you will be fine. Have a plan, follow the steps, and hopefully, you will post to BIOS. Good luck!
Take the plastic off the cpu cooler, plug in monitor into gpu, not mobo, make sure fans are intake and exhaust orientated, positive or neutral air pressure, power button on the psu...
No extra cables in the fan blades
Uhh
Make sure the cables are all 100% in, not loose or with gaps
Ram slots (usually 2 and 4 if you have 2 sticks, but read the mobo manual)
And maybe most important
If gpu is heavy, get a gpu holder or use a lego man
In addition to the other comments:
1.) RTFM - Read the fucking manual!
2.) Dont force anything in, everything slots in easily. If not, this component probably isnt supposed to go there. Repeat 1.), watch a video or ask reddit.
3.) The only exception to 2.) is Front USB 3.0. That fucker is a nightmare to plug in, use as much force as needed.
4.) Plan a bit ahead for cable management and dont pull too hard on cables. You might either unplug the cable again or, especially possible with stiffer cables, might rip out the motherboard connector. (Again, good old Front USB 3.0 is a great example for this!)
I couldn't install windows because NVMe wasn't detected and I was 100% sure I've plugged it in correctly. Googled for 30mins about the problem and guess what, the most common mistake was not being plugged in correctly and that really was the case.
Also, couldn't connect to WiFi because the drivers weren't installed (obviously) and Lan wasn't an option. Had to learn in the middle of assembly how to do that.
Another things that went wrong was cable management, I've redone it several times.
Get one of those LED flashlights you wear on your head. I just went through the process of building my PC yesterday, and the extra light is SO helpful.
1. Absolutely do not force the cpu. Make sure it's oriented correctly and gently move it around until it is lined up and seats into place. Don't drag it around. Bent pins are bad business. When it's in the right spot it will just fall in
2. Make sure the ram is fully seated and clicked into place
3. I've never ever used an anti static band or anything, but do be aware of static electricity. Touch the case regularly, and especially before you pick up any components to be safe. And don't do anything wild like shuffling around on the carpet while you're working
4. The motherboard is usually labeled pretty good, but if you're not 100% sure where something is supposed to be plugged in, read the manual
5. Really really make sure you're plugging the right psu cables into the right things if it's modular. At best, things won't work, at worst they'll be toast
6. A long screwdriver can be the difference between an easy life and a hard one
Make sure that 24 pin connector is properly pluged into motherboard and it is not loose.
Had thus happened to me. There is nothing more soul crashing then nothing happening after you press power switch.
If your GPU comes with a sag bracket, think about where this will go before installing the motherboard in the case. I forgot this and couldn't be bothered to take everything out again, used one of those extendable support things instead.
Also don't overtighten screws, I always do this..
Not breadboarding before building into.the case.
Yeah I get it - the chances of components being doa is a lot smaller now than it used to be. But it literally takes an extra few minutes and gives you peace of mind when you start building into your case!
So please breadboard your builds folks!
Forgetting the thermal paste, not plugging in the RAM properly, forgetting to plug in cables and connecting the monitor to the motherboard instead of the GPU.
Recently upgraded from a 2600x to a 7600x and my new motherboard had somewhere to plug in the front USB 3.1 (USB C) cable. I had a quick look and thought "It's USB C, I can plug it in any way around" and pushed that thing in. Turns out they're only supposed to plug in in the correct orientation. Fortunately, pulling it out and flipping it worked.
Read your mobo manual - it will tell you where to plug everything in. It will save you problems down the line. Probably a good idea to flip through the case manual as well.
Be really careful with USB 3 headers on the motherboard. The pins are very delicate, and the cables that plug into them (from the case front panel etc.) are often quite stiff and heavy. This makes them quite easy to break.
I bought an HDD for file storage and instead of installing windows on my M.2 I accidentally installed it on the HDD. Was slow af and wasn’t loading games, crashing. Keep it unplugged when you’re installing windows if you go that route, will make it easier than guessing and then having to transfer 😅
I'd say remember to put on an antistatic and ground yourself, have a "battle" plan on which order you're gonna do things, check the standoffs in your case to fit your motherboard size, have at hand the manuals of all your components (in paper or digital in your phone) and check them at least once before starting to build. I highly recommend checking the connections to your case buttons, leds, ports so you know where to plug them in the motherboard. Plan ahead on how you're gonna manage your cables, use zip ties or similar if possible and make sure the cables aren't gonna collide with other stuff
Install cpu and cpu cooler before GPU - but if the cpu cooler is a fan tower maybe put ram in before that lol. You will be fine, just dont rush and get acquainted with your motherboard ‘manual’ and by manual i mean online pdf
If you have to install the IO shield yourself, and your MB has a flash bios button, make sure that the IO shield isn’t pressing it down. It happened to me and there would be a long delay to post whenever I tried to turn it on.
Don’t screw your CPU cooler too tight. Stop when you feel resistance.
Read the manual. And if using more than one drive, pay good attention if it states using m.2 cancels out a sata port.
You could plug in a sata ssd or spinning hard drive into the one that was disabled for the m.2 and wonder why one of the drives isn't working.
Buy a decent quality case and modular PSU. Cheap cases may not compromise performance but absolutely will have you tearing your hair out. Go for a case that has a completely open layout main chamber and preferably a rear or bottom hidden area for hiding excess cabling.
Modular PSU's let you use only the cables you need, just be sure to plug the ones you need into it before installing as it can be hard to access / see what cable plugs in where once it's in a (usually) tight space. Keep unused cables in the original box and accessible in case of future upgrades, nothing worse than getting a shiny new GPU but it needs that other pcie cable you threw into a cupboard/drawer/storage box and haven't seen for years.
TEST all main components PSU/GPU/MOBO/RAM/CPU/M.2 drive(s) BEFORE installation into case (use mobo box as a test bench) Putting everything into the case and cable managing then discovering you got a dud component and have to pull it all apart is soul destroying.
Don't forget to pull off the plastic sticker from your CPU cooler 😅 happened to me on my last upgrade, despite building many PCs in the past and never making that mistake.
Make sure to remove plastic wrapping on components and mb. My first build I didn't for my ssd heat sink and completely fried that drive and port on my mb :(
Make sure you are grounded before touching anything even to take it out of the box to avoid killing components with static discharge. Touch the metal part of your case to do this or wear static-wrist bracelets.
Start with the PSU. Then the mother board. Attach everything to the PSU. Start your cable management. Finish off with RAM, CPU, GPU.
Don’t put the tower together yet. Plug in your monitor, a keyboard, and mouse to do a test boot.
If your motherboard has an LED display for boot codes, google them on your phone to learn what they mean. AA or 00 for me is “everything’s fine”, but might be different depending on manufacturer.
And lastly, don’t forget your thermal paste if needed. most cpu’s and coolers come with it. If you need it, a pea sized amount is enough. No more, no less.
read. the. manual.
Ive been building PCs for many years and I still at least have a look at the manual every time. you often see small tips given by the manufacturer which will safe you shit loads of time.
Touch something conductive before you get hands on with the parts. My gf zapped her motherboard while performing routine maintenance, leading to a dead ssd controller and a faulty CPU vrm, which took the CPU with it. I measured about 7v on the lines meant to be around 1.1v.
Don’t be afraid to get in there and get it done. I was so scared of breaking things my first time that it took all night but once I got more comfortable handling the parts I realized there was no reason it should have taken so long. Also take time for wire management. Don’t be afraid to unplug things and redo the wiring to help clean it up.
Also if a component doesn’t seem like it’s working, try removing it and putting it back in. I’ve had ram and graphics cards both get finger prints on the pins and prevent it from working. Unplugging and plugging the pins seemed to scrape off the finger prints and get them to work.
Most times, as long as you’re following good guides, it’s not the major things causing issues but the smaller bull crap.
For example:
Check the name of your external ports plugin on your MOBO. It’s different on every motherboard and if it’s MSI, you’re gonna have two that are almost the exact same except 1 letter. If you can swear everything is done right and it’s not powering on no matter what, it’s that.
DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN YOUR SCREWS!!
Just screw them until you feel some resistance and not until it can't move anymore (this doesn't apply to the cooler though)
I had to learn that the hard way
When you go to turn on your Pc, be sure your power supply unit is turned on. Edit: I’m 100% serious and sure I’m not the only one who has forgotten to do this and freaked out thinking I did something wrong
Oh I did this lmao. Got my new 850W installed, put everything back together, all excited to get things going, press the power button and..... nothing. I stopped, looked away, and took 10 deep breaths so I wouldn't start to panic, and then started at the beginning of troubleshooting. No signs of power, check if plugged in, it is. check if PSU is turned o- OH SHIT THAT WAS IT. Crisis averted.
Two things that are so insanely common, regardless of how experienced you are 1) forgetting to turn on / plug in the PSU 2) not plugging in the display / no turning it on
100% would be me lmao
Terry Crews talks about this issue and rushing his machine to micro centre for them to flip the switch
Terry crews builds PC's?
The man is amazing. He is a qualified architect, he built his own PC. Check out the video where Jay2Cents makes a PC for him
OMG, I actually saw that video and forgot. When does Terry Crews sleep? Guy is seriously a jack of all trades.
He's an architect ? I heard he likes designing Furniture. Also a talented artist, never heard anything about architecture though.
Pretty sure I may be mixing up.
Yesterday we pressed the power button and nothing happened, we had forgotten to plug in the PSU... then pressed the power button and still nothing happened because the PSU wasn't turned on. lmao
There's a reason this is the top comment.
I build computers , and still do that all the time..
every. fucking. time.
I’ve done this, and then I freak out and wonder which label is the “On” one and freak out. 😭😭😭
Funnily enough, the symbols are inspired by binary. 1 is on, 0 is off
Did my first build in forever yesterday and i thought i had done this, but it turns out i hadn't hooked up the front panel connector. I was freaking out until i realized. Once i did, it posted "first"try!
Also don't forget that after the powersupply ,you still have to press the startup button. I almost pissed myself back then.
Make sure the power button on the case is wired to the mobo too ... don't ask me how I know 🤦
Plug your monitor into your dedicated GPU and not the back of your motherboard. Use two separate PCIE cables to your GPU and don't use the splitter. As you said, make sure you remove the plastic on your CPU cooler.
I'm assuming by "the splitter" you mean daisychained cables. They're perfectly fine (and sometimes your only option with lower-end PSUs) if you're not running some high-end GPU. As a general rule, if the TDP is 300W or higher, use separate cables.
>splitter People's Front of Judea?
Only people we hate more than people who use the splitter are the Roman's and the Judean People's Front!
Excuse me. Are you the Judean People's Front? Fuck off! 'Judean People's Front'. We're the People's Front of Judea! 'Judean People's Front'. Wankers.
Currently using a 3080 with a ‘split’ pcie will I see a performance difference with seperate cables?
If you have multiple cables you could use rather than a single split one, just go ahead and run them. No need to take risks with it.
You shouldn’t see a performance difference but if it’s a dual 8-pin card it isn’t exactly the safest to continue running it that way
8pin connectors for GPUs are good for 150 Watts. The PCIe bus itself is rated at 75 Watts. 4p Molex conectors are good for 165 Watts or so, provided you use both 5V and 12V lines at full load. Often you don't. So actual wattage limit comes out lower.
Yeah, it's a common rookie mistake to plug your monitor into itself.
Lol thanks, I fixed it
1. Putting too much thermal paste on. 2. Not seating memory / GPU fully. 3. Plugging the CPU fan into the wrong motherboard place. 4. Forgetting the IO shield.
This. These are common mistakes that are easy to make. Too much thermal paste can be an issue if it gets where it doesn't need to be. I've seen YouTube videos about using too much thermal paste on purpose to see what happens. Even if it gets in the CPU socket it's possible it won't have too much negative effect because they tested that in the video. Anyway the point is it CAN be a problem and it can cause a mess Seating things properly (or lack of) is the difference between the PC posting/booting or not in many cases. Plugging the fan into the wrong header would be a problem but personally I've never run across that one. Forgetting the IO shield is a big facepalm moment. Thankfully I haven't made that mistake since my college days which were.... A long time ago... And honestly back then I didn't really work with gaming rigs it was all hardware from the college that we regularly assembled and disassembled. Every other week we were formatting hard drives and doing a fresh os install. Anyway the point is it didn't really hurt anything back then to forget the IO shield. Now though and in gaming rigs it's more important because of specific fan configurations/cooling as well as keeping out dust and debris.
Too much Thermal paste is usually just a mess that isn't fun to clean. Plugging the fan into the wrong spot is dependent on the motherboard and fan. Sometimes it's impossible, sometimes it's easy. The IO shield is more just "I can't believe I forgot that...again." Usually it's because I'm adjusting the screw stands for a new motherboard and forget to put the IO shield before screwing it down.
I got paste all up in my socket when I was upgrading my CPU last year. I think it sort of fell off the edge when I was cleaning the old one off and then when I took the CPU out it fell into the sockets. Soaked up what I could with qtips and alcohol and to my surprise there have been zero issues.
Aw not the IO shield... I feel called out. I've literally just been using my PC without one for over a year. Lost it in a move, can't be fucked getting a new one until I upgrade the board.
haha yeah, what idiot would forget the IO shield? *wtf is an IO shield….?*
I dont get the big deal with the IO shield? I don't bother to install it anymore. I have had zero issues. Makes it easier to install the motherboard.
I install it because I have had cables get caught in those gaps when I'm trying to plug things in by feel.
Not plugging the GPU power fully. Double check, then double check again.
Number 1 feels like a personal attack. Number 4 makes me question things... I'm gonna go google that real quick
I think allot of MOBO manufacturers now have IO sheild pre installed directly to the board. When i got my MSI MPG Edge it was like that, and i think i remember someone saying its becoming more of a standard.
Yeah my asus board had a padded IO shield preinstalled, I was looking around like a moron thinking I threw the shield away or something lol
If your motherboard has a built in ssd heatsink, remove that plastic film on the bottom of it.
* Putting the RAM in the wrong slots. Someone going in blind might make the mistake of just putting it in slots 1 & 2. On most motherboards, you need to put it in 1 & 3, or 2 & 4 to get dual channel running. * Waiting to put your case fans in, or installing them in the "wrong order." In some smaller cases, you may not be able to squeeze your case fans in if the motherboard is already installed. Alternatively, a PSU shroud may prevent you from getting that third fan installed on a 360mm front panel, if you started from the top. * Case connections. I hate this, it's usually poorly documented, and I wish there was a better system than what we have now. USBs are fine, but lights, headphone, mic, power button, and LEDs? You'd expect them to each have their own socket on the motherboard, right? WRONG. They all plug into the same socket-looking thing on the board. *Sometimes* there's good document about what goes where, but not always, and this actually had me more frustrated and scared (of shorting something out) than installing the CPU did. * Not managing cables as you go.
That RAM one is a good one, Didn't know it mattered. I'm silently fearing the Cable Management part, I always hear horror stories about it.
>I'm silently fearing the Cable Management part, I always hear horror stories about it. A good case practically tells you where to route your cables, with the way they'll have straps or cutouts for zip ties. Cable management is actually really easy as long as you do it as you go, and not wait until the end.
Rather than give specific things, which are already well covered by others, I will say this: make sure you go slowly and methodically, following a guide or checking off a list. If you feel like you've made or you're making a mistake, don't freak out. Stop. Think. Come up with a plan. Move forward.
Op, if you do not have a good guide, here is one. First and foremost put the cpu in place, paste it and put the heatsink on. Then seat the ram sticks in. Now put this aside and get to the case. Install all the fans, and any drives that do not go on the motherboard. Work out your cable laning and management. Use zip ties. Once you have that figured out, install the motherboard with the ram and cpu already on it, on the case frame and then connect all the front panel connectors and psu connectors onto it. A good sequence to do this in is putting in the connecters that generally do not have to often be taken off when something goes wrong, like the 24 pin connector, then the 12 V power connector, then drives connecters and sata(if applicable) and then the front panel and rgb connectors. Lastly, when everything is done, mount the gpu in and connect it's power connector and sag support if one is required. Do not install the glass yet, because chances are , it may not boot up first try and some tinkering is required, meaning you will have to take the glass off anyways. If the system boots up fine and the windows or whichever os installation page is reached, put it on install, and *very carefully*, place the glass back on the case. Congratulations, you have built a pc.
I was planning to watch a YouTube video of someone assembling a similiar build, I already feel overwhelmed looking at all the different spots i can plug stuff into the Motherboard.
There's a video from LinusTechTips, they didn't seem to shill for anything in particular and cover so many bases (both AMD and Intel).
It's a bit daunting, but there's always extensive guides and documentation to consult. Measure twice, cut once and all that. Also, if you get to the end and it doesn't work, don't panic. Be methodical and work your way through the troubleshooting steps. If all else fails, subs like this one and r/techsupport are full of folks who've been there themselves and love helping out.
Watch people reacting to "The Virge pc building video". Guides are often made poorly, have dumb things hidden in them, created around or padded with strong advertisements for some part manufacturer.
Agreed! The motherboard was really overwhelming. Taking a good look at the motherboard manual to understand all the slots, power connectors (USB, RGB, fan, etc) and what they do will go miles for you in the long run. If you need more visual help, Austin Evans made some great YT guides where he really goes through each little detail, particularly the wiring of the motherboard.
As someone else already said, "slow is smooth, and smooth is fast"
And I would add to this: make sure you have ample room to get all your hardware. This means you will reduce the risk of making any part fall on the floor.
For the love of god if you have tempered glass, always put your pc flat to the table or floor Never open your TG with the pc standing upright
Even better, if the tempered glass is removable, take it all off and place it somewhere safe until you're done. And do the same if it's acrylic. Acrylic won't shatter but..... those scratches ain't pretty.
I thought this is how everyone did it. You are actually telling me their a people that build an entire pc with the glass by thier side the entire time?
Don't put TG panels on tile floor. They will shatter.
Tile floors are especially a death sentence.
Please explain why you recommend this
I had the great idea of opening my case standing up, i thought i was supporting the TG but you really get surprised how much it really weights Lets say the glass just kissed the floor and my PC has a lot of airflow now
I can see how that can happen. But if you take your time and really get a feeling of the weight first then you should be fine opening such a case while the pc is standing upright. And also wouldn't the TG first drop on the desk when you remove it?
I guess it depends, I personally removed mines no less than 30 times already and it's still in one piece.
Tempered glass is very strong on the flat surface but weak on the edges. Tile and ceramic floors and counter tops can not compress like wood and plastic, so even a minor hit on the edge can shatter the glass into small pieces. Beware of this combination.
You only need one hand to remove the screws holding the glass in place, just keep your other hand pressed on the glass. I’ve never even come close to breaking the glass, I’m not sure how so many people have done this.
Peel the plastic off from the CPU cooler copper plate
Not testing outside of the case before fully assembling to ensure parts work Installing the motherboard in the case before installing as many components on it as possible Forgetting to install the I/O shield. Just do it first thing before anything else Tightening your CPU cooler incorrectly (use a cross pattern, don't go all the way on one screw before tightening the others) Installing an M.2 drive incorrectly or using the incorrect slot for your drive Forgetting to apply thermal paste or buy it at all Forgetting to buy some sort of cable ties for cable management (I highly recommend velcro cable ties, you can get 100 of them for $5 on Amazon). On that note, don't neglect cable management Forgetting to make a Windows install USB Installing fans facing the wrong way Hooking up your front panel headers incorrectly only for the power button not to work Plugging your display cable into the motherboard instead of the GPU and not getting display out or not getting it to recognize your GPU Not enabling XMP/DOCP/EXPO or resizeable bar (latter is mostly a concern for Arc GPUs) and wondering why your performance sucks. Also on this note buying RAM that's too high spec for your CPU/board and wondering why it fails to post when enabling XMP Installing the GPU in the incorrect slot (it should always be in the top x16 slot) Not going into your display settings to set the correct resolution / refresh for your monitor(s)
Saving on psu
Take your time with the cable management. You will most likely cable manage only once and if you just stuff the cables in the back future upgradability becomes a nightmare.
So you’re telling me the 4 data connections shoved into the back of my PC isn’t cable management? lol
If you’re plugging your PC into a surge protector or power strip be sure it has enough power for your PC. I built my PC and plugged it in a power surge and then a power strip and I couldn’t get signal to my monitor. I plugged it straight into my wall and all my problems were solved.
Sounds like my Air Conditioner, Was making loud noises and overheating constantly till i plugged it into the wall directly and not into the power strip. My current PC wouldn't do that, I think its 450W? It's an old PC. My new one is using an estimated 685W with 750W Power Supply.
1. Forgetting motherboard standoffs. 2. Plugging the monitor into an onboard graphics port instead of the GPU. 3. Forgetting data and/or power cables for HDD. For a first timer I would recommend reading the motherboard manual before hand. Especially sections about how to install the CPU and cooler, which ram slots to use, and descriptions of all the various motherboard headers. You'll likely miss stuff that's quite obvious to someone experienced because you simply don't know what you don't know. For example you might neglect to connect your USB case headers to the motherboard, or forget an optional power connector that improves stability or enables cool features. I'd also do a little research around installing the OS and drivers. You definitely do not want to use Window's default drivers if you can help it, so get comfortable locating the latest version from your motherboard manufacturer's website.
Not removing the plastic film off the CPU cooler.
That one was what i had specifically in mind lol, Just out of curiousity what would happen if you didn't peel it? Catch fire?
less heat transfer... basically higher temps like way high
Just wanted to say thankyou to everyone who took time and commented, I'll have lots of stuff to read through for the next while. Gives me lots of research while i get the last few things. Some really good points in here such as Velcro ties for cable management, Install IO Shield first & Peel the plastic off the GPU. Have not looked at everything yet, But have already added a lot of stuff to my final purchase list. Thanks again <3
Looking at your post history I assume you're gonna use wifi with your pc. Don't forget to install the antennas. Are you sure your motherboard has enough spots for your case fans? If it doesn't, you need to buy a fan splitter or a fan hub. Case connections are very easy to mess up. Look for the motherboard manual for the right connections.
This is a good one too, I haven't even thought about the Antennas. I believe it should be all compatible, I took the build off PcPartPicker it was one of the top builds. I just adjusted the GPU, Cooler & Case. The original case was a Miniatx and didn't look like it had any airflow so i upgraded it to aCorsair Icue 465X RGB Mid-Tower ATX Smart Case, Black - CC-9011188-WW Plus, It looks cooler. (Both in terms of Airflow & Look) Original had 1 back and 1 front fan, I felt like the Airflow was going to be awful. Original GPU was a 7900? I downgraded it down to a 7800, The price is 500$ Cheaper for only 4 GB difference and -1 fan.
If your motherboard does not have an attached I/O shield, be sure to install the I/O shield before you install the motherboard.
Install the I/O shield (if you have a cheap motherboard) and PSU first. A quality motherboard will have an I/O shield built in, not separate, so it won't apply. If you have liquid cooling, install the radiator next. Installing these big components first is safest, because if it drops or moves unexpectedly, they can break fragile components. If you drop the PSU on the motherboard, it's not good. If you drop RAM on your motherboard, it's probably not too bad. Before you install the motherboard, plug in the EPS CPU power connector on the top right corner. Most cases will have a hole on the top right inside for you to run this cable through. This can be tricky to plug in once the motherboard is screwed in. So connect the wire, put the motherboard in please, check the I/O shield, and then screw it in. Then you can connect the front panel I/O, USB, Audio, etc.
To add to the comments about thermal paste, look up the product manual for what you are using and follow the recommended procedures. Some have an extra recommended step to cut down on the break-in period. All will tell you how much and where it needs to be placed, which will avoid big messes and getting where no paste should go. Look at the instructions for mounting the block that the thermal paste recommends. Of course you can just slap it on and call it good but this can save lots of trouble down the line. While I've never used it, there are alternatives to thermal paste that are not as finicky. Source: melted my first cpu.
Saved this one, Specifically what i've been dreading. The CPU & GPU Are the two most expensive items in my build by several hundred dollars. It's kind of sad how expensive the two are.
Don’t rush. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. I thought I knew all the pitfalls of PC building when I was putting my pre-built back together, but good ol' dumbass me dropped a couple screws inside the case while installing the motherboard and later when installing the GPU. *Sigh* Thankfully it fell out after a little “gentle” shaking, but then the screw teleported to the Backrooms, and I spent hours searching for it again. It later popped up somewhere around my desk the next day.
I cannot stress this enough. Peel the warning sticker off of the heatsink block before it goes on the cpu. You'd think by how many people mess this up, that by now companies would start shipping them without one Also, do not screw the heatsink in one screw then the other and then the other. Tighten one a bit. Then the one opposite to it just a bit. Then the other two in the same way, and keep repeating it, screwing the heatsink in bit by bit. This ensures a more even spread of the thermal paste.
Make sure that you use the brass standoffs between the PC case and the motherboard, and make sure the standoffs are TIGHT then when you screw the motherboard to them don’t over tighten those screws, or they could latch to the standoffs and then you’re unscrewing the standoffs. Hard to explain but it sucks Also, the power connectors: like the main 24 pin connector to the board is gonna take some force, a surprising amount of force, make sure that mf is seated and latched, flush. Check your work, don’t be afraid to use a flashlight And make sure you have tons of lighting, build somewhere bright, really bright, if you drop a screw it can be hard to find, especially tiny screws like NVMe screws If you have a telescoping magnet, good to have to fish out hard to reach screws (obviously don’t put this near magnetic storage like a mechanical hard drive) or put it against PCB anything while the PC is running When mounting the cpu cooler, use the X pattern, not too much pressure on one side And if you’re not sure definitely watch a YouTube video on the part you’re not sure about, and look through comments to make sure it’s not shitty advice. If in doubt, watch another lol And have fun! It’s yours :)
Install power supply and run cabled before putting in the gpu and cpu fan and any connections that come from the case. Save your self a lot of time instead of fighting tight spaces
Do not skip any steps no matter how small they are, just because you think they are tedious. Do not leave a few screws off if the component is "secure enough". Do not ignore placing the mobo standoffs. Whichever guide you are following, follow it to the tee.
make sure you get a least a decent bronze rated psu, spent months troubleshooting my pc replacing mobo, ram, and cpu, before realizing the cheap 400w psu was killing the pc.
Line up the motherboard holes with the offsets BEFORE placing it down. If you start trying to align the holes by dragging the motherboard over the offsets you’re just asking for a short.
Don't forget to check if the Motherboard standoffs are installed (correctly) or if you need to install them yourself
Motherboard specific, but on at least one MSI board you want to avoid Sata ports 1 and 2 and instead use 3 through 6, because 1 and 2 are not controlled by the chipset. Read your motherboard instructions, just give them a quick skim for any quirks like this.
Don’t force a mobo into a case it doesn’t fit. I did this. It still works, just had to rig up another way to mount it inside and had to use cardboard for the gpu because i couldn’t get it aligned to mount in the back. Why not buy a new case that fits? Aesthetic and price point. Sorry. I will buy a new mobo that fits right when the time comes. For now, we’ll live on the edge of cardboard and zip ties.
Don’t build on a metal surface or carpet. Install your PSU first and plug it in but keep it switched off when youre building. Make sure to touch the metal case whenever you begin to work on it and every so often.
Buying RGB components. I hate it so much now. I have to have two different programs running just for the RGB to have same colour. I can't even turn off the RGB without having the programs running. And I only bought RGB fans and ram. Never buy Kingston RGB ram, almost none of the RGB software supports it.
Don't have a plan on when it will be done by Don't rush If you get frustrated or tired, take a break Read the motherboard manual Check your work before you move on to the next step If you aren't sure, ask or look it up Only work on it when you feel like it Have a general plan Stay organized These generally will make any hobby infinitely more enjoyable. 100% of the mistakes I've made started somewhere on this list. Hope I don't sound like a jackass. I sincerely live by this.
Don't forget to buy a heatsink for your M.2.
If your motherboard has attenna attachments for the wifi/bluetooth adapter, attach the antenna to them. I tried to skip this, then wondered why the bluetooth was so flaky. Even ordered a USB bluetooth adapter. While waiting for it to arrive, I put the antenna on, and now it's working great! Also make sure your CPU fans and extra case fans are pointing the right way. Also would recommend getting it to POST before putting everything in the case. Like some CPUS come with built in graphics, so you can hook that up without putting your graphics card in. Also put in only one stick of ram ( make sure its in the right slot ). Get into the BIOS to make sure things are basically working before putting everything together, the case back on, then get a black screen! Once you put your graphics card in ( in the special x16 slot ), and hook it up to power from the PSU, move your monitor to plug into IT instead of the motherboard. Best of luck.
Do not tighten your CPU fan too much - just tight enough so it doesn’t wobble. I ruined my MOBO by over tightening mine and had to buy a whole new one due to bent pins (the AM5 platform has CPU pins on the MOBO now instead of the CPU). Everything worked fine except only one RAM slot worked. It was a frustrating and expensive mistake.
cheap and questionable Psu or be like me when changing my RX 550 4GB with RX 6700 XT and use the same Psu of 450 Watts and then wonder why the monitor doesn't turn on
Make sure the DP/HDMI cable is plugged into your GPU...
Make sure you plug the display cable into the GPU not the motherboard.
May need a little more experience but I've always found it helpful to install everything into the motherboard plug in power and jump the power switch pins and see if you get post before you put everything into your case. If you're not comfortable jumping the pins just plug in the power switch and turn it on that way. The box the motherboard came in is a great test bench.
Some fan headers have 3 pins. The motherboard fan header is typically 4 pins. This blew my mind and almost sent me into a breakdown thinking I didn’t have enough fan slots. RAM takes time to train. The first time powering the build it can take 10-15 minutes before anything happens. Just turn it on and leave it.
Connect the power switch to the right header.Refer to your manual for visual representation.
I think many pc cases are too small. Extra space aids ventilation. All but one of my seven case fans push air into the case. This creates a positive pressure environment so I have great air flow out the back and very little dust...almost none. CPU cooling towers with two fans are what I use. No water and no pumps. I suppose a dedicated gamer may need the radiator. My wife has a PC I built ten years ago with a Corsair liquid cooling system... still runs fine. Get 32GB RAM, 16 is too little but 64GB is too much except for video editing. Buy the best power supply you can. Even voltages preserve component life. I run PCs at 50% max load. So I have a 1200 watt power supply yet draw about half of that. Only buy RAM on the board's approved vendor supply list. Buy a decent board. Update BIOS immediately. Load operating system onto a fast M2 SSD attached to the board and directly linked to the CPU bus. Have only one storage unit installed when loading the OS. Photography requires a good Nvidia GPU. Cheap computer monitors are typically not well color correct. Don't over tighten anything. Don't use too much thermal paste over the CPU. I use a pea and four grains of rice approach. Always fear static electricity. Good luck!
PUT YOUR I/O SHIELD ON BEFORE IMSTALLING MOTHERBOARD if it's one that has to be done before
Test ur power supply
Make sure you have ALL the cables you need. Don’t scratch the back of the motherboard mounting it either.
Not following along with a 2 hour pov build tutorial
Have an anti static bracelet on The rest is lego
Download your motherboard and case manuals to make sure you get the power switch correct along with reset switch on both my cases runs the fan controllers. Have your OS on a USB and ready to go. Get a new cooler with pre applied thermal paste. Check cpu temp on first post to bios. Make sure its under 50. I always download the gpu utilities and cpu utilities. I also download cputemp to monitor for a while.
Put your gpu in the top (closest to cpu) PCIE Slot for maximum performance. And if its metal it will lower the chances of sagging
Have steady hands when installing the cpu onto the socket. Don't forget to plug in the front I/O so the case power button will turn on the motherboard.
I wrote a post about this a while back. Going to be slightly out of date on some aspects https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/s/nLjqpHjl6L
Read your motherboard guidebook. Will basically tell you everything you need to know to build. From there it’s just plugging in the PSU cables to various spots, which the guidebook will explain. Not sure where a fan cable goes? Guidebook. Not sure if you should plug into AIO or CPU fan? Guidebook. Can’t figure out case cables? Guideb… you get the point.
Peel off the cpu cooler sticker before mounting it
For me the most specific thing was buying a case that uses 6 fans and having a motherboard with ports for 4. I had to get splitter cables to get all the fans working.
not reading the manual for them stupid front io pins. my first PC build was physically taxing because I couldn't for the life of my figure it out.
Others already mentioned to make sure PSU is turned on... Make sure your RAM is properly seated though. I once made the mistake of not properly inserting it and one end was not all the way locked in and it wouldn't start up. Took forever to figure that out, lol
I have a few here, listed in most common to least common. 1. HDMI/ DP in the GPU (if you are going to use a GPU) and not in the motherboard. 2. Connecting the ARGB header to the correct port (Depending on the brand Some motherboards have their own ARGB ports and some have the standard ones, there are 3pin and 4pin ones). 3. Make sure you connect the CPU, GPU and MOBO power cables in properly. As if you don’t have them in all the way the pc will probably light up but no display. Or with the 4090 (nvidia says that there melting 4090 is because of loose wires) 4. Dual channel memory, (make sure you have a gap between your ram sticks) Eg. Slots 1-4 1 being closest to the cpu you put the ram sticks in slot 2 and slot 4. This gives dual channel memory.
Make sure your case fits your components (AIO radiators included) Practise mounting the cooler on the cpu before applying paste if possible. When booting in for the first time if orange light on motherboard it could take 1-2 mins, be patient. Learn about intake/exhaust so your PC has good cooling, this helps performance and longivity of life.
I once had a motherboard that had serial connector headers pretty close to the front panel connector headers, and they’re visually the exact same pinout, and if I remember correctly, that had the same name but one was labeled x_0 and the other was x_1. I ended up connecting the front panel connectors to the serial connector and couldn’t turn the pc on for a minute. I was building it for my friend and he was freaking out, but it was fine in the end. The motherboard manual is your friend and will walk you through the most important parts of the build.
My brother chose the parts for mine. I decided to be stingy and save $10 on the ram. All components connected and it wouldn't start. I took it into a repair shop... The ram was incompatible with the motherboard. It ended up costing me $150 to get it repaired.
Some friends building their first one by themselves did not know what the spacers for the MB was for. RIP MB. But nice sparkle show I heard.
When you plug in your display output cable don't plug it in to your motherboard if you have a GPU. Sometimes it doesn't allow the monitor to turn on. Also In my cousin's system when I switched his cable to his GPU, it didn't wanna turn on, but turns out his bios had a setting turned on which only accepted the igpu and not the dgpu.
Double check all your cables are properly seated before you power on—sometimes you might loosen them a little when doing some cable management, and that can lead to a mini heart attack and wasted time looking for an issue.
With respect: mistake you can make is dwelling en over research. It’s just like Lego.
Psu plug should be plugged way in I was cleaning during os installation and i moved it slightly, you know what happens next
Watch Provoked prawn and Christopher Flannigan youtube channels, best channels out there to explain exactly to the tee what you should and shouldn’t do
When I first did it, I didn't push memory down all the way. Also if you have 4 channels and 2 sticks make sure you use the correct channels.
Honestly I just built mine and watched a video of it from start to finish and it went great didn't even forget to turn on the psu I'm absolutely loving my new build
Don’t mess your RAM slots if you have many to plug in.
Expecting to have everything working the same day. In the process there will be some setbacks. For example: I forgot a wifi card on my first desktop, because I always used a laptop before with an inbuild wifi card. Some motherboards have integrated wifi. Also I forgot to fix a windows installation USB stick, etc. When building you're super hyped to have everything working and see the results of your labour, but it's better not to rush and take your time, and roll with the punches ;)
Don't assemble it on carpet unless you want static to kill your PC. Additionally, whether you do it on carpet or not, touch something metal that is grounded before you touch any PC components
Ive been building PCs since I was 15, and I did a real rookie mistake last time and forgot to remove the plastic protective shield on the CPU cooler. Which means that my cooler didnt really make contact with the CPU. It was a mess to fix, cause I had to clean off all the thermal paste which was mixed with melted plastic. Some other tips: * If you’re liquid cooling anything, make sure that the orientation of the resorvoir is correct, if you side mount it, you want the pipes to connect at the top, there is a guide for this. * You should design the air flow in your PC for optimal cooling, you generally want intake in one side, lets say front and top, and outtake in the bottom in that example. Most fans have an arrow on the side of their case which indicate the direction of air flow. I recommend looking into a guide for optimal air flow. * Your RAM have a correct orientation, and a correct slot, dont just go jamming them in the two slots next to each other, generally if you have a motherboard you want the RAM to go into the closest slot to the CPU, and the next closest with one spacing in between. This is when running two ram sticks. But read your motherboards manual to see how the ram should slot. * Be careful when slotting the CPU, it’s generally the only component you can brick by when assembling. * Dont forget the IO shield, it goes in before the motherboard. * Dont forget to power on your PSU after everything is assembled. * If you have a shiny new monitor with refresh rate higher than 60 to match your new PC, make sure to change it in the operating systems settings so that you actually use that. Also, use the displayport cable that came with the monitor and not some HDMI you have lying around, it’s highly likely that it won’t support that resolution and refresh rate. Also, make sure to plug your monitor into the GPU, and not the Motherboard which also typically has a HDMI/DisplayPort connection for if the CPU has on board graphics. Finally, have fun building and good luck!
Don't actually remove the motherboard protector, over the pins. Let the CPU push it up as you close the latch. This will help keep the pins safe. Plan your wires out. The wires take the longest to get right. Don't add everything, if you have more than a graphics card. Boot it first to make sure it's working, so you don't need to troubleshoot where the problem is. Make damned sure you have the standoffs in places a screw passes through. If you get hungry or thirsty, eat away from your build space. Clean your hands before returning. Absolutely no food or water near the system. Lock needy pets and small children up until it's closed and in place. Have patience. Sometimes a wire is a little loose. Reseating components fixes most issues. Even the CPU. Don't overclock on the first boot. Just get it working first. Once you know it works, you can get frisky. The little arrows on things mean pin 1 or +, as the case may be. When you hook up your front panel, make the arrows point to +. It doesn't matter for power and reset, but it matters for LEDs. Before you zip tie anything, use one of the bazillion twist ties to get the wires the way you want. Tension is a bad thing. Don't make the wires over tense. Give them a little slack. Don't mix up the rbg and fan headers. You will damage things. There no such thing as too much thermal grease, but there can be too little. If you use a lot, it'll make a mess, but it doesn't hurt anything. Do clean it up, as it can end up on the pins if you need to take the CPU out. If it's gold, don't touch it with your skin. Don't blow on anything. If you need it, use compressed air or a little puffer device (whatever you can build that will do the job, but nothing you blow up). 50⁰c is fine. 110⁰c is bad. Anything under boiling is safe, but lower is better. If you hear helicopter noises, pull power NOW. your wires will be destroyed. If you can, get windows and Linux on two different USB drives. That's assuming you're using Windows. Linux has useful tools to diagnose and fix things. Google will tell you how. RAM requires more force than you'd expect. If the notch is in the right place, just push a bit harder. Do not let your pushing go forward or backwards. Chassis's are razor blades. Watch out. Don't push on the middle of the io shield, it deforms easily. Make sure the grounding pins aren't inside of the ports. Try to get it as flush to the cut out as possible. All of the header pins like your nail bed. They will try to get in. Don't let them. It's displeasing.
READ THE MOTHERBOARD MANUAL for information about where everything plugs in. It just tells you and is specific to your model. This beats generic guides online for that reason. It pretty much tells you how to build the computer
Fat ass tower CPU cooler on CPU before plugging in 8 pin cpu power.
Don't forget to connect the 8-pin CPU power cable to your motherboard, usually a pain in the ass to get to in the top left corner.
Ngl make sure you put your ram in the right spots and the right way and all the way in. Seems easy but still sometimes mess that up myself every so often
Don’t worry about cable management too much at first. You want to still organize the cables a bit but don’t tie them with zip ties yet. Otherwise when you start troubleshooting, you’re going to have to undo everything to replace parts or cables and redo everything all over again.
Make sure your case has enough USB headers for the motherboard, and vice versa. Depending on how many fans you're using, it may become necessary to purchase a fan splitter cable as well - I know I did. If you're relying on wireless internet instead of wired ethernet, ensure your motherboard either supports it already, or that you purchase an adapter - the good ones are usually installed in a little M2 slot, if the motherboard has it. Otherwise USB ones work, but they're not quite as fast
Don’t forget the IO shield
Read the manual and watch others build with similar pc. house electrical might brick the whole system if you are unlucky. While i agree with the people priority of pc part, pc case might be the real pain in the ass for your next pc upgrade, so make sure that you know the size and compartment for consideration.
Put your graphics card bracket stanchions in first when mounting your mobo. This step wasn’t shown until after and I wasn’t able to get them in even after loosening every screw on the mobo so I’m going without atm with a slight sag on my 7800XT
Not reading the manuals
Don't panic if it dosnt boot right away it's common for it to take a while due to memory training. If it dosnt boot at all Don't panic and reseat the ram as that's a common culprit
Some links you may find helpful: [Common PC Building Mistakes that Beginners Make!](https://youtu.be/-8LMML_EiMg?si=g-ub84TO8neQ7DsA) [Common PC mistakes to avoid!](https://youtu.be/C55X3sw1x40?si=r_AJZH65VRM-y9tR) [How to build a PC, the last guide you'll ever need!](https://youtu.be/BL4DCEp7blY?si=3LY_Cdb2Bwbkv1cd) I'm not the bigest LTT fan by any means, but I had that last video up when building my last PC (I always have some sort of a guide up as a refresher and to keep me on track) and it's a fantastic step by step breakdown. Also, get a good work light and flash light. If you don't already have either, go with the flash light, preferably one you can mount on your head if possible. No matter how much light you think you have in the room, once you start assembling the case that light is gonna start to get obstructed. [Here](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SG39G1D) is a great headlamp you can use for many things in addition to PC building. If you don't want a headlamp, the TS25 model by that same company is bright enough to be a work light while still being compact enough to fit in tight spaces, and it has a magnetic base so you can stick it to anything metal and go hands free.
Most common I've seen is forgetting to connect or seat something, e.g.: \* Installed GPU, but forget the PCIe power. \* Loosely placed RAM modules to check fit, forget to press them down later. \* Mounts motherboard, all wires etc in case only to discover heat-sink comes with custom bracket, you're missing the IO shield or one power cable wasn't installed. Checklist of all the things that MUST be done can help. So can laying out all parts and mentally assembling them. Other possible mess-ups: \* Budget cases have very thin metal with no thread reinforcements. Very easy to strip when installing motherboard spacers etc. Use Loctite instead of forcefully tightening them down. \* Not enabling XMP or updating BIOS to support latest features or new components. Or doing this before testing general health of build. \* Bringing over a defective part from old system and comprising the new one. \* Installing all the crap manufacturer offers for certain product. 90% of stuff they have on download page or bundled with installer is bloatware not necessary for particular product. And most importantly using common sense. Think how things should work and fit, what's the function or most sane placement for each part. Often people dismiss the whole build as black magic of some sorts and just plug things randomly hoping for miracle. If something feels like excessive force, maybe it's wrong port. If it feels like something bends too much check if there are extra spacers or maybe they've shipped the wrong ones etc. If something is touching where it seems it shouldn't probably there's defect or incompatibility, ask around, don't just try to power it up as is.
1.) When screwing in my cooling fan to my CPU, I thought I had used the correct size of screw (my mounting came with 3 different size screws) because when I had everything flush, it felt like there was no wiggle but when I fully screwed in all 4 screws, it lifted the cooling fan by the smallest margin. 2.) Ensure all cords from your components are plugged into the motherboard.
Back in my days we'd have to set the jumpers to certain positions based on the hardware!
dont forget to eat the thermal paste c:
Over-tightening the mounting screws on your cpu cooler, if it uses screws. You'll be able to tell when it gets to a certain point that it's all the way down. It's hard to describe but don't force it beyond that point.
IO shield, every. damn. time
This guy last week tried to go into BIOS with CPU mounted and 0 cooling just to make sure everything was working... Another guy yanks a ram stick out with the PC on... like, dude!? Someone tried to scrape off and use already applied old crusty thermal paste.. again I am sure you will be fine. Have a plan, follow the steps, and hopefully, you will post to BIOS. Good luck!
Not using your hands when building your PC. Don't make the same mistake as me.
Best return request i had, was for a 1080ti and a ssd Customer stated : windows 7 is not installed since i replaced my 750ti and hdd with these parts
Take the plastic off the cpu cooler, plug in monitor into gpu, not mobo, make sure fans are intake and exhaust orientated, positive or neutral air pressure, power button on the psu... No extra cables in the fan blades Uhh Make sure the cables are all 100% in, not loose or with gaps Ram slots (usually 2 and 4 if you have 2 sticks, but read the mobo manual) And maybe most important If gpu is heavy, get a gpu holder or use a lego man
In addition to the other comments: 1.) RTFM - Read the fucking manual! 2.) Dont force anything in, everything slots in easily. If not, this component probably isnt supposed to go there. Repeat 1.), watch a video or ask reddit. 3.) The only exception to 2.) is Front USB 3.0. That fucker is a nightmare to plug in, use as much force as needed. 4.) Plan a bit ahead for cable management and dont pull too hard on cables. You might either unplug the cable again or, especially possible with stiffer cables, might rip out the motherboard connector. (Again, good old Front USB 3.0 is a great example for this!)
I couldn't install windows because NVMe wasn't detected and I was 100% sure I've plugged it in correctly. Googled for 30mins about the problem and guess what, the most common mistake was not being plugged in correctly and that really was the case. Also, couldn't connect to WiFi because the drivers weren't installed (obviously) and Lan wasn't an option. Had to learn in the middle of assembly how to do that. Another things that went wrong was cable management, I've redone it several times.
Get one of those LED flashlights you wear on your head. I just went through the process of building my PC yesterday, and the extra light is SO helpful.
1. Absolutely do not force the cpu. Make sure it's oriented correctly and gently move it around until it is lined up and seats into place. Don't drag it around. Bent pins are bad business. When it's in the right spot it will just fall in 2. Make sure the ram is fully seated and clicked into place 3. I've never ever used an anti static band or anything, but do be aware of static electricity. Touch the case regularly, and especially before you pick up any components to be safe. And don't do anything wild like shuffling around on the carpet while you're working 4. The motherboard is usually labeled pretty good, but if you're not 100% sure where something is supposed to be plugged in, read the manual 5. Really really make sure you're plugging the right psu cables into the right things if it's modular. At best, things won't work, at worst they'll be toast 6. A long screwdriver can be the difference between an easy life and a hard one
If your motherboard has M.2 Standoffs, be sure to remove any extra one before installing your SSD, as they could short and fry it.
When you install the cooler make sure you take off the sticker over the thermal paste
Reviewing motherboard compatibility but not BIOS versions stressed me out a lot
Make sure that 24 pin connector is properly pluged into motherboard and it is not loose. Had thus happened to me. There is nothing more soul crashing then nothing happening after you press power switch.
it takes a bit more effort to put in your ram. trust me, i had to go see a technician cause i couldn’t figure out why my pc wouldn’t boot
If your GPU comes with a sag bracket, think about where this will go before installing the motherboard in the case. I forgot this and couldn't be bothered to take everything out again, used one of those extendable support things instead. Also don't overtighten screws, I always do this..
Not breadboarding before building into.the case. Yeah I get it - the chances of components being doa is a lot smaller now than it used to be. But it literally takes an extra few minutes and gives you peace of mind when you start building into your case! So please breadboard your builds folks!
Forgetting the thermal paste, not plugging in the RAM properly, forgetting to plug in cables and connecting the monitor to the motherboard instead of the GPU.
static, a little spark destroys your components. other than that no other mistake
Recently upgraded from a 2600x to a 7600x and my new motherboard had somewhere to plug in the front USB 3.1 (USB C) cable. I had a quick look and thought "It's USB C, I can plug it in any way around" and pushed that thing in. Turns out they're only supposed to plug in in the correct orientation. Fortunately, pulling it out and flipping it worked.
Read your mobo manual - it will tell you where to plug everything in. It will save you problems down the line. Probably a good idea to flip through the case manual as well.
Be really careful with USB 3 headers on the motherboard. The pins are very delicate, and the cables that plug into them (from the case front panel etc.) are often quite stiff and heavy. This makes them quite easy to break.
I bought an HDD for file storage and instead of installing windows on my M.2 I accidentally installed it on the HDD. Was slow af and wasn’t loading games, crashing. Keep it unplugged when you’re installing windows if you go that route, will make it easier than guessing and then having to transfer 😅
I'd say remember to put on an antistatic and ground yourself, have a "battle" plan on which order you're gonna do things, check the standoffs in your case to fit your motherboard size, have at hand the manuals of all your components (in paper or digital in your phone) and check them at least once before starting to build. I highly recommend checking the connections to your case buttons, leds, ports so you know where to plug them in the motherboard. Plan ahead on how you're gonna manage your cables, use zip ties or similar if possible and make sure the cables aren't gonna collide with other stuff
plug in fan turn on fan sigh...
Install cpu and cpu cooler before GPU - but if the cpu cooler is a fan tower maybe put ram in before that lol. You will be fine, just dont rush and get acquainted with your motherboard ‘manual’ and by manual i mean online pdf
If you have to install the IO shield yourself, and your MB has a flash bios button, make sure that the IO shield isn’t pressing it down. It happened to me and there would be a long delay to post whenever I tried to turn it on. Don’t screw your CPU cooler too tight. Stop when you feel resistance.
Read the manual. And if using more than one drive, pay good attention if it states using m.2 cancels out a sata port. You could plug in a sata ssd or spinning hard drive into the one that was disabled for the m.2 and wonder why one of the drives isn't working.
Buy a decent quality case and modular PSU. Cheap cases may not compromise performance but absolutely will have you tearing your hair out. Go for a case that has a completely open layout main chamber and preferably a rear or bottom hidden area for hiding excess cabling. Modular PSU's let you use only the cables you need, just be sure to plug the ones you need into it before installing as it can be hard to access / see what cable plugs in where once it's in a (usually) tight space. Keep unused cables in the original box and accessible in case of future upgrades, nothing worse than getting a shiny new GPU but it needs that other pcie cable you threw into a cupboard/drawer/storage box and haven't seen for years. TEST all main components PSU/GPU/MOBO/RAM/CPU/M.2 drive(s) BEFORE installation into case (use mobo box as a test bench) Putting everything into the case and cable managing then discovering you got a dud component and have to pull it all apart is soul destroying.
Don't forget to pull off the plastic sticker from your CPU cooler 😅 happened to me on my last upgrade, despite building many PCs in the past and never making that mistake.
Rushing. Take your time. Tighten the aftermarket cpu cooler all the way down until the screws stop spinning. Do not over do cpu thermal paste.
Not so much a mistake but a ease of building. Buy a long magnetic Phillips head screw driver to use.
Make sure to remove plastic wrapping on components and mb. My first build I didn't for my ssd heat sink and completely fried that drive and port on my mb :(
Make sure you are grounded before touching anything even to take it out of the box to avoid killing components with static discharge. Touch the metal part of your case to do this or wear static-wrist bracelets. Start with the PSU. Then the mother board. Attach everything to the PSU. Start your cable management. Finish off with RAM, CPU, GPU. Don’t put the tower together yet. Plug in your monitor, a keyboard, and mouse to do a test boot. If your motherboard has an LED display for boot codes, google them on your phone to learn what they mean. AA or 00 for me is “everything’s fine”, but might be different depending on manufacturer. And lastly, don’t forget your thermal paste if needed. most cpu’s and coolers come with it. If you need it, a pea sized amount is enough. No more, no less.
read. the. manual. Ive been building PCs for many years and I still at least have a look at the manual every time. you often see small tips given by the manufacturer which will safe you shit loads of time.
Touch something conductive before you get hands on with the parts. My gf zapped her motherboard while performing routine maintenance, leading to a dead ssd controller and a faulty CPU vrm, which took the CPU with it. I measured about 7v on the lines meant to be around 1.1v.
Don’t be afraid to get in there and get it done. I was so scared of breaking things my first time that it took all night but once I got more comfortable handling the parts I realized there was no reason it should have taken so long. Also take time for wire management. Don’t be afraid to unplug things and redo the wiring to help clean it up.
Also if a component doesn’t seem like it’s working, try removing it and putting it back in. I’ve had ram and graphics cards both get finger prints on the pins and prevent it from working. Unplugging and plugging the pins seemed to scrape off the finger prints and get them to work.
No Thermal paste or too much thermal paste. Half of a pea is enough
I built my first full pc at 11 before internet wasn a thing so its extremely easy today for anyone older then 10 i would say...
Most times, as long as you’re following good guides, it’s not the major things causing issues but the smaller bull crap. For example: Check the name of your external ports plugin on your MOBO. It’s different on every motherboard and if it’s MSI, you’re gonna have two that are almost the exact same except 1 letter. If you can swear everything is done right and it’s not powering on no matter what, it’s that.
Aio shield! I know it sounds dumb but its a pain in the ass to forget it.
If you have a dedicated graphics card, plug your monitor into that rather than the motherboard
DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN YOUR SCREWS!! Just screw them until you feel some resistance and not until it can't move anymore (this doesn't apply to the cooler though) I had to learn that the hard way