Thread: Building a Desktop

It looks like I may not be building my desktop after all. My harddrive hadn't crashed after all, and my old PC is up and running.

But just in case...

Originally Posted by Harner

What parts do you have to work with?

DVD-R/CD drive, some DDR DIMM's, a rather new graphics card (whose socket type I don't remember), and apparently a harddrive now. That's probably about it, aside from peripherals of course.

Originally Posted by linkinkampf19

1. Don't do work on a carpet or other static-electricity prone surface; ground yourself.
2. Make sure your components match up (i.e. a Socket AM2 processor won't work with an LGA775 board).
3. Make sure your power supply more than meets your power needs, though you can sort of cut it close if you are careful.
4. Motherboards need standoffs, otherwise parts may be fried, or at least short out.
5. Airflow. You need a decent stream if you want to keep your computer at a proper temp. For example, my case actually heats up if the side window is taken off.
6. Thermal paste. Don't use the standard shit. It works well enough, but Arctic Silver 5 is a key to longevity and stability.
7. Make sure if you have front USB and/or media reader connections to unhook them from the board. not doing so before an installation will give you a C: drive that is not your Windows install.
8. Memory will underclock or not run at all if the board doesn't accept the sticks properly. try to match up the RAM as close to standard as you can.

That's all I can think of right now... Some of it is sorta common sense, but just throwing it out there for some usefulness.

Oh, and ditto to Harner's question.

Thanks. 6 is very useful info, and 7 is something I was totally unaware of.