How to build a desktop computer (Guide Finished!!)

[Schwarzwald]

***Link to the full construction can be found here***

http://www.tor-divisionsix.com/blog.php?u=21&b=16


Since I will be building my own computer in the next few days, I thought I would take the time and take a bunch of pictures and make a "how-to" for putting together a desktop and do it right.

If you have any general hardware questions too I guess this could be the thread to go too as well. I know a lot of people may be building new rigs to be able to play SW:TOR. So this is the place if you need general help.

Step 1. Gather the Parts


This thread will have ongoing updates until the guide is finished.

I was rather impressed with the sleek boxing. Most other boxes have half naked chicks cluttered all over it.

Each part is organized into smaller boxes! How tidy! Wasn't expecting the imitation leather CD case, but its fairly hard and looks durable, always a plus.

This card is HUGE! Somewhere around 11 inches and nearly 2 inches thick!

[Schwarzwald]

Unboxing Part 2

The Scythe Katana-3. My first choice was the MUGEN-2 but I was worried about space issues cause was massive. Well this one isn't as large and has an interesting feature. Its a vertical heatsink! The idea behind its design is to utilize the airflow in your case to give an additional boost to your cooling power. It works by having those 6 copper heat pipes you see channel heat up into the upper heatsink, which blows downward and then across the bottom heatsink. Case fans will also assist in this blowing.

This thing is a micro-atx monster! The box you see sitting on the side is the lower hard drive bay, I won't be using it due to the large size of my graphics card. But the upper bay vertically mounts 3 drives!

There is also a 200mm fan on the ceiling! Its huge! And a 120mm fan in the rear. Both have external fan controllers, something I wasn't expecting when I purchased this! The directions suck, but every case directions suck. Its fairly simple to work. Interestingly it also has dust filters all over it, which are removable and washable. It also has a 120mm optional front fan as well.

The mother board. Not too much to say about it yet. Although its manual is really good and it comes with A LOT of built in features that can help you overclock and get your voltages right. Its also pretty and has some pretty decent heatsinks on its north and south bridge

[Slaieth]

Awesome man. This will be good for computer retards... like myself.

[puccio]

Oo oo..so how many parts were DoA? I tend to get 1 to 2 per every new complete computer I build.

Although with the advent of onboard sound and network, the number has been getting better.

[Schwarzwald]

Oo oo..so how many parts were DoA? I tend to get 1 to 2 per every new complete computer I build.

Although with the advent of onboard sound and network, the number has been getting better.

Well the only things I got so far are in the picture above. The rest should be arriving wed-thursday this week.

Personally I've never had anything DoA. I guess I'm lucky.

[Elda]

Oo oo..so how many parts were DoA? I tend to get 1 to 2 per every new complete computer I build.

Although with the advent of onboard sound and network, the number has been getting better.

Well the only things I got so far are in the picture above. The rest should be arriving wed-thursday this week.

Personally I've never had anything DoA. I guess I'm lucky.

So first question.

What does DoA mean?

[XuuN]

Dead On Arrival. I've had a dead mobo sent to me. Ain't that a beeyotch? You have to put everything in and anticipate the upgrade experience, only to take it aaaaaall back out.

[Schwarzwald]

Oo oo..so how many parts were DoA? I tend to get 1 to 2 per every new complete computer I build.

Although with the advent of onboard sound and network, the number has been getting better.

Well the only things I got so far are in the picture above. The rest should be arriving wed-thursday this week.

Personally I've never had anything DoA. I guess I'm lucky.

So first question.

What does DoA mean?

Dead on Arrival

The part simply doesn't work or fails on the first boot.

[Elda]

ah I see. Never had that. Only assembled 3 desktops so far though.

[Schwarzwald]

ah I see. Never had that. Only assembled 3 desktops so far though.

You see it more often when you use off brand items

[Elda]

Only ever use off brand memory. Cheap as hell and works fine.

[Schwarzwald]

Only ever use off brand memory. Cheap as hell and works fine.

For your average user, then yeah.

If you want to overclock, like me, then you need something that you know won't burn up and has a decent heatsink.

[Schwarzwald]

BUMP

The posts above have some info on the unboxing!

I decided I'm going to turn the actual build guide into a blog. So this is still a place for questions if you want.

Only the ram and harddrive is missing!

[Nahpro]

Only ever use off brand memory. Cheap as hell and works fine.

For your average user, then yeah.

If you want to overclock, like me, then you need something that you know won't burn up and has a decent heatsink.

Good to know. I really didn't think cheap memory would be affected by overclocking, only the processor.

Why would RAM, HDD, or an SSD be affected by speeding things up?

[Schwarzwald]

Only ever use off brand memory. Cheap as hell and works fine.

For your average user, then yeah.

If you want to overclock, like me, then you need something that you know won't burn up and has a decent heatsink.

Good to know. I really didn't think cheap memory would be affected by overclocking, only the processor.

Why would RAM, HDD, or an SSD be affected by speeding things up?

Because you can overclock you RAM's timings if you know how too.