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Resources for building computers

Are there any tutorials or information on building a desktop computer? I am planning to build one to accommodate my need for a faster machine for using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator on.

I've gotten a few PDFs on it, but they aren't incredibly precise. I'm new to system-building and would love to have something to refer to lest I make a mistake on the build and ruin it.

Community
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JFW
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1 Answers1

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Keeping the following in mind should ensure you don't ruin anything during building:

  • Wear a properly grounded antistatic wrist strap.

  • Do not drop anything (like screwdrivers or screws) on exposed circuit boards like motherboards, expansion cards. Handle motherboards and expansion cards by the edges. Don't bend circuit boards. Make sure before powering a built PC on that there are no loose screws on the board.

  • When installing a CPU, check, double check, and triple check that the pins are in the right way before clamping it down or installing the thermal grease/heatsink. Don't ever touch CPU pins or the exposed areas of the CPU.

  • Motherboards should never make direct contact with the metal case. They must be placed atop standoffs, which should be placed in the case first, then the screws go into the standoffs with the motherboard in between.

  • Most everything in a PC these days that plugs in only goes in one way, i.e. something on either the plug or the socket is keyed. Never force anything to plug in that doesn't fit.

  • PCI/PCIe cards can be hard to insert and remove. But the card edges should always line up.

  • A motherboard should never be powered on while you are installing or removing stuff. Most power supplies have a switch on the back to physically cut the power off. Make sure at least that is OFF and you wait a minute or two before installing/removing things. (Most motherboards have an LED that shows if the board is still powered or not.)

  • Never power on a board if the CPU is installed, but either the thermal grease/heatsink have not been installed, or the heatsink fans are not connected. You could permanently damage the CPU.

  • Make sure you get a power supply with enough wattage to power all components. Try not to skimp funds on the power supply.

LawrenceC
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