My 1st build was for a class project in high school in my technical class, it didn't seem too hard. Now on my first build for myself I accidentally purchased an AGP video card for a motherboard that didn't have an AGP slot.
my first build started as me just swapping components on a pre bought machine, adding a gpu changing the cpu etc, then after that it just evolved, a new case was followed by a new mobo, then new ram etc
might sound obvious but always stand back and double triple check and if unsure check online or get a 2nd opinion. dads are usually handy on this even if it can cause arguements or take a pic and post on here there's usually someone around. there is a logical way of doing a build but if you can try and foresee any problems, it helps, i always tend to hold something up to see how it fits or if a cable can reach etc and then lock it down or another example trying to plug the 24 pin power cable to the mobo when there's not much room in order to clip it in securely. once took me a good 20-30 mins slowly bending a power cable so it could stretch round a corner.. can be tricky and yeah cable management tends to be crap first time around..
My 1st build was during an induction period in my 1st IT/Computer job early 1997. I was given a beige SMT chassis with super-sharp internals, a 'Tomato' cheap-ass Mainboard, Cyrix 586 CPU with bent pins, 32MB of RAM and Cirrus Logic 5446 PCI VGA card, with Windows 95 prior to USB support. It was tricky putting the CPU in the socket as I had to straighten the pins with thin-nosed pliers and I remember the fan was a bit of a bugger to clamp onto the socket, but apart from ripping my hands to shreds on the case the hardware build went better than expected. The problems started with Windows 95 and the Tomato motherboard drivers, which I think were really early VIA drivers, prior to their AIO reference drivers. USB was a nightmare and frequently rebooted the PC or BSOD at best.
Naw you'll be fine, my son is 14 and has already built 3, the first one I only showed him the inside of mine and let him have at it....(old parts) only thing I had to show him was how the coding of the stand - offs is stamped in the case to match which holes.........hour later, power and installing windows. Rats nest of wires but I expected that. Computer was given to my nephew and is still running to this day.......
Also, if you go with an Intel processor (which I recommend), expect it to take a fair amount of force to close the cpu locking mechanism. I know my first experience with Intel's LGA (land grid array) processors was a bit of an eye opener. Just be extra careful to seat the cpu perfectly straight in the socket before you close the clamping arm.
Everything went smoothly. I read so damn much before doing it so that I knew the whole process in theory.
Nope just took alittle longer,was not difficult at all,its alot easier today to build a pc than it was years ago because everything today is self configured and GUI driven,you dont need to know any DOS based commands at all.
My first ever build was terrible. It was back in the day when there were no automated BIOS settings and everything was done by pin assignments. It was a nightmare to figure it all out for someone who has never doe anything computer related.
it was ...thrilling.it wasn´t easy at all. it was a Amd Barton ,an Gigabyte board 256 ram and a Voodoo or 3dfx card,i can´t remeber me and my brother were so excited ,we couldn´t sleep the night before. at some point was kinda tiresome to put everything in order,and we forgot to set the jumper for the hdd,we were soo frustrated....but a manual can be the salvation ,because in those days the internet was..kinda difficult to have,at least in my country. but we managed to install Windows and first game we played was Diablo 1... so many hours,the feeling ... now i can build computers blinded,some parts like Artic Freezer PRO v2 i know by heart.
My first build was watercooled, that wasn't just plugging in the components like with aircooling. But, as long as you take your time to do it right and think ahead it's not that difficult.
Same, although setting the jumpers correctly on IDE drives was a challenge at times. I think the last major fubar I made was when I accidentally installed a stick of DDR RAM in backwards and then powered on. For those interested - RAM starts smoking when it's installed the wrong way around. And then there was the time I booted up an Athlon XP without the HS/F attached. It ran for about 15 secs before it fried. Oh and once I plugged a molex into a HDD the wrong way around and killed the HDD.
