Quick Build Question

[Spugggz 28]

Righto. I built myself a PC last year...yep, finished it up in September but I was too scared to turn it on. Now, I'm at that point I'm wishing I had a working gaming PC and I'm considering just plugging the damn thing in and hoping for the best.

 

- What I'm wondering is, what are the key things to look out for when booting it up for the first time? I don't have Windows to load up (tried to save a few pennies just in case it blew up)

- What are the odds on something blowing/burning etc?

- Can someone fucking hold me? Never been so nervous to do something in my life. Keep stopping myself from just turning it on out of pure fear of it blowing all of the components up.

 

Oh, and if it does happen to work, I have the PSU facing down and the tower is sat on the carpet. Not ideal but I guess that's okay? People must have done it for years, no...?

 

Thank you to any poor soul who helps me. Not worded it clearly at all.

 

 

[Plumbers Crack 4,035]

I built one myself about 5 years ago and followed a guide book. Yep, bit sweaty (a) putting the cpu and associated cooler fan in and ( turning it on!

Make sure you have your mobo manual handy so you can decipher any beep error codes on start up.

If you're not running Windows are you planning on installing Linux? That's not toooooo difficult but it does have some unusual terms. I would suggezt having your laptop or tablet handy to google problems

Good luck and keep us posted!

[Plumbers Crack 4,035]

Strange! Putting a 'b' in brackets gives you a smiley! (

[Diddums 4,305]

Sam, provided the plugs all plugged in without forcing them, it'll be fine.

 

It won't go bang, it won't go pop, fizz or catch fire.

 

You'll be looking for a screen that tells you you have no operating system installed. If you don't see that, report back and we'll take it from there.

[Spugggz 28]

Right, I'll give it a go at the weekend. I was looking it up on a few of the PC forums and kept seeing horror stories from people where their PSU sparked and smoked. I had a nightmare trying to install the CPU fan (hyper 212 evo). I put a bit too much thermal paste on (or so I thought), I was told to let the pressure from the fan installation spread the paste so just did a slightly oversized pea in the middle. I then totally cocked up putting the fan on, I didn't realise a notch wasn't sitting in the hole for the 1150 board and I was told it would require pressure so didn't think too much of it. Anyway, after a week of worrying I took the fan off, cleared up the thermal paste which got on the cpu clamp after I twitched I think I have it fitted properly this time with less thermal gunk all over the place. But that is mostly what scared me from turning it on for so long. 

 

Also had a bad time trying to line up the damn motherboard properly too. Felt like I was messing everything up. I was sweating like mad. Kind of regret not just buying one from PCSpecialist or something now, at least if it messes up I could send it back.

 

Assuming the PC works fine, I'll go ahead and buy windows to install onto it. Just wanted to make sure it booted first before I spent £80 on the OS.