Are you always nervous about a new build?

[Howard]

You put everything together and you hope to God it boots. It almost never does for me, though, but usually it's because I forget to flick the PSU power switch or something similarly stupid.

 

[Stumps]

nah...I've built so many PC's over the past 12 years that I could almost do it in my sleep....haven't even needed to use manual's to wire up things like internal USB, firewire or audio for years...and that was before case manufacturers fitted standadised connectors to front panel components.

these days, I dread having to open a PC up...I'm just sick of seeing them, might go back to Auto mechanics instead...

 

[Blain]

I was never what you call "nervous" about building a PC. I had to replace so many parts in the very first pre-built box I bought, that it sort of numbed me.
CyberMax forced me to become my own tech support, even though one reason I bought my first PC from them was their advertised "on site service".

The thing I hate the most is having to piece together a build on the cheap from a collection of random used parts.
I really try my best not to over-build for someone if I can help it. Lots of rigs I build are for family or friends and charge them little or nothing.
I haven't got to the point where I feel my generosity is being abused. If I do get to that point, I won't hesitate to correct it.

Two things I really enjoy these days...
* Building a beefy system for a specific type of task, like video editing.
* Configuring a Dell combo for people that don't require a master blaster box.

 

[polarbear6]

if u start seeing building pc as a hobby a rejoice or some thing u like u enjoy
u wont feel nervous , we dont feel nervous while watching tv do we cause we are enjoying it
and we dont feel that we might break it
just get the idea that a pc is arnd 500$ off ur mind and u will feel good

 

[nomunk]

I was nervous as hell only because this was my first time building a PC, just finished building it yesterday

 

[Howard]

You guys are missing the point. I've built quite a few myself, but I always dread having to find a mistake somewhere after the system doesn't boot.

 

[kRocket]

If you are a duffer like me and it is years between builds then I get more than a little apprehensive because everything changes between builds. One thing I have learned is that if the hole you are digging approaches China, stop digging. Take the whole mess to your friendly neighborhood Tech and let him sort it out for you. It costs a bit but does less damage to your critical parts. And if it all goes together and doesn't work I don't know how to figure out what is wrong, anyway.




BTW: I hope Howard is your last name!

 

[Old Hippie]

I'm not nervous, I suppose "apprehensive" is better term.

The "no-boot" scenario is always a dissappointment but since "learning" is one of my favorite pastimes, I know I'm in for an enjoyable, but maybe frustrating, time.

I've made it a premise in life to turn every situation into a positive learning situation. This includes being arrested, incarcerated, working with dick-weeds for 30yrs, and your everyday grocery shopping.

I really enjoy getting a few friends together, drinking some beer, smoking some left-handed cigs, listening to music, and doing a build.

I suppose it all depends on your outlook on life.

 

[TC91]

i feel excitement

 

[videogames101]

I always forget something like the switch on the power strip or something, and that second it doesn't boot I get an "oh shit" feeling. (But it's always easily fixed...)

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: Howard
You guys are missing the point. I've built quite a few myself, but I always dread having to find a mistake somewhere after the system doesn't boot.

the most common mistake that I used to make was having the floppy drive data cable installed incorrectly, used to hate booting a PC and seeing the floppy light constantly on....especially back in the Win9x days when using boot disks, more often then not the boot disk was killed by it.

other than that can't really think of how you can go wrong with building a PC, back in the days of the 486 and early Pentium's I used to hate dealing with jumpers, it was pretty easy to kill a CPU if you had it setup incorrectly, I killed a few 486's by accidently running them at 5v rather than 3.3v....damn thos things used to stink when they burnt up.

I've found that the key to a successful first boot up of a new build is to double check your work first and don't rush things....it's all to easy to rush your build if you are excited about getting it up and running, but that's when you make costly mistakes.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I was nervous as hell one time when I was building a dual Xeon system. Each CPU cost me $490, and the motherboard was around $350. Plus RAM, and the other parts. Plus it was a new socket system I hadn't used yet. That was an interesting day.

 

[Texun]

Not so much. I still get a little excited listening for that first POST beep and seeing the temps. I'm not obsessed with cooling but I am picky about it.

If you are referring to problems after assembly, then yes. I get a bit edgy for a few minutes until I know why it didn't work. I'm not an expert but I have built so many that I can usually nail it down in a minute or two if it doesn't work.

Stumps is right on. I find that computers are not nearly as mysterious as they once were. The PnP boards are so much easier now. Years ago you had to work through a maze of jumpers, know how to configure IRQ's and resolve other conflicts before you could be sure the hardware was okay. And there weren't a lot of HW monitoring programs back then which meant you could cook a CPU and not know it until it was too late. The new boards have really taken a lot of stress out of the build. The only time I look at the book now during a build is so I can see the labels for the LED and switch settings. My eyes have never worked well with that micro print.

 

[surreal1221]

Originally posted by: Howard
You guys are missing the point. I've built quite a few myself, but I always dread having to find a mistake somewhere after the system doesn't boot.

I won't lie.

Yes. I am nervous.

I don't mind investing the time to solve a problem, but I just hate finding out that I have to make that investment.

 

[RebateMonger]

PC building kinda' loses its excitement after many, many builds.

Last night (at midnight) I decided to rebuild a (Windows 7) Media Center PC. I'd first put it together a week ago, but the motherboard had failed after four hours runtime. This is REALLY unusually. I've never had a new motherboard fail like that.

I built this as a way to relax before going to bed, rather than as a form of excitement.

New builds were way messier twenty years ago when components weren't always compatible with each other. You'd buy a new IDE controller or Serial/Parallel/Gaming I/O card, only to find it wasn't compatible with the motherboard or other cards. You were 100% guaranteed something would go wrong.

Historically"new builds" are not nearly as problematic as upgrading an old system trying to re-use key components. Defective or incompatible parts are the norm here.

A bit of alcohol or a mild (prescription) mood drug tends to make the process more fun and less stressful. Or so I've heard.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Modern motherboards are so easy to use it's a joke. Nearly everything auto-detects and it labeled....it's actually really boring. It wasn't that long ago you had to set jumpers for FSB speed and all sorts of crap. Hell they only stopped that a few years ago because I worked at a local pc shop in 2004 and most of the builds I did back then were heavy in jumpers and slave/master etc.

 

[yhelothar]

i remember my very first build.. it didn't boot... i didn't know about the spacers when mounting the mobo to the case.
luckily there was no short, and after calling up a friend, he helped figure out what was wrong.
put on the spacers, and it started right up... felt so good.

 

[SonnyDaze]

Never nervous. Always excited.
I love opening new boxes of parts and taking them out and oohing and aahing over them + :Q. My only dread is that I get a bad part and then have to trouble shoot the problem.

 

[nortexoid]

I always dunk my face in water right before and run around the garden eighteen times in my costume. It relieves the stress a bit before I hit the power switch. But actually I haven't built a computer for around seven years now. Man, that's crazy! However, I do get a similar feeling whenever I flash anything, like my laptop BIOS or next door neighbors.

 

[Ausm]

It like Xmas when I build a new system I don't get nervous just a little pissed if something is DOA. I've been building my systems since DOS 2.0 was the mainstream OS.

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: Howard
You guys are missing the point. I've built quite a few myself, but I always dread having to find a mistake somewhere after the system doesn't boot.

I have a mental checklist that I run through if that happens from years of system building.

 

[Knowname]

Originally posted by: Stumps

other than that can't really think of how you can go wrong with building a PC, back in the days of the 486 and early Pentium's I used to hate dealing with jumpers, it was pretty easy to kill a CPU if you had it setup incorrectly, I killed a few 486's by accidently running them at 5v rather than 3.3v....damn thos things used to stink when they burnt up.

I've found that the key to a successful first boot up of a new build is to double check your work first and don't rush things....it's all to easy to rush your build if you are excited about getting it up and running, but that's when you make costly mistakes.

my sentiments exactly. I build my pc and a few for friends, but mostly only my own 1ce every 2 years (with a few upgrades in between) and more often than not I'm not nervous UNTIL I mess something up. It's really so hard to do that it never really happens to me maybe I'm just lucky like that.

The thing I hate most is front port incompatibility. half the time it works, the other half your better off not even plugging it in.

 

[Looney]

So you get nervous that you might not have flipped it to the correct switch on the PSU? If so, why not just double check it rather than worrying about it?

 

[KoolDrew]

I was nervous the first time, but not really since then. There have been plenty of times something didn't work because I overlooked something stupid.

 

[Talcyon]

I never got nervous until my last build. It took forever to get it working right...well, operating would be the right word. I wasn't able to pinpoint the problem and it still has little quirks. It has made me apprehensive about my next build and my wife wishing I would just buy one from an online retailer. Not Dell or HP but digitalstormonline.com, vigorgaming.com, or if I'm crazy falcon-nw.com. I'm slowly convincing my wife it's better I spend 1500 on basically one of those companies would charge 3,000 for. Lets just say I was less than pleasant to be around when I was building that last one =).