whats the hardest part in building your own computer??

[Kevin1211]

ive heard that putting the computer together is relatively easy, but getting it to work is hard (or something like that).. anyone care to elaborate on why its hard to get it to "work" or whatever??

thanks in advance

 

[paulw86]

getting it to "work" means the troubleshooting part. Meaning after you assembled the parts and tried to turn it on, it won't. GAHHHHH what's wrong? You have to find out.

 

[acole1]

troubleshooting unexpected problems. the hardware is the easy part.. the software is where it gets more complex.

by that i mean - putting all the hardware in the box is easy, but making sure its all compatible, your not wasting tons of money, and your software runs on it is the hard part. i found in all the machines i have built you run into so many more software problems than you do hardware. if you have any questions just post... i'm sure there are plenty of people here willing to help.

 

[Kevin1211]

what software are you referring to?? (sorry, im a complete "noob", so to speak, when i comes to building a computer. I just know the basics)

 

[TWills]

The hardest part in building a computer is cheaping out on parts and they die on you.

 

[Mday]

figuring out what to cut in terms of meeting your budget. and the dozen flavors of essentially the same video card ;-)

 

[Zepper]

It's the old socialist's lament - too many choices... The time it takes to narrow down the choices is the hard part for me. I hardly ever have any problems with them working properly once I've chosen them.
Remember: "One hour of planning/preparation saves three hours of rework." IOW, Do your homework!

.bh.

 

[ValuedCustomer]

I've always found updating the bios to be a real nail-bitter. If you screw-up, you've really screwed things up.

 

[chronokefka]

The hardest part is definitely the troubleshooting after everything is assembled. Beyond that it's the waiting for weeks on end for parts to arrive because they get shipped to the other side of the country by mistake.

And by software, I assume he was referring to getting the OS to work properly with the hardware, as well as any and all applications that have issues.

 

[Buck Naked]

Originally posted by: Zepper
It's the old socialist's lament - too many choices... The time it takes to narrow down the choices is the hard part for me. I hardly every have any problems with them working properly once I've chosen them.
Remember: "One hour of planning/preparation saves three hours of rework." IOW, Do your homework!

.bh.

:thumbsup:

the software they are referring to are the drivers for the hardware. The best thing to do to help this process out it is, before you start go to the manufactures website, and make sure you have all the latest drivers.

 

[Cheesetogo]

quote from previous thread on this:

getting the money to buy the parts

 

[shortylickens]

For me, its after the OS is installed.
I have to go through and add all my favorite apps.

PhotoPaint, ACDSee, Roxio Platinum, Nero Ultra, Adaware, Office, some Dungeon making programs, DC++.
Then I gotta setup Outlook with all my email accounts.
Oh, cant forget all the changes I need to make in Control Panel. Very few things are set up the way I like with a default XP install. Not to mention the service packs from Windows Update. And the SATA drivers, along with the USB drivers for my add-in card.

I need to find the program that lets me customize my Windows disc and reburn it.

 

[KoolDrew]

Choosing the parts. When choosing parts you should be doing a lot of research and asking for a lot of opinions on different forums.

 

[Insomniak]

Software setup.

 

[Grimner]

The research beforehand - but that saves a lot of work afterwards. AND getting the cables just right

 

[yourdeardaniel]

putting on the thermal paste and heatsink

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: Insomniak
Software setup.

I would say it may be time consuming, but not hard at all.

 

[wchou]

the software part is the most painful process because windows is such POS or PITA.

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: wchou
the software part is the most painful process because windows is such POS or PITA.

How is it painfull to install the OS, install drivers and then install and configure the programs you need? I can see it being time consuming, but not hard.

 

[eXx08]

wow good thread for newbies

 

[Reapsy00]

I hate the power connecter for floppy drives, always takes me ages too plug them in. Damn DFI for adding another to their boards.

 

[eXx08]

*Keep this thread up there mabey even sticky it*

 

[TJones2]

Originally posted by: paulw86
getting it to "work" means the troubleshooting part. Meaning after you assembled the parts and tried to turn it on, it won't. GAHHHHH what's wrong? You have to find out.

That's it exactly.

 

[niggles]

Originally posted by: yourdeardaniel
putting on the thermal paste and heatsink

yup, this is the only thing that gives me the shivers. years back I knocked a tiny chip of my AMD processor and killed the entire CPU. All because I didn't get the fan on quite right. Never again.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Pushing the power button the first time