How long does it take to build a PC?

[Beresford]

Hello,

I have now bought all the parts for my new desktop and I am due to have it built by a professional PC builder this Sunday.

However, I am unsure whether he said he will build it for me for £35 or £35 per hour, I can obviously ask him now but I would like to know how long does it take to get all the parts and put them together? I am not the type that tolerates being ripped off! lol

I have read that someone who knows what there doing can do it in 20-30 mins!

I am tempted to do it myself.. not because of the money, I mean geez the parts cost me £1500! But I would be so proud of myself if I could build my own PC ... I know how to install windows so once he puts the parts together I can take it from there.

Thanks

 

[Kinamyen]

A skilled builder 30 to 45 mins. A novice a little over an hour.

 

[AdrianPerry]

I really would recommend try and build it yourself.

It is such a sense of achievement when your done If you get stuck or aren't sure about something, you can always check NewEgg's "How to build a computer" video on youtube which shows hows its done step by step, or obviously jump on the forums and ask

It does take around 45min - 1hour if you take your time and do some proper cable management ect, sometimes even longer depending on your case and components. It wouldn't surprise me if they charged you £70 and called it 2 hours work.

My first computer build i probably spent about 2hours sorting all the cables, and making sure everything was properly connected and well put together.

 

[zagan]

Depends on what all the parts are, and if you have everything ready to go.

I would say an hour at the quickest, I really couldn't see someone putting a computer together much quicker than that, maybe 40mins at the quickest but it'd have to be a real simple computer (few parts) to put together.

If you don't feel up to it then don't do it, as you might break something or force something that you didn't mean to, like memory going onto a motherboard that's fitted into a case that doesn't have all the mount holes done, the motherboard can flex when you do that snapping it in half thus dead motherboard and you won't know till you put in all the other parts and try to power it up.

Your fee is probably a one off fee to build the whole thing, charging for the hour is a bit dear really.

If you do build it yourself make sure you are grounded and try not to wear static producing clothing.

The biggest problem will be the CPU cooler and the ram, as they seem straight forward but generally are more fiddly than you expect.

For me I've built around 10 computers so far for myself and other people.

 

[4745454b]

I was going to say it depends on how much cable management you want. Starting with a bare case and things in a box, it shouldn't take more then 1/2hour. If it takes longer then an hour either he isn't an "experienced" builder or his milking it. 30-45min for putting it together, and then another hour or so for installing the OS and drivers. This will depend on your internet speed. If you have a slow ISP it will take him a long time to download the windows updates.

 

[Rizlla]

My build too me about 2 1/2 hours to build, because I did a lot of cable management. You can hardly see any cables in my case if you look in.

 

[4745454b]

I can easily see someone taking that much time with a hot glue gun, cable ties, velco straps, etc doing an awesome job on the cable management. To just screw everything together? 30-45min tops depending on the number of add in cards/drives.

 

[Outlander_04]

My record is 17 minutes

but that was way back when motherboards only had one power connector

and it took me another 2 and a half hours to work out where the 4 pin cpu power plug was going to have to go to stop it having all the computing advantages of a brick .


Take your time .
Do it right .
Enjoy

 

[Beresford]

Hi,

I have a good case and it has a tool-less design for some parts. Here is my build;

Intel Sandybridge i5-2500K Unlocked Core i5 Quad-Core Processor (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache, Socket 1155) 
Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Two Module Kit
Asus GTX 580 DirectCu II
60Gb OCZ Agility 3 SSD Read 525MB s Write 475MB s
Samsung F3 HD103SJ 1TB internal Hard Drive SATAII 32MB Cache 7200RPM – OEM
Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P Z68 Motherboard
Coolermaster HAF 922 Mid Tower Chassis
Corsair 850w Gold - Modular
Cooler Master Hyper 212+
Artic Silver Thermal Paste
OCZ Mount "3.5" for SSD
Samsung Super-Writer
Genuine Windows 7 Home Edition x64

I have all the parts at home except the Motherboard which will be arriving sometime today via courier. I cannot believe how incredible and HUGE! The case and Graphics Card is ... I thought when buying the case it would be smaller considering it was mid-size but it's massive lol.. I am new to computer hardware so it all seems really cool in a geeky way!

Thanks a lot for all your help, I now know what to expect timewise from the builder. I am tempted to build it myself and I thank AdrianPerry for that NewEgg link... I watched a few mins of it because I am at work at the moment and it seems very good and indepth. I really want to do it myself now lol

I will let you know in a couple of days as I will be wanting to overclock my CPU and GPU!

Regards

Beresford

 

[f-gomes]

My personal record is 12 mins, but it was a microATX simple pc, almos everything onboard. Just opened the case, screwed the board (had previously fitted ram and cpu on it), screw the hdd and dvd and that was it.

On more complex pc's (more components, more cables to arrange, more parts, etc), it shouldn't take longer than 30 - 40 mins to an experienced assembler. 1 hour for the typical enthusiast friend next door, and God knows how long for a complete newbie consulting magazines and online videos about how to do it.

 

[cats_Paw]

Depends on the parts as someone stated. Id say that the parts you are talking about would take me 40 minutes withought the software installation.

You can do it yourself quite easy as long as you read the manuals and instructions of every piece of hardware you bought.

IMPORTANT: if you build it yourself, it will take you far longer, so dont rush it (since its your first time). And as 3 advices YOU MUST follow for safe build:

A) Work on a 100% clear table as big as possible, and make sure its clean and dry. You dont want to lose any part or accidentally drop something becouse you moved it with your elbow, etc.

B)Read at least 1 good article about basics on building a PC. This will give you the guide to "what do i start with", etc.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/13671 This one seems ok.

C)If unsure of somehting, google it first at least before "lets try this option..."

Good luck!

 

[AdrianPerry]

and it took me another 2 and a half hours to work out where the 4 pin cpu power plug was going to have to go to stop it having all the computing advantages of a brick .

Haha well that just brought on a little laughter!

-------

For the NewEgg video;
Part 1 is component selection, Part 2 is the actual build, and Part 3 is installing all the software.

Just so you don't waste all your time watching bits you don't need

 

[swifty_morgan]

start to finish..... hardware installed and all software installed..... if everything goes right..... if he charges you for 2 hours labor it's an honest job.

I just did one yesterday.

 

[jsc]

I suggest breadboarding to test the parts before you install them in a case. That takes about 10 minutes - time well spent in my opinion.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/262730-31-breadboarding

 

[AdrianPerry]

I suggest breadboarding to test the parts before you install them in a case. That takes about 10 minutes - time well spent in my opinion.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/262730-31-breadboarding

More on how to do this during NewEggs build video Part 2.

 

[geekapproved]

Somewhere around 30minutes. I've never tried to race through it though and time myself, that would dumb.

 

[Wolfshadw]

One more thing about taking it to a professional builder... you don't know when he's going to get to it. S/He might start on it while you wait. S/He might have a back log of other work they need to attend to first. I'd suggest building it yourself. Take your time with it. Read and re-read the manuals (in particular the motherboard manual). Watch the video's that AdrianPerry linked (and others on YouTube).

For me, the first time, it was just a matter of getting over the nervousness of frying a component. Now, it takes twice as long to install the OS as it does building the system.

-Wolf sends

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Check out the help section here, you anywhere near nottingham btw?
Sections three and four man http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/288241-13-read-posting-buyer-guides-troubleshooting
Moto

 

[jitpublisher]

Let me give you some fast advice about paying anyone, anything, for any service they render. Never, ever pay someone by the hour. Tell them to give you a price, or a bid, and honor it. If the person knows what they are doing, they will know how long it will take them, allow for some minor issues, and give you a fair price.
Time fills space, and time costs money. Business lesson 101.

Now, assembling a PC is plug and play, anyone with even a very limited amount of PC "skill" can assemble a PC and install an OS. There are many very good guides on the web about this, and honestly, it is not that hard at all. Taking your time, double checking everything, being cautious, etc, about 2 hours for a novice is a reasonable time, that is get it to the first POST screen. Installing the OS, your programs, updating etc can actually run into a couple more hours, or even longer. Takes me about 1 hour to do an average assemble, and then 4 hours to get everything installed and configured the way I want it, usually. I have built some a lot faster, and I have built some that took longer! But do it yourself, learn something, and have fun.

 

[christop]

I will say 30 to 40 minutes with nice cable management and os install virus software and such.

 

[AdrianPerry]

I will say 30 to 40 minutes with nice cable management and os install virus software and such.

No chance. Not software and drivers as well.

Throwing components into the case and plugging stuff in takes a good 15-20min and thats rushing and not even getting started on any kind of cable management. Applying thermal paste, attaching HSF.....i dont think 30min is even possible to do all that and if it is, theres no way your getting and OS and anti virus on there in under 40.

 

[Beresford]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the advice regarding not getting ripped off! I think many should take note. I have confirmed it is a fixed price for £35 for the assembly of parts. The builder is a family friend so I think he will honor this.

I am able to install my OS, drivers etc myself as I've had to do this several times with laptops that I've had, so I won't be keeping around too much. I watched the entire newegg How to Build a PC videos and I am surprised at how easy the process is although there is a lot to do especially know the right cable placements and making sure that it is tidy. For the sake of £35 and the amount I paid for it all (£1500!) I don't think I should be fiddling too much lol

After watching those videos done on a HAF 912 (mines 922) I want all the cables on the outer side of the case adjacent to the motherboard like they did so that you when you look into the case and it is almost free of all cables.

I was thinking of overlocking the CPU and GPU but I don't know if it is necessary and there are so many guides out there for so many different setups even if you have the same CPU/GPU then I don't I am unsure as to whether I should take the risk.

 

[g-unit1111]

Yeah, the cable management is usually the hardest part of any build since each case is unique as to how it manages cables, some are excellent, others are not.

As for overclocking - you have the i5-2500K which is an excellent choice. Do your research before you decide to overclock, you don't want to get repeated errors and BSODs from one wrong setting.