Fantastic Tutorial! When I built my first entire PC from scratch (had rebuilt older models for charity, friends & fun), relied in part on an older guide here, as well as sought advice elsewhere on a couple of issues.
Yet for the most part, I winged it! One thing I had leaned long ago is the importance of that $5 wrist strap. Yes it gets in the way, yet that low cost investment can save one hundreds of dollars if there were a spark due to static electricity & all it takes is a fraction of a second. If buying most components from the same retailer, they're going to be suspicious of a lot of parts DOA.
Of course, one can also be touching part of the metal case at all times when handling components to achieve the same. As the author indicated, use some common sense as to where one's going to build, never do it on carpet. Winter is a risky time also, especially when running 'dry' heat (example, wood). Yet just by being careful, things will go fine.
Perhaps the best part about building your own rig is to remember the bottlenecks of OEM builds (example, a single ATX 4 pin plug for CPU power). Or no M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe slot, be careful to get the most up to date components, one can spend an extra $30 for the MB & (for the time being) use an existing HDD to store data on. As well as a DVD burner, no need to spend more than $20 for this, unless a BluRay optical drive is desired.
With patience & attention to detail, one can build a PC that better than 'high end' OEM units for half the cash layout, to include a Windows license. BTW, Windows 7 & 8 upgrade keys works for activation, but not OEM branded keys, these stays with the original build. One can use an OEM key & media from Newegg & other retailers who carries these, keep in mind not to enter the key to activate until everything's known to work. This is important because on some occasions, a MB may work for a few days & give trouble, don't risk losing that key. The only way to reuse afterwards is on the same exact make/model MB (not a revised one).
There's no better joy if one's into computers than completing your first build. Which will give you confidence moving forward, and learn more & more every time. I've built no less than 50 & still learning, as the times changes, so do we. The old goes out & we have to learn the new. Take pride in your work by the cleanup of cables & will be doing two things at once. Cluttered wiring jobs restricts airflow, the more that can be drawn in from the intake & blown through the exhaust, the longer your build will run. Heat is the bane of all electronics, computers are no exception.
These are the articles I love, even though I have building experience, don't understand all of the technical jargon, like the battle of the latest SSD's & so on. I rely on user reviews more so than anything for selection of all of my components.
Great read, have fun building your own bottleneck free rig!
Cat
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