My First Computer Build

As my old computer has pretty much been powered by a tired hamster in a wheel for the past eighteen months, I decided it was time to empty my piggy bank and purchase a new one that could cope with games made in the past four years. After looking at the specs I wanted and the cost of pre-built machines, I decided to build my own. How hard can it be, I thought?

Posing this very question to my friends and colleagues resulted in polarised opinions that fell into one of two camps:

1) Get a professional to do it; you'll fry every component just by looking at it, so leave it alone.
2) It's just like expensive Lego; so long as you don't try to build it in the bath, you'll be fine.

I always liked Lego, so I decided to give it a punt.

It is generally not recommended to add soft furnishings to a computer build.

Research

In my opinion, the most important part of a successful computer build is actually making sure you know what you want, and buy appropriate and compatible parts to do the job. Are you looking to build a gaming rig? Do you want to do a lot of design work? Choose a build that best fulfils your individual requirements, and your budget. Captain Obvious also suggests making sure you check your parts are compatible with each other; check out the full specifications for your motherboard, CPU and RAM, and that they will work with each other.
As I wanted a machine that could play the latest games, but also let me dabble in prototyping and artwork, I ended up plumping for the following set up:

• CPU - AMD FX-9370.
• Motherboard - Sabertooth 990FX R2.0.
• RAM - 1x 8GB 1866MHz DDR3.
• GPU - Sapphire R9 270X DX OC 4GB.
• SSD - Crucial 2.5-inch 480GB M500 SATA.
• PSU - 750W CX Builder Series 80PLUS Bronze PSU.
• Case - Corsair Carbide Series 300R Mid-Tower Gaming Case (Black) with Side Window.
• Fans - Corsair AF120 LED Purple Quiet Edition High Airflow 120mm Fan (x2), Corsair AF120 LED White Quiet Edition High Airflow 120mm Fan (x2).
• Heat Sink - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (120mm).
• HDD - 400 GB from old machine.
• Optical Drive - DVD Reader/Writer from old machine.
• Card Reader - 4 Slot Reader from old machine.
• OS - Windows 7 Ultimate from old machine.
• Monitors - x2 analogue monitors (one from old machine, one donated).
• Keyboard/Mouse/Tablet - from old machine.
• Thermal Paste - Artic MX-2 8g Thermal Compound.
• Card Reader Bracket.
• Active Analogue Adapter cable.

NB - the parts were purchased and assembled in May 2014.

This was chosen after much deliberation, research and discussion. Some of the factors I considered included:

• AMD vs Intel - This debate seems to rage on with an intensity akin to a religious schism. The take home message I got through all the white noise was that an Intel chipset will have a slightly faster processing time than its AMD counterpart, but the AMD chipset will provide more bang for your buck as they are significantly cheaper. If you're planning on doing a lot of mathematically heavy work (such as 3D rendering and CAD), it might be worth the extra £70 plus. If you're not, you're probably better off going with the AMD chipset.
• Motherboards and CPUs - I had fun with this; the AMD CPU I wanted to purchase did not have a motherboard available in the UK which carried 3.0 PCI Express slots, and the importing costs would have blown my budget. New graphics cards are optimised for these slots, but will work with the 2.0 version; at the moment this isn't much of an issue, but as games become designed around the new technology in years to come, this will have an impact. The choice was between a more expensive Intel set up (by around £100), and a less future-proofed system. I went with the latter - even as I type, just a few months after completing my build, I imagine I could have purchased the same parts for a third less. Having to replace almost everything in my case a few years down the road is an inevitability regardless.
• Heat Sinks - My CPU didn't come with a heat sink, which is just as well; the general consensus seems to be to remove the stock heat sink and replace it anyway. If you're agonising over which heat sink is right for you, I found FrostyTech (http://www.frostytech.com/) a useful resource; they review dozens of heat sinks and have handy comparison tables.

Purchasing

Ironically, PC World no longer sells PC parts. This seems odd to me, but it doesn't matter; there are lots of sites around which sell computer components. PC Part Picker (http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/) is a good starting point; they compare prices across several sites and you can search for a precise component. You can also select from a number of different countries.
Other sites I used include:

• Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/) - Sometimes have the best prices around, but worth comparing with other sites; their 'half price sale!' on the Corsair case I bought was slightly more expensive than the average price on several other sites.
• Ebuyer (http://www.ebuyer.com/) - From previous experience, I know they are pretty good at handling returns and giving you refunds.
• Dabs (https://www.dabs.com/) - Standard delivery is pretty quick; I certainly got my items within two or three days of ordering. 
• CCL (http://www.cclonline.com/) - Reasonably quick, delivery charges vary depending on cost/weight of items.
• Novatech (http://www.novatech.co.uk/) - These took a little longer to deliver, but delivery was free.

Many of these sites sell mother board bundles - starter kits which combine a motherboard, CPU and RAM. These take out some of the research effort, in so much as you will know they're compatible with each other. They also tend to be considerably more expensive than purchasing the parts separately, which is worth bearing in mind.

The cost for my build worked out at just over £900 after adding the card reader bracket and the active adapter for my analogue monitor (more on that later), although I did cannibalise my old machine for parts such as an HDD, optical drive and card reader.


The Build

Once my parts had all arrived over the course of a fortnight, I was ready to begin. First thing needed was a set of tools. Fortunately, I already had a standard toolkit with a set of Allan keys, and a computer-specific one bundled in with a previous graphics card purchase. If you are wondering why I could possibly need two toolkits, you are probably correct to do so.

One of my two tool-kits. Ironically, I haven't so much as put up a picture in my current flat.

 The other thing I purchased to help with the build was an anti-static wristband. There is a reasonable risk that you can build up a static charge in your body, and discharge it into your delicate computer components, frying them and rendering the whole build worthless. An anti-static wristband eliminates this risk by grounding you and preventing any static build up. A crocodile clip is attached to the wristband via a cable and resistor, and this clips onto a metal surface (such as a computer case). The conductive wristband goes around your wrist (funnily enough), and this connection effectively grounds the user. The bands are adjustable, in case you have pathetic child-like hands and wrists and need to tighten the band so it is snug against you. So I'm told.


A Working System

With everything ready, and armed with a decent manual bundled with my motherboard that contained lots of handy diagrams, I was able to begin.

I don't think this is being aimed at my demographic...

The very first thing I did was open up the funky new case.

It has a transparent window, so you can see inside! How awesome is that? I shall definitely want to show that off, and not have to have the window side of the case facing my wall.

The first piece of my build that I fitted was the back plate that labelled each input to the motherboard. This would be essential, once the motherboard was actually connected.

#MadSkillz

I could have attached the motherboard immediately, but there were a few minor additions required, such as the CPU, heatsink and RAM. Far easier to attach everything before screwing it into place, especially as the heatsink required the most effort of any part of the build. The CPU just clips into place, and the RAM is seated quite comfortably - well, it would if the heatsink wasn't a behemoth of equipment that took up almost the entire width of the case.

Apparently, this is going to fit into my case and not block any of the RAM slots.

The heatsink comes with its own backplate, which replaces the backplate of the motherboard and provides a point for the strange torture-like device that holds the heatsink in place to be attached.

The Devil is in the details...

First, you have to add a blob of thermal paste to the top of the CPU. This acts as a conductor between the CPU and the heatsink, so the heat from the CPU is transferred to the metal slats of the heatsink where the fan cools it down. Sounds simple enough...

A note on thermal paste - Believe it or not, there are wildly conflicting opinions on this subject. Before embarking on this build, I had no idea that such a tiny thing could spark such fierce debate. Choosing a thermal paste from the many on offer is bad enough, although Maximum PC aim to help out with their article (http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/geek_tested_17_thermal_pastes_face). Once you've done that, you have to decide how to apply it. Do you add a small blob, a big blob, draw a square, draw parallel lines, use an old credit card to spread it? So many methods, and each has its evangelists.
For my money, these extra factors probably only matter greatly if you're planning on overclocking your system (which, given the diminishing returns versus risk of frying your whole system, I'm not ready to bother with just yet). I simply used a small amount on the CPU side only, spread it with an old credit card and made sure it didn't trickle over the motherboard itself when the heat sink was placed on top; this seemed to do the trick. Whether my system is optimally cool or not is up for debate, but it's working happily and has been for a while.
One item I did purchase in anticipation of any errors (and didn't need in the end) is some thermal compound remover (http://www.ebuyer.com/139175-arctic-silver-arcticlean-30ml-thermal-material-remover-and-thermal-surface-purifier-arcticlean-60ml). You can never be too careful.

The strange torture-like device has different settings depending on the manufacturer of the CPU you are using; it has to be pushed shut to slide through the bars of the heatsink, then opened up in the correct position to be screwed into the motherboard, holding the heatsink in place. Springs in the device help greatly with this, which caused a problem when one of them promptly broke free of the structure and was flung to a far corner of my living room. Jury-rigging the device sans spring took a while, and just as I had managed to coax the part into place and screw it down... the spring showed up nestled in a crevice of the motherboard. Back to square one as I undid everything to put the spring back in place.

The heart of my machine. That RAM stick is only ever getting removed if I have to replace the heat sink.

With everything secured onto the motherboard, it could be screwed into place within the case. The graphics card could then be plugged in; with no integrated graphics on the motherboard, this was the bare minimum required to see if the setup actually worked.

There's a purple robot on the box, so it must be good.

Obviously a power source is required before the machine can be switched on and tested.

Hello, double the wattage compared to my last computer.

The First Test

Once a monitor, keyboard and mouse were plugged in, the machine could be switched on. The first attempt resulted in no response; after frantically checking the motherboard manual and listening for the various configuration of beeps - which none sounded - it occurred to me that the CPU fan had power, but the CPU might not have. Oops. Once the offending cable was plugged back in, there was life!

Pick your caption: The first signs of life from my new computer! Or, Machine torture porn. Also, BIOS' have changed since my day...

A similar problem occurred later on, when the power cable to the GPU fell out of its motherboard plug. Once secured more firmly, this did not happen again, and everything seemed to be running smoothly. Now all that was required were to add the Solid State Drive, the crucial cooling fans, the hard drive, optical drive and card reader from the old machine, and set up the operating system.

The SSD plugged in easily, and the cooling fans were screwed into place after a bit of re-jigging upon realising that the size of the heatsink prevented me from placing two of my pimped out LED fans on the windowed side of the case.

So, the hard part was over. Or so I thought.


Cannibalising the Old Machine

Rather than spend money on an additional optical drive, I decided to cannibalise my old off-the-shelf machine. this meant I was able to obtain not only an optical drive for my new build, but a memory card reader as well

All I had to do was take them out of the old machine.

Turns out that this particular off-the-shelf machine was manufactured with some advanced technology where the parts expanded to an air-tight fit upon initial attachment; great for a submarine, but not so great when you're trying to prise perfectly serviceable parts from its corpse of a case. I had to use all of my strength - and a well-placed foot for leverage - just to loosen these parts from their original machine, in a manner which would have doubtlessly proven hilarious had I managed to record photographic evidence of it.

Sadly, this strangely wasted shrink-fit technology didn't work the other way around. The card reader rattled around in its slot. I had no choice but to jury-rig it into place with a couple of screws and let it hang in the machine at a slight angle until I was able to order a face plate to accommodate it.

The card reader is held in place by a single screw and crossed fingers.

With a new system came the opportunity to get a new operating system. For the sake of compatibility, I plumped for Windows. After all, they had Windows 8 on offer, which at the time was the newest version of Microsoft's OS and in no way one of the clunkiest, most poorly designed pieces of kit for desktop use.

I used Windows 7. I have some standards. What was an unexpected bonus is that my new machine automatically booted up with the SSD install, and didn't try to run the version on my old HDD that I added for additional capacity. This allowed me to be especially lazy and leave much of that HDD's content on the disc until I need to free up space.

Adding the new OS was a case of putting in a disc and selecting a couple of options, leaving me free to wonder how I'm going to efficiently pack all those wires into the case.

Final Additions

The final thing to do was to add my extra monitor; my shiny new graphics card allowed for up to three monitors to be attached. Unfortunately, it didn't allow for more than one of these to be analogue. A quick visit to eBay for an active adapter worked out much cheaper than purchasing a new digital monitor.

So although my build took around 8 hours (hey, it was my first time!), you could argue that it took ten days if you factor in the delivery time for the bracket and adapter. Still, it was worth it.


The Aftermath

Proud of my handiwork, I scampered off to meet a couple of my friends for lunch. I excitedly regaled them with the tale of having just built my new computer (which makes me super popular at parties, I can tell you), and one of them replied:

"Aww - why didn't you just buy one?"

Can't really argue with that, can you? Still, I had fun and saved a bit of money. If anyone reading this is considering building their own computer, but is worried about the work involved; I built one, and it works fine. From that alone, I'm pretty sure you can manage. 

The finished computer. Yeah; thanks to the aerial socket arrangements in my flat, I had to kiss goodbye to seeing that funky transparent window...

But here it is anyway! Marvel at its transparency, and the amateurishly arranged cables it reveals.

And here is the nice bracket for the card reader. No more precariously held together bits of kit for this machine!