PC builders...things you wish you knew

[Miyagi-san]

I built a PC years ago and that's about as far as my expertise goes with it. I'm sure that some more experienced folks here could share some things they know now that they wish they new back before they started?

I am needing a new PC soon and am contemplating a build this time around...

[Moppie]

I built a new PC last year, after last building one about 4 before that.
So there was a huge gap in my knowledge, but with a bit of resuarch and questions asking here, I am more than happy with what I built.

I personally wouldn't change anything about it.

The important thing is to set your self a budget, and stick to it. (but remember you will go over it).
Don't buy cheap parts, and don't try and take any short cuts to save money.
Work out what YOU need from the system, and spec it accordingly.

I built a combined Photoshop/Gaming machine that also needed to be stable.
I deliberatly chose a motherboard that does not allow any kind of over clocking so I wouldn't be tempted.
I also added enough hard drives that my photos can be kept seperate from everything else. This simplifies back ups etc.

[Faolan]

Don't buy bleeding edge, it'll probably come back and bite you.

Download the drivers for your hardware... It will probably be more up to date than the driver CD.

Buy a quality brand name PSU - this is the heart of your system and more areas of grief I've seen over the years. The faults a cheap PSU can induce are a nightmare to diagnose.

Plan your system - figure out wiring, wrapping cables and so on. Components run hot these days and you need figure how much cooling you will need and also noise levels.

Cases - a personal matter but consider where the PC is going to go. You're going to be sitting next to it anyway so how much noise can you live with? Also consider case designs ie tool-less, sound damped, removable mobo tray etc.

Also consider drive caddies especially if you want to do hot swapping or use drive arrays. You can buy a caddy that fits into the 5.25 bays at the top of the case. Icy Box is a known brand for this.

Cables make sure you buy decent quality cables, but also figure out what cables you do need and what they do. Also make sure you plug in the graphics card power lead otherwise you may have a 'dead' system. Most modern Gfx cards need this. Also a modular PSU helps in this regard to cable management.

BIOS - Make sure it's configured to what you're running, disable any unused resources.