Biggest challenges to building a PC?

[Gamehendge Jazz]

For those of you with good experience building PC's, I'm curious what (in your opinion) are the biggest challenges in the process of building a PC for the "intermediate builder" to completing a well-put-together, well-tested system?

[jlreich]

Wading through the sea of parts to find the ones that fit the needs and budget of yourself or your customer. ;)

After that I would say the biggest challenge is time.

As far as actually putting together the hardware, that's easy these days. Everything is plug and play. The only parts that you can put in wrong is the floppy cable, which is just a matter of turning it around if it's wrong. And USB wires, and that's not a problems if the wires come in one pin set with the proper hole blocked off to prevent installing it wrong. USB is about the only thing left that can actually damage your system if put in wrong.

Actually putting it together has gotten so easy these days. I guess that's why we see so many doing it the last couple of years or so. But we still see people trying to put DDR with an AM2 mobo, with an Intel CPU, an 80GB PATA HDD, and wanting to power it with a $30 20pin PSU. :p

[scylla]

If you'll accept a post from a person with zero experience who's in the beginning of his first build, I would say the amount of choices out there. It's not so much the fairly ez stuff like psu, case, hdd. It's the dang motherboard for me! I just started looking around at the offerings for core 2 duo boards, and jeezus fellas, the options are a bit overwhelming to say the least!

[Erik]

The hardest part is choosing the right parts. There are just so many choices, and many of them are very good choices. Then there is always the "for just $x more I could have...". Picking out what will give you the best bang for your buck and meet or exceed your needs, and be upgradable when your needs change. After that it is a piece of cake.

[jlreich]

Then there is always the "for just $x more I could have...".
I have major problems with "for just $x more I could have...". If I have $1500 budgeted for a system for myself I have to start with thinking $1200-$1300 to try to stay in my budget. :D :p

[Budfred]

Also, if you mess with more advanced components, you may run into hassles that have to do with inadequate support for those components... I went through 3 motherboards on my current build and 2 sets of RAM... I also had to deal with tech service that was essentially useless for all of it... I finally found out what RAM to use on a forum for the motherboard I ended up with... I still haven't figured out how to get RAID working even though that was a selling point of the board I have... The computer works fine, but it it was a challenge... Here is the whole saga if you want details:

http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=44070

This was my 4th build by the way...

[jmkeuning]

Convincing my wife that it is necessary.

[jlreich]

:D :D Ain't that the truth brother, ain't that the truth...:D :D

[Whyzman]

I would say the biggest challenge is patience... When you get all the parts there's this overwhelming desire to put it all together and flip the switch...

One would be best to begin with a barebones boot and add the components one at a time...

This manner of assembly also has a troubleshooting part to it... If the system fails to boot after adding a part...you've more than likely found a culprit...

[rond36]

Convincing my wife that it is necessary.

LOL... I'm glad I don't have that challenge.

I feel that the biggest challenge is choosing a motherboard that fits your needs and has the features that you want.

[saphalline]

3 biggest challenges that I've seen:

(1) - Picking out all the parts. This has been covered already.

(2) - Troubleshooting. First-time builders often have no idea how to troubleshoot a component, or even what component might be bad or just improperly configured. Being your own tech support is incredibly daunting.

(3) - Order of operations. Going from a pile of parts to a fully assembled working system. Those who have never done it before are totally unprepared. Barebones boot ups, installing the OS, getting drivers - there is a right way and a wrong way to build a system. Few can do it correctly the first time. I know I didn't...

[AntiPaladin]

How about some tips on order of operations to help prepare us FNG"S

[saphalline]

When you first build a system, don't put every single component you have into it the first time you turn it on! That's just asking for trouble! With nothing configured and all the mobo's BIOS values at default settings, something is probably going to cause some issues. Barebones boot comes first, to make sure the core components are functioning properly. If you connect everything at once, and it doesn't POST, what's wrong? You don't know what is DOA if you don't test your parts one at a time.

Second, don't install Windows on a fresh system with tons of drives and expansion cards. You should only have 1 optical drive and 1 hard drive (or more if RAID is used). This avoids confusion on exactly where you are installing Windows (which drive, which partition) and which optical drive contains the Windows CD. Remember, you can always change the drive letters of any extra drives later.

Third, always have the latest drivers for your hardware pre-downloaded and burned to CD. This way you can install them once Windows is installed and it will all be up-to-date. Install chipset driver packages first, then graphics, then whatever else (extra audio, extra LAN, burning apps, etc). Reboot in between and always get the drivers from the manufacturer of the chipset, NOT the manufacturer of the mobo/vid card/etc. Pure reference drivers are always the best.

Fourth, install any programs that you commonly use BEFORE you ever connect to the internet. This includes M$ Office/OpenOffice, Mozilla, and other utilities - as well as proper AV/spyware protection.

Fifth, go through all the M$/Windows updates once the drivers are done and your programs are installed (and don't forget to validate Windows!). Even with adequate AV/spyware protection, common Windows components are still susceptible to raw app attacks. Don't leave any security holes open and don't use old unsupported Windows components (such as WinXP SP1 or IE 6.0).

That's all I can think off the top of my head...

[AntiPaladin]

Thanks, some sound advice there.

[TopChip7]

Think my biggest problem was figuring out RAID - having to create a floppy disk to boot the raid from a driver disk that was only openable through windows ??? In the end I had to instal windows, load the driver, create the floppy, then re-instal windows - what a nightmare? You think a company like ASUS would provide a floppy boot disk instead of just a driver cd to create the floppy from.