Scratch Built PC: Complete!

Hey everyone,

My PC build is now complete, and I’m really pleased with the outcome. I knew the whole process was going to be fairly difficult as I’d never put a system together before, but it’s really rewarding to have it all working.  Installing all the components was mostly painless, although getting the motherboard in was quite tough, especially with the backplate needing to be precisely positioned. The one bit I was mainly worried about, although it turned out to be one of the easiest parts to do was the CPU installation. Locking it in was a bit of a push but it went smoothly, along with putting the CPU cooler on. I wired up all the front panel and PSU connectors when the motherboard was in place, which was easy enough to do after reading the manual.

The last component to go in was the graphics card, the case needed 2 panels slotting off the back (the Lancool PC-K58 has a great feature for this) and it went in pretty easily, all that I had to do then was connect the PCI Express PSU cable. I did have one scary moment after this however, as the PC wouldn’t boot, but it was a simple fix (thanks to Joni – who knows so much about PC’s) as all that was needed was one more cable putting in place on the motherboard. After that it booted up and I was able to format my hard drive and partition the Windows 7 install. Everything has been working really well so far, temperatures are great at both idle and load, and it’s quiet, so I’m really pleased with how it has turned out for my first build.

You obviously have to be very careful when putting a system together, making sure everything will be compatible, applying everything correctly and not rushing into it, but I definitely recommend building your own PC. It’s not only cheaper, but at the end of it your system feels much more personal. Everything is made to match your needs and it’s a cool feeling to have it working succesfully. I’ve learnt so much about PC components and how they all work, giving me all the confidence I need to do the same again in the future.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my recent posts,

Cheers!