Gareth Ogden

Customised - Instructions worth reading

Posted at: 5th September 2007

If you're a bloke then the chances are that you never read them, but the fact remains that you expect to receive a neatly designed set of paper instructions with pretty much any item that you buy, whether it's a toaster, television set or tent.

The more technical or complex the object, the more detailed the instructions will usually be (and the more likely that, as a bloke, you won't read them). If you've ever bought, for example, a dSLR camera or a relatively large item of flat-packed furniture then you'll appreciate how important these instructions are (unless you never read them, of course). In fact, trying to assemble flat-packed furniture can be fiendishly difficult even when you have the assembly instructions, which are either completely illegible or comically illustrated with odd cartoon-like characters.

Given that you receive a set of step-by-step instructions (however hopeless they may be) that show you how to assemble something as fundamentally dull as a wardrobe, it's therefore pretty incredible that you aren't provided with any instructions on how to build what is possibly the most technical consumer gadget in existence - a desktop PC.

You could easily lay down a couple of gees on the components for a new monster rig but, when all the parts arrive, ready to be assembled, you'd be left entirely to your own devices. Sure, many of the individual components may have instructions on what you should do with them, but there's no single document that shows how everything glues together, or the order in which you should install each component. One simple mistake could prove extremely costly if you damaged a component, but there's also the possibility that a badly built PC could torment you with poor performance and BSODs, without you knowing why, or how to resolve the issue.

With the proper know-how, building a PC doesn't have to be an exercise in frustration, which is why we've included a detailed, step-by-step photo guide to building a professional PC in this month's issue.

Of course, many of you will already be experienced PC builders and will therefore attempt to pour scorn on such a feature but, unlike old dogs, you can teach old (or shall we say well-seasoned?) PC enthusiasts new skills, and by reading our feature you could actually learn a thing or two.

However, not everyone is already a ninja PC builder, and for those of you who want to graduate from n00b status and gain some PC building credentials, our feature will show you everything you need to know, from how to prepare the case, install components, and ensure the wiring is neat and tidy, while also providing plenty of helpful tips and advice along the way.

As I've said many times before, building a PC is a fantastic occupation and, as Blur once said (not in relation to PC building, I might add), it gives you an enormous sense of wellbeing. If you thought you felt smug after tightening that last bolt of your Ikea table and chairs, just wait and see how you feel after hearing that very first POST 'beep' and seeing your custom-built PC spark into life for the first time.

Be warned though; building PCs isn't only highly satisfying; it's also very addictive!

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Comments

What?

godling, what is with the \' markup in your posts? Are you getting too immersed in some computer language?

Comment by JeffDM at 3:45pm 28th October 2007

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Rumour Control

Godling, there are a couple of minor points with your theory. Firstly, there are only a handful of motherboards out there that support DDR3 at the moment. Secondly, RAM is not backwards compatible, so you cannot put DDR2 into a DDR3 slot.

Comment by jonlumb at 9:26am 17th October 2007

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True...

Plus if your crack open a Dell PC you might/will(?) lose the warranty as well...you'd be better of selling it to some n00b and use the money for a decent self-build *evil grin*

Comment by Negative_Sun at 11:58pm 2nd October 2007

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actually not expensive

Buy a good motherboard ... $150 ... chances are it\'s designed to handle current and next-gen technology, like DDR3 and 45nm CPUs. (Gigabyte has at least one out there like that.) But also has DDR2 and current CPU production specs. You then buy some older DDR2 and CPU, add on a cheap graphics card, and for $600 you\'ve got yourself a reasonable system. A year from now (or sooner) if you want to upgrade, you replace the parts. Now compare that with a Dell cheap-o, which may only save you $100, but can\'t be upgraded because its internals (the mobo, particularly) are at the end of the lifecycle. Upgrading that machine requires replacing the entire thing. What\'s more expensive?