What's one thing you learned from building your own desktop?

[K. Eng]

Just for fun, since I know at least some people here build their own desktops. One thing I learned is to avoid 40mm sleve bearing fans as much as possible.

The Abit AN7 I used to build my midtower had this 40mm fan on the northbridge. Within a few months it was making the most awful grinding noises. I ended up having to remove the system board and and install a Zalman NB47J passive heatsink (it's a great product, btw - a tall blue aluminum heatsink with removable and adjustable mounting arms).

The other 40mm fan in my system was on a Radeon 9100 video card. That 40mm fan went bad around the same time as the northbridge one. It took Visiontek a looooong time to get me a new fan, though to their credit it did eventually arrive. In the meantime, I bought a Radeon 9600 (regular, not XT or Pro). It's just good enough to play HL2 at XGA res with DX9 effects, but it runs cool enough to need nothing more than a passive heatsink

So I'm down to 3 fans in my system: 1x 80mm double ball bearing case fan for ventilation, 1x 80mm ball bearing fan in the power supply, and 1x 60 ball bearing fan on the CPU.

[AlphaKilo470]

I've built my first desktop back in 1997or 1998. It was a Pentium 166 with a SuperMicro motherboard, 96mb RAM, 8mb Voodoo Rush dual chipset plus AT25 video card, 2 or 3gb hard drive and an ensoniq sound system. I've also built a Pentium II in 1999, an Athlon in 2002 and several old Pentiums from parts which I've sold to friends. Things that come to my memory first are:

Drive rails are annoying, they add extra steps, get lost as soon as you own the computer, and are almost impossible to work around when lost.

Be extremely careful with all wires, I one tried to pull a power cable out of a hard drive and accidently ripped out the power conector on that hard drive. Luckily, it was in such a manner I could resoldier it.

The case is one of the most important investments. It keeps everything cool, held togteher stabily, protects your computer from the elements (whether it be dust and gease or kids and cats) as well as setting the first imression for other people using your computer. Also, if you upgrade regularly, that case just might outlast the system inside it, so buy a good case that can take a beaing and will last.

Dust the inside of your computer regularly, especially if you have multiple fans in your computer. I learned this when I let my Athlon system go for 2 years without a dusting (sounds bad, but most people go the entire systems lifetime without cleaning) and the inside was horrendous. Clean about twice or three times a year, more if you are in a bad environment, and replace fans if you even have hunches about them.

[K. Eng]

I think rails are not quite that bad. Installing an optical drive in my Antec SX630II case, for example, requires two rails to be installed on the drive. This takes four screws, or about the same as what's required normally. Plugging in the drive is a snap after that. Contrast this to my old Dell system (XPS T450 Pentium III box), where I had to remove the entire drive bay to install a CD-RW drive, which was no fun at all.

The rails do get lost... but not if you have the right case. The SX630II has brackets in the bottom interior of the case that hold the extra pairs of rails... so I have not lost a rail yet!

Drive rails are annoying, they add extra steps, get lost as soon as you own the computer, and are almost impossible to work around when lost.

[AlphaKilo470]

I should have added to the rail commet I made is that it's really a matter of preference. Whether or not drive rails are better will be debated for eternity.

I'm with you on the drive cage thing all the way. My favorite cases are the ones where you simply slide the drive into place and insert 2 screws on each side.

Unfortunatley with me, even if i have the right case, I'm sure I'll lose the parts. I'd hate to say it, but I'm one of the many folks who could lose their car keys on (not in) their desk chair (it's happened to me once before.)

[benplaut]

it wasn't my desktop... but i learned use magnetic screwdrivers... i ended up have to take everything apart about 3 times to recover screws that had fallen into discombobulating situations

my next computer will be a custom-built desktop (i started with a desktop, then a TP, then a desktop... etc )

[DoS]

I admit nothing, but have been told:

A TNT video card h/s get extremely hot after gaming. There's no reason to check it out w/ your finger.

You DO NOT need a server case w/ 12 fans, even though you can OC your Celeron 300a to 602 mhz.

IF you were to get such case anyway, it's best not to attempt to load balance the fans while they're running.

80 mm fans hurt fingers when they're running. They hurt even more when a blade breaks off.

Delta ( screamer) fans can get extremely irritating in a short while, but cool well.

The original Athlon h/s really did need tha much seating pressure. Do not "loosen up" the spring.

Athlons can and do fry in 6 seconds after boot, just like the article said.

Reinstalling your boot DOS isn't fun.

We're all free bleeders when buying cases that don't have rolled edges.

Win 95a was terrible w/ memory management.

The Dell techs used to be required to have an IQ higher than a tree and were pleasant to speak to.

28.8 modems weren't as fast as I thought, but it sure seemed like it at the time.

[AlphaKilo470]

One thing I forgot to add to my post about building a desktop, compressed air is your friend. Stock up on that stuff or buy a mini air compressor. Also, as far as fans go, make sure they are the more expensive kind with the metal sheiling on the exposed side. I was one working with my computer when one of the fans shattered and had that sheild not been there, I would have been able to kiss what little eyesight I currently do have goodbye.

then a TP

Hey, if you ever want to build one of them, I can help. The 760XD I have was built by myself from 760 parts I collected over a small period of time.

[admsteiner]

Also..."heard"

When your temperature sensor says that the hard drive is running at 47-48 celsius....don't touch it with your finger.

Oh, and it also helps when you actually plug in the power cables to the drives...
--Adam

[JHEM]

I've "heard" one shouldn't test the temp of a CPU in a ZIF socket with your finger!

Fortunately I "heard" that back in the days of 486s, so I've still got the finger!

No fingerprint though.

Regards,

James

[JHEM]

Oh! And the BLACK wires go next to each other on the MB power strip!

And, of course, the always popular "if you release the magic smoke, it won't work anymore!".

Regards,

James

[K. Eng]

Back in the days when CPUs didn't even need heatsinks...

Fortunately I "heard" that back in the days of 486s, so I've still got the finger!

[admsteiner]

No fingerprint though.

Would definitely make the fingerprint scanner more interesting

--Adam

[DoS]

RAID0 and "Deathstars" are not a good combination with anything important.

If it does not say that it supports hot swap, it probably doesn't.

You really should shut down your brand new gaming system during a lightning storm. Not sure why, but ICs and PCBs don't really like being out of spec. What was that sound???

I don't care if that breaker says 15a/120vac, it will sure carry a LOT more for a brief period. (see above)

A good UPS is really cheap. (see above again)

[leoblob]

I have been told that if you try to install WIN98SE on a hard drive which has not been formatted, you will become temporarily insane (until the drive gets formatted).

[AlphaKilo470]

The more expesive the part, the morelikely it will break before the system's even complete.

[K. Eng]

That explains why none of my desktop components broke. They were all equally inexpensive (or roughly so)

The more expesive the part, the morelikely it will break before the system's even complete.

[leoblob]

Here's 2 more...

If it smells like something is burning, it probably is.

If you're loading an old program that's contained on (n) floppies, your computer will not be able to read the (n-1)th floppy.

[AlphaKilo470]

I can't tell ya how true leoblob is. Floppy disks are the least reliable media I've ever encountered. I look back and ponder how I ever put up with those things in the 90's. Either floppy disks just plain stink or I have the worlds worst luck with them.

Oh yeah, one more thing for building a desktop, never and I mean NEVER say or even think that things can't get worse when something goes wrong because the second you do, you'll find out just how they can.

[disneyman]

Just because you think your peripherals are compatible with your motherboard doesn't mean they are!!

[leoblob]

I actually still rely heavily on Lotus Smart Suite for WIN3.1. It comes on floppies. After having a few turn up unreadable in the middle of an install, I copied them onto my hard drive (sometimes I had to try a few different computers to read the marginal floppies), and then I burned the files onto a CD.

[yukit]

Dust the inside of your computer regularly, especially if you have multiple fans in your computer.

Actually, I found that Thinkpad can build up quite a bit of dust & cat hairballs inside when I took the cover off to replace my wifi card.

As far as building my own system, it sucks to have to remove the power supply from the case to get at the CPU/fan latch because they are located at the edge of my MB.

I used to have a pretty loud northbridge fan on the MB, so I replaced it with a heatsink, only to find out that my video card fan is still really loud.

You can squeeze in a 2.5 hard disk (an old disk salvaged from a laptop) in a floppy disk bay. I have not used a floppy drive in my desktop for at least 3 years.