Hi Folks,
Just built my first computer from scratch.
I owe everything I know to watching endless Linus Tech Tips build guides and really want to thank his team for giving me the confidence to give it a go.
I would say that one thing I have noticed no one mention, which has been a life saver for me, is that a lot of the parts that are in a half hearted shop built computer are easily transferable to a new rig as a place holder for future upgrades. If, like me, you lack patience and a massive dump of money to really glut out on something awesome in one go I would say that there is no good reason to hang around.
I bought my operating system, case, power supply, HDD, motherboard and processor which although not cheap still came to about a third of what my tower once finished will cost. Using the old RAM, graphics card, optical drive and HDD made it very easy for me to start my machine and better yet get a feel for the process itself. Albeit not optimally, the machine works damn near perfectly and it is only because I really want to push the envelope gaming wise that I will need to add anything at all (besides the RAM because fuck 6GB right!).
I would add the caveat however, that I researched endlessly and built a machine with an overall plan in mind.I would not have ploughed on and made poor purchasing decisions to accommodate an outdated processor for example just to speed things along. I also made sure that the old and new parts would be compatible before ripping the old machine to pieces. Like all things in life the hard work should be done in preparation.
It go's without saying that this post will be less than interesting for experienced forum members and I hate to think that I am patronising newbies like myself, but after asking a question and getting a great response back from this community I felt that I should attempt to contribute something. So for all those on here thinking about building for the first time I hope maybe that I have added something useful to your first build experience... and have fun.
Kind regards...