You’ve been up all weekend tweaking this and tweaking that and lack of sleep is now playing games with your mind as you’re sure you left the screwdriver on the sofa and it’s not there now. Where is that damn screwdriver! F*!%! why is this happening to me!? Then you nearly go and electrocute yourself, just to top off this absolute car crash of a day. And finally you think to yourself “why did I ever decide to build my own computer?” before curling up in the foetal position and bawling your eyes out.

Image Source : maximumpc.com

Here is a list of 7 sins to avoid when building a computer for the first time :

1)    Do not accidentally kill yourself. It would be quite unfortunate if you killed yourself by electrocution, but on the plus side, if you are young you’d leave a good looking corpse. Make sure you use an anti static wrist band or mat.
2)    Do not get incompatible components for your pc. For instance your motherboard won’t recognize your hard-drive or other component.
3)    Do not decide to use components from old computers you have hanging around. Take note of 2). Things can go wrong further down the road which will leave you tearing your hair out at a later date.
4)    Do not fail to read the instruction manual. If you’re like me and too impatient to refer to the instructions and want to dive straight in, you’re heading for trouble. If this is the first time you’re building a pc, make sure that you’re fully armed with all the facts before you get stuck in.
5)    Do not buy parts that have to be shipped from abroad. Try to buy locally if you can as this will save you a lot of time and money if you have to return them at a later date.
6)    Do not expect everything to go smoothly with no mistakes. Go easy on yourself and enjoy the process. Make this a learning experience.
7)    Do not rush the process. If this is the first time you’re building a pc, give yourself plenty of time. If you rush you will make mistakes and you’ll start throwing stuff around the room in a rage.

Perhaps the most important thing to do is to have fun and learn. The buzz you will get when you finally switch on your computer for the first time and see the monitor light up while booting , will make the journey (along with the sleepless nights and lost screwdrivers) worthwhile.

Author: Alastair Kane

Alastair Kane works for Novatech Computer Components. In his spare time he builds computers and writes for various blogs scattered around cyberspace.