Any advice assembling my first computer from components is welcome...

[lfm]

Remember to use the washers when screwing the motherboard in! Being stupid I once forgot and was treated to a nice sparking lightshow with a Pentium 3 build years ago.

That's good advice thank you.

I remember as much from long ago that many supporting parts on MB were nylon kind of pins with locking, but some screws too. Allowing the MB to expand with temperature. Screws everywhere would create tension I suppose.

[vurt]

best thing, as with anything like this, there is no hurry.
follow the instructions, from beginning to end, for each stage.
first go through the stage on a dummy run, then do it. then follow it again, making sure each connection is properly made.
then take five mins, before the next stage.

[vurt]

oh and, avoid bright lights, do not feed after midnight and do not get it wet.
otherwise xmas might be ruined.

[lfm]

oh and, avoid bright lights, do not feed after midnight and do not get it wet.
otherwise xmas might be ruined.

I'm not going for those gaming computers christmas tree stuff with transparent sides and a lot of bling bling lights in fans and everywhere else.

The amount of those cases at retail to choose from tells these are popular. Had to search to find ordinary closed solid cases.

[whyterabbyt]

Build advice:

Test the motherboard boots with just the RAM, and the CPU with fan first.

Do this outside the case if you can, (with your screen connected so you can see what's going on. Might need keyboard or mouse too)

Might work better if the PSU is external as well.

Note that you can start it up without a power switch by bridging the connectors for that switch...

https://www.cgdirector.com/turn-on-moth ... se-switch/

If that seems fine, unhook the power cables etc again.

If you're using them, you may want to fit any motherboard mounted drives, eg M2, and anything else which might be partially occluded by other things (like CPU, RAM) mounted on the motherboard.

Then fit the PSU, and the motherboard inside the case.

If you have a modular power supply make sure you work out which other power cables you need, and whether you can fit them after the mobo and anything else is in place. If you cant, fit them all now.

Dont try and do the mobo with the case upright/vertical, lay it flat so that the motherboard can be lowered down into place.
Lower the motherboard in slowly. You probably wont be able to lower straight down, though, you'll need to lower while ensuring that you seat the rear connectors through the opening at the back of the case. If there's (loose) metal shield for the backplate connectors, make sure that's in place first.
You might need to push slightly from the side opposite the backplate to align the mobo with the screw positions. Make sure not to scrape the mobo while doing so.
A slightly-magnetic screwdriver is invaluable if any screws escape. Gather them all!

Once you've got the motherboard screwed down, hook up the PSU, fans etc again, then re-test, with or without hooking up the power switch.

Do the power switch if you havent, then there are a few other things that probably need connected from the motherboard to the case via that same set of pin connectors. Check the motherboard manual carefully. Some have a definite polarity, especially LEDs.

Then do your USB and other case connections.

Test again.

Connect any SATA cables you need to the motherboard, make sure they'll reach where you're putting the drives.

Once everything like that on the mobo is done, except PCIe cards, fit your graphics card next, if you have one, as its probably the biggest PCIe card you'll fit. Dont forget the power connector power if it needs it. I tend to do this before finalising SATA cable routing, so they dont block the GPU, its (mostly) easier to relocate them around the card than take the GPU out if they get in the way.

Test again with the GPU in place.

Now fit your drives, and connect SATA cables to those drives.

Test again.

Fit any other PCIe cards you need one at a time, testing between each.

Then OS.

[BertKoor]

lfm/fmr.

Easy to keep apart: Left-fm & fm-Right

[whyterabbyt]

lfm/fmr.

Easy to keep apart: Left-fm & fm-Right

your left or the other left?

[vurt]

Build advice:

Test the motherboard boots with just the RAM, and the CPU with fan first.

Do this outside the case if you can, (with your screen connected so you can see what's going on. Might need keyboard or mouse too)

Might work better if the PSU is external as well.

Note that you can start it up without a power switch by bridging the connectors for that switch...

https://www.cgdirector.com/turn-on-moth ... se-switch/

If that seems fine, unhook the power cables etc again.

If you're using them, you may want to fit any motherboard mounted drives, eg M2, and anything else which might be partially occluded by other things (like CPU, RAM) mounted on the motherboard.

Then fit the PSU, and the motherboard inside the case.

If you have a modular power supply make sure you work out which other power cables you need, and whether you can fit them after the mobo and anything else is in place. If you cant, fit them all now.

Dont try and do the mobo with the case upright/vertical, lay it flat so that the motherboard can be lowered down into place.
Lower the motherboard in slowly. You probably wont be able to lower straight down, though, you'll need to lower while ensuring that you seat the rear connectors through the opening at the back of the case. If there's (loose) metal shield for the backplate connectors, make sure that's in place first.
You might need to push slightly from the side opposite the backplate to align the mobo with the screw positions. Make sure not to scrape the mobo while doing so.
A slightly-magnetic screwdriver is invaluable if any screws escape. Gather them all!

Once you've got the motherboard screwed down, hook up the PSU, fans etc again, then re-test, with or without hooking up the power switch.

Do the power switch if you havent, then there are a few other things that probably need connected from the motherboard to the case via that same set of pin connectors. Check the motherboard manual carefully. Some have a definite polarity, especially LEDs.

Then do your USB and other case connections.

Test again.

Connect any SATA cables you need to the motherboard, make sure they'll reach where you're putting the drives.

Once everything like that on the mobo is done, except PCIe cards, fit your graphics card next, if you have one, as its probably the biggest PCIe card you'll fit. Dont forget the power connector power if it needs it. I tend to do this before finalising SATA cable routing, so they dont block the GPU, its (mostly) easier to relocate them around the card than take the GPU out if they get in the way.

Test again with the GPU in place.

Now fit your drives, and connect SATA cables to those drives.

Test again.

Fit any other PCIe cards you need one at a time, testing between each.

Then OS.

yeah this, and the avoid bright lights, not feeding after midnight and not getting it wet

[whyterabbyt]

yeah this, and the avoid bright lights, not feeding after midnight and not getting it wet

[lfm]

So all went well and thanks again for tips.
- started up and found no boot device and went into bios/uefi
- managed to install and make an local account without an Microsoft account
- and also install without internet first
- so I get all file structures based on my login name instad of email to microsoft account

Trickier parts were more installing Windows 11 Pro from usb stick and BIOS/UEFI settings and not sure about how to optimize.
- first realize a special mode BIOS is in when failing to boot
- so some settings to make it boot from new Windows partition instead
- will start a thread on this alone

But Windows 11 what an ugly interface, I can't believe that MS is not having any good designers involved.
- big plain looking surfaces with text and nothing to guide eye almost
- not even one shade of gray, it's all gray
- many places you are to click on have no hand symbol but only arrow still
- all internal settings does not follow settings you did with colored caption to see which window is active
- all the questions to not let windows record everything you do and where you go on internet etc

And can you believe if changing a setting that might increase power consumption
- there is a range of reminders that this will increase co2 emissions?????
- you have to click these away
Going all politically correct.

But Windows 11 seems ok, not any worse than the w10 laptop I had for some years now.
So seems all cool and will not go dawless in any near future.