So I just put together a complete, working desktop computer. Big deal, you might sarcastically think to yourself, but its not as easy as it sounds, at least not for a first-time PC builder. Truthfully, it was not my first attempt and assembling a computer, rather it was my first successful attempt at doing so. The first time I tried to accomplish such a minor feat I actually thought I had enough technical prowess to enable me to do it. But I should’ve known better. Putting a PC together might not seem as daunting of a task as it sounds, considering that you’ve got the nice illustrated manuals for all the components and tons of guides on the net to walk you through it. The fact is that, for someone with little knowledge of electronic components, there is about one trillion things that can go wrong during the course of building the PC, and if even you are comfortable with installing an fiddling with this kind of stuff (which I am, to some extent), you can unintentionally make a small mistake that will screw things up and send you right into troubleshooting hell. Some of the things that can happen:

• You can short-circuit the motherboard or other components with exposed PCBs. I did that on my first time. When I thought I had put everything together and that all was ready, I hit the power button. LED lights flashed, fans whirred, and something beeped. But nothing else happened. Just a blank black screen. After a few days I discovered that I forgot to install one of the little spacers that separate the back of the motherboard from the metallic body of the case, and short-circuited the damn thing the second I hit the power button. When I told the story to a friend of mine who owns a computer hardware store (who originally offered to put together my new PC, which I declined. There is just no sport in that), he simply shrugged and said:

“No problem. Act as if the the mobo was DOA and it had a damaged PCB so just ship it back and get an RMA”.




Back then I had no idea what that meant, but I did as he said and got a replacement.

• You can fry your processor if the cooler is installed incorrectly


• You can break your processor if the cooler is forced on with too much pressure


• You can force on a connector where it doesn?t belong. Most connectors are designed to be installed by a single correct alignment, thus be fool-proof. But fools are so ingenious.



...and the list goes on.




So last week when I tore open the packaging of my shiny new hardware and rolled up my sleeves to assemble my new mean machine, a friend of mine – looking in horror at the exposed innards of my pc-to-be- said:




?Are you sure you know what you?re doing man? This is L.E. 6000 worth of stuff?




?Don?t worry, just watch and learn?




Of course I wasn?t as confident as my external shell of calmness conveyed, but I wasn?t about to let that wimp say that I had someone else put together my new pc for me because I was to scared to fry L.E. 6000 worth of components.




The moment of truth came three hours and a few cups of coffee later. I took a deep breath, connected the power and monitor cables, and hit the power button. LED lights flashed, fans whirred, and something beeped. A blank black screen was all the showed on the monitor?




My heart skipped a beat.




Then a bunch of white text scrolled quickly on the screen, and the simple yet comforting set of BIOS options came up. My blood circulation resumed.




My friend had that look on his face that said he was about to blurt out a ?Told you so!?. I believe I would?ve clubbed him in the head with my coffee mug if he said it. I said ?Piece of cake man. Now lets put together your stuff?.




Moral of the story? What do you know about yourself if you?ve never put together your own computer (or coffee machine or car engine?).