newbie help

Hi All,
Wondering if someone could give me some advise on where to start reading. I'm brand new to the "techie" scene and would like to do some reading on bulding my own PC, selecting the proper hardware, ect. I've only performed minor tasks with my old dinosaur PC adding cd burner and installing new hard drive type stuff. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,
Newbieboobie

 

First off be confident.
Building a PC is only slightly (if that) harder than installing a hdd and cd rom drives.

What I woud do though is learn about the fsb and everything that goes with it.

Not only will you feel more confident about the comp but you will certainly be able to pick better parts, or more suited parts for yourself.

Picking the wrong bits when building a comp is a nightmare.

 

Hardware sites I like are 2CPU, AMDMB, [H]ardOCP, TweakTown, Dans Data (also very funny)...but, it's worth it to browse message boards, like this one to glean info. There's no real n00b guide out there. If you can't find it out, you can ask. Read reviews of hardware. I can't play with all the new technology out there, so reading reviews of the hot new stuff is great info for me.

The thing that got me into doing my own PC's was seeing my dad build my first one. Since then alot of jumpers and dipswitches have been removed. They still exist, but nowhere near to the extent they did a few years back. Anyway, if you can watch someone assemble a system, that'd be a great thing for you. Alot of manufacturers do a good job of color-coding internal connectors, and even for people that have done it for awhile it's a nice touch.

Another big thing to do is read the manual, especially the motherboard one.
If you haven't installed an expansion card before, they will require a little push to go into the slot. Be careful, of course, but do realize that they're not glass.

Make sure the CPU heatsink is installed and plugged in before ever turning on the system---even for a test run.

 

Thanks for the advise guys. Sounds like I've got lots of reading to do. Thanks again, Newbieboobie.