Building a PC - easier than I thought

Last week I ordered a Shuttle G5 from icubes.co.uk along with a processor, memory, HDDs, and a DVDRW drive. I've never assembled a PC of my own before, but I've installed enough cards and memory to know enough about what makes one work--so I reckoned I knew enough to take the plunge and go for it.

And I must say it was relatively easy. There were a few stumbling blocks, like I'd ordered 2 SATA HDDs and a SATA DVDRW drive and the case only came with 1 SATA cable, but I salvaged cables from my old PC so I didn't have to take a trip to Maplins yesterday afternoon. Only other problem was smearing the thermal paste onto the processor. I've fitted procs once before but that came with a template that you stuck onto the bottom of the heatsink and filled. There wasn't anyhting like that so I just used a piece of an old business card that seemed flexible enough.

Must be working though because it hasn't over heated yet and its been on all day. Very quiet too, although my last PC sounded like a jet engine because of all the fans in it. I like the compactness of it too--it's smaller than the subwoofer that I had with my old PC.

I was going to post a step by step guide to how I assembled it, but there doesn't really seem to be much point. The case comes with instructions on what to plug in when, and if you've got all the cables you need you're fine.

Only things I would say if you've looking to do the same is:

• Make sure all the parts will fit into the chassis you're ordering
• Don't use too much thermal paste as it can go everywhere if you put too much on
• Buy extra SATA cables if you've chosen more than 1 SATA drive
• If you're not using IDE drives, you can take out the IDE cable to make room
• Your processor may come with a heatsink and fan, but the Shuttle includes one, so use it because it's quieter
• If you go with the G5 make sure you mount the DVD drive close enough to the front so the button opens the tray (you'll understand when you get there ;))

But apart from that, it's not too difficult. I wouldn't recommend it to an absolute novice as there's some things that aren't covered in the instructions, but if you know how PCs work you should be fine. And you'll end up with a pretty PC at the end of it.