How to (not) build a PC

Today the final pieces for my new PC arrived in the post – all nine or ten of them, which I then had to carry home like some kind of hobo who hoards technology.

I thought ‘today, I will build!’ and then I thought ‘also I will take photos and be hilarious on my blog about them!’ so that’s pretty much what I did.

First up: the requirement to clean the case. It had been sat in a workmate’s flat for… a while, and was rather dusty. The Pledge cleaning stuff said ‘electronics!’ on it, so I doused that mofo in sprayed on cleansing goodness. Obviously. Then I noticed the cobwebs inside. I think I should have bought a new case.

The Fear immediately set in on unpacking the motherboard, as it bends a bit and feels flimsier than it probably should. It isn’t. You could probably thwock a few rats with it before it snapped. But still, I was treating it like a baby.

Things in place, stuff where it should be, a graphics card bigger than my torso, the feeling I’m back working at CEX: all of these things. It was starting to look like a real PC, and I was daring to get confident this would all work out okay.

And, well, that was as far as I got. Because I realised I don’t have any motherboard, hard drive or optical drive screws. I can hook it all up and boot up if I wanted to, but nothing is secured in place so there’s no real point right now.

What an anti-climax.

Tomorrow: The Grand Maplin Adventure!