Safety While Building PC

[CaptainCrash]

When you say thermal paste, are you saying I should get a special thermal paste or should I just remember to use the one that comes?

I've always used Arctic Silver 5, but to be honest it's more of a personal ritual, and if someone told me there was no real performance difference between all the goops and gunks I certainly wouldn't argue.

On a more general note, make sure you give yourself:

1. plenty of space

2. plenty of light

3. plenty of time

Don't force anything, there's nothing in PC assembly which requires brute strength (apart from some heatsink mountings), and if something doesn't seem to fit, it's because something's obstructing it, or you've got it the wrong way round.

Have a think about where your cables will be going, and the most logical order in which to fit components to make life easiest for yourself depending on your case layout.

There's really no special skill involved in physically putting a PC together, it's mostly just common sense...

[Varmint]

Wow, I checked out the Arctic Silver 5, and it really seems to improve performace:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100007
It also seems really cheap. Does anyone else have good experience with this paste?

[MoonPig]

I use Arctic MX-2. It's supposedly better than AS5.

If you have the money, i'd say go for a bigger tube of MX-2. About £16.

[peterb]

Hmm - people 'support' their favourite thermal compound with an almost religious fervour! Personally I don't think the type or brand makes that much difference, provided you apply it correctly. The disadvantage of the silver loaded ones (to my mind) is that they can be elcrically conductive, so if you shoukld get it somewhere where it shouldn't be, across some conductors, it could cause problems. If you intend using the standard cooler (and unless you are planning to overclock, there is probably little reason not too) then stay with the thermal compund on the cooler.

If you are using an after market cooler (or an OEM packaged CPU and the cooler is suplied separately - some come with paste applied, some do not) then you may want to order a tube of one of the popular ones as a standby.

[sadbuttrue]

AS5 is all I use too. It's good value, as being silver based it can be stored for some time. A single tube will cover a number of cpus. I recently applied some 4 year old AS5 to my current build, and based on temps it hasn't deteriorated. You do need to be careful when applying, as it is quite thick and gets rather messy. You shouldn't apply too much either. Some people get carried away and slather the stuff on, making temps worse.

I use Akasa TIM cleaner for when a new application is required (changing heatsink/cpu for example). This stuff:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/Akasa...aning-Solution

You should also endevour to keep all packaging and accessories for each PC component. While failures are rare, it's a lot easier returning faulty parts in their original boxes.

[watercooled]

Remember to install standoffs correctly to prevent shorting - just match them up with the motherboard and double check there are no extra ones installed. Also another non-safety tip - the screws with the big head (screws should come with case, some might come with HDD or other components) are for the motherboard, and there are two types of small-headed screw - a fine thread and a coarser thread. IIRC the coarse thread ones are for HDDs and fine thread is for optical disks etc.

[Varmint]

So would you suggest for me to use the default thermal paste, and then if I ever want to overclock, reapply Arctic Silver 5? Or should I just apply Arctic Silver 5 the first time round?

[Fraz]

Definitely definitely do NOT drop a screw which then wedges itself under the motherboard, so you have to take the whole goddamn thing apart again to get it out.

[CaptainCrash]

So would you suggest for me to use the default thermal paste, and then if I ever want to overclock, reapply Arctic Silver 5? Or should I just apply Arctic Silver 5 the first time round?

Well, there's no point in doing things twice if you can avoid it - you'd have to remove the heatsink (which might involve removing the motherboard depending on the HSF mounting), clean off every trace of the old paste from the mating surfaces of the CPU and heatsink, reapply the new paste, and then put everything back together again. Probably no big deal really, but it all seems a bit unnecessary.

To avoid making extra work for yourself, you could just use AS5 (or whatever) in the first place if you think you might want to overclock, although in all honesty the standard stuff might be perfectly adequate anyway as suggested above.

[rushholme]

Ooo, thought on one thing. If you can, use a magnetic Screwdriver. They can be REALLY helpful with motherboard mounting..

Just don't touch the centre of your hard drives with it.

I earth myself by touching the kitchen tap before opening my PC.

[UseItNow]

Remember to install standoffs correctly to prevent shorting - just match them up with the motherboard and double check there are no extra ones installed. Also another non-safety tip - the screws with the big head (screws should come with case, some might come with HDD or other components) are for the motherboard, and there are two types of small-headed screw - a fine thread and a coarser thread. IIRC the coarse thread ones are for HDDs and fine thread is for optical disks etc.

I always mix my screws up but get there, this is definitely one of those times where pictures say a thousand words.

[peterb]

So would you suggest for me to use the default thermal paste, and then if I ever want to overclock, reapply Arctic Silver 5? Or should I just apply Arctic Silver 5 the first time round?

You can overclock with the stock cooler, but if you are serious about it, then yopu may want a higher performance after cooler - in which case you will have to cleanall the old paste off, regardless of whether the replacement cooler has it applied or not.

If this is your first build, then I'd leave it as it is to start with - no point in making things harder with what is probably unnecessary at the moment.

A lightly magnetized screwdriver is useful to help position difficult to reach screws and dropped screws - it is unlikely to damage a hard drive!

[Varmint]

Does the paste I use make much of a difference, because the reviews I'm reading seem to say that the components are much cooler?

[oolon]

Almost every computer I have made has required some kind of blood sacrifice, this is normal and it honors the server god. I don't take any special anti-static protection, I do make sure I earth myself on exposed metal on a radiator before I start... If you can do it in day time when there is lots of light. Normally I put the bag it came in on the living room floor, because the floor is the biggest table around! If you heat sink is screw though your need to fit it before you put it in the case. The heat sink is heavy so lift the board carefully. One thing to be careful of is spring clips, this were of particular favor with older processors. Make sure you use a good size screwdriver, to small and it will slip too large and it will not fit the slot right, either way you will end up ramming it into the board and then your be praying you have not damaged anything. Because when installing headers, and a header on the board for a serial port, however capacity was very close fouled and would have been pushed, this can snap a leg and you would not know, save for problems. I had to file down the connector.

[CaptainCrash]

Does the paste I use make much of a difference, because the reviews I'm reading seem to say that the components are much cooler?

80 Thermal Pastes Tested - you might want to skip to the conclusions first.

Thermal transfer compound comparison - toothpaste and Vegemite performed well, although not recommended for long-term use.

I don't think it's really worth getting too obsessive over - perhaps it's simplest to just stick with the stock materials, at least at first.

[Flibb]

My last couple of builds have used stock coolers and the thermal goo they come with. no temp problems. I do keep a tube of arctic silver handy incase I have to refit a heatsink.