how long does it take to build?

E

erf

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 13, 2005
Messages
1,848
once you have all your parts how long does it generally take to put your rig together?
 
20 minutes, but if you want to try to wire it up nice and have it look good up to an hour.
 
building takes 15 minutes...

wiring takes hrs plus

making everything stable.. 1 day or so

overclock to my liking - weeks
 
when i get a new build i like to allocate an entire day to do it, because i enjoy taking my time.

Once all parts have arrived its time for a trip to the shop for food, and lots of it, then I envite a mate around with his computer, then we surround ourselves in junk food and beer, then we begin the build. First is to take photos of all the parts seperately in their boxes, then out of there boxes, then all together in their boxes, then all together out of their boxes. Then we slowly put every part in, doing the wiring as we go. Sometimes we take a good 2 or 3 hours just to re-wire everything perfectally. Then comes the lighting and fan stage which is when it really gets fun. Insall the fan controllers, choose the airflow which will work best of the case, decide where to put the cathodes. thats easily the most fun. Then we take photos, lots of them.

Then we lan all night :D
 
I take my time and move slowly, so I don't have to take things apart too many times....:D

My rule of thumb is two hours with the screwdrivers and cable ties, and another hour+ to load the OS and it's updates, and get things squared away with drivers and a rudimental virus scanner of some type (been using AVG freeware for folks that didn't buy one pre-build).

I did a pexi case and lights, LED's etc for a guy that took about 40 hours (fabricated a switch panel, sleeved < everything >, etc....). So, depending on the "bling" factor, it can obviously take lots longer.....

Rock on - B.B.S.
 
I've found there's a huge variation. Cramming a PC into an iMac chassis took days. My main rig probably took a couple hours. I can throw a "regular" ATM single cpu box together in 15 -30 or so though, depending on how many fans I have to mount.
The most painful "build" I've done would have to be upgrading the mobo in an old Dell. I spent at least a half hour, and probably longer, splicing an extension into the middle of the 16 conductor ribbon cable to the front panel. Separate and strip 64 wires, solder 32 connections, then wrap them all in electrical tape. Ugh. I should have just gone to Rat Shack & gotten a pile of little crimp on butt splices.
 
Researching Best Parts and Deals.............Lifetime
Assembling Parts in the Case ..................20 minutes to an hour.
Making everything neat.............................Varies depending on your pickiness
Tweaking it just so....................................Months
Choosing between Windows and Linux.......8 seconds

Building a home built computer..................Priceless
 
I've done it in 15-20 minutes, minus XP install of course.

My last one took 2 hours because of wiring and stuff.
 
To build one like mine in my sig. about 20-25min. Usually get dsitracted a little when I build one.Very easy to tbuild it's just the setup time that takes a while(loading windows, sofware, etc.)
 
it once took me 2 hours just t put together my chipset cooler and putting it on. :eek:

im a super over cautious person
 
Takes me about 3 hours to put it all together with an extentuated attention to detail towards wiring, adding wire sleeves (taking off the plugs, fitting the wires through sleeves (extremely tedious job)), plastering the heatsink with thermal paste (10 or so min), and always making sure ESD (electrostatic discharge) isn't a factor.

Build time shouldn't be considered whereas speed always results in error (like burning CDs) :)
 
im sure i'll be one of the 3+ hour type peeps. i'm cautious and picky. i cant wait. i liked the idea of taking pictures of everything in different poses.
 
Axsuul said:
Takes me about 3 hours to put it all together with an extentuated attention to detail towards wiring,
Click to expand...

You might save some time if you don't stop to make up words.
 
As long as it takes :p

At least in my experience it's the system you're putting together which determines how many hours of your life you're going to waste on putting the system together and making it run in a somewhat stable fashion. Some systems demand only half an hour to an hour, whereas others can take days due to unforeseen compatibility issues and such.
 
Elledan said:
At least in my experience it's the system you're putting together which determines how many hours of your life you're going to waste on putting the system together and making it run in a somewhat stable fashion.
Click to expand...

Uh ... what did you say?
 
for my new computer it took me about 45 minutes for hardware install and cabling...then another hour or so to install windows, updates, drivers, and basic programs..
 
depends on the machine. Simple one takes 15 minutes or so, complex ones take about 30minutes+, usually depends on amount of parts you are packing into the machines.
 
Takes me about 10-15 minutes since I refurb/build for a living, but on my own and customer machines I'll spend a good hour or two to fit, double check, recheck and tidy everything up.
 
This is a funny thread. Most everyone is responding with pretty much the same information, without acknowledging the contributions of others. Is this a form of concensus building? Is it just that some don't care about what others say? Too eager to post their response and not read what might have been said already?
 
mikeblas said:
This is a funny thread. Most everyone is responding with pretty much the same information, without acknowledging the contributions of others. Is this a form of concensus building? Is it just that some don't care about what others say? Too eager to post their response and not read what might have been said already?
Click to expand...

?????
 
mikeblas said:
This is a funny thread. Most everyone is responding with pretty much the same information, without acknowledging the contributions of others. Is this a form of concensus building? Is it just that some don't care about what others say? Too eager to post their response and not read what might have been said already?
Click to expand...

Are you in the right thread?
 
I probably build more than 98% of people on this forum, so i'll tell you that i can build systems very fast, but i don't because i want things to be extremely well done the first time around. Never ever sacrafice quality work and cable management for bragging rights on how fast you build a rig. Do it right, take your time, plan your cable routing, look at your mobo and how it's laid out in detail. Read the manual. Double check connections when done, and double check jumpers and case front panel connections.
 
usually takes me ~3 hours with windows install and updates to everything

i like taking my time and making it look nice. what fun is building a computer if you rush through it?
 
lithium726 said:
usually takes me ~3 hours with windows install and updates to everything
i like taking my time and making it look nice. what fun is building a computer if you rush through it?
Click to expand...

Agreed. I always stand back and admire my great job.
:cool:
 
Average sytem for me is 35-45 minutes+16 hour burn in (or 24 hour for an SLI system) and tweaks. I also burn custom updated drivers CD's with the most current bios files and a CD binder with FAQ's.
 
Papa-Ming said:
Part of the fun is putting it together with some care.
Click to expand...

Part of the fun? Doesn't seem fun at all to me. Mind you, it's even LESS fun flipping that switch, smelling something funky, then opening the case to discover you put the heatsink on wrong and your CPU is now toasted and completely useless... *Sigh* Done that one before unfortunately.


Anyway, I agree with the "never complete" thing. I'm always going back and rearranging this or that. For example, this latest time I suddenly realized with my new full tower case, I now have enough room to put my side fan on the inside, so, I carefully took my time to do so without screwing up. My CPU temperatures jumped down so far that I was able to overclock it to the max my current setup allows (memory needs more power to get that FSB up higher) and my temperatures STILL ended up being cooler by a pretty fair bit AFTER the extra overclock... I'm always doing little things like this, though I usually see more to the effect of a one degree decrease (which is, of course, the difference between unstable and stable on a bad day...) These little improvements have actually gotten it so that when I take this computer to a really really hot place, it's able to get along a lot better. My sister had the same cpu+mb combination and her setup was so bad that I ended up setting it all the way down to 1.4GHz just to keep it from being massively unstable. THAT'S the difference between this careful setup that takes hours and something that I can't really spend hours on.

I do find that when I'm putting things together or readjusting things, I can well spend over an hour, even as much as two or three if I'm cutting something or anything like that. Sometimes the results are dissapointing, but, I must admit that all the times I spent that long yielded less disasters than the ones where I rush jobbed it (such as an incident with a Volcano 7 where the heatsink must have just been put on too hard because the CPU just simply stopped working, I presume due to a microfracture.)

So yeah, definitely heed these people's advice and take your time. Don't run even a HD installation and think about every step, you might just realize something you can do a bit better so airflow moves more smoothly. (Lol, one thing I do that obviously only works in cases without a window is to get some twine and tie cables tigher and more out of the way for better airflow. If you had a window, well, I've only seen one setup where they managed to tie down every single cable and still make it look good, and it was professionaly done and not with twine...)
 
Calis said:
when i get a new build i like to allocate an entire day to do it, because i enjoy taking my time.

Once all parts have arrived its time for a trip to the shop for food, and lots of it, then I envite a mate around with his computer, then we surround ourselves in junk food and beer, then we begin the build. First is to take photos of all the parts seperately in their boxes, then out of there boxes, then all together in their boxes, then all together out of their boxes. Then we slowly put every part in, doing the wiring as we go. Sometimes we take a good 2 or 3 hours just to re-wire everything perfectally. Then comes the lighting and fan stage which is when it really gets fun. Insall the fan controllers, choose the airflow which will work best of the case, decide where to put the cathodes. thats easily the most fun. Then we take photos, lots of them.

Then we lan all night :D
Click to expand...
Wow, are you my twin?? :p becuases thats like EAXCTLY what I do, I get a friend over LOTS OF JUNK FOOD + EXTRA LARGE PIZZAS, pictures LOTS of pictures, then the fun part putting it togther, being picky so the hardware looks cool in the non-existant window :p (serously I had all the wires hidden and everything regardless of when I first got my lian li it had no windows) and then after all that and installing windows plus drivers (after a bit of trouble shooting, hardware never works out of the box for me :p) we lan the rest of the day and all night :D

//Elimi'Xed
 
30min to put everything together, another 20min or so to install windows, 20-40 min to reinstall all the application and a hr or so to tweak windown and setting to your liking.
 
Elimi'Xed, sounds like fun. Let me know if you ever move to Alabama. d-:

When I end up putting a new system together with someone, it's probably my father and/or his friends (who I get along with great, but, they are still my father's friends, not my friends.) A bit more boring, we do eat pizza, but, no lan parties or any of that junk. And I usually forget to bring my jigsaw along (lol, any case unlucky enough to be owned by me WILL experience the fear of my blade eventually.) Actually, it's funny. In the way that you care about those looks even though no one will see them sometimes, I actually care so little I actually rather enjoy showing off that old beat up antec (at least, I think it was Antec, the name came off about four years ago, so I don't remember for sure) case I used to have which is covered in electrical tape, the occasional spliced wire (also covered in electrical tape) and too many holes even to count -- not to mention that I made an almost opaque plastic window of sorts just because I had cut too much metal and needed to replace the side so I could mount the fan properly. ROFL, I have GOT to get a digital camera and put up this lovely work of art before I toss it.

Truth be told, half the time I usually end up spending is spent with the power tools. If you aren't crazy enough to be cutting out hunks of metal and screwing sheetmetal screws through holes not intended to mount a fan (as well as the fan not intended to have sheetmetal screws in it) from a brand new case like I am, you probably can expect to spend half the time it takes me. ^_^ Not to mention that every time I splice a wire I fire up the soldering iron and put a dab of solder on for good measure to avoid the "half-deaf syndrom" (eg like those cheap headphones where a wire would come loose from one speaker suddenly one day and sound would cut in and out as it sporadically touched the contact, making you feel like you were half deaf in one ear.) Of course, more electrical tape... Hmmm... My main system case now is too clean on the outside, I can't be proud of it's ugliness this time around... I cut the fan just right and everything (though the PSU was a little more tricky since I wanted to move it up to the top rather than being just over the motherboard like they wanted. That got me probably two degrees cooler at the most, maybe more like one...) Oh well, guess I can point at the pretty bits sticking out where I couldn't cut for the PSU and had to bend outward.. (Bloody thick metal this...)

Probably not a coincidence that "take pictures" isn't included in my list of things to do, eh?
 
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