PCTech Forums

Hey everyone. Well I tackled it, starting putting together my first PC together tonight, first one ever. It all went well, I had liljim guiding me through and let me say he knows his stuff and is very patient, he could have left a number of times but he didn't. Thanks liljim. Now here is my question to all. I was applying my thermal paste with my finger, and I actually tapped the core with my finger. Would that hurt the CPU?? Like the skin oils or something. My finger was covered in Thermal Paste. Also, I dropped the screw driver once on the MB, very small one, i think it is ok.

I lost a little screw behind the Motherboard to. I am assuming if i leave it there it will sort out the system right?

If you drop a screw in the case, you had better get it back before you boot the system.

Unplug the machine and shake the hell out of it. That loose screw can fry just about anything--more than once!

The first thing I do on a new build is to shake the case. If you hear something, you get it out. Its an easy thing to overlook

I am a little concerned that if you were applying the thermal paste with your finger.. you may end up with more than you need on the die..

Thermal paste should be applied by placing a tiny blob of paste on the die.. and then using a business card or similar to spread it very thinly over the surface of the die... too much paste can be as bad as too little.. especially if it is metal based paste.. you don't want that getting on the contacts on the CPU...

always clean any smears or spills of paste up before attaching the heatsink..

and hell yes.. find that screw BEFORE you power the system on.. best way to spend several hundred pounds/dollars and end up with nothing to show for it..

Well first time I could net get the heatsink on, so i took it off and the gel was spread out nicely, i put a dab extra as i removed the heatsink. Then I put it back on. I may have had a little bit to much, but I was told it wouldnt hurt anything. Thanks all