this has been my experience. however, what i do is buy most of the stuff from the same shop and just get them to assemble and install everything for me. no problems so far.
Just to close out my question, I received all the parts last week and spent two hours one evening getting the hardware put together and up to OS-ready. The only problem I encountered was that when I swung the door closed containing the mother board, it knocked the power plug out of the hard drive. When it came up and couldn’t find the hard drive, I had that sinking feeling but, of course, I followed the rule of looking for the easy stuff first and found the unplugged plug. Upon which I relocated the drive to another bay where it wouldn’t happen again.
Installing the OS was lengthier than I thought. At first it started to load, then I got a screen that just sat there for a couple of minutes. I thought it was hung, so I restarted the machine; same sequence again. Then I took a break to get a drink and think about it. Several minutes later it continued on its way. It’s unusual to find software that does something that could take 5-10 minutes and give zero indication that it’s still running.
The only other issue is that I got Vista Home Premium 64-bit, which I am re-thinking (although I really don’t want to start from scratch with a new OS at this point). I had a modem and a TV card in my other computer that won’t work in Vx64 (no drivers), and had trouble installing my printer and scanner, because they don’t provide x64 drivers, although somehow they ended up working anyway. I also have been using ZoneAlarm but they don’t have a version that will work under x64. I have a very old recipe program that Vista won’t let me install.
I am also having a little trouble with a modem that is advertised as Vista certified but when the software queries it with an AT code for voice capabilities, it comes back negative even though it’s supposed to have it, and the modem won’t answer the phone. Email to tech support pending.
Other than that, the machine’s been great. I got an ATI TV Wonder 650 card and now can watch straight from my Verizon FiOS co-ax cable with no converter box. Fallout 3 runs great, though I suck at it and keep getting killed by fire ants. 
WOOT!!!
I built my very first solo PC last year, and it went surprisingly well(after a hiccup involving another power hookup to the mobo that i had failed to notice, and wasn’t well documented).
Researching was a pain, since if you only build a PC every 2-4 years, you tend to not keep up on the latest developments and whatnot, but its not too terrible if you’ve a decent grasp of what the various components do.
Surprisingly enough, my most difficult choice was one I thought would be easiest; the power supply. I searched for ages, but there is nothing in online documentation for most parts about how much power components draw. I eventually just decided to err on the side of caution and got an 800w power supply.
Where would I find the Static Guard? My local computer store doesn’t seem to carry it. I know straps are cheap, I’m just trying to save a trip out to the one computer store in my area, or waiting for something to ship. Although it appears that Radio Shack might carry them for $5, so I’ll check that out.
Yeah, I’m on the East Coast and it’s pretty dry right now.
Got a piece of wire sitting around? Make a loop around your wrist and screw the other end onto the frame of your case. If it’s insulated just strip off the insulation for the wrist loop.
If you do this, attach the wire to your wrist in such a way as it cannot pull tight and cut you, and attach the other end to something that is grounded. Unless the case is plugged into the wall, you cannot be sure it’s grounded.
+1
If you’re a computer nerd or want to become one, the process of teaching yourself of assembling a working computer is worth its weight in gold. But if you’re just trying to save a few hundred bucks, it’s far more hassle and woe than it’s worth.
I have found in my own experience that the hardest parts of building a computer from parts is:
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Getting the motherboard to align with the screwholes on the case correctly.
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Getting the back plate to fit properly. The back plate is covered with these springy metal bits that are supposed to cushion against the gear on the motherboard I think. They mostly just get in the way.
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Getting the heat sink onto the processor. It’s got a very exact fit, the parts are very tense and you can’t push on it too hard without risking damage to the brain of your computer. I’d liken it to trying to attach somebody’s skullcap with a crowbar.
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Hooking up all the little tiny unlabeled case wires to the little tiny bank of connectors in the bottom corner of the motherboard so you can have a working reset button, HDD LED, etc.
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Managing cables. Assuming you’re putting together something from new parts, you’ll be using SATA which is pretty discreet but you’re still going to have a lot of spaghetti to work with. Power supplies are especially bad for this and I’d recommend the slight extra cost for a modular power supply which allows you to run only the cables you need, avoiding tons of clutter.
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Installing case fans correctly. They aren’t labeled in any meaningful way so it’s easy to install them backwards and have the airflow going the wrong way.
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Setting Windows up for the first time. It’s a long, boring process even with Vista, which installs wicked fast. But just getting to the Welcome screen is only half the journey- you then have to customize your settings, install drivers, install programs, download updates, et cetera.
PS: if you don’t want to spend $300 or so on the OS, buy a cheap upgrade version of Vista (get Home Premium though, not Basic) and use this procedure to smoothly bypass your upgrade requirement:
So as you can see, the hardest part of it all is the nitpicky small details hardware stuff which is a real pain in the ass if you don’t have proper tools and light. But after you put everything together it will either work or it won’t. Most likely it will. So I encourage you to try it.
PS: RAM is cheap, buy tons of it. 4gb shouldn’t set you back too much and your new machine will love you for it, even if you run Vista and an anti-virus and anti-spyware and utorrent and ten Firefox windows while listening to high bitrate MP3’s. But bear in mind that if you’re running the 32 bit version of Windows, it won’t be able to make full use of 4gb of RAM (because the computer can’t come up with enough addresses for all the memory space) so you might wish to go 64 bit as that seems to be the wave of the future.
The hardest part about putting a computer together is turning the power on after you’re all finished to find that it just wont fucking work, and you don’t know why.
RAM compatibility is an issue. Computer geeks will insist that RAM is easy to purchase and install, but it’s a fucking miracle if you plug a random stick of RAM into your motherboard and it just WORKS. There are at least 4 different specifications involved with ram, at at least 3 different values for each specification.
Computer geeks know as much as they do because they fucked up a lot over a long period of time, and slowly developed a knowledge base that lets them diagnose goofy errors and problems more easily than people who haven’t built their own PCs. There WILL be goofy errors and problems, by the way. It’s the nature of the technology. You’re assembling at least ten different parts from up to ten different manufacturers, which all have to communicate perfectly with each other in order for the machine to operate. Stuff does not just plug and play. It’s easier now that you don’t have to use the silly jumpers for drives, and the cables are designed to fit more easily than a few years ago, but it’s still not something I would recommend to people who are not interested in taking risk with their time and money in order to save some cash and get some semi-useful experience.
I bought the OEM version at Newegg for around $100, no need to bypass anything.
It’s not clear that your workaround complies with licensing requirements.
I’m glad to hear you got a good deal. As for the questionable legality of the workaround, it’s worth noting that MS themselves built this functionality into the software. If they didn’t anticipate users doing this kind of thing, they certainly would have figured it out when Thurrott (who is friendly with MS) posted his step-by-step guide days after Vista was released. That guide still stands so I take that as evidence MS isn’t bent out of shape about it. At the end of the day you’ve still bought a copy of Windows. The need for upgrade media is a technical requirement, not a license requirement.