   i am building a computer
  ..from new parts and those cannibalized from my current one.  I've got a new motherboard, cpu, power supply, and ram.  The case for it all comes tomorrow, and I am realizing that I have never built a computer before and don't really know what i'm doing.  I have a little Dell Pentium II that I'm going to keep online as a reference during the build, and I didn't think it would be too difficult... just plug it all together and turn it on, right?anyway my friend gave me a very specific tip that when i'm attaching the cpu to the motherboard not to get any of the grease on the underside of the thing, or it will fry it when I power it up.  This concerned me a great deal, and I was wondering if there were any other pitfalls i should be watching out for.Anyone have any good tips, or links?  Thanks!   
  just look through the instruction manual for the CPU while installing. That is the most tricky part and if you follow the "quick start" instructions you will be OK. Remember that if you have to force the CPU into the socket you will break it. Then you might need some grunt work getting the heatsink on.And remember to put the mobo risers in - if you have them (or if your case doesn't already have risers) - so you don't short the back of the mobo against the case.Otherwise the rest of the hardware is like legos, just where stuff fits together properly :)edit: as to the grease - it is not usually particularly conductive, but it is capacitive. Best to keep it off the underside. What I do is take a plastic ziploc sandwich bag, turn it inside out(so the really clean inside part is on the outside and my hand is on the new inside) and put the goop on that to rub on a little at a time. try not to get skin oil or let air bubbles form between the cpu and heatsink.   ;  i got an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester Dual Core and an ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 Socket 939 ULi M1695 ATX AMD Motherboard.  A quick glance through both of their packaging reveals no grease, and neither manual mentions it.  Am I correct about that?   ;  In all the athlon processors I've purchased, the thermal grease has come pre-applied to the HSF, so you probably don't have to worry about it. (But you should check that it is indeed there)   ;  You bought a retail CPU so the heatsink, assuming AMD hasn't changed recently, should come with some pink stuff stuck to the bottom of it (be sure to remove the blue plastic covering the pink stuff before you install the heatsink). The pink stuff is basically the "grease", and unless you plan on over clocking you wont need to replace it.The main thing to remember is to not touch the parts inside the computer while it's plugged in. There's electricity going through the computer even if it's powered down (several motherboards now have a LED inside that shows when it has power going through it). Note that your motherboard has two connections for the power supply so be sure to plug in both.Check If your power supply has a voltage switch (should be for 110 or 220), and make sure it's set right (110 for the USA).Make sure you don't have any loss pieces of metal (like screws) in your case, before you turn on the computer.Try to ground yourself (touching your case or a sink is usually enough) before touching anything with a circuit board.Most motherboard manuals have decent instructions on installing the cpu and ram. So you'll want to look through that first.before you insert the motherboard, count out one screw for each spacer. You'll be sure not to miss a mispositioned spacer that maybe shorting the motherboard then.The CPU should be very easy to insert (they don't call it a Zero Insertion Force socket for nothing). The AMD heatsinks are fairly easy to install now, so that shouldn't be much of a problem (be sure to plug in the heatsink fan)Make sure the RAM and cards you insert are all the way in.And double check all connections are in the right way (LED's just wont come on if they're backwards, and switches don't care if they're in backwards, but the other stuff is pickier) before you first power it up.If you follow the above advice, you should avoid any accidental permanent damage.The motherboard and backplate can be tricky to get installed right, so make sure you have all the bits of the backplate removed that need to be removed. And be patient with making sure the metal bits on the backplate that point inside go where they're supposed to (they can end up blocking stuff pretty easily).I normally install the CPU/Heatsink, RAM and vid card, then plug in the monitor,  power switch, internal speaker and key board. Then check that the machine POSTs,  before I add anything else.You'll likely need to know about IDE and the difference between master and slave.If your installing WinXP be sure to install the dual core hotfix, it fixes most problems people have with dual cores.If your case LED's don't turn on, then you need to reverse them (assuming they're plugged in the right place of course).   