How successful are self-builds?

My first build was very successful, although you generally don't want to go huge with it as it is, after all, your first build. But like I said, unless you get stuff that is DOA, or you have to RMA, they generally work very well and it will give you the knowledge to make that second, much better build that has the knowledge of your first build implemented.

my first build is a intel p4 northwood. the power supply has been replaced years ago. It is still in use today.

mine worked  

First build when I was 12 with no knowledge at all (and no internet to help me).
Worked like a charm!

mine too

My first build worked perfectly, without any issues. I did however have a little hiccup when I first powered up, but that was only because I had forgotten to plug in the ATX power supply.
Windows 7 installed and has been working perfectly ever since. I haven't had any issues.
I know for a fact that by building my own I saved about $1000, or more, over buying a pre-built system from a manufacturer.

Just make sure you're well grounded when building, and put things in the right place and you won't have any issues.

My first build was a great experience. I just finished it, but I spent like two months planning it, and even changed a couple of parts as new technology got released. And now I've got a very nice rig that'll last me a long time, and it feels so good to have done it all myself rather than paying someone else to build it. Here's pics if you're interested, I think it's proof that first time builders can do pretty well.  

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/279525-31-finally-pic...

My first build was a K6-2 400 on an Epox MVP3C-2 board and 32 MB of RAM that I placed in an old gutted Micro AT 386 computer I got from the goodwill. Needless to say I upgraded it as I went along and within a few months it had a TNT2 card, a 27.3 GB Western Digital Expert (huge capacity and fast at the time), the Creative Encore Dxr3 kit (decoder board and DVD drive), 10x4x32 CD Writer, Win 98, and 96MB of RAM. I also overclocked it to 500Mhz  

While a self build may seem like a daunting task the first time you do it, you will get the hang of it ^_^.

Just built my first about a week back, Its running well so far, I've used Amd overclock to move from 2.9Ghz 3cores to 3.2 on 4cores, some AMD's can be unlocked, I got lucky hehe, my advice would be:
1. have a general idea for intended pc use, research to see whats out there to meet your requirements.
2. have a friend or three who is savvy on these things, just in case.
3. dont be scared, as long as you use static safety precautions, you arent going to fry much, I have no proper gear, I just touched metal on case b4 handling any parts.
4. let us know what you build, and how you get on  
Good luck and enjoy the experience of building your own pc  

My first build was a wire wrapped RCA 1802 running Forth back in 1977. Worked.

Everything that I have built since, except for a flaky Acer CD-ROM drive (refused to be bus master) in 1998, has worked. I have been very lucky - no DOA parts ever.

All 3 of my builds have worked flawlessly. as long as you know the basics (which memory for which socket types and whatnot), you will not have any problems

I've done 50+ builds over the last 10 years and haven't lost any. Take your time, double, even triple check all your steps and you won't have any major problems.

I download the motherboard manual and read it before I send off for the motherboard. Reading the manual helps me to chose which motherboard to buy and prevents any nasty surprises.

Not to say that you won't have minor problems because you will. But you can work through them.

Mine have all working perfectly. I didn't have any issues at all, but most of that was due to the researching and learning I did before getting started.

Self-builds are generally very successful, as long as you put in the time to learn. It's very easy to do, as there isn't a wrong way to put the parts together. The majority of problems are caused by people not learning it and forgetting something minor (a plug here, or a part there). As long as you buy quality parts, you'd need extremely bad luck to have something not work.

I highly recommend building a computer yourself if you're looking to to get a high quality machine. My last one would have been a $1,600 PC if I bought it prebuilt. I paid $850.

Building your own is not only about saving the money. I know a whole lot more about how it all works now than I did before building. If something were to go wrong with it (or another computer), I would actually stand a good chance of fixing it.