Last season, Wednesday did not achieve their first win until mid-September although they did get off to an encouraging start with a point at Stoke last August.
But now the Scotsman wants to get some wins early on and despite the close-season upheaval at Deepdale with a management reshuffle, O'Brien is keen to get the ball rolling.
He told Footymad: "Despite losing their manager and some decent players, Preston are still a very good team. I can't see the fact that they have lost some big names making a massive difference in how they will play so there's on doubt it will be a very hard opening game for us.
"Last season we got off to a very poor start and we were chasing our tails for a while so we have to make sure we do get off to a good start this time around and that's the aim at Preston."
New signing Brad Jones will make his first start for the club in goal while Paul Sturrock will be missing Peter Gilbert, Drew Talbot, Barry Corr, Deon Burton, Richard Wood, Steve Adams and Marcus Tudgay although Wade Small could make the bench.