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This is a continuation of: Part 2 - Choosing The Parts
Now that you have the perfect parts selected, and they have finally shipped to your house after a week of impatient waiting :P you can finally build your computer. This step should take no more than ½ an hour for an experienced user. However, if this is your first time build, I would suggest that you take your time, making sure that you are doing everything completely right. Safety Tips It is very easy to damage parts of a computer, if you are not careful, so I would suggest treating them all as you would treat a newborn baby. Here are some general guidelines · Static Electricity – this is probably the most important safety tip. Static electricity can damage a lot of equipment, especially a CPU. When building a computer NEVER do it on a rug. I would suggest doing it on a hardwood floor. Also touch a metal object which is grounded (touches the floor) from time to time (especially before handling CPU and RAM), this will discharge you. If you still don’t feel safe, wear an anti-static wrist band (I strongly recommend This One. They are very cheap, and easy to use. All you do is clip it to something grounded (such as a computer case on the floor), and your hardware is safe from static electricity · Never Force Anything In – the chances are, if you find yourself forcing a piece of hardware in, you are putting it in wrong. Everything should be able to easily “slide in”. Make sure you read the little “installation guide” which comes with all the hardware · Follow Instructions – for many pieces of hardware (especially CPU!!!!), the way you put it in is extremely specific. Make sure you always follow the instructions, and try not to miss any steps! Building Case First, take out the case, and open it up (usually you have to unscrew bolts in the back, and slide out the sides). Clear the center space of all the wires. In the back of your case, there should be an aluminum plate covering a big rectangular shaped hole. Pop that piece out. Power Supply I find it easier to put in the power supply first, especially in small cases. It is fairly simple to do so. Just slide the power supply in (so that the little outlet is facing out) from inside of the case (usually at the very top back). The holes on that side of the power supply should match up with the holes on the case. Then, screw the power supply in at those holes. It should sit in the case firmly. Motherboard Take your motherboard out, and place it in the case so that the back ports line up with the big hole in the back of the case (should fit right in). If you aligned your motherboard properly, you should see small holes showing through the holes on the motherboard. Remember those holes (you can mark them with a Crayola marker). Next take your motherboard out. Next take the I/O shield (the rectangular piece) which came with your motherboard (not the one you just took out of the case), and snap it in from the back. For some I/O shields this takes a bit of time, but it is fairly simple to figure it out. Your motherboard should come with little hexagonal screw-looking objects, with holes on top. Screw those objects into the holes you just marked. Now put your motherboard on top of the screws, so that the holes line up. Also the ports on your motherboard should be aligned with the holes in the I/O shield. Once everything is lined up, you know that the motherboard is in the right place. Now take the screws that came with your motherboard and screw them through the holes in the motherboard. So in the end, your motherboard should be “floating” above the case bottom, suspended by the weird hexagonal objects. If it isn’t, then you probably did something wrong. When your motherboard is in, you can connect some basic power cables from your power supply to the motherboard: · Main Power - Take the large 24 pin plug and place it into the 24-pin socket on the motherboard. This is the main power for the motherboard · CPU Power – Take the 4 (or 8 pin) square (or in the case of 8 pin rectangular) power pin, not to be confused with the molex one, and plug it into the 4 (or 8 pin) socket of your motherboard. This is explained in the picking out parts article. (Example: 8-pin power connector or 4pin power connector) · USB, Audio, LED, etc – Your case should have front ports (usb and audio). However if you want them to work, you need to connect them to the motherboard, to the ports on the left front side of the motherboard (closest to the usb/audio ports of the case). They are labeled, however you should consult the manual that came with your motherboard for details. Also if your case has neon lights/fans, you can connect them with Molex (rectangular 4-pin) connectors. CPU This step, you have to take the most care in doing. So follow the instructions VERY carefully. Also, make sure that you do not turn on the computer until the heatsink is on and connected to power. The actual CPU should be a tiny square-shaped chip. Take it out carefully, and put it onto something soft (such as styrophome padding). Also there should be a big bulky cube in the box. This is called the heatsink. Place it aside too (on the side so that the paste on the bottom will not smear). The instructions for installing the CPUs and heatsinks are specific to the socket type, so I can’t write a specific guide here. There should be a sheet with illustrated instructions which came with the processor. Follow it step by step. If you are not sure about a step, it is best to ask for help, You can either
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or ask an online chat room such as Eggxpert. Remember it is best to be safe than sorry. After you install the cpu and heatsink, make sure you plug the little wire connected to the heatsink into the motherboard (should be close to the cpu socket) and that’s it! Memory Putting in the memory (RAM) is pretty self explanatory. Start at the memory slot labeled “Bank 0” or “DIMM 1”. Put the next chip into the 3rd slot (same color as first slot), then if you have 4 RAM chips, put the 3rd chip into the 2nd slot, and the 4th into the 4th slot. First, you unclip the little levers on either side of the RAM slot. Then you gently push the RAM stick in (make sure that the little hole on the bottom lines up with the little hole in the socket though!). Generally, pushing in the RAM takes a little bit more force than the other components, but still be very careful. Video Card Take your video card out of the box, and find the big PCI-E slot on the motherboard. First, punch out the aluminum plate that is next to the PCI-E port (on some models you unscrew it). Place the video card in, so that the ports in the front of the card are facing out of the back of the computer. Some more expensive video cards come with a port in the back for power. There should be a six pin cable on your power supply which will connect to it. Hard Drive(s) Installing drives is really easy. First take your hard drive out, and place it an internal 3.5” bay in the front of the case. It should slide in easily. Make sure that it lines us with the holes on the side. Then screw it in (2 screws should be enough) Next you connect a SATA cable (they are usually red, and come with the motherboard) to the drive, and to the SATA ports on the motherboard. Finally you connect the Molex Power from the power supply or a sata power (for the new drives). Just pick the one that fits! Optical Drive(s) Installing optical drives in exactly like installing a hard drive except they go in the 5” bays on top of the case, and you might need to use an IDE cable (should also come with the motherboard) for older drives. Again, check which type of wire fits. Most Optical Drives use Molex Power cables. Conclusion That’s it! You’re done! Not just power up your computer and hopefully…everything should work!!! Email me at
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if you have any problems. I would be glad to help.
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