Article is as follows, my personal notes will be at the bottom of the post.
Building your own computer is easier today than ever before. Why settle for a PC that you pay to much for and does not have the flexibility of a custom build.
We have a step by step instructional that will help you in building your own computer.
- In order to build your computer you must have the parts. Parts you will need include motherboard, processor, heat sink, ram, power supply, case, hard drive, cd/dvd roms, and thermal paste. Some motherboards come with integrated sound, video, and Ethernet ports. I recommend reading your motherboard user manual to find the specific compatible parts that you will need for your endeavors.
- Installing the motherboard can be a daunting task if you don’t follow the motherboard user manual. It will guide you through all of the jumper settings and instruct you on screwing it into the case. One very important note to remember is use a grounding strap at all times when handling circuit cards and the motherboard! If this step is not followed you could potentially destroy them permanently.
- After the motherboard is installed you must install the motherboard components, you may want to start with the processor and heat sink. Again ground yourself before touching any of the components. Installing the processor is simple for most types of processors. (this applies to most types of processors) All you do is lift up the arm on the processor slot, line up the arrow on the processor with the slot and the push the arm back down. Installing the heat sink isn’t much more difficult. Spread a thin layer of thermal paste on the heat sink and snap it in on top of the processor. Each one snaps in different so refer to the manual for proper installation. Next comes the installing of the ram. It is the easiest step of the process. You open the snaps on the ram slots on the motherboard, line up the notches, and push it down. Too easy.
- The next step in the process is to put in the power supply. This is done by first screwing it into the case. Then you plug in the power cables into the motherboard. Usually it has a 20 pin connector and a 4 pin that plug straight into the motherboard. The other power connectors will be connected when the cd/dvd ROMs and hard drive are installed.
- In order to make your computer function properly you will need to install the hard drives and the cd/dvd drives precisely by the operator manual. Usually it is just screw them in and plug it up but that can sometimes differ. Depending on whether or not you are using IDE or Sata devices the power cables and data cables hook up differently.
- Now just about all of the hardware installation is complete. You just have to install any add in cards you may have. For example sound card, modem or maybe a video card. Pretty much all of these cards just push in. You line up the card with the empty slot and push in it. But remember if you are having problems refer to the user manual.
- We have just the last step left before your pc is up and running. That is giving it the software it needs to run. Installing the operating system is just click the next button. Literally while you are installing the os screens popup and you click next. For more detailed information refer to the operating system manual. It will give you a graphical representation for the installation. When you have finished installing the os you need the drivers for the system. A cd usually comes with the parts. After they are installed your pc should be up and running.
The original post can be found [here] along with a few links to some other interesting articles.
A few of my notes on building your own computer:
1) Buy parts from someone with a good reputation that you know is going to be around for a while. I recommend TigerDirect.com because in going on 15 years now they have done their best to treat me fair. You are better off to call them at 1-800-800-8300 and speak to a rep to find out more about expandability and compatibility issues than you will find out on line. You can fill out the order on line and just refer to the order number when speaking to the rep.
2) Do a Google or Yahoo search on the motherboard to find out the year of manufacture and read the feedback. Too many times I have purchased a lower priced motherboard only to find out that very components are not included that I will need or want and that they cannot be added later to that board.
3) Count the slots and do not decide on a board based on built in audio, video or lan. Many times the video built into the board works on "shared memory", this means that 1 it's probably capped off with a limit like 128 or 256 MB RAM and that may not be enough for your needs tomorrow. You should make sure your new board has a PCI Express slot or a PCI or AGP for upgrades in the future. I also have seen boards with everything ranging from 5 down to only 1 PCI slot. If you decide to add wireless you might want a PCI card for that rather than a USB, also to upgrade the sound card you'll need another and even after that only God knows what's coming out tomorrow that you might want to add on to your computer. I recommend you look for a board with 5 PCI slots and one AGP Express to be able to keep up with the changes
4) Memory, memory changes weekly it seems and the price if it can change daily. I remember an older board that only supported PC-133 memory with only two slots, shared video and sound. At that time maxed out I could only install tw0 512 MB cards, my built in vid used 128 MB of that, sound used a bit too. Yahell messenger uses 70.700 k, FireFox uses 515 MB just to run. In short I only had enough RAM to start up my computer but not enough to use it. (You want that board you can have it free, but it'll only run Win 98 well). So count those slots too and check what ranges of memory cards they make for that board before you buy.
5) Last note... Most common repair I have had to do was power supply related. Always go a little higher in range than you need and always opt for a mid to higher quality power supply. In addition to that check carefully that it has enough plug adapters attcahed to it for additional hard drives, consider whether you are using SATA or IDE and even if you are only using SATA consider your old hard drives because they may be IDE anyway and you might want to hook them up to transfer data from them. SATA may be better for today but there's no need to throw away all of your older stuff to use it in your new computer.
A few of my notes on building your own computer:
1) Buy parts from someone with a good reputation that you know is going to be around for a while. I recommend TigerDirect.com because in going on 15 years now they have done their best to treat me fair. You are better off to call them at 1-800-800-8300 and speak to a rep to find out more about expandability and compatibility issues than you will find out on line. You can fill out the order on line and just refer to the order number when speaking to the rep.
2) Do a Google or Yahoo search on the motherboard to find out the year of manufacture and read the feedback. Too many times I have purchased a lower priced motherboard only to find out that very components are not included that I will need or want and that they cannot be added later to that board.
3) Count the slots and do not decide on a board based on built in audio, video or lan. Many times the video built into the board works on "shared memory", this means that 1 it's probably capped off with a limit like 128 or 256 MB RAM and that may not be enough for your needs tomorrow. You should make sure your new board has a PCI Express slot or a PCI or AGP for upgrades in the future. I also have seen boards with everything ranging from 5 down to only 1 PCI slot. If you decide to add wireless you might want a PCI card for that rather than a USB, also to upgrade the sound card you'll need another and even after that only God knows what's coming out tomorrow that you might want to add on to your computer. I recommend you look for a board with 5 PCI slots and one AGP Express to be able to keep up with the changes
4) Memory, memory changes weekly it seems and the price if it can change daily. I remember an older board that only supported PC-133 memory with only two slots, shared video and sound. At that time maxed out I could only install tw0 512 MB cards, my built in vid used 128 MB of that, sound used a bit too. Yahell messenger uses 70.700 k, FireFox uses 515 MB just to run. In short I only had enough RAM to start up my computer but not enough to use it. (You want that board you can have it free, but it'll only run Win 98 well). So count those slots too and check what ranges of memory cards they make for that board before you buy.
5) Last note... Most common repair I have had to do was power supply related. Always go a little higher in range than you need and always opt for a mid to higher quality power supply. In addition to that check carefully that it has enough plug adapters attcahed to it for additional hard drives, consider whether you are using SATA or IDE and even if you are only using SATA consider your old hard drives because they may be IDE anyway and you might want to hook them up to transfer data from them. SATA may be better for today but there's no need to throw away all of your older stuff to use it in your new computer.
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