How to build a computer

Post by **Gogeta70** » 29 Jul 2006, 12:47

Building A Computer - By Gogeta70

First off, there's always one thing you want to do when building a computer. Know what you want.
I say this because the first computer i ever built gave me plenty of grief. I quickly ordered all the parts and threw them together. It didn't work. I spent a good month working on it until i finally figured it out: I ordered the wrong power supply. It wasn't strong enough. Doing so taught me that i should ALWAYS check for complete 100% compatibility between ALL parts.

Now let's get started.

First find all your parts:

Motherboard
Processer
Case
RAM
Hard drive
Optical drives
Keyboard/Mouse
Monitor
Speakers
PCI Cards
Power Supply

You'll need all of those.

First off, let's start with the motherboard. The motherboard is what sets everything else for your computer, what hardware you can get, etc. Everything has to be compatible to it. So if it's a gaming computer, it's gonna need a good high end processer, so make sure it has support for the better ones.

Okay, once you find a motherboard go find a processer. If it's a gaming computer, you'll probably want one 3Ghz or better. In the case that it IS a gaming computer, you'll also want to buy some extra fans for it, or if you have the money, a water cooling system, but those take more maintenance.

Okay, for the RAM, go and check the type the motherboard supports. For instance, if your motherboard says "DDR 400 (PC 3200)" Then you'd search for ram in that category. For a gaming computer, you'll probably want somewhere between 2 and 4 gigabytes of ram.

Next, find a hard drive. Preferabla a S-ATA Type, but IDE will work too. I suggest something above 160 gigabytes, if it's a gaming computer (lol).

Okay, for the case, this shouldn't need much attention, but make sure it's a cool case, because that means you're cool (just kidding) and check what type the motherboard is. For instance, ATX, BTX, AT, etc. Most likely, it's ATX. Then find the case, and READ THE COMMENTS about it. People make comments for a reason, and that is to tell people the product is nice, or warn people that they 'get what they pay for,' or sometimes less, unfortunately.

Okay, now search for any PCI cards you'll need. Check the motherboard and make sure it at least comes with a built in video card and a NIC (network interface card), which has ethernet/modem jacks. Else, you'll need to buy these cards. For a gaming computer, you'll need to buy a graphics card anyway. So go look for one that has at least 512 megs ram (graphics cards come with their ram built into them). Before doing this however, check that the motherboard has either a PCI-E or AGP slot. (my dell doesn't have either, so check if they're there). Most likely it's above the rest of the PCI slots. The AGP slot is usually a different color, and i've never seen a PCI-E slot, because they're more recent.

Next, buy the proper optical drive, a DVD reader/burner or whatever, this doesn't matter too much.

Next, buy your monitor, again this doesn't matter too much, but LCD screens are more expensive and most of the time, DO have better quality, but a higher chance of dead pixels. Read the reviews to see how many other people had problems with this.

Now, buy a power supply. I suggest it be higher than 500 watts. 600 watts would be good. Also, make sure it supports the type of power hookup your motherboard has, such as it'll say 'power pin: 24 Pin' or something similar. Just search for how many pins it has.

If it's a gaming computer, buy surround sound. You'll love it, i've got it here at home, and it's AWESOME. 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound. Make sure you then get a sound card that supports your sound system. (i made that mistake...)

Lastly, keyboard and mouse. I suggest wireless, because you can be sitting anywhere, and it's less cables to worry about, but it doesn't really matter.

-----------------------------------------------

Putting the pieces together

Okay, first of all, i MUST warn you that static electricity WILL fry most of the components in your computer. So i suggest you touch the power supply box before doing ANYTHING. That way, you'll discharge yourself. Don't shuffle your feet while building it either. Don't worry about this too much though, just don't build on the floor your first time, do it on a table or something.

Okay, pull the motherboard out of it's box, and set the box next to the case. Take the motherboard of it's anti-static bag, and set the motherboard on the box. Now take the RAM out of it's box, and SET it on the memory banks.
They should look like This: http://unix-docu.uibk.ac.at/zid/systeme ... 6-4cr2.png (without the sticks in them) They'll have little tabs on both sides. Push those tabs outward and set the RAM in the slots. They may take a little force, but make sure the little notch on the bottom of the ram is on the right side, else you'll break your RAM. Once you have your RAM in, push the tabs back in.

Next your processer. Be very careful with this. Pull the processer out of the box, and set it on top of the box.
http://www.anders.com/projects/route66/ ... cessor.jpg -- See the big white box? There's a metal bar on the side of it, yours should have one too. Pull it away from the box a little, then lift it up as far as it'll go. Then, you should know that on the bottom of the processer (the side with all the prongs) there should be one corner that has a prong missing. Search for the same side on the white box with all the holes in it, and SET the processer in accordingly. DON'T force the processer, that'd be like burning 300 dollars.

Before putting the motherboard in, there should have been a small bag with a bunch of little screws that have screw holes on top of them. Screw them into the case where the motherboard should go. This is so that the motherboard stays off of the side of the case, that way the electricity won't short out the motherboard.

Next, put in all the pci/agp cards. They'll take a little force to put in the slots. Now, touch pick up the motherboard and set it in the case. You may have a problem with the motherboard not fitting in the back part of the computer right. (where all the mouse, keyboard, speakers and stuff hook up) That part SHOULD come out of the case, and your motherboard should have come with it's own, which you can pop in. Now put the motherboard in. It may take a minute to get it in the back holes, but don't try to push it in too hard. When you finally get it in, line it up with the screw holes, and screw it in.

Now screw in your PCI/AGP cards.

Now if your case came with usb connecters in the front or on top. There'll be cords inside the case, with small plastic pieces on the end with writing on them. Assuming there's 2 cords for 2 usb slots, there'll be one with 5 little holes on the bottom of that plastic piece, and one with four. Search the middle area of your motherboard near the prongs for something that says "usb_56" That's for usb ports 5, and 6, the ones on the front of your computer. Plug the 5 hole cord onto the 5 prong part, and face the side of it that has the labels on it toward the BOTTOM of your computer. The one with 4 holes, on the 4 piece one right below the one you just plugged in, make sure it also has the lables facing bottom.

Next, screw in your hard drive. Plug in the S-ATA cable to the motherboard where it says something like 'Primary S-ATA'. If you got a second hard drive, plug it into one called 'Secondary S-ATA'. Then plug the cord(s) into the hard drive(s). Remember that if you got more than one hard drive, you need to adjust the jumper settings on it. There'll be a small section of prongs next to the S-ATA or IDE plugins with a small plastic piece connecting 2 of the prongs. Look on top of the hard drive, there should be a small diagram telling you which one's are Master Slave and Cable Select. They could also be "MAS," "SLA," and "CS." Then set one of the hard drives on 'master' and another on 'slave'. It'll save you soem trouble when starting your computer.

Next, pop out the top panel where your cd drive is gonna go. It should pop INWARD Once you've got that out, slide the cd rom in from the outside. Line it up with the case, and make sure it's even with the side. Then screw it in, and connect the IDE or S-ATA cable.

Now hold your power supply up to the area it goes to, and screw it in on the back. There may also be screw holes on the inside. Now there should be a large pronged piece on the inside of your case that comes out of the power supply. Find the matching part on your motherboard and plug it in.

Now plug the smaller 4 piece connecters coming out of the power supply into your hard drive(s) and optical drive(s).

I ALMOST forgot, there's a bunch of 1 and 2 piece connecters inside the case. Find a long area of prongs on your motherboard with labels around it like 'HDD_LED' and 'PWR_LED' and stuff like that. Your motherboard should of come with a small little black thing with a hole in the middle with a black connecter piece on it. Connect it into the prongs labeled 'spkr'. Then there should be little 1 piece connecters with 'pwr -' and 'pwr +' or something similar. Plug those into the proper areas on the motherboard. There may also be 'rst' for the reset cable. Also plug in the led connecters. It doesn't matter if these are facing the bottom or top of your case. If there's any more prongs, find the proper labeled area and plug it in. For anything i didn't cover here, read your motherboard user manual, it'll definitely help you.

Well, that ends the tutorial, just remember to always discharge yourself before touching any of the silicon chips inside your computer.

Also, a good place to buy computer parts from is www.newegg.com, they have a great amount of users, and most of the products have reviews. Personally, i suggest you read the reviews on all the parts, that way if you have a problem, you may find that another person had the same problem because of that part. It's saved me plenty of times.

C'ya, -Gogeta70-

Chaos1986 · Post by **Chaos1986** » 29 Jul 2006, 13:43

Sweet Thanks For The Information Gogeta70.

Computers Are Really Cool. This Information Makes Building One look Easy.

Post by **Gogeta70** » 29 Jul 2006, 13:44

Heh, thanks.

Post by **bad_brain** » 29 Jul 2006, 15:38

very nice post gogeta!

evileye · Post by **evileye** » 20 Oct 2006, 20:23

hmmmm good gr8 extremly amazing. thanks

Chaos1986 · Post by **Chaos1986** » 21 Oct 2006, 20:27

Copies To Word Document To Study. Great Post Gogeta70 And Thanks For The Information.

You Must Be Really Smart BTW Keep Up The Great Work!

eppik · Post by **eppik** » 23 Feb 2007, 06:50

Chaos1986 wrote: Sweet Thanks For The Information Gogeta70. This Information Makes Building One look Easy.

Whell believe me, it is easy.... just know what to do and you will build and get a PC running in less than an hour (kinda)

Post by **Gogeta70** » 23 Feb 2007, 17:16

Lol, yeah no problem guys. You're welcome.

ebrizzlez · Post by **ebrizzlez** » 13 Apr 2007, 23:31

yea, pretty nice post you got here.

but wouldnt it be smart to learn something like A+ to understand what your doing and not blow out your motherboard or somthing like that trying to build a computer.

And I have to try this out!

Thanks for the info gogeta70

YOU EVEN INCLUDED SHINEY PICS! The pics look photoshoped though, because no computer is that clean.

(or at least not mine!

)

shamir · Post by **shamir** » 28 Apr 2007, 16:27

do you have a video of how to build a complter....

ebrizzlez · Post by **ebrizzlez** » 28 Apr 2007, 21:08

isakov123

do you have a video of how to build a complter....

well, its not knowing where the parts go, as much. you will need to learn exactly what is what and what each part represents and what are their functions. If you do plan to build a computer, I would strongly recommend learning A+ to at least name the parts! A build-a-computer howto video wouldnt resolve much, besides demonstartion, and many beginners or totally off the back board users might blow out the motherboard as well as damage several other chips, because not all computers are the same inside.

Post by **Gogeta70** » 29 Apr 2007, 15:38

Actually ebrizzlez, i've never taken a computer class in my life that has taught me anything. I'm self taught (or taught by friends) everything i know.

A+ Certification will certainly help, which i should be getting within the next 1-2 years (i'm going to a junior college for my senior year). If you want some high-school classes based on the A+ Certification class, (at least my) high schools offer a class called CHAOS (computer hardware and operating systems). You may want to check that out.

Oppconsulting · Post by **Oppconsulting** » 30 Aug 2007, 15:13

I agree and not to be mean but A+ is a chimps game and garbage I got all my info from life some books and just hands on and my dad early on saying dammit quit blowing the pcs up and breaking everything so he and I taught myself from there you learn from the blowups I tried a stupid collage class one time it was a joke they taught kiddy stuff way below my knowladge and a insulte so I say go for it learn without the stuff thats how I got to be a network and pc tech and now I do and have done hundreds of pcs and customers pcs I have lost count so learn buy a old peice of crap dont start out the most expensive out there that migh be a costly learning curve but hey go for it

yorki_boy · Post by **yorki_boy** » 17 Jun 2009, 06:26

Anyway its a great tutorial
i found a useful link that you may like

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... a+computer

Grombo · Post by **Grombo** » 18 Jun 2009, 18:29

i read as far as the parts selection, and theres a cpl things i disagree with, gaming pcs will need a wired mouse due to the improved response time, and as for the 160gb hdd, well, i used to have 400gb and it got to the point where i bought myself a 1TB because it was full. games can take 15gb nowadays

suck-o.com

How to build a computer

How to build a computer

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