Build Your Own PC.pdf

7/29/2019 Build Your Own PC.pdf

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Build Your Own PC

STEP 1 : Materials Required

This tutorial is intended to assist you in building a basic PC. There are obviously a

plethora of possible PC configurations and hardware that you could put into your new PCif you choose. But, what we are trying to do here is help you put together a basic PC. For

this reason, we are only requiring the basic components and tools to get you up and

running.

Tools Required

Screwdriver - A Phillips-head (cross-point) screwdriver is what is used in mostPCs.

Screw Extractor - If you have surgeons fingers you may not need this. But, ifyoure human, it is likely you might drop a screw into your PC during this

procedure and be too big-thumbed to get it out. A screw extractor can help yougrab those screws and get them out without messing with the hardware. You

definitely do not want to run your PC with loose screws in there. It could cause a

short circuit.

Flashlight - Unless you are in a fantastic lighting situation, you will likely need aflashlight to get a look of the landscape in your PC while youre working.

Tweezers - May be helpful for you in switching jumpers later in the tutorial.Hardware Required

PC Case Floppy Disk Drive Hard Drive CD-ROM Drive Processor Processor Cooling Fan Motherboard Memory Modules Power Supply Video Card Keyboard & Mouse

To build a basic PC, you will need at least a motherboard, a memory module, a processor

with cooling fan, a power supply, a hard drive, a floppy drive, a video card and a CD-

ROM.

Most electrically sensitive hardware comes in a static bag which is designed to protect the

electronics from static electricity shock. Leave your hardware in these bags until you areready to install them.


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Software Required

System Disk Device Drivers (these usually come with the hardware above) Operating System (for the purposes of this tutorial, we will assume you arechoosing Microsoft Windows as your operating system PC Mechanic has lots of

great information on Linux and other alternatives)

Cables and Miscellaneous

Drive cables Motherboard spacers (usually come with the motherboard, but are used to space

the motherboard up off the mounting plate)

Screws (usually a whole pile of screws will come with your PCs case, but if youare using a case you happened to have around, you will need to collect some

screws) Power cords (for both your PC and your monitor. They usually come with the

hardware when you buy it, of course)

CPU Cooling CompoundSTEP 2 : Remove Case Cover

This is a very easy step. Basically, you are just taking the cover off your new case. If you

have a standard case, you take a screwdriver and remove the four or six screws located

around the edge on the back of your case. Hang on to these screws and put them in a

place where they will not be scattered and can be easily found later in this procedure.

Once they are removed, the entire case cover comes off in one piece. With this design,the front of the case (also known as the bezel) does not move. Only the top and sides

come off as a single cover.

Some cases (such as the one being used in making this tutorial) use thumb screws rather

than standard screws. It works the same way, obviously, except that you do not need touse a screwdriver to loosen and remove them. Simply twist them loose using your

fingers.

Still other cases come apart differently. Some manufacturers have developed cases using

a screwless design. These cases are designed such that you can remove the cover

simply by un-latching the parts from the chassis. With this design, you usually take holdof the bottom of the front bezel of the case and give it a nice solid yank. The front thenpulls off. It is my experience that this usually requires a few tries and some muscle. These

cases are usually pretty durable so you really dont have to worry about hurting them.

The sides then lift and slide off as does the top. Your case, in essence, comes apart in fourpieces. Other cases come apart in a similar way, but after you take the front off, the top

and sides come off together.


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Each case is a little different in how it comes apart. There are almost as many designs as

there are companies that make them. You may find some where you dont even have toremove the front, and rather you just slide the sides off. With others, you can remove the

whole motherboard mounting plate and card rack combo from the case by sliding it out

the back. This is convenient for making quick changes to the system, although you still

have to disconnect the various cables to get it out all the way. Whatever case style youhave, remember to look it all over before you attempt to gain entry. You dont want to

force it and break anything - take your time.

Now that this is done, you are ready to move on.

STEP 3 : Case Preparation

At this point, you should have the new case in front of you with the cover removed.

Before you can use it for a new system, you must prepare it for use. Go through thefollowing checklist to make sure it is prepared. Not all of this may be necessary on your

case, and if youre using a case you already had, much or all it has likely been donealready. Nonetheless, this is a useful guideline.

Now that the case is open, now is a good time to go through the screw supply provided

with the case. These are usually held in a small plastic bag nestled inside the case. Inside

this bag you should find:

Chassis screws - this is the type used to tighten down cards, etc. Smaller screws - just like the chassis screws, just with a smaller diameter. It is

used to fasten the motherboard in.

Standoffs - these are screws that are used to hold the motherboard about 1/8 fromthe motherboard mounting plate. Their ends have a threaded opening in them thataccept the smaller chassis screws. If you have an AT case, you may find smallwhite standoffs. These serve the same function as the metal standoff, but aresimply punched through the board and slid into slots on the case. They are rather

clumsy to use compared to the metal standoffs, but they get the job done. Lastly,

some cases use small metal clip-looking stand-offs. They are pinched together and

slipped into small rectangular holes in the motherboard mounting plate and theysnap in. These are, too, a bit awkward.

Washers. These are typically small, loose washers, not the metal kind youve seenin your toolbox. These will be used to cushion your motherboard from the screws

you will be using to hold it in. Some motherboards have metal plates around the

holes to keep the screws from shorting the circuitry, and in this case, washers arenot necessary and may not be included.

Now, verify a few things have been done, if they need to be done.

1. Clean Case - If the case is new, this should be no big deal. But, if the case hasbeen used before, it could probably stand a cleaning. Clean out the inside with a


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rag or compressed air. Make sure the fan in the power supply is free of furry dust.

Also take a rag and wipe it off.2. Inspect the Power Supply - Make sure it is tightly attached to the case, make sure

it is free of dust, and make sure it is set to the proper voltage of your area- 110V

for U.S. and 220V for outside countries.

3.

Inspect Power Switch - Make sure the power switch is securely tightened andcorrectly connected to the power supply. In ATX cases, the power switch will

have one loose wire coming off of it. This wire will then connect to the Power

Switch connector on the motherboard.4. Install Feet - These are little tabs inserted into holes at the bottom of the case. The

case sits on these tabs when on your desk. If the case has been used before or it is

a more expensive case, this may not need to be done.5. Install Case Fan - Sometimes, you may want to install a separate fan that screws

onto a rack next to the vent on the front of the case. This helps increase

circulation of air through the system. Many cases already have this installed, soyou may not need to worry about it. Some like to put a little filter over the hole so

as to prevent dust from being drawn in. An ideal and simple setup for properairflow is to set the front, lower fan to pull air in, and have the higher, rear fan

exhaust.6. Free Up the Drive Bays - Brand new (cheaper) cases sometimes have the drive

bays sealed with metal plates. Its the most annoying thing. If you want to install

any drives, and you probably do, youll need to remove these. Choose the drivebays you want to use (usually the ones at the top on tower cases) and remove the

metal plates. These are attached by metal, so they take some cutting, prying and

twisting to break them free. Be careful not to hurt the case or yourself. The platewill likely have sharp edges once removed. Better cases have these bays covered

with plastic, replaceable plates which are a lot easier and make infinitely moresense.

7. Replace I/O Shield. The Input/Output shield is a piece of metal with various holespunched in it that allow for the motherboard connections, such as mouse andkeyboard, USB and LAN to poke out the rear of your case. All cases will come

with one but since all motherboards are laid out differently, youll need to install

the one that came with your board. Remove the old one simply by pushing it from

the rear of the case inward. It usually will pop out easily, if not use a flat-headscrewdriver to pry the edges so it comes loose. Push the new one in from the

inside of the case and allow it to pop into place. Check to be sure it is secure.

STEP 4 : I nstall Power Supply

Some cases come with power supply unit pre-installed for you. Likewise, if the case youare using has been used before, it may have a power supply already installed. In that case,

you only need to make sure it is an adequate unit for the computer you intend to build.

Also, if you are building an ATX machine, you must make sure that the power supply isan ATX power supply.


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If the power supply is not already installed, you will need to install it now. Heres how:

1. Take the power supply unit and line it up for placement into the PC case. The fanshould blow toward the rear and the wires should face forward.

2. Insert the PSU into the case. Sometimes this takes a little maneuvering to get itinto position.3. Once the unit is in place, check the back of the case and make sure the holes onthe rear of the PSU line up with the screw holes on the case. If they do not, you

may need to turn the power supply over.4. Using your screwdriver, tighten the PSU down using standard chassis screws.5. Make sure the voltage is set correctly. There is a little switch on the back that lets

you switch between 120 or 220 volts. In the United States, its 120. If you are in acountry overseas, its most likely 220. If you use 220, make sure the cord is rated

for it. It should say on the side of the cord. Its easiest to just check this now while

youre thinking about it.

STEP 5 : Install the CPU

The next step is to install the processor onto the motherboard. Now, at this point, themotherboard should just be sitting on your work space, preferably inside of the static

protection bag in which it came. Over the next few steps, we will be installing some

hardware onto the motherboard before it is installed into the case. The reason is that, inmost cases, it is a LOT easier to do this with the motherboard out the case than with the

motherboard in the case. The chief reason being room to maneuver your big hands.

Installing the CPU is a pretty straight-forward process. The real risk is to the CPU. Doing

this step too fast or carelessly can result in damage to the processor. Therefore, dont getnervous. It is an easy step, but do it with care.

There are several common interfaces for CPUs today: Intel currently uses Socket T(775) and AMD uses Socket 939. The older generation of boards uses Socket 478 for

Intel and Socket 754 or Socket A (462) for AMD. The numbers correspond to the number

of pins on the CPU. But, they all boil down to two basic types: The Zero Insertion Force

(ZIF) socket and the slot. Most processors in use today use a socket to connect to themotherboard, and the type of socket in use is typically the ZIF socket. The ZIF socket

opens and closes using a small lever. When the lever is down, the CPU is locked into

place. When in the upright position, the processor is loose and can either be installed orremoved.

All modern systems make use of the zero-insertion force (ZIF) socket. Therefore, thisprocedure is relevant with that setup. To install a processor using this type of interface,

follow this procedure:

1. Check the pins. Turn the chip over and inspect the pins. Are they bent? Theyshould all stick straight up. If many of them are bent, then it is best to request a

replacement processor. If only a couple are bent and the bend is not that much,


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then you may be able to use a screwdriver to gently bend the pins back into place.

Do so VERY carefully.2. Open ZIF Socket. This is done by grabbing the lever on one side of the socket and

opening it. Pull the lever from the closed, level position, to the open, vertical

position. You may need to pull the lever out a bit before it will open. Do this

slowly and dont force it. You dont want to break the socket. On the way up, youmay experience a little more force. This is normal. The top part of the ZIF socket

will slide over a bit.

3. Orient The Chip. This involves locating Pin 1 on both the chip and the socket.This is easy to do. The chip is always marked at Pin 1. The mark may be a little

dot on one corner, a slightly notched corner, or a mark at one of the pins under the

chip. On the socket, there is usually a notch on one corner, or a big 1 . Thesecorners will be matched up for correct installation.

4. Insert Processor. Bearing in mind the orientation determined in Step 3, insert thechip into the socket. With a ZIF socket, the chip should install very easily. Itshould almost fall into the socket with all pins lining up. Thats why they call it

the Zero Insertion Force socket. If not, the socket is probably not open all theway. If you do not have a ZIF socket (God forbid!), you need to exercise extreme

care. Lay the chip on the socket. Make sure all pins line up. Then, slowly push thechip into the socket. Use your thumb and push on one side of the chip until it

starts to go in. Then proceed to another side and repeat. Do this around the chip

several times until it is completely installed.5. When done, there should be basically no gap between the bottom of the processor

and the socket.

6. Close ZIF Socket. Just close the lever. You will probably feel some resistance.This is normal and it should close anyway. If you really need to lean on it, though,

check to be sure the chip is installed correctly. When down, make sure the leversnaps into place.

7. Some retail processors come with the heat sink and fan already attached to theCPU, in which case you will need to attach the CPU fan to the socket at the sametime as you close the ZIF socket. After you lock the CPU into place, take the

retention clips on either side of the CPU fan (which should line up automatically

for you if you inserted the processor correctly in step 4 above) and push them

down until each side clips over the tabs on either side of the socket. Sometimes ittakes using a screwdriver as leverage to be able to get the retention clips out and

over the tabs, but if you do this be very careful not to slip and jab your

motherboard with the screwdriver.

STEP 6 : Install Heat Sink/Fan

Todays processors are running quite hot. Advancements are being made to make them

run cooler at higher speeds, but the importance of a high quality heat sink and fan cannot

be overstated. PCs that are not properly cooled can be quite unstable, or at its worse, itmay not even boot properly.


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It used to be that you could attach a heat sink and fan to your processor directly and not

worry about it. Today, though, processors run too hot to do this and expect a reliable PC.One must use heat sink compound to seal the gap between the heat sink and the top of the

processor.

Some heat sinks have a rubber heat pad on the bottom of them. In these cases, you dontreally need to use heat sink compound because the rubber pad will create the seal. It

should be kept in mind, though, that if you are using a heat sink which has been used

before and had a heat pad, that heat pad is now likely melted in the spot where theprevious processor contacted it. In these cases, you cannot use the heat pad again as it

will be ineffective. Instead, you need to clean the old rubber pad off of the heat sink using

a non-abrasive cleaning compound. Many people use isopropyl alcohol and a broken oldcredit card to scrape the rubber off without damaging the heat sink. When the pad is

removed, you can use the heat sink again using heat sink compound.

1. Attach the fan to the heat sink. This step is almost always already done for you,but if not, you must do it yourself. This is done using the four screws that camewith the CPU fan.

2. Clean the top of the processor. Using a lint-free cloth and isopropyl alcohol (orsome other non-abrasive cleaning solution), ensure that the surface of the

processor is clean and free of dust and finger oil. Do the same to the bottom of the

heat sink. Pay attention to the note above on heat pads if your heat sink had or hasa rubber heat pad.

3. If you are using a cooling shim, place it onto the top of the processor now. Not allprocessors require shims. In fact, no processors require shims; they arecompletely optional. But, some people like to use them because they help to

increase the surface area of the top of the ship and spread the weight aroundevenly. See, some processors (such as the Athlon XP) actually have the core

sticking up slightly from the rest of the processor. So, when the heat sink is placed

on top, all of its weight comes down on the core. If the fan is a real tight fit for themotherboard, it could really create a weight load on the processor core, and some

people have actually crushed their CPU core by accident. A shim is simply a thin

piece of metal, especially designed for a particular processor, which fits over the

processor and evens out the height and helps to alleviate the crushed coreproblem. When installing a shim, be extra sure you are aligning it correctly. They

often have holes in them exactly placed so that the cache bridges on top of the

processor can poke through. If the shim is not properly aligned, you could shortout these bridges and actually burn out your processor if you run your PC that

way. Additionally, a mis-aligned shim could cause the heat sink to not actually

have full content with the CPU core, leading to overheating.4. Apply the Heat Sink Compound. Assuming you are not using a heat pad on your

heat sink, apply a very thin layer of heat sink compound to the top of the

processor core. If, as is the case with Pentium IV processors, the top of theprocessor is totally flat, then apply the compound to the entire top surface of the

processor. Many heat sinks come with heat sink compound in a small little

package, usually just enough for a one-time install. You can pick up better quality


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compound online. Arctic Silver is a very popular choice. Be careful not to get

compound on any motherboard electronics. Apply only a very small portion to theprocessor. Only a very thin layer is required. The compound must be spread out

evenly across the top of the chip, forming that very thin layer. When spreading the

heat sink compound, do not use your finger. Use the edge of a credit card, or you

can use a rubber glove or even just a plastic bag over your hand. Do not apply anyheat sink compound if you plan to use a heat pad.

5. Attach The Heat Sink. Place the heat sink/fan combo squarely on top of theprocessor, pressing down lightly. Do not do any twisting as you install the heatsink. Press down firmly, but straight down so as to preserve the heat sink

compound layer you just applied.

6. Secure the heat sink. Most newer heat sinks use a set of clips on each side tofasten itself down. These clips attach to a pair of tabs on each side of the socket. It

will probably take a little bit of force to bend the clip down over the tab. Other

heat sinks wrap around the processor, then just sit on top, the compound being theonly real attachment. Pentium IV motherboards have a heat sink retention bracket

around the processor socket. When you install the P4 heat sink, you will fasteneach of the four retention clips into the retention bracket and then close the clip

levers on top of the heat sink to fasten the heat sink down onto the Pentium IVprocessor.

7. Double-Check. No compound should have oozed out from the sides. If it did thenyou applied too much and need to remove the HSF, clean both the heatsink andCPU and start over.

8. Attach fan to power source. Unless your CPU fan is powered via a standardpower supply plug, it is probably powered by a wire attached to a 3-pin powerlead on the motherboard itself. You can attach this now. The CPU_FAN power

lead is located near the CPU interface somewhere. The lead will have two smallpins on each side, and these pins surround the power plug and the pins are

inserted into the holes in the plug. It should be pretty easy and obvious.

STEP 7 : Install Memory

You should now install your memory modules. For the purposes of this step, we are

assuming that you have already chosen the appropriate memory for your PC in Step 1.So, we will jump right into installing the memory.

It is important that you consult the manual for your motherboard to see about anyparticular sequences in which memory should be installed on your board. Some boards

require particular sequences of memory installation, usually depending on the memory

capacity, type, etc. Other boards have no required sequence at all, and you can chooseany slot you wish to install your memory. Most new boards support Dual Channel RAM.

This is a technology that allows a performance increase when using 2 or 4 matched sticks

of RAM. Consult your motherboard manual on which slots to use for dual-channel. It isnot always slots 1 & 2.


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The installation of module modules is basically the same regardless of type, even though

each module type looks a little different.1. Ground yourself by touching an unpainted metal object. This will discharge any

built up static electricity in your body.

2. Pick up the memory module by its edges.3.

Decide which slots you are going to use and orient the memory module over it.The module slot will have a small plastic bridge which will be off-center in the

socket. This matches up with a notch in the pin array of the memory module itself

and ensures that you insert the module in the proper alignment.4. Insert the memory module. With DIMMs (SDRAM or DDR RAM), they go

straight in. Make sure the notches in the RAM line up with the little bumps in the

slot.5. Lock the module in place. With DIMMs and RIMMs, all you have to do is

continue to press the memory module down until the ejector clips on either side of

the memory slot automatically get pushed into the closed position. Sometimes,you may need to help the ejector clips close, but the idea here is that those clips

need to close so as to lock the module into place. If they do not close, it is becausethe module is not inserted all the way into the slot.

6. Repeat this procedure for any other memory modules you are going to install.7. If you are using DIMMs (and most are), then you are done. If you are using

RIMM modules, then you need to fill each remaining RIMM slot with a

continuity module. A continuity module does not contain any actual memory, butits purpose is to simply act as a pass-through circuit so as to provide for a

continuous channel for the memory signal. The installation of a C-RIMM is

exactly like that of a normal RIMM module.

STEP 8 : Configure the Motherboard

At this point, your have your processor, heat sink and fan and your memory installed onto

your motherboard. In most cases you are now ready to install your motherboard into thecase. In some cases, however, it is necessary to do a little configuration on your

motherboard beforehand. It is easier to do this with the motherboard sitting outside of the

case.

The settings that may need to be configured are:

CPU Speed Bus Speed CPU Voltage Setting

Most motherboards in use today make use of the CMOS settings to configure theseoptions. In this case, you can skip this step because you will need to wait until your new

PC is powered up in order to configure these options. If, though, you are using an older

motherboard in which these settings are controlled via the use of jumpers, then we need

to tackle this here.


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Configuring a Board Which Uses Jumpers

You need to have the manual for your board available. If you do not have the manual, log

on to the manufacturers web site and see if you can find this info there. You can also try

their tech support via phone. In some cases, too, some of the jumper settings are printed

onto the surface of the motherboard. If you dont have any of this info, you are just out ofluck. Unfortunately, you must have some form of documentation available simply

because motherboards have so many settings to adjust. If youre dealing with an older

board, you may need to spend some time trying to identify the manufacturer so that youcan see if they do support it. You can many times use the BIOS ID numbers to identify

the board online.

Motherboard manuals come in two main formats. Some are friendly for hardware buffs

by listing a separate jumper or DIP switch for CPU core voltage, I/O voltage, multiplier,

and system bus speed. They then tell you the settings for each of these. This format isbetter because of the increased control. Other manuals list the settings next to a list of

commonly used CPUs, showing the common settings for each. While this format iseasier for the end user for easy setup, it is tougher if you like increased control of the

settings, for overclocking for example. The best manuals do both: list the jumper settingsindividually as well as provide a list of processors and the jumper settings for each.

When playing with the board, be careful with it. Avoid placing the board on the static bagit came in, as this can cause an electro-static shock to build up, which may very well fry

the motherboard. Always place the board on a flat surface, wooden desks work best, not

carpet or anything like that. And always ground yourself before handling the board.When handling the board, handle it by the edges only when at all possible.

Now, here is the basic procedure for motherboard configuration:

1. Read the Manual. Always. Read the listings for settings and locate all jumpers onthe motherboard itself and what settings they control.

2. Set the voltage settings. Most older chips use one single voltage. The newer chipswe use today use a split voltage. Most of these motherboards provide jumpers for

the core voltage and I/O voltage. Set them to match your intended CPU. If you areusing an older chip with one voltage, just set both voltages to be the same. Your

best bet to choose the correct voltage is to see what is printed on the CPU itself.

Most CPUs will have core voltage printed somewhere on it. That is yourvoltage. Some jumpered boards are designed to detect the voltage automatically

and then use the correct voltage. In this case, you will not have to worry about it.

3. Set the processor speed. This is not usually done with a single jumper. It is,instead, done by setting the system bus speed and a multiplier. The multiplier is

the number which when multiplied by the system bus speed gives the processor

speed. There is a separate jumper for each of these settings. Configure these tomatch the intended CPU. If you know what youre doing and would like to

overclock the chip a tad, set these jumpers a little differently. Generally, though, I

would recommend actually getting the system working before trying to overclock


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it. If your manual lists settings by CPU, just do what it says. You can sometimes

infer from the manual which switches control voltage, multiplier, etc. Generally,if your board is jumper-controlled, you will need to consult the manual for the

proper jumper arrangement, use the motherboard layout in the manual to find the

jumper on the board itself, and use either your finger or tweezers to adjust the

jumper to look like the diagram in your manual. When the jumpers in questionlook like they should in the diagrams, then youre set. And, again, if your CPU

settings are NOT jumper-controlled, you will be taking care of all this later on.

Some old boards make use of a jumper to set the cache size and type. Set this now, if

need be. If you have internal cache, which most do, you wont need to bother. Likewise,

some boards give you the ability to use either AT or ATX power supplies. Depending onwhich type you will be using, you may need to set a jumper to tell the board what type of

power to use.

If your board supports the asynchronous SDRAM clock speed, as most boards with Via

chipsets do, you need to set the jumpers properly for this as well. This capability allowsyou to run the memory at a different clock speed than the rest of the system. This comes

in handy, for example, when you want to use older memory yet run the rest of the systemat the higher bus speed. You can set the system bus speed at 100MHz and then set the

memory to run at 66MHz or 75MHz, for example. The instructions for properly setting

this up are in your boards manual.

If youve done that, most of the configuring is done. Now you want to double-check the

other settings that were set by the manufacturer to make sure they are correct. Make surethe CMOS-clear jumper is set to normal so that you can change the BIOS settings later.

Make sure the battery jumper is set to onboard battery instead of external battery. If youhave a jumper enabling FLASH BIOS, make sure this is disabled. Also, check to see if all

jumpers enabling or disabling onboard controllers are set correctly. All these settings are

usually set correctly by default, but you need to make sure. Keep in mind that manyboards control these feature via their CMOS and you will be setting them after the PC is

up and running, not now with jumpers.

Double-Check all of your own work. Better safe than sorry.

STEP 9 : Install the Motherboard

Now you need to install the motherboard into the case. If youre following this tutorial,

the CPU, fan and memory will already be installed onto the motherboard, so you will be

installing this whole setup into the case now.

1. Turn your PC case onto its side and move all the power leads from the powersupply out of the way so that you have clear access to the motherboard plate. Ifyou are using a case in which the motherboard mounting plate can be removed,

you may wish to remove it now and install the motherboard outside of the case

itself.


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2. Locate the holes on the motherboard and the holes on the case or motherboardmounting plate. You might want to hold the board just above the casemotherboard plate and see which holes on the case line up with holes on the

motherboard. All motherboards have mounting holes in different places.

3. Now gather your standoffs. Screw them into the holes in the case or mountingplate that line up with holes on the motherboard. You can tighten them with a3/16 nut driver or by hand. Some cases have small spacers that snap into place.

With these, you push them through the mounting plate from the back side and

they will snap into place.4. For the holes on the motherboard that line up with an eyelet hole on the case (a

hole that is very long so that you can slide things in it), install a plastic stand-off

on the motherboard. The stand-offs should poke through the motherboard andexpand to keep them in place. The little disk on the other end of the stand-off will

later be used to slide into the eyelet holes. If your case does not provide eyelet

holes, do not worry about this step. Most cases use only the metal standoff screwsto hold the motherboard, which is a hell of a lot easier than the slide-in variety.

5.

Take the motherboard by its edges and hold it over the case. Align it so that it isproperly aligned with the rear connectors facing backward, etc.

6. Lower the motherboard into the case. Sit it on top of the standoffs you justinstalled so that each standoff lines up with a screwhole on the motherboard. If

you happen to be using any of the slide-in standoffs, you will need to slide these

into their eyelet holes as you lower the board into the case.7. Inspect the screws you will use to tighten the board down. If the head of the

screws are too wide, and you think they might contact any circuitry on the

motherboard, place a plastic washer over each hole. Ive had some ATX boardsrefuse to start up later because they were grounded somewhere to the case,

probably by a screw.8. Tighten the board down. Install the screws into each of the standoffs underneath,

through the board and the washers if you used them. Tighten them down by hand

first, then finish them with a screwdriver. Make sure you do not tighten them toomuch. You dont want to crack your board. Just make them snug so that the board

doesnt wiggle around in the case. It may be necessary to adjust the position of the

board somewhat in order to get the holes aligned enough with the standoffs to

tighten down the screws.9. If you were installing the board to a removable mounting plate, install the

motherboard mounting plate back into the case. On some cases, the plate is

installed from the side. On these, you insert the bottom edge of the plate into aguide rail on the bottom of the case and then rotate upward. The top edge of the

plate will contact the case, at which point you can screw it in or a spring loaded

handle will lock it in. On other cases, the plate may slide in a different way, fromthe rear for example. These plates are then easily removed later if you ever need

to remove the motherboard.

10.Double check your work. Check to be sure that the back of the motherboard is nottouching any part of the case or mounting plate. Make sure the slots and

connectors line up with the holes on the back of the case. And definitely be sure


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that the board is rigid and tight. If you press down on the board at any point, it

should not bend down.

STEP 10 : Connect Motherboard To Case

Now it is time to begin connecting your newly installed motherboard to the various wiresof your case as well as its power source.

NOTE: If you have been working on a removed motherboard mounting plate, you willneed to install the plate back into the case in order to be able to make the connections

below.

1. Connect the power to the motherboard. On an ATX board, the power connector isone large 20 or 24 wire plug. It is keyed for correct installation. Just plug it in.

The board may also require a square, 4pin +12v plug and even a spare 4pin Molexor two. Check your manual to make sure the board is fully powered.

2.

Connect the CPU fan to the power. Many CPU fans connect to one of the powersupply leads. They often, then, provide a pass-through so that you have a

connector free for a drive, thereby placing the CPU fan on the circuit to aparticular drive. Others have a little 3-pin lead that connects to a small connector

on the motherboard itself. Just plug it into the motherboard. The connector is

usually labeled CPU_FAN 1, or something to that effect. If your cooling fan usesthe 3-pin type and you are following this tutorial to the letter, then this is likely

already done.

3. Study the case connectors on the motherboard and match them up with caseconnector wires. The connectors are usually a big block of pins located in the

lower section of the board. Some boards label the pins, but it is best to have yourmanual since it can sometimes be difficult to determine which label goes to which

set of pins. If you have a good case, each connector will be labeled to tell you

what case feature it leads to. If this isnt the case, you may have to physicallytrace the wires back to see what feature it goes to. When connecting, consult the

manual for pin 1s, to make sure each connector is plugged in the right way.

Remember, if the particular case feature is not working later, you may only have

to turn the connector around on the motherboard. The next steps will walk youthrough connecting each wire.

4. Connect the power switch - On ATX machines, the power switch is connected tothe motherboard instead of the power supply itself. Consult your manual. Theconnector is usually labeled PWR_SW, or maybe just PWR, but you must make

this connection. Doing this wrong could cause your system not to start later.

5. Connect the reset switch. It can be plugged in any way, just make sure youconnect it to the right pins. The pins may be labeled RST or RESET, but it is best

to also consult the manual.

6. Connect Power LED/ Keylock Switch. Many system cases put these two deviceson one 5-pin plug, but if you case does not have a keylock, it will be alone. The

motherboard will probably be labeled accordingly. Just plug in the plug. If your

system has separate plugs for each, connect them separately.


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7. Connect the hard drive activity LED. Some come on a 2-pin plug. Others come ona four-pin plug, sometimes only two of the pins actually doing anything. Consultyour manual, or play with it until it works. It is usually labeled HDD, HDD_LED,

or something like that. If this is attached wrongly, the light may either never come

on later or will stay on all the time when the PC is running.

8.

Connect the PC speaker. Most cases put this onto a 4-wire plug. Just plug it in tothe 4 pins on the motherboard. Other cases put the speaker connector on two 1-

wire plugs. In this case, plug them into pins 1 and 4. I never could figure out why

they did that9. Double-Check your work, as always. Note that if an LED does not light up, its

case connector needs to be flipped 180 degrees.

STEP 11: Install Floppy Drive

1. Choose which drive bay you want to install the drive to and remove the face plateoff of that bay. Save the face plate for future use. Pick a bay that will fit the drive.

If you have to install a 3.5

drive in a 5.25

bay, youll have to use a special frontpanel to adapt it. This panel sometimes comes with a new floppy drive when you

buy it.2. Now, slide the drive into the bay from the front. Make sure the front of the drive

is flush with the front of the PC. Also make sure the screw holes on the drive

align with the screw holes on the drive mounting rack.3. If your particular case has a removable drive rack (as does the one we are using

for this tutorial), then you may need to remove the rack from the system to secure

the drive. But, in using removable racks, you need to pay attention to which set ofscrew holes to use on the rack which will result in the drive face being flush with

the front of the PC. In some cases, it is still easier to install the drive from thefront and make it flush just to see which screwholes to use. Then you can remove

the drive rack, making note of which holes to use.

4. Secure the floppy drive. Using your screwdriver and screws, secure the drive tothe drive rack. For removable racks, you can do this separate from the case. If the

rack is part of the chassis itself, then sometimes it is easier to turn the case on its

side to secure the drive so that you are not fighting gravity as you try to get the

screws into the holes.5. OPTIONAL: If you are installing a 3.5 drive into a 5.25 drive bay, you will

need to use a rack system which will bridge the gap between the drive and the

chassis. These racks are simply metal rails which are secured to the drive byscrews. These effectively make the 3.5 drive as wide as a 5.25 drive. Then you

can install and secure the drive as normal.

6. Connect the power supply to the floppy drive. On the 3.5 drives, the plug is verysmallthe smallest coming out of the power supply. On the larger 5.25 drives,

the connector is a large 4-wire connector, just like the hard drive power

connectors. These are a little harder to plug in, and may take some rocking. Themini-plugs are much easier to plug into the 3.5 drives. It is designed so that it is

obvious which way to attach it.


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7. Attach the Ribbon Cable. Floppy cables have a twist in the cable. The A: drivegoes AFTER the twist. If you have a second B: drive, this goes before the twist.You do not need to mess with master/slave jumpers. If you choose not to mess

with the twist, you can, with later BIOS versions, swap the order of the drives in

the BIOS. 3.5 drives use a set of pins for the connection to the ribbon cable.

5.25

drives use a card-edge connector, just like the typical edge of an expansioncard. You need to use a cable with the proper connectors for each type you use.

Many floppy cables come with connectors for each type on each side of the twist.

Always check Pin 1 on the ribbon cable connector. The red edge of the cable isaligned to Pin 1 on the connector of the drive. If you accidentally reverse this,

your drive wont be damaged, it just wont work, and the floppy drive light will

stay on all the time until fixed. The connector on the far end of the ribbon cableconnects to the floppy controller on the motherboard or I/O card (usually labeled

FDD). Consult your motherboards manual to determine which is your floppy

controller.

If you are installing any other 3.5

drives (such as a ZIP drive), then you can install thosethe exact same way.

STEP 12 : Configure the Hard Drive & CD-ROM

Before physically installing your hard drive or CD-ROM, it is easier to configure themoutside of the case. Configuring them involves changing jumpers, and doing this within

the confines of the case can be quite difficult sometimes.

How to configure these drives depends on how many drives you intend to install and of

what type.

Your motherboard has two built-in IDE channels, each supporting two devices. If two

devices are on one channel, one must be the master and the other the slave. Usually,your primary hard drive (the one which contains the operating system) is the master and

the other drive is the slave. If you only intend to install one hard drive and having nothing

else on that IDE channel, then you can select the cable select setting for the drive,

which tells the drive it is alone on the channel.

You can attach any IDE device onto your IDE channels in any order. But, it is

recommend you use IDE1 for your hard drives and IDE2 for your CD drives. It is alwaysbest to keep the CD drives on a separate channel from the hard drives.

Configuring these drives is very easy. Often the jumper settings are printed on the top ofthe drive itself. On CD drives, the settings are described right above the jumper pins. On

hard drives, the information is printed on the top of the hard drive, if it is printed at all. If

not, then consult the manual for it or go online to try finding the specs. The manuals willalso outline any special jumper settings such as use of the limiter jumper on Maxtor hard

drives.


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If a particular drive does not need to be jumpered at all, it is best to hang the jumper over

one pin. This is the same as being unjumpered, but makes sure the jumper is there forfuture use if needed.

If you are using SATA Hard drives, you are in luck. Because each SATA drive uses its

own channel, there is no need for jumpers or worrying about master/slave relationships.

STEP 13 : I nstall Drive

Before simply following the directions below on mounting the hard drive, pay attention

to where you put it. Technically, you can put the hard drive in any free bay of your case,

but there are a few considerations:

Hard drives generate heat, especially the drives with the higher rotation speeds.Therefore, it is best to place these drives as far from other hardware as possible.

Give them room to breathe.

If it is necessary to install a drive cooler, make sure you have room for it.

Some cases give room under the power supply to install a hard drive. Bad idea. Apower supply is like a magnet, and magnets and your data do not go together.Dont install a hard drive anywhere near the power supply. Keep your hard drive

near the front of the case.

Okay, lets install the actual drive:

1. Determine which drive bay to install the hard drive into. In most cases, the harddrive usually goes into a 3.5 slot toward the front of the case, near the bottom.

These bays do not have a corresponding opening to the front of the case simply

because there is no reason to see the hard drive from the front. Some cases use aremovable drive rack to hold the hard drive. If your case uses this type of setup,remove the rack now.

2. Slide in the hard drive. If you are using a removable drive rack, just push the driveinto the rack so that the screw holes line up. If your case has the drive rack as part

of the chassis, then just lift the drive into the case and line up the screw holes on

the drive with the drive rack. Be sure the drive connectors face toward the back ofthe case.

3. Fasten the hard drive into place using your screws. This is easy to do onremovable racks. In non-removable racks, tightening down screws on the far sideof the hard drive can be a problem, because the screws are not highly visible and

thus it is hard to get to them with a screwdriver. It can take a little creativity to getat them. Most cases which have this problem have little holes where you can stickthe screwdriver through and tighten the screw beneath. If the screw is not in there,

Ive even had to do a controlled drop of the screw onto the hole and then use the

screwdriver to position it into the hole. It can be a real feat to do it sometimes, and

this is one reason some manufacturers went to the removable racks. If you have amagnetic screwdriver that can hold the screw, this might be less of a problem for

you.


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4. If using a removable drive rack, you can now install the rack back into your case.Some racks are fastened into place using a simple thumb lever. Others need to bescrewed in.

5. If you have any other hard drives which you are installing as you build your PC,then repeat the 4 steps above for the other drive.

6.

Attach the power cable. Choose an unused power lead from the power supply andplug it into the power plug on the hard drive. The plug will be keyed so that it will

only go in the correct way. SATA power connectors are thin and black; they are

obviously different from other white Molexes.7. Attach the ribbon cable to the hard drive. The ribbon cable goes from the primary

IDE controller of the motherboard to the drive, usually labeled IDE1. Make sure

the red edge of the ribbon cable is aligned with Pin 1 on the drive ribbonconnector. If you cant see Pin 1 marked, then it is almost always the pin closest

to the power connector. If you place the cable on backwards, you may get strange

errors that make your new drive sound like it has died already. As for the cableitself, usually you have two plugs closer together on one end of the cable and then

a third plug on the far end of the cable. The far plug plugs into the motherboard.Of the two remaining cables, there are no requirements as to which plug to use on

which hard drive. If you are only installing one hard drive, just use whichever oneof those plugs reaches the drive best without stretching the ribbon cable out. If

you are installing two hard drives, then plan it out so that you can use both

connectors in whichever order works best. With SATA the ribbon cable goes toan SATA controller. Start with SATA_1 and move on if you have multiple drives.

SCSI Drives

If you are opting for a SCSI drive setup, then there are a few minor variations from theprocedure above. First, you need to install a SCSI controller into one of your expansion

slots (unless your motherboard has an integrated SCSI controller). Then proceed:

1. You need to set any switches or jumpers that need setting on the new drive. InSCSI setups, each device gets its own SCSI ID, numbered 1-7. #7 is usually given

to the adapter card. You may pick, then, any other unused address. You may need

to take into account any little quirks in your adapter, such as special likings toother addresses that could cause problems a little later. Youll need the manual for

this one.

2. Check for the correct termination. In SCSI setups, the adapter can hold up toseven SCSI devices. These devices are hooked up in a chain, usually with the

adapter at one end and another device at the other end. This ending device must

be set to be the terminating device, therefore ending the SCSI chain and making acomplete electric circuit. In some cases, the adapter is in the middle of the chain,

therefore you must terminate at both ends of the chain. You may need to consult

the manual for any special termination techniques particular to your brand ofdrive. In general, a certain jumper setting will enable internal termination on the

drive itself, eliminating the need for a special terminating plug.


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3. The procedure for actual installation is the same as the procedure above for IDEdrives.

STEP 14 : Install the CD-ROM(s)Whether you are installing a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, a CD-R/RW, or even a DVD-

R/RW, each of these drives install the same way. The installation is quite simple.

1. Choose which drive bay you wish to install the drive in.2. If you have not yet removed the drive bay cover, do so now. This is usually done

by pushing two tabs together and pushing the plate out from the front of the case.

As I mentioned in the case preparation step, if you have a metal plate covering

this bay that has not been removed, you will need to pry it out before you caninstall the drive. When you are done, the drive bay should be open from the front

of the case.

3. If your case makes use of drive rails to hold the drive into place (the case we areusing does use such rails), then fasten these drive rails to the sides of the CD

drive. In order to determine which set of holes is the one to use, it may benecessary to temporarily slide the drive into the drive bay. However you decide to

do it, the drive rails should be positioned such that when the drive is put into placein the case, it will be flush with the front of the case rather than being recessed or

sticking out.

4. Slide the drive into position. Most of the time this is done from the front. If youinstalled drive rails in step 3, then make sure those rails are lined up with the drive

rack as you push the drive in. Then push the drive all the way in until the clips on

the drive rails snap into place. At that point, you can skip the next step and moveto step 7.

5. If you are not using drive rails, then you will simply have the drive in place, butnot fastened down inside the case. At this time, screw the drive into place. You

might want to just place the screws in but not tighten them. This is done so that

you can slide the drive out again later. When installing the cables later, you mayneed to slide the drive out a few inches so that you have enough room to work

behind the drive. In many cases, especially mini-towers, one can have a hard time

working behind the CD-ROM because it is pinned up against the front of the

power supply. Sometimes it is helpful to put the case on its side as you tighten thedrive into place.

6. When tightened into place, make sure the front of the drive is flush with the frontof the case. If the front bezel is off the case on installation, make sure you dontmake the mistake of making the drive flush with the case frame. It needs to stick

out a little so it will be flush with the bezel when you re-attach it. Also make sure

it appears straight. While this doesnt really affect functionality, its a matter ofaesthetics. If the drive is in too far or sticking out too far, go ahead and re-adjust it

now.

7. Attach the power supply to the drive. Just like a hard drive, just find a free 4-wirepower plug and plug it into the power connector on the CD-ROM.

8. Attach the ribbon cable. Connect one of the two available plugs on the ribboncable to the CD drive. Just choose the plug which can reach the drive best. If you


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have two CD drives, use the plug on the end of the ribbon cable for the top most

drive, and the middle plug for the next lowest CD drive. Attach the plug on the farend of the ribbon cable to the secondary IDE port on the motherboard (usually

labeled IDE2). Just like connecting any other drive, you must ensure that Pin 1 on

the connector is lined up with the red edge of the cable. Pin 1 is usually marked in

some way on the drive and on the motherboard both. Sometimes, it is just a smallmark on one corner of the cable connection port, and that indicates that that

corner pin is your pin 1.

9. Attach the Audio Cable. This small 3-wire connector goes from an Audio plugon the back of the CD-ROM to a 3-pin plug on the sound card. If you happen to

have on-board audio circuitry on your motherboard, the CD-IN plug will be on

your motherboard and you can connect this now. Since you likely do not have asound card installed at this point, you can connect one end of this cable now to the

CD drive and leave the other end free to connect once the sound card is installed.

Some CD drives have both an analog and a digital audio out. Most of the time,people just use the standard analog audio, but if you wish, go ahead and use the

digital. Your drive should come with audio cables for both options.

STEP 15 : I nstall The Video Card

You must have a video card installed in order to complete this tutorial so that you can see

the output from your new PC once you turn it on. Installing a video card (or anyexpansion card for that matter) is incredibly straight-forward and easy.

1. Find an expansion slot ideal for your video card. You can consult the bottom rightimage for a look at the three types of video card slot types: ISA, PCI or AGP.

Most video cards in use today are using the AGP slot, which uses the topmost slot(usually brown) on your motherboard. Other cards use the PCI bus, which most

motherboards have several of and the slots are usually white. The very old video

cards use the larger ISA bus, but it is unlikely you will be using this type of videocard unless you are building a PC out of incredibly outdated hardware.

2. Remove the case insert that corresponds to the slot on the motherboard. This isusually done by unscrewing, but some cases have punch out inserts. If unclear,

what we are referring to by insert is the small plate which covers up the rearslots on your case which your expansion cards will emerge from.

3. Insert the video card in the slot. You might need to rock the card in, inserting oneend first, then rocking the rest of the pins into place. The old ISA cards may betougher because of their length. You might not be able to rock them. Most of you,

though, will not be dealing with ISA video cards anymore. When pushing down,

make sure the motherboard does not flex. If the board tends to bend, it may benecessary to place one hand underneath the board to hold it up. Also, in some

cases, you may have a problem with the leading edge of the video cards metal

plate hitting the case behind the motherboard. The result is that it keeps you frombeing able to push the card in all the way. Ive tried all sorts of weird crap to fix

this problem, including taking pliers to the card and actually bending it.

Sometimes, you can grab a flat-head screwdriver and pry the hole wider that the


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cards lip protrudes into. But, in most cases, just playing with it for a bit will do

the trick. It might also be worth noting here that AGP video cards are typicallyinstalled upside down, meaning the circuitry side of the video card will face

down. ISA and PCI cards are usually installed right side up.

4. With the video card inserted into the correct slot, it will probably sit there with nosupport at all. It is still, though, necessary to tighten it in using a screw. The cardsmetal plate will have a notch for a screw and it will line up with a screwhole on

the side of the expansion hole on the rear of the case. Just insert a screw into that

hole and tighten it.5. Double-check your work. Make sure the card is securely in place and, if your

video card has a cooling fan on it, make sure no ribbon cables or power leads are

getting into the fan blades.

STEP 16 : Post-Assembly

Well, you have gotten this far. Congratulations! You have now completed the hardware

portion of putting together your PC.

Admittedly, if you are following this tutorial to the letter, your PC is rather bare-boned atthis point. It is highly likely you will be installing some additional hardware such as a

network interface card (NIC), a sound card, maybe a dial-up modem or other hardware.

Some people like to install everything right away. Usually when I build a PC, I like tostart with the basics. The reason is that it makes the installation process of your operating

system easier. Once you have your operating system installed, you can then go in and

install your additional hardware and get those items working one at a time. It can be alittle daunting to try to get everything working at the same time, especially

simultaneously to installing the operating system itself.

Now, you are about ready to turn your new PC on for the first time. But before we do so

we need to give everything the once over and make sure we didnt miss something. So,with a flashlight, check all of your work. It is better to waste the time than to engage in

wasted time trying to track down why the system will not boot.

Review all your connections and installations as completed in prior steps. Here is abulleted list of highlights to guide you:

Drives properly connected to the power supply CPU fan attached to the power supply or to the power connector on the

motherboard If this is an older AT machine, ensure the P8 and P9 main power connectors are

installed properly, with black wires in middle.

The 110/220 volt switch on the back of the power supply is configured properlyfor your area

Ribbon cables attached correctly and securely. If using rounded cables, the arrowon the connectors indicating Pin 1 should be aligned with Pin 1 on all drive

connections. On gray cables, ensure the red edge is aligned with Pin 1.


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All connections tight, no connectors off by one set of pins If there are any key motherboard settings which are jumper-controlled, ensure

these settings are correct

No wires or ribbon cables protruding into fan blades Power switch connector on ATX machines properly connected to the PWR_SW

pins on the motherboard. If this is not properly done, the machine may not eventurn on when the switch is pressed.

STEP 17 : Initial Boot-Up

It is time for the moment of truth. To see if this thing works!!

1. Lets get everything connected and prepared to turn it on:2. Connect your mouse and keyboard3. Connect your monitor to the video card and connect the power cord to the

monitor.

4. Connect the power cord to your power supply on the PC itself.Okay, now for boot up time!

1. Stick your system disk into the A: drive. You should have prepared or gotten asystem disk in the first step of this tutorial. If you are using a bootable CD-ROM

(as is the case with Windows XP) then just stand by on this because the CD drivewill not be openable until the power is on.

2. Turn your monitor on and let it heat up a few seconds before proceeding. Heatingit up for a few seconds ensures you dont miss any potential error messagesbecause the CRT tube is not ready to display an image.

3. Before hitting the power switch, take note of what to expect. If you noticesomething awry right away, you may need to quickly turn the PC back off. Hereswhat to look for:

a. The power LED should turn on

b. The CPU and PSU fans should start spinning

c. The hard drive should power up.

d. You will see the video BIOS screen first, then you will see the BIOS screen and

it will proceed to count the memory.

e. You may hear one beep from the PC speaker. It is possible you will get more

than one beep, which indicates an error which we will address.

f. You may also get a CMOS checksum error or another error saying the CMOS

or time isnt set.


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first walk you through the necessary steps, then I will go over some of the other settings

you may see that you dont need to mess with at this point.

When you get into CMOS for the first time, do the following:

1. Go into your Standard CMOS Setup screen. Ensure your video settings are correct(typically EGA/VGA) and that your floppy disk is properly set to the size you areusing (usually 1.44M). You will see settings for IDE Primary/Secondary

Master/Slave. If these items are not already properly set for the hardware you

have, have the BIOS auto-detect your drives for you. Also, set the date and timeto the correct settings.

2. Unless your board has jumper-controlled processor and voltage settings, you willneed to set these options in your CMOS now. In our Soyo board, the screen to gointo is called Soyo COMBO Feature. It may be called SoftMenu or some

other term on your board. Consult the manual to find out if you cant see it. Once

in that screen, you need to set your system bus speed, CPU multiplier, memorytiming speeds, CPU voltage, etc. Many of these options have an AUTO setting

which is the safest choice if you dont know otherwise. Some other systems havea list of possible processors, in which case just choose yours from the list. On our

testbed Soyo board, this screen was also used for enabling or disabling onboardsound, RAID, and 10/100 LAN and if your board has similar settings, you can set

this to your liking. For example, if you will be using a sound card of your own,

you would need to disable the built-in sound on your motherboard. If you haveonboard SCSI or onboard RAID capability, then set these depending on whether

you will be using them or not.

3. Confirm your boot order. One of the screens in your CMOS (many times theAdvanced Features screen) will have a boot order option. This controls the order

in which the PC will look for a copy of something to boot off of, whether it is afull operating system or just a diskette or CD. In a little bit you will be installing

your full operating system and will need to boot the system beforehand. If you are

using a standard system diskette, make sure A: (or your floppy) is enabled to befirst in line. In this case, you might want to also check to be sure that if there is a

setting to disable seeking out the floppy altogether, that is set to indeed seek out

the floppy drive (some people set this to off so as to make the boot process faster,

but you cannot do that while building). If you are going to be booting from a CD(as is probably the case if you will be installing Windows XP) then make sure

your CD-ROM is first in line.

Those are the basics of what you will need to set in order to continue with this tutorial

and have your PC set properly. Now, I will give a brief rundown of some of the other

settings you may see. This is by no means meant to be a complete reference, as all boardsare different. Your motherboards manual is your best reference to the settings you need

to concern yourself with.


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Advanced BIOS Features

This section controls some of basic operating settings of your PC. For example, you will

enable/disable things such as on-board cache, determine the boot device, etc. Here are

some of the common settings:

Virus Protection/Warning: Will scan your hard drive boot sector on startup forviruses and alarm you if anything attempts to write to the boot sector. Enable for

increased security, but disable to avoid the annoyance. If you are using a third-party antivirus utility (or plan to) then this is useless.

Cache Settings: These settings control L1 and L2 cache, which in most newersystems resides on the processor itself. In almost all cases, this is enabled and

should be. If there is an option to have ECC error checking on the L2 cache, goahead and have it enabled.

Quick POST: This will allow the BIOS to skip some tests such as the memory teston boot-up, thus allowing the PC to boot faster. You can disable it for the sake of

thoroughness, and this is fine if you leave your PC on most of the time. But, ifyou turn it on a lot, this is an annoyance and Id recommend enabling Quick

POST.

Boot Sequence: This controls the order in which the PC looks at the drives forbootable information. Sometimes the BIOS will have one field for this and you

scroll through the options. Other versions have separate settings for First Boot

Device, Second Boot Device and so on. This was addressed above.

Boot Up Floppy Seek: Controls whether the floppy drive will be looked for at all.Set this to enabled, at least until you get your operating system installed

Swap Floppy Drive: Allows you to control the assigning of the A and B driveletters to your floppy drives by swapping the order that is dictated by the twist in

the floppy drive ribbon cable. Most of the time this is disabled. Fast A20 Gate: The gate A20 is a device used for addressing memory above the 1

MByte mark (dont really need to get into that here). This used to be controlled by

the keyboard via a pin. Keyboards still play a role in this today, but you control it

via the BIOS. Some BIOS have enable/disable, some have Normal/Fast. I wouldgo ahead and leave it at the default.

Typematic Rate Settings: These options control the rate at which holding down akey on the keyboard will produce characters on screen. Just leave it disabled as it

isnt very important.

Boot Numlock: Enable to have Numlock on when you start the computer. CPU Serial Number: Enables or disables the serial number thing in some older

Intel CPUs. Privacy buffs, disable it. Security Option: Some systems have an option to require a password every time

the system boots up. Youll probably want this disabled.

Video BIOS Shadow: - Disable. OS Select For DRAM > 64MB: Set to Non-OS2. This is an archaic setting. HDD SMART Capability: Set to disabled. It is only useful if you have software

running which monitors the status of the hard drives.


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Small Logo Show: Controls whether the little EPA logo is shown on your bootup.Disable. Sometimes there is a small select option, too, for selecting which logo

will be shown.

Advanced Chipset Features

This area of the BIOS allows you to control certain aspects of your motherboard which

are specific to the chipset on your board. This would include bus speeds and memory

issues. Some boards place their controls for processor, bus speed into this screen as well.I address that in more detail above. Most of the time, you dont need to worry about

anything in here for the sake of this tutorial. But, a general outline:

Chipset Special Features: Disable. Not all BIOS have this. L2 Cache size: If this option exists, set it to match the size of your external cache. DRAM Parity Checking: Enable only if using parity memory Dram parity/ECC mode: Parity if using parity memory, ECC if using ECC

memory Memory Timings: This area allows you to control the speed of the memory. On

Via chipsets, it will usually also display the processor bus speed and the DRAMbus speed, allowing you to set the memory to operate on the Host Clock or BY

SPEED. You can set the memory speed manually or have it run at the same speed

as the system bus. If you are using SDRAM, you can also control the CASlatency, which is usually best left at default unless youre a real tweaker.

AGP Mode: Controls the AGP Mode, such as 1X, 2X, 4X or 8x. Set to Auto ifavailable, or whatever it is set to already.

AGP Frequency: Set to 66MHz. AGP Aperture: Controls how much of the PCI memory address range will be

dedicated to graphics memory space. Usually, 64MB is fine, but you can set it towhatever you want.

DRAM Frequency: Set to the speed of your memory System BIOS Cacheable: Only valid when the system BIOS is shadowed. It can

speed up access to the BIOS, but because the OS rarely needs to look at the BIOS,

enabling this does not cause much benefit. Disable.

Power Management

This section should be fairly straight-forward to even the novice user, and you should be

able to use your manual to best describe the settings. I usually leave everything in here

default and you should for now, too. Youre just trying to get the PC working at thispoint, not fine-tuning every little aspect of the BIOS.

Integrated Peripherals

IDE HDD Block Mode: Speeds up hard disk access by transferring data frommultiple sectors at once instead of using the old single sector transfer mode. When

you enable it, the BIOS will automatically detect if your hard disk supports block


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transfers and configure the proper block transfer settings for it. Up to 64KB of

data can be transferred per interrupt with IDE HDD Block Mode enabled. Sincevirtually all hard disks now support block transfers, there is normally no reason

why IDE HDD Block Mode should not be enabled.

Master/Slave PIO Mode: This function allows IDE drive to transfer severalsectors at a time. Several modes are possible. Mode 0 means one sector at a time.Mode 1 is no interrupts. Mode 2 means sectors are transferred in a single burst.

Mode 3 means 32-bit instructions at up to 11.1 MB per sec. Mode 4 is 16.7

MB/sec. and Mode 5 is up to 20 MB/sec. Standard for most drives today is PIOMode 4. But, many BIOSs offer an AUTO setting that will automatically make

the best call for your drive. These modes must be set for each drive, including

primary master, slave, secondary master, slave.

Master/Slave UltraDMA: Set to Auto. Enable if your drives are UDMA capable.Keep in mind that to use this feature also requires it to be set up via the operating

system.

On-Chip PCI IDE, or IDE Controller: Used to either enable or disable either ofyour on-board IDE controllers. You can disable one of these if you do not need it,freeing up resources. For example, if IDE-2 is unused, you can disable it, thus

freeing up IRQ 15 so something else can use it.

USB Controller: Enable or disable your motherboards on-board USB controller. USB Keyboard Support: Many boards have a separate setting for USB keyboards,

so you will need to enable this if you use one.

USB Mouse Support: Same as keyboard, but sometimes you see one for mice,too.

Onboard 1394: Enable or disable your onboard Firewire capability FDD Controller: Enable or disable your motherboards on-board floppy disk

controller. You probably want this enabled.

OnBoard Serial Port: Used to enable or disable the serial ports. Setting to AUTOwill usually default to IRQ 4, and 3F8 (COM 1) or IRQ 3 and 2F8 for COM 2.Disabling will, of course, free up the IRQs.

Onboard IR Function: If you have an infrared device connected to themotherboard, you can enable IR here. IrDA (HPSIR) mode, ASK IR (Amplitude

Shift Keyed IR) mode, and disabled are the available options. Sometimes youmight see an SCR mode, for smart card readers. Choose the mode used by your

IR device. This setting is usually linked to Serial port 2, so if that is disabled, this

option may not show up. Sometimes this option is called UART Mode.

Duplex Mode: This will determine full duplex or half duplex transfer modes foryour IR port, if enabled.

Parallel Port: There are four options. The default value is Normal (SPP) whichwill work with all parallel port devices but is very slow. Two faster bidirectionalmodes are available, namely the ECP (Extended Capabilities Port), used for

devices with large data transfers, and EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port), for devices

that switch directions a lot. ECP uses the DMA protocol to achieve data transfer

rates of up to 2.5Mbits/s and provides symmetric bidirectional communication.On the other hand, EPP uses existing parallel port signals to provide asymmetric


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bidirectional communication. There is usually an EPP+ECP mode for users who

dont know which mode to choose, but this can also take up an extra IRQ.

ECP Mode use DMA: Controls the DMA channel used for ECP transfers. DMA 3is default. You can set to 1 if there are conflicts.

Init Display First: Used to control whether to initialize an AGP or a PCI videocard first on start-up. Only relevant to users who use both types of video cardswith one monitor.

Power On Function: Some motherboards allow you to turn on the system via avariety of alternative ways other than the normal power switch. Examples includemouse buttons, button only (normal), or by keyboard. Select whichever option

you want.

PnP/PCI Configuration

This section controls some of the various aspects of plug and play and the PCI bus. Muchof it will not need to be touched at this point, but a couple items bear mentioning:

PNP OS Installed: If all your operating systems support Plug & Play (PnP), selectYes so that they can take over the management of device resources. If you areusing a non-PnP-aware OS or not all of the operating systems you are using

support PnP, select No to let the BIOS handle it instead. Some say that it is best to

leave this option set to No regardless of whether your OS is PNP-capable or not.

The reason is that when it is set to No, the BIOS will attempt to resolve anyresource conflicts. If it is set to Yes, even if a conflict is detected, the BIOS will

ignore it. So, setting it to Yes provides a bit of a safety net, and it will not affect

the ability of the OS to perform PNP on its own.

Reset Configuration Data (Force Update ESCD): ESCD (Extended SystemConfiguration Data) is a feature of the Plug & Play BIOS that stores the IRQ,DMA, I/O and memory configurations of all the ISA, PCI and AGP cards in the

system (PnP or otherwise). Normally, you should leave the setting as Disabled. Ifyou encounter serious problems with the installation of a new PCI card, these

settings can help bail you out. Such a conflict could be serious enough that the OS

may not start. If this happens, you can go into the BIOS and enable this option.Next time the PC boots, the BIOS will go and re-configure the settings for all

PNP cards. The BIOS will automatically reset this setting to DISABLED next

time you boot.

Resources Controlled By: Normally, the BIOS controls the IRQ and DMAassignments of all of the boot and PNP devices in the system. When this option is

set to AUTO, this is what happens, and the ESCD is the mechanism for doing it.If you set this option to Manual, you will be able to manually assign all IRQ andDMA information, usually via a sub-screen of the BIOS that will enable if you set

this option to Manual.

PCI/VGA Palette Snoop: This option is only useful if you use an MPEG card oran add-on card that makes use of the graphics cards Feature Connector. It

corrects incorrect color reproduction by snooping into the graphics cards

framebuffer memory and modifying (synchronizing) the information delivered


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from the graphics cards Feature Connector to the MPEG or add-on card. It will

also solve the problem of display inversion to a black screen after using theMPEG card.

Assign IRQ for VGA: Many high-end graphics accelerator cards now require anIRQ to function properly. Disabling this feature with such cards will cause

improper operation and/or poor performance. Thus, its best to make sure youenable this feature if you are having problems with your graphics accelerator card.

Assign IRQ for USB: Assigns an IRQ to the USB controller. It enables or disablesIRQ allocation for the USB (Universal Serial Bus). If you are using AGP, this

should be enabled. If you are not, you can disable this to free up an IRQ.

PC Health

This might be called by a bunch of different names, but it is the section of the BIOS (if it

has it) that monitors things like fan speed, CPU temperature, voltage levels, etc. You may

also be able to set a shut down temperature, so if the CPU gets way too hot, the system

would shut itself down for safety.

Defaults

Many BIOS versions have pre-set sets of default values which you can pre-load. Some

have fail-safe defaults and optimized defaults. If you dont wish to mess with any of

the above, you can use these options to set the BIOS info up to certain sets of settings inone or two button clicks.

Passwords

Most BIOS versions have security options to allow for user or supervisor passwords.Most people do not use them. But, if you do, just make sure you record the password. If

you lose it, youll have to reset your whole BIOS to get your system back.

Save and Exit the BIOS setup program. This will reboot the machine. Make sure your

system disk is still in Drive A:.

STEP 19 : Test The System

At the end of the previous step, you saved your CMOS settings and the system rebooted.

You should have had a system disk or CD in the boot drive so that the PC booted itself

properly. If you got an error to the effect of Missing Operating System, then you likelydid not remember to put the system disk into the drive or the system disk is not valid andbootable. If it is not a bootable system disk, you will need to get one before pressing

forward. More modern operating systems like Windows XP come with CDs which

themselves are bootable, in which case just make sure the CD is in the CD-ROM. If youare still having problems, verify your boot order was set correctly in CMOS in the

previous step. Remember, if you are trying to boot from a diskette, your floppy drive


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must be set as the first boot device. If you want to boot from CD, your CD-ROM must be

set as the first boot device.

Assuming you handled that properly, the PC should be up and running and you are either

sitting at a command prompt or some other screen dictated by your bootable CD or

diskette. Now that the PC is just sitting there running, it is a good time to test a few thingsbefore proceeding further. Check the following:

1. Check the LEDs on the front of the case. During boot-up, the HDD LED shouldlight. If it does, it is connected properly to the motherboard. If not, try reversingthe leads on the LED plug, or just turning it around. You can also check that the

power LED lights and that the turbo LED lights, if it is connected.

2. Check the hard drive. Make sure it is spinning.3. Check the fans. Make sure the CPU fan, power supply fan, and case fan(if you

have one) are all spinning without any wires in the way. If your video card

happens to have a fan, make sure it spins freely as well.4. Make sure the CD-ROM has power by hitting the eject button and seeing if it

opens.5. Hit the reset button to be sure it works. While it reboots, check to be sure all thedata on the BIOS splash screen is correct to your system.

6. Let the system run for 10-15 minutes. While it is running, go into your CMOSsetup again and go to the PC Health screen so that you can monitor the CPU

temperatures while it is running. The purpose in doing this is to ensure that theprocessor is being adequately cooled and will not lead to instability. If you

choose, you can also - CAREFULLY - ground yourself and then reach in and

gently touch the sides of the CPU and heat sink as it is running. If the heat sink islukewarm to the touch (not too hot to touch) then it is doing its job properly.

During this testing period, you can just let the PC run for a bit. If, after severalminutes, the heat sink gets too hot or the temperature readouts become

abnormally high, or if the PC Health screen freezes and you cannot do anything

with the keyboard, then you likely have a cooling issue with your processor. Youare either running a cooling fan which is not adequate for your processor or there

is an issue with inadequate heat transfer between the processor and the heat sink,

which means you might need to re-install the processor and do a better job of

using heat sink compound this time.

Okay, now that we are pretty sure the hardware portion of this tutorial is a done deal, lets

move into setting your hard disks up.

STEP 20 : Prepare the Hard Drive(s)

Before we can install your operating system to your hard drive, that drive must be

prepared for use. In order to use your hard drive, it must be partitioned and formatted. If

you are building a system and putting a previously used hard drive into it, you may notneed to perform this step. But, on any new hard drive or one you are just trying to start

over with, you will need to do this. If you are installing Windows XP, all formatting,

partitioning and installation work from the XP CD. You should have your first boot


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device be the CDROM already. Insert the disk and reboot the system. Windows Setup

will begin. Then, skip down to the step on Windows XP Installation. If you are installinga legacy OS, then proceed.

Many retail hard drives come with their own utilities for setting up their hard drives. For

example, Maxtor hard drives are packaged with a utility called MaxBlast. MaxBlast itselfserves as a bootable disk for your system, and after booting the system up it will move

directly into the first step of its wizard to set up your drive. These kinds of setup are very

convenient and will walk you right through both partitioning and formatting the drives. Ifyour hard drive came with such software, then I recommend you use that software and

follow the manual that came with your drive. And, in that case, simply follow the

manufacturers steps and you can proceed to the next step in this tutorial after doing so.

If you are using an OEM hard drive or one you happened to have around already, you

may not have any software for it. So you will need to set your drive up the old-fashionedway. Heres how:

HARD DRIVE PREP - THE OLD FASHION WAY

Partitioning is done using the FDISK command. FDISK is a plain-jane, text-only utility

that comes on most Windows/DOS setups. FDISK should be included on your system

disk and when you use it, it will actually be run off of the floppy drive. If, for somereason, your system disk does not have FDISK.EXE on it, get one that does.

Take a little time to plan your partitions. Do you want one large partition for the entiredrive? Or do you want to separate it into different drive volumes? If you have FAT32, it

is very popular to create one partition for the entire drive. Otherwise, if you are using adrive larger than 2G, you will have to separate it into more than one partition. Also, keep

in mind that smaller partitions lead to smaller clusters, thus less slack or wasted disk

space. With almost any modern operating system (Im thinking Windows here) you willwant to use the FAT32 file system. When you go into FDISK, it will ask if you want to

enable Large Disk Support, and you do if youre using any OS Windows 98 or newer.

So, start.

1. Type fdisk at the command prompt. If it does not work, it is because your harddrive is not attached properly or you may be missing FDISK.EXE on your systemdisk.

2. It will ask if you wish to enable Large Disk Support, and in most cases, you will.Type Y and proceed.

3. Next, you will see 4 menu options. If you already have partitions on this harddrive, you can choose option 4 to view the current partition setup and decide if

you want to change it. For a brand new drive (which Im assuming for the purposeof this tutorial), youll need to start from scratch.

4. Some information: The first partition is your primary DOS partition. This is yourC: drive and cant be divided. This is also called the active partition. You can only


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have one active partition. The second partition is optional. It is called an extended

partition. This is the space left over after the primary partition. Then, logical DOSdrives are created within the extended partition, each having a letter by which you

will refer to it.

5. First you have to setup a primary DOS partition. Choose Option 1 (Create DOSpartition or Logical DO

Documents

Build Your Own PC.pdf