11 Steps to successfully building your PC
Author: Greg Monkiewicz
e-mail: gmonkiewicz@gmail.com

Warning: Some tweaks and steps mentioned in this guide such as overclocking
are ment to be used by experienced users only and not by beginners. I am not
liable for any damage that could have been caused by this guide.
Index of reference:

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Contents:
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1.Body
      Step 1:
      Preparing your case. Get your case ready before you get started

      Step 2:
      Adding power. If your case didn't come with a PSU it is time to install
it now.

      Step 3:
      Preparing your motherboard, installing the backplate and mounting it,.
Screw the motherboard mounts into your case, install the backplate and mount
the motherboard.

      Step4:
      Socketing your processor and adding the memory. Install your CPU and RAM
modules.

      Step 5:
      Arming the switches. Connect the case switches and lights to your
motherboard.

      Step 6:
      Powering external peripherals. If your case and your motherboard have
them, connect them.

      Step7:
      Installing your video card.

      Step 8:
      Taking your computer for a test ride. Giving it a test boot will help
you solve your problems easier than having to deal with all of the hardware at
once.

      Step 9:
      Preparing your hard drives and optical drives. Connecting your hard
devices. Setting jumpers, powering them and connecting them to your
motherboard. Mounting them into your case.

      Step 10:
      Installing the rest of your cards such as your sound card, TV tuner,
etc.

      Step 11:
      Final steps. Connecting any remaining peripherals to the PSU such as
fans. Configure your Bios to have to correct CPU speed and boot drive.

      Vocabulary:
      Don't know what PSU means? Definitions will be listed below.

2. Credits
3. Legal
4. Contact Information

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Step 1:
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Most PC cases are packed with a small amount of hardware. Things such as
screws, standoff mounts, front-mounted USB ports and proper screws for fans
should all be included in a box inside your case. Before continuing any
further you must first remove your case door and pull out that box. Since the
case will be probably laid down on its side to facilitate your job it is
suggested to take off the other side panel in order to prevent it from getting
scratched.

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Step 2:
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If your case didn't come with a PSU (power supply) then you need to install
the one that you bought. Normally there is some sort of mounting bracket
screwed onto the back of the case. You need to first unscrew it, and then
slide the power supply into your case and screw the bracket down.

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Step 3:
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To mount your motherboard you must first install the motherboard mounts into
your case. Each motherboard has a somewhat different standoff configuration.
All that you must do is hold the motherboard close to the tray and note which
holes line up with the holes on the tray. It is important that you do not add
any extra standoffs since short contacts on the back of your motherboard can
render your system unbootable or can either cause permanent damage to your
hardware.
There are dozens of possible backplate configurations, the thing on the back
of your case with holes for the PS/2 USB etc. Each motherboard comes with a
custom plate which can be placed into a standard size hole in your case. It is
to be mounted from the inside. Make sure that is facing the right way. The
PS/2 ports or usually near the PSU.
To install the motherboard you must simply line up its rear connectors at a
rough 45 degree angle and slide it in. Once you have lined up the backplate
and the rear connectors then lower the front edge of the motherboard. And
screw down the motherboard. Make sure not to strip the screws.

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Step 4:
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The most delicate part of assembling your entire system is socketing your
processor. Make sure you are grounded before you handle your CPU. You may
simply touch a metal portion of the case before you pick it up. For the Athlon
and Pentium 4 procedure is simple, but if you have a new Intel LGA775
processor it is more complicated. (later on) The first step that you must do
is lift the little lever beside the socket. The processor will slip into the
socket by itself without any means of force if properly aligned. Once it is
sitting in its socket you can lower the lever back down until you hear it
click. Now you NEED to add thermal paste to the CPU. If you are using a stock
heatsink you may use the thermal pad that is provided. If not, apply a thin
layer of paste to your CPU's heat spreader and smooth it down with a business
card. This is usually as simple as setting the heatsink in the socket, lining
up a couple of clips and snapping them into place.
Intel's new LGA775 CPU is supposed to have a new era of performance by
removing the need for pins in the CPU and reducing resistance. The socket's
life span is a skimpy 25 insertions. Before you handle a processor make sure
you are grounded. Unlock the socket leaver and flip the load plate open.
Remove this plate and keep it in some safe area. If you need to ship the
motherboard back without a processor in it this cover will provide protection.
Pick up the CPU with your fingers and carefully align it with the notches in
the socket. The CPU simply must be inserted straight down into the socket. Be
careful not to drop the processor or let it slide when you seat it since this
little movement will be capable to bend the pins. Once the CPU is seated and
the notches match you finally have to put the load plate back down and lower
the socket lever. Job Done.
Installing the memory, RAM, is very easy. Before you install the memory you
should first consult your motherboard's documentation to determine which slots
need to be filled in order to enable dual-channel mode. Usually the slots are
color coded but this can differ among manufacturers. Examine the Ram and the
memory lot and note that the sticks only go in one way. You must simply line
up the notch in the RAM stick with the slot and then push down on the stick
while applying even force to both ends of the stick until it clicks into
place.

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Step 5:
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To connect the case's buttons and light to your motherboard you will have to
consult your motherboard's manual since each motherboard is different.
Connecting the headers is as simple as lining up the pins and adding a little
amount of force until the wire slides into place. All that is needed to get
your system up and running is the power switch connector. Once you have
connected the reset and power switches it is time for the lights to be plugged
in. It doe not matter which wire goes to which lead for the switches but the
lights require proper polarity. Your manual will be able to tell you which of
the pins are positive and if you do manage to get it backwards nothing will
happen so do not worry.

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Step 6:
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Connecting a USB and FireWire post is extremely easy since case enclosures
include pre-configured connectors for each type of port. All that is needed to
be done is to line up the connectors with the appropriate header on the
motherboard and gently push down. FireWire and USB cables are both keyed so
they won't go in if they are not aligned properly. Sometimes you will find a
case where the USB cables are not in a convenient block but are instead each
separate wire. You must consult your motherboard manual in that case to make
sure that you connect your wires correctly. You must be absolutely certain
that you do not switch the USB and the FireWire headers. If you make a mistake
and plug the wrong device into the wrong port you can destroy both the device
and the motherboard. Many motherboards lack onboard headers for front mounted
FireWire but there is alternative since most Sound Blaster Audigy 2 cards
include internal FireWire headers, When installing the soundcard just slip
your fireWire cable onto the header at the top of the PCI card.

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Step 7:
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To install a video card is simple. First of all you need to remove the slot
cover (metal) that lines up with the AGP or PCI Express slot. If you are
having trouble telling which the video card slot is, you can usually choose
the one closest to your CPU. The trick to installing if to apply an even
gentle push across the length of the board. There should be no need at all to
push hard to get an AGP or PCI Express card into its slot. Just make sure to
line up the card's backplate with the slot and make sure that the card is
level with the slot and gently push the card down into the slot. Once the card
is properly inserted into the slot you must then screw the backplate into the
case and connect any external power from the power supply if needed. If your
graphics card needs multiple power inputs then you should refrain yourself
from using one cable with two ends since it will not deliver enough power.

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Step 8:
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Before installing all of the hardware you should take a moment and power up
your computer to make sure everything is working properly. Make sure that the
ATX power connector is in (the big one) that comes out of your PSU. You cannot
connect it in a wrong fashion since it is keyed. You should also connect the
ATX 12V connector to your motherboard and it too will only fit one way. Verify
that your CPU fan is connected to either a three pin motherboard header marked
CPU or to a four pin Molex connector from your PSU. When all of your power
connectors are in place, connect your keyboard, monitor and power to the
system. You should be able to see the POST screen.

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Step 9:
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Before being able to use your HD you must first consult your case manual and
mount whatever is necessary to install your hard drive in your case. Then you
must configure your hard drive for your machine. There are currently two types
of basic hard drives today. There is the familiar parallel ATA which uses the
wide 80-pi ribbon cable and the new Serial ATA (SATA). Two drives may be
connected to a standard Parallel ATA ribbon while on a SATA cable only one
drive can be connected. Parallel ATA can be either used with Hard Drives or
Optical Drives. They are configured using the master and slave method.
Parallel ATA drives connect to the IDE ports on your mother and each port is
single IDE channel. Your machine will only be able to either read or write to
one drive at a time if you have two drives connected to your IDE ribbon. You
must set up a drive's master/slave setting with plastic jumpers in order to
use either one or two drives. To find the jumper settings simply look at the
device's configuration labeled on it or look in its manual. There are three
main different configurations that you can chose to use for parallel ATA
devices. You can use the Hard Drive and Optical Drive on separate channels
mode which means that each drive has its own channel and at the system can
access both drives at the same time. The performance issue is good when you
are copying big chunks of data from an optical drive to your hard drive. You
can use the Hard Drive on one channel, two optical drives on the second
channel which means that your hard drive is going to be on the primary channel
while the other two optical drives will be sharing the secondary IDE channel.
This is great for optical drive to Hard Drive performance for either drive but
it is pointless to do optical to optical disk copying since both drives share
the same time and only one drive will be able to read or write at a given
time. The last configuration that is possible to use is the each drive on its
own channel mode which would be perfect since each hard drive and optical
drive would have its own IDE channel and all devices would be capable of
working simultaneously. This mode will allow you to do optical to optical
copying without a problem, HD to HD copying and optical to HD copying without
any problems.
The procedure to mount a HD is different in every case. You would most
probably like to slide your hard drive into one of the 3.5 inch bays with the
connector side out. When the drives are in the drive I recommend using two
screws on each side of the drive. If you use less screws then your drive will
be unstable and will be prone to moving around and there is not point of
having more since that is just too much.
To connect your drives you will simply have to connect the power to your hard
drives from your PSU and the data connectors. If you are using SATA drives
then you job is simple. You must simply plug each drive into one of your
motherboard's SATA ports. It is recommended to use the ports built into your
motherboard's chipset for the drive that will contain your bootable version of
Windows. It is possible to find which ports on your motherboard are SATA
controllers since it can be found in your motherboard manual. You should be
careful not to add too much pressure since the SATA controllers are fragile
and can easily break. Some SATA drives offer both types of power connectors,
the four pin Molex and the new SATA connectors. DO NOT USER BOTH CONNECTORS!
since it will fry your drive. You may use either or since it does not really
matter. To insert the cable it is as easy as aligning it with the port and
using even pressure to push the cable into the port. If you are planning on
installing Windows on a parallel drive it is recommended to use native
parallel ATA ports since you will have to suffer the hassle of installing mass
storage controller drivers every time you reinstall windows if you use a RAID
controller.
Configuring your Optical Drive is as easy as configuring It to be the proper
master or slave. To determine what the settings are you should refer to the
top of the drive where normally the configuration is displayed for the
jumpers.
To mount the optical drive you must simply remove the front slot cover from
your case and push in your optical drive in thru the front.
To connect your optical drive you must simply follow the same steps as with
your HD. You must simply connect your power supply and data connectors to the
drive. The old analog or SPDIF connectors on the optical drive are no longer
needed to be connected since all drives can digitally extract CD audio.

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Step 10:
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Installing the rest of your cards such as your sound card, TV tuner, network
card and any other type of card that you may want should be installed with
this simple procedure. First you must remove the slot covers (metal) covers
from your case for the PCI slot you want to use. You may decide to use
whichever one you want since it really doesn't matter. Next line up the card
with the slot, push down on the card evenly into place and then lock it down
using screws.

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Step 11:
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It must feel great to know that you have complete putting all of your
components together but you aren't done yet if you really are a PC enthusiast.
You must first do a complete double check to see if everything is properly
connected and that your cables are tidy by tucking them out of sight which
will improve air flow and tidiness. You then must tweak your BIOS for
Performance and Reliability. You must first press the "del" key or F2 while
computer is POSTing. You should first adjust your memory latencies. These
small settings can yield big performance gains. You can find the memory
timings setting normally in the Advanced Chipset submenu of the main screen.
You must change your "Configure SDRAM Timing by" setting from "SPD"
to "Manual" or "User". SPD uses the default settings which were built into the
chip. The "Manual" or "User" setting allows you to determine the settings for
your RAM Clock, CAS Latency, Row Precharge Timing, RAS Pulse Width, RAS to CAS
Delay and the Bank interleave. Memory speeds are measured in MHz and the
latency is how fast the module can send and receive a request. DDR RAM is
capable of having a CAS latency of 2.0 or 2.5/. To improve performance you
should try lowering your latency values. If your CAS latency is 3.00 you can
try to lower it to 2.5 and see if your system works properly. If it does then
you can try to lower it to 2.0 and see if it can handle those timings too. If
not then move it back up to 2.5. You can try the same with the other settings
as well. To test the stability of your memory you should get yourself a memory
benchmarking utility such as http://www.memtest86.com/Memtest86. The other
main settings that you must tweak before you start installing Windows are the
CPU speed and the boot order. Adjusting the CPU speed is as simple as entering
the appropriate submenu and setting CPU speed to automatic. If you feel
confident you may try to do some overclocking techniques to make the best out
of your processor. You must never forget that to do this you also need
appropriate memory which can take the heat. An important thing to also set in
your BIOS is the boot order which will let it know which hard drive to boot
off first. You should look for a setting labeled "Boot Order" and change the
default order so that your main HD is first. This will allow you to boot off
of the HD without waiting for the optical drives to spin up every time you
boot the system.


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Vocabulary:
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BIOS: Basic Input-Output System
CAS: How quickly a module can send date after receiving a request.
CPU: Central Processing Unit or Computer Processor
DDR: Double Data Rate
Dual-Channel: Running two exact memory modules which boosts performance since
two tasks can be done at any given time. You may write and read information
simultaneously.
HD: Hard Disk Drive
IDE: Intelligent Drive Electronics or Integrated Drive Electronics
MHz: Megahertz
POST: Power On Self-Test
PSU: Power Supply Unit
RAM: Random Access Memory or Computer Memory
SATA: Serial ATA, ATA stands for Advanced Technology Attachment
SDRAM: Synchronous dynamic random access memory
SPD: Speed