GUIDE → Computer Assembly

[TWINTURBOSkyline]

Welcome to the how to assemble your own PC thread. Even if you read this thread you should still RTFM as your hardware will most likely be different to what was used in the making of this thread.

Firstly before you go, you need a lab to assemble a PC and like solderin ions n stuff, no you dont. Mostly its like a set of lego and this guide will hopefully show you what i mean.

Anywayz first up is to get all your hardware out of the packages and such
The PC that will be assembled for this demonstration is pretty old, however theres not too much difference between it and newer PCs, just some different connectors and such.

Anywayz what we have here is
PIII 800MHz
3 sticks of PC133 SDRAM
3 IDE hard drives
1 CD-RW drive
AGP radeon 7000 64mb
PGA 370 mobo
PCI 10/100 LAN card
Generic 350W PSU
POS case
And a rear 80mm fan



We also need some assembley tools, in this example I will be using my good ol multi tip screw driver



First timers who are nervous may like to use one of those earthing devices which discharge static



To use the static discharger thing you strap it onto your wrist then connect the alligator clip to the case like so



First up is getting the case ready, the first part of this is to install the rear plate for the mobo, your mobo should come with this plate. There may also be one that comes pre installed with the case, mostly the ones that come with the case aren’t even the right shape to support your mobo so knock it out and install the one from your mobo.



Next up in preparing the case is to put in the spacers in the appropriate places. The spacers hold your mobo in position and stop it from shorting itself out on the back plate.
Install the spacers in appropriate positions on the backplate to fit your mobo.



After this we place the mobo into the case and screw it down. Once this is done its time to give the computer a heart, AKA CPU.
In this example I have a PIII 800MHz CPU which is a PGA 370. Those with LGA775 CPUs will have a difference procedure to mount toe CPU, in this case you should just RTFM to find out how to mount your CPU.



For a typical PGA CPU, firstly pull the lever on the socket up, next insert the CPU into the socket and finally push the lever back down



Next up you mount the HSF or other cooling mechanism on the CPU, you will need to refer to the appropriate manual for instructions in this as nearly every socket has a different mounting method.



And then plug the fan into the the CPU fan header



The next step in assembling your PC is to install the RAM DIMMs. This is done by placing the RAM stick into the socket then pushing down on the DIMM until it locks into place.



Repeat this procedure until all DIMMs are installed



The next step I took in the assembly of the PC was to install the expansion cards, however due to modern graphics cards being larger it may be a good idea for you to secure the hard drives and optical drives into their appropriate bays.
The first card to install is the graphics card, this usually fits into the top expansion card socket but not always. Check your manual to figure out where it goes.
Firstly push the card into the slot



Next screw in the expansion card to secure it




Repeat this with all other expansion cards to be installed, in this example there was also a PCI LAN card



The next part is to setup the switches, front LEDs and internal speaker. You do this by taking the wires from for each of these parts and checking the label. You then plug them into the appropriate pins on the mobo, the pins should be labeled but if there is any confusion just RTFM.





The next step, if you didn’t do it before installing the expansion cards, is to sort out your hard drives and optical drives. The system assembled as the example here has several IDE drives so I found it useful to sort out which ones are to be master and which ones to be slave.
For those who do now know each IDE port supports upto 2 drives, one must be set to master and the other one to slave otherwise problems occur. Unlike IDE your hard drives probably use SATA which has a maximum of 1 drive per channel and thus has no master/slave settings. However your optical drive probably still does use IDE, if you have only one drive on an IDE channel set it to master.
To set master/slave drives there is a jumper on the back of the drive, there will be instructions on how to set this jumper for the appropriate mode somewhere on the drive. Make sure you set up all IDE jumpers correctly before inserting the drives into the case.



Now that all the jumpers are sorted out on the IDE drives you install them into their appropriate bays inside the case. Screw them down to secure them in position or if you have a case with an alternative tool free retention mechanism you may use that instead, your choice.
Nextly insert the mobo end of the IDE cable into the mobo, if you are unsure which end goes into the mobo look for the 2 heads in the cable with the longer space between them. Out of those 2 heads the one at the end of the cable plugs into the mobo.




And now insert the other heads of the cable into the drives



Now its time to install any additional fans or other fancy extras like cold cathodes or LED spreads. And finally its time to install the PSU, the sucker that’ll allow the entire thing to run. To install the PSU hold insert it where its meant to go, for most cases this is in the top rear of the case, however some people like Komet have weird cases that put the PSU elsewhere. For this thread I will assume such freaks of society don’t exist and that the PSU always goes in the top rear of the case .
Anywayz then you screw the PSU in from the back to secure it.



Now to plug in all the internal power cables
Firstly there is the, in this case, 20 pin ATX power cable which plugs into the mobo. Newer mobos will have a 24pin ATX power cable but it looks the same only with 4(duh) more pins. You may also have a 4pin mobo 12v cable, if so then be sure to plug that in aswell.



Now plug in the molex connectors on the drives



Also plug in any other power cables you need to plug in, these could include PCIe power connectors, SATA power connectors or FD power connectors.



And there she is, a beauty to behold. Well not really but then again your components will probably be new or atleast not over 3 years old.
Anywayz I hope this thread was useful for helping you figure out the basics in PC building. It is also a good idea to check out my thread on cable management to make the inside of your PC look nice and Komets thread on setting up your fans for the best cooling effect in your case.
Anywayz GLHF with making your own PC and may the force be with you

[TWINTURBOSkyline]

LGA775:A new was of doing the CPU socket
Now how to install it

With the popular release of Core2Duo everybodys favourite CPU manufacturer, intel, is now back on top where they should be. A while back intel had a great idea for revolutionising the CPU socker and HSF mounting mechanism. Before this all intel and AMD CPUs had either been soldered onto the mobo or attached using a PGA, using a retention mechanism more or less the same to the one shown earlier with the PGA370 board and CPU using the lever.



However intel completely revolutionised this, they replaced the pins on the CPU with circular contacts, these contacts could not be clamped down apun by the socket so a new retention system was necessary.

Since core2duo is so popular it seems in order for this guide to have instructions for mounting the CPU and HSF. The CPU that will be used is an LGA775 intel pentium4 530J with OEM cooler. The core2duo cooler will look a little different but it is mounted in the same way.

THE CPU

The CPU retention mechanism was changed with the introduction of LGA775, no longer was the good ol lever locking onto the pins a workable solution. Intel solved this problem by having an iron "clamp" to hold the CPU in place.
This mechanism is quite easy to work, firstly you get rid of the plastic covers that come on all your stuff.

When released your socket looks like this


and your CPU looks like this
[IMG]http://i82.photobucket.com/albums
/j251/lockness_89/775M2.jpg[/IMG]

Steps to install CPU
1. place CPU into socket, make sure you line up the 2 little nodules on the sides of the socket
2. flip over the iron bracket onto the CPU
3. tightenthe mechansim in place my moving the lever, the lever will lock the iron bracket in place on the CPU



The HSF
Now that your CPU is in place its time to cool it, your CPU cooler may vary from the one used here. After market coolers may have completely different retention mechanisms, here I will be demonstrating with an intel OEM cooler shown here



The intel LGA775 HSF uses a series of push in pins to secure the HSF in place. You can see these as the 4 black things around the HSF in the picture above. Each of these push in pins looks like this



On top of each of these pins is an arrow. The pins head can rotate about 90 degrees. When mounting the HSF the arrows should all be in this orientation



The first step in secuting the HSF is to place it on the mobo, aligning the pins with the 4 holes drilled in the PCB.



Nextly you push down on a diagonally opposing pair of pins until they click and lock into place like so



Lastly you push down on the other pair of diagonally opposing pins to completely lock the HSF into place. Last but not least you probably want the HSF to do something like cool your CPU for some reason
To get that fan spinning take the 4pin fan plus and plug it into a fan fan header on your mobo.



Now to avoid questions later, ill also include how to remove the LGA775 HSF
This can be done in 3 relatively simple steps
1. use a screwdriver to rotate the pin heads 90 degrees so that the arrow is pointing in towards the HSF
2. use your fingers to pop the pin head up
3. remove the HSF and unplug the fan header



Hope that helps for those nervous about installing a CPU
If you plan not to use the thermal pad that comes with the HSF but get some proper thermal paste you should read up on how to properly apply that too.