How to build your very own PC !!

Introduction

In this tutorial I will try an
teach you how to successfully build your own computer! There are many benefits
to building your own computer.

1. You get hand's on experience learning how a computer works
   
2. Its a hell of alot less expensive then buying one from a retailer
   
3. Its a hell of alot more reliable than buying one from a retailer being that
   you hand select QUALITY parts and put it togethor yourself.
   
4. You can do your own tech support no more relying on stupid Best Buy Tech's
   that don't know the difference between their ass and a hard disk jumper (don't
   worry I'll tell you what those are later)

Section #1 (What Your Going To Need)

Here we will discuss a list of the parts you need and the best place to
purchase them. If you want the best
prices on computer hardware you will
definitly want to look online. Unfortunatly (and for some of you very
fortunatly
if you know what I mean) this requires the use of a credit card.
Below is a general list of the devices you will
need...

1. A Computer Case (Something To Put All The Computer Parts Togethor In)
   
   
   • Should only run you about 50 dollars
     
   • Beware the cheap ones with cheap power supplies they will die in a year
     
   
   
2. A Mother Board (Everything Will Be Plugged Into The Mother Board)
   
3. A Floppy Drive and a CDROM (Should Be Obvious)
   
4. A Hard Disk (Come In Many Different Flavors and Quality Levels, Stores All
   The Information In Your Computer)
   
5. A Video Card (Cheap Stuff, Its What Your Monitor Plugs Into)
   
6. IDE Controller Ribbon
   
7. Miscellaneous Accessories

Next we'll take a look at many of the different options you have when buying
these pieces of equipment. Your choice
may vary depending on which Operating
Systems you plan on running.

Section #2 (Which Brand And Model Should I
Buy?)

We'll lets start with your computer case and move all the way down to
Miscellaneous Accessories..

1. Computer Case

You will most certainly need an ATX style case with a quality power supply.
How do you tell? Well if the case
is only 15-20 bucks theres a pretty good
chance its a crappy power supply.

2. A Mother Board

I suggest a quality ASUS (ATX style to match your computer case) mother board
its up to you ask your friends.
I've had bad experiences personally with
FIC
mother boards.

3. A Floppy Drive and CDROM

Pretty inexpensive stuff, i'd suggest a Sony Floppy drive and a generic
CDROM. Doesn't make too much a difference if your
concerned about getting the
best price.

4. Hard Disks

Gets alittle tricky. If you want reliability,
high speed transfers, and are willing to run Windows I suggest a Western
Digital
or a Seagate ULTRA DMA-66. If your not to concerned with speed and
want to run a server with Unix i'd go with a Fujitsu or
a Western Digital.
Their farely inexpensive but only transfer in 33 megabit bursts as apposed to
the DMA-66 which transfer
in 33 megabit bursts. I don't believe Unix
currently supports ULTRA DMA-66, but don't quote me on that. Now there's an even
faster
transfer rate available via SCSI Hard Disk Controllers, but i'm not
about to go into setting up SCSI controllers in this tutorial.
For now we
will stick with IDE Hard Disk controllers.

5. Video Cards

Video cards are cheap and if your not a gamer a plain ole gener Cirrus Logic
or STB video card will do fine.

6. IDE Controller Ribbon

You'll need 2 different kinds of IDE Ribbon 2 40 pins for your CDROM and Hard
Disk and Another with less pins for your floppy.
You can buy these at any
local computer store or order them off the web.

7. Miscellaneous Stuff

You may be interested in adding a sound card, ethernet card, and/or 3DFX card
to your system. These are relatively easy to do and
I will explain how to add
card's to your mother board later.

Section #3 (Where do I buy all this crap!?)

Well if your looking for the best prices online for computer hardware (and
this is my unbiast opinion) i'd suggest going to
http://www.pricewatch.com
again ask your friends maybe they know a better place. Pricewatch.com researchs
the best prices
on computer hardware.

Section #4 (Lets Assemble!)

This next part is very important so read carefully...

1. 
   

   First things first get yourself a clean desk to work on.

   
   
2. 
   

   Place your ATX stlye computer case on the desk and slide/lift the top off.
   Inside should be a bunch of wires coming out
   of the power supply in the back
   and a bunch of wires coming out near the face of the box.

   
   
3. 
   

   The next thing your going to want to do is place your mother board inside the
   case and fasten it in. Their might be
   metal coverings covering the holes in
   the computer case were the parralel ports and serial ports on the mother
   board
   should poke through, go ahead and poke those out with a screw drive so
   you can fit the mother board in snuggly. Every
   Case fastens mother boards in
   different ways. Some use plastic pegs, some use metal screws. It will hopefully
   be obvious
   which you have to use.
   

   
   
4. 
   

   #4 Once the mother board is mounted properly you will need to fasten the
   floppy drive, and cdrom into the computer case.
   All computer cases store
   floppy drives differently there maybe a slide out container that you screw them
   into. You'll
   have to make sure that the the floppy drive is right side up
   (duh!) and that the pins are facing towards the back of the
   computer.
   Installing the CDROM is pretty much the same in all computer cases. Some
   mounting rails should have come
   with your mother board. You need to fasten
   those to the sides of the CDROM and you should be able to slide it right
   in
   to one of the top bays.
   

   
   
5. 
   

   Insert your Video Card. There are presently about 3 differnet forms of slots
   on your mother board. PCI, ISA, and AGP.
   Video Cards are presently made for
   all 3 of them. AGP stands for "Accelrated Graphics Port" Video Cards made for
   this
   slot are generally more high tech/performance. PCI's work and so do ISA
   (Althoug ISA is more Old School). Gee how
   do I tell the difference? Well AGP
   slots more than likely is the only small, brown, slot on your mother board.
   PCI
   you probably have the most of these their white and little longer than
   AGP. ISA, these are longggg and black, ugly.
   Insert your Video Card and snug
   it in there firmly. Don't force it (duh).
   

   
   
6. 
   

   Time for that evil Hard Disk installation. We'll Hit hooking up the power
   supplies and Installing the Hard Disk at the
   same time just for fun. Insert
   the Hard Disk In a very much similar way to the way you inserted the floppy
   disk. But
   Before you do make sure that the jumper settings are correct on the
   back of Har Disk. Most hard disks are shipped in
   single mode, but if you want
   to run multiple hard disks (which we won't discuss) you need to set the jumpers
   differently.
   Jumpers are little metal prongs connected with little jumpers
   that complete a connection. You figure it out. Anyway
   you got your hard disk
   in now its time to hook up the power supplies. The hard disk and the CDROM have
   similar power supp
   lies. 3 or 4 prong. Hook those funny looking cords coming
   out of the back of the power supply into your CDROM and Hard
   Disk. Theres a
   smaller one that hooks into your floppy it should be obvious. Theres a big power
   supply (the biggest one
   in the lot usually made of white plastic) It fits
   into a slot on your mother board, it is the main power supply to your
   mother
   board. Its kind of tricky to get in so be careful.
   

   
   
7. 
   

   Now that you have your Power Supplies hooked up you'll need to connect your
   Periphrials to your Mother Board. Use the IDE
   Controller Ribbon I know you
   all have. Hey one end goes to your CDROM (make sure the red line on the ribbon
   "pin 1" is
   matched up with the first pin on the back of your CDROM) and the
   other end goes to your mother board (same deal). The
   same goes for your hard
   disk and yoru floppy. Figure it out its not that difficult. You'll know you did
   something wrong
   when you get a floppy disk fail on boot.
   

   
   
8. 
   

   Finishing touches. Don't forget to connect those nasty wires coming out from
   behind the face of your computer case to
   your mother board. They control the
   on, off, reset, hard disk activity, and power switch. Every mother board is
   different
   so i hope you have a manual with your mother board. Most specify
   with 2 or 3 character paraphrases that make no sense.
   For Example "PWR SWT" =
   Power Switch "RST SWT" = Reset Switch. Or even more vague than that.
   

Section #5 (Testing 1, 2, 3)

Ok your ready to give it a whirl, you'll need to get in your system bios. The
"DEL" key should usually get you in.
Get it to autodetect your hard disk.
Accept the Setting and Save your Configurations. Install Your OS and your ready
to go.
That easy!! Ha! you'll prolly have lots of trouble theres a million
resources online to help you. Get to it.