Build your own Pc - Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of this guide.

If you have missed part 1 or are needing part 3, please follow the links below.

Before you dive in and start opening boxes and packages, you need to remember everything mentioned in previous chapters regarding static discharge, handling and care, and your general work area. Please remember to handle items as shown in the images to the right.

Screws and Fittings

To the right, you will also see some of the usual screws and fittings that you will be using to put your new build Pc together. These range from standard screws, to motherboard risers. Carefully open the bag/box and take care not to loose any.

Component layout & Case

The best start is to prepare a desktop or table area at standing height, that you can work on your new build, in good light also, so you can see just what you are doing. Start by unpacking each item in your inventory, and carefully lay each item out on top of its anti static bag (which ever items come with one), or in the case of the case and possibly the optical drive/CD Dvd drive, simply place it on top of its box.

Prepare your new Case, the home of your new Pc, by removing it from its large box that it will most likely have arrived in. Once you have done that, you need to search for the screws and fittings that come with new Cases. This will be in a little bag, or possibly a little box.

Next, remove both side panels from each side of the new Case. More often than not, most cases are screwed in at the very back of the case, on both sides. Removing these screws lets you pull away each side panel. In some cases you may get a very specific design of case, that may include a fancy way of removing both side panels, or some other way of 'opening' either side of the case. Either way, the goal is to open either side of the case ready for our task.

The Power Supply is the first item you need to fit into your Pc Case. Because it fits tightly into the upper rear of the case, it is the ideal component to fit first, over anything else. Care needs to be taken while fitting, as you will need to hold the PSU in place with one hand, while screwing with the other.

There is an exception to this, as some cases actually come with larger support rails below the Power Supply area, so you can simply push it into place, then screw it in place much easier at the back of the case.

Guidelines & Installation

The first step in installing your power supply, is get the correct orientation on the main unit correct before sliding it in place. This isn't a hard task, but will save you having to take it in and out, as the screws on the reverse of the PSU will only match up in one particular direction to the screw holes on the reverse of the Case.

Once held in place with one hand, you need to use your free hand to manually screw with your fingers, all screws into the back, just to hold it into place. Once this is done and you are happy, you can continue to tighten the screws with a philips screwdriver. Above is a set of images detailing the process.

Note

When installing inside a case, please be careful with fingers and hands, as some cases, particularly cheaper ones, can have some nasty sharp edges that can easily slice a finger up or leave cuts and marks on your hands.

So the beginning of the full installation begins here. Here is the order in which we will be installing each component. Please feel free to read up previous chapters to make yourself a little more comfortable with what you are about to be doing. When you are ready,
please continue below.

Installing Guidelines

When beginning installation of all major components in your new pc build, remember everything spoken of in previous chapters of this guide. Always hold the edges of all components, lay components on anti static bags where possible, and be careful of clothing you are wearing, ie static discharge. If you can do all your work on a table or other flat surface at a normal standing height, that would be even better. Make sure the lighting is adequate, and that you can see what you are doing. All animals & small children should ideally
be kept out of the room while you go through this process.

Component Installation – Motherboard, Processor & Cooling

The first thing we need to prepare is the screws and motherboard risers. Motherboard risers come in a few different forms but all serve the same purpose, which is to raise the motherboard away from the metal case that the motherboard sits on. See bottom left image.

Once you have your screws and risers ready, the next step is to CAREFULLY lower the motherboard into the case. The best step here is to lay your case down on its side, with the open side facing upwards. Once you lower the motherboard inside you can quickly determine where the holes on the motherboard match up to the holes on the back metal section of the case, and also line up with the rear connections through the connection plate.

In some cases, the back of the case that the motherboard will be sitting on, may already have some risers that meet the motherboard screw holes. If this is the case, you need to determine which screw holes in the case do need risers, and which ones have already got risers already. Having carefully held it in place, and quickly checked where the holes are relative to the case from the motherboard, take the motherboard back out, and place back on its anti static bag.

Now go back inside the case, and after remembering which holes need risers, fit them where necessary. You may even find it useful to quickly jot, or scribble down on a piece of paper which holes need, and which don't need risers. Now while your motherboard is back
on the anti static bag, you need to look at the CPU socket (see below), and lift up the lever that is lying right next to the CPU socket, until it is in an upright position. Now pick up your CPU, and very carefully hold it by its edges, taking care not to drop or knock it.

Insert the CPU into the socket on the motherboard, inserting it the correct orientation. This can be achieved by looking for the little arrow or notch in one corner of the CPU, which determines the position it sits into the socket. If you are unsure, if you very carefully turn the processor around so you can see underneath, it should give you a good idea of the position the pins go, compared to the socket. Once you are happy with this, very carefully place the CPU over the socket, and gently drop into place. DO NOT force the processor into the socket, it should easily slot into the socket with little else needed to do so.

Once in place, you need to push the lever back down again, but ONLY once you are happy the CPU has slotted into place, and that no pins are visible from the side. This will require a small amount of force to secure the lever, but only a small amount. Now that the lever is back down and secured again, the next step will be fitting the heatsink and fan.

Now we are onto fitting the Heatsink and Fan Cooler. Heat sinks and fans can come in various shapes and sizes, and also depending on brand and make of processor you choose, can have different methods of 'locking' on to the processor and on to the motherboard. Most motherboards fortunately come with a diagram and short easy instructions on how to fit the Heatsink and Fan for your motherboard/ CPU. Below we will look at an Intel based Heatsink and Fan, and also give examples of the other popular types that are in use.

The example here is an Intel 775 socket installation. This round heatsink and fan, has 4 pillars at each corner of where the CPU socket would be. The HS/F (Heatsink & Fan), is then placed over the top of the CPU carefully, and then each 'pillar' is then pushed with a click into its corresponding hole on the motherboard. The attached 4pin power cable that comes from the HS/F , is then connected to the correct CPU fan header (pin connection) on the motherboard. These are usually quite visible and usually only an inch or 2 away from the socket itself, so you cant really miss it.

Other forms of HS/F come in the forms of 2 levers at either side of the socket, which you have to push down and lock into place, and also there are HS/F that come with a latch over connector (on Amd processors), where you position the heatsink over the processor (usually the bottom of the heatsink is cut away slightly to show which direction it goes), then pull over the latch, and hook it onto the other side of the processor socket. The next page gives a series of images relating to fitting the CPU and fitting the Heatsink and Fan.

Ram / Memory

When installing your Ram into the motherboards Ram sockets, very carefully hold the Ram by its outer edges, and while doing this, you need to check the orientation of the Ram, as Ram of more recent years is made so that it can only go into its slot in one particular position. If you look at the bottom pin edge of the ram, you will see a little 'notch' part way down. This is so you can position the Ram correctly into its position without fear of inserting it the wrong way round.

When inserting your Ram into its slot, if you only have one stick of Ram, the usual slot selection is to look if the Ram slots are numbered, and if they are, you should always put the Ram in to Slot number 1. It shouldn't really matter too much which slot it goes into, but for some motherboards and manufacturers its recommended to insert into slot number 1. Once you are happy with your Ram, and happy with the direction it slots into your chosen slot, you need to push open the little levers that appear at either end of the slot itself. After this is done, lower down the ram so it is lined up and just sitting on top of the slot. Done correctly it should sit slightly within the groove of the levers and with care, push with both hands, a couple of fingers per hand, gently, and with a click at either end, the Ram should push into place. Both little levers at either end should pop back upright, and hold the ram in place. To the right, you will see images showing the Ram slots and levers.

Mounting motherboard in case

Now that you have checked the motherboard position in the case, fitted any extra risers that are required, fitted the CPU and Heatsink and Fan, and Inserted your Ram into its slot/s, you are ready to insert the whole package into the case.

Before you do so, please make sure you have removed any risers that shouldn't be in there, ones that don't line up. If you leave any in that don't line up with the motherboards screw holes, then you could end up damaging the motherboard. Once you have lowered the motherboard in, you need to screw it in securely. As mentioned in a previous chapter, there are different types of riser. One of these is a type that doesn't need a screw, as it just pops into the hole on the motherboard, making it secure. Either way, they should be fairly obvious which need screws and which don't. Once you have the motherboard secured into place, you need to plug in the 24 or 20 pin ATX Power connector, into the power connector on the motherboard.

The connector itself can only fit in one direction, so there is little chance of getting this wrong. It should simply push in, and click into place. Some motherboards depending on manufacturer or processor, also require the 4 pin / 12volt connector plugging in also. The best thing to do is to check your included motherboard manual for '24 pin connector' to see wether it is essential to the operation of the motherboard. In some other cases, you may also require the 6 pin connector to be plugged in, but this isn't as common as the 4pin / 12volt connector.

Harddrive - IDE

Now we are onto the hard drive, the first thing we need to do is to set it to be the Master drive on its IDE cable. An IDE cable can handle 2 devices on one single cable, but you need to tell the hard drive wether its a Master or Slave. You cannot have 2 Masters on one single cable. If you look on your hard drive, you should notice a little guide that shows the order that the jumper needs to be set for it to be the Master IDE device. Once you see this, you will see it is a simple process of pulling the jumper off, and then placing it in the correct configuration as shown on the guide for Master setting. Your little pair of pliers are very useful for this process.

Harddrive - SATA

Serial ATA drives are the most recent type of hard drive you can purchase. These use very different cables to IDE drives, and since SATA cables only work with one piece of hardware at once, there is no need for a MASTER or SLAVE setting. Simply plug the cable (usually red) into the motherboard, and into the socket at the rear. Serial ATA and IDE are incompatible with each other, and to use SATA drives on your motherboard it must have SATA connections.

Nearly all motherboards have these connections these days, and it is also likely that your hard drive you purchase maybe a SATA hard drive. SATA hard drives require a 15pin power connector, or a standard 4 pin molex.

Once done, you can now insert the hard drive into an available 3.5” bay inside the front section of your case. Once inside you need to screw 4 screws in either side of the hard drive, which is the reason we had to original at the beginning take both the side panels off the case, so we can access both sides for screwing in the hard drive. Screws for the hard drive are difference to the case and motherboard screws, and are slightly different looking and not as big. Once you have screwed the hard drive in place firmly, we can move onto the next section.

Optical drives (CD and DVD)

Now you are onto the Optical drive, as most optical drives use IDE, you need to use the same method as described in the previous section on hard drives, and set the jumper on the back of the drive. Again, there should be a little guide somewhere to help with the order the jumper has to be set, but in this case it will be the MASTER again. SLAVE is only used for the 2nd device on the same IDE cable.

Once set, the Optical drive needs to be placed in the 5 ¼ inch section near the top of the case. A lot of cases allow you to simply push the drive in, and then you screw screws in from either side, to hold it in place. But some cases allow you to support your drives on 'rails' which are long plastic or metal sections, that fit into the 'screw' holes on the side of your drive, which then allows you to push the drive in from the front of the Pc not through internally, which will then simply click into place without the need for screws.

The front of the case will have blanking face plates in place, most new cases do. Before you push the hard drive all the way to the front of the case/PC, or if your case uses rails, then you need to remove the corresponding blanking plate so that there is space for the drive to push through and be usable at the front of the PC.

Once your Optical drive is securely in place, you can now move on to the next section.

Graphics Card

Your graphics card is the next component we shall be installing, and due to it needing care like the motherboard and CPU, you need to handle it by the edges, and also by the thin shiny metal plate that is attached to one end. Look for the Pci-Express slot inside the case on your motherboard, its usually white or blue and highest up (closest to the CPU socket), than the rest, and in some cases you get 2 Pci-Express sockets for dual graphics cards, but is still usually the top slot.

Gently and carefully lower your graphics card just above the slot , and ease the connector into the slot, pushing down gently. Take note of the metal plate at the head of the card, this is what you screw into the case to hold it in place. When pushing the card into the slot, also take notice of the bottom of the metal plate, as it needs to slide gently down the very edge of the motherboard. If you feel you haven't started well, take the card back out again, and start over. Care is needed.

Pci cards are usually a set of 3-5 same looking slots to the lower part of the motherboard, and will use the same process as above for inserting into a spare slot (any will do), and securing the metal plate with a screw into the case.

Agp cards aren't as common anymore, but you can still get them. Wether your new PC will have an Agp socket will come down to your purchase, but Pci-Express is really the way to go ideally. Agp sockets are brown in colour, and usually have a retention latch at the end to hold the card in place.

Sound Card

Audio on your PC comes in the form of a sound card, which uses the Pci slot on the motherboard. There is a variety of soundcards out there you can purchase, and you can even get onboard sound on your motherboard. If you don't want to spend extra money on a separate sound card, you should check before you purchase a motherboard, that it has onboard sound. Most motherboards have sound on as standard, but the quality can range from great, to just ok. Where as if you purchase a separate Pci soundcard, you cant go wrong.

The procedure for installing the soundcard is just the same for the Pci sockets mentioned above in the Graphics card section. Take care when handling the card, and hold it by its edges and metal plate. Lower it into position, and gently insert into a spare Pci slot. Audio cables need to be connected up to your Cd/Dvd drive in order to receive Cd audio through your Pc in Windows. These days, most people just 'rip' a Cd straight into a music program, whereas the audio is converted into audio files that are compressed onto your hard drive. But for the sake of it, we can still insert the audio cable.

The audio cable is a 4 pin connection at both ends, quite thin and around a foot long. This plugs into the rear of the Cd or Dvd drive, the connection is obvious as its the only small connector on there. For onboard motherboard soundcards, you need to view your motherboards manual for the 'onboard sound' section to find where the correct header is for sound.  

Other Add-in cards

After you have inserted both your Graphics card and Sound cards, you will have the future opportunity to 'add-in' more cards, should the need arise. You may want to add an extra sound card, or a network card or maybe an internal modem. The process is exactly the same as above in both the Graphics card and Sound card section. Take care handling by the edges, and insert gently into an available slot.

Once you have all items connected you will need to make final cable connections. You will need 2 IDE cables (or 1 IDE cable and 1 SATA set of cables if you chose a SATA hard drive).

The IDE cables you have will be a UDMA 80 cable that is used for the Hard Drive, and similar to other connections, can only be inserted one particular direction so you cant go wrong. The Optical drive uses a regular 40 wire IDE ribbon cable, but can in some cases use the 80 cable UDMA hard drive cable.

For reference, each cable has a colour down one side, usually red or blue. This colour usually faces the direction of the 4pin molex power socket. SATA cables are fairly self explanatory, and again, can only fit in one direction. Your motherboard should come with a few.

update: Optical drives do also now use SATA connectors more commonly since this was originally written.

Making Final Connections

To get the case lights, power & reset buttons and case beeper, there is a set of thin cables are usually collected in a bundle to the front panel , inside the case. On each little connector, there is usually the word for what connection it is. IDE, PWR, IDE, which are all fairly self explanatory.

All motherboards tend to have this collection of connections on the very outer edge of the motherboard, but for this section it is probably best that you look in your motherboards manual to find a graphical layout of the actual connections themselves, and which way round each connector has to go. (As they are Polarity sensitive, ie + and -) Connected up correctly will cause them simply not to work.

When you have completed this step, your are almost ready to switch on for the first. At this point you should go over everything that has been done up to this point, and make sure you have plugged cables in correctly, made sure screws are in, connections made, and that no debris, screws or anything else has been left inside your PC. Once you are happy, you are ready to continue to the next Chapter.

When you are comfortable with everything that you have done, that you have connected everything correctly, and you are ready to switch on for the first time, connect your main power lead into the back of the PSU at the rear of the case, and plug the power into the mains power socket and switch on. If your power supply has its own ON switch on the reverse, then also switch this on now. Make sure you have also plugged in your mouse into its correct socket, the keyboard into its correct socket, and also plugged the monitor cable into the correct video card socket.

Now, if you have connected everything up correctly inside, when you hit the power button on the front of the case, the computer should switch on. You can tell this if you look inside, you can see the Heatsink and Fan turning,and the fan inside the power supply should also start up and turn. In effect your whole Pc should have a gentle hum to it. You should also get the monitor screen turning on, and you will get a boot up screen as shown to the right.

Once your Pc switches on and you get to the boot screen, as shown above right, the actual process wont go any further, because the hard drive doesn't have the Operating System installed just yet, so it will always stop just after boot up, and come up with an error stating that it couldn't boot. Once your at this stage, you are ready for installing Windows. If your Pc doesn't start up, or you hear beeps, or any other form of error, turn the PC back off, and switch off at the mains. Refer to the troubleshooting section.

Bios - Basic overview

While your Pc is now ready for installing your Operating System,a quick run through your motherboards BIOS is probably a worthwhile thing to do before you proceed to install your operating system. To access your BIOS, you need to press the 'DEL' key on your keyboard just after the boot screen has appeared on your monitor. Occasionally on some otherboards, the key to enter the BIOS can be different to the 'DEL' key. If you cannot get into the BIOS, which usually turns to a blue screen and white text, although this could be different depending on the manufacturer of your motherboards BIOS chip, , then you need to get your motherboard manual, and look for the BIOS section, and find what the correct key is to access the BIOS. If it isn't 'DEL' then it will most likely be a function key (ie, F8, F9).

The BIOS means, Basic Input Output System. This is the 'heart' of the motherboard, where you can control all aspects of the motherboard, for example, you can view CPU speeds, Ram speeds, turn things on, turn things off, and generally control the motherboard. In past years, the BIOS needed a fair amount of setting up once you had put your Pc together, including changing of jumper settings on the motherboard. These days motherboards are clever enough to do most of the work for you.

When you first enter the BIOS you will have different options running along the top of the screen, that change the selected screen options that appear. There shouldn't be any options you need to alter or change, but just to get a feel of the BIOS, use your arrow keys to maneuver your way through the menu, so that if you need to go in here in the future you have at least some familiarity with it. Once you have seen enough, you can either keep pressing 'ESC' button until a question will come up asking if you wish to exit the BIOS, or the menu may have an exit option in there. Either way, find your way out of the BIOS, and this will bring you out, and reboot the PC.

Troubleshooting Q & A

In the instance that you have problems, that something isn't doing what it should, or your Pc is making strange beeping noises, the following questions and answers maybe able to help. If not, the best place to find an answer will be in the motherboard manual.

Hardware Problems

Q. When I press the 'On' button on the front of the PC, nothing happens. Everything is quiet, and nothing appears to start up.

A. Have you made sure all cables are connected ? Have you plugged your power lead in correctly and switched everything on? Make sure you have also connected the power cable to the motherboard correctly. If this is all connected and fine, the next thing to do will be to unplug all components connected to the motherboard, leaving just the Power connector, CPU / Heatsink & Fan, Ram, Power cable jumper connector and Video card in place.

Q. Your Pc powers on but still doesn't boot.

A. The next step will be to remove components from the motherboard, apart from the CPU / Heatsink & Fan, Ram, and power cable jumper connector. Once you have done this and tried powering on again, if you are successful and the machine powers on fine, then you need to turn off, re-insert one of the items you have removed, switch on again. What you are doing is eliminating the problem component. If you still can't get your Pc to boot, then its likely you have a broken or damaged component.

Q. You turn your Pc on, and you get intermittent beeping sounds.

A. The best thing to do, is to get your motherboard manual, and look for the section relating to warning sounds/beeps when turning your PC on. This will be able to tell you the problem for the sequence of beeps it is making. It is quite possible random beeps could well be a Ram / Memory problem, and this is why your Pc wont boot. But to be sure, refer to the manual.

Software / Operating System Problems

Q. Your Pc turns on and boots successfully, but every so often it hangs or simply freezes, requiring you to turn the Pc off & On again.

A. This could well be a cooling issue relating to the CPU. Check that your Heatsink & Fan are working correctly by looking inside your case and checking that the fan is turning correctly, and that the Heatsink itself is firmly seated on top of CPU.

Q. You are installing your operating system, but as it is installing it keeps giving errors and faults, and in some cases gives you a BOD (blue screen of death).

A.  In this case, it is most likely your Ram that is at fault. It isn't completely broken, but it has more than a few issues that are causing general use of your Pc by the Operating System and Software impossible. The only thing to do here would be to return the Ram, and purchase replacement Ram.

To progress to part 3 - Section 12 - of this guide, please follow the link below.