Assemble the PC
If you have purchased all the necessary hardware your are ready assemble your PC. Before unpacking your components from its original anti-static bags you must put on your anti-static wrist strap, which will discharge your self. It is important that you discharge yourself or there is a danger that you can damage your components by anti-static shock by touching the components. If you don't have an anti-static wrist strap you can discharge your self by touching the metal edges of your ATX case, although this is not recommended. Be careful not to cut yourself as some ATX cases have sharp edges. Have all the mounting screws that come with the motherboard and a philips screw driver handy as you would need them during the later stages.
Now you can proceed to the first step:
Install Motherboard
The first thing you should do is unpack your ATX case. Take off the cover of your case so that you can access the inside. Place the case on a desk so that you are looking down towards the open case. Your case should come with motherboard mounting screws. If your ATX back plate it not already fitted you can fit it by placing your plate near the ATX back plate cut out and pushing the plate outwards, it should clip on.
Now place your motherboard on top of the mounting screw holes. Make sure your ATX devices on the motherboard such as PS/2 and parallel port are facing towards ATX back plate cut out. Gently push your motherboard towards the cut out, every devices should fit easily into its corresponding cut out, as shown below.
The screw holes on your motherboard should align with the screw holes on your case. Place your screws that came with the case into the appropriate holes and gently screw it on using a screw driver.
The motherboard is now securely mounted to the case. You can now place the ATX power connector to the motherboard. Your ATX case should come with a power supply unit (PSU) and should already be mounted to the case. The ATX power connector is shown on image below.
Place the ATX power connector on top of the power socket on the motherboard. Push down the power connector and it should clip onto the socket. If you try to fit the power connector the wrong way round, it won't fit, it will only fit one way. So, if the power connector does not go in, it should go in the other way round.
Next - Processor (CPU) Installation
Locate the processor socket on your motherboard. I am installing an Intel PIII 866 processor on a socket 370 as shown on the following image. The installation would be slightly different if you have a different processor i.e. Slot1 PIII CPU, P4 Socket 478, Core 2 Duo Socket 775, AMD Slot A / Socket A, Socket AM2 CPU etc.
Raise the brown lever on the socket and slowly put the processor in place. You have to make sure the pin 1 of your CPU goes into the pin 1 of your CPU socket otherwise the CPU would not get into the socket, so don't try to force it in. It will go in gently if you fit it correctly. Now close the brown lever which will securely hold the CPU in place.
If you bought a retail boxed CPU it would include a heatsink + fan. If you bought an OEM CPU make sure you got a fan that is correct for the speed of your CPU, otherwise your CPU will overheat and behave abnormally or could be damaged. Take off the plastic cover from the bottom of the CPU fan that covers the heat transfer pad. Now place the CPU fan on top the CPU and push down the metal clips on the fan so that it clips onto the CPU socket.
CPU fan has a power connector which needs to be connected to CPU fan power socket on your motherboard as shown on the image above.
Finally, you have to specify what frequency (speed) your CPU is running at. This can be done using jumper settings, or on some modern motherboard it can be done in the BIOS, or your motherboard may have automatic detection for your CPU frequency. Please refer to your motherboard manual for more details. The motherboard I am using (Abit BX133) has a dip-stick jumper setting and it can be setup in the BIOS. I have left the jumper setting to default as I will use the BIOS to specify the CPU frequency. The CPU runs at the bus speed of 133Mhz therefore I will use the settings 133 * 6.5(multiplier) under the BIOS, which will the run the CPU at 866Mhz.
Next - Memory Installation (SDRAM)
Installing memory is quite simple. Find the SDRAM banks on your motherboard, they should look similar to the banks below. Notice the memory banks has a white clip on each side. Make sure you release the clips so it bends to each side.
Hold each corner of the SDRAM placing it on top of the bank 1. You will notice that the SDRAM has a cut at the bottom side, it is there to prevent the memoy going in the wrong way round. If you are holding the SDRAM the incorrect way you will not be able insert it. Gently push down the SDRAM and it should clip on to the memory bank. The two white clips will now become straight holding each corner of the memory. If you have more that one SDRAM perform same steps as above but placing the SDRAM in memory bank 2 and so on.
Next - Hard Disk Drive Installation
Please choose the type of hard drive you will be using to build the system. If you have an IDE hard drive (also known as ATA or PATA) then choose IDE. If you have SATA ( Serial ATA) hard drive then choose SATA. If you don't know what type hard drive you have, then look at the image below and choose the one that matches your hard drive.
Next - IDE Hard Disk Drive Installation
Next - SATA Hard Disk Drive Installation
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