Build your own PC

Build your own PC

CONTENTS

  * Introduction - Some encouraging preamble :o)

  * Building it yourself - Is a self-built PC for you?

  * A note about powerleads - Read this if inexperienced.

  * Installing memory - Notes on memory types, sizes and installation.

  * Installing the Motherboard - Start filling the case.

  * Installing the drives - Hard drive, Floppy, and CD-ROM

Building your own PC is well within the grasp of anyone with some common sense
and a keen eye. Almost all the information you need can be found printed
(albeit often in extremely small print) on the components themselves. As a
rule, the various connectors in a PC will only plug into the sockets that they
are supposed to. Connectors are usually made of rows of numbered pins, with pin
1 being at one end. Ensure pin 1 on a component is always connected to pin 1 of
whatever socket it's plugged into, and you're half way home already. Be
prepared to examine stuff closely with a torch to find even the smallest
legends on the motherboard and components. Take this guide in hand, and really
there is not a great deal you can do wrong. Always read the manual for any
component you are installing, and keep the motherboard manual handy at all
times. You can do it! Now read on ...

Introduction

PCs. They're everywhere. It seems you can't get away from them no matter where
you turn, whether at work, home or in the High Street. Where I work we have a
large number of PCs, and many staff members are finding that there are
advantages having a PC at home as well as work for many reasons. Whether it's
because you want to become more familiar with one flavour of Windows or
another, or because you want to use business software at home, the case for
having your own computer becomes stronger by the day. Everything from using the
Internet as a replacement encyclopaedia through to keeping the kids quiet for a
couple of hours playing Tombraider, or simply catching up on some overdue work
... the PC can handle it all ... or can it? I have been asked several times by
staff at my place of work for PC related advice, mainly concerning the
acquisition of new hardware, so here are a few pointers which you may find
useful if you are considering a new or replacement PC.

There are two main approaches to buying a PC. The first, and most obvious is
simply to buy a ready made and pre-installed system from a well known
manufacturer. This has it's advantages and disadvantages however. Firstly, bear
in mind that you will almost certainly be paying for a system that was not
designed for your needs. You also pay extra for the privilege of having someone
build it for you. Although the prices on many PCs are very good (I have seen
ready-to-go Pentium P150 systems for 800ukp or thereabouts), this is still
substantially more than the cost of the components from which the computer is
assembled. Many new PCs come with cheap graphics and/or sound cards which you
may find fine to start with but will let you down as you start to use the
computer for more demanding tasks. Often, if you ask a vendor to install a
better video card, for example, you will be told that they can't do that as the
machine comes as a complete package and the low price reflects this.

On the plus side, buying from a vendor does entitle you to a certain amount of
technical support, and also you will get a warranty covering the whole machine
for any fault that may arise. PC hardware is pretty reliable as a rule ... if
it works first time, then it's unlikely to be faulty. Most problems at my place
of work are network related - an issue which will not affect the average home
user, so you may decide you don't really need to pay extra for the limited
amount of support you are likely to receive from your vendor.

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The 'build it yourself' option

The other approach to getting a new PC is to build it yourself. This is not as
daunting an option as it may first appear. Over recent years, the quality of PC
hardware has risen substantially, and the vast majority of standard PC hardware
should work happily in any standard setup. Building your own PC is usually
cheaper than the package option, and offers two main advantages, the first
being that the whole solution is much more flexible, and the second being that
you can save substantially on the cost of the finished product. In fact the
word 'building' when applied to a PC is rather grand ... it's really more a
case of buying the bits, and plugging them into each other. An average PC
consists of the following components:

  * Case (power supply included)

  * Motherboard

  * CPU (Processor) and fan

  * Hard drive

  * CD ROM drive

  * Floppy drive

  * Memory

  * Keyboard

  * Mouse

  * Monitor

  * Video Card

  * Soundcard

  * Speakers

The best place to buy most of these is at a computer fair, or via a large
retail outlet which sells computer parts. A good source local to me for example
is the Computer Fair held every six weeks at the Norwich Showground, where you
can pick up all sorts of brand new bits for very good prices... for the last PC
I built I got (brand new, boxed etc.) an 8x CD ROM, 16bit soundcard, Mouse,
keyboard, floppy disk, CPU fan and tower case at a price of 120 pounds in
total. Such fairs are a good place to pick up a Windows 95 CD as well ...
typical price is about 15 pounds. Just make sure you get a manual with the
motherboard, the CD ROM, the hard drive, and any expansion cards (video / sound
etc.)

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So... I've got all the bits. What now?

 A note about power leads

The power supply will have three, four or more power leads which will need to
be attached (later!) to the hard drive, floppy drive and CD-ROM drives. These
take one of two forms. Both forms have four pins, and usually the leads going
into them are coloured red, black, black, and yellow (or maybe blue). Not to
worry. One kind is quite a lot larger than the other. The plugs themselves are
coloured white, although some manufacturers may supply the case with protective
black covers on these power connectors. Many drives allow you to use either
kind of power attachment, and it doesn't matter which you use but only use one!
As a rule, use the larger connectors for hard disks and CD-ROMs, and use the
smaller kind for floppy drives. If you're at all confused, look at the back of
your hard drive. See the socket labelled 'Power', or '+5v' or similar. There
are probably two such sockets. Now, only one kind of lead will fit that socket,
right? So use that lead for that socket. Easy!

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Installing the memory into the Motherboard

Your motherboard will, in all probability, have 4 or 6 memory slots. At the
time of writing, the most common form of memory in modern motherboards is of
the 72pin variety. Each memory board (called a SIMM, short for Single In-line
Memory Module) is an oblong circuit board approximately 4 inches long, and an
inch or so deep. RAM chips may be mounted on either or both sides of this
board. The SIMM will have two holes punched in it, one at each end, and also
one end will have an obvious notch missing from it. The SIMM slots on the
motherboard are arranged in pairs, and each pair is called a 'Bank'. In all
probability, there will be 2 or 3 banks depending on whether you have 4 or 6
slots in your motherboard). Locate Bank 1 by examining the motherboard and/or
it's manual, and gently insert the SIMMs into the two slots. You will notice
that the SIMM will only fit in one way - the notch missing from the end of the
SIMM itself will ensure you get pin 1 of the SIMM lined up with pin 1 on the
motherboard. Each SIMM should be introduced to the slot on the motherboard at
an angle of about 45 degrees from vertical, and once the teeth are engaged,
gently push the SIMM upright until the little clamps on the motherboard clip
the SIMM into place. Visual examination will make this procedure easier … the
arrangement is pretty self evident.

IMPORTANT: Every bank on the motherboard MUST have two identical SIMMs in it.
It doesn't matter what the size of each SIMM is, so long as it has a matching
SIMM in the neighbouring slot. For example bank 1 could contain two 8Mb SIMMs,
two 16Mb SIMMs or whatever, but not one 8Mb SIMM and one 16Mb SIMM. Having said
that Bank 2 can have different size SIMMs from Bank 1, as can Bank 3 ... the
only rule is that the two SIMMs in any given bank must be identical. SIMMs come
in the following sizes in Megabytes (Mb). 1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128 Mb. Motherboards
do have a limit on the amount of memory they can access .. typically 128Mb,
although check your manual to find out.

SIMMs come in a variety of flavours. The most common these days is called 'EDO
memory'. EDO stands for 'Extended Data Out', and basically just means that the
memory will return information a little faster than non-EDO memory. Other forms
of SIMM include parity and non-parity types. Generally speaking motherboards
will accept any type of memory, but once more check your documentation. (Now
you are probably starting to see why it is so important to get a manual for
your motherboard). All memory chips are static-sensitive, so use an earth strap
round your wrist, or at very least ensure you ground yourself by touching
something metal such as a pipe or metal chair before installation.

Some modern motherboards use DIMMs instead of, or in addition to, SIMMs. DIMM
is an acronym for 'Dual In-line Memory Module'. DIMMs are installed in much the
same way as SIMMs, except that each DIMM has 144 pins and is a lot longer than
a SIMM board. DIMMs need not be installed in pairs; just think of each DIMM as
two SIMMs built onto one chip. Check out the manual for your motherboard, as
although it may have DIMM sockets, you may not be able to use both SIMMs and
DIMMs at the same time. At the time of writing DIMMs are more expensive than
SIMMs, although they are preferable from a speed point of view (although
personally I can't really see you being able to tell the difference!)

Once your memory is installed, you are ready to start assembling your new toy
in earnest.

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Installing the motherboard into the case

The case will have some obvious threaded holes into which the motherboard needs
to be screwed. The motherboard will have some holes punched in it which should
line up with several (not necessarily all) of the fixture points in the case.
If your case was supplied with a little bag of screws, the chances are that you
will also have some insulating washers. These need to go between the
motherboard and the fixture points of the case, in order to insulate the
motherboard from the metal surrounding it.

The power supply in the case will have some small leads coming from it which
need plugging into the motherboard. These are for the power switch, the power
light, the reset switch and possibly for a turbo switch. The motherboard manual
will clearly indicate which cables go into which pins on the board, and the
case will have a label on each lead. After screwing the motherboard into the
case, attach these leads. Power is supplied to the motherboard via one or two
special leads which are fairly obvious in their design, and contain several
wires of differing colour to all the other cables coming out of the power
supply unit. Some modern motherboards have one large attachment for power, but
most conventional boards have a row of pins into which two connectors are
plugged next to each other, forming a row. In the latter case, one of the two
connectors will have three red wires next to each other, and these should be at
the extreme end of the row formed by the two connectors. Once these are in
place, you are ready to install the hard drive, floppy drive and CD-ROM drives.

Note: It is possible that you will not be able to install the motherboard if it
has SIMMs or DIMMs on it (they may get in the way). This is not a problem,
simply install the memory after installing the motherboard in the case.

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Installing the hard drive, floppy drive and CD ROM

Start with the hard drive. If you are a relative beginner to the PC it is best
to use an IDE drive (as opposed to a SCSI drive which normally requires an
additional SCSI controller card and often requires additional configuration).
Modern motherboards invariably have two IDE slots built onto them. IDE slots
are clearly labelled as such, and are usually labelled 'Primary' and
'Secondary', or 1 and 2. You will need to attach your hard drive to slot 1.
Each IDE slot is capable of controlling two IDE devices (usually hard disks or
CD-ROM drives). An IDE cable is of a 40-way ribbon-type, and usually has three
plugs along it's length, one about 2/3 of the way up, and one at each end. The
ribbon cable will probably be grey in colour, with a red stripe along one edge.
It is quite possible to have a cable with only two plugs, one at each end. This
is fine so long as you only plan to attach one hard drive (which at this stage
you probably are).

Firstly, carefully examine the long connector on the back of the hard drive in
order to determine at which end pin 1 is located. This is invariably printed on
the circuit-board of the hard drive next to the pin in question, or
occasionally clearly marked by means of a sticker. Make a mental note of this.
Mount the hard drive itself into the case, making sure it is firmly secured
with at least three screws, preferably four. If your IDE cable has three plugs
along it's length, find the one furthest from the others and plug it into IDE
port 1 on the motherboard, ensuring that the red wire is at the same end of the
connector as pin 1 (pin 1 should be marked on the motherboard, either with a
number 1 or with a small triangle). Having done this, attach the plug at the
other end of the IDE cable to the back of your hard drive, making sure the red
wire on the ribbon cable is at the same end of the connector as pin 1 on the
drive. Now attach to the power socket on the hard drive one of the three or
four free power cables emanating from the power supply.

Mount the floppy drive in the case, again with as many screws as possible (four
is best). As with the hard drive, locate and make a mental note of pin 1 on the
drive itself. On the motherboard there will be two sockets marked 'FDC' (short
for Floppy Disk Controller) or 'Floppy' or similar. Again, making sure you keep
the red stripe on the ribbon cable at the same end as pin 1, attach the floppy
drive to the connector on the motherboard using the cable. You will notice that
the floppy drive cable is different to the IDE cable used by the hard drive,
both in the number of wires that make it up, and also the shape of the
connectors. You may be puzzled by the fact that there are up to five plugs
along the wires length. The cable will probably have one plug at the end, then
a relatively long section followed by a pair of connectors very close together,
then another free length, then another pair of connectors at the other end. The
cable will support up to two drives. Each 'pair' of connectors on the cable
offer you the choice of plugging in a 3.5" drive, or a 5.25" drive (the two
kinds of drive use differingly shaped plugs, hence the pairs of connectors).
You can use one connector from each pair, but only one, so although there are
four connectors (in addition to the one that plugs into the motherboard) you
can only use two of them... one from each pair. If attaching one drive, then
use the connector at the extreme end of the cable. A 3.5" drive connector looks
like a slightly smaller version of the IDE connector that you plugged your hard
drive into. Identify which end of the cable has a lone connector (ie: it isn't
paired with another) and plug it into FDC port 1 on the motherboard, again
ensuring that pin 1 is marked with the red strip. Go right to the other end of
the cable, and attach that to the back of your floppy drive, once more ensuring
the red stripe is located near pin 1. Attach another free power lead to the
back of the floppy drive.

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Now go and swig some cold coca cola. You're doing OK, and you've earned a quick
break.

(To be continued daily or so - last update 7th July)

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