How to built your own computer

Make sure you de-static yourself (by touching your computer's power supply or wearing a very expensive anti static bracelet), and it would be a good idea to work in a non-static area, [r]

How to build your own computer

A free tutorial for a low cost solution for a new computer

So you want another computer, or maybe you've just thought about getting a new one? The kids are fighting over who's turn it is to use the PC, maybe your current computer is getting a tad bit too slow, or perhaps you'd just like to start your own home network, or expand it for that matter

1 Deciding what type of system you really want or need

Before you go ahead and start building your computer, you should have a good idea what you will use this new PC for Will it be:

• To use for work? In this case you'll probably won't need such fantastic hardware, unless your work requires you to use some extensive software, such has 3D graphics, video and graphics, programming, CAD/CAM, etc

• To play video games with? If you want to build a new PC geared for video games, then you'll probably want to get some of the latest new hardware, so you can really enjoy all the new 3d technology now featured in today's video games

• Just to surf the web with? If you only want a machine that you can use to surf the web, use e-mail and chat, then you can rest assured that you won't really need all that much expensive hardware

• Just an overall system? Most cases often that not, this is the system people want Just a computer that can perform a whole variety of tasks, without being to slow, and without being too expensive

• Do you want power computer? One thing is for sure; these types of machines are great fun, yet they tend to be quite expensive

You might also want to go ahead and grab a flyer of your local CompUSA, BestBuy, or Fry's Electronics (probably the best retail store for computer parts, but restricted mainly in the south west of the country) Take a look at the deals You may want to wait until you spot a really good deal on parts before starting to build your system, or you can also get the parts as they come out on special Of course, there is nothing wrong about shopping online for your parts either You can often find some good deals, when you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for shipping

In the end, what's the most important is that you shop around Don't let the fancy ads make you dish out your credit card or checkbook right away Find out if other stores have something similar, or even the same product for cheaper Another thing, if you want to save money, don't always go for the best brand name, yet don't go for the cheapest item on the shelf either Low priced items might look nice in the box, but once there in your computer, you can really start regretting it

2 What exactly you need to buy

Anyhow, here is the grand list of stuff you will need, not need, avoid, and watch out for: There is a total 10 essential parts you will need to build your computer These are: the computer case (make sure you get one that has a power supply), the motherboard, the CPU, some RAM, a hard drive, a floppy disk drive, a monitor, a video card, a keyboard and a mouse

Computer case:

A computer case will usually cost you (when not on sale) between 30 to 100 (and up) dollars, the 100 dollar one being those big fancy black cases Note that these prices are with the power supply already included Strip out the power supply, and a case will cost you between to 20 dollars Computer cases come in two flavors: AT and ATX The difference for these two is simply the power supply You will see that when you buy your motherboard, you have the option of getting an AT or ATX motherboard Just make sure you get the right one that fits with the power supply of your computer case

The AT cases are really fine, and they are much cheaper (so are the AT motherboards), and you can still build a very reliable system

The next thing you will be faced with when buying your case, is the size Keep in mind that bigger is not really better You can get a full size tower, and pay a fortune, and never end up filling up all of the available space Basically you will want a full size tower for a server of some sort For basic home computing needs, you should simply go with a mini tower, or a mid sized tower case if you plan to add allot of extras into your system Also, you may be tempted to get once of the fancy non-gray cases, but consider the price difference and try to judge for yourself if a fancy computer case (which might or not might be ever seen by anyone) is really worth it

Motherboard

The motherboard is by far the most important ingredient for building your own computer system, which is why it's very important that you get the right one In general, a normal motherboard for regular home based usage shouldn't cost you more than $150, and that's a high price Sure there are some board out there that will retail for 500 to 1000 dollars, but you really need these? More than likely, the answer is no

So what exactly you have to look for in a motherboard? For starters you have to get either an AT board or ATX board, depending on the power supply you have (see computer case above)

Next you will have to decide what kind of "horse power" you want your board to have They're a bunch of options in motherboards, which I'll try to cover:

motherboard will be 66mhz, anything less would be insanely slow You may consider to get a 100mhz one, but these tend to be slightly more expensive, yet it is worth the extra money

2 Supported CPU Now this is really important What type of CPU you want? A very expensive CPU, like the PIII, or the new AMD? Maybe something less expensive but with power, like the PII? Although the above CPU's are really great, unless you have allot of extra money, go with the PII, or better yet, go with the bargain CPU's, AMD K6-3 and the Intel Celeron Both of are really great CPU's and aren't really expensive (around 100 to 200 dollars) Whatever you plan on getting, I advise you to stick to the above list At the worst, you can always get a regular Pentium MMX, or AMD K6 (usually less than $100), but don't expect these to hold out to long with all the new software available today RAM Sockets RAM (random access memory) is another important thing for

your computer Without it, you won't really get far Nowadays you should only consider a motherboard that can support DIMM RAM This type of RAM is a little more expensive, but much faster than it's antiquated ancestor, SIMM RAM ISA, PCI, AGP These are the slots available for the various cards you will be

putting into your computer, such as video cards, sound cards, modems, etc If you're looking to be using allot of video and 3d games, then make sure the board you will get has an AGP slot AGP video cards are really great for video, since they deliver the best speeds Now about ISA and PCI since most cards being built today are PCI (modems, network cards, video, sound, etc.) you may want to get a board that has more PCI slots than ISA Although if you're not really concerned about very high quality 3d audio, fast network cards, or high tech 3d cards (in case you don't get a board with an AGP slot), then stick with a board with more ISA slots These types of boards will be cheaper (and so are the ISA cards)

5 In built sound and video Motherboards with inbuilt sound and video may seem to be a great bargain, but once you hear, and see these add-ons, more than likely you will be disappointed Unless you really don't care about great sound and video (such as for a computer for regular web use, or basic work) go ahead and get this type of board If you care about sound and video, stay clear away from these USB or no USB USB is a really great feature you may want to have for your

computer It's basically "real" plug and play In most cases it won't really cost you so much extra to have a board with USB Unless you think you'll never get yourself a USB device (keep in mind that just about every type of peripheral coming out now works with USB), then you won't need this feature

Well that's about all the really important stuff for a motherboard I didn't mention anything about SCSI, because SCSI costs much more money Another thing is getting an extended warranty on your motherboard Usually not all that expensive, it might be worth to get If your motherboard ever dies on you, you'll be happy you got that extended warranty

So, you think it's allot of stuff to consider? Of course it is! Yet it's all worth to study Remember, your motherboard is VERY important, so make sure you choose your board carefully Of course, if you'd prefer that I suggest a good board, then go for the FIC VA-503+ (www.fic.com.tw), with meg of on board cache It's a great board, and you can probably pick it up for around $75 (look for those specials and clearances!)

CPU

The mighty CPU The brainpower behind your entire computer What to get? There are so many choices! Well here are a few things that should help you choose the right CPU For one, stick only to AMD and Intel Both produce fantastic CPU's, and both have a wide selection

You should stick to Intel, if you want efficient, compatible and powerful processing power You may be tempted to get the PIII, but these are really expensive If you wait a few months you can get these for cheaper Your best buy with Intel would be a PII (preferred for applications) or a Celeron (preferred for video games) As for the speed of these CPU's, 300mhz should be the minimum you'd want

You can also opt for AMD Actually, if you a little research on the web, you'll find out that allot of people actually recommend AMD My own past experiences with AMD has been really great (yes I'm recommending AMD to you right now) Not only they make good CPU's, but their costs are considerably lower than Intel You can easily get an AMD K6-2 300mhz (and above) for about $100 Although you may want to get the speedy AMD K6-3, which are just slightly more expensive

Also, before buying the CPU, find out what Bus frequency the CPU can support (100mhz or 66mhz) Getting a CPU that supports a higher frequency will drastically affect the overall speed of your new computer

RAM

The first type, are of course the best While they are usually priced higher (10 to 20 dollars higher than the second type), you get the performance for your money You usually also get a lifetime warranty when you get this type of RAM

The second type, are pretty much average They perform very well, but you'll usually only get a year warranty on these If you don't want to pay that extra money for "the best brand", then get the second type of RAM More than likely it won't ever fail on you The third type is the evil OEM brand, or better yet, the no name brand Whatever you do, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT get fooled into buying this brand of RAM It can be really attractive (price wise) but performance, compatibility, and warranty - just simply not worth the trouble of testing and returning it to the store

Next, you have to decide how much RAM you'll need To be quite honest, 32 megs of RAM should be the minimum to consider (not recommended) If you want something with some power then consider getting 64 megs (my own personal minimum recommendation), or even 128 megs (which is really great) Now if you want POWER, then just buy yourself one 256 meg DIMM

About the DIMM's themselves, don't get anything slower than 10ns (nanoseconds) 8ns is pretty much an average Another thing about DIMM's, unlike the older SIMMs, you don't need to buy these in pair So if you just want 32 megs, get yourself one 32meg DIMM If ever you want to upgrade to 64 megs, then simply get yourself an extra 32 meg DIMM It's that simple

Hard drive and floppy disk drive

One thing for sure you will need is a floppy drive So before I go into the hard drives, make it clear to yourself that you need a *good* floppy drive These will cost around 25 to 30 dollars Whatever you do, don't get the cheaper ones It's really not worth it Especially when your floppy drives dies on you, and then you need to install drivers, software, etc, or even fix your Windows operating system Not having a floppy drive is real nightmare

Now to the hard drives What's really great about these, is that nowadays you can get large drives for really low prices If you shop around, you can easily get a 6.4 gig hard drive for $100 or under (these prices keep on going down all the time)

As your shopping for a hard drive, you'll probably see a whole bunch of different brands To keep it simple, stick only to: Maxtor, Western Digital and IBM Other hard drives might seem cheaper, but these manufacturers produce quality drives After all, the data on your hard drive is very important, and loosing it is not an option So spending an extra $10 for the good brand name is essential when it comes to hard drives

Monitor

Out of all the items listed, the monitor will probably cost you the most (if you buy it brand new) There isn't much I can really recommend for monitors, except make sure you get something with a warranty I've lost several monitors over the years (thanks to the Arizona heat), and it's really no fun

If you really want to get fancy (and spend allot more money) you can get the LCD monitors

Also, if you're like me and you have your eyes glued to your computer monitor for long periods of time, consider getting a glare filter These run for about 15 to 40 dollars If you still have good eyesight, then I suggest you get one of these before you go blind ;-)

Video card

Another main essential part of your computer system, the video card is a must Without it (unless you have video inbuilt on your motherboard) you won't really be able to use your newly built PC

Now the though question, is what type of video card you need

1 Meg PCI video card This is your basic card (which I personally refer to as obsolete) While you won't really feel much power if you work with graphics, and you really won't be able to play allot of the newer graphical intense video games, a meg PCI video card is perfect for just regular Internet usage and application such as Word, Quickbooks and other low graphic usage software They are also really cheap (don't spend more than 20 dollars on a card like this) One thing to make sure is that it can support 800 by 600 pixel resolution

2 meg and + PCI video card This is your cheaper alternative to enhanced graphic usage and video gaming These cards perform quite well for graphic work and can really stand up within video games These are also cheap, and will rarely cost you more than 50 dollars

3 3d fx PCI/AGP video card These types of cards are slowly becoming the standard in all newer computers now Basically this is what you need if you want to experience video gaming and enhanced video and graphical work Unfortunately the price tag for these types of cards is rarely under $100

Keyboard and mouse

If you're building a new computer for your kids, you may want to get one of those keyboards made just for kids They're really great and easy to use for the younger child As for the mouse, stick with one brand, and that's Logitech You don't need to spend 100 dollars on a mouse, 20 to 30 dollars should get you something good, solid and with a good warranty

3 The rest of the stuff

Now that you know about the basic requirements for your new computer, I'll now go ahead and explain a few of the extra things you may want to get

Making a real list of the "other stuff" you can get would be really long Printers, scanners, video cameras, hubs, speakers, mics, etc I'll leave those to your imagination and simply stick to the so-called "essentials" of the rest of the stuff These include sound cards, modems, network cards and CD-ROM drives

Sound cards

Unless your motherboard comes with in built sound, more than likely you will want to have sound on your computer There is a very large variety of sound cards you can get, each performing quite differently and with various prices

If you want an excellent sound card that will truly give you the best audio experience ever, then there is no doubt, you have to get the Creative Sound Blaster Live This card is comparable to what Hollywood studios use for sound editing There are two drawbacks to it though For one, the price tag you're looking at a 150 to 200 dollar sound card (ouch!) Second, this card is not fully compatible with joysticks Although this is a problem that is being resolved, it's something to consider if you plan on playing games which use joysticks as the main controlling device (flight Simulators for example) You may also opt to get the Creative Sound Blaster Live "Value!" This card runs for around 80 to 120 dollars, and it doesn't have incompatibility with game controlling devices Note that both of these cards are PCI

Next up, you can spend around 50 to 100 dollars for another good card, which will deliver you great sound, yet not with the full live surround 3d audio power of the two above cards There is a very wide range of cards that fit this description, and my advice is, stick with the brand name Creative (and make sure you get a PCI card!)

Finally you can opt to get the bargain cards This is a perfect solution if you really don't care about sound, and all you really need is to hear some beeps and warning sounds In this case, go ahead and choose an ISA card You can pay as little as 10 dollars for these, but like I mentioned, don't expect quality sound

the most compatible with applications You can get one of the "Sound Blaster" compatible cards, but you risk going through terrible installation problems You've been warned

Modems

Modems are another real no "brainer" device to get Although you should consider if you really need a modem With Windows 98 SE, you can actually share one modem connection with several computers, so why get another? Another thing to consider is high-speed Internet access This is getting much more popular and it's availability is also increasing In which case, you won't even need a modem

Now if you still want to get a modem, then go ahead and get an internal 56K ISA modem No need too worry to much about brand names, most modems perform the same Although acquiring a 3Com 56K ISA (or PCI) modem wouldn't hurt at all if you got a few extra dollars

Network Interface Cards (NIC)

A network card is something you may really want to get Since you're probably reading this from your own computer, if you build another PC and install a network card in it (and your present computer), you can actually network them together

The advantages of having your own network are many; you can share Internet access, you can share hard drives, you can play multiplayer video games against other people in your household and more

If you're only going to connect two PC's, then make sure both have a network card, and that you get the correct cable for direct connection, and you will not need a network hub (this is called Networking, and it's something far beyond the scope of this article)

Stick to a regular PCI network card These deliver better speeds, and are much, much easier to configure than the ISA ones A good brand to get would be Linksys They deliver great technical support; if you have a problem, you give them a call, leave your name and phone number to a friendly operator, and a techie gets back to you really within an hour (no "on hold"! What a concept!)

One thing you should do, is look for a sale on network components and you can get yourself network cards (or even an entire home network kit) for less than $50

While I'm classifying a CD-ROM drive as non-essential, we all have to face the fact that a computer without a CD-ROM drive is pretty obsolete

It's quite simple Don't get anything less than a 24x speed drive, and don't get the bargain CD-ROM drives if your kid's use the computer allot

Two good brands would be Sony and Creative These will be much more expensive, yet you can rest assured that they will last you a long time I still have an antiquated 2x Creative and an ancient 4x Sony that outperforms my 24x NewCom CD-ROM (don't get NewCom!)

Also, you may consider getting yourself a CD-Writer or a CD-RW

What's the difference? Well a CD-Writer (CD-R) can write on regular blank CD's (which cost about 50 cents to a dollar), but never erase or write on them again A CD-RW can write on both regular blank CD's, and rewrite, erase and modify special blank RW CD's (which cost about to dollars) Again, if you want to get a CD-R (or CD-RW) stick with Creative or Sony

So that's about everything you really need to know about what to buy! Next, you'll learn how to assemble all of the new computer hardware and to finish it up by installing your operating system (OS) software

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At this point I'm assuming that you pretty much read through everything that you needed to know about the various computer parts; what to buy, what to avoid, what to look for, etc

Well once you get passed the awful "spending" money part of building your own new computer, you can start getting into the fun stuff

3 Assembling the system

Assembling the entire system might be a little tricky if you've never done it before Some things you will want near you while doing this, is a cold drink, plenty of light, computer screws, all the manuals that came with the hardware you purchased, a screw driver and of course, your sanity

Oh and a word about static electricity Make sure you de-static yourself (by touching your computer's power supply or wearing a very expensive anti static bracelet), and it would be a good idea to work in a non-static area, such as on a table, or a kitchen counter, and away from carpet Whatever you do, be very careful not to zap your components

manual are already set up for you The main ones you will have to configure are: a) Power supply type In the event that you have an AT/ATX motherboard you

will need to set this one correctly b) CPU external bus frequency This is where you specify what bus frequency

your CPU is at c) CPU to bus frequency ratio Look at the little box that contained your CPU, it

will show you the exact ratio (should be a number like 2x, 3.0x, 3.5x, etc.)

d) CPU voltage It's really important that you get this one right, or else you'll end up with a *really* hot CPU or a non-working board

2 Inserting the CPU This one is really easy Take the CPU, and hold it with your right hand Look on your motherboard for the CPU socket With your left hand hold the motherboard with a firm grip while you insert your CPU Then connect your CPU fan Easy isn't?

3 Screwing the motherboard to the computer case This process can be a little frustrating A good thing to would be to remove the piece where the motherboard screws too, which is a large panel within your computer case Next you should have little plastic looking screws Use these to secure all four corners of your motherboard Don't worry if you can't secure each corner, more often than not you will only be able to get to corners Finally, you will see holes in the middle of the motherboard You should be able to insert two screws to secure the middle of your board Screw these in, but make absolutely certain that you have those little red rubber looking washers This will protect your board from damage that the metal screws can cause Like the corner screws, it's really no big deal if you can only screw in one center support screw Inserting your RAM Once your board is securely inserted within your case, you

will want to pop in the RAM Here you will discover exactly how easy it is to perform the 40-50 dollar job that CompUSA and other stores will charge you Look up in your motherboard manual exactly in what sockets your RAM has to go into Then insert your RAM slowly, but firmly into its socket DIMMs can only be inserted in one way Simply align the indents found on the lower part of the DIMM to the indents found in the RAM socket

5 LED cords and the RESET Switch cord In the lower right part of your case you will see a bunch of cords ending with black heads These black heads will be labeled HDD, RST, PWR, TURBO, etc If they are not labeled, then good luck trying to figure out which goes where I've actually had the chance of trying to figure that out it took me a few tries, but basically it's trial and error Anyhow, take a hold of those cords, look up in your manual where the proper connectors go to, and plug them in

7 Connecting your LPT, COM1 and COM2 cables On the outer edge of your motherboard, usually near the keyboard connector, you will have outlets The first two will be close together and are of the same size (small) This is COM1, and COM2 Not to far from these you will see an outlet that is just a little bigger, and this is your LPT outlet Consult your board manual to find the exact location So you will have to take the gray ribbons with the red dots/stripe on the side and connect them to the correct connector Make sure that the red stripe/dots face towards the left side of your motherboard (the side where your power supply is) These gray ribbons then go to a little metal bracket that holds another connector that looks exactly like your printer port You will have to screw these brackets into your case

8 Installing your floppy drive Next, take your floppy drive, insert it into an available bay (in the upper right hand corner of your case) Connect a power supply to the drive, which will be a thin cable coming out of your power supply Next, take your floppy drive gray ribbon (it's the only one that will connect to the floppy drive) Connect one end to the floppy drive, and the other to the board Look in your manual if you're not sure where this is located Like in the above step (#6), the red stripe/dots must face towards the left part of your board

9 Installing the IDE drives The IDE drives are the hard drives and CD-ROMs Before putting them in their respective bays, make sure you have their jumpers set up right (consult their documentation) You will need your hard drive to be set as a master, or slave (depending on how many hard drives you have) Then connect the IDE gray ribbon (it's the only one that will fit to the IDE drives) to the drives themselves and then to the motherboard Like in the above step (#6), the red stripe/dots must face towards the left part of your board Finally, connect the power supply to the drives

10 Inserting your expansion cards Next you will want to insert your expansion cards into your motherboard These are the sound cards, video cards, modems, etc Each one of these go into their correct slot (AGP, PCI or ISA) with the metal bracket facing the left part of the case so you can screw them in If you have an AGP card, this one will go into the AGP slot, which is brown, and there shouldn't be more than one AGP slot on your board Slowly but firmly insert the card into the slot You will know when it's all the way in PCI cards will go into the PCI slots These slots are the smaller white ones The ISA cards will go into the ISA slots These are the longer black slots If you got a sound card, which supports CD-ROM audio, now would be the perfect time to connect the digital audio cord to your CD-ROM

11 Booting up for the first time Now it's the moment of truth Connect your monitor, mouse, keyboard and power cord to the computer Don't screw the exterior case cover just yet, because you might have to fix something that doesn't work (let's hope not) Now turn the power on If you see something on your screen that matches your CPU speed, then a Memory test that matches your amount of RAM,

then you got it done! Sure you may have to fix some problems, but you can rest assured you got the

If you don't see nothing, then you probably omitted one of the steps above, or you didn't it right Consult your hardware manuals! They will explain to you exactly how everything needs to be connected

12 Setting up your BIOS Once you boot up, you will probably see a heading labeled "Press DELETE to enter setup", or maybe "Press ESC to enter setup" Whatever the key, press it to enter your BIOS First thing you will want to in your BIOS is set up your hard drive More than likely you will have an option labeled "Auto-detect IDE devices" Use this to configure your BIOS to use your hard drive(s) You may also want to screw around with other items I can't really help you there, but grab your motherboard manual, and read what it says about your BIOS

That's it! You're all done! Well at this point, if everything worked great, you deserve a good pat on the back It sure isn't an easy task to build your own computer

Some people tend to "rush build" their PCs Well unless it's a dire emergency, I don't recommend this You're better off taking each step one at a time, and to make sure everything is securely screwed and connected

At this point all that's left is to install your operating system (OS)

4 Installing an OS

Probably one of the easiest steps of all is to get your newly built computer set up with an operating system

You have a very wide choice of OS: Windows 95/98/NT, Linux, FBSD, OS/2 and the list can go on

I'll be very honest right now I will not explain how to install any OS except the main basics of getting Windows 95/98 (they both install the same way) installed If you want to install a UNIX OS, Win NT or OS/2, then you probably know enough about computer to it without my guidance

First, you will need to create yourself a system disk Grab yourself a new or used floppy disk, insert it into your current machine and format it

To format, go to your desktop, open up the "My computer" icon, then right click on your Floppy drive icon Then select format Make sure you select "full", and the "Copy system files" option Then hit start

will be nearly impossible Take an hour or two to learn about DOS a little research about it on the web (a great place to start is Webfreebees.Net of course)

Anyhow, once you get to your DOS prompt, simply type in: SYS A: You can then exit your dos prompt

Next, go to your START menu, go to FIND then FILES OR FOLDERS You will want to search for the following items (no need to be in order): a) FORMAT.COM

b) FDISK.EXE

Each time when the program file appears in your search window, right click on it, then select the "SEND TO" option, then "send to" your 1/4 floppy drive icon

Once both programs are copied, your all set to boot up your new computer again Make sure your BIOS is set to read your floppy drive first for the boot up sequence

Insert your floppy and turn the power on Once everything is done starting, you will be at a dos prompt, that will look like this:

A:\>

What you will want to now is type in FDISK.EXE This will start the software required to prepare your hard drives The software is fairly easy to use with step-by-step instructions

If it allows it, I suggest that you enable large hard drives This will save you the hassle of having to split up your large hard drive into smaller partitions

Once FDISK is done, you will need to reboot your computer again Make sure you keep the system disk in your floppy drive

Once the system is done rebooting, and you find yourself to the great colorful A:\> DOS prompt Next task is to format your hard drive(s)

Simply type: FORMAT /S C

Once you reboot, if all went well, you will now see a C:\> prompt Now the next thing you will want to is install your CD-ROM for DOS Refer to your CD-ROM instructions for this

You will probably have to reboot again, which is okay, since it will be one of the last times

After you reboot, and you're back to the C:\>, insert your Windows95/98 CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, then type in:

D:\>SETUP.EXE (replace the D:\ with the appropriate drive letter of your CD-ROM) If the Windows setup starts, then you're all set, the rest is real easy stuff!

If not, you may want to load up HIMEM.SYS Copy that file to your newly built computer's hard drive (get it from your current computer) and make a CONFIG.SYS file that will load up that memory device

Well now you're all done What's next? Maybe it's time to get yourself a snack, or maybe go to bed if you've been working on building the computer all night

Whatever the case, you know have a brand new computer, that you can be proud of to say "I built this computer on my own!" More than likely you've saved a bundle by building it yourself, and you also learned tons on how computers work Now don't go telling everyone that you can build PCs, because you're going to get tons of friends and relatives asking you to fix their PC or even build one!