How to build your own computer

I decided to teach everybody howto build his own computer because it is much less expensive to build one than to buy one.I build mine some time ago (September 1997) for $750 and the cheapest I found alreadybuild was $1100 - $1200 or more. This computer was a P133 with 16M of RAM, sound card 16b,speakers with microphone, 33.6K Diamond modem, 1.7G hard drive, mouse, keyboard, minitower case.

       Here is how a motherboard looks:  

        Beforestarting to tell you a little bit about what you see on the motherboard let me point youto the greatest computer hardware page on Internet: Tom's hardware page. In this page you will find REALLY good information about the hardwareinside your computer. You could find there information about bus speed, EDO memory, BEDOmemory, SDRAM memory, chip set characteristics, parallel port modes and many more. Gothere and see for yourself how complete is that page.

        Now about what you see onthe motherboard:

• The pentium socket - is the socket in which you insert your pentium microprocessor. Align the point on the microprocessor with the corresponding corner on the socket (you will see only one corner is different from the others). The microprocessor fits in the socket only in one position, unless you are strong ... : - )
• The chip set - is the 4 chips who take care of your hardware. Don't be scared about it, you don't have to do nothing about it.
• The CACHE memory - is a fast memory who keep the last used instructions and data and it is accessed by the microprocessor always before the normal RAM memory. Sometime this is called also external cache because the microprocessor has also a internal cache. Now most of the motherboards have 512K - 1M of cache.
• The ISA slots - in those slots you plug all your ISA cards like sound cards, modem cards, network cards, GPIB cards, data acquisition cards, etc.
• The PCI slots - in those slots you plug the PCI cards like video card, eventually network cards.
• The BIOS - is a FLASH memory or a EPROM memory where the board manufacturer is putting a program called bios which control by low level functions all your hardware. The operating system call bios functions to access the hardware.
• The I/O controller - is actually a microprocessor who control the I/O ports.
• The IDE connector - in this connector you have to plug the flat cable from the HDD and / or the cable from the CD-Rom.
• The floppy connector - is the connector where you plug the cable from the floppy disk drive.
• LPT1, COM1, COM2 - those are the places where you plug the cables from your parallel port, and serial ports.
• SIMM memory - this is where you insert the SIMM memory modules. Keep in mind that your pentium processor will work only if you will have a bank full of memory so for example if you want to install 32M of memory you could put 2 modules of 16M or 4 modules of 8M but never 1 module of 32M of SIMM memory.
• DIMM memory - this is where you will plug the DIMM memory modules. You could plug only one of those modules. Keep in mind that if you have EDO DIMM memory you have to set up the power for the DIMM at 5 volts and if you use SDRAM memory you have to set up the power for the DIMM at 3.3 volts.
• Power connector - there is where you plug the two cables from the power supply inside your case. The two plugs you have to plug on the motherboard are different from the others. Another thing to keep in mind is to put the black wires in the middle.
• The keyboard connector - is where you plug your keyboard after all is in place.

Now how you mount the parts.

• Open the case and take the metal bottom out by unscrewing the two screws.

This is the back you have to take out

• Insert  the plastic legs in the holes of the motherboard and place the motherboard on the metal back and fix it with some screws.
• Insert the microprocessor in the socket. To do this you have to pull the lock bar and to put the microprocessor in place. Close now the socket with the lock bar.
• Now set up the jumpers on the motherboard. You could find the settings on the motherboard booklet.

        Here are some few rules:

1. 1    Set up the CPU voltage. THAT is VERY important. You could fry your CPU if you don't set up the right voltage. A basic rule if you know nothing about the CPU is to set up the smallest voltage and to see if it is working and to graduate increase the voltage. If you see the speed of the CPU set up the voltage based on the next table.

1.  2    Set up the DIMM memory voltage if you have any. The settings for the DIMM memory are in the next table

        If you will pay 20-40dollars more you could get a jumper less motherboard. They are OK but it is no differencebetween a jumper less and a normal one except for the jumper setting. So if you are lazyand you have enough money buy a jumper less motherboard.

• Put back the bottom of the case with the board in place. Screw the 2 - 4 screw in place and turn the computer with the open part up. You will see the image who is in this page background without cables and perpendicular boards.
• Now insert the perpendicular boards you have. I'll suggest first to plug the video card and turn on the computer. If something is not working check first if the fan of the microprocessor is working. If is working, then turn on your monitor : - ). If is not working check to see if you plugged correctly the power on the motherboard. If it "still doesn't answer" call a friend who already did that before.
• Plug the power in each of your peripheral devices: hard drives, floppy drive, CD-ROM drive. The plugs are "anti stupid" so you could plug them only in one position. .... Except if you are strong enough. I've seen a hard drive where somebody plugged the power backwards .... and it was not nice.
• Plug the flat cable in each of pheripherals. Keep in mind that the red wire on the flat cable should be plugged to correspond with the pin 1 of the device. If the pins are not numbered the almost generic rule is that the red wire of the power cable should face the red wire of the flat cable. The floppy cable: plug the twisted cable in the drive you want to be A drive.
• If you want more than one device on a big flat cable (called IDE cable) than you have to set up a device like master and the other one like slave. You do that by the jumpers you will find on the back of the hard drive or the CD-ROM drive. You will see the settings for those jumpers on the CD-ROM case or the hard drive case.
• Plug now the other end of the flat cables on the motherboard. The IDE cables in the IDE connectors and the floppy cable in the floppy connector. Use the same rule: plug the pin one of the cable (red wire) facing the pin one of the connector (usually marked with a arrow or numbered or numbered in the motherboard book). Don't panic if something is not working, just turn the cable.
• Remove the metal tabs from behind the computer in the places you want to put the boards.

• Now plug all the cards you want to put in: modem, sound card, network card.
• Plug now the 3 wire cable between the CD-ROM and your sound card.

     Now you are ready to go so plug the cable in the outlet andturn on your computer. I hope is working. Now you gave to enter n the BIOS and toconfigure the hard drive you are using. To do that go in the bios by pressing the DEL key(for AWARD bios and AMI bios) or any other key indicating to let you in the biosconfiguration. Go to IDE auto detection and press auto detect. After the bios is autodetecting your hard drive go out from the bios and save the configuration.
    Insert now a dos boot diskette which have also fdisk.exe,sys.com and format.com. The system will boot from the floppy. Enter now inthe fdisk utility to create a partition on your hard drive. Go to create new partition-> primary dos partition. Follow the indications and when the partition is createdreboot your computer. Your computer will boot from floppy again but now you will see thedrive C too whithout being able to access it. Format now your disk C with the command:format c: /u/s. After a few minutes your hard drive will be formatted and bootable.
    The rest is on you: install the software and enjoy.

 Where to buy parts?

    Here are some supplyers and some web sites from where you could findthe best deals on computer parts.
        Intrexcomputers
        Computercustom sollutions
        CPUmicromart
        Spartantechnologies
        A pro computers
 

Some "don't"

    Since I had a lot of hits I decided to update and to maintain thispage so check it periodically for updates.
    In this paragraph I write about some things what youshould NOT do.
 

1. Don't ever buy a ADDONICS Sound Vision sound card. It not support streaming audio. In other words it not recognize the sampling rate of your internet sounds. Iou will not be able to use it with NetMeeting or .au files downloaded from internet. The funny part of this is that the guys from Sound Vision have some FAQ and one of them is :" Is the SoundVision sound card compatible with NetMeeting software". Guess the answer from the SoundVision guys: quote "NO". No explanation no nothing. Nice job isn't it?
2. Don't ever buy a IBM Aptiva box. The guys from Aptiva put almost everything on the motherboard: the video card is integrated on the motherboard and the motherboard has strange connectors and power cords everywhere. You could find for example (that's for real, I found this in a Aptiva box): 1 meg trident card integrated on the motherboard, modem-sonnd card combo. I could not reuse even the box. They put in the Aptiva (I opened only Aptiva 100 boxes) 150-200W power supply so not quite usable with a lot of boards. To give you a example, usually you could keep from a pentium box which you want to upgrade almost everything except the microprocessor. From the Aptiva boxes I kept ... the floppy drive, the HDD, the keyboard, the monitor and some memory.
3. I will not suggest you to buy a computer from a non specialized company like user electronics companies. I tried to install a ISA network card in a K6 box for 3 times 3 hours and I still not working
4. Don't try to put a "old" serial cable (the cable inside the computer between the MB and the actual serial plug) in a new computer. They are incompatible. So if you have a 486 and you will upgrade this at a pentium don't be surprised if you will use the old serial cable and your mouse will not work, just change the cable.
5. Don't EVER try to install a Iomega Ditto external tape drive on a W95 box. I failed REALLY badly a couple of times and I had to delete windows and to reinstall it. If you really want that Ditto drive on your computer try to install it first.

You are visitor  from 29 March 1998

    The pictures in this page where created with the Connectix Quickcam B&W. The settings are taken from some motherboards books. The rest is all my creation. I will not be held responsiblefor any hardware damage. Use my instructions at your own risk.

Updated April 30, 2008 0:37 AM by Vlad Pambucol