Assembling the PC
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After buying all the computer components they must be put together. This process is called assembling. It usually takes about fifteen minutes(installing not included). Although easy, it must be done carefully so as to avoid unnecessary damage to the system.
Materials Required
Make sure that you have all the below materals before starting.
All the necessary components(Although the all the below components are preferable, not all are necessary. Then necessary ones are marked with a;
- Processors
- Motherboard
- Hardisk
- RAM
- Cabinet
- Floppy Drive
- CD Drive
- Cards
- Display Card (Not needed if On-board display is available on Motherboard)
- Sound Card (Not needed if On-board sound is available on Motherboard)
- Modem
- Other Cards(If Any)
- Monitors
- Keyboard
- Mouse
- Speakers
- UPS
- Other Components(If Any)
- Also keep the cables that came with thee components close by
Philips head Screwdriver (Or Star Screwdriver)
Flat head Screwdriver
Forceps (for pulling out jumpers and screws)
Magnatized Screwdriver
Multi meter (Testing)
Precautions
Before Starting the actual assembly of the PC System, the following precautions would help you to avoid any mishap during the assembly process:
While the motherboard has to be fitted at a fixed place inside the PC cabinet, the locations of add-on cards (as and when used) and the drivers (hard disk drive, floppy disk drive, and CD-ROM drive) within the drivers bay of the cabinet can be changed within certain limits. But it is better to place them far away from each other.
(The length of the cable provided for interconnections to the motherboard has to be taken into account, as there must be some slack after these are installed and connected).
This will improve the cooling and reduce the chance of electro-magnetic interference between them.
The motherboard contains sensitive components, which can be easily damaged by static electricity.
Therefore the motherboard should remain in its original anti static envelope until required for installation. The person taking it out should wear an anti static wrist strap that is properly grounded.
In the absence of a proper wrist strap, you must make one on your own, using a peeled of multi-stranded copper cable and ground it properly. Similar handling precaution are also required for cards.
Be sure to handle all the components with great care. If a small thing like a screw is dropped on the MB, it can damage the delicate circuitry, rendering the MainBoard useless.
Procedure
Installing Motherboard
You need to determine if the case has the appropriate risers installed.
Risers, or spacers, keep the motherboard from touching the metal surfaces of the case after it is installed, avoiding a short-circuit and a wrecked computer.
Any new case will include some form of riser, metal or plastic. See the picture on Side for typical examples.
They may or may not be pre-installed into the case.
Keep the cabinet panel on the table and fix the motherboard on it.
A gentle pressure is enough to mount the Motherboard on it. There will be a mechanism to lock the motherboard in place.
Identify its working and mount the motherboard accordingly. Tighten the screws on the motherboard to the panel.
Now gently lower the CPU into the ZIF(Zero Insertion Force) Socket. No pressure is required.
If the CPU is placed properly, it will slide into the socket. Make sure that the Number 1 pin is placed correctly. If you cannot get the CPU to sit evenly DO NOT force it.
After placing the CPU, lock the socket using the Locking lever.
Apply the IC paste that comes with the processor to the bottom of the heatsink. Only a thin layer is necessary.
This lets the heat that is produced in the processor to be conducted to the heatsink which cools it. After applying the paste, fix the heatsink on the processor.
Make sure that the locks of the heat sink are in place.
Installing RAM
Keep the RAM module in the slot in the proper way and press downwards. Be careful not to jerk the RAM while pushing it down.
See that the lock get hold of the RAM and stay in the locked position.
The ways of inserting the RAM will vary with different kinds of RAM.
There are different kinds of RAM like SDRAM, DDRAM, RDRAM, etc.
Connections
Next, affix the cables that are provided to the necessary places on the motherboard. The cables and the place to fix them are given.
Be careful to fix the cables properly and not damaging the pins or the motherboard in the process.
Make sure that the red part of the IDE cables(the no 1 pin) is in proper position.
These are the list of cables that needed to be connected to the motherboard...
IDE Hardisk
CD-ROM 40
Floppy IDE Floppy Drive 34
Power Cable For Motherboard From SMPS to Motherboard 6x2 in AT and 20 in ATX
Front Panel Display Speaker
HDD Indicator LED
Power LED
Restart Different for each
Backside Connections PS/2, USB, LPT, COM 1, COM 2, etc.
Different for each
Card Connectors CDROM Audio cable, Onboard display to backside cable, etc Different for each.
Besides the cables that are shown here there are other cables like Processor Fan power supply, Power supply for devices like HDD, FDD, CD-ROM etc which are not connected to Motherboard, etc. All must be connected properly.
Pin Configuration on Motherboard
There are many places to fix cables in the motherboard. The following are the pin numbers for all the slots on the motherboard.
Device/Slot Name No of pins
LPT 26
COM 10
IDE 40
IDE Floppy 36
Now fix the motherboard to the Cabinet or the Case. Place your mother board inside the case and fasten it in. Every Case fastens mother boards in different ways.
Some use plastic pegs, some use metal screws.
Their might be metal coverings covering the holes in the computer case were the parallel ports and serial ports on the mother board should poke through.
Poke those out with a screw drive so you can fit the mother board in snuggly.
Make sure that all the connectors that come out of the motherboard is in its correct places on the back.
Expansion Cards
Now the expansion cards must be inserted. Insert your Video Card if it is not onboard.
There are presently about 3 different forms of slots on your mother board - PCI, ISA, and AGP. Video Cards are presently made for all 3 of them. AGP stands for "Accelerated Graphics Port" Video Cards made for this slot are generally more high tech/performance.
AGP slots more than likely is the only small, brown, slot on your mother board. PCI you probably have the most of these their white and little longer than AGP. ISA, these are long and black. Insert your Video Card and snug it in there firmly.
Make sure that the other side of the card can be come out of the motherboard's backside. Screw the card in that place. Similar fit the other cards in its respective places.
Floppy Drive
Ensure that one of the 3.5-inch bays in your case is open. If your case came with rails for the floppy drive, attach them to the sides of the drive and slide the drive into the front of the computer until it clicks into place. Rails are small metal pieces which clip or screw on to the sides of the drive and allow it to be inserted and removed from the case with minimal effort.
Otherwise, slide the drive into the front of the computer until the faceplate of the floppy drive is flush with the front bezel of the case and the screw holes along the side of the drive line up with the case.
When everything lines up, screw the floppy drive in securely on both sides.
Plug in the power cable (see picture to left) carefully, since it is quite possible to miss one of the connectors, which will quite possibly cause some damage when the computer is powered on.
Floppy drive power connectors are keyed in most cases, but if not, the red wire should be connected to the pin designated as 1 on the surrounding PCB.
Ensure that the power connector is correctly lined up with all 4 connectors. The floppy (data) cable is keyed to only fit one way.
Note that it is keyed the opposite way to the IDE hard drive and CD drive, so that the red stripe on the cable should be facing the floppy drive power cable.
Floppy drive cables(IDE) are solid ribbon on one end, and the other has a small section of the ribbon cut and twisted around. Ensure you only attach the floppy cable as shown in the picture to the right.
Installing Hardisk
Ensure that the hard drive is set up to be the master drive on its IDE cable.
Each IDE cable can support up to two IDE devices, such as hard-drives, CD-drives, Zip Drives, etc., but in order for this to work, one IDE device must be designated as a master device, and one must be designated as a slave device.
You cannot have two master devices or two slave devices on a single cable. This must be later configured in the BIOS.
Examine the top of your hard-drive. There should be a chart there depicting the necessary jumper settings to make the drive a master or slave device.
Otherwise, the chart will be somewhere on the body of the drive. The set of jumpers will be on the back end of the drive.
Ensure that they are set correctly to enable the drive as a master. You may need a set of tweezers to move the jumpers.
Insert the hard drive into the 3.5" drive-tray and screw it in securely on both sides.
Installing Optical Drive (DVD/CDROM)
Ensure that at least one full sized 5.25" bay is open in the case. Examine the jumper settings on the top of the drive, as you did with the hard-drive. Ensure that the drive is set to 'master'.
If your case came with rails, screw them to the sides of the CD drive and insert it into the front of the case until it clicks into place.
Otherwise, slide the drive into the front of the computer until the faceplate of the drive is flush with the front bezel of the case and the screw holes along the side of the drive line up with the case.
Then, screw it in securely on both sides. Attach the power cable (same as the hard-drive power cable) to the drive. Attach your secondary IDE cable to the drive.
Note that generally this should be a regular 40-wire IDE cable, not the 80-wire UDMA IDE cable that is used for the hard-drive. Some DVD drives will use the 80-wire cable, however.
Set the jumper on the CD-ROM drive. Here you have a choice. You can either:
Attach the CD-ROM to IDE connector 1 and make the CD-ROM a slave. In this case, you will set the jumper on the CD-ROM to "Slave" and attach the CD-ROM drive to the same IDE cable as the hard drive. Or,
Attach the CD-ROM to IDE connector 2 and make the CD-ROM a master. In this case you will set the jumper on the CD-ROM to "Master" and attach the CD-ROM drive with a separate cable to IDE slot 2. In order to use this method, you will need a second IDE cable.
Connect the Sound Cable of the CDROM to the Sound Card so that the Audio CDs can work properly.
