Build Your Own Computer - Assembly (Part 2)

So all your parts have arrived, hopefully in good condition and now it's time to put them all together. Well, not quite yet. The most important part of this procedure, and I can't stress this enough is to READ THE MANUALS FIRST. At the very least read the ones for the case, the CPU cooler ( coolers have to accommodate both Intel and AMD processors which have different mounting schemes so there will be adapter brackets for each type ) and most importantly the motherboard.

As an example, the last machine I built was water cooled so there was no CPU fan. I got everything together, pressed the ON switch and …..zip, nada, nothing. This had me scratching my head and looking for bad connections/components for quite a while. I read the motherboard manual, again, and there in the fine print it said "the CPU will not start unless there is a speed signal from the CPU fan." There was a jumper to defeat this and after that all was well.

So, now that you're familiar with your parts you will need :

A flat, sturdy work surface and desk lamp, some rudimentary tools :

and three to four hours of time. Just a note on using the wrist grounding strap : If the humidity in the room you're working in is over 50% you can probably get by without it. Since you're handling some very expensive parts that can be destroyed by electro-static discharge you might want to use it anyway, your call, it's a minor inconvenience for peace of mind. If when you walk across a carpet you get a spark before touching a doorknob, you MUST use it. Attach the alligator clip to any metal portion of the case, it is not necessary to actually ground the case.

1) First install the power supply.

2) Next mount the hard drives to the adapters, slide the adapters into their cages and slide the cages into the case. Notice the silicone vibration isolators around the screws that go into the hard drives, do not over tighten these or you will defeat their purpose.

3) Next, install the motherboard. Most motherboard manuals will tell you to install the CPU/fan first. I'm going to do it last as I do not want to damage the fragile fins of the heatsink while routing cables. Check to see if the CPU cooler adapter needs to be attached to the back of the motherboard, if it does do so now. The case will have 8-10 standoffs which you will use to mount the motherboard. Make sure that every standoff has a mounting hole on the motherboard associated with it and vice versa. The standoffs can be easily screwed out/in. (If you should mount the board with a rogue standoff touching the circuit traces on the back of the board at best the board will malfunction. At worst it will fry.) Also if the motherboard came with an I/O metal faceplate use it instead of the one that came with the case. Now with the motherboard holes aligned with the standoffs, lightly screw in each of the screws and when they are all in, tighten completely.

4) Check for clearance, Clarence. Today's high performance graphics cards are huge and you want to make sure it will actually fit when you go to install it. With the drive bays intact try to install the graphics card into the motherboard.

As you can see we have a problem. The power connectors for the graphics card are squashed against the drive bay, creating stress on the board. This is unacceptable, we cannot use that drive bay and need to put all four hard drives in the left hand side bay.

Much better.

5) Mount your Blu-Ray, DVD, CD and or Floppy (!) drives in the 5.25" bay area of the case.

6) Route, connect and dress all the interconnecting cables. Start with the case to motherboard connections, then all the power connections to the drives and motherboard and then all the data connections. The motherboard manual will tell you all you need to know. It is important to dress (bundle) all of the cables to ensure they don't interfere with airflow through the case. This is particularly important with overclocked systems as we will be presenting a larger than usual heat load to the cooling fans. This is the most time consuming part of assembly but after about an hour and a half …. Voila!

7) Install the CPU and Cooler. While most retail CPUs come with their own cooler in the box, I do not recommend using these as they have marginal performance at best. They are unacceptable if you are overclocking the CPU. Here's why:

The stock cooler has small aluminum fins, a small high rpm and noisy sleeve bearing fan, inexpensive thermal compound and a rough finish on the surface that contacts the CPU. All these factors contribute to a poor thermal resistance rating (deg C/watt) and lousy cooling ability. Contrast this with the large number of huge copper fins, connected via triple heatpipes, to a copper block with a mirror finish. The fan is variable speed, has dual ball bearings and the thermal compound is silver based.

Be sure to refer to the cooler and motherboard manuals here, it's a step that requires a little finesse. Remove the protective cover of the CPU socket on the motherboard. Carefully clean the top surface of the CPU and the mating surface of the cooler block with isopropyl alcohol and let it dry. Apply a very thin, even coating of thermal compound to the top of the CPU. Drop the CPU into the socket and lock it in using the side lever. Apply a very thin, even coating of thermal compound to the cooler block. Lower the cooler onto the CPU keeping the surfaces as parallel as possible and then press down on the cooler mounting bracket with a screwdriver until it locks into the CPU socket. (This can take quite a bit of force so BE CAREFUL. You don't want the screwdriver to slip onto the motherboard and sever any circuit traces.)

8) Install the graphics board. Don't forget to attach any external power connections if it needs them. Examine the connector it is plugged into, if you can see any of the gold fingers on the board then it is not seated correctly. (Don't install any other boards yet. If there are problems we want to keep the number of possible culprits to a minimum.)

9) Install the RAM module(s). Make sure the latches on the ends of the connectors are completely inserted into the modules.

You're now done with assembly. Here's the completed system :

10) Now for the moment of truth. Connect a keyboard, mouse and monitor to the computer. Attach the power cord and plug it into a surge suppressor outlet strip.

Turn the power switch on the power supply on.

Press the power switch on the front of the case. The fans should spin up and you should hear a single beep from the case speaker. Then the POST messages should appear on the monitor with CPU speed, RAM size and drives installed. Congratulations, you're up and running !

(If these things do not happen, the back of the motherboard manual usually has loads of troubleshooting tips, including what all the multiple beep codes mean. Of course you can always solicit advice from your friends here on CR4.)

In the next article we'll go over the burn-in process, configuring a RAID array, overclocking (configuring the BIOS) and benchmarks to see if I've met my performance goal.

You'll even find out why I've included a floppy drive (!?!) with this computer.

Editor's Note: Click here if you missed Part 1.