OK!

Time for a checklist:

 

CPU and CPU cooler installed: CHECK

RAM installed: CHECK

Power Supply: CHECK

Motherboard: CHECK

Hard drives: CHECK

DVD Drive: CHECK

Floppy Drive: CHECK

Graphics card: CHECK

Final check: Make sure all cabling is plugged in to where it's supposed to be. There are large connectors coming from the power supply to supply the motherboard with power, (usually one for the board itself, and one for the CPU) all drives require power, and the graphics card may require power (depending on your card).

Make sure all fans in the case have been plugged in to power cables as well.

All cables from the case should be plugged in to their respective connectors on the motherboard.

The floppy drive has it's own connector on the motherboard, as will any SATA or IDE drives that you have. Go through the steps in the manual that came with your motherboard to make sure you've got everything set up the way it should be.

 

And Now for the Moment of Truth!

 

Plug in a mouse, a keyboard, and a monitor.

Plug the main power cord into the back of your power supply, and then plug it in to an outlet. Turn on the power supply. If all goes well, you will see a light somewhere on the motherboard come on...in this case the ASUS logo. On most boards it's just a small LED light. That tells you that the motherboard has power.

 

If nothing starts smoking or exploding, turn on the power switch on the front of your system.

 

You should see the fans come on. This shows the fan in the power supply itself, as well as a case fan. (Not all fans light up like a carnival ride, but these days more and more computer parts do so.)

 

 

Make sure the fan on your CPU cooler is running!

 

 

This view shows the front of the case, and the fan that cools the drives. See that handle thing at the bottom? That's a handy little drawer that slides out and holds stuff.

 

 

Full shot of the front.

 

A view through the side panel.

 

 

So everything's pretty now, but does it work? After turning on your system, along with all the fans starting up you should have heard a "beep". At least that's what you'll hear on most motherboards. Your system should do what's known as a "post" which means it will try to start the BIOS on your motherboard. This article can't cover the all the information about setting up your BIOS, and different boards handle things differently anyway.

But if you hear several beeps in rapid succession, or no beeps at all, that might spell trouble. You should be able to press the delete key (you may even see instructions on the BIOS startup screen telling you to press DEL (or some other key) to enter startup. Your motherboard manual will have instructions describing what all the different settings do.

 

If all has gone well, you should be able to insert the CD of your operating system and boot up to a screen that will guide you through the steps of installing the OS. Before this happens, it will ask where you want to install it, and whether or not you want to create any new partitions on the drive.

I usually have 3 or 4 partitions per drive, as I like to keep different stuff on different drive partitions. For instance, my photos are in a partition labeled P:, and my games are in the G: partition. Note that you don't have to set up all your partitions now. You just need to set up the partition that you'll be installing your OS to. Later on, you can install more partitions.

 

Windows XP Professional x64 going through the motions. Once the OS is installed, you can start installing all your favorite programs.

 

I mentioned earlier that the Tuniq Tower 120 CPU cooler was held up in the snow back East. It's since arrived, and it's pretty cool, so I'll show it being installed.

It's freakin huge. Here it is sitting next to the motherboard.

There's a big slab of copper on the bottom, with pipes running from the copper chunk up through the cooling fins.

 

Here's a size comparison between the Intel cooling fan that came with CPU (foreground,) and the Tuniq Tower.

 

This is the installation bracket. It goes on the back of the motherboard, and the bolts go through the top hold-down bracket, through the motherboard, and screw into this plate. Talk about a strong connection!

 

Here's the mounting plate attached to the back of the motherboard.

 

This shows the tower installed, and the large brass knurled screws that hold it down.

 

I've lifted the fan out a bit to show how it's pulling air through the cooling fins. The fan is actually screwed down onto the fins during installation.

 

Here you can see it installed on the motherboard. That's a big heat sink!

 

This is a final shot of the back of the system. The Tuniq comes with a dial that can be installed in a free slot that let's you adjust the speed of the cooling fan.

 

Well, that's about it. I've skimmed over a few parts, but hope I've given you at least a basic idea of what's involved with building your own system. Each time you build one, it gets a little easier, and you'll know everything about what goes on in your computer.

 

It's a good idea to do as much research as possible before you start putting a system together...here are some links that I've found helpful when researching hardware components:

Tom's Hardware Guide	Lots of articles and tests on all kinds of components.
Anandtech	Reviews and articles on tons of hardware.
Hardware Central	Forum where you can ask questions and read about what other people are building.
Tech Forums	Another forum for getting information on various hardware components.
HardwareForums	You can never read enough forums!
CDFreaks	More information than you can imagine about CD/DVD hardware and software.

And of course most of the larger hardware manufacturers have forums of their own, so check out the sites of the manufacturers of any components you buy.

 

Happy building!

-Eric Gooch