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Hal's
Hardware Haven Building a PC From ScratchHello again.
This month I am going to show you how to build a PC from scratch. Selecting componentsBefore you get started on a do-it-yourself PC, you have to select the components that you are going to use. Some of the things you will need to make choices about are listed below. If you are planning to use some of your current hardware in the new PC, that may limit some of your choices with the other items listed.
The place to
start is with the processor. All
processors have advantages and disadvantages.
The main types of processors on the market right now are Intel’s
Pentium 4, Pentium III and Celeron and AMD’s Athlon, Duron and Athlon XP+. Personally, I like AMD’s Athlon XP+ for its price and
performance. You choice of
processor will help decide which motherboard you can use; manufacturers use
differing pin layouts on their CPUs. There
are many websites that can help you choose a motherboard.
Some of my favorites are Tom’s Hardware Guide at http://www.tomshardware.com
and AnandTech at http://www.anandtech.com. Once you have narrowed down which motherboards you are considering, it is time to look at some of the other components. Hard drives come in 2 major types IDE (EIDE) and SCSI. Since SCSI drives are used primarily in servers I will focus on IDE drives here. Currently, IDE drives have a few differentiating features: rotational speed (RPM), interface speed (ATA spec), cache size and storage size. Here are some basics to help you select a hard drive:
The interface
specifications of your hard drive(s) can influence your motherboard choices.
For example, currently the fastest hard drives support the ATA/133
specification, but not many motherboards support it.
So if you want one of these drives (and want it to work in ATA/133 mode)
then your motherboard needs to have ATA/133 controllers or you will need to add
a 3rd party IDE controller. I need to add
here that most motherboards have 2 IDE ports that can support a maximum of 4 IDE
or ATAPI devices (2 per cable). If
you want to use more than 4 Hard Drives, CD Drives or Zip drives then you will
need more than 2 IDE ports. You can
either add a 3rd party IDE controller or purchase a motherboard that
has an IDE RAID controller (it adds 2 additional IDE ports).
RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. RAID controllers are pretty cool; in their IDE
implementation, they usually support RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and JBOD.
RAID 0 means that the disks are striped, meaning that they appear as one
big disk to the Operating System, but are written and read from alternately for
speed. RAID 1 means that two drives
are mirrored and the same data appears on both.
RAID 0+1 means that two drives are striped and then another drive or
drives mirrors the striped array. JBOD
(Just a Bunch Of Disks) means that multiple drives appear as one huge disk to
the operating system. Now we come
to RAM. Your motherboard choice
will determine what kind of RAM you can use.
For more information on RAM, you can read my article RAM,
RAM I Need More RAM in Volume 2 of ABC. The next
component on our list is the Video Card. If
you are a gamer, you probably already know what video card you want. A good 3D
accelerating Video Card can cost more than a processor.
Currently the fastest Video Cards are available in AGP versions only. Make sure that you check with places Tom’s Hardware Guide
and AnandTech before you make your Video Card Choice, some motherboards may have
a problems with certain Video Cards. Now we have most of the rest of the peripherals, things like CD and DVD ROM drives, CDRW drive, floppy drives, Sound Card, Network Card and Modem. Read my article on System Requirements in Volume 5 of ABC to learn how to match these to your system. Here are some general guidelines:
Last but not least are the case and the power supply. For all modern PCs, I recommend a high quality power supply. If you are building an Athlon based PC, AMD has a page with power supply recommendations. For the case,
it is possible to get a $30 case that includes a power supply, but I can’t
recommend them. The power supply is
usually very low-end and may not provide enough power.
Cheap cases also usually have sharp edges, poor hardware layout and may
not provide adequate cooling. If
you’re building your own PC, you will be much happier (and have fewer cuts on
your hands!) if you go with a quality case. For all
components I recommend that you go with major manufacturers with well-known
names. It is a good idea to ask
around and see if, in general, people have had good or bad experiences with the
specific items you’re interested in. I
would also make sure that items you are interested in have drivers for, and are
supported in, your choice of an Operating System. I used 3 PCs
in the following pictures, one is the test box that I used for the article
on Windows XP in Volume 6 of ABC and the other 2 were being made for
customers. I would like to thank
both Ross Johnson and Martha Bagwell for allowing me to use their PCs for
pictures in this article. The ComponentsThese are the components I used in these pictures:
How to do it!Now that
you’ve chosen the components lets start building! Caution!!! You need to worry about static electricity. Use an antistatic strap or an antistatic mat. If you accidentally zap one of your expensive components, you may have to replace it. Get
the Case Ready You need to look at the mounting holes in the motherboard,
mount the mounting posts in the matching holes in the case.
Now mount the power supply in the case. Make sure you have the orientation correct.
Remove the blanks covering the external bays for the Floppy, CD/DVD ROM, CDRW drives.
With some cases you need to remove the case front to get at the blanks. It should look like this when you’re done.
Get the Motherboard ReadyFirst mount the processor, paying close attention to the orientation of the processor relative to the motherboards socket, the following picture shows the clues for an Athlon processor, note the “flat” corners.
To install
the processor, lift the locking lever and carefully place the processor in the
socket. Gently push the processor
down and close the locking lever. Check
your motherboard manual for jumper or dipswitch settings. You may have to set
jumpers that determine the CPU speed and type and even the voltages used by the
processor. Most of the motherboards I use are jumperless and these
settings are handled by the BIOS. Install the processor cooling fan. Before you install the processor fan you need to make sure that there is thermal paste between the processor and heat sink. Personally I prefer Artic Silver. All you need is a thin layer of thermal paste. If there is a pre-made pad on the heat sink, you can remove it with alcohol. Just make sure that you remove all traces of the pad and that the alcohol is completely dry before you mount the heat sink and fan. Be very careful installing the heat sink and fan, follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
Now install the memory. For details see my article on RAM in Volume 2 of ABC.
Installing the MotherboardTake your time with this step. Line up the motherboard with the template on the back of the case and press it into position. If doesn’t want to move into place DON’T FORCE IT. Take another look and slowly put it into position. Make sure that you don’t damage the motherboard by sliding it along the mounting posts. After it is positioned, attach it to the case with mounting screws (a high quality case includes all the hardware you will need). Gently tighten the screws a little past finger tight.
Installing the DrivesMy preferred cases use drive rails to mount 5 ¼” drives like DVD ROM drives. Simply attach the rails to the drive. If it doesn’t line up with the front of the case, adjust the position of the rail relative to the drive.
Before you install the drive you will need to check the jumpers. IDE drives can be jumpered one of 4 ways: as Master, Slave, Stand Alone or Cable Select. Not all drives have the Stand Alone position. If you use cable select, your motherboard, drives and cable all must support it. On non-Cable Select systems, if you are using a single drive on an IDE channel it must be jumpered as Stand Alone or Master. If you install two drives, one must be a Master, the other a Slave. When you’re ready to install the 5 ¼” drive, you just slide the drive into the case from the front.
For floppy and hard drives I prefer cases that use removable drive cages. Again, if the front of the Floppy drive doesn’t line up with the front of the case, simply adjust the drive in its cage or bracket. For the hard drive(s), again, it must be jumpered like any other IDE device.
After you have the drives mounted in their cage(s), install the cage(s) into the case. Connecting Wires to the Motherboard. You need to connect the motherboard to the case; most cases have a small bundle of wires (that are hopefully labeled) that need to connect to certain pins on the motherboard. These control the Power Switch, Reset Switch, Speaker and front panel lights. Now it is time to use the motherboard manual to determine where they go.
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