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| I've built 1-2 computers per year over the last 20 years and consider it to be one of life's most frustrating experiences. Luckily my memory isn't what it used to be, so by the time I'm ready for a new computer, I have forgotten those frustrations and do it all over again. In most cases I upgrade my existing computers rather than building a new computer from scratch. | ||
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| Why build? | ||
| If your primary objective for building your own computer is to save money, forget it. You aren't going to save anything building your own initially, but you can save in the future by upgrading rather than buying or building a new computer. There is a certain satisfaction in being able to say "I built it myself". I build my own computers "because I can". When building your own computer, you can get exactly the configuration you want with the brand names you want. Once you've built one and got it working, it's then relatively easy to upgrade. You can also save money on maintenance, because if you built it yourself, you should be able to swap out parts to fix it yourself. That's all most computer shops do nowadays anyway. | ||
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| What should I buy? | ||
| There are really only 10 parts needed for the basic computer. Three of those, the monitor, keyboard, and mouse aren't things that you need to worry about, because you aren't going to build those, you're just going to buy whatever brands or features you need. Check out my Hardware Specifications page and plan out what you're going to buy. | ||
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| Where should I buy it? | ||
| It depends on what you're buying. Most items I buy at a local computer show or mail order through the Computer Shopper. The exceptions are hard disks, monitors, modems, and peripherals such as printers or scanners which I like to buy someplace like Best Buy or CompUSA, where I can take it back if there's a problem. These items are the things that I've had the most problems with through the years. | ||
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| Putting it all together | ||
| After reading everything above, you still think you want to build your own computer? The good news is that most of the problems come from buying incompatible parts or not planning ahead, so if you've gotten this far, most of the hard work is done. The bad news is that you haven't hit the frustration part yet where you think something's supposed to work, but it doesn't. Start by reading everything that came with the parts and presetting all jumpers on the boards based on the documentation. Getting those settings correct is usually the most important part of the process. Normally the only tools you will need include a small flat-blade screwdriver, an average Phillips screwdriver, and a pair of needle-nose pliers. | ||
| Case, Motherboard, and Memory | ||
| Start by populating the motherboard. Hopefully you bought one with the CPU already installed. If the CPU is already installed, you can assume that the "expert" also set any jumpers needed correctly. If not, good luck. Next add your memory chips. Be careful in how you handle the memory chips. Try not to touch any of the metal connectors. The worst enemy to memory chips is static electricity, so make sure you're discharged and don't let anyone touch you at this point. Line up the #1 position on the memory chips with the same position on the connector. You can fry the chip, if you get it backwards. Make sure the memory chips all get seated firmly facing the right direction. Make sure also that you've got the correct configuration following the rules in the motherboard documentation concerning banks and the placement of the chips. | ||
| The motherboard will have little plastic stand-offs to connect it to the case. You don't have to fill every hole, usually 4 or 5 is enough spread about to make sure it's steady without wobbling. There will be holes in the base of the case, but not all of them will match up with the motherboard, so spend some time lining things up beforehand. Once you insert the stand-offs in a hole, they can be a real pain to remove, so get it right the first time. There should be one metal stand-off with a screw to ground the motherboard to the case. | ||
| Next connect the power supply to the motherboard. This is done by connecting two cables side by side. The old adage for connecting the two cables is "Black to black or you'll break your mother's back". Look at the cables and I think you can figure it out from there. In most cases if you don't have a cable connected exactly right, it's not going to create major problems. This is one place where you'd better get it right the first time. Don't worry about connecting any other wires now unless there is a wire for the power switch. Some power switches are directly connected to the power supply, so there's nothing to connect, but if the power switch is on the front of the case, then you need to go ahead and connect that wire. If you have a CPU fan (highly recommended), there should be a cable from the fan to one of the power supply connectors. | ||
| You're already at your first test point. Plug in the video card (don't bother to screw it down), the keyboard, the monitor (plug the monitor into both the video card and the electrical outlet) turn on the monitor, hold your breath and turn on the computer. You should see intelligible words on the video screen to give you an indication that it's alive. You should be able to verify the speed and type of CPU and the correct amount of memory at this point. You don't need to set anything at this point, the main purpose is to make sure you've got a good motherboard and the CPU and memory are installed correctly. If you've got a bad motherboard, you'll see nothing on the screen. If this happens immediately shut it down, make sure you didn't do something stupid, then take the motherboard back where you got it and get them to test it out. Nothing else is going to work if that motherboard isn't working. If the amount of memory is wrong, the first thing to check is that all the chips are seated correctly (turn the computer back off first). If anything doesn't look right on the connection of the memory chips, pull the suspect ones back out and reinstall them. Keep working on this step until everything you've installed so far is coming up right on the screen. | ||
| The next step is to connect all the wires between the case and the motherboard. This can be a challenge and serve as an area of major frustration. There should be connectors for the power light (sometimes this is a CPU speed indicator), the reset switch, the turbo switch (there may be a light for this also), the speaker, and possibly for a keyboard lock (which almost noone ever uses). There also is usually a wire for a hard disk light, but depending on whether or not you have a separate hard disk controller card or it connects directly to the motherboard, you may or may not be able to connect it at this time. | ||
| Hard Drives, Floppy Drives, CD-ROMs, and Backup Devices | ||
| Before inserting any drives into the case, set any jumpers such as master/slave or terminator jumpers. Also attach all cables except the power cables and place the drives in the case in the order you want them to appear. Make sure that all the cables are oriented in the right direction. There should be a stripe on each cable that is on the pin 1 side of the connector on the drive. I don't attach any screws to set them in place at this time (because it's a whole lot easier to remove it if you forgot something, which is almost inevitable). While you are sliding the drives in, attach the power cables from the power supply. Each drive will have one. If there aren't enough power cables for each drive, you need a "Y" cable to split out additional connectors. A second floppy drive will have a daisy chain cable. The drive connected to the end of the daisy chain cable will be the B: drive. If you have a second hard drive there will be a daisy chain cable, plus a second cable that connects directly to the controller. | ||
| Next insert any controller cards and connect all the cables from the drives again making sure the stripe side of the cables connects to the pin 1 side of the connector. You may have to get extension cables or move controller cards around if you have a large case. When installing the cards, press firmly to make sure you get it all the way in. | ||
| Other Cards | ||
| Sound cards, multi-I/O cards, and internal modem cards are next. These will be placed in any remaining slots. If possible you'll want to either put the modem card on the end or leave a space next to it and keep it away from the CPU. Modem cards tend to run hot. Here's where you need to get into interrupt settings which are usually set by moving a jumper. Normally the COM1 serial port will use interrupt 4, a second serial port or the internal modem (COM2) will use interrupt 3, the sound card will use interrupt 5, and the LPT1 parallel port will use interrupt 7. If the hard disk controller uses an interrupt (or 2) they're usually on the high end which is interrupt 15 (and 14). If you have a sound card and a CD-ROM, there should be a small cable that connects the two together. | ||
| Software | ||
| You're now ready to start testing everything out. (Up to this point, you shouldn't have installed any screws yet). Check out the instructions on the hard disk to see if you have any to set settings in the BIOS. Make sure you've got the monitor, keyboard, and mouse connected. You're now going to need a "bootable" floppy disk with DOS on it. If you don't have one, make one from a friend's computer. The command is format a: /s. In addition to DOS, the diskette needs the format command and possibly the fdisk command. Place the DOS disk in the A: drive, cross your fingers, and boot up your computer. At any sign of problems, shut the computer down, and fix the problem. Next make the hard drive bootable by first running fdisk and setting the primary DOS partition, then typing format c: /s. This will format the hard drive and copy the operating system to it. If you have a second hard drive, you need to format it also, but without the /s, since it doesn't need the operating system. Try rebooting now off the hard drive. If you're lucky your CD-ROM drive is also accessible and you can start the process of loading Windows 95. (If you are not planning to run Windows 95, you're going to have to manually set up drivers for each peripheral.) I haven't been lucky yet, so in that case, you either need CD-ROM drivers on that bootable floppy disk or you need to install them on the hard disk and reboot. | ||
| After installing Windows 95, check each device thoroughly until you're sure it's operational. Once you're convinced everything is working, you can finally get out the screw driver and lock in the drives, cards, and finally the case. Assuming everything works you're done. On the other hand if you're like me, you'll probably have to remove the case at least 3 or 4 times to resolve conflicts or fix something you forgot. | ||
| Good luck! I'm sure if you got this far, you're either raring to go or you've given up and are ready to go buy a computer already built. | ||
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 refnor@mgfairfax.rr.com |
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| Last modified: 08-29-99 | ||
