of computer stuff and zzzzzzzz.....

Anyway, after I got my stuff prepared I went on to the next step, the actual build.

First step is to open up the casing and install the power supply unit (PSU). There should be 4 screws that comes with the power supply and corresponding 4 screw holes on the casing. The location is usually (in most tower casing) at the top back of the casing. Align the power supply and screw in the PSU.

Next is the motherboard installation. Before you do that, it is a good idea to ground yourself by wearing a groundstrap or have your one part of your body in contact with the metal part of the casing when handling the electronic components and boards.

Before installing the motherboard, there’s the thing on the back plate. Because different motherboards have different jacks and ports placement, you might need to change the back plate on the casing with the one that matches your motherboard. The corresponding backplate should comes together with your motherboard.

If you have got your standard sized mother board there should have corresponding screwholes/mountings on the casing. The standard normally used for mother boars is ATX. So if your motherboard is an ATX size, then your casing should be one that can fit in ATX motherboards. But don’t get too hung up on it, most motherboards and casings are ATX sized (except for those mini ones)

Mounts on the casing:

For ATX motherboards, there should be ~9 holes for you to mount onto the casing. Locate the holes and align them to the mounts on the casing (on mine I mount on 8 holes). Then screw away.
Mounted Motherboard:

After you have mounted the motherboard, you can plug in the cables to the motherboard.
Power cables: there is a 24 pins power socket on the mother board, look for a 24 pins plug ( or 20pins and a 4 pins plug on some PSU) on your power supply and plug it in. It can only go one way, so you will not make the mistake of plugging it the wrong way. An important thing to note is that some mother boards comes with 20 pins socket, so check which one is yours.

Sockets on the motherboard:

Power plugs from PSU:

Then plug in the On/off switch, reset switch and HDD lights wires to the motherboard. You need to refer to the motherboard manual to find the location of the pins to plug into. Check your manual if there are any other wires to be plugged in. Sometimes there are chasis intrusion, or other LED signals that you may wanna plug in.

Next is the Graphic card.
Before installing the graphic card, check what slot that it uses (meaning what standard slot if goes into). Then locate the slot on your motherboard (through your manual). Remove the corresponding metal plate on the casing so that the plate on your graphic card has a hole to slot in into. Slot in the graphic card and screw the plate into the casing. (tip: sometimes it needs a bit of force to push the card in into the slot, so you can push in from one end and then ease in the other end.)

Slot for the graphic card and metal plate removedGraphic card installed:

If you have other cards to be installed, use the same method to slot the card in.

Next, you install the RAM. This is fairly simple, locate the DIMM socket on the mother board and unlock the two locking mechanism on either side of the slots. Take the RAM modules and slot them in. Note that there is a notch on the RAM module to prevent you from slotting in the wrong way, so if you find that you cannot clot it in, probably you have slotted in on the wrong end.

RAM slots with the locks opened

RAM installed in the slots.

Next is the hardisk.
Before begin installing, there are 2 common types of connection for hardisk, SATA and IDE. I got a SATA hardisk because it is faster, so I am going to show based on SATA Connection.

Before connecting the cables, firstly check on where the hardisk bay is on your casing, then find out how the hardisk is mounted. Different casing have different type of mounting the hardisk, most older ones still use 4 screws on the sides of the hardisk while newer casings use tooless mount. If possible practice mounting first. The reason is simple, if you are not familiar with mounting the hardisk and accidently yank the hardisk with cables attached to the motherboard, it will not be a pretty sight.

Then plug in the signal cable (SATA cable in my case) on the hardisk. (For IDE Hardisk, it’s basically the same except the connection is through a IDE cable that looks like a thick ribbon) Next Plug in the power cable (from the PSU) to the hardisk.

SATA port on the hardisk

Power and SATA cables connected

After doing so, mount the hardisk into it’s bay on the casing.
(some people may prefer to mount the hardisk first before plugging in the cable, but I prefer plugging is first as the space in the casing is tight and my big hands have difficulties squeezing in to plug in the small cables)

Then plug in the other end of the SATA cable to the motherboard.

Finally, the processor itself.

Locate the socket for the processor on your motherboard and open the clamp door. There is a cover that protects the connection of the socket. Remove that cover.

Socket for the processor (LGA775) with the clamp door open:

The processor in the socket (note the notches and the triangle):

Then take the processor and align it to the socket. There should be a small gold triangle on one of the corners on the processor and notches on two opposite sides. Align these to the socket on the motherboard and place the processor. There is only 1 way that it can go in so if the processor does not fit properly, probably it is not aligned or orientated to the correct sides. Once aligned and fitted in, close the clamp door.

Because the processor generates a lot of heat when it is working, it comes with a heat sink that helps it dissipate the heat. To install the heatsink, just align the 4 pins on the heatsing to the corresponding mounts on the mother board and press them it. The mount should go in with a snap. Then connect the fan cable from the heat sink to the motherboard.

By now the installation is pretty much done and you can do some wire management before closing the casing. Some casing comes with additional fans to circulate the air, connect the fans to the powercables from the poser supply.

Then just connect the keyboard, mouse and display and you have your own built PC.

But before it can be truly useful you will need to install the operating system and softwares. Those will come later.