Power Supply

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Hard Drive

DVD Writer

Graphics Card
Attaching Power
Connector
Final Check &
Closing the Case
BIOS Setup
Install Windows
7
Install Windows
Vista
Install Window
XP
End Show
Installing OCZ 400 watts ATX power supply unit. Its enough to
power up all the components that we are using. When choosing a
PC power supply unit its a good idea to get one that provides
slightly more watts than you need. This gives you the flexibility to
add more hardware in the future. Before we can install a power
supply unit we need to prepare our case. Start off by taking the
screws off the case. The cooler master centurium case has 2
screws holding the side panel.
Take the screws off and slide open
the side panel. If you look at the
back of the case you will notice
that there is a cut out. This cut out
is made for ATX power supply units
and therefore any brand of power
supply will fit perfectly into place.
Put your case in horizontal
position so its easier to work The PSU should fit nicely
with. Take your power supply into place as shown on the
and slide it towards the back of image below.
the case so that the screw holes
on power supply unit align with
the holes on the case
Start putting the screws in using your fingers and then tighten it
using a Phillips screw driver as shown. The screws should be
supplied with your power supply unit, if not you can use the screws
supplied with the case.
Before installing any components you must discharge yourself from
any static energy. This can be done by using an anti static wrist
band. Or alternatively by touching a metal surface such as the
metallic area of the case. Before we start mounting the
motherboard we need to fit the ATX back plate. These back plates
come supplied with the motherboard. Back plates are normally
labeled and colour coded.
Make sure you are holding the back
plate the right way up, and face the
labeled side towards the back of the
case. Using your fingers push the plate
so that it snaps into position. It can take
some force to get all the corners into
place. Once the back plate sits
correctly into place, it should look
something like the image below. As you
can see, the plate has cut out so the
The gold colored screws below are called standoff screws which
are used for mounting the motherboard. Your case may have
many holes for the standoff screws. Which holes should you use ?
The easiest way to find out which holes to use is to place your
motherboard on top of the holes. See which holes on the
motherboard line up with the holes on the case. Mark the holes
using a pencil. Those are the ones you’ll install the standoffs into.
Do not use extra standoff that does not match the motherboard as it
will cause a short circuit. Start placing the standoff’s using your
finger and tighten them using a plier.
This is a Gigabyte H55M UD2H motherboard. It has an Intel 1156
socket supporting i3, i5, and i7 processors. Place the motherboard
on top of the standoff screws making sure that the ports slide into
the back plate first. Use the supplied screws that goes into the
standoff’s to secure the motherboard. Place the screws into each
hole and tighten it using a screw driver.
The socket on the motherboard below is known as Intel LGA 1156 CPU
socket. This socket is designed for Intel i3, i5 and i7 processors. To open
the socket gently push the lever handle down and away from the socket
and lift upward. This will release the plastic protector. Lift the plastic
protector and remove it from the socket. Unlike older generation Intel
Motherboard sockets the LGA1156 does not have any holes. Instead the
socket has 1156 pins sticking out. These are the pins that make contact
with the processor. Please note the 1156 socket is not compatible with
1155 socket used for the new generation Intel Sandy Bridge based
We are using Intel i3 540 processor which are the first generation i3
processors.
CPU’s. Take out the processor and the heat sink from box and leave it on
the side.
When fitting a processor into the
socket be careful to fit it correctly.
To make sure this i3 540 processor
only fits one way there are two
notches on each side of the
processor. There is also little gold
triangle in one corner to indicate
that its pin 1. Make sure pin 1 on
the processor is aligned to pin 1 on
the socket and the notches align
perfectly. If everything is done
correctly the processor will easily
fall in to place.
Close the CPU lever so it covers the processor. Finally close the
lever handle by pushing down then towards the socket until it locks
into position.
The next thing to do is to fit the CPU
cooler. If you have a retail boxed
processor it will come with an Intel
CPU cooler like the one below. It
has thermal paste applied on the
heat sink so there is no need to add
extra. The cooler has four push pins
that fit perfectly into the holes in the
motherboard. Place the cooler on
top of the holes. Push firmly on top
of each push pins. You will hear a
click on each one to confirm its
locked into position.
Take the CPU cooler power connector and attach it to the 4 pin fan
socket. This is a very important step as it powers the fan on top of
the heat sink which keeps the CPU cool.
To build a stable system it is always a good
idea to buy high quality memory modules.
Over the years I have always used memory
from Crucial as you can buy it direct from
Crucial website and it comes with life time
warranty. The quality of Crucial memory is
extremely high and I never had a single
problem with them during the 10 years i
have been using them. This is the reason I
have chosen to use Crucial DDR3 SDRAM
on this system. Please note DDR3 may look
are not to
similar the samebut
DDR2 and they
the pinare not compatible. So you are out of luck if you
count
want to recycle your old DDR2 memory.
Move both clips on the memory socket to open position. Since we have
two DDR3 modules we will insert the first module into socket DIM1 and the
second into DIM3. This will run the memory in Dual Channel Mode. DIM1
and DIM3 sockets are colored blue. Please note, if you have 1 module it
will be inserted into socket DIM1 and therefore will run in Single Channel
mode.
You will notice that the DDR3
memory has a notch at the bottom.
This is to prevent the memory from
being inserted the wrong way round.
Make the orientation of the memory
module so that the notch matches
the memory socket. Push the
memory module down using two
fingers or both of your thumbs as
shown. You will hear a click as both
clips on the memory socket snaps
into place.

Repeat the same process for the

second module.
Installing a SATA hard drive is a very
simple and straight forward task.
Unlike IDE hard drives there are no
jumpers to set and each drive
connects to the motherboard using an
individual SATA cable. There are other
advantages to using a SATA hard
drive such as much faster data
transfer and better performance. If
your motherboard has a E-SATA port
then you can even use a SATA hard
The
drivefirst thing to do is choose an empty 3.5 inch hard drive bay. Position
externally.
the drive so its ready to be inserted into the bay. Gently slide the hard
drive into the bay as shown. Make sure the circuit side of the hard drive
is facing down towards the bottom of the case. Finally lock the hard
drive into place using the lock slider or if your case does not have a lock
mechanism you can just screw it into place.
The image below is a SATA
power cable. Attach the SATA It will only fit one way so
power cable by gently pushing check the orientation before
it into place. pushing it into place.
The image below is SATA data The connectors are like an L
cable. Attach the SATA data shape so check the orientation
cable to the hard drive. It only to match the hard drive before
fits one way. pushing it into place.
Finally attach the other end of the SATA cable to the motherboard.
To install a software or an operating system you need some kind of
DVD drive. Using a DVD writer you can have best of both world as
it allows reading and writing to DVD media. DVD writers are very
useful for backing up your data. It is also very economical due to
the cost of DVD media. Installing a DVD writer is a very simple
process. If you have a retail drive it will come with mounting
screws. The first thing you need to do is locate an empty drive bay.
Take out the plastic or metal cover
that is blocking the access to the
bay. Depending on your ATX case,
you can either push the cover from
inside the case to release it or you
need to pull off the front panel as I
have done on this ATX case.
Once the plastic cover is out you can slide the DVD writer into the
drive bay. Make sure the drive aligns perfectly with the case as
shown below:
Lock the drive into place using the lock slider or if your case does
not have locking mechanism you can just screw it into place. Attach
the Sata power cable by gently pushing it into the socket. It will only
fit one way so check the orientation before pushing it into place.
Attach the Sata data cable to the DVD writer. It only fits one way.
The connectors are like an L shape,
so check the orientation to match the
DVD writer before pushing it into
place.
Finally attach the other end of the data
cable to an empty SATA socket on the
motherboard.
Many modern motherboards have
integrated graphics. They are
suitable for every day tasks such as
browsing the web, email, word
processing etc. For many people
the integrated graphics is more
than enough for their needs.
However, if you are into 3D Games,
CAD, or other application that
requires GPU acceleration then you
will need a dedicated graphics card.
Nearly all graphics card made
nowadays are PCI-E based and
have either Nvidia or ATI (AMD)
chipset.
This is an nvidia GT430 graphics card. This model is made by Asus
and has VGA, DVI and HDMI connectors. Remove the metal plate
covering the PCI Express slot. If you have more than one PCI Express
slot make sure you choose the PCI Express x16 slot.
Align the card with the slot and
press down on the card until it is
fully seated in the slot. Make sure
the metal contacts on the card are
completely inserted into the slot.
There is a latch at the end of the
slot which locks the card into
place. Finally screw the card down
using a screw driver so its
securely seated.
To power up your motherboard you need to attach the power cables
from the power supply unit. Your case has many header cables
which also needs to be connected to the motherboard so the
switches, led, usb sockets on front panel of the case functions
Label 1 besides shows the location
properly.
of the ATX 2.0 power connector. It
has 24 pins. It powers the
motherboard and all the
components. It has a fool proof
design and only fits one way. Place
the connector on top of the power
socket making sure you are
holding it the right way. Push the
connector into the socket until it
locks
Labelinto position.
2 shows the location of ATX 12 Volts connector. It has 4
pins. It powers the processor. The connector only fits one way.
Push the connector into the socket until it locks into place.
Label 3 shows the location for the header connectors. Your case
has header cables for front USB, firewire, power switch, power
LED, reset switch, speaker, etc. Connect each header cable to the
labeled header as shown below. While attaching these little cables
make sure the positive and negative pins are correct. Read your
motherboard manual for more details.
Before you close the case double check everything to make sure
you have not missed anything like attaching a cable. Make sure
you have no screws lying around as it can short the motherboard.
Slide the side panel back on to the case and close the screws. If
you are feeling confident you can leave the case open and power
up the PC just to see if it boots and all the fans are spinning. You
can also test your power button and reset button to make sure they
work before closing the case. You have now completed building a
PC from scratch.
Lets have a look Attach the power
at the front of the Finally we will cable along with
case. take a look at the monitor, keyboard,
back of the case. mouse and other
peripherals so that
we are ready to boot
Now that we have finished building the PC lets connect the base
unit to a mains outlet. Connect a keyboard, mouse and monitor so
that we are ready for the first boot. Turn the PC on by pressing the
power switch. If everything goes well you will hear a short beep
followed by a boot screen. At this stage we need to enter the BIOS
to check that all the hardware is detected correctly. We will also
make few changes so that we are ready to install an operating
system such as Windows 7.
To enter BIOS setup press the
delete key as the computer
boots up. Please note it could
be a different key on your
system such as F1, so check
your boot screen or manual
for more details. This is the
main bios setup menu.
Lets select the Intelligent Tweeker menu by pressing enter. As you
can see the CPU speed, memory speed and size are detected
correctly. Press escape to go back to the previous menu.
Lets enter Standard CMOS features. As you can see the hard drive
and DVD writer are also detected correctly.
This time we will enter the Advanced BIOS features.
We will make our first boot device CDROM, and second boot
device as hard disk.
By doing this we can make sure that the computer boot from
Windows 7 DVD that is placed in the DVD drive. If the hard drive is
set to first boot device it will not boot as it has no operating system
installed.
Finally we can save & exit setup. At this stage you can place a
operating system disc in the DVD drive and you are ready to install
your chosen operating system.
This step-by-step guide demonstrates how to install Windows 7
Ultimate. The guide is similar for other versions of Windows 7 such
as Home Premium.
The best way to install Windows 7 is to do a clean install. It is not
difficult to perform a clean installation. Before you start the
installation process I recommend that you check Windows 7
System Requirements list to ensure that your hardware is
supported by Windows 7. If you don't have Windows 7 drivers for
all your hardware, it is a good idea to download all the drivers from
the hardware manufacturers website and save all the necessary
drivers on a CD-R or a USB drive before you start the installation.
Windows 7 DVD is bootable. In order to boot from the DVD you
need to set the boot sequence. Look for the boot sequence under
your BIOS setup and make sure that the first boot device is set to
CD-ROM/DVD-ROM.
Step 1 - Place Windows 7 DVD in your dvd-rom drive and start
your PC. Windows 7 will start to boot up and you will get the
following progress bar.
Step 2 - The next screen allows you to setup your language, time
and currency format, keyboard or input method. Choose your
required settings and click next to continue.
Step 3 - The next screen allows you to install or repair Windows 7.
Since we are doing a clean install we will click on "install now".
Step 4 - Read the license terms and tick I accept license terms.
Then click next to continue.
Step 5 - You will now be presented with two options. Upgrade or
Custom (Advanced). Since we are doing a clean install we will
select Custom (Advanced).
Step 6 - Choose where you would like to install Windows 7. If you
have one hard drive you will get a similar option to the image
below. You can click next to continue. If you have more that one
drive or partition then you need to select the appropriate drive
and click next. If you need to format or partition a drive then click
Drive options (advance) before clicking next.
Step 7 - Windows 7 starts the installation process and starts
copying all the necessary files to your hard drive as shown on the
image below.
Step 8 - It will go through various stages of the setup and will
reboot your system few times.
Step 9 - When your PC reboots it attempts to boot from DVD as its
the first boot device. Do not press any key during the boot prompt
so Windows 7 will continue with the installation by booting from the
hard drive.
Step 10 - After the reboot your computer will be prepared for first
use.
Step 11 - At this stage you need to choose a user name and
computer name. Click next to continue. The user account you
create here is the Administrator account which is the main
account for your Windows 7 that has all the privileges.
Step 12 - Choose your password and password hint just incase
you forget your password and need to jog your memory.
Step 13 - You can now type the product key that came with
Windows 7 and click next. If you do not enter the product key you
can still proceed to the next stage. However Windows 7 will run in
trial mode for 30 days. You must therefore activate Windows
within 30 days otherwise you can not access your computer after
30 days.
Step 14 - Help protect your computer and improve Windows
automatically. Choose Use recommended settings.
Step 15 - Review your time and date settings. Select your time
zone, correct the date and time and click next to continue.
Step 16 - Select your computer's current location. If you are a
home user then choose Home network otherwise select the
appropriate option.
Step 17 - Windows will now finalize the settings for your computer
and restart.
Step 18 - After the final restart Windows 7 will start to boot up.
The best way to install Windows Vista is to do a clean install. It is
not difficult to perform a clean installation. Before you perform the
installation I recommend that you check Windows Vista System
Requirements list to ensure that your hardware is supported by
Vista. If you don't have Windows Vista drivers for all your
hardware, it is a good idea to download all the drivers from the
hardware manufacturers website and save all the necessary
drivers on a CD-R before you start the installation.
Windows Vista DVD is bootable. In order to boot from the DVD
you need to set the boot sequence. Look for the boot sequence
under your BIOS setup and make sure that the first boot device is
set to CD-ROM/DVD-ROM.
Step 1 - Place Windows Vista DVD in your DVD-ROM drive and
start your PC. Windows Vista will start to boot up and you will get
the following progress bar.
Step 2 - The next screen allows you to setup your language, time
and currency format, keyboard or input method. Choose your
required settings and click next to continue.
Step 3 - The next screen allows you to install or repair Windows
Vista. Since we are doing a fresh install we will click on "install
now".
Step 4 - You can now type the product key that came with your
Windows vista.
Step 5 - If you do not enter the product key you can still proceed
with the installation in which case Windows will ask you which
version of Vista you have purchased. Windows Vista Home Basic,
Home Premium, Ultimate, Business etc. Select the version you
have purchased and click next.
Step 6 - Tick "I accept the license terms" and press next.
Step 7 - Choose the type of installation you want to perform. You
will notice that upgrade option is disabled as we have booted from
the DVD-R. Therefore we can only select Custom (advanced)
option which basically installs a clean copy of Windows from
scratch.
Step 8 - Choose where you would like to install Windows Vista. If
you have a new unpartitioned hard drive you would get your hard
drive listed as shown on the image below. If have have an old hard
drive with data or other partitions it will show up as logical drives.
You can select the drive options (advanced) to format, delete, or
create new partitions. Because I am using a single new hard drive I
will select next to continue. Windows will create a partition and
format it using NTFS files system.
Step 9 - Windows starts the installation process and starts copying
all the necessary files to your hard drive as shown on the image
below. It will go through various stages of the setup and will reboot
your system few times. When your PC reboots it attempts to boot
from CD as its the first boot device. Do not press any key during
the boot prompt so Windows Vista will continue with the installation
by booting from your hard drive.
Step 10 - After installation copy process is complete you are
presented with the Setup Windows dialogue box as show below. At
this stage you need to choose a user name, password and a
picture for your user account. The account you create here is the
Administrator account which is the main account for your Windows
Vista that has all the privileges. Click next continue.
Step 11 - Now you need to choose your computer name and
desktop background. Click next to continue.
Step 12 - Choose whether your want to Help protect Windows
automatically. Select "Use recommenced settings" to continue.
Step 13 - Review your time and date settings. Select your time
zone, correct the date and time and click next to continue.
Step 14 - Windows now runs a benchmark type of application
which checks the performance of your system. You will see a
status bar at bottom which shows the progress. Once the process
is complete you will be presented with the logon screen.
Step 15 - Finally you have the logon screen. Just type your
password and press enter or click on the arrow to logon to
Windows Vista for the first time.
Step 16 - Soon as you logon you will be presented with welcome
center. You can use the welcome center to configure, customize,
and update Windows vista.
Step 17 - Finally you need to check if all your hardware has been
detected correctly. You can do so by checking your device manager. To
access device manager click Start menu -> Control panel -> System ->
Device manager. You will see all your hardware listed as shown below.
You need to check if you have any yellow exclamation marks next to
the name of the device similar to "USB 10/100 LAN" on image below.
This indicates the driver has not been installed for this device.
At this stage you need to install Windows Vista
drivers by double clicking on "USB 10/100
LAN" or your device. The properties dialog box
will appear. Click on Reinstall Driver. Then you
can choose whether you want to install the
driver from the internet (if available) or install
manually from a CD or other media
Once you have removed all the yellow
exclamation marks from the device manager
your Windows Vista configuration would be
How to install Windows XP? It is hard to find a new XP version;
Windows Vista and, most recently, Windows 7.0 are the new
Windows Operating Systems. The operating system download is
the easy part of building your own computer.
1. You have your Windows XP install CD or DVD in the drive, and
have booted your computer. This is the first screen you will see.
2. After the Windows setup begins, you will see this screen. If you
have a RAID setup, or SCSI drives, press F6 here to set those up.
Otherwise, wait for the Windows XP installation process to
proceed to the next screen...
3. Ok, here is the start of the installation process. This screen
offers you a few options. The one we want is to press Enter. The
Recovery Console is if you already have Windows XP installed,
and need to do a repair or recovery. F3 will cancel the install and
exit setup. Press your Enter key and we'll continue on...
4. Ah, the Windows EULA - End User License Agreement. This is
the Windows XP License agreement that you must agree to, or
you won't be able to install Windows XP. Press F8 to agree to the
license.
5. You should only run into this screen if you are doing an upgrade,
or if you are installing Windows XP from an upgrade CD. In order
to proceed, you need to insert your earlier Windows version CD,
then press Enter.
6. Ok, this screen allows you to choose where you are going to
install Windows. If you are doing this on a new unpartitioned hard
drive, you will see this screen. This is going to format your hard
drive, and set it up for installation. If you have multiple hard drives,
or multiple partitions on your current hard drive, you may see
multiple choices here. For a clean Windows install, we want to
select the C drive here.
7. Once you start the partition creation process, you will be asked
for the size of the partition. This will show you the minimum and
maximum sizes for the partition. Personally, I would take the
maximum size and let Windows do its thing.
8. Once the partition is created, you will be returned back to this
screen. If there is still unallocated space on the drive, you can
choose to create another partition. You can also change the
partition that was just created. Once you have the partition(s)
created, highlight the one you want to install Windows XP on and
hit Enter.
9. The next step is to select the file system to use for your newly
created partition. I highly recommend using NTFS, but if you
have a reason to go with FAT32, then do so. Can't think of a
reason off hand, but you never know. Highlight your choice and
press Enter to move on.
10. A few steps back you might have been asked to insert a
previous version of Windows CD. If you did this step, this screen is
telling you to re-insert the Windows XP CD. Do so, and press
Enter.
11. Time to create the partition. This can take some time
depending on the size of your hard drive. I would suggest
grabbing a snack, take a bathroom break, play with the dog -
anything other than watching this.
12. You thought the last screen was boring? Get the dog again -
more of the same. The hard drive has been formatted, now the
install is unpacking and copying the files needed for the install
process. Perhaps a short nap?
13. Ok, we're finally getting somewhere. This is a short screen -
just getting things ready for the install. Hasn't it already been
doing just that?
14. The red bar is the countdown until the computer restarts. If
you are up from your nap, hit Enter to end the red bar, otherwise
you can watch it as it slowly fills the box until reboot.
15. All right, coming back online for the rest of the install. You will
actually get to do a few things in the upcoming screens...
16. There's your countdown timer. Don't put to much stock in it,
Microsoft is known for their poor timekeeping. Anyway, give this
screen a few moments to get the system ready to install Windows
XP.
17. Here is something for you to do! This is the Regional and
Language Options screen. You will most likely use the defaults if
you are going for the English flavor.
18. This is the Personalize Your Software screen. You can put
whatever you want in the text boxes there. For example, you
could call yourself Fred Flintstone, and put your company in as
Slate Rock and Gravel. I normally just use my first name, and skip
the company.
19. This is the license key page. You will find your license key on
the back of the CD case, on a certificate that came with the CD, on
the CD wrapper, etc. Once you have it, enter it in the boxes
provided. If you don't have your license key, you are not going to
be able to download Windows XP.
20. Your Computer's Name - again here, you can call your
computer whatever you want - Barney if you prefer. Windows may
suggest one here, but you can put anything in.
21. Date And Time Settings - Set these to the current date and
time, along with your time zone. Almost done...
22. Network Settings Screen - I'd highly recommend just selecting
the Typical Settings on this screen. Unless you are a network
guru, the Typical Settings will work for you.
23. That's it - that's all the setup screens you have to deal with.
This is the final one. This will run for awhile, and once it
completes, your computer will restart again and boot directly into
Windows.
Note: After this
last restart, if you
have the DVD
drive set as the
first drive in the
boot order, you
should remove
the Windows CD
when it reboots
so that it
continues directly
into Windows.
That's it, you
have just