Feature
Building a New Computer - Part 1
by Guest Writer Bob
"KnightRyder" Nielsen
Introduction
So, youre going to buy a new
computer, and you want to play the newest games right out
of the boxes, so, what are you going to buy? IBM? Hewlett-Packard?
Dell? I figured as much. Sorry to bust your bubbles, but the
store-bought variety of computer will never provide
you with the ultimate gaming experience. Trust me on this
Ive dealt with too many of them. The best thing
to do is to buy your own components, and build your own. I
know it sounds daunting, but believe me; its not as
hard as it looks.
First, we need to decide what were
going to put in this baby. Spend time researching the parts
list so you're sure before you buy. The basic list of parts
youre going to need include:
- Case
- Motherboard
- CPU
- 3-1/2 Floppy Disk Drive
(maybe)
- Power Supply
- Memory
- Video Card
- Monitor
- Sound Card
- Speakers and/or Headphones
- Hard Drive
- CD-ROM / DVD-ROM (burner)
- Keyboard
- Mouse
- Modem
- Windows XP Operating System
To buy all these items, consider going
online to one of the reputable suppliers such as Newegg.
If you prefer to shop locally, you can find these parts usually
at a computer supply store, like Computer Renaissance, or,
for the more common parts, you can go to your neighborhood
Best Buy or CompUSA.
As far as the CPU is concerned, I
recommend either an Intel Pentium 4, an AMD Sempron or an
AMD Athlon XP chip if you can afford it. 3-1/2 drives
are still an essential part of PC gaming, even to this day.
Get a CD-burner drive if at all possible, so you can run your
games and make copies if necessary. Graphics cards are relatively
inexpensive, and I recommend getting the fastest you can afford.
The best "budget" chip available is probably the
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro or NVIDIA 6600 GT, which will sell for
about $150-200.
A few accessories are recommended
at this point a large, flat workspace, like a kitchen
table, a Phillips-head screwdriver, a paper cup (to hold all
your screws), and a cold drink (Ill explain later).
You'll also want to consider an anti-static wrist strap, because
one stray spark of static electricity, and all these high-priced
parts of yours are going to end up as expensive doorstops.
The first thing you need to do is to find the tray in your
case that the motherboard will fit into. Usually, there are
four to six Phillips-head screws included in the case, so
go ahead and attach the motherboard to the tray, but be very
careful not to screw it in too tightly, or else you could
damage the circuits. Motherboards are very delicate, and dont
tolerate abuse. Once thats done, the tray should slide
back into the case, and can be properly fastened down.
Now that the main board and case are put together, its
time to start putting pieces in. The order really doesnt
matter, but I suggest putting your power supply in first.
It will usually take two or three screws, and then you can
connect it to the motherboard on its appropriate slot. The
connectors will only fit one way, and trying to plug it in
backwards will ruin a perfectly good power supply.
Next, find your hard drive bay in your case. Its usually
towards the top center, about 5-1/4 in length. The hard
disk drive will slide into its bay, and you can tighten it
down with four screws, usually two on each side. Once thats
in place, take a power cable and connect it to the rear of
the drive, then find the connector cable, which looks like
a gray snake with two black heads, one on each end. Theres
a red stripe running down one side of the cable, and it should
be connected to pin #1 on the disk drive and the appropriate
controller on the motherboard. These pins are clearly marked
on the board and the drives, so just push the connectors into
place. Now, your CD-ROM or CD-burner drive, depending on which
youve chosen, will go in a bay right above that, again
using four screws to tighten it down, and attaching it to
the proper connectors. Finally, your floppy drive goes in
a special-sized bay in the middle of the case, with the same
procedure for tightening and connecting.
Now, we move to the middle of the
motherboard, where youll find the memory slots. Most
modern PCs need at least 512 MB of RAM, and 1 GB (or
more) is preferable. The RAM chips fit into specially designed
slots on the motherboard, and again, only fit one way. Once
these are connected, look for three long white slots near
the back of the motherboard. These are the PCI slots, where
your modem and sound cards will go. There should be silver
guards over each slot, attached with Phillips-head screws.
Remove these guards, keeping the screws in your paper cup,
and then insert the cards into the slots, pushing them as
far as they will go. Once theyve been inserted, they
can be tightened down with the screws from your paper cup.
There should also be a smaller, gray slot above the white
slots, and this is the AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) slot
for your graphics card. Installation is very similar to the
sound and modem cards push the card in as far as it
will go, and then tighten it down with the screw. Now, put
the cover back on the case, and tighten it down with four
more screws, which should just about empty the little paper
cup.
Whew! Believe it or not, were
almost finished. Weve got just two more essential
pieces to connect. The first piece to connect will be the
monitor. Theres a connector attached to the monitor
with several teeth protruding. Find a similar
connector on the video card with holes corresponding to the
pattern of the teeth on the monitor cable, and push the two
together. There are two screws on the monitor cable that will
tighten the connection. Once thats done, find your main
power cord and connect it to the power supply and your home
outlet.
The keyboard fits into a special
connector on the back of your case, usually by a small, round
connector with several teeth arranged in a semi-circle.
Find the corresponding hole in the back of the PC, and plug
the connector in. The mouse, which is another essential component,
will connect the same way. The connectors are typically color-keyed
purple and violet.
With everything connected, its
time to turn on the power.
Find the power switch on the front
of the PC, and press it. Make sure youve also turned
your monitor on at this point. You should see a screen with
several numbers flashing by. This is the test that every PC
performs on itself when turned on, to make sure that the internal
components are all working properly. Assuming that everything
works, youll be taken to a screen where you set the
time and date, and the onboard BIOS (Basic Input Output System)
will detect your hardware and set up the basics, such as the
floppy drive, hard drive, etc. Once you determine that everything
is functioning, find your operating system CD, usually Windows
XP, and place it into the CD-ROM drive. Now reboot one more
time and enter the BIOS to set the CD as the boot-up device.
It will prompt you to "press any key to boot from the
CD drive". The operating system installation begins.
Now, remember that cold drink I suggested at the beginning?
Open it, and enjoy. Youve done it! The hard part is
basically over, but weve still got a few tweaks to make
before this thing becomes a true monster gaming
rig.
The installation for Windows XP takes
about an hour, and once its finished, the operating
system will query all the other parts in your computer (modem,
CD-ROM, graphics card, etc.), and install drivers for them.
Once this is completed, the worst part of Windows XP is product
activation, where you send a message about your computer
to Microsoft, through your modem, and they respond with an
activation code. You need to do this within 30 days, or Windows
XP wont work properly. Once everything is installed
in the basic operating system, its time to start installing
games and having fun!
Well, theres really only one
thing left to say, and thats Good Luck!
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