Sunday, March 23, 2014

Building A Computer

After having owned my last computer for about 6 years now, it was starting to malfunction here and there. The problems were minor, running video games in low graphics and occasional crashing. Things were just slowing down. Hell, it crashed running Windows Media Player once! I had intended on saving up money through the year, and maybe build a new computer by the end of the summer, depending on how well I could save / bonus at my job.

Then my job informed me that I needed to upgrade my windows within the month.  My current computer might not be able to take the upgrade, on top of that... did I really want to pay around $100 to upgrade windows on a computer I planned on decommissioning by the end of the year.  That was my impetus to start.

I decided to build my own computer for a couple of reasons.  First off, nerd cred.  Seriously, building your own computer as opposed to just buying one is seen as incredibly nerdy.  It takes a lot of reading everything, double-triple checking to make sure you got all the right parts, but its also a lot of fun.  It's also not really that hard.  But it also saves a ton of money.  I built a potentially $2000 computer for just over $1000.

I'm definitely going to go over everything I did with pretty pretty pictures.  I'll explain the process, what I did wrong, and things I fixed.  BUT, I'm not a professional.  I would strongly suggest reading Lifehacker's guide on Building a PC over my stuff.

So Here's what I bought!  Everything but the video card was bought from Newegg.  The video card was bought for my old computer from Best Buy, and cannibalized into the new computer (no, seriously, that's the term when you take a piece from one device and place it into another).


The case is Rosewill's Thor case.  A case is something you can use repeatedly, so you want a good one. Things you want to look for are: Cooling, # of ports, and size of Motherboard it can carry.  The larger a case is, the easier it is to get into it, but also makes it harder to transport.  I might one day buy a gaming laptop, because this thing is going to be a bitch to move.  But, it comes installed with 4 fans and speed controllers for up to 6 fans, can hold any size Motherboard.  It's also named Thor, and my constant obsession with Norse Mythology took control.  $140.

Motherboard: I bought the ASUS P8Z77-V LK motherboard for $130. For a motherboard, you want one that's going to hold the proper # of cards and RAM, and the right type of slots, and how many USB ports and stuff it has.  When choosing a motherboard, you want to see what type of processors it can go with, and the size of it to make sure it'll work in your case (or that your case will hold it).  At this time, DDR3 is the most common.  DDR3 is basically better and cheaper than DDR2.

Processor: I bought the Intel Core i7-3770k quad core processor for $330.  The processor is the most expensive thing I bought, and for good reasons... it's the actual CPU.  You want to make sure your motherboard and processor are compatible, as that's super important or else nothing will work.  One thing I like about newegg is it will suggest things that should go along with the most recent part you looked at, so that's cool. It's 3.5ghz, which means its nice and fast.  The number of "Cores" is basically how many processes it can run smoothly at once.  I often find myself surfing the internet while listening to music and playing a video game... so 4 sounds about right.  If you are building a machine to only run one massive program or something, fewer cores will probably be a better option.

Power Supply:  I bought a Corsair 750W 80plus Bronze certified for $110.  You want to make sure your power supply is going to have enough cords and power to keep your computer running.  Generally 600 is enough.  The "80 plus bronze certified" just indicates how efficient it is.  80 plus means its at least 80% efficient, so 80% of the power is going to your computer, the other 20% is basically getting lost as heat. Bronze just indicates how efficient it is.  I wanted a Gold one, but it was sold out.  Here's a nifty chart to get you an idea of their efficiency!

Ram: I bought the Vengeance 8g mem of Ram for $76.  It's DDR3, so works with my motherboard, its pretty, its also more than I will ever need for awhile.  I could have gotten away with 4 or 6, but 8 was just as expensive, and if I need to upgrade I can just buy another 8 and use them in conjunction.

Harddrive: I bought the WD Black Series 1tb 7200rpm 64mb cache HD for $100.  Memory used to be expensive, and now its cheap. It's got 1tb of memory, which is way more than I dreamed of a decade ago.  I didn't go more because I have a 2tb external, and also because its easy to add more memory.  My case has 6 slots for Harddrives, so easy for me...a smaller case might have less, and really small might only 1... in which case it might be worth it to buy a larger HD to start with.  The other #s just indicate how fast it will travel when recalling the information.  Make sure that its got the right connector for your motherboard, but I'm pretty sure they are standardized to be SATA plug ins.

Optical Drive: I bought a ASUS DVD Burner for $20.00.  You need an optical drive for CDs and shit.  I bought one.  It works.  I might buy a Blu-ray player eventually and install it later, but that'll happen when it happens.  Again, make sure it has the proper plug in, which should be SATA. My case also has a ton of ports for new optical drives, so I didn't really care.

Video Card: Technically optional as my motherboard already has monitor support, and graphics card just really enhances any graphics and helps them run smoother as it processes all of it.  I cannibalized my GeForce GTX 660ti from my old computer.

Alright, lets get to building!

As is often stated, RTFM: Read The Fucking Manual.  Read it, understand it.  Especially for the motherboard.  Also, keep yourself grounded, so you don't statically kill anything.  Personally, I've never heard first hand accounts of anyone doing this (always a friend of a friend whose a dumbass deal), but I never want to hear it either.  I repeatedly touched the edge of my case before and after touching anything.

Step 1: You can either start with the power supply or the motherboard.  I started with the power supply.
Basically, there is a large hole in the back of your case.  Your power supply should be able to smoothly fit in there and get screwed in.  Super easy.

Step 2: Motherboard.  Before starting, you may want to check to make sure you know where the screws will be going and that motherboard should fit.  As long as you double checked to make sure case will hold the right size of motherboard, you should be good.  My case can hold any ATX motherboard, so had a bunch of holes, and I just had to find the right ones. Before screwing anything though...

On the back of your case will be a vertical slot you have to remove and install a face plate.  It should be right above a bunch of horizontal slots where your video / audio cards will go.
It should snap in. If it doesn't get your roommate to do it for you, which is what I did.  This piece was annoying because there was a bunch of metal snags that I had to bend in, and I was trying to snap it in from the wrong side.  Also, I have man sized hands, so sometimes its hard to get small things.

Before installing the Motherboard, I decided to plug some things in.  I apparently didn't get a before and after picture, but on the motherboard there is an area for where the processor goes. It kind of looks like a mouse trap.  The processor is actually a small metal square that fits in their.  One of the corners of the processor has a gold arrow, and one of the corners of the mousetrap also has an arrow.  You want those two arrows lined up.  You open the mousetrap, you place the processor in the slot with arrows matching, you close the mousetrap. Closing the mouse trap should require minimal force.  That processor is like a thing Ghirardelli chocolate, and you don't want to break it.  Hopefully, your PCU came with a fan.  My fan had thermal glue already, so I just had to set it right on top of PCU, and then I locked it into the motherboard.
Like that. The fan has a cord, and right in the area should be a plugin that reads CPU_FAN or something similar.  Plug it in there.  Also in this picture, I installed my RAM chip, which is the piece to the right of motherboard.  Its a lot easier to install it now then when the motherboard is attached to the case.

Alright, next step is there are a bunch of screws that screw into the case, and then allows screws to screw into them.  I had you take note of the matching holes earlier.  Screw the screw screws in to those matching holes.  Place the motherboard on top.  This is so its not sitting just directly onto the case.  I did this by first lining up the USB ports of the motherboard to the face plate and moving it in. Once everything is aligned, screw that bad boy in!
Once it was in, I used the top most slot for my video card.  I removed slot cases, slid the video card in, and called it good for now.

Step 3: The Hard drive.  I really wish I had a picture of just my open case, but I don't.  If you go to the first picture, it does show the case.  In the lower right of the case is a bunch of slots that open up facing the the side of the case. Mine had a removable tray.  I took that out, wrapped it around my HD, and screwed the HD in.
The tray slid in nice and clean right after.  You want to make sure the plugs face out.

Step 4: The optical drive. The front of the case should have slots that can be removed.  There is no picture of me installing the optical drive because its really case dependent.  On my case, I had to unlock the enclosures to open them up, and then I literally just pushed the optical drive in.  It was a tight fit, and required some pressure, but once in it locked easily.  Other cases might have a tray like the HD, others might require to be screwed in.  Generally its straightforward.

Step 5: Anything else you have. Any other video / audio cards, other HDs or optical drives, anything else, install that now.

Step 6: Wires! YAY Wires.  Before doing this, I suggest reading the fucking manual, but... the manual can also be confusing as fuck.  CPU_FAN is obvious, but they aren't all that simple. Somethings are easy, such as the power supply for the Motherboard, where its like "Well, there's only one male one female that fit here...so duh."  But other areas are...less fun.


Something you want to keep in mind is that a big deal of keeping your computer cool is how well air can flow.  You want to keep your case as open as possible. If you notice from my first picture, the back of my computer has a bunch of holes.  As much of my wiring as possible is down on the other side of that, keeping the chassis itself clear.


First thing I did was power cords, because I'm metal.  Also because they are key, and easy to figure out.  I later moved these cords much further to the right and against the case.  After that I did the SATA plug ins (e.g. hard drives and optical drive), followed by the stuff on my face plate.

My motherboard has an area for fans to plug in, and I can control the fan speed through my BIOS.  But, my case has two fan controls.  My motherboard only had 3 slots for fans, and I have 4 fans.  Not in my manual was that my fans can connect straight to a plug in at my case.  Sorry I don't have a picture of the final wiring configuration.

Another difficult part was the power switch and IED lights.  The directions for this were staring at tiny 9 prongs that were semi-confusingly written.  I did it wrong the first time, and my computer wouldn't turn on.  I was off by a set of pins, and everything worked.  It turned on!



Step 7: Before turning on your computer, make sure you have a mouse and keyboard that will work.  Most new motherboards should accept USB direct plug in ones, but a wireless device is not going to work because that needs a driver install.

First time you turn your computer on, do it with no CDs in.  When it starts, the first screen should ask you to hit DEL or some other key to enter BIOS.  It'll load your bios, and should indicate if there are any immediate things you should be concerned with.  If you are all into messing with stuff, you can make adjustments here. I'm not really really into that, and I don't really feel like overclocking, so next step is insert your OS disc, and install Windows or whatever!

After installing, you will want to update your drivers.  A cool thing now is that a lot of providers, such as my nVidia card, now has me install something that searches me devices and keeps them updated.  Yay for not having to hunt everything down.  This was actually the longest process for me because its a lot of the computer shutting down and turning back on and continuing to download.  This took ... awhile.

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