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Preparing To Build Your Own Computer
The first thing to
do is to buy a rechargeable electric screwdriver with interchangeable heads (Philips head (star) and plain heads in
various sizes).
You’ll thank me
for this advice as you start your computer-building project.
Most people don’t
know that all components in computers can be fried by static
electricity. Our bodies, clothes and shoes generate enough to
completely destroy the works of a PC.
Have you ever
pulled a sweater off and heard a crackling sound? That’s static
- the PC builder's biggest enemy.
THIS IS AN
ESSENTIAL PURCHASE:
Get an antistatic wrist strap or, even better, an antistatic
board from your electrical store or PC supplies store. They both
plug into a mains socket but don’t worry - you won’t get
electrocuted! It simply drains static from your body and the
surrounding area to ground. Eliminating static gives you the
freedom to carry out your project in confidence!
Let’s Get
Started
You need to decide
what you want your computer to do:
• Is it for
the family to access to the Internet? – A base model is all you
need.
• Are you a
video enthusiast who wants to compile, edit and publish your own
videos? – You need to do more planning.
This is a
blueprint for a basic PC that YOU will quickly learn to build
and upgrade!
The Motherboard
(MB)
"Motherboard" is a
frightening word to some, but it is just the control panel for
the rest of the PC.
Motherboards come
in all shapes, sizes and configurations. Some, particularly from
the major companies, have quite astounding features. The "best"
motherboard for your project depends on what you want to do with
the computer and which CPU you want to use.
Today’s standards
are either AMD or PENTIUM but I'll come back to CPU’s later.
Let’s concentrate
on the motherboard for now. I am going to use a Pentium 4
motherboard as our example. Everything on this site applies to
AMD MB’s fitting of CPU’s and every other component.
Every MB comes
with its own set-up manual and software, but it can be a
daunting experience holding one in your hands if you have never
seen or held a MB, never mind fitted one to a machine. When you
get used to the idea and you have installed your first MB, you
just carefully keep plugging things into it to make your own PC!
Use the MB's manual just for reference if you have little or no
technical knowledge. Even the introduction to most of these
manuals is highly technical. Don’t be put off. Here is an
example of what you might see at the beginning of a MB manual.
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This main
board features an integration of the powerful processor
Intel
Pentium 4 and
the single-chip North Bridge of ProSavage P4M266 plus
South Bridge
VT8233A, by which the whole system performance is upgraded
to 400 MHz system bus.
The Intel P4
processor is a rapid execution engine providing 400MHz
quadpumped system bus to make 3.2GB data transfer rates
possible while, in addition to the built-in S3 Savage4
Graphics Accelerator, ProSavage
P4M266 North
Bridge plus VT8233A South Bridge supports Intel P
processor to implement the AGP 4X external bus, the LPC
Super I/O, the
DDR SDRAM and
UATA 133/100/66 data transfer rate. This chapter is to
introduce to users every advanced function of this high
performance integration.
1-1.1
CPU Socket
CPU Socket 478B on board, supporting Intel' Pentium 4 and
Northwood processors in the 478-pin package form a 400 MHz
System
Bus;
®
Hyper-pipelined technology; Advanced dynamic execution;
Advanced transfer cache;
….. and so on.
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Pure techno-talk.
You don’t have to understand this to build a PC.
If you decide
later on to turn it into a small business then the technical
information becomes important. All the information you need for
you to build a PC is on this site.
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