How to install a Motherboard
The first thing you should do is unpack your ATX case. Take off the cover of your case so that you can access the inside. Place the case on a desk so that you are looking down towards the open case. Your case should come with motherboard mounting screws. If your ATX back plate it not already fitted you can fit it by placing your plate near the ATX back plate cut out and pushing the plate outwards, it should clip on.
Now place your motherboard on top of the mounting screw holes. Make sure your ATX devices on the motherboard such as PS/2 and parallel port are facing towards ATX back plate cut out. Gently push your motherboard towards the cut out, every devices should fit easily into its corresponding cut out, as shown below.
The motherboard is now securely mounted to the case. You can now place the ATX power connector to the motherboard. Your ATX case should come with a power supply unit (PSU) and should already be mounted to the case. The ATX power connector is shown on image below.
Place the ATX power connector on top of the power socket on the motherboard. Push down the power connector and it should clip onto the socket. If you try to fit the power connector the wrong way round, it won't fit, it will only fit one way. So, if the power connector does not go in, it should go in the other way round.
How to install a Processor - CPU
Locate the processor socket on your motherboard. I am installing an Intel PIII 866 processor on a socket 370 as shown on the following image. The installation would be slightly different if you have a different processor i.e. Slot1 PIII CPU, P4 Socket 478, Core 2 Duo Socket 775, AMD Slot A / Socket A, Socket AM2 CPU etc.
Raise the brown lever on the socket and slowly put the processor in place. You have to make sure the pin 1 of your CPU goes into the pin 1 of your CPU socket otherwise the CPU would not get into the socket, so don't try to force it in. It will go in gently if you fit it correctly. Now close the brown lever which will securely hold the CPU in place.
If you bought a retail boxed CPU it would include a heatsink + fan. If you bought an OEM CPU make sure you got a fan that is correct for the speed of your CPU, otherwise your CPU will overheat and behave abnormally or could be damaged. Take off the plastic cover from the bottom of the CPU fan that covers the heat transfer pad. Now place the CPU fan on top the CPU and push down the metal clips on the fan so that it clips onto the CPU socket.
CPU fan has a power connector which needs to be connected to CPU fan power socket on your motherboard as shown on the image above.
Finally, you have to specify what frequency (speed) your CPU is running at. This can be done using jumper settings, or on some modern motherboard it can be done in the BIOS, or your motherboard may have automatic detection for your CPU frequency. Please refer to your motherboard manual for more details. The motherboard I am using (Abit BX133) has a dip-stick jumper setting and it can be setup in the BIOS. I have left the jumper setting to default as I will use the BIOS to specify the CPU frequency. The CPU runs at the bus speed of 133Mhz therefore I will use the settings 133 * 6.5(multiplier) under the BIOS, which will the run the CPU at 866Mhz.
How to install a Memory - SDRAM
Installing memory is quite simple. Find the SDRAM banks on your motherboard, they should look similar to the banks below. Notice the memory banks has a white clip on each side. Make sure you release the clips so it bends to each side.
Hold each corner of the SDRAM placing it on top of the bank 1. You will notice that the SDRAM has a cut at the bottom side, it is there to prevent the memoy going in the wrong way round. If you are holding the SDRAM the incorrect way you will not be able insert it. Gently push down the SDRAM and it should clip on to the memory bank. The two white clips will now become straight holding each corner of the memory. If you have more that one SDRAM perform same steps as above but placing the SDRAM in memory bank 2 and so on.
How to install a Hard Disk Drive
Please choose the type of hard drive you will be using to build the system. If you have an IDE hard drive (also known as ATA or PATA) then choose IDE. If you have SATA ( Serial ATA) hard drive then choose SATA. If you don't know what type hard drive you have, then look at the image below and choose the one that matches your hard drive.
How to install a IDE Hard Disk Drive
If you look at the rear side of an IDE hard drive it should look similar to the image below.
The IDE/ATA connector is on the left hand side which consists of many pins. Next to the IDE connector is the jumper setting for the drive. The jumper should be set to Master, which is the default setting for a new HDD. Any other device sharing the same IDE cable should be set to Slave. Different HDD has different jumper settings, please refer to your HDD manual for more information. On the right hand side, next to the jumpers is the power connector. Every device except FDD uses this type of power connector.
Figure 1 and 2 below shows what an ATA 66 and a power cable looks like. The ATA 66 cable which is also known as UDMA 66 cable is an advance IDE cable, which offers higher performance and data integrity than the standard IDE cable. ATA 66 cable consists of 80 conductor cable where as the standard IDE cable consists of 40 conductor cable. I am using an ATA 66 cable because the above HDD is an ATA 100 drive which requires an ATA 66 cable.
Figure 1 - ATA 66 Cable
Figure 2 - Power cable
How to install a IDE Hard Disk Drive (Part 2)
Place your hard drive into the HDD mounting slot of your case, make sure the IDE/ATA connector is facing outwards. Screw the HDD to the case using screws provided with the HDD or the ATX case.
Insert the ATA 66 cable into the ATA connector of the HDD. Make sure the pin 1 on the cable is connected to pin 1 on the HDD connector. Pin 1 is the red or pink strip on the edge of an ATA cable. Most new IDE/ATA cables are designed so that it will only go in one way which will correspond to pin 1.
Push the power cable into the power connector as shown. The power cable is designed to go in one way, so you shouldn't have any problems.
Connect the other end of the ATA 66 cable to the primary ATA socket of your motherboard as shown. Make sure the pin 1 on the cable connects to the pin 1 on the ATA socket.
That's it you have successfully installed a HDD.
How to install a Floppy Disk Drive
The rear side of a floppy drive looks similar to the following image.
The black connector on the left hand side is the floppy disk connector. It is different from the IDE connector and uses a different cable. The small white connector on the right hand side is the power connector for the floppy drive. Figure 1 and 2 below shows what a floppy drive cable and floppy drive power connector looks like.
Figure 1 - Floppy drive cable.
Figure 2 - Floppy drive power cable
How to install a Floppy Disk Drive
Place the floppy drive into the FDD mounting slot as shown. Screw the drive securely into place.
Insert the floppy drive cable into the floppy drive connector. Make sure the pin 1 on the cable connects to the pin 1 on the floppy drive connector. As you already know by now that pin 1 is the red or pink strip on the edge of the floppy drive cable. Most floppy drive cables are designed so that it will only go in on way, so you can not connect it incorrectly.
Push the floppy drive power cable to the power connector. This will only go in on way.
Finally connect the other end of the floppy drive cable to floppy drive connector on your motherboard. Make sure pin 1 on the cable connects to pin 1 on the connector.
How to install CD / DVD ROM
If you look at the rear side of your CD / DVD-ROM it should look similar to image shown on figure 1.
On the right hand side you have the power connector. Next to power connector you have the IDE connector. On the left hand side near the IDE connector you have the jumper settings for the DVD-ROM. The jumper is set to Master by default. I am connecting the DVD-ROM on a separate IDE cable therefore I will leave the jumper setting to Master. However if you are sharing an IDE cable with another device like HDD, then you would have to set jumper to Slave, as your HDD would be set to Master. Next to the jumpers you have the CD Audio-Out socket. One side of your audio cable connects to this socket and other side connects to the sound card cd-in socket. This would allow you to listen to Audio CD's on your computer.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Mount your CD/DVD-ROM drive into its mounting slot. Use the supplied screws to screw the drive into position.
Figure 3
Connect the IDE cable to the drives IDE connector. Make sure the pin 1 on the cable is connected to pin 1 on the drives IDE connector. Pin 1 is the red or pink strip on the edge of an IDE cable. Connect the other end of the IDE cable to the IDE socket on your motherboard as shown in figure 4. Again, make sure you conncet the cable to pin 1. The IDE socket could be your primary or secondary socket depending which socket you choose. If your HDD is on the primary IDE socket and your secondary IDE socket is free, then it is better to use your secondary IDE socket for the CD/DVD-ROM.
Figure 4
Finally connect the power cable to power connector and connect the audio cable to the CD Audio-Out socket as shown on figure 3.
How to install a CD Writer, CD-RW
The rear end of your CD/DVD drive should look similar to the image below.
It contains all the usual connectors such an IDE connector, a power connector, audio connector, and a place to set the jumpers. Set the jumpers so the drive is configured to run as a Master device. It is best to connect your CD-RW on separate IDE cable. This would avoid problems while you copy CD's on-the-fly. This means copying a source CD from a CD/DVD-ROM drive to a blank destination CD in your CD-RW drive without the source CD being copied to the hard disk first. Copying on-the-fly is less time consuming than copying the source CD to the hard disk first. However if you decide to connect your CD-RW drive and another device like a DVD-ROM on the same IDE cable, it would be fine providing you make an image of your source CD on a HDD first before copying to your blank CD. You may have problems such as "buffer under run" errors if you try to copy on-the-fly.
Place your CD-RW drive into a mounting slot as shown. Position the drive correctly and screw it onto the case.
Connect the IDE and the power cable to the drive. If you want to use the CD-RW drive for playing Audio CD's then you also need to connect an audio cable to the Audio-out socket of the drive. If you have a CD/DVD-ROM then the audio cable is usually connected that drive instead of the CD-RW, but there is no reason why you can't have both.
Finally the other end of the IDE cable should be connected to an IDE socket of the motherboard.
How to install a AGP Graphics Card
Before PCI Express graphics card became dominant, most modern graphics cards were AGP based and connected to the AGP bus of the motherboard. An AGP bus (slot) looks like the following image. The brown slot is where you connect your AGP graphics card.
Place your AGP card on top of the slot and gently push it down. The card should firmly sit into position.
All you need to do now is to screw the metal plate on the front of the card to the ATX case. Use the screws supplied with case and screw the card to the case.
How to install a Sound Card
Most modern sound cards are designed with the PCI interface and connects to the PCI slot of your motherboard. A PCI slot looks like the slots on the following image.
Place your sound card on top of a chosen slot. Gently push down the card so it sits into position. Once the card is seated correctly into position, screw the card on to the case.
Finally insert the audio cable into the CD-IN socket. The other end of the cable should be connected to Audio-out socket on your CD/DVD-ROM drive.
How to install a Modem
Find a free PCI slot on your motherboard (assuming your modem is a PCI modem). Place your modem card on top of the slot and gently push it down into position.
Once the card has seated correctly into position, screw the card to the case using the screws supplied with the case.
How to install a TV Card
Installing a TV card is no more difficult than installing any other PCI cards. Locate an unused PCI slot and place the card on top. Gently push card down into the slot.
When the card is correctly in position, screw the card securely on to the case.
Note that a TV card uses two IRQ (Interrupt Request) one for video and one for audio. It is best to place your TV card into a slot which does not conflict with an IRQ of another device. Although IRQ sharing is possible, some TV cards may behave abnormally if you are sharing IRQ's.
Finalizing stage
Now that you have installed all the necessary hardware there are still few more things you need to do before switching on your PC for the first time. Your ATX case has a power switch which turns the PC on, a reset switch for resetting the system, a power LED which comes on when the PC is switched on and a hard drive LED which flashes when data is being written or read from your hard drive. You also have an internal speaker.
Figure 1 - Power and Reset switch
The switches and LED's need to be connected to its corresponding connectors on the motherboard. Please refer to your motherboard manual to locate where the connectors are. Different motherboards place the connectors in different locations. The connectors for the switches and LED's are normally grouped together. They should look similar to the image below.
Figure 2 - Switch and LED connectors
Every cable is normally labeled, they are normally named as follows, but could be slightly different on your system.
Power switch | Power / PWR-SW |
| Reset switch | Reset |
| Power LED | Power LED / PWR-LED |
| Hard drive LED | HDD-LED / IDE LED |
| Speaker | SPK / Speaker |
The connectors on the motherboard are also labeled but may be too small to see. Instead refer to your motherboard manual which would provide details on which pins you should connect the cables to. The image below shows how the pins may be organised on your motherboard.
If things did not go smoothly and your PC does not switch on then go to the troubleshooting section for possible solutions.
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