This Is Comprehensive: DIY!

So, we are building a computer in this creativity group, all DIY (Do It Yourself), and everyone is explaining what a certain aspect is. To avoid all of that, this blog is comprehensive, and goes thus:

First, you will want to make sure you're grounded (that means get all the static charge off of yourself). You do this by wrapping a wire around your wrist that leads to the round hole of an electric socket. This is very important, because some parts of a computer can be destroyed just because of your body's static charge.

Second, you attach all of the components you're going to use to the motherboard. Your components should definitely include a CPU, which comes with a heat sink and a CPU fan. The proper way to get grounded and install a CPU is detailed here.

Another required part are RAM cards. These can be as small as 256MB or as large as 24GB. You can use 1 card or 4 cards. It really doesn't matter. Just stick the stinkin' cards in. You need at least 1GB of RAM to do anything these days, though. To learn how to install RAM cards, click here!

The third step is attach things you may not need, such as video cards, sound cards, graphics cards, or Wi-Fi cards. These are attached to the motherboard near the back, so they protrude out of the back of the chassis (that means case). When putting in the motherboard, make sure the little risers are spaced evenly so that your motherboard is lifted off of the metal plate behind it. Here's a video tutorial on installing a motherboard, courtesy of Daniel.

Then, you install the hard drive. This is attached to the motherboard after you attach it to the chassis. Then, you install the disc drive(s). This includes card readers. These are also attached to the motherboard. Here's how to install the infernal thing.

The last thing to go in is the power source. The power source has a gajillion wires, so keep track of everything. The best idea is to use zip ties. These will contain all of your wires, forever, unless you cut the ties off. Here's another video tutorial. Have fun!

Once this is done, you can plug it into a monitor and turn it on. First, check to see if the CPU fan is on, because if not, it will soon become a grilled silicon sandwich with your motherboard and your fan. Then, you just upload an operating system and you're ready to go!

Here are links to all of the blogs, in order of steps needed to take.
1) Installing the CPU on the motherboard
2) Install the RAM
3) Attach cards and install the motherboard
4) Install the hard drive
5) Install the power source

Fry's Electronics and the Purchases

First, we bought the motherboard; We needed one that was USB3 Compatible, and had a graphics card installed in it already. We bought the GIGABYTE H55M-USB3 for $110 and continued on with the purchases, buying an Intel i5 processor for about 200 dollars. After the processor, we bought the media reader, something that lets the computer read by different medium (i.e. SD card or a usb). We then bought the RAM for the computer, about 4Gb of RAM for the computer, we then bought the monitor for the computer, a View Sonic VA2231W. We already had the tower for the computer, so we already saved about 150-200 bucks on the frame of the tower alone. We also recycled the CD Drives, so that also saved us money. We spent about 5-6 hours trying to figure out what was wrong with the computer, (Yes. I did not work for a while) only to figure out that the hard drive that we had purchased was not compatible with our computer, so we bought a SSD Drive, (Solid State Drive)-P.S. A SSD card is better than a regular hard drive because it's like an oversized USB drive, instead of a spinning disk inside of it, like regular hard drives, it gets the information straight and fast. That was our last Fry's experience, and the drive worked, so far so good! (pictures in order of appearence: 1. Our motherboard, the queen of the computer 2. James posing our new Intel Core i5 CPU. 3. Our old hard drive, that didn't work with the computer.

Mount the Motherboard

Install the Hard Drive

Installing a hard drive and disk drive my sound complicated at first, but it's not. Both are basically a three step process: mount the drive to the computer case, connect it to the power supply, and connect it to the mother board.

Necessities:

• Hard Drive
• Disk Drive
• Mother Board
• Power Supply
• Tower
• Screws and Screw Drive

First thing you want to do at any time working with electronic components of computers is make sure you are grounded. Any small static electricity can potentially fry the components and they will no longer work. To mount the disk/hard drives on to the tower use screws and place the disk/hard drives in an appropriate location (towards the front of the tower exposing the disk drive and hiding the hard drive). Once installed in the appropriate location with sufficient support, using a manual connect the wires from the disk/hard drives to their appropriate location on the mother board. The disk/hard drives cannot function without power. So, in the final step, connect the wires from the hard/disk drives to the appropriate wires from the power supply. Once you have done the three simple steps, your hard/disk drives will work assuming the rest of your computer is intact.

How to insert RAM?

First you will need to layout the Motherboard in front of you. Then you grab the Random Access Memory (RAM) by the side and find the slot on the Motherboard to insert the RAM. Open the latches on both sides of the slot. When RAM is inserted in slot push down hard until you hear a click, this confirms that the RAM is in properly. Repeat for the second RAM.

Hooking up

I mean how to hook up the power from the power source. In this picture the power comes from the top left motor near the corner of the picture. The item is Antec Earthwatts 500 watt.





This comes with a bunch of cords, which connects to all the system components in the computer in order to give it power. In the picture to the left you can see the power box, and a bunch of cords of all different colors spreading out in different directions. Those cords are what gives everything in the system enough power and thus starting the computer to work properly.

Intel Core i5 process of installation!

Installing the Core i5 Processor was a troublesome step in our creation of a computer. This item cost us about 200 dollars, and installing it is a delicate procedure. While unpacking the CPU, we had to be grounded to the floor with special bracelets that would allow us to grab the components with ease without damaging anything important. If the grounding bracelet isn't used properly and you touch the CPU you can fry the whole thing. Daniel, our installer, delicately grabbed the CPU and slowly placed it into the CPU socket. Then we had to get our CPU cooler that had to cover all the CPU evenly and lightly. After that process is completed, gently snap the fan into place. The fan and the CPU cooler are necessary to keep the CPU running instead of burning up. If the fan and the CPU cooler were not present the Intel Core would melt onto the motherboard in a matter of five minutes, thus making the computer shut down. After that is all finished we move to another part needed.

The video below we are showing the process of installing the CPU and the heat sync while Daniel,James,and Adolf are grounded.