[Tutorial] How to build your own PC
Hi friends
I would create a dedicated section of Posetteforever for hardware problems, btw in the last weekend, instead of caring of the site (
) I built a new PC and took some photos.
You know that the spirit of this site is to make good things with few money (aka "chewingum wrappers") and when it's the time to change your old PC there is no better way than build it yourself.
I'm talking of a PC, but you can even build yourself a Mac Pro, I mean a genuine Mac Pro (NOT a hackintosh) saving a lot of money, this is because Apple now uses Intel CPUs and common hardware so basically you need the case, the power supply and the mainboard, the rest is common hardware that you can buy at an online store, but this is another story...
Let's begin:
You need:
-A Case
-A Power Supply Unit
-A Mainboard
-A CPU
-A syringe of silicon thermal paste
-Some memory banks
-A Graphic card
-A Hard drive
-Some additional stuff (they are not strictly necessary)
Tools:
-Screwdriver and professional plastic gloves, if you don't want to use glows, don't use shoes with a plastic sole and don't stay on a carpet or moquette, you'll avoid electrostatic problems...
-Some other additional tools (not strictly necessary)
There are a lot of brands and types of these things, first of all you've to think of what you need from your PC, what I needed was maximum compatibility with all operating systems that I can install on a PC, and I wanted to upgrade my system. I've not a lot of chewingum wrappers to spend on a new machine, so what I put in the case is not the very last technology, but the technology of one year ago, that now costs half the price, also I read a lot of pages on dedicated forums, searching for successfull installations of the different operating systems and I've chosen accordingly: you'll see that the final result is a mix of different brands, this is not that a brand is better than another, this is just because I needed that particular hardware, no matter of the brand: the choice considers the price too.
This is the case with the Power Supply Unit (PSU) already installed:
Note that this case don't come with a PSU, btw installing the PSU is easy: there is a place, usually in the high position of the case to place it, you fix it in place with four screws that usually are provided with the PSU, or the case has a little bag full of screw (or buy it yourself...)
You can note one thing: this PSU has a lot of cables, this means that it is not one of the very supercool PSU: they come with a modular system where you can plug in and out only the cables that you need, but as I said, the cost of a PSU made like that was too much, for the same power I took this, that is a 700W PSU , I read good reviews on this thing and found it at an affordable price. Choosing the power and the brand of the PSU is a key factor: it must have enough power to feed all the hardware, so more power is better, and the PSU doesn't produce the power if it is not needed, so it doesn't consume more electricity even if its maximum output is higher of a less powerful PSU. You can find very cheap PSUs that declare a lot of power outoput, but usually they lack some internal components and the output is not stable: the PSU is not a component where you can save a lot of money, buy a good product of a major brand: you can save money on the case, for example, but not on the PSU. For a common PC an output of 450/500W is enough.
The case:
You choose the case accordingly of the form factor of the mainboard, the most common mainboard have the ATX form factor (there are also microATX, miniATX, BTX etc.), so assuming that you don't want to build a very particular PC , be sure that the case you've choosen is for ATX mainboards.
Well, I wanted something cool and nice to see: the top brands have full alluminium extra modular cases that costs a lot of bucks, this is not the case that I really wanted to buy, but that one costed about the double of this one; also, I could choose from a full alluminium case or a steel, painted black case: my keyboard, monitor and mouse are black with aluminium or aluminium-like finishings, but the aluminium case (with the same shape) , again, costed too much, so I took this one. I can say, that I like it a lot, when built, it's a sort of monster...
It has a lot of inner space and it is solid.
Choosing the case you have to study the air flows, this case basically takes the air from the front fan
and from the side panel fan (you can't see it in this image) and pulls the air out from the rear fan 
You can even choose a liquid cooling system. Also, it should have a modular system to place things like the hard disks and the hard disks have to be directly cooled by a fan, in this case, the HDs are mounted on a rack that goes directly at the rear of the front fan.
Finally, the case HAS to look cool
The Motherboard:
they are mainly classified by the model of CPUs that they can mount and by the chipset, you have to choose the mainboard accordingly to the socket of the CPU. The CPU that I've choosen have a "775" socket so , first, I have to choose between "775" motherboards. Then, there is the chipset : I don't want to go too much technical: if the CPU is like the engine of the car, the chipset is like the electrical cable that controls the rest, this is also a very crucial choice: if there are Windows driver for every chipset, it's not the same for other operating systems, so I've choosen a "775" motherboard with a fully compatible chipset, that is the Intel P35 ICH9, it can even be tuned "fine"... Another thing to consider is the sound system: you don't want to have problems and becoming mad
because the sound system is not supported by linux for example, so this mainboard come with an ALC888 (Azalia) sound system, not the last and best on the market, but there are all the drivers and the settings for it on the net. I also wanted to mount some DDR2 1066Mhz memory banks and the mainboard supports them: before buying the memory modules, go to the site page of the manifacturer of the mainboard and see if they are compatible: in the page of the mainboard it should be a list. the mainboard had also to support SATA2 (3.0gb transfer) Hard Disk (yes it can) and PCI EXPRESS 16 (2.0 is even better) graphic card (yes it can). I don't need to plug in more than one card so one PCI EXPRESS slot is enough.
This is the mainboard: I'm sorry but I forgot to take a shot without things already installed
, btw I'll explain the rest later:
You can note at the back (behind the MONSTER
fan) the 4 banks of memory already installed, but we've to make a step back:
The CPU:
Actually there are two major brands: Intel and AMD. I've a lot of sympathy for AMD, really, but as I said, for this particular PC I've choosen components that I wanted to be easily configurable with all the operating systems: I could do the same exact things even with an AMD CPU but I simply didn't want to spend time with patches, so said, you can do the same things with Intel or AMD, your choice.
Actually, the last kick-ass CPUs are built with a 45nm technology, my mainboard supports them, but not my pockets
, what I could buy was a 65nm quad core CPU. making it simple, a CPU with more than a single core is like having more than one CPU installed, a quad core is like having 4 CPUs installed: my new CPU is a Core Duo Quad, that is like 2 Core Duo (2 CPU) with shared cache, BUT as I said, it's not the last technology, so I had it at an affordable price (they said "LAST PIECE SUPER OFFER" 
).
You can simply plug it in the socket of the mainboard, differently from the old CPUs the new ones are very simple to install, you open little metallic case on the mainboard, put the CPU in (you can't be wrong, there are two intakes...) and close it again, it's very simple.
This is an additional step, you can do it or not, I say that it's absolutely not crucial and it's also a bit risky to do, it's called Lapping
You can do it to improve the thermal conductivity between the cpu and the cooler fan, you do it if you plan to "push" the CPU, or you can do it because it's cool do do it...
Usually, the CPU come in a box with its defaul cooler, under the cpu there is a protective plastic coverage, when doing this job, keep it on the CPU.
You need water sandpaper, the one used by car repairers body shops, two pieces one of 1000 and one of 2000. The water sandpaper has to be wet, so pass it under the water for a while beginning with the "1000", it has only to be wet, so no drops of water that can go into the CPU (I said that it's risky...). Choose a very plain surface, put the sandpaper on it , take the cpu and brush the upper side with circular movements till you feel that it became "sluggish", then pass it on the "2000" paper. The surface will become very shine.
This is a picture ( you can also admire my right hand, bruises and all
)
Note that for the first passage I used a simple dry sandpaper, very light, this is only for VERY LAZY PEOPLE
This is the CPU in place: important note: This is not what you should have lapping the CPU in the canonic mode , the surface has to be perfectly plain and shine, btw it exists a theory by which the thermal paste works better if it is separated into little "furrows", so I'm making an experiment: I leave those furrows for now, use it for a while, register the temperatures, then I'll brush the cpu a little more to make the surface plain and compare the results.
Note the rack around the CPU, this come with my MONSTER COOLING FAN, it's so heavy (all copper) that it needs and extra rack on the other side of the mainboard in order not to break it , usually, if you use the fan that come with the CPU you've to simply clip it into the 4 holes around the CPU socket.
Well, the next passage is to put a nut of thermal paste on the cpu, in the middle. I use to spread a little layer on all the surface also.
The thermal paste comes in two type: ceramic or syliconic: choose a good syliconic paste, keep in mind to not exagerate with the paste, the grey paste contains a percentage of metal (usually silver) that is conductive.
Here is a picture (you can also note my "professional gloves" that I've stolen in the vegetables section at the mall
), I put on the paste keeping the CPU in the hand, but it's better to do it when it's already in place (it also tends to spread everywhere if you touch it).
Note in the background some of my professional tools, you need good tools to do this kind of works, so don't use a very old toothbrush and choose a good brand of toilet paper (at least 3 layers). The mainboard in the background is the old one , I'll build another PC with the old pieces.
Well, now I'm tired (fingers hurts for too much typing
and is also time to 
), the rest in part two. I hope that it can be interesting for you, at last, once chosen the right pieces, building up a PC can be very funny.
This is a preview of part two, entitled : "When the sh... hit the fan"
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I won the Loebner prize 
! 
