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Building a tower or just cleaning one. - Printable Version

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Building a tower or just cleaning one. - DAMINK™ - 10-31-2009

Complete build of a tower.

Preparation

Now first thing we want to do is get a list of all the required items needed. First would be the motherboard. If this is a rebuild then i recommend a good clean out with compressed air and blow out all slots etc.
[Image: 27102009317.jpg]

Next we require a processor and fan. Now this can vary quite a bit obviously. Here i only have a single core processor with a liquid cooler without a fan.
[Image: 27102009318.jpg]

Its quite possible your fan will look like this one as this is more of a "standard" fan with sink. I prefer the silent liquid cooler myself.
[Image: 27102009337.jpg]

You really should invest in a graphics card if you have not already. Although quite a few boards do have onboard. Its very limited and not advised.
[Image: 27102009319.jpg]

A power supply. Now this will vary from supply to supply but i would recommend a 500w or bigger.
[Image: 27102009320.jpg]


You will need some ram and a rom DVD preferrably. Now i have 3 sticks of ram here simply because thats the most my board can handle.
[Image: 27102009321.jpg]

You will ofcourse need a tower. Smile Oops i forgot to take the other rom out lol. But yea we will ofcourse need a tower.
[Image: 27102009322.jpg]

You will need to have atleast 1 harddrive. Here i have 3. 2 x IDE and 1 x Sata.
[Image: 27102009357.jpg]

Also you will need the back plate. Im not sure on its technical term but its advisable to use it. Keeps everything cleaner.
[Image: 27102009323.jpg]

Now thats the basic equipment needed to get the job done. Lets get building shall we?

The Build
First we want to put the back plate into the tower as below pic.
Check the back of your tower to make sure it seated correctly as this can be rather annoying if you get the board in and find out its backwards on whatever. I advise placing it over the mother board to make sure you are putting it in correctly and the correct way. (Pretty straight forward though)
[Image: 27102009325.jpg]

Now we want to make sure our screws have there seats. The little brass screws that raise the board off the tower. Check to make sure they are there and in the correct place for your board to screw in place. Its also a good idea to check make sure they are tightly screwed in at this point.
[Image: 27102009326.jpg]

Now its time to start with the good stuff. I like at this point to get my paste onto my processor and heatsink.
[Image: 27102009327.jpg]

A new processor fan will come with paste already applied. But if its a rebuild you will need to purchace some.
[Image: cooler-with-paste.jpg]

Now time to put the processor in. Particular caution should be taken here. This is a very sensitive piece of hardware. Processors vary in how they sit in the processor slot. This processor does not have pins so it sits in easily. Some of the older processors had pins which had to go into the board. They were easy to bend. Basically all you need to know is to check the shape of your processor. There is always a corner that has an indent or key type area that keys into the board. It will only go in 1 way properly.
Once you have established the correct way and placed it in then its time to close the bracket which holds it. This also does vary board to board a little.
[Image: 27102009329.jpg]

Now time for the ram. Particular attention should be given to the ram slots. If you notice there is a notch out of the ram sticks and a little key inside the ram slots. These are not in the middle and off to one side slightly. Work out which was is the correct way for the ram to go in before you try placing them in. Once your happy then place your ram in and make sure they are secure and clips are fastened.
[Image: 27102009330.jpg]

All ram in place and clips locked. Its starting to come together.
[Image: 27102009334.jpg]

Now its time to put the fan or cooler on. You will notice in below pic there are 4 holes around the processor? Well if you have a standard fan as above pic you will be able to clip directly into those holes. If you run a different cooler like i do then you may need to do a little more work.
[Image: 27102009338.jpg]

You will notice i had to put some extra brackets on so my cooler would work. Simple enough really. Just make sure your rubber O rings are in place so as to stop shorting out with the screws.
[Image: 27102009339.jpg]

Below you will see the motherboard back with the screws for my cooler in place.
[Image: back-of-board-processor-screws.jpg]

Time to put the cooler on. This is specific to my example but you will see i had to put a cross brace which mounted onto the above 2 metal plates. Everything is looking good so far.
[Image: cooler-screws.jpg]
Below is a pic of the mother board with CPU / Cooler / Ram installed. We are now ready to place the board into the tower.
[Image: processor-ram-cpu-in.jpg]

Below is a pic of the motherboard installed into the tower. Nothing is plugged in yet though. We need to make sure all screws are in place and nothing is moving or insecure.
[Image: board-in-tower.jpg]

You will see i pointed out 1 of the screws. These have to be in place and tight. Not too tight but firm. We dont want our motherboard moving now do we?
[Image: 27102009335.jpg]

Time to install the Graphics card now.
Below is a simple pic showing an AGP graphics card and how it locates into the AGP slot. Note the little cut out the card and the slot it fits into. Care should be taken here.
[Image: graphics-card-slots-view.jpg]

When you are putting your graphics card in make sure you have the clip at the back of the agp slot closed as pic below. This does vary depending on the board etc but most are similar.
[Image: agp-lock.jpg]

Now i like to put my ram in before i put in any graphics card because as you will see with below pic. The clips for the ram is so close to the AGP card that they cant actually be opened correctly with a card in. So always place ram in first.
[Image: ram-slots-clips.jpg]

Time to get the power supply in.
[Image: power-supply.jpg]

Here is where the power supply gets mounted to the tower. Even if the writing appears upside down. This is quite common and the power supply can only be screwed in 1 way if you notice the screw locations.
[Image: power-supply-screws.jpg]

At this point its a good idea to get your harddrives in place and your cd roms.
If you have a specific order you want your drives in for example C booting as primary master then you need to adjust jumpers at the back of the harddrives to dictate. Setting your C as master and any others as slaves. I will go into this more shortly.

Now we need to get some power into the boad. Lets start with the main power supply.
[Image: 27102009350.jpg]

Now the other power feed to the board. This can be a little harder to get on at times.
[Image: 27102009352.jpg]

If you make sure the clip is the correct way it will go in pretty easily.
[Image: 27102009354.jpg]

Ok now its time to work out what setup to use. Lets say you have only 1 IDE harddrive and 1 IDE rom then its simple. You put your harddrive into the primary slot and rom in the secondary slot. I am pointing to the primary IDE slot below.
[Image: 27102009355.jpg]

Or if you have the same as above but sata then you use the sata plugs instead of the IDE slots. Otherwise the same thing applies.
[Image: 27102009356.jpg]

Its only when you have multiple harddrives or a mix of both IDE and Sata it gets a little complicated.
If you do have both then you need to decide which is primary etc and even alter your bios to suit your preffered boot method. This is quite a vast topic itsself so i will save that for another thread i guess.

Now its time to get them connected. I am starting with the sata drive here. You will see its got power and the Sata connection connected.
[Image: 27102009360.jpg]

Now we connect some of the IDE drives.
[Image: 27102009361.jpg]

And hook up the DVD also.
[Image: 27102009362.jpg]

Finally we get the power connected to all the roms and drives.
[Image: 27102009363.jpg]

Now you will need to connect your power and reset buttons etc on the front of your tower. These need to be connected to your board. Typically they are at the bottom right side of the montherboard like below. But i would recommend getting the correct jumper settings from the manufacturer website or if you got the board new then the instructions page.
[Image: 27102009366.jpg]

Now we have a complete tower ready to hook up to your favorite monitor, keyboard and mouse.
[Image: 27102009365.jpg]


Final thoughts.

1) I know i know. I built portions of it on a carpet floor. Static would be a problem. This was just a build for the sake of this post. The system was pulled down again.
2) Systems vary and this will not apply to everyone and/or every situation. Rather just how i do it.
3) The system was dirty. I know that also but once again it applies to #1. It was a build for the purpose of this post.

RE: Building a tower or just cleaning one. - Extasey - 10-31-2009

Wow, you went to a lot of effort to make a thread! Building a tower just to pull it down and all!

I had a question, but I forgot. So i'm just gonna rep u instead.

RE: Building a tower or just cleaning one. - DAMINK™ - 10-31-2009

Thankyou Extasey.
It was a simple enough post. I mean mostly pics and a small amount of text.
But what did take me quite a while was getting the pics in the correct order etc.
Damn i really wish i had built it on my table as i normally do but my kids were making/destroying a jigsaw puzzle lol.

RE: Building a tower or just cleaning one. - Mozz - 10-31-2009

Very good post, i no most of this, but this is very good for begginers who want to build there own pc, 5 Star !!!

RE: Building a tower or just cleaning one. - Extasey - 10-31-2009

Meh, it doesn't matter! I'm not fussed about the background.

When I swapped my case (from a custom built to antec 900) the box was so much bigger! This just caused problems! I had to stretch some cables and even buy an extension cord for my PSU! It also didn't help that the power supply was on the bottom instead of the top!

RE: Building a tower or just cleaning one. - WirelessWave - 10-31-2009

Wow man, tons of pictures, took a while to load. Anyways alot of work spent on this, so i think its worth saying good job.


By the way, your hand tatoo(s) scares me..

RE: Building a tower or just cleaning one. - Codine - 10-31-2009

Extremely nice tutorial, but a few of them images was either un-needed, or you could of joined them into one to it would help with the image limit.

But extremely good tutorial. If i hadn't of already repped you, then i would of done now.

RE: Building a tower or just cleaning one. - Skill - 11-01-2009

This is a great tutorial and the pictures add the icing on the cake.

How long did it take you to build the tower, compile the thread and take down the tower?

RE: Building a tower or just cleaning one. - Warbiest - 11-01-2009

Nice tutorial.
Also nice tat's Big Grin
You got the skeleton tat going up your whole arm, or just your hand?

RE: Building a tower or just cleaning one. - Etheryte - 11-01-2009

A very nice tutorial, cleared a lot of questions I had in my head on the topic.