There are many good reasons to build your own computer from scratch, you get the computer you wan't not the computer some salesman who probably knows less about computers than you do wants to sell you, the computer can be tailored to your specific needs, you can utilise second hand parts and upgrade them as and when funds allow, but the main reason for doing it if your on this forum is to learn.

The first thing you will need to do with the aid of the motherboard and manual if youve got one is determine where to place the brass standoffs in the case, dont be tempted to add any extra ones all you will succeed in doing is shorting out the board against the back of the case, and install the I/O plate that came with the motherboard at the back of the case, for someone building a computer for the first time it might be better not fitting the motherboard just yet, fitting the cpu is a lot easier when its not bolted into the case and some heat sinks are nigh on impossibe to fit when the motherboard is fitted, fit the power supply in the case if it didnt come pre-installed and route the cables roughly to where they will eventually go, fans can be fitted to the case and wired up to the power supply, optical drives and hard drive can also be fitted not forgetting to set the jumpers, if you are useing one ide ribbon connector to connect the optical drive and the hard drive set the optical as master and the hard drive as slave or set them both as cable select and make sure the optical drive is at the end of the ribbon, better still mount them on differt ribbons and set them both as master, if you have sata connect the optical to sata one, main hard drive with the os to number two, you can normally find the jumper setting printed on hard drives and optical drives or go to the manufacturers website, you should route the cables to the drives but dont connect them just yet.


You will struggle to fit some aftermarket HSF full stop, trying to do it when the motherboard is fitted is damn nigh impossible.

While the motherboard is still out of the case place it on the cardboard box it came in and fit the cpu, most motherboard sockets have a lever to lock the cpu down, lift it up and the retaining plate if it has one, now you will be able to see the socket, normally there is an arrow marked on one corner of the socket that matches one on the cpu, being extremly carefull not to touch the any pins on the cpu place it into the socket so the little arrows line up, if the pins are damaged while you are fitting the cpu the chances of straigtening them and the cpu working are somewhere between slim and non existent so be careful, when the chip is in place lock the lever down, swapping parts between computers is an easy way of fault finding but the cpu is an exception when its in leave it alone, while your at it you might as well fit the heat sink fan as long as it isnt going to hinder you fitting the motherboard, remove any plastic films placed on the hsf to protect the mating surface, if it already has thermal paste just fit as per the instructions if not apply a very thin coat of tim to the cpu and a little blob in the middle and fit the heat sink, connect the fan wires to the motherboard and its done, also the memory can be fitted if your only using one stick of memory it doesnt really matter which slot you use, if you are using more match the sticks to the slots of the same colour, now you can fit the motherboard.


Install the memory sticks in the matching colour coded slots or it won't run in dual channel.

When fitting the motherboard be careful that the rear of the board is seated properly in the I/O panel and that no cables are trapped under the board and screw it down onto the stand offs, connect the main 20 or 24 pin connector and the 4 or 8 pin connectors, connect any fans that are to be connected to the motherboard, connect the optical and hard drives, if you plan to have more than one hard drive not set up in raid only connect the data cable for the main master hard drive that will have the operating system installed on it, windows doesnt like installing when more than one are connected up during the os install unless its in raid, connect the wires from the front panel to the motherboard next, the more you spend on your case the easier it will be to wire up the front panel wires, many have multi plugs that simply plug into the board, if you bought a cheap case you will have to go searching through the manual, teach you not to be so tight in future, and dont forget to wire up a small speaker so you will be able to hear the post beep codes.


Useing quick connecting blocks like these from asus and similar ones that you find on most half decent cases is a lot easier than connecting each individual wire one at a time.

if youve got onboard graphics and sound thats more or less it if not remove the expansion card blanlking plates in the rear of the case that corresponds to the slot they are going to be fitted in, offer up the cards to the slots on pci-e slots you will need to lift a little plastic lever that will break off the first chance it gets so be careful it wont do any harm if it does break off but its always nice to complete a job without breaking anything or so im told, if your graphics card needs an addisional power connector plug that in and move on to plugging in the monitor keyboard mouse and speakers and an ethernet connection not forgetting to reset your router.


Some graphics cards need an extra power supply, and yes i know it needs cleaning.

Well now its the moment of truth power up the computer and switch it on, check the fan on the heatsink is running and all the other fans are working fine, assuming nothing is on fire listen for any beeps, it should beep once on most computers, if there are lots of beeps and nothing on the monitor go back and check all the connections, if the computer boots up hit the delette key if nessecary to set the computer to boot from the dvd drive first if your using an old hard drive that already has an os on it, if its a new hard drive just put the windows install disc in the dvd drive and restart the computer and it will more or less install itself, you will have to choose the language and region, you will also have to set the time zone when you do check the time and date are correct, 99 times out of a hundred the time and date will be correct but if they are not your computer will not update untill it is corrected, if your installing vista and you can only afford basic but want to see how the other half live dont key in the activation code, it will ask you which version of vista you wish to install choose ultimate and thats what you will get, only for 30 days or if you tweak the setting 120 days then you will have to reinstall, but if your like me you will be reinstalling before that anyway, if not just enter the activation key and it will pretty much install by itself if a little slowly, when windows finally finishs arsing about testing your computer go into update and install all the important updates and restart your computer then personally i like to go back into update and turn it off but thats just my preference im not advising you to do it, go into device manager and update any drivers that need updating some of them can be found on the motherboard disc if you have one, also check the driver for your graphics card and sound cards are the correct ones, often windows will load the bog standard drivers and you will be wondering why your brand new super duper graphics card that cost you an arm and a leg is performing like something that cost a fiver in a secondhand shop.

If your going to be running a second hard drive switch off the computer and connect it up, if its sata just connect the power and data cables if its ide make sure the jumper is set correctly, if you have two data ribbon cables connect to the one your optical drive is on and set it as slave, or if your using cable select the plug midway along the ribbon, restart the computer, go into start and computer and your new hard drive will be nowhere to be seen but dont worry, come out of computer hit start and this time right click on computer, select manage, then storage, then disk managment, your new disk should now show up right click over toward the left side of the box, you will be given the option to initialise disc, then over toward the right side of the box right click and format new simple volume volume, when its all formatted it will show up in my computer and it can be used., screw the covers back on the case and your all done, any questions.

I personally have never used an anti static wrist band or mat while messing around with computers, if your worried about static use a wrist band, if not don't blame me if you break anything.

Thread stickied, thanks for sharing this information.

sorry if this is off topic but what exactly is sticky?

They usually come before all post, even if the post is the oldest post.
Basically its a post that could come in good use.

oh, alright, thanks

Can they be unstickied im just going to do a bit of tinkering.

Very nice, and explanatory.. But i do recommend for any new computer builder to use the static reducing wristband or gloves.

Now can you post one on how to build a laptop??

or must i post that.

and not copying on how to do it off the internet hehe

Go for it every time i start on laptops i break something.

Lol, ya just posted.

Thats great popeye, i notice that your camera seems to be working fine now. haha