Please read through the basics and some indepth knowledge of
assembling a PC here:-
http://www.daileyint.com/build/
In my own words i shall provide some personal brief knowledge i
have in assembly a PC ...
A basic home PC consist of the following major components which
is no different from those OEMs (e.g Acer Hp etc) PC you see
for purchases in retails. In no order of importance or precedence
they are as follows:
(1) The power supply unit (PSU in short)
(2) The mainboard (motherboard , mobo)
(3) The random acess memory (RAM in short)
(4) The graphics card (usually bought from a third part and
assebled onto the 'agp' port at the mobo. Integrated
graphics in a PC system means the assembled PC do not
require a graphics card since a series of components and ICs are
already build in the mobo that can provide minimal display power /
capability to the system. Bare minimum display power are not
recommended for gaming and video applications nowadays since they
demand more processing power)
(5) The hard disk (HDD in short)
(6) The optical drive (DVD, CD player / writer or
burner)
(7) The floppy drive (FDD, near obsolette as replaced by
thumbdrives, card readers and USB bluetooth peripherals)
(8) The CPU (central processing unit, or processor the right
name)
(9) The case / casing (enlosure for and houses all item
1~8)
Item 1~8 when assembled in item 9 has often been addressed with
the name "CPU" which is no right and often cause misunderstanding
or mis-interpretation in the eyes and ears of PC builders and
modders. CPU to us refers to the processor (two major manufacturers
are AMD Advance Micro Devices and Intel)
Assembly notes and compatibility
(1) Mainboard use a chipset that accepts two major
processor brand types - Intel or AMD. So if you buy a
Mainboard that uses Intel chipsets then you can only buy
Intel CPU and fit the latter into the processor socket at the
Intel based mainboard. This the the first major platform
compatibility point to take note in PC assembly.
(2) Now most mainboard uses PCI-e type of graphics card
interface so when purchassing the graphics card be sure to look out
for the PCI-e interface as specified on the graphics card external
box packaging.
(3) Hard disk drives comes with SATA interface and most
mainboard have the compatible connectors so installing the hard
disk should not be a problem. Do take note that 2 separate cables
fan out and interconnects the hard disk unit to the mobo. One
provides signal exchange and one provide a greater power to drive
the hard disks motor and controller board start up
and operations. Signals and electrical power are the same in
general. Power refers to stronger signal that can perform up to the
mechanical and torque requirements of any devices. Signals are
integrated power and stepped down to mircro or even as in the form
of wavelengths unseen and unfelt at times to provide complicated /
diversified patterns with endless possiblilities so that a device
can work and calculate operations in more ways that one.
(4) RAM is a 'rubbish' bin that stores memory data so
that commands and addresses can be moved to and fro throughout the
entire PC faster on demand. It also act as a major component
for the PC to work whenever information or files are to be
retreived from the hard disk. The HDD and memory are similar in
their operations but differs in data transfer speed. As a result of
this and due to the nature of the hard disk depending on
mechanical operation the memory serves as a staging point and
faster messager in transportation and exchange of data.
(5) The optical drives interacts with external media like CDs
and DVDs. They are required since most software and Operating
System installations are sold in media packaging. Without them you
cannot install any games or OS onto your computer.
(6) The power supply unit (PSU) basically provides the
electrical power to your other cards and drives so that they have
the energy to be started up and functional as per specified.
OS installation.
An operating system as the name implies provide the overall
platform for a end user to work on a computer in a user
friendly GUI (graphics user interface). The Windows environment
(for example) is the OS i am referring to in this set up
example. As Microsoft has been providing Windows as a very common
OS to most OEM computers, you can buy a licensed copy of the OS and
install it after completing the hardware assembly if you DIY. There
are also open source OS (Linux for example) and Mac OS from Apple
computers.
To install the Operating System, the very important setting to
your mainboard BIOS (entrance from the initial screen you see
when you first power up your computer) is to set the first
boot device. Please set it to CD / DVD rom as the first boot so as
to tell the computer to read and scan for media inserted into this
drive area. You need it as the scanning will interact with the OS
cd you placed into the drive. This will force the OS drive to be
read and thus OS to be installed. You cannot expect the
installation to happen or initiate when this condition is not set.
After that just follow the onscreen instructions after a long
writing of registery or data deletion (if your hdd is not brand
new). It comes with a blue screen that is a process to prepare your
hard disk prior to OS installation. The 'blue screen" waiting
process takes a while depending on your drive's read/ write speed
or storage capacity.
After your OS are installed you will need to install your:
(1) drivers for the mainboard (your mainboard will have this CD,
do not loose it). Follow onscreen instruction when you pop the disc
into your optical drive.
(2) drivers for the graphics card (your card will have this CD,
do not loose it). Follow onscreen instruction when you pop the disc
into your optical drive.
Note that RAM, PSU, HDD, optical and floppy drives usually do
not require drivers or software. They have firmware (except PSU)
written onto them which do not require much updates or any
installation for initial operation. All firmwares are usually
factory installed or written.
The above is just a very skeleton summary of the PC assembly
process. You have to read instructions from all the components'
manual (importantly Mobo, graphics) while you install,
assemble and get the PC to work.
Hello kcockicht,
I really appreciate you take so much of your time to write the
above, really appreciate your help.
To be honest, I can understand approx 70% of what you've written
above, as I said I'm not a techie thus I still need to attend the
basic DIY PC courses. I believe after attending the courses &
with the help of an IT expert, I believe can assemble my first pc
soon.
Thanks kcockicht.
