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- ### # ### ### ##### #### Black Sun Research Facility
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-
- Date of release: 25/1/2000
-
- Introduction
- ------------
- In this tutorial I will try an teach you how to successfully build your own computer! There
- are many benefits to building your own computer.
-
- #1 You get hand's on experience learning how a computer works
- #2 Its a hell of alot less expensive then buying one from a retailer
- #3 Its a hell of alot more reliable than buying one from a retailer being that you hand select
- QUALITY parts and put it togethor yourself.
- #4 You can do your own tech support no more relying on stupid Best Buy Tech's that don't know the
- difference between their ass and a hard disk jumper (don't worry I'll tell you what those are later)
-
- Section #1 (What Your Going To Need)
- ----------
-
- Here we will discuss a list of the parts you need and the best place to purchase them. If you want the best
- prices on computer hardware you will definitly want to look online. Unfortunatly (and for some of you very fortunatly
- if you know what I mean) this requires the use of a credit card. Below is a general list of the devices you will
- need...
-
- 1. A Computer Case (Something To Put All The Computer Parts Togethor In)
- -Should only run you about 50 dollars
- -Beware the cheap ones with cheap power supplies they will die in a year
-
- 2. A Mother Board (Everything Will Be Plugged Into The Mother Board)
-
- 3. A Floppy Drive and a CDROM (Should Be Obvious)
-
- 4. A Hard Disk (Come In Many Different Flavors and Quality Levels, Stores All The Information In Your Computer)
-
- 5. A Video Card (Cheap Stuff, Its What Your Monitor Plugs Into)
-
- 6. IDE Controller Ribbon
-
- 7. Miscellaneous Accessories
-
- Next we'll take a look at many of the different options you have when buying these pieces of equipment. Your choice
- may vary depending on which Operating Systems you plan on running.
-
- Section #2 (Which Brand And Model Should I Buy?)
- ----------
-
- We'll lets start with your computer case and move all the way down to Miscellaneous Accessories..
-
- 1. Computer Case
- -----------------
-
- You will most certainly need an ATX style case with a quality power supply. How do you tell? Well if the case
- is only 15-20 bucks theres a pretty good chance its a crappy power supply.
-
- 2. A Mother Board
- -----------------
-
- I suggest a quality ASUS (ATX style to match your computer case) mother board its up to you ask your friends.
- I've had bad experiences personally with FIC
- mother boards.
-
- 3. A Floppy Drive and CDROM
- ---------------------------
-
- Pretty inexpensive stuff, i'd suggest a Sony Floppy drive and a generic CDROM. Doesn't make too much a difference if your
- concerned about getting the best price.
-
- 4. Hard Disks
- --------------
- Gets alittle tricky. If you want reliability, high speed transfers, and are willing to run Windows I suggest a Western Digital
- or a Seagate ULTRA DMA-66. If your not to concerned with speed and want to run a server with Unix i'd go with a Fujitsu or
- a Western Digital. Their farely inexpensive but only transfer in 33 megabit bursts as apposed to the DMA-66 which transfer
- in 33 megabit bursts. I don't believe Unix currently supports ULTRA DMA-66, but don't quote me on that. Now there's an even faster
- transfer rate available via SCSI Hard Disk Controllers, but i'm not about to go into setting up SCSI controllers in this tutorial.
- For now we will stick with IDE Hard Disk controllers.
-
- 5. Video Cards
- ---------------
-
- Video cards are cheap and if your not a gamer a plain ole gener Cirrus Logic or STB video card will do fine.
-
- 6. IDE Controller Ribbon
- --------------------------
-
- You'll need 2 different kinds of IDE Ribbon 2 40 pins for your CDROM and Hard Disk and Another with less pins for your floppy.
- You can buy these at any local computer store or order them off the web.
-
- 7. Miscellaneous Stuff
- -----------------------
-
- You may be interested in adding a sound card, ethernet card, and/or 3DFX card to your system. These are relatively easy to do and
- I will explain how to add card's to your mother board later.
-
- Section #3 (Where do I buy all this crap!?)
- ----------
-
- Well if your looking for the best prices online for computer hardware (and this is my unbiast opinion) i'd suggest going to
- http://www.pricewatch.com again ask your friends maybe they know a better place. Pricewatch.com researchs the best prices
- on computer hardware.
-
- Section #4 (Lets Assemble!)
- ---------------------------
-
- This next part is very important so read carefully...
-
- #1 First things first get yourself a clean desk to work on.
-
- #2 Place your ATX stlye computer case on the desk and slide/lift the top off. Inside should be a bunch of wires coming out
- of the power supply in the back and a bunch of wires coming out near the face of the box.
-
- #3 The next thing your going to want to do is place your mother board inside the case and fasten it in. Their might be
- metal coverings covering the holes in the computer case were the parralel ports and serial ports on the mother board
- should poke through, go ahead and poke those out with a screw drive so you can fit the mother board in snuggly. Every
- Case fastens mother boards in different ways. Some use plastic pegs, some use metal screws. It will hopefully be obvious
- which you have to use.
-
- #4 Once the mother board is mounted properly you will need to fasten the floppy drive, and cdrom into the computer case.
- All computer cases store floppy drives differently there maybe a slide out container that you screw them into. You'll
- have to make sure that the the floppy drive is right side up (duh!) and that the pins are facing towards the back of the
- computer. Installing the CDROM is pretty much the same in all computer cases. Some mounting rails should have come
- with your mother board. You need to fasten those to the sides of the CDROM and you should be able to slide it right in
- to one of the top bays.
-
- #5 Insert your Video Card. There are presently about 3 differnet forms of slots on your mother board. PCI, ISA, and AGP.
- Video Cards are presently made for all 3 of them. AGP stands for "Accelrated Graphics Port" Video Cards made for this
- slot are generally more high tech/performance. PCI's work and so do ISA (Althoug ISA is more Old School). Gee how
- do I tell the difference? Well AGP slots more than likely is the only small, brown, slot on your mother board. PCI
- you probably have the most of these their white and little longer than AGP. ISA, these are longggg and black, ugly.
- Insert your Video Card and snug it in there firmly. Don't force it (duh).
-
- #6 Time for that evil Hard Disk installation. We'll Hit hooking up the power supplies and Installing the Hard Disk at the
- same time just for fun. Insert the Hard Disk In a very much similar way to the way you inserted the floppy disk. But
- Before you do make sure that the jumper settings are correct on the back of Har Disk. Most hard disks are shipped in
- single mode, but if you want to run multiple hard disks (which we won't discuss) you need to set the jumpers differently.
- Jumpers are little metal prongs connected with little jumpers that complete a connection. You figure it out. Anyway
- you got your hard disk in now its time to hook up the power supplies. The hard disk and the CDROM have similar power supp
- lies. 3 or 4 prong. Hook those funny looking cords coming out of the back of the power supply into your CDROM and Hard
- Disk. Theres a smaller one that hooks into your floppy it should be obvious. Theres a big power supply (the biggest one
- in the lot usually made of white plastic) It fits into a slot on your mother board, it is the main power supply to your
- mother board. Its kind of tricky to get in so be careful.
-
- #7 Now that you have your Power Supplies hooked up you'll need to connect your Periphrials to your Mother Board. Use the IDE
- Controller Ribbon I know you all have. Hey one end goes to your CDROM (make sure the red line on the ribbon "pin 1" is
- matched up with the first pin on the back of your CDROM) and the other end goes to your mother board (same deal). The
- same goes for your hard disk and yoru floppy. Figure it out its not that difficult. You'll know you did something wrong
- when you get a floppy disk fail on boot.
-
- #8 Finishing touches. Don't forget to connect those nasty wires coming out from behind the face of your computer case to
- your mother board. They control the on, off, reset, hard disk activity, and power switch. Every mother board is different
- so i hope you have a manual with your mother board. Most specify with 2 or 3 character paraphrases that make no sense.
- For Example "PWR SWT" = Power Switch "RST SWT" = Reset Switch. Or even more vague than that.
-
- Section #5 (Testing 1, 2, 3)
- ----------
-
- Ok your ready to give it a whirl, you'll need to get in your system bios. The "DEL" key should usually get you in.
- Get it to autodetect your hard disk. Accept the Setting and Save your Configurations. Install Your OS and your ready to go.
- That easy!! Ha! you'll prolly have lots of trouble theres a million resources online to help you. Get to it.
-
-
-