by Ikaros Marks

Created on: May 18, 2009   Last Updated: May 30, 2009

The construction of a PC is a simple and painless process once you have the know-how. The know-how is the hard thing to come by. Since one doesn't want to spend an entire three months poring through an A+ Certification text, here's the simple, dirty, easy way to get your PC up and running fast. Now I'm going to assume you will not have the benefit of the Internet and the ability to check this after you leave this current workstation, so I'll set out the things you require before you can leave and go build your PC from scratch:

Case

A Phillip-Head screwdriver

Motherboard (Mobo) & Chip combination

RAM (a Minimum of 2GB in any denominations will work) NB: Please ensure your RAM and Mobo are compatible

Hard Drive of a reasonable size

At Least ONE DVD ROM Drive

Operating System Installation Disc

Further Installation Discs of important software (Anti-virus etc.)

After you've collected these ingredients, there are some technical details you should know about.

Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) can permanently fry your Mobo and RAM if it happens to them. To avoid this, make sure your feet are on the ground directly or that you're touching something grounded before removing the Mobo from the packaging. You don't have to keep holding the case of ground, just touch it for a few seconds and then take out the Mobo or RAM. Front Panel Connections can be confusing to the new user, even the veteran user like me has to be guessing at Front-panel headers since each case and Mobo makeup is different (See Step 4). Hard Drive of a Reasonable size means any Hard drive of above 80GB capacity. At this present time it's impossible to find anything smaller than 200GB so you're pretty safe, but if you have a 30GB lying around and wondering if it's "reasonable" it'd hold the Operating System, but not much else.

Got those? Good, now it's time to start installation.

Step 1 - Processor and Fan Installation

The first thing you have to do is remove the Mobo from its packaging and take note of the ESD warning that I gave earlier. You do NOT want to fry your brand new Mobo and have to buy a new one. ESD damage isn't covered under warranty just to let you know. After you've removed the Mobo, you'll have to install the chip and the fan. Now some Mobos, especially those that are sold as combo-boards come with the chip already installed. If you bought a combo board and don't see a chip, just a fan in a box, that's okay, you're safe. The chip's already on the board. For everyone else,

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