Your computer is now physically assembled! Before you plug it in, make sure you have not left any stray tools inside the case. If you lost a screw during installation, find it. If it's wedged between the case and the motherboard and it is conducting electricity, you will be in for a shock (literally) and possibly a fire.
Once you are sure everything is good to go, plug the power supply into the wall. Wait a few seconds before hitting the physical switch on the power supply (if there is one). Now take the time to connect external components such as the monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse. It's good to have a 10 second delay between providing the computer with power and turning it on.
When you are ready, push the power button. You should see lights come on and hear fans spinning. You want your case open the first time to make sure everything inside is functioning properly. You should see all the fans spinning, especially the CPU fan. If the CPU fan is not spinning, power down the computer immediately before it overheats. If your video card has a fan, it too should be spinning.
If something is wrong, you will probably know it. The motherboard may make a continuous long beep or the computer may shut itself off automatically. Many motherboards have codes associated with certain errors. Check the motherboard manual to find out what the problem is. If your computer turns on and then shuts off automatically, something may be overheating (such as the CPU). The computer is designed to shut itself off to prevent damage due to overheating, lucky for you! If your computer reaches the POST (Power On Self Test) screen, then congratulations; you have successfully built your own computer!
Configuring the BIOS
Hold on now, it's not over just yet... There is a chip on your motherboard that stores information while your computer is turned off. The type of information stored varies from the current date and time to which hard drive to boot from (if multiple are installed). These settings are changed in the system BIOS. You will probably need to change some settings in this menu before booting your computer successfully.
To load the BIOS screen, you must press a specific key within the first 3-5 seconds of turning on the computer. This key can be different depending on the motherboard you have. Many motherboards use the DELETE key, while others use F2, F10 or other F# keys. On the screen there will be a message along the bottom that tells you which key to press to open the BIOS settings.
Once you have loaded the BIOS, you will see a screen very similar to the one below. All BIOS screens are different. Some have only a few options to change, while others have many. Navigate through the menus with the arrow keys. There should be a legend on the screen that tells you how to navigate and use the BIOS.
The first setting to change is the Date and Time. In our example, it was found in the "Standard CMOS Features" menu. The time is usually in military (24 hour) format. The next setting you want to change is "Drive A" found on the same screen in our BIOS. Drive A is traditionally reserved for a floppy disk drive. We did not install one (it is 2009 after all) and so we set this to "None." If we did not change this setting, the computer would give the error "Drive A not found."
The next setting we want to change is the boot priority. When your computer turns on, it looks for an operating system to run. It should look for a CD first and then look for a hard drive second. This is to ensure that you can install your operating system from a CD, or run a recovery CD if needed. Most motherboards come with this set correctly by default. In case yours didn't, we have included a picture below.
If you have installed multiple hard drives, you need to tell the BIOS which one has the operating system you want to load. This is done in a sub-screen called "Hard Disk Boot Priority" in our BIOS. We use the + and - keys to change the order.
We have included a couple more pictures below. The first shows that our motherboard has USB support - it was enabled by default. This means we can use a USB keyboard to navigate the BIOS and install an operating system. It also means we can install or load an operating system from an external USB hard drive or thumb drive! The second picture shows our "System Monitor" BIOS screen. This screen allows you to look at temperatures, voltages and fan speeds. We underlined the most important number on the screen. If your CPU has four cores, the idle temperature should be less than 60 C. If you have a dual-core CPU, it should be less than 50 C. Anything higher means your CPU heatsink may not be functioning the way it should. This could be due to thermal paste problems, not enough pressure (not screwed on tight enough) or the heatsink's fan not being powered or not spinning fast enough.
Important note: If your computer is unplugged long enough (such as during a move), the BIOS settings may restore back to their factory defaults. When you plug it back in, you will need to re-do your settings.
Loading an Operating System (OS)
You will probably want to install an operating system such as Windows XP/Vista/7 or a GNU/Linux based OS. To do this you will need a CD/DVD drive if you are using a disc. If your motherboard is compatible with USB devices (without loading drivers - most modern boards should be), then you can plug in any USB keyboard and mouse. Otherwise you will need to use the PS/2 interface.
Go into your BIOS settings and make sure that boot from CD has a higher priority than boot from hard drive. Then insert your operating system's install disc and restart. The computer will boot from the CD and then you just follow the on-screen instructions to install the OS.
Note: If your hard drive did not come partitioned then you will need to do this before installing an operating system. This will be the first task the OS install program will have you accomplish. Think of a partition as a "section" of your hard drive that acts as an individual hard drive. So for example, you could split a 1000 GB hard drive into four 250 GB partitions. Each one would act as a separate hard drive. You could even install a different operating system on each partition or just leave them blank for storage. Most people just have one partition which gets labeled as the C:\ drive and they allocate 100% of the hard drive space to that partition. This is what we recommend for beginners.
Important Software
For your computer to function, it will need the correct drivers for its components. A driver is basically a piece of software that allows the operating system to effectively communicate with a piece of hardware. The motherboard (aka chipset) drivers are the most important. They usually all come packaged on a CD that is included with the motherboard. You should install all the drivers on that disc. The disc will include drivers for the network controller (so you can connect to the internet) and audio drivers as a minimum. It could also include some USB, Firewire and RAID drivers. Once you are connected to the internet, you can download the newest drivers for everything in your computer, including the video card. But before you do that, finish reading about security updates below.
Once your operating system is installed, we recommend you download critical updates immediately. Open your Windows Update control panel (or go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com) and grab all the updates recommended by Microsoft. Even after it downloads, updates, and restarts the computer, keep repeating this process until it tells you zero updates left. Make sure you open your Security control panel and turn the firewall on.
The next step is to get anti-virus and anti-spyware software. There are several FREE programs available which protect you (as best they can) from these threats. We recommend AVG Anti-virus and Lavasoft's Ad-Aware.
Now that you can surf the internet a bit safer, we recommend you check to see if there are newer (and possibly more stable) drivers for your computer's hardware. Check the ATI or nVidia websites for the latest video card drivers. Then check to see if your chipset, network controller or sound card have updated drivers available (this is not required but could be helpful).
Running some tests
A great way to see if your computer is in good shape is by running a rigorous hardware test. If you are using Windows XP, we recommend downloading the free "basic" version of Futuremark's 3DMark06. If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, we recommend a free trial of Futuremark's 3DMark Vantage. These programs are mostly meant to test your graphics performance (and CPU performance in a graphics environment).
A screenshot of the loading screen during the 3DMark06 CPU test.
To test your CPU and memory performance, we recommend grabbing two free utilities: Prime95 and Core Temp. Download and open them both. In Prime95, run the "Blend" torture test. Go to the Advanced menu and select Round off checking. You can watch your temperatures in the Core Temp window. If your RAM is bad or your configuration is unstable, the Prime95 test will fail. Our highest CPU core temperature while running Prime95 was 55 C, and that is after overclocking the processor to 3.6ghz. Note: The Prime95 test does not stop automatically; it runs until stopped.
Future Upgrades
After your computer is built and running, one day you will want to add, remove or modify components. This is the point of building your own computer; instead of buying a whole new computer in two years, you can just upgrade the processor and video card for about $400 and it will be like having a brand new computer. When you modify your computer, make sure to take these important precautions:
- Turn off the power supply via the switch in the back (if there is one).
- Unplug all the cables connecting to the computer, including all devices and the power cable.
- Wait a few seconds then press and hold your computer's power button for another few seconds.
- Ground yourself by touching the unpainted metal on the back of the case.
These steps will prevent static and stored electricity from jumping where it shouldn't: protecting you and the computer.
How much money did you save?
At the time of this writing, the parts we listed total less than $800. To get the same amount of power from Dell would cost you $1,100, from HP would cost you $1,300, and from Gateway would cost you $1,200 (these are minimums). But these numbers are misleading, because all their computers come with operating systems and "warranties." Of course... you want Windows Vista right? Hope so, because you'll pay $170 extra to get XP (an older operating system!!). These numbers also don't take into account the fact that we couldn't even select the parts we wanted. For example, the video card we chose was not even an option from the big computer companies. The prices above are computers with older components and technologies. If we had been "unfair" and made the requirement "match the performance of our custom built computer," we would be adding at least $200 to the numbers above.
Still not up to it?
No hard feelings! We understand that not everyone is up to the task, but that does not mean you can't still save money when buying a computer. Head over to CyberPowerPC or iBuyPower. They will custom build a computer for you and even provide a warranty for it! Their profit margins are much lower than the big-name computer companies - and consequently - you'll still end up saving hundreds.
