Computer Science In The Modern World: How to build a computer?

Computer Science In The Modern World: How to build a computer?

Introduction: As a student in the computer science course, our first task was to build a computer. We were provided basic materials with an aim of successfully assembling the computer, installing the operating system, and to connect the computer to the school’s network in order to open Google Docs. In this blog post, I will share my experience and provide a step by step explanation on how I built my first computer, and hopefully you are able to use my steps to build your own!

Materials:

Before getting into the engineering part of constructing a computer, below are the items that are required in order to produce a computer.

• Screwdriver
• Cable ties

I followed this order when building my CPU *You can skip to a certain step which correspond with the color of the parts

1. Case
2. Motherboard
3. CPU
4. Heatsink(Fan)
5. Ram
6. Power Supply
7. HD(SSD)
8. Plugs/Cables
9. DVD Optical Drive
10. Wifi Card & Antenna

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11. CPU start up
12. Operating system installation

Methods:  

1. Take apart the PC case by taking off the side panels, then gently lift the lid.
2. Check for accessories inside the PC (manual book, a bag of screws, cables,etc).
3. Unpack the motherboard, take out the CD, metal blanking plate, and the manual.
4. Take the blanking plate and push it into the gap at the rear of the case. Align it so the it’s horizontally up against the motherboard.
   

   
5. Slide the motherboard gently into the case. Make sure that its rear ports are pushed up against the blanking plate correctly. Take a note of where the screw holes in the motherboard go so that later you can see where the screw holes for the motherboard will go. Then remove the motherboard.
   

   
   
6. Insert the standoff screws(copper color) into the noted screw holes, and screw them in using your fingers.
7. Insert the motherboard into the case, aligning the screw holes with the risers underneath. Make sure that all screw holes have risers underneath. If some are missing, check to make sure that it hasn't been screwed into the wrong place. The risers are meant to hold the motherboard off the bottom of the case, so it isn’t shorted out when its contacts touch the metal. Use as many risers as there are screw holes in the motherboard.
8. Line up the motherboard’s ports with the backplate and use some force to push the motherboard towards it until the screw holes line up. A ‘click’ noise will indicate that it is placed in properly. With the motherboard in place, you can start to screw it into the CPU.
9. Hold the motherboard firmly, so that its screw holes line up with the risers.  Start by screwing the silver colored screw in the four corners so that the board is secured.
10. Put remaining screws in the other holes around the motherboard if the motherboard still isn't secure, and then use a screwdriver to screw them in. Keep going until the motherboard is firmly in place.
11. Lift the processor cage by pushing up the lever. *Do not touch the field of pins inside the processor cage with your fingers as accidently bending them will stop the processor from working correctly.
12. Look at the corner of the cage, and look for the corner with a triangle.
13. Remove the CPU from the case and locate the triangle on the CPC * Do not touch the bottom of the CPU.
14. Line up the corner of the socket of the CPU so that it corresponds with the triangle at the corner of the processor cage, and sit it gently in the place.
15. Close the processor cage and pull the retaining handle down. *Requires a bit of force

16. Unpack the fan and identify four round holes on the outside of the processor socket.
17. On the fan, identify the four feet sticking out. Make sure that all the feet are rotated away from the direction of the arrow.
18. Line up the cooler so that the four feet touch the holes in the motherboard from diagonally opposite sides
19. Push the four feet into the place until the feet click

20. Identify the RAM slots, which are adjacent to the CPU socket. Open up the clips on the socket of the RAM slot.
21. Take the RAM stick and slide it into the side horizontally and push it all the way down until the clips on the side click and lock the RAM stick in. Make sure matching pairs are inserted into their matching sockets

22. Place computer by the side, as it gives best access to the power supply housing
23. Slide the power supply into the housing. Mount the power supply securely with four screws

24. Remove SSD from the packaging and slide it into an open space in the hard drive housing, ( the holes on the side of the drive should line up to the screw guides on the housing).
25. Place the SSD into its mounting bracket and line it up with the holes underneath, then screw it in.

26. Take the IDE cable, (the one with long rows of pins on the back).
27. The blue end of the cable plugs into the motherboard and  the black connector plugs into the drive, while the black connector plugs into the secondary.
28. Take the SATA data cables and plug one end to the motherboard (located at the bottom-right of the board and are numbered).
29. Plug the other end of the SATA cable  into the rear of the SSD. It will plug in only one way and will click.
30. Among the loose cables, take the two pin connector which is marked “PWR”. Connect it to the power jumpers on the motherboard, which is at the bottom right and will be marked “PWR”.
31. Take the RESET SW cable plug into the reset jumpers on the motherboard(near the power switch).
32. Take the HDD connector and connect the it to the HDD jumper in the motherboard. There are two ports, positive and negative so connect the cables accordingly.
33. Repeat the step above with the power LED cable but connect it to the LED jumper.
34. Take the USB cable and search for the USB port, which will be labelled “F-USB” on the motherboard, and connect it.
35. Take the HDAudio cable and search for the “F-Audio” on the motherboard and connect it.
36. Take the cable from the processor fan, which was installed earlier, and connect it to the motherboard, look for the label “CPU FAN” and connect it to this port.
37. Take the 20/24pin connector and the 4/8 pin 12V connector and attach it to the motherboard *Newer CPU’s use an 8-pin connector.

38. Obtain the optical drive and insert it from the front of the case(remove front case if needed) into the drive bay.
39. Line up the screw holes on the side of the drive with the holes in the drive bay. Secure the position by screwing the optical drive in place by using four screws.
40. Take the SATA power cable and connect it to the power supply. Then connect the SATA cable to the back of the optical drive.

41. Obtain a wireless card and remove the metal plate by the side of the computer by unscrewing it.
42. Identify a empty PCI slot. Push the card straight into the slot until it’s seated and the faceplate is up against the hole at the back of the PC. Then screw the wireless networking card into place in the case.
43. Pull off the yellow caps on the back of the wireless networking card and screw on two antennas.

44. Tidy up your cables by taping them together or using a cable tie and keep the cables away from the fan

45. Lastly, close up the computer case.

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Once you have done all of the mechanics of building the CPU, you are ready to turn on your computer! Below are the steps on how to turn it on.

1. Unpack the monitor and computer case from the box.
2. Get a monitor cable and connect one end of the cable to the monitor port on the back of the computer case and the other end to the monitor.

  

3. Unpack the keyboard and take the USB connector and plug it into a USB port on the back of the computer
4. Take two power supply cable and insert it into the back of the computer case and then into a surge protector. Use the other cable and connect the monitor to the surge protector.

5. Plug the surge protector into a wall outlet.
6. Turn on the switch on the wall outlet
7. Push the “on” button in front of the computer(say your prayers!). If the button lights up, it indicates that the computer is turning on.

8. If successful, the computer will have a screen like this:

9. Take the operating system (windows 10) CD and insert it into the DVD drive. Go to “Boot Menu” and select P2.

10. Wait for the computer to show this screen. Click install and wait for windows to install.

11. Once windows is installed, select the wifi icon at the bottom right of the screen and connect it to wifi, in my case it was “ISKL”  

12. Once wifi connection is obtained, the computer is all ready to be used! Go ahead and celebrate your success!  

Sources:

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/computerbasics/setting-up-a-computer/1/

http://www.alphr.com/technology/1002345/how-to-build-a-pc-an-online-guide-to-building-your-own-computer-from-scratch

https://www.digitalunite.com/guides/computer-basics/how-to-turn-on-a-computer

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/pc-upgrades/how-install-wireless-networking-card-pc-3618297/

http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page

http://www.alphr.com/features/378898/how-to-install-an-intel-processor

http://www.alphr.com/features/378895/how-to-install-a-motherboard

http://www.alphr.com/features/378919/how-to-fit-the-internal-cables

http://www.alphr.com/features/378928/how-to-install-an-optical-drive

http://www.alphr.com/features/378922/how-to-install-a-hard-disk

http://www.alphr.com/features/378892/how-to-install-a-power-supply

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Js2A1qdB8