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Step 2Making sure things will fit
The hardest part about building a computer from scratch is finding the right parts. My suggestion would be to find a compatible motherboard and processor, then find the rest of your parts based on the capabilities of your motherboard.
Every computer must have the following parts:
» Processor (obviously)
» Motherboard
» RAM
» Physical drives - optical and/or hard)
» Input/output devices - NICs, keyboards, mice, monitors, etc.
» Case (although it's fun to leave this part out and mount the mobo on your wall)
» Cooling unit - Heatsink and/or fan (aka HSF), watercooling/phase-change cooling (not practical here, but fun regardless)
Processor
Often times, when building a computer, people put most of their money here. People are ingrained with the impression that a fast processor makes for a fast computer. This is not the case. A fast system relies equally on the speed of all the devices. A motherboard with a fast chipset and high front-side bus (FSB) is just as important as a fast processor. RAM is the other vital component in a fast system. For our system, the speed of all of these is a minor concern, as we are more concerned with the cost-effectiveness.
» AMD Athlon K7/K75/Thunderbird - Found in Slot A and Socket A.
» AMD Duron - Found in Socket A only.
» AMD Athlon XP - Found in Socket A.
» AMD Athlon MP - Found in Socket A.
» AMD Sempron - Found in Socket A and 754. These are just re-labelled Athlon XPs.
» AMD Athlon 64 - Socket 754 and 939. Come in dual-core also. I'm running an Athlon 64 3700 San Diego in my gaming rig, so you can see how these are MAJOR overkill.
» AMD Athlon 64 FX - Socket 939 and 940. Even more overkill than an Athlon 64. Although, I'd be happy to take an Athlon 64 FX-60 off of someone's hands :P
» AMD Opteron - Socket 940. Though geared towards server environments, this processor is about as much overkill as you can find (expensive too).
» Intel Celeron 500A to 2.8GHz Northwood - Found in Slot 1, Socket 370, 423, and 478 varieties.
» Intel Pentium III - Found in Slot 1 and Socket 370 varieties.
» Intel Celeron D - Found in Socket 478 and T.
» Intel Pentium 4 - Socket 423, 478, and T. Overkill
» Intel Xeon - Socket 603, and 604. Major overkill.
» Intel Itanium - Found in PAC611. Major overkill.
Motherboard
This is perhaps the hardest part to pick out, and also the most important. Due to the nearly inifinite variety, I will simply mention the most important features to consider.
» Socket/Slot - This is where your CPU will live. Make sure that your motherboard's socket is compatible with your processor. Often times a socket will be named after it's pincount. In most cases, if the processor and socket have the same pincount, they are compatible. Be careful though, this is not always the case. Be sure to double check.
» Drive interfaces - These are where your drives connect to your motherboard. Paralell ATA (aka ATA, PATA, IDE, EIDE) drives are still the most common, but are being phased out by the faster and more efficient Serial ATA (SATA). ATA comes in ATA66, ATA100, ATA133, and ATA166. SATA150 (aka SATA-I or just SATA) is often compatible with SATA300 (aka SATA-II or SATA with NCQ) motherboards. Another interface typically found in server environments is SCSI. These are being replaced by Serial-ATA due to cost.
» RAM slots - These are where your RAM goes. They are often referred to as DIMM slots. Sometimes you will see the pincount mentioned in the name or description. The slots that I'm familiar with support SDRAM (PC100, PC133), DDR SDRAM and DDR2 SDRAM (In varietes from PC1700 to PC8500), and RAMBUS (rare, pricey RAM that was ahead of it's time; only runs in pairs).
» Input/output interfaces - These are where add-on cards go. The most common are ISA (slowest and only found in industrial motherboards nowdays), PCI (slowest of all in common use, used for pretty much any kind of add-on card), AGP 1x/2x/4x/8x (common; almost always used by videocards; being phased out by PCI Express), PCI Express (fastest of all slots; typically used for videocards), PCI-X (not to be confused with PCI Express; can be (almost) as fast as PCI Express; comes in speeds such as 1x, 4x, 8x, etc.) Make sure that your NIC and video card each have a slot of their own (although it is possible to run this without a videocard).
» Form factor - This determines what kind of case you can use. Form factors include AT (obsolete), Enhanced/Extended ATX (big boards!), ATX (most common), Mini-ATX (small versions of ATX), Micro-ATX (even smaller), Mini-/Micro-/Pico-/Nano- ITX (tiny!). Any of these will work, but be careful of Mini-/Micro-/Nano-/Pico- ATX/ITX boards. Sometimes these have proprietary components that are not supported by FreeBSD drivers. I'd be happy to take an EPIA N Nano-ITX off of someone's hands also.
» Power interfaces - This is where your PSU connects to your motherboard. I'm familiar with 20-pin and 24-pin connectors, as well as Intel/AMD 4-pin headers. Make sure your PSU will plugin to your motherboard. If it doesn't, you can probably find conversion wires to make it fit for a few bucks at your local computer store.
» Backpanel - This is the collection of plugs located at the back of the motherboard. You will almost always find your keyboard, mouse, parallel, and serial connectors here. Many boards also have VGA/S-Video, LAN, USB, Firewire, and/or audio jacks here also.
» Fan headers - These are where your CPU and case fans plugin. Make sure you have enough to accomidate all of your fans. If you don't, you can either remove some fans (BUT NOT THE CPU FAN!), or find/purchase some 4-pin molex to 3-pin fan header conversion wires or 3-pin Y-splitters.
RAM
Pretty much any RAM will work as long as it's atleast as new as PC100 and is compatible with your motherboard. A decent capacity is but 128MB. Larger capacities will help speed up your compiling processes.
You can use memtest to test your RAM prior to installing FreeBSD. It may save you some headaches later.
Drives
ATA IDE drives are still the most common, but are being phased out by the faster and more efficient Serial ATA. ATA comes in ATA66, ATA100, ATA133, and ATA166. The numbers are associated with theoretical maximum transfer rates. Often times you will see a motherboard that says it supports ATA133. If the motherboard supports ATA133, it usually supports the slower ATA100 and ATA66 specifications. Make sure your motherboard supports an ATA standard greater-than or equal to the one used by your harddrive. Serial ATA has the same considerations. SATA150 (aka SATA-I or just SATA) is often compatible with SATA300 (aka SATA-II or SATA with NCQ) motherboards. Rarely are newer technologies backwards compatible with older ones, but ocasionally you'll find that a firmware update will allow this. If you plan on using SATA, you will most likely need a different power connector; although, Western Digital usually places both the legacy 4-pin molex power connector and the new Serial-ATA connector (DON'T USE BOTH SIMULTANEOUSLY!). If you need a Serial-ATA power connector, don't worry, there's conversion wires for those too.
Hard drive capacities greater than 1GB should be plenty. 100MB is the absolute minimum, but 250MB is recommended. Add 100MB to that if you plan on using a desktop environment.
If you are not using a relatively new (1 year or younger) hard drive, it is wise to perform a diagnostics test before installing your system. Because of their moving parts, hard drives are more prone to failure than the rest of your components.
Optical drives are what you'll use to install the operating system. Almost any drive will work for this as long as it is compatible with your motherboard. FreeBSD can be installed from CD ISOs or a single DVD ISO. It can also be installed from a USB drive (if it's large enough and your motherboard supports booting from USB) or the network. The later will not be covered here.
NIC
In our case, your NICs (Network Interface Cards) will be a vital component to the functionality of your PC. You will need two of these, one for the WAN side, and one for the LAN side. Often times you'll find one (or even two) NICs integrated into your motherboard. Just check the backpanel of the motherboard to find out. Your NICs will need to support atleast 10Mbps 10BaseT, but anything faster will work. This tutorial will only cover 10BaseT to 1000BaseTX NICs.
Monitor, keyboard, and mouse
You should be familiar with these already. We will only need a keyboard and monitor for the initial setup process. Afterwards, you can unplug these. Monitors come in VGA and DVI varieties (DVI being digital and newer). A TV can also be used if your motherboard and the TV both have S-Video connections and there is an S-Video driver for FreeBSD. Mice are either PS2 (no, not that one), USB, or the older ADB and RS232. Keyboards are the same. There are adapters to convert most of these to the correct plug.
PSU
If the CPU is the brains of your computer, the PSU is the heart. Make sure you have enough of the appropriate connections to power all of your devices. One of the most common problems with building computers is a weak/unstable PSU. You will experience random, unexplained problems if you skimp on the power supply. One of the most common signs of an underpowered computer is random shutdowns. If your computer turns off randomly, it is your hardware protecting itself from the lack of power. Depending on your hardware, you may need something as powerful as 300W. Then again, you may only need 100W. To give you an idea of how much is TOO much for this project, I use a 650W powersupply in my gaming rig; however, a more powerful PSU will not harm your system.
Case
Nothing special here. Make sure it supports your motherboard's form factor. Larger cases are easier to use because you have more room for wires and connectors. Tiny cases might have cooling problems if they are placed in areas with poor circulation. If your PSU doesn't fit in your case, you can modify the case to accomidate it. Be careful though! If you have to modify your PSU, take appropriate precautions. Unplug and discharge it first.
Cooling
Be sure you have both a heatsink and fan. If you don't have a fan, be sure you have a decent passive-heatsink, acceptable ambient air temperature, and adequate airflow in and around the case. This is another place to be careful. After the initial build, touch your processor from time to time to make sure that it's cooling. It should be warm, but not hot. If your arm jerks in reflex to touching it, it's too hot. Cooler running processors also last longer. Newer processors are more succeptible to thermal damage due to tighter tolerances and electron-migration. Older processors are more stable, and therefore popular in the overclocking community. Watercooling can bring your CPU temperatures close to ambient air temperature, but is overkill here. Phase-change cooling and TECs are MASSIVE overkill. They can drop your temperatures far below freezing where condensation becomes an issue. I wouldn't ming a TEC + Watercooling kit though :P
I think that about covers the hardware, but here are a few things to keep in mind:
» Larger RAM capacities speed up your compilation process. Nowdays 256MB of RAM is marginally more expensive (sometimes cheaper) than smaller capacities due to production, ROI, and storage costs.
» Your NIC should support atleast 10Mbps ethernet (aka 10BaseT). Because most people don't have internet connections higher than 10Mbps, the slower speed is acceptable here. If you can, try to make sure your NIC supports full-duplex to avoid collisions. Full duplex is denoted by an "X" on the end of the media type (eg. 10BaseTX). 100Mbps ethernet (100BaseT) is much more common than 10BaseT(X) and perfectly acceptable, although it is unlikely that you will see any performance gain from using it.
» Your hard drive and optical drive should most likely be ATA IDE drives. You will often see drives labeled ATA100 or ATA133. These work fine. On newer drives and controllers you will see the label Serial-ATA or SATA. These will work if your motherboard has the appropriate (SATA150 or SATAII/300) headers. SATA is major overkill for a simple gateway/firewall because it will VERY rarely be used. In fact, it would be possible to build this project without a harddrive altogether.
» Your PSU (Power Supply Unit) should be able to supply enough STABLE power to all of your devices simultaneously. A 300W PSU is more than enough for the minimal PC that we'll be building.
» If you plan on placing this gateway firewall in a small location, make sure the case is small enough. Because you will not need a monitor, keyboard, or mouse after the initial installation process, it is possible to store the firewall virtually anywhere! I have mine in my closet. Make sure you nave enough ethernet cable also.
Physically building a computer from scratch is much easier than most people think. Due to that large variety of physical connectors, it's pretty hard to damage hardware by placing it in an incorrect slot. If you have to force something into a slot, you're doing something wrong; otherwise, don't worry about frying the component. This hardware is cheap, and it's a good learning experience. Wouldn't you rather make mistakes now than when you build a multi-thousand dollar gaming rig?
Every computer must have the following parts:
» Processor (obviously)
» Motherboard
» RAM
» Physical drives - optical and/or hard)
» Input/output devices - NICs, keyboards, mice, monitors, etc.
» Case (although it's fun to leave this part out and mount the mobo on your wall)
» Cooling unit - Heatsink and/or fan (aka HSF), watercooling/phase-change cooling (not practical here, but fun regardless)
Processor
Often times, when building a computer, people put most of their money here. People are ingrained with the impression that a fast processor makes for a fast computer. This is not the case. A fast system relies equally on the speed of all the devices. A motherboard with a fast chipset and high front-side bus (FSB) is just as important as a fast processor. RAM is the other vital component in a fast system. For our system, the speed of all of these is a minor concern, as we are more concerned with the cost-effectiveness.
» AMD Athlon K7/K75/Thunderbird - Found in Slot A and Socket A.
» AMD Duron - Found in Socket A only.
» AMD Athlon XP - Found in Socket A.
» AMD Athlon MP - Found in Socket A.
» AMD Sempron - Found in Socket A and 754. These are just re-labelled Athlon XPs.
» AMD Athlon 64 - Socket 754 and 939. Come in dual-core also. I'm running an Athlon 64 3700 San Diego in my gaming rig, so you can see how these are MAJOR overkill.
» AMD Athlon 64 FX - Socket 939 and 940. Even more overkill than an Athlon 64. Although, I'd be happy to take an Athlon 64 FX-60 off of someone's hands :P
» AMD Opteron - Socket 940. Though geared towards server environments, this processor is about as much overkill as you can find (expensive too).
» Intel Celeron 500A to 2.8GHz Northwood - Found in Slot 1, Socket 370, 423, and 478 varieties.
» Intel Pentium III - Found in Slot 1 and Socket 370 varieties.
» Intel Celeron D - Found in Socket 478 and T.
» Intel Pentium 4 - Socket 423, 478, and T. Overkill
» Intel Xeon - Socket 603, and 604. Major overkill.
» Intel Itanium - Found in PAC611. Major overkill.
Motherboard
This is perhaps the hardest part to pick out, and also the most important. Due to the nearly inifinite variety, I will simply mention the most important features to consider.
» Socket/Slot - This is where your CPU will live. Make sure that your motherboard's socket is compatible with your processor. Often times a socket will be named after it's pincount. In most cases, if the processor and socket have the same pincount, they are compatible. Be careful though, this is not always the case. Be sure to double check.
» Drive interfaces - These are where your drives connect to your motherboard. Paralell ATA (aka ATA, PATA, IDE, EIDE) drives are still the most common, but are being phased out by the faster and more efficient Serial ATA (SATA). ATA comes in ATA66, ATA100, ATA133, and ATA166. SATA150 (aka SATA-I or just SATA) is often compatible with SATA300 (aka SATA-II or SATA with NCQ) motherboards. Another interface typically found in server environments is SCSI. These are being replaced by Serial-ATA due to cost.
» RAM slots - These are where your RAM goes. They are often referred to as DIMM slots. Sometimes you will see the pincount mentioned in the name or description. The slots that I'm familiar with support SDRAM (PC100, PC133), DDR SDRAM and DDR2 SDRAM (In varietes from PC1700 to PC8500), and RAMBUS (rare, pricey RAM that was ahead of it's time; only runs in pairs).
» Input/output interfaces - These are where add-on cards go. The most common are ISA (slowest and only found in industrial motherboards nowdays), PCI (slowest of all in common use, used for pretty much any kind of add-on card), AGP 1x/2x/4x/8x (common; almost always used by videocards; being phased out by PCI Express), PCI Express (fastest of all slots; typically used for videocards), PCI-X (not to be confused with PCI Express; can be (almost) as fast as PCI Express; comes in speeds such as 1x, 4x, 8x, etc.) Make sure that your NIC and video card each have a slot of their own (although it is possible to run this without a videocard).
» Form factor - This determines what kind of case you can use. Form factors include AT (obsolete), Enhanced/Extended ATX (big boards!), ATX (most common), Mini-ATX (small versions of ATX), Micro-ATX (even smaller), Mini-/Micro-/Pico-/Nano- ITX (tiny!). Any of these will work, but be careful of Mini-/Micro-/Nano-/Pico- ATX/ITX boards. Sometimes these have proprietary components that are not supported by FreeBSD drivers. I'd be happy to take an EPIA N Nano-ITX off of someone's hands also.
» Power interfaces - This is where your PSU connects to your motherboard. I'm familiar with 20-pin and 24-pin connectors, as well as Intel/AMD 4-pin headers. Make sure your PSU will plugin to your motherboard. If it doesn't, you can probably find conversion wires to make it fit for a few bucks at your local computer store.
» Backpanel - This is the collection of plugs located at the back of the motherboard. You will almost always find your keyboard, mouse, parallel, and serial connectors here. Many boards also have VGA/S-Video, LAN, USB, Firewire, and/or audio jacks here also.
» Fan headers - These are where your CPU and case fans plugin. Make sure you have enough to accomidate all of your fans. If you don't, you can either remove some fans (BUT NOT THE CPU FAN!), or find/purchase some 4-pin molex to 3-pin fan header conversion wires or 3-pin Y-splitters.
RAM
Pretty much any RAM will work as long as it's atleast as new as PC100 and is compatible with your motherboard. A decent capacity is but 128MB. Larger capacities will help speed up your compiling processes.
You can use memtest to test your RAM prior to installing FreeBSD. It may save you some headaches later.
Drives
ATA IDE drives are still the most common, but are being phased out by the faster and more efficient Serial ATA. ATA comes in ATA66, ATA100, ATA133, and ATA166. The numbers are associated with theoretical maximum transfer rates. Often times you will see a motherboard that says it supports ATA133. If the motherboard supports ATA133, it usually supports the slower ATA100 and ATA66 specifications. Make sure your motherboard supports an ATA standard greater-than or equal to the one used by your harddrive. Serial ATA has the same considerations. SATA150 (aka SATA-I or just SATA) is often compatible with SATA300 (aka SATA-II or SATA with NCQ) motherboards. Rarely are newer technologies backwards compatible with older ones, but ocasionally you'll find that a firmware update will allow this. If you plan on using SATA, you will most likely need a different power connector; although, Western Digital usually places both the legacy 4-pin molex power connector and the new Serial-ATA connector (DON'T USE BOTH SIMULTANEOUSLY!). If you need a Serial-ATA power connector, don't worry, there's conversion wires for those too.
Hard drive capacities greater than 1GB should be plenty. 100MB is the absolute minimum, but 250MB is recommended. Add 100MB to that if you plan on using a desktop environment.
If you are not using a relatively new (1 year or younger) hard drive, it is wise to perform a diagnostics test before installing your system. Because of their moving parts, hard drives are more prone to failure than the rest of your components.
Optical drives are what you'll use to install the operating system. Almost any drive will work for this as long as it is compatible with your motherboard. FreeBSD can be installed from CD ISOs or a single DVD ISO. It can also be installed from a USB drive (if it's large enough and your motherboard supports booting from USB) or the network. The later will not be covered here.
NIC
In our case, your NICs (Network Interface Cards) will be a vital component to the functionality of your PC. You will need two of these, one for the WAN side, and one for the LAN side. Often times you'll find one (or even two) NICs integrated into your motherboard. Just check the backpanel of the motherboard to find out. Your NICs will need to support atleast 10Mbps 10BaseT, but anything faster will work. This tutorial will only cover 10BaseT to 1000BaseTX NICs.
Monitor, keyboard, and mouse
You should be familiar with these already. We will only need a keyboard and monitor for the initial setup process. Afterwards, you can unplug these. Monitors come in VGA and DVI varieties (DVI being digital and newer). A TV can also be used if your motherboard and the TV both have S-Video connections and there is an S-Video driver for FreeBSD. Mice are either PS2 (no, not that one), USB, or the older ADB and RS232. Keyboards are the same. There are adapters to convert most of these to the correct plug.
PSU
If the CPU is the brains of your computer, the PSU is the heart. Make sure you have enough of the appropriate connections to power all of your devices. One of the most common problems with building computers is a weak/unstable PSU. You will experience random, unexplained problems if you skimp on the power supply. One of the most common signs of an underpowered computer is random shutdowns. If your computer turns off randomly, it is your hardware protecting itself from the lack of power. Depending on your hardware, you may need something as powerful as 300W. Then again, you may only need 100W. To give you an idea of how much is TOO much for this project, I use a 650W powersupply in my gaming rig; however, a more powerful PSU will not harm your system.
Case
Nothing special here. Make sure it supports your motherboard's form factor. Larger cases are easier to use because you have more room for wires and connectors. Tiny cases might have cooling problems if they are placed in areas with poor circulation. If your PSU doesn't fit in your case, you can modify the case to accomidate it. Be careful though! If you have to modify your PSU, take appropriate precautions. Unplug and discharge it first.
Cooling
Be sure you have both a heatsink and fan. If you don't have a fan, be sure you have a decent passive-heatsink, acceptable ambient air temperature, and adequate airflow in and around the case. This is another place to be careful. After the initial build, touch your processor from time to time to make sure that it's cooling. It should be warm, but not hot. If your arm jerks in reflex to touching it, it's too hot. Cooler running processors also last longer. Newer processors are more succeptible to thermal damage due to tighter tolerances and electron-migration. Older processors are more stable, and therefore popular in the overclocking community. Watercooling can bring your CPU temperatures close to ambient air temperature, but is overkill here. Phase-change cooling and TECs are MASSIVE overkill. They can drop your temperatures far below freezing where condensation becomes an issue. I wouldn't ming a TEC + Watercooling kit though :P
I think that about covers the hardware, but here are a few things to keep in mind:
» Larger RAM capacities speed up your compilation process. Nowdays 256MB of RAM is marginally more expensive (sometimes cheaper) than smaller capacities due to production, ROI, and storage costs.
» Your NIC should support atleast 10Mbps ethernet (aka 10BaseT). Because most people don't have internet connections higher than 10Mbps, the slower speed is acceptable here. If you can, try to make sure your NIC supports full-duplex to avoid collisions. Full duplex is denoted by an "X" on the end of the media type (eg. 10BaseTX). 100Mbps ethernet (100BaseT) is much more common than 10BaseT(X) and perfectly acceptable, although it is unlikely that you will see any performance gain from using it.
» Your hard drive and optical drive should most likely be ATA IDE drives. You will often see drives labeled ATA100 or ATA133. These work fine. On newer drives and controllers you will see the label Serial-ATA or SATA. These will work if your motherboard has the appropriate (SATA150 or SATAII/300) headers. SATA is major overkill for a simple gateway/firewall because it will VERY rarely be used. In fact, it would be possible to build this project without a harddrive altogether.
» Your PSU (Power Supply Unit) should be able to supply enough STABLE power to all of your devices simultaneously. A 300W PSU is more than enough for the minimal PC that we'll be building.
» If you plan on placing this gateway firewall in a small location, make sure the case is small enough. Because you will not need a monitor, keyboard, or mouse after the initial installation process, it is possible to store the firewall virtually anywhere! I have mine in my closet. Make sure you nave enough ethernet cable also.
Physically building a computer from scratch is much easier than most people think. Due to that large variety of physical connectors, it's pretty hard to damage hardware by placing it in an incorrect slot. If you have to force something into a slot, you're doing something wrong; otherwise, don't worry about frying the component. This hardware is cheap, and it's a good learning experience. Wouldn't you rather make mistakes now than when you build a multi-thousand dollar gaming rig?
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