How to build your very own PC!

I know there are lots of people here who want to know how to build a PC, and no Instructables on how to do it, I am going to change that for all your computer fanatics out there, I will give a lot of details, and more about the PC. I will show you how to build a simple, but good system for under $250! That's pretty good by todays standards even though the parts I'm going to be using for this are old (BUT! still good). This is for beginners so now flaming please!

WARNING: THIS COMPUTER IS ANCIENT, A new tutorial, with steps will be coming soon, videos included this time :D

Also Serious problems have been found with this Instructable, feel free to share you knowledge as Mr. IT Guy did, not being mean just forgot the name. I will remove this tutorial when my new one comes out with videos and more updated parts.

WARNING: REMEMBER TO WEAR STATIC PROTECTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! READ THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Step 1 History of the PC

Here is some history on the PC, I know most of you are gonna skip this, but some won't.

Here is the link for the page: PC History

But those who can't access that link I will write out the basics of it here:

The first PC was a microcontroller kit made by Popular Electronics, it didn't have a keyboard at all or even a monitor, just a bunch of switches. The first GUI based computer to hit the market was the Apple II, it was complete with a blazing fast 16Mhz processor, 1MB of RAM, and a 40MB-80MB hard drive, this was considered the first "personal computer" since it was adopted very fast, and was very cheap. Then came the best selling computer of ALL time, no not back then, ALL time. THE commodore 64!!!It was equipped with a blazing fast, 64K RAM Module! WOW! Here is how the commodore main screen looked like: Commodore 64 Screen

This is a very basic history of the PC, this is the basic background you should know, for more detail go read the link I gave earlier.

First Picture is a Tennis game on the Commodore 64, and the second is the Commodore 64.

Comments

[The_pyrogeek]

"A little dated", yeah, you can sure say that again. (What's with the floppy drive?)

[Shifrin]

This is me on my friends account, the floppy drive is if you want to update your BIOS, you always need that.

[bmlbytes]

Never update the BIOS unless completely necessary. If the flashing goes wrong, you've disabled your motherboard.

[lucek]

and and manufacturer worth their salt left a way to reset the bios back to factory default in such an emergency. multiple methods from simply moving a jumper to re-flashing the bios without a GUI.

[ReCreate]

unless if you buy another bios chip and replace it,sometimes they are removable

[mason0190]

actually bios updates can be burty useful. i once bought 4 gig of ram ( about $65) but my computers bios only saw 3 gig. i acctually was able to do it from a cd!

[lucek]

and let's not forget the debacle with the phenom processors.

[lucek]

learned that the hard way too. last computer I bought had a mandatory bios update. I had to jump the mobo to reset to default after the flashing failed.

[livesteamfan]

I've built three pc's without static protection and they all work fine. The third one, I just have it on my floor waiting for a case, I use all three almost every day and they all run fine.

[ReCreate]

wait till the fourth,and you'll see You see,chips,static do not like each other

[xarlock667]

Well I am up past 400 now and I have NEVER used static protection and I have NEVER lost a part to static. NEVER. Those cute little static guard wrist bands are SNAKE OIL. Now heat paste on the other hand is a vital commodity, as anything that bleeds head off your processor is a GREAT thing.

[lucek]

no they are not. even if you don't completely fry your components you can damage them causing them not to function properly. I saw a demonstration where someone installed every component into a PC without static protection and an identical one with static protection and the with static protection PC ran significantly faster. further as I pointed out before I once accidentally shocked a MOBO with static and it never turned on again. I ended up replacing the whole computer. your lack of knowledge isn't evidence and frankly promoting it as such when that can lead to the damage or destruction of others property is irresponsible. that said the fancy bracelets aren't necessary but they are more convenient then holding a different grounded piece of metal.

[ReCreate]

Well you must have handled the parts carefully. :P Recently, I killed a video card(i had 2 identical ones though) with static, just by handing it without any static protection.(and 2 mainboards, too >.>)

[livesteamfan]

I guess I'm just lucky. I've already rebuilt one about three times because I've been getting better parts, and the power supply blew up. Literally, loud noise, smoke, no fire though. I gave up one board because the BIOS was too picky on working or not and I couldn't get an update. So I've gone from a 2.21Ghz Athlon dual core to a 667Mhz pentium III.

[mason0190]

that's kind of funny actually. I think I'll try to run Halo 2 on my old pc. [BOOM]! The moral: never divide by zero indoors.

[lucek]

and I've killed pc's with static. take the extra time and save yourself the hassle.

[livesteamfan]

I've killed one with gasoline and a match. (I was bored and it was an old socket 7 K6 board.) I did it with it hooked up and running. It kept goin for about 30 seconds after I lit it up. I also once killed an old 486 processor by over clocking it. I reprogramed the BIOS with something I made, and overclocked it to about 300 Mhz. it worked for 3 seconds, then shorted and caught fire. It actually CAUGHT FIRE from overclocking!!!

[xarlock667]

DUDE! That is awesome! My old 80486-33mhx gx was too slow and the "new" pentium 75mhz processors had come out and I looked bad. So with a configurable bios board a fish tank full of nice cold water, and some copper tubing (Cheap at the time) I overclocked and ran that processor to 90+mhz! Lasted me about a week until an errant BB emptied my fish tank and my processor was suddenly on it's own for cooling. I came back to a flooded dorm room, and a fried processor.

[ReCreate]

well what was the original clock speed?

[livesteamfan]

About 90 Mhz or so. like I said, I was bored and wanted to have some "fun" with a few old things I had no use for.

[mason0190]

then take an old giant crt tv ( the 52" sony kind, you can find broken ones (they're freaking SONY.) at garage sales or at the front of drive ways), clean out the inside,, and make a giant aquarium.

[ReCreate]

oh,wow. you should have put a bigger heatsink on that thing

[livesteamfan]

The heatsink I was using came out of my computer. It's about 4" square and 4" tall with a cooling fan. I have a 2.2Ghz athlon dual core.

[ReCreate]

did it have a thermal pad or something? Because,your overclocking over 3 times the original speed,and the maximum i have ever seen was 2

[livesteamfan]

Of course it had one.

[ReCreate]

well,it looks like you made a mistake,it should have lasted longer than 3 seconds

[lucek]

good point maybe there was a short in your rigged circuit or the heat sink didn't sit right.

[livesteamfan]

Well it was an old 486. I guess it just couldn't handle the power. Heatsink was too hot to handle after that. I had put a layer of thermal paste about 1/16" thick on the thing but I guess that wasn't enough or something.

[lucek]

what was the voltage you pumped in it?

[lucek]

try it again with liquid helium.

[ReCreate]

People are using liquid helium now? The highest i have ever seen was 6GHz

[lucek]

yes that 6.2ghz run on an amd phenom 2 was done by cooling with nitrogen till the core if I remember right was 150 deg K then used liquid helium to get it to 85 deg k.

[ReCreate]

85 degrees kelvin? Wow,thats cold.

[mason0190]

kelvin??? wtf is kelvin

[lucek]

yes they where afraid that if they cooled it much further superconductivity would affect the chip. imagine what would happen if all resistance in the chip stopped? thats only 65 deg k away.

[ReCreate]

Yeah,what would happen,and wouldn't it be even neater if they built a new cpu that should only be used with superconductivity(highly doubt it though) ,to cool it down to close to absolute zero! And reach amazing clock speeds,heh,i can already see 10GHz processors of the future

[xarlock667]

They have built a quantum computer. I read about it in popular science once. Only problem though is that they have to keep individual quantum particles in one spot and read their states. From what I understand they use near absolute zero temps and a super computer just to read it. Not convenient, and likely to never be seen outside a lab.

[ReCreate]

I saw it in a nova episode once too. :P

[lucek]

that's completely different. quantum computers witch are getting better and better are not even functioning under the same physical rules as regular computers. in a regular computer a bit can be 1 or 2, the irrational way that the quantum world works makes a Qbit (a bit in a quantum computer) have a possibility of 1, 2, or 1 and 2. this basically extends computing power geometrically instead of linearly.

[livesteamfan]

I thought it was 0 and 1.