How to Put Together a Computer

Putting together a computer is much easier than you think as long as you have the right parts.

Step 1: Make Sure You Have a Good Area to Work In

Make sure the area you are working in has ample space and good lighting, so you can see what you are doing.

Step 2: Get Appropriate Tools

For working inside a computer, you will need a screwdriver, and screws should come with your computer case.

Step 3: Start Assembling

Using the manuals that came with your motherboard and case, find out where exactly to place your motherboard in the PC case and screw the appropriate screws in.

Step 4: Place Your Hard Drive in a Hard Drive Bay

Choose a slot for your hard drive and screw it into place. Connect the SATA cable from the motherboard to the Hard drive.

Step 5: Connect the Power Supply

With the power supply in, place all cables in their correct slots on the motherboard. Connect the 24 pin connector to the slot in the motherboard and the PCI-E cable to power the CPU. Connect the power supply to the Hard drive as well.

Step 6: Connect Fans

Connect your fan/fans to the appropriate power supply cable, and connect the CPU fan to the motherboard to give it power.

Step 7: Install RAM

Place your ram sticks in their slots in the motherboard until they lock into place.

Step 8: Install Graphics Card (GPU)

Unscrew the two screws on the PCI-E slot and place your graphics card into the PCI-E slot until it locks in. Screw the two screws back in, holding the GPU in place. Connect your GPU to a PCI-E cable from your power supply to give the GPU power.

Step 9: Connect Your Cables

Close the side panel, and then plug in your PC to power to make sure it turns on. Connect your mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc and make sure your PC boots up. Once you get display on the monitor, you are good.

Step 10: Install Operating System

Once you've chosen your Operating system and purchased it (Windows, Linux, etc) put the disc in and turn the PC on. It should boot automatically to the disc and the installation will begin.

Comments

[andrewty]

How does one identify the orientation of the little 2pin plugs that need to be fitted to all the different pins on the board?

How does one identify which plugs fit on which pins?

How does one get the internal speaker to work?

What if the plugs don't fit the receptacles? is there a solution other than buying new HDD, DVD, CD, PSU,

So many details omitted. An almost useless instructable !

[robot92000]

instructables really needs some dislike buttons

[esei]

Not the most accurate or easy to follow guide, not trying to be mean, but I'm not sure why this is featured to be honest...

[headslant]

I shall mention that computers work best with the CPU installed. you should add a step about which way the cpu goes in.

[innosign]

Just a bit of fyi, maybe add into the section about space and light to work with, that you should also try to do it on a place that doesn't have carpet or any materials that could cause a static charge. It's not that big of a deal, but there can be the chance that you may damage some parts of the computer with a static shock, it has happened to me before hand and learnt my lesson fast after that...

[metaliste]

But before you do this read up on safety tips and info. And pay close attention to info for how to set up cpu cooling

[Krishna MohanM]

way too stupid project, coz all these instructions comes with a manual when u buy a case to assemble components into it.. even power supply, processor, main board, RAM everything comes with instructions with figures.. please post something useful in "Instructables" not these kind of lame things, so that u posted something.

[RocketScientist]

This is not a stupid instructable, and I'll remind you of the 'be nice' policy.

[Krishna MohanM]

My bad, I don't mean to hurt nobody or to violate the policy, its more like a opinion, well it is your opinion that this is useful, but personally I assembled way too many systems ranging from simple ones to one with special cooling systems and even high end servers, I never found any that'd complicated and manuals from tech faints like Intel, AMD, Nvidia etc. are so precise that a kindergarten kid can assemble them, may be couple of fails but everyone can understand those manuals.

[Kendrickxy]

This is not stupid. A lot of people are scared buying pc parts and build it them selfs. And in these manuals you don't uselly understand or find what you want. I think it's a great idea.
To criticize, I just want to say that the photos are not so good with the flash, but the idea is there, and it's easy to understand. Thanks (y)

[DIY Hacks and How Tos]

Great tutorial. Everyone should know the basics of how a computer works and how it is put together.