How to Build Your First PC - Part 5
Finishing Off
As far as the hardware goes, we are almost there. In part 5 we'll finish this aspect off and look at some preparations for installing the operating system.
Graphics cards
When it comes to choosing graphics cards, it is all too easy to be overwhelmed by the number of models and variations. The various manufacturers are locked in a constant battle to out do each other resulting in a steady stream of tweaked and upgraded hardware as well almost daily driver updates all trying to get an extra frame per second or so in Quake 3.
If you want your PC to be the fastest games engine on the block then you'll probably want either an ATI Radeon 8500 series or one of the top end GeForce 3 based cards. I have opted for the slightly slower but still pretty nippy ATI Radeon 7500.
Whilst speed is nice, another factor is the actual image quality and for normal office duties there isn't much outside the pro arena to touch the Radeons. For 2D work they are excellent but still manage to offer the full gamut of 3D facilities and features that modern gamers demand. Another advantage of the Radeon 7500 is the dual output option which allows you to connect two monitors at once which can be a boon in applications like PhotoShop allowing you to keep the images you are working on on one monitor and all the toolbars on the other. It also allows TV output for playing games on the big screen. ATI provide a bundle of leads and cables to ensure you have everything you need here.
The card contains a healthy 64Mb of RAM which should cope with anything you throw at it and the built in DVD facilities improve the quality of DVD movie playback should you decide to partner it with a DVD-ROM drive. With a judicious bit of shopping around you should be able to pick one up for about £95 although most places charge £120 or so.
PC's have a dedicated slot for graphics cards called the AGP slot. These are easily spotted as they are brown to distinguish them from the PCI slots. They are also slightly smaller. The speed at which AGP subsystems run at is being improved steadily with the current standard being 4X so try to ensure whatever motherboard and graphics card you buy support AGP4X.
Fitting is simple. You'll notice at the back of the PC there are some metal strips with screws holding them in place. These line up with the PCI and AGP slots. Remove the strip that lines up with the AGP socket then take the graphics card and gently push it in to the AGP slot. Once it is snugly in place, screw the metal back plate in to place to stop the card moving around.
Sound cards
As there is built in sound and LAN connectors on the Gigabyte motherboard, I am now done with the hardware side. If these are not available, you'll need to plug in any sound cards or LAN cards to finish things off.
Sound cards plug in the same way as the graphics card except they go in to a PCI slot. Remove a metal strip from the back of the case, gently slide in the sound card and screw it in to place. If you wish to listen to CDs on your PC, you will also need to connect your CD-ROM drive to the sound card. A suitable lead may have come with the CD-ROM drive, sound card or both. It's a thin cable and your sound card and CD-ROM drive manuals will show you where it connects.
Finishing Off
Now is the time to tidy things up. Try to keep the cabling and leads inside as neat and tidy as possible. Double check everything is plugged in OK. If you have any other sundry bits of hardware such as auxiliary USB connectors, these can be fitted now.
We can now test the PC. Plug the monitor in to the PC. Switch on the monitor then turn on the PC. Hold your breath. With luck, your PC should fire up and start the self-test. Keep an eye on the CPU fan and make sure that is working. If the CPU isn't getting cooled properly, it will shut down in seconds and may well suffer permanent damage. If the fan appears dead, switch the PC off immediately at the wall. When the PC starts, the BIOS screen will confirm the CPU type and speed, what drives are attached and how much memory. As Windows isn't installed, that is as far as things will go.
If the PC doesn't start up, switch it off immediately at the wall and double check everything. A common cause for a totally dead PC is a short on the motherboard. Check all the risers you fitted are in the right places and aren't touching any circuitry on the underside. Unplug and plug in again all connectors and then give it another go. Generally, unless something is actually faulty, the problem should be obvious.
Before we proceed with installing Windows, we need to ensure we have all the right drivers. I am going to use Windows XP. The motherboard CD has XP friendly drivers as does the graphics card CD. It is a good idea to go to the manufacturer's web site for each component you've used to check if an updated driver is available. It is quite common for bugs or problems to arise after a product goes to manufacture and these days, all hardware suppliers keep updated versions of all the drivers on their web sites.
