How to Install a Computer CPU and Other Components |
Posted: November 24, 2017 |
This is the second portion of a two-part article that involves showing how to install a computer cpu, video card, hard drive/s, and cd/dvd rom drives. I won't be too technical and will use terminology that is easy for the casual reader to understand. The first part of the article is called "How to install a new motherboard". I recommend you read that article first before you read this one. If you are new to doing this, then I highly recommend you buy the cpu that comes bundled with the factory heat sink. (A heat sink is the device that is placed on top of the cpu to protect it from extreme heat. The cpu absolutely requires a heat sink to be placed on it prior to powering it on) Buying the cpu alone (called bare cpu) without a heat sink is risky business because if you don't know what you are doing, you can get the wrong kind of heat sink and fry your cpu when you turn it on. It's best to just buy the cpu that has the default AMD heat sink with it, so you know for sure you have one that will work. Here is an article that I read recently about best cpu coolers. Now, assuming you already installed your new AMD motherboard, screwed it in every side, then you are ready to put the AMD cpu on the motherboard. It's a relatively simple process, but always read the manual that comes with the cpu, just in case. The manual is usually very short, has lots of pictures to help make the process easy. To summarize, you basically just place the cpu on the socket meant for it on the motherboard.
You can easily tell where it is because the shape matches it exactly. The tricky part is how to properly orient the cpu on the socket because it can't just be put on it at any position. There is a tiny arrow in one corner to help you place the cpu correctly. The cpu also has a tiny white arrow so you just match the arrows together to put it in the right way. There is a small latch that you have to first raise up. The inside of the socket has many tiny little holes. The cpu has tiny little pins that go in those tiny little holes. Match the cpu arrow to the socket arrow first before inserting, then it should easily fit without any resistance. Once placed, you can lower the latch to keep the cpu in snugly in place. That's the easy part. The hard part is putting the heat sink on the cpu. Sometimes it can be difficult, depending on the design of the motherboard latches, but most of today's motherboard latches do make it easier than it was in the past few years. To place the heatsink, I recommend having a small, narrow slotted screwdriver handy, to help you maneuver the four latches of the heatsink onto the four latch hole legs found surrounding the cpu socket. Place the heatsink directly onto the cpu, not sideways or angled, otherwise the thermal tape/paste on the bottom of the heatsink will smear and possibly be removed. This thermal tape/paste is a critical material to keep your cpu from overheating, so proceed with caution! Once you get all four of the heatsink latches in place and it's not sealed on top of the cpu, you are nearly done. (Don't worry, the cpu manual will also walk you through this process with some helpful illustrations.) The final step is to just connect the small two-pronged power connector of the heatsink to the motherboard power connector holder. (Commonly called, "cpu fan") never forge this last part, otherwise the heatsink fan will not turn on and the cpu will overheat. Now, after you do this, you should connect the computer case's power supply cables (there are two) to the motherboard. If you have any cd or dvd rom drives, there will be two cables for each. One cable to supply power so the power supply will need to have a cable to connect to each drive. (If you do not have enough cables, you may need to buy what you call a "Y-shaped power splitter cable" which allows you to share power between two hardware devices.) The second separate cable will be to connect your cd or dvd rom drive to the motherboard. (There are small jumper switches that look like tiny black square pieces that need to be properly configured- see to your cd or dvd drive manual for details) Your computer case has small front covers you can remove with a narrow screw drive. Remove each cover for each cd or dvd drive you wish to install. These drives are easily installed with just screws once you fit them in. Hard drives are similarly installed as the cd or dvd drives, but they will be inside the case and not seen from the outside. They also have small jumper switches that need to be configured but you should have a hard drive manual to help you with this also. Hard drives get power from the case power supply too so they need power cables connected to it. Then these hard drives need to be connected to the motherboard with a wide, gray, cable which is always included with the hard drive box. Connect this cable to the IDE1 or IDE2 slot of your motherboard. (Your hard drive with the operating system installed should always be connected to IDE1) Ram modules are easy to connect. The trickiest part is to make sure you have the correct ram module type before continuing. I would bring or write down the ram information shown on your new motherboard manual with you in the store when you buy the ram modules. There are so many technical terms that can confuse you, like pc-3200, 533 mhz, DDR, DDR2, RDRAM, DUAL CHANNEL, etc, etc. Tell the technician in the store which ram module your motherboard supports, and you should be good to go. Once you get the right ram module/s, installing it is simple. You will see the ram slots on the motherboard as long, narrow slots. Place each ram module in each slot by just putting them carefully in the slot and pushing down gently until each end clicks or you see the ram module get inserted about half an inch inside the ram slot. Video cards are easy to connect also, but like ram modules, they come in many "flavors". Again, refer to your manual before buying your video card. The new motherboard of today support the latest video card standard, called PCI-e or PCI-Express. This could be bad news to gamers interested in putting their old video cards in the new pc. These old video cards are using the old standard, AGP or even PCI so they will not work on the new motherboard and it will force you to buy a new video card. Always research your motherboard purchase otherwise you will have unexpected new pc upgrades you need to buy! Once you get your new video card, it is just a matter of placing the video card on top of a the video card PCI-e slot. Like the ram module, gently push down on the card so it gets firmly inserted into the slot. When it is placed as far in as it will go, you will then need to fasten it with one screw to finish the job. I don't recommend you put in any other hardware devices other than the cd or dvd drives, one hard drive and your video card. These are necessary just to start up your pc. The other hardware devices can be put in later, after you make sure everything works. Plug in the monitor cable, keyboard and mouse to your computer (the connections are easily found since the shape of the connections match the cable holes exactly). Cross your fingers, and power on your pc. With any luck, you should have it powering up with no problems. If you hear constant beeps and bleeps, you did something wrong and should turn it off immediately and check every connection to make sure it's aligned correctly and cables are connected. If it beeps just once or doesn't beep at all, but you see the monitor screen show something being displayed, then you know it's working. If it works, then it should boot up and eventually tell you something like "boot failure" or "unable to find operating system" or some message similar to that. You will need to access what is called the "BIOS screen" to get to the computer configuration screen that enables you to do many things, like check if it detects your cd, dvd, and hard drives, check the case and cpu temperature, tweak the ram speed settings, etc etc. Access this screen by hitting the "DEL" button or whatever button the screen tells you to push. (The motherboard manual may show you this, too) But you need to access this screen to tell the pc to boot up to the cd or dvd rom drive. If you do not do this, then it will not be able to install your new operating system (either windows xp, vista, or whatever). To change settings in the BIOS screen, you have to use the keyboard buttons. (You cannot use the mouse for this process.) The cursor arrows, page down and page up buttons are usually the buttons you can use to make the configuration changes. Once you set it to boot to the cd or dvd rom drive, save the settings, and then reboot. Put your windows xp or vista cd in your cd or dvd rom drive before the boot up process and it will begin to give you instructions on how to format your hard drive and install the new operating system. This part should take anywhere from 20-35 minutes. When done, you need to install your motherboard cd software and then you can test everything to see if everything is working. Install any other software you need and you are done! I never said it's a fast process; but it's not as hard as some people may think. The more you do it, the better you get! I just built my second pc using these same steps on 03/03/07. For reference, here are the parts I used for the pc: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core processor (Socket AM2) This pc should be a decent gamer's pc and should run high end games like Supreme Commander, Call of Duty 3, F.E.A.R., Command amp; Conquer 3, Jade Empire, Oblivion III and IV, etc. Even better, if the pc should need to be upgraded, I can buy a second eVGA 7600 GT video card since the motherboard supports SLI, which allows me to connect two same video cards together for a very good and affordable performance upgrade! For students, this kind of pc will be able to run applications like Photoshop, 3D Studio, MS Office applications and other 3D applications without much problems. It should run Windows Vista as well, provided all the drivers are supported.
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