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Build Your Own PC: Motherboards, Processors, and RAM memory - Page 1

Last updated on 14 February 2008

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This article consists of six pages. You can access the other five pages by clicking the relevant hyperlinks below.

STEP 2

The Motherboard, Processor and RAM

The order of installation

Note that Page 6 of this guide provides the order of the installations. I have provided the information on how to install each component or device in pages 1 to 5 of the guide.

See the Motherboard pages of this site for detailed information on this most important of components.

Note well that if you are upgrading a system with new hardware components, you must make sure that the power supply unit (PSU) is capable of powering the new hardware, because hardware that is only a few years old uses much less power, and is much more tolerant of a slightly erratic supply of power than most of the latest hardware - video cards, RAM, processor, etc. - This article contains more advice on power supply units (aka PSUs/power supplies).

You should configure any jumpers or DIP switches, according to the motherboard's manual, and install the processor and the RAM on to the motherboard before you fit the motherboard in the case.

Just remember not to place the motherboard on any kind of electricity-conducting material when you configure it, or install the processor, its cooling unit, and the RAM modules. Always place it on insulating material such as the plastic or cardboard covering it came in. And always earth yourself by touching earthed metal such as a radiator before you touch electronic components, or wear an antistatic wrist strap that is attached to earthed metal.

See further down the article for information on RAM and instructions on how to fit it.

You will then install all of the other components - motherboard in the case, adapter cards into their relevant slots, disk drives, etc. - and then attach the cables coming from the devices (or the front of the case) to the motherboard. The disk drives can usually be installed into their bays in the case before or after the motherboard has been fitted. I prefer to install them first in case I damage the motherboard accidentally by dropping a tool on it.

Note that in a new case there will be thin metal blanking plates that seal the openings in the ports panel and the drive bays in the case. The blanking plates that cover the PCI/AGP/PCI Express openings for adapter cards can be removed by unscrewing the screw that holds them in place.

In cheaper cases, the ones that cover the drive bays at the front of the case are usually held in place by threads that can easily be punched out manually, or removed with the aid of pair of pliers, but take care when removing them because you can easily cut yourself on the sharp edges. They cannot usually be replaced when removed, but if you have a high-quality computer case, you can often remove and replace these blanking plates whenever you like.

Choices of processor

You will have to make a choice between an AMD or an Intel processor, and then purchase a quality motherboard that supports your choice of processor. Preferably a motherboard that is as upgradable, or, at least, as overclockable as possible.

Visit the Motherboard, PC Cases, and Power Supplies pages on this site for more information on overclocking a processor.

You can do this by visiting a local vendor that sells motherboards, buy one from one of the mail-order suppliers that advertise in PC magazines, such as Computer Shopper, or bid for one at an auction website such as eBay.

Note well that you should read all of the support pages on how to sell, how to buy, and how to find out the information on sellers and buyers - the feedback from other users - before using an auction site. There is a great deal of information available about con artists and protection against them. For instance, on eBay, if you see the image of a pair of dark glasses beside a seller's name, you should check his or her feedback thoroughly. Check the items that the seller has sold. Every time someone provides feedback, the item that was purchased appears under the Items heading. You just have to click on the link to go to that auction. Make sure that the seller has a record of selling exensive items if you are about to purchase one yourself, because it is easy to sell cheap goods and get good feedback and then 'sell' and expensive item that doesn't exist.

If a con artist cashes your cheque, you will not be able to find out who the person is from the bank that cashed your cheque, because the bank will not be able to disclose information to third parties about its clients. This is the case even if your money has effectively been stolen.

There is an article called Using eBay safely on the Summary page of this site.

Annotated images of Socket A and Socket 939 motherboards

Click here! to view an annotated images of an ATX AMD Socket A motherboard for the first Athlon socketed processors, and an annotated image of an ATX AMD Socket 939 motherboard for Athlon 64 anf 64 FX processors. - Click your browser's Back button to return here.

Spoiled for choice

These days, you are spoiled for choice when it comes to purchasing a motherboard.

And probably thanks to a far more knowledgeable buying public, and the chronic need of computer manufacturers to cut down on support costs, bad or poor motherboards (and other components) have become almost but not completely extinct.

You will have to buy a motherboard that supports the processor that you want to use. Intel processors will not run on motherboards designed to run AMD processors, and vice versa.

You should choose a dual-core Intel or AMD processor instead of a single-core processor, and then choose a motherboard which has the features that you want.

All of the latest motherboards that run dual-core processors use DDR2 RAM memory. You should not consider using less than 1GB of RAM memory if you are going to use the Windows Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate versions. Only the Vista Home Basic version has 512MB as its recommended amount of memory. A system using Windows XP can run comfortably on 512MB of memory if it isn't used to run memory-hungry applications, as is the case with video-editing, etc.

Do your research and make up your mind which make of processor you want - from Intel or AMD.

Any PC-orientated magazine contains many suppliers' catalogues that list them. - And then look for a motherboard that supports it and which meets your computing needs and/or your financial means.

Visit the Processors pages on this site for more information on them.

Visit the Motherboards pages on this site for more information on them.

Visit the Using Windows Vista section of this site for more information on the different versions of the new operating system.

How to keep the processor cool

You will need a heatsink and fan unit to cool the processor. Boxed, retail processors made by Intel and AMD come with a reccomended cooling unit, but you can also buy more expensive, more effective cooling units.

Note well that some of the heatsink and fan units for modern high-speed processors can have some form of sticky heat transfer material on the underside of the heatsink - usually in the form of a small square - that fits over the processor's central core where the main processing chip is housed. This will help the heat to conduct away from the core to the heatsink so that the fan can dissipate the heat into the case. Since it is sticky, a thin protective plastic cover will have to be removed prior to fitting the cooler to the processor. Failure to do so can cause the processor to overheat rapidly enough to destroy itself.

If the heatsink and fan unit came with a strip of film covering thermal compound, you should not remove the heatsink and fan from the processor after it has been installed and expect the compound to function properly again, because it can only be used once.

If the cooling unit doesn't provide any heat transfer material, you can use thermal paste - or a thermal pad can be used. - Read more about this topic further down this page.

CPU Cooler Charts 2008, Part I -

"Keep cool! That's what CPU coolers are there for. 45% of our candidates fail our test. We uncover weaknesses and expose false promises..." -

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/CPU-Coolers-Phenom-Core2,review-30115.html

CPU Cooler Charts 2008, Part II - Junk or Jewel? -

"In the second part of our cooler roundup we review six more products, rating cooling performance, noise and ease of installation..." -

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/CPU-Coolers-Phenom-Core2,review-30238.html

CPU Cooler Charts 2008, Part III – Are Box Coolers any Good? -

"In this instalment, we will take a look at coolers that ship with CPUs in the retail box – the so-called box coolers. In the process, we will meet a few familiar faces, namely Intel’s selection of bundled coolers, which represent something of a reference point for each CPU class. The question we will attempt to answer is this – are box coolers sufficient or are you better off opting for an aftermarket cooler upgrade?" -

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Cooler-Charts-Coolers-Box-Intel,review-30301.html

Quality cooling units are usually fairly cheap and are easy to install, but they can also be expensive. Make sure that the unit is designed to be used with the make and model of the processor you have, or intend to purchase.

The more high-end and power-consuming the components are, and the heavier the duty that the PC is put to, the more will it be necessary for an expensive cooling unit for the processor, and even, if necessary, the video/graphics card.

****

Remember, you can purchase additional case fans to cool the case and other high-end components that get hot, such as a HDD.

You can also purchase additional fans to fit in the case. The image below of a case fan is not of the same scale as the heatsink and fan unit shown above.

If you want a computer that is a quiet as possible, fans of 120mm (12cm/4.72") are recommended because they spin slowly compared to smaller fans and therefore don't make as much noise. If you buy a case, find out the size of its case fan(s).

I have a case which has a transparent side that has a 100mm (10cm/3.93") fan in its middle that has a blue LED light in each of its corners that cast blue light into the case. If I want to see if the processors fan is working, I just have to look into the case. The noise the fan makes is slight. The base unit (tower case) stands on a computer desk so that the side of the case with the fan in it faces the monitor, so it blows air across the desktop, which I find refreshing, even in winter.

If there isn't a ready-made mounting position or opening in the case, you may have to cut an opening in it to fit a case fan, depending on how many fans are already in the case, or where in the case you want it.

Just make sure that you attach the plug for the fan to the motherboard connector the right way round. You don't want the fan to spin in reverse and suck air into the computer when the intention is to make it expel air.

You should have the fans arranged so that they create a flow of air across the components. Therefore, you can have a fan at the front of the case pulling air into the case and one at the back of the case that expels it. What you don't want is two fans that are both drawing air into the case.

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Different processor/sockets have different ways in which a cooling unit (usually a heatsink and fan unit) is attached to the installed processor.

A heatsink and fan unit usually has clips that are fastened to projecting connection points on the processor's socket - or it fits on to a special fitting built into the motherboard - or the cooler has four feet that clip into holes in the motherboard.

The image below shows a Socket 478 motherboard. The processor's socket is surrounded by the fitting to which the heatsink and fan unit is fitted. It is an unusual board because it only has one PCI slot (white, bottom left-hand corner).

If the cooling unit is too cheap or poor quality it is likely to break down and cause overheating problems, which can be many and varied failures with error messages that have nothing to do with the problems that would result (if there is no overheating shutdown protection built into the motherboard's circuitry or set in the BIOS). And if there is such shutdown protection, which was built into all motherboards soon after the arrival of processors running at 1GHz, unsaved data can be lost when the system suddenly shuts down.

Make sure that you purchase a cooling unit made for the type of processor you are using. As shown in the image above, an Intel Pentium 4 (Socket 478) processor, requires a special cooling unit that is designed to clip over the matching structure of the processor's socket. It cannot be used for any other type of processor.

Click here! if you want to go directly to the links on this site to some of the manufacturers that produce quality cooling units (under Overclocking and Cooling Info Sites).

Note that many motherboards are able to report the temperature in the BIOS setup program. Some also include interface software for reporting vital statistics in Windows, thereby allowing you to actively monitor the temperature. If your motherboard includes a reading in the BIOS, but no Windows utility, try using the Motherboard Monitor. You might also be able to set an alarm level at which the BIOS issues a warning sound. For instance, you could set the alarm or shutdown levels at 60 degrees Celsius (60°C).

In any case, the motherboard's manual will contain the information you need to know about any onboard temperature monitoring if it is available.

If possible, if you buy an expensive cooling unit, you should buy one that attaches to a plug from the power supply instead of one that plugs into the motherboard, because the fan might draw more power than the motherboard connection can supply, and short it.

A standard ATX motherboard (ordinary size, or micro-ATX) will fit into a standard ATX case. You should know that proprietary makes of computer, such as Dell, Compaq, and Hewlett Packard do not use standard cases or motherboards. They use their own customised ones, which means that you cannot install a standard board in their cases - you have to use their products - if they are available - usually sold at a premium over standard motherboards.

If you purchase a new, boxed motherboard, it will come with a full set of cables for the number of hard disk drives and floppy disk drives that it supports, and a user manual that provides all of the installation and configuration information, including the BIOS settings, much of which will be illustrated.

If this is not the case, visit the motherboard's website to find out if you can download a manual. Otherwise, unless you can work out how to configure and install the motherboard, don't purchase it.

Read the BIOS page of this site for more information on the BIOS setup program, and the go to the first of the Links pages on this site for BIOS-related websites.

Read its manual all the way through before you attempt to install the motherboard. If it doesn't make complete sense to you, ask for help from a computer forum, such as the one at Tom' s Hardware Guide, a newsgroup, such as alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt, or your local computer store. You can also search the Usenet Newsgroups database at Google. It provides all of the backdated postings to these newsgroups. Advanced searches are available.

Installing the processor and its heatsink and fan cooling unit

In order to install a particular make and model of processor in a motherboard, that motherboard and its BIOS setup program must support it. All of the recent and current processors made by Intel and AMD just have to be installed in a motherboard that is properly installed in a PC's case with RAM memory, video/graphics card, etc., in order for the supporting BIOS to recognise and configure it for the operating system, which is usually a version of Windows.

The installation of a socketed processor is merely a matter of lifting the lever beside the Zero Insertion Force (ZIF) processor socket, inserting the processor into it the correct way round, and pressing the lever back into place. The socket's lever in the image below is brown, and it is located on the bottom side of the socket - held in place under a protrusion from the socket itself.

The two clipped corners of this Socket 370 socket (now a redundant socket type) are clearly seen in the bottom corners of the socket. An Intel Socket 370 processor's pin grid array will match its shape.

The processor can be correctly aligned in the socket by matching the clipped corner(s) of the socket with the clipped corner(s) on the underside of the processor.

The clipped corner, seen on the images below of the front and bottom of an AMD Athlon 64 processor, is fitted to the matching corner of the processor socket on the motherboard.

Note that if you bend a pin on the processor so that it doesn't make a connection, you very probably won't be able to start the computer.

There will always be an easy way to align a processor in its socket correctly. Read the instructions that came with a boxed retail processor, or visit the manufacturer's website for instructions if you have bought a bare, OEM product, or a second-hand processor that didn't come with its supporting documentation.

You can download the manuals for the latest MSI motherboards free of charge from http://www.msi.com.tw/. The manuals provide illustrated instructions on how to install the processor in its socket. Each type of processor will have its own method of being correctly aligned in its socket. Instructions are also provided in the manual on how to install a heatsink and fan unit over the processor. All of the major motherboard manufacturers provide user manuals for their boards, and copies in the PDF format are also provided from the motherboard manufacturer's website. Those instructions are also provided when you buy a retail, boxed processor.

The image below shows a heatsink and fan unit with the lever that is used to fit it to the processor socket.

There are various kinds of lever implementations used to make fitting the cooling unit easy. However, if you have never installed the type of processor and cooling unit, you should always visit the processor's manufacturer's site for illustrated instructions on how to install them, because doing so might require specific knowledge that is more than just common sense.

Cooling units are available for Socket LGA775 Intel processors that are fixed over the processor's socket by pressing push pins into their sockets on the motherboard. The push pins have a flat top that makes doing this very easy. The coolers have four feet that clip into holes in the motherboard. On each foot of the cooler there is a slot and an arrow. You insert a flat-head screwdriver into the slot to engage and disengage the lock in order to install or remove the cooling unit. For example, to remove the cooler, insert the screwdriver into the slot and turn it 90° clockwise towards the arrow. Then, one at a time, grip each foot and pull it up. It should click up and come free. When all of the feet are free, lift the cooling unit straight up from the processor. Reverse this process to install the processor.

AMD's Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX ranges of 64-bit processors (the retail boxed product) come with a heatsink and fan unit and illustrated instructions on how to fit it. The process is similar to the method used to fit the cooling unit in the image above, except that there is no lever to push the hook over the protrusions on the socket. You hook one side of the unit over a single protrusion, and then pull a springed handle on the other side of the processor's socket over until it locks into position with the top of its handle in a horizontal position.

Here is an illustrated example (a PDF file) of the application of thermal compound between the heatsink and an Intel dual-core processor:

How to apply Arctic Silver 5 Intel Dual Core CPU W/Heatspreader -

http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appinstruct/as5/ins_as5_intel_dual_wcap.pdf

To increase the thermal conduction efficiency between the processor's die, and the surface of the heatsink, thermal paste (thermal compound) or thermal pads are used.

For Pentium 4, Core 2 Duo, and Athlon 64 processors, which have a covered upper surface, spread the paste thinly over the entire surface by squeezing a bit out and then spreading it evenly across the surface with an old credit/store card or similar implement.

When using thermal paste, care should be taken not to apply it too thickly. The paste should only expel the air from the interface between the cooler and the die. Using more paste than say an amount equivalent to two or three grains of rice usually reduces thermal conductivity instead of increasing it. Practical tests of the various pastes have shown that the temperature of the processor's die can be reduced by up to three or four degrees Celsius ( 3 to 4 °C) by using a high-quality thermal paste.

The application of the pre-assembled thermal pads is quite simple - you remove the protective film from the pad, place the pad between the processor and cooling unit, finish fitting the cooler, and then turn the computer on.

A thermal pad can only be used once. It leaves sticky residues that are not easy to remove from the contact surfaces. Thermal paste is easier to remove, therefore, those of you who regularly change the processor are advised to use it instead of a pad.

You can use the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled) to find sites that provide information on how to apply and remove thermal paste and the sticky residue left by thermal pads.

The search term clean + "thermal compound" + processor lead me to information on this useful site:

Artctic Silver Incorporated -

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

How to apply Arctic Silver 5 Intel Dual Core CPU W/Heatspreader -

http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appinstruct/as5/ins_as5_intel_dual_wcap.pdf

Arctic Silver is a leading manufacturer of thermal pastes.

Google searches

If my descriptions are not clear enough for you, you'll be able to find many sites offering illustrated information on how to install computer components by entering a phrase such as "install a xxxx" (where xxxx stands for the device, such as RAM, hard disk drive, etc.) in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled).

Click here! to go to Page 2b

PC Buyer Beware! Copyright © Eric Legge 2004-2008. All right reserved.