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ManualsBrandsWiley Manualsbooks978-0-470-19611-3

Chapter 1

A Screwdriver Is All You Need

Topics in this chapter

䊳 Discovering how simple PCs really are

䊳 Using commonsense assembly (CA)

䊳 Recognizing standard PC components

䊳 Connecting components

sk most people what they know about computers, and they’ll tell you that a

PC is a complex, sealed box full of confusing parts that you need an engi-

neering degree to understand — something like a cross between an unopened

Egyptian pyramid and a rocket engine. Ask those same people whether they want to

try their hand at actually

building a computer, and they’ll probably laugh (or cry)

out loud. Even if you did buy all the mysterious electronic parts (which techno-

types affectionately refer to as computer

components), where would you start?

Where do you buy everything? How do you fit the components together? Nobody

but an honest-to-goodness computer nerd could possibly put a computer together!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have great news: If you can handle the lone tool shown

in Figure 1-1 — yes, the humble Philips screwdriver — you can safely assemble your

own computer (and even enjoy doing it!). After you discover how to build your own

computer and start to use it, you’ll probably agree with me: Building a computer is

much easier than figuring out how to use some of the complicated software that the

computer can run. The idea that building a computer is as difficult as building or

repairing a car is just a myth (probably encouraged by computer salespeople).

Figure 1-1: The tool of choice for computer builders.

In this chapter, I introduce you to the standard electronics and peripherals that you

can use to build your computer, and then I show you how they fit together. (And

after you successfully build your first computer, drop me an e-mail at

mark@

mlcbooks.com

with the subject “I Did It Mark!”, and I can congratulate you

personally!)

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COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL

Summary of content (12 pages)

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Chapter 1 A Screwdriver Is All You Need Topics in this chapter AL 䊳 Discovering how simple PCs really are 䊳 Using commonsense assembly (CA) RI 䊳 Recognizing standard PC components TE 䊳 Connecting components MA A GH TE D sk most people what they know about computers, and they’ll tell you that a PC is a complex, sealed box full of confusing parts that you need an engineering degree to understand — something like a cross between an unopened Egyptian pyramid and a rocket engine.
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12 Part I: Preparations and Planning Assembly 101 You might have heard a horror story or two about someone who tried to build a PC and ended up being sucked through a black hole into another dimension. When you announce to the world that you’re going to build your own computer, you’re likely to face a number of common myths: ⻬ “Why, you have to be practically psychic about how machinery works to stick your hands inside a computer!” Wrong.
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Chapter 1: A Screwdriver Is All You Need Keep the following CA rules in mind when handling and connecting computer components: ⻬ Give yourself plenty of empty space and adequate lighting. If you’re building a computer on the dining table, make sure that your work area is covered with newspaper to avoid scratches. I also recommend keeping an adjustable desk lamp handy to shine light where you need it. ⻬ Don’t start without all the necessary components.
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14 Part I: Preparations and Planning ⻬ Keep a magnetic screwdriver handy. It never fails. Sooner or later, you end up dropping a screw inside your computer case. If no loose components are in the case, feel free to pick up the case, turn it upside down, and let gravity do its thing. However, if you’ve installed a component that’s not screwed down yet, I recommend using a magnetic screwdriver for picking up wayward screws. ⻬ Check all connections after you install a component.
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Chapter 1: A Screwdriver Is All You Need The other primary, number-one, all-important, absolutely necessary, required rule Liquids are taboo! If you even so much as think of parking your soda or mineral water next to your computer (even just for a second ), you might remind yourself of Chernobyl or Three Mile Island. If you spill beverages or other liquids on your computer components, that liquid will ruin every exposed circuit that it touches — period. You can’t salvage anything from such a spill.
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16 Part I: Preparations and Planning You might notice several large, rectangular cutouts on the front of your case. Don’t worry — your computer case isn’t defective; it’s supposed to have them. These holes, called drive bays, enable you to add components, such as a DVD-ROM drive. An unused drive bay is usually covered by a plastic insert. Or the front of your case might have a door that swings open for access to the bays. Figure 1-2 illustrates a custom “modded” case.
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Chapter 1: A Screwdriver Is All You Need The big kahuna A number of different circuit boards are inside a computer, but only one is big enough, complicated enough, and important enough to be called your computer’s motherboard. Your computer motherboard holds ⻬⻬ The CPU chip: This acts as the brain of your PC. ⻬ All sorts of connectors: You connect lots of things to your motherboard, such as hard drives, a DVD drive, and power cables.
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18 Part I: Preparations and Planning If you enjoy acronyms and abbreviations, you’ll be happy to know that CPU stands for central processing unit, and RAM stands for random access memory. Computer CPUs come in different speeds, measured in gigahertz (GHz), such as 3 GHz. Sometimes, the CPU speed is mentioned after the processor name, such as Pentium 4 3.06 GHz. In general, the faster the CPU speed, the faster your computer.
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Chapter 1: A Screwdriver Is All You Need You can point and click with things other than a mouse, such as a trackball, a touchpad, or a drawing tablet. A mouse is practically a requirement for Windows (although you can still navigate strictly from the keyboard if necessary). Even the traditional keyboard has changed. Ergonomically shaped keyboards are designed to make typing easier on your hands, wrists, and forearms.
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20 Part I: Preparations and Planning drive, seeing as they are as unnecessary as an appendix to a cutting-edge PC running Windows Vista. (A USB Flash drive is far superior in every way to the venerable floppy.) You need at least one hard drive. Today’s hard drives hold gigabytes (GB) of data (that’s 1,000 megabytes), or even a terabyte (TB) of data (that’s 1,000 gigabytes).
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Chapter 1: A Screwdriver Is All You Need ⻬ Ruining a computer component simply by plugging it in the wrong way is almost impossible. At the worst, the device simply won’t work. Just connect the component properly, and it should work just fine. ⻬ Although you connect your computer to a wall socket, unless you disassemble the power supply or monitor (which you are not going to do), you won’t be exposed to dangerous voltage.
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22 Part I: Preparations and Planning Depending on the type of motherboard that you install, you’ll use PCI, PCI-Express, or AGP adapter cards. In Chapter 3, I explain how to select the right type of adapter card as well as what all those NASA-inspired abbreviations mean. Make sure that you get the right kind of adapter card because the wrong type of card won’t fit.