how to build a pc

How To Build AComputer
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http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_To_Build_A_Computer

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Welcome to the wikibook on
How To Build A Computer
Self-made AMD Athlon 64 3000+

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H
OW
TO
BUILD
A COMPUTER
................................................... ................................................................................1
C HOOSING THE PARTS
................................................... .............................................................................................4
Core Components.................................... ...........................................................................................................11
Secondary Components............................... .......................................................................................................21
Peripherals........................................ ..................................................................................................................25
B UILDING THE PHYSICAL COMPUTER
.......................................................................................................................29
T OOLS AND
EQUIPMENT
................................................... .......................................................................................29
Basic Tools........................................ .................................................................................................................29
Optional, but useful ............................... .............................................................................................................29
P REPARATION
................................................... .......................................................................................................30
Safety Precautions ................................. .............................................................................................................30
C ONSTRUCTION
................................................... ....................................................................................................31
Motherboard and Power Supply....................... ..................................................................................................31
CPU................................................ ....................................................................................................................31
RAM ................................................ ..................................................................................................................33
Video Card ......................................... ................................................................................................................33
Drives ............................................. ....................................................................................................................34
Expansions and Connections......................... .....................................................................................................3 5
Power Up ........................................... ................................................................................................................35
C HOOSING AND INSTALLING THE COMPUTER 'S SOFTWARE ................................................... ....................................36
O PERATING SYSTEM (S ) ................................................... ........................................................................................36
Installing Windows ................................. ...........................................................................................................36
Installing GNU ..................................... ..............................................................................................................37
S ECURITY ................................................... .............................................................................................................38
D RIVERS ................................................... ...............................................................................................................39
S OFTWARE ................................................... ............................................................................................................39
Windows ............................................ ................................................................................................................39
GNU ................................................ ...................................................................................................................40
Additional Software ................................ ...........................................................................................................41
S EE ALSO ................................................... .............................................................................................................41
O PTIMIZING AND OVERCLOCKING ................................................... ........................................................................42
Overclocking ....................................... ...............................................................................................................42
Silencing .......................................... ..................................................................................................................45
For further reading ................................ .............................................................................................................47
C ONCLUSION ................................................... ........................................................................................................48
N OTED CONTRIBUTORS ................................................... ........................................................................................48
L ICENSE ................................................... ................................................................................................................49

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Choosing the parts
Before you jump onto the web and start spending lots of money on expensive computer parts,
there are two important questions you should answer which will guide your purchases:
1. What are you going to use your new computer for?
2. Will parts be available to use from your old computer--or do you
want to reuse parts from
your old computer?
(Often, you will either want to hand your old computer down to someone else , in which case
you must keep it functional, or it may be so old that you don't want to use any parts from it,
because they will slow down your new machine too much.)
What Operating System am I going to use?
Before you buy components, be sure that they are supported by the oper ating system you plan
to use. Almost all current, commonly available devices have driver s available for current
versions of Windows (generally, anything 2000, XP or newer); if you want to r un an alternative
operating system, you'll have to do some research -- many alt ernatives have extensive
'Hardware Compatibility Lists'.
Windows hardware support lists
Most processors and motherboards based on the i386 or x86_64 architectures ar e supported by
Windows XP. Put more simply, this means all available consumer proc essors (especially from
AMD or Intel).
For other hardware
Microsoft Compatible http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hcl/default.mspx/
BSDs hardware support lists
· DesktopBSD, see
FreeBSD 5.4/i386 http://www.freebsd.org/releases/5.4R/hardware-i386.html
and FreeBSD 5.4/amd64 http://www.freebsd.org/releases/5.4R/hardware-amd64.html
· Dragonfly BSD http://wiki.dragonflybsd.org/index.php/Supported_Hardware
· FreeBSD http://www.freebsd.org/platforms/
· NetBSD http://www.netbsd.org/Hardware/

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·

OpenBSD http://www.openbsd.org/plat.html
· PC-BSD, see FreeBSD 6.0/i386 http://www.freebsd.org/releases/6.0R/hardware-i386.html
What am I going to use my new computer for?
If you're going to build a computer from scratch for a specific purpose, you'll want to keep that
purpose in mind when choosing your components; don't just go to the store or a n online shop
and start buying components. First, decide what you want to use the c omputer for. The reason
you have to consider this is that you may be able to save money by only specifying expensive,
premium components where needed.
Many differing speeds of computer can offer Internet browsing a nd word-processing
capabilities; however, one computer might be faster than another at such tasks. For an office
computer, the main components for speed are the processor, memory (RAM ), system bus, and
hard drive. If the computer is for gaming, the addition of a high-end g raphics accelerator
expansion card also becomes a major area which greatly affects computing performance and
speed.
Simple Web Surfer
The most important tip is not to go overboard. Basic users can easily get by without the latest
gadgets, and although it is easy to get caught up in the hype, you simply do not need to pay a
significant amount of money for a computer intended for a