Building My First PC #1: From Ben Rogers

Thumb it up!

Mathieu: This is a new series that I’m starting. On Mondays, we’ll have someone post their experience with building their first PC. How it went, what went wrong, what they did to fix it, some personal pointers and their general feeling about it.

If you’re thinking of building your first computer, this should be a great source of inspiration for you!

To kick off the series, we have a Guest Post from Ben Rogers, a Freelance IT Technician from North Devon, Southwest England.

He’s a good friend of mine who offers help with building and overclocking PCs as well as setting/hosting a website from home at Noshins.com If you scroll down on his main page, you’ll find many tips to help you out if your PC doesn’t start.
You can also reach him via MSN at:

Ben Rogers: Way back in 1999 or 2000, I built my own PC for the first time. I bought the main components (CPU, motherboard and RAM) off a friend of mine.  It consisted of a Pentium III 450MHz processor coupled with 128MB PC100 RAM and a 6.4GB hard drive based around an Abit BE6-II motherboard.

It ran Windows 98 SE but when Windows 2000 came out I installed it and it ran quite well considering the specifications of the computer. Later on, I overclocked the processor to 600MHz using a 133MHz FSB (Front Side Bus). I couldn’t afford a very good graphics card for it as I was on a very tight budget so I fitted some old ATi Rage 4MB video card.

Buying Process

I spent a lot of time carrying out research as in asking my friends what to do as I didn’t have the Internet before I built that computer.

I bought the case and power supply from a local PC shop and laid it on its side ready for the components to be inserted. I put the motherboard on an anti static bag which wasn’t the best idea as this can cause static to build up on the PCB but at the time I didn’t know this.

Putting It All Together

I fitted the slot 1 processor into the slot as it already had the heatsink attached from when I bought it from a friend. I took the 2 x 64MB PC100 memory sticks and placed it into the first two DIMM slots. I then proceeded to place the brass stand offs on the case for the motherboard to mount to in the correct positions for a full ATX motherboard as they weren’t in the correct positions before.

Once the brass stand offs were in the right positions I then went on to fitting the motherboard into the case, screwing it into place with screws that came with the case. I then removed a 5.25″ drive bay cover to enable a CD-ROM drive to be fitted into place. I slotted the CD-ROM drive into the case through the front and removed the right hand side pannel of the case to enable me to screw it into position.

The next thing I did was to fit the hard drive, just a 6.4GB Fujitsu 5400RPM, I placed it into a 3.5″ internal drive bay and screwed it into place. Once the drive was fitted it was time to fit the graphics card, a PCI ATi Rage 4MB card. I placed the PCI card into the first PCI slot and screwed it into place. I also fitted a PCI 56k modem to the second PCI slot and a PCI 10/100MB/s network card into the third PCI slot.

I then removed a 3.5″ external bay cover and fitted the floppy disk drive. I placed the drive into an external 3.5″ bay and screwed it into place. I fitted the cables for the hard drive, CD-ROM drive and floppy drive. I connected the CD-ROM drive to the secondary IDE channel and the hard disk to the primary as it is best to keep them on seperate IDE channels for performance sakes.

I used an old PCI soundblaster soundcard for sound and placed this into the 4th PCI slot and screwed it into place. Usually I listened to music through headfones plugged into an amplifier that was connected to the sound card via a phono to mini jack cable.

Once I had done all this it was time to set the jumpers on the dip switches for a 100MHz FSB, this was fairly straight forward as the manual stated how to do it and I followed it step by step. The last thing I did was to connect the case connectors to the motherboard, again this was shown well in the manual and I connected the power, reset, hard drive LED and power LED all to the correct positions.

The Moment of Truth: Starting the PC

The moment of truth had arrived, I wanted to test it to see if it actually worked. I plugged the power cord into the back of the power supply and I connected the keyboard, mouse and monitor and then I pressed the power button after I made sure that the PSU (Power Supply Unit) was switched on. The fans started to spin and I got an output on the screen!

I could see the BIOS screen. I couldn’t believe it! I did built a PC and it worked the first time that I switched it on! I was in a state of shock as I had never done this before. I proceeded to install Windows once I had set the BIOS up and used a Windows 98 start up disk to partition and format the hard disk. I partitioned it into two and went on to install Windows 98 SE.

Conclusion

It was a highly enjoyable experience building my first PC and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to start out.

Do your research on parts to buy on sites like Hardware Revolution and you will buy the best you can get for your money and get the job done correctly.

With a bit of planning and a bit of logic thinking, there is nothing whatsoever complicated about building a computer, all of the components go together like a puzzle.

Mathieu: Thank you Ben for sharing your experience of building your first PC. If you’re interested in learning more about Ben, his projects and learn from the tips and help that he offers, visit his website at Noshins.com.
He also can be reached via MSN at:

Everyone, as you either already know or you can see, building a computer is more simple than it seems. If you’re thinking of building your own PC, don’t be afraid of making the jump and know that myself and the community here at Hardware Revolution will be there to support you in the process.

Share Your Story!

Do you want to share your story of building your First PC? This is your chance to share your story with everyone here, support and inspire those who are thinking of building their own first PC and if you want, get a few links to a website you want to support!

Interested? Contact Me!