Guide to building a complete system: (specs will vary)
*before we start* ... Pictures in here are of my setup. Setups will vary on looks and things of that nature. The hooking up and connecting of cords and things of that nature are pretty much all universal. Meaning, that it may not look like yours but the basics are there and its almost all the same.
First off, System Specs:
Intel E8400 3GHz (with Thermalright extreme 120 black heatsink)
ASUS Maximus 2 P45 motherboard
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK
PC Power and Cooling 750 quad
XFX 8800GT (with Accelero S1 Rev2 cooling)
2x2 Western Digital Raptors in Raid0
1 Seagate 250GB slave
Super writemaster samsung DVD -r
Silverstone TJ-09 black case
To start everything off I think it is somewhat mandatory to take a picture of all your parts together
.. oh how sweet it is haha.
Now the we have all that out of the way. My case comes with a detachable motherboard tray. For me I just unscrew the 5 or 6 screws in the back of the case and pull it out.
Nothing hard about it at all. If your case does not come with a detachable motherboard tray that is fine. You will just need to do the same as I do, except you will have to do it inside your case instead of out on the desk like me. Both ways are completely fine to do it.
Now once you are ready, whether you removed the motherboard board tray or not, we start the real installation.
You can see there is nothing on the motherboard tray, except a bunch of holes. (Yes if you are wondering I traded out fans. That one lights up and has a higher CFM than the other fan that was there.) Now in your case accessories should be some motherboard spacers. Once you have found your motherboard spacers we are good to go.
I like to place my motherboard on the tray to get an idea of where I need to install the spacers at. Once you have a good look at where they need to go then when can start screwing them in.
I found out where I needed to put the spacers and so I installed them.
They are circled in red. You can see how they lift the motherboard off the actual tray. This is a very vital step so please do not forget or skip this
.
Now once you think you have installed enough spacers it should look something like. this
If everything looks correct after all those steps then we can move on. If not or you have some doubts just go back over the pictures and check it out.
Now we can quickly install the motherboard IO panel. I am not sure what it does besides keeping out dust
With my hand holding the panel up
Now with the panel installed. This, for some reason, take a pretty good push to get it in all the way. You will hear it pop when its in. You also want to install this from the inside of the case and push it outwards to get it in properly. You also want to make sure your keyboard and mouse port holes are at the top otherwise your motherboard will not line up in there and you will have to take it out and redo it.
This is what the front of my panel looks like. You can see the writing and stuff on it. Not all panels look the same but the front of them will always have some etching's or writing on them telling you what the holes are or something along those lines. That makes it easy to figure out what side is front and what side is back.
Now once the IO Panel is installed we can move on to installing the motherboard.
You need to line the motherboard up with the panel you just installed and push it over to that side. Once you have done that you start to put in your screws (the screws also come with the case). I like to start on the right side and get those in first. In my opinion it makes it easier to get the screws on the far left in. Either way though, as long as you get all the screws in it is fine. You want the screws to be snug, not a power tool tightness, When I say snug, I mean when you are screwing and feel the resistance of it being tight, that is a good stopping point.
Once all the screws are in and the motherboard is nice and snug in its place. We can move on to installing the CPU. Take the CPU out of the case and get it into its bare form. No plastic guards on it or anything.
Once you have the CPU out and all its protection taken off. We can install it into the motherboard.
You need to pop open the CPU socket. Most CPU sockets have that handle you can just push down and over and it will release and you are good to go. As you can see from the picture I have already popped the handle level up and pulled the socket cover back.
When you insert the CPU make sure the triangle on the chip matches up with the motherboards marking. Most likely another triangle. On mine however the motherboard did not have a marking so I had to look at how the socket was set up and look for the corner with a missing pin. Once I found that corner I knew that was the corner the triangle need to go in.
From those 2 pictures you can see the CPU installed in the socket. When you put the CPU in the socket with it matching the way its suppose to go. You just do the opposite of what you did when you unhooked the clip on the socket. Now you just push it back down and hook it back in.
NOTE: If you are planning on using the stock heatsink cooler that comes with the CPU skip the following info as it does not apply to you.
From looking at those 2 pictures above the next very important step comes into play.
Putting on the thermal paste. This is very important. With an intel dual core the cores run down the middle of the CPU. As you can see from my pictures I have a gray line of goop down the middle. This is AS5 (arctic silver 5..one of the top thermal pastes on the market). As you can see it is not much, but it is a solid line. It is important not to put too little of thermal paste, or too much of thermal paste on the CPU. If you do one of the other you could end up with higher than normal temps and no one wants that
. Once you have installed the thermal paste you need to grab your heatsink of choice. (like I said above this is only if you are installing after market cooling)
That is my heatsink of choice. Now installing the heatsink you must read the manual that came with it. All heatsinks install in almost the same way. However, some do have a little different mechanism or clip or something like that you would have to install. The directions in every heatsink cooling product I have ever bought have been very good. So no need to worry about that just a little extra reading outside this
NOTE: If you are using the stock heatsink that came with the CPU all you need to do is install it. It already has the thermal paste on it. (It is the gray'ish square on the bottom of the heatsink)
After all you have finished installing the CPU and heatsink we can move on to installing the video card and other PCI slot cards you have.
First you want to remove the plate covers that are blocking the slot you want to install your card of choice. You just simply unscrew the single screw holding it into place.
Now you can see I have taking a couple slop guards out for myself.
I will be installing my 8800GT in the PCI-e x16 slot (refer to your motherboard manual for which slot it is on your motherboard if you are having problems.)
As you can see from the picture I installed my video card into the blue slot (colors may vary.)
I also have an after market cooler installed on my video card that is why its looks different than most. (you can find the guide to installing after market video cooling here :
http://www.pronetworks.org/forum/about102988.html
Now ill install my SupremeFX sound card in my Audio/PCI-e x1 slot (slot may vary depending on motherboard)
As you can see it is right above the video card. Just keep repeating this process for as many cards as you would like to install.
Once you have finished that we can move on to installing the RAM.
Installing the ram is just like installing the video card or whatever other cards you just previously installed. On most motherboards today they have color coordinated RAM slots.
As you can see from the picture mine are blue and white (colors will vary.) To get dual channel running with your RAM you need to install them in the correct slots. (Refer to motherboard manual to get the correct slots) Most new motherboards will be setup like this one. The blue slots are dual channel and the white slots are dual channel. Meaning, if you install 1 RAM stick into 1 blue slot and the other RAM stick into the other blue slot, you will be running dual channel. (Yes there are some other details that will fall into the how fast will it run or things of that nature, but that is a much deeper conversation I will reserver for a late night and a bottle of vodka by my side
) For the average user if you by RAM that says “dual channel kit” you will not have a problem. When installing the RAM you need to push back the white latches you see on each end of the RAM slots. When you do that line your ram up with the slot you want it to go in (make sure the bottom of the RAM lines up with the hole in the slot... the bottom of the RAM is split into 2, 1 side is longer than the other, so make sure you check to see it is aligned correctly) Then once you have made sure the RAM is going in the slot the way it should just push down on it until you see the white latches come back and pop into locking place. You may want to just push on the latches to make sure they are fully locked. (not a hard push just enough to push them in a little if they are not fully locked... you will be able to tell)
As you can see I put my other stick of RAM into the other corresponding blue slot to achieve dual channel.
After getting all the RAM installed we can now move on to the installation of the PSU (power supply unit)
My PSU is located at the bottom of the case. Some cases have them located at the top. Either way, it is the same installation just top or bottom.
I have installed my PSU. All you need to do is slide it into its appropriate position (depending on your case) and screw it into the case, like so. Screws on this also need to be snug, not extremely tight. Just make sure it can not move if you move the case or you push on it a little.
Now your wires can hang a little... we will get to them later.
Moving on to installing CD drives DVD drives or whatever else you need to.
Your case will have front drive bay covers that need to come off before you can install you drives.
As you can see there are screws holding the drive bay covers in. All you need to do is unscrew them (there are going to be screws on both sides so you will need to take off the other side panel to get to these.) Once you have unscrewed the screws you can just pop the drive bay covers out.
As you can see they are out and ready to install your drives.
All you need to do is slide them in from the outside. Then screw them into place. Make sure you put screws in both sides for stability.
Now moving right along. We can move to the hard drives. My hard drive bay is removable. Some cases they are not. Either way its all the same.
From the picture you can see I put the hard drive into the bay. From there I put in 4 screws, 2 on each side of the hard drive. The screws, once again, need to be snug, not extremely tight.
This is what it should resemble with your hard drive/s installed.
Now that we have all our hardware installed its time to get down to the most pain staking part of the installation ... the wiring
...If your tired now you should take a break because this part does not get any faster
Now you should have something that resembles this ...
Yes what a beautiful mess we have made
First thing I like to get out of the way, before it gets all cluttered is the crazy wires from the front of your case.
They are the multicolored group that are tied together. They are the wires that have, for example, PWR LED or RESET ... something along those lines on them. With these you may need a flashlight. On the bottom right of your motherboard you will see some pins. As you can see in the picture I circled them. The motherboard will have printed where each one goes. You just need to read it. It will be printed right above the top row and right below the bottom row. So just match each one up where it goes.
With that out of the way we can work on connecting all our drives and power connections to the motherboard. Sooooo moving on.
First we will install the power connectors to the motherboard. Without these you wont be able to post.
You need to find the cable that looks like the picture. Its easy to locate as its about a half inch thick of wires
. Once you have located this wire you need to find its plug in.
In the picture I have circled, in red, what you need to look for. In most cases it will be in the middle right side of the motherboard. It is hard to miss.
That is what I should look like installed.
Now for the next power connector. This one is a little tougher to pick out of the crowd.
You need to find the 4 pin power connector that looks like what is in the picture. Now that goes into your motherboard also.
You need to look for a connector on the motherboard that has 4 pins like the one pictured above. It also says “EATX 12V” on the right side (in my picture) Once you have found that insert it into the correct place.
Now we can move onto connecting our drives since our motherboard has power now.
The hard drives are simple to connect. The ones being pictured are sATA drives. (if you have pATA drives connecting is still the same, but the connectors will look just a little different.)
As you can see from this picture I have connected the sATA cables. These cables connect to the motherboards sATA ports. The majority of these ports are on the bottom right side of the motherboards. (refer to manual if you cant find them)
Now you take the other ends of those sATA cables from your hard drives and connect them into the sATA ports on your motherboard.
Once you have connected all the sATA cables to their corresponding areas we can move on to the sATA power conectors.
There are normally a string of 3 sATA power connectors on your power supply. Just grab one of those strings and use it to connect power to your hard drives.
Now for your DVD drives (or whatever drives you are installing.) It is the same process if your drives are sATA drives. If not you need to find the pATA connections on your motherboard (refer to manual) and connect them there. They also need power so don't forget each drive should have 2 plugs going into it.
NOTE: If you do not see a 6 pin PCIe connector on your card anywhere skip this step and you can jump to the next thing.
For the last thing to hook up it is your video card.
Find the 6 pin PCIe connector from your power supply. It should say PCIe on it. Once you have found the 6 pin PCIe connector you can connect it to your video card like the above picture shows. (If you are using some of the newer video cards they may use 2 PCIe connectors so make sure you connect them both if that is the case.)
Now you should have something that resembles this. Everything is hooked up and ready to go. All side panels are shut.
Once you have everything plugged in you can now plug in the power cord to the power supply and turn it on. If all goes well your computer will post (boot up)
I hope this guide was helpful.
Please post your thoughts or comments or ideas on it. If I can improve on something in there please tell me and I will go back and work on it.
If you have any further questions about anything you have read, feel free to ask and ill be happy to explain further.
I have bad eyes and that would be just great to install those pesky front panel connectors which are so darn small! Going to see if I can find one from ncix for my new build as that's where all the parts are coming from. 
