Roadmap to Your PC

By Mark Sapyta

Building a Computer can be frustrating and confusing. This guide will help
give you a clear path to your build and help answer any questions you may
have while or before you start and help improve your overall experience.

The Beginning: Selecting Your Parts

Pcpartpicker.com is a website that helps your select parts for your computer while giving you

the price comparison and compatability of all the parts. It also contains complete builds if you’re

are looking for some inspiration.

Basic Components
 CPU – The brain.
This component will dictate how fast
most processes run on your computer.
 Motherboard – The body.
Connects the rest of the computer
together.
 Ram – Multi-tasking.
The better your ram the more things
your computer can do at one time.
 Hard Drive – The Memory.
This is where all of your data is stored.
 Graphics Card – The looks.
This will influence the upper limits of
your display.
 Hard Drive – The Memory.
This is where all of your data is stored.

 Power Supply – Then energy.

This gives power to the rest of your
machine.
 Case – The clothing.
This is the first thing people will see
when looking at your PC.
All motherboards are different, and it is very important to reference your motherboards manual
for the specifics on the layout of your motherboard.
Recommend using a magnetic screwdriver to have more control of your screws when putting
them into hard to reachhard-to-reach places.

Instructions
1. Mounting your Motherboard – place Place your case on its back and screw the
motherboard into place using the screws included with your motherboard. Screw locations
should match up to locations on your case.

2. Mounting CPU – Mount your CPU on your Motherboard. Be extremely carfulcareful when
mounting your CPU because it contains many small pins (tiny metal needles). Raise
the locking leaver on the motherboard. Pay attention to the shape of the pins on the
CPU and the shape of the holes on your motherboard and make sure to match up the
orientation. Then lower the locking leaver to keep the CPU in place.

3. Inserting RAM – Place the Ram cards in correct Ports. Most motherboard have 4 Ram
ports. If using 1 or 2 sticks refer to the motherboard manual to what ports use.

4. Hard Drive – Mount Hard drive-in correct Location. Tthere are three main types of
options for hard drive (SSDSolid State or SSD, M.2 and Standard or HDD). All are
relatively easy to add to your computer. Consult your case manual for instructions
on mounting SSD and HDD and your motherboard manual for mounting a M.2.

5. Mounting Power Supply – Insert the power supply into the bottom of your computer and
use the screws provided with your case to mount it.

6. Bringing Powering to Ccomponents – Follow directions in your motherboards manual to

bring power to the motherboard for the power supply then power the fans any hard drives
and the buttons and ports from your case to your motherboard. Your motherboard
manual should contain a labeled diagram of all the port locations on your
motherboard, this can be extremely helpful during this part.

7. Mounting CPU cooler Cooler – Mount CPU cooler on top of CPU. This can be done
earlier but waiting gives you more space to work with when plugging the different
components into the motherboard. Apply cooling gel if needed and screw the cooler
in the four locations around the CPU and wire it to the CPU cooler port on the
motherboard.

8. Mounting Graphics Card – Mount your Graphics card. This should be the last thing
youryou do because the graphics card is large and takes up a lot of room in your
case. Take out as many treys (metal slots held in by a thumb screw) from the back of
your case as required for your graphics card and insert it into the designated port.
Mount it with the thumb screws removed when taking out the treys and bring it power
from the Power Supply.

Congratulations!! If all of this is done correctly you should be able to boot from a flash
drive and begin using your brand newbrand-new PC.