| The first step in building our PC is intalling the CPU on the motheboard. Now before we do this, put on your static wrist stap and secure it to a metal, grounded object, such as the side of the case. See the picture at right. If you do not have a static wrist strap, then we strongly recommend stopping right here, go to your closest computer store or favorite computer supplies web site, and buy one. It will cost you all of $5.00USD and it well worth it. Would you really want to burn out your motherboard before you even get to use it, over a $5.00 piece of equipment? We have made our point. Moving on, very carefully remove the motherboard from its box. Now, with your static strap on, remove the motherboard from its protective anti-static bag and place the board on the the bag. It is best to do this on a soft, flat but firm surface so as not to damage any circuitry. The image below and to the left shows what the board looks like when it is in this position. |
 |
 |
This is the best way to initally look over the board. Once it is out of the package and resting, carefully inspect the board and look for any damage. Check the on-board heatsinks for any bent pins. This is also a great time to familiarize yourself with the board. Now is where that schematic that came with the board will come in handy. Take it out and compare it to the board to learn where the different connectors are and which slots are for what. In the picture to the left, the part of the board that will be in the back of the computer is facing down. From the top left, the blue and black long slots are the DIMM slots for the DDR2 RAM, the 2 big metal heatsinks are for the chipset, the vertical, long, brown slot is the PCI-Express x16 slot for the video card, the white verticle slots are the PCI slots, the 2 short vertical black slots are the PCI-Express x1 slots, the black and metallic square on the left of the board is the CPU socket, and the purple port on the bottom is the parallel port and all of the other external ports. Now that we know what everything is, let's install the CPU. |
| The CPU we purchased is the Intel Pentium 4 550 3.4Ghz processor. The image to the right is what the box looks like up close. Intel has very recently changed the way they make CPUs, aside from their manufacturing process, which has also significantly improved. The way it used to work was the CPU had dozens of tiny little pins on the bottom side of it that went in to matching holes on the CPU socket on the motherboard. There was a problem with this; it was very easy to bend one or many of these very tiny pins and if you did, it was nearly impossible to fix them without causing permanent damage to the CPU. To fix this, Intel has now reversed this on all of their new processors, thus forcing the motherboard manufacturers to change their motherboard designs. The motherboards now have dozens of tiny connectors on them, instead of the CPU. The CPU itself just has flat connection points. The socket on the motherboard is called an LGA775 socket. This makes it much safer to handle the CPU and not worry about destroying it. So, now the motherboards have protectors covering the CPU socket. |
 |
 |
The first step in installing the CPU on our motherboard is to remove the protective cover over the CPU socket. This is accomplished by gently pushing the cane shaped lever down and then pulling it away from the socket and then lifting it up. This unlocks the socket. Now lift up the metal collar and carefully remove the plastic cover. The image to the left shows the lever in the up position and the plastic protector removed. Once the cover is removed, carefully examine the socket, make sure none of the connectors are bent or out of line. If they are, stop, contact the vendor and get a new motherboard. Do not attempt to fix this yourself. Assuming the pins are good, let's continue. The next step is to actually install the CPU itself. Remove the plastic container from the CPU box which contains the CPU and the factory cooling fan and heatsink. |
| Once you have removed the CPU packaging, carefully remove the CPU itself from the packaging. You will notice that the bottom of the CPU also has a plastic protector on it, similar to the one on the motherboard. Remove this protector only right before you are ready to install the CPU. You can keep this protector or throw it away depending on whether or not you ever plan on moving this CPU. Once you have removed the CPU from its packaging, if you flip it over, WITHOUT touching the gold connectors, you will see the image at the right. Notice that it is notched on two sides. This makes it impossible to install it in the socket the wrong way. Once you have identified the proper angle of installation, put the CPU in to the LGA775 socket on the motherboard. |
 |
 |
The picture to the left shows you what your CPU should look like once it is resting in the CPU socket. Again, make sure that it is in the correct way. It should just slide right in to place, with no force what-so-ever. If you have to force it, don't. Check to make sure the notches line up. As a general rule of thumb, never force anything on a computer. 97% of the time, things on computers should just fall in to place with ease. If you are still having problems installing the CPU, refer to the manual in the CPU box for specific details on your CPU. If you damage the pins in the CPU socket, you will ruin the motherboard and possibly the CPU upon initial boot, so it is very important that you take your time with this and make sure you get it right. |
| Okay, so once you have successfully inserted the CPU in to the socket, you need to lock it. To do this, fold down the metal collar and then, on top of that, rotate the cane shaped arm on top of the collar. There is a little tab on the collar and the cane arm will push the collar down in to place. If done correctly, you will need to push down with a little force to get the cane arm to lock in place. When we say a "little", we mean little, not a lot. If you have to push hard, the CPU may not be in the socket properly and forcing this piece down will crush the CPU. Assuming that the CPU is in properly, the arm will lock in to place when it is parallel with the socket. The photo to the right shows what the CPU looks like with the collar and cane arm locked in place with the CPU. Congratulations, you have accomplished the most delicate task in building a computer. Now it is time to install the motherboard in the case. |
 |
|
|
|
|
