Computer: Part 2 BE WARN LONG POST AHEAD

Happen on 10/25/08

Friday
6.30 pm - i open the boxes carefully, and took out all the manual.
7.00 pm - went to get food, while of course, reading the manual to make sure everything goes right and according to plan
7.45 pm - Set everything in one box and lay cardboard over the floor that i would be working with and also positioning myself in a non-carpeted area of my room(very small) to avoid static buildup and the possibility of static discharge that would destroy my computer . took out the nice looking computer case too. TRIED to open the case... impossible. well not exactly impossible if i decided to use brute force.



apparently due to the fact that i've been using a dell computer for so long that i forgot that some case doesn't have the easy locking system which dell cases seem to use. THEY HAVE SCREWS. so after figuring it out i can finally open the case and get started. everything else came out of the box nicely without much hassle.

now, there are certain order to install every single component.

1. power supply to the case
2. place cpu on motherboard
3. install bottom part of a heatsink to the motherboard
4. then the top part of the heatsink
5. place RAM on motherboard
6. place motherboard in case
7. attach power supply to motherboard and also wiring from case
8. place hard drive and dvd drive to the case
9. attach power supply to hard drive and dvd drive and also wiring to motherboard
10. place graphic card to motherboard
11. attach power supply to graphic card
12. attach power supply to the case fan

it sure does look simple doesn't it? it's not!! i got through the power supply installment without a problem... but installing the cpu became my worst nightmare....imagine putting this cpu:
on to this motherboard...
ya... so what's the problem? if you look closely at the motherboard. each of the gold things are pins... very fragile pins, that if you bend it by force, they won't cover it in your warranty... so, let's see... people would ask, what's the big deal? ok, fair enough, now imagine you need to shut another panel on your cpu to secure it, so it look something like this:
as you can see there is no cpu in this picture... but that's no the point. the force required to snap the lid shut is about how much force you will apply to open a jar of jam that has been VERY VERY TIGHTLY SEALED... so, basically i'm pushing down on the cpu with enough force, i'm sure to crushed the pins... now the problem is i tired using less force, then taking it out, to see if i've even bend the pins... but the pins are RIDICULOUSLY SMALL... and even if my near perfect sight, i can't tell whether it's bend or not... but basically every time i applied more force... i got a MINI HEART-ATTACK... until finally i decided fuck this... and i applied enough force in one go to close the thing....

so, that's bad enough... worst is still yet to come... I DON'T HAVE ANYWAY TO KNOW IF I'M SCREWED UP... well, not at least until i get the computer up... what a long night this will be....well, at the end this is what my motherboard look like after step 5... ready for step 6 :P

oh and this is what my computer look like before all the installation

pristine is the word i would use

and pretty much after that i'm too work up to remember to shoot my camera... there are several shots of the stuff in the box but that's about it... maybe i can show you :P

anyway, the only real problem i encounter after that is the installation of I/O plate... it's just annoying... btw, one of the selling point of this power supply i got:

it was that it was a modulated version... this basically means i could attach whatever wire i need to the power supply and to the component and NOT ANYTHING MORE than what i need... the funny thing was that in the end of the day, i used it all...

so, anyway i think i'm just gonna post the rest of my picture... to lazy to write more... ask question if you have i guess... although i highly doubt anybody ever reads all the way down or right in the middle... plus, who the hell actually builds their own computer...

my motherboard... i like the box :P


my graphic card... err... do you know how long is my graphic card? you wouldn't believe it even if i tell you... so i'll going to grab a picture... brb :P

oh yeah, the shoes will be a line of reference... i couldn't find anything else atm, so the shoes will do... i'm a size 7 and that graphic card is about 10.5 inch... huge leh? btw, ignore the messy cable. my computer is not done yet... so i'm not in a hurry to get everything nice and neat.

power supply in a box... they even provided me a bag :P too keep all those extra wires i will not use....

this is my very very nice, 640GB hard drive... and if i add my old 320GB hard drive, i practically have 1 terabyte!!1 woohoooo, i hit 1TB

well, this is my 4 gigs of ram first... i didn't get 8 gig right away cause of two reason.... i'm broke :P and also i don't have a copy of a 64bit vista ultimate
you see the thing that is highlighted... that is basically a metal holding my graphic card up, during the first 24 hours of my computer life... why?... i didn't have the right screwdriver to screw the graphic card in place....

so, what's so sweet about this case? it has a temperature monitor... with that i can see if my computer, especially my graphic card is overheating... oh yeah i was done about 3am in the morning after formatting the computer and everything... sadly to say in the period of the next 2 days i formatted my computer several more times to try to get my second hard drive to work.

so that's it... i'm surprise you read up to this point :P or maybe you went all the way down and saw this :P