Stuff from Emma Brad and Phill - How to build your own PC

Dad needed a new computer, Brad wanted to build a new computer and so it happened! Dad ordered the bits needed from an online supplier in Perth Western Australia and Brad put it all together. There were a few minor issues along the way, but it all went pretty well. We took some photos as things progressed and they have been uploaded to our pictures section. We have also writen a few words about the whole thing that can be viewed by clicking on the "read more ..." link below.

After deciding on which bits would go with which other bits, which bits we could afford, which bits we needed and which ones we didn't the next step was to work out the best place to buy it all. Dad typed up an email listing all of the parts he wanted including the brands and model numbers and sent it to as many local computer stores as he could find email addresses for (seven of them). Business must be really really good in Hobart because only Douggie at Douggies Office Equipment Warehouse took the time to reply. Armed with our one quote we then checked shopbot to see which online retailers offered the best price and how they would compare. After checking a few different sites Nintek in Perth Western Australia came out on top. They wern't the cheapest for all items, however they looked professional, had everything, charged low freight ($27 for the lot!) and were amongst the cheapest for everything. I (Dad) really wanted to buy locally as the idea of having something arrive broken and having to deal with an online company is a bit scary, but in the end the price difference (and it really wasn't that much) meant that Douggie missed out.

Unfortunately our order was split in half. The half that came from Perth arrived overnight (very happy with that) but the other half that came from Sydney took almost two weeks. Nintek said this was because that half had the computer case so it had to go via road freight and was dispatched directly from their supplier. When the case arrived there was a big hole in the box where something heavy and sharp had slashed through it. Luckily there was no damage to the case inside.

The bits were all unpacked and checked and amazingly everything that was ordered had arrived and it all looked to be in good order despite the best efforts of the crappy freight company that sent the bits direct from Ninteks supplier in Sydney.

Can anyone tell me why one of the smallest parts came in one of the biggest boxes? By stacking the video cards on top of each other I reckon you could fit about 16 of them in that box, and whats with the freaky big dude? There was a little photo of him on the fan as well. I looked everywhere inside the box but he just wasn't in there. The shiny patches are yoghurt that found it's way onto the box in an industrial accident at my work. Emma unpacking

Emma got in on the act here. She is unpacking the CPU, however Home and Away was on at the time and there is only so much you can do during the ad breaks.

Brad securing the CPU in the motherboard by pushing down the little shiny lever. Can you believe that there are actually 939 (yeah, nine hundred and thirty nine) pins on the bottom of that thing? Oh, and all that shiny copper stuff looks cool too. We might get a couple of bob for it at Groometals when it's reached it's use by date.

The CPU heatsink and fan were a bit difficult to attach. The heatsink has this goopy stuff on the bottom where it sits on top of the CPU. Each time you try to attach it then give up and pull it away a little bit of goop is left behind. I think this is a bad thing. It just didn't look as though it was in the right way around and it took a lot of force to make the little clips fit over the plastic bit on the motherboard, but Brad was up to the task. memory

Brad plugging in the memory. It's a bit hard to see here but the memory modules have a row of lights on the top. I have no idea why you would ever want a row of lights on them, but if you open up the case at night they look kinda impressive. Those guys that drive the cars with the loud music and the flashing tyre valves would love them.

It really was a crazy afternoon. After picking Brad up from primary school then Emma at high school we had to go to Donna's house to get Brad's homework project off her computer. Emma then had to go to Girl Guides and be picked up again an hour later. I drove up to town to collect the second half of the computer bits, then when I got back I did a recall for work and cooked roast lamb with the full roast vegies and gravey and stuff. Brad had to bake hot cross buns to complete his homework and we somehow managed to build a computer as well!

That big black plastic thing was in the way and had to come out. Apparently it was put there for a purpose but we just didn't like the look of it. It's supposed to channel the air from the CPU fan out the back of the case but it all looked too hard so we just left it out. There are always bits left over when you build stuff, but we had a huge pile when this one was finished! Screwing down the motherboard

With the big black plastic thing out of the way and a new backplate inserted the motherboard fitted into the case OK. Brad had to screw in a few extra little brass (more scrap metal!) standoff thingies to fit with our board. All nine screws were put in and tightened before we realised our mistake.

Can you pick the mistake? The little shiny metal tab that is covering the mouse socket was going to make it pretty hard to plug in. It was supposed to be sitting on top of the mouse connector inside the case. Oh well, it doesn't take too long to unscrew nine little screws that all want to slip out of your hands and then roll away into the very hardest to reach corners of the case. Hard drive

The hard drive was easy to install. The case came with these slide out whatsits. You just screwed the drive into the slidey thing then slid it back in again until it clicked into place. The screws for the drive went in through squishy rubber grommets to make it all nice and quiet.

The DVD burner had to fit in there somewhere as well. There are three black panels on the front of the case that looked like they should pop out, and "pop" out they did. One of them fired out of the case like a rocket and hit Dad in the lip. Undaunted we moved on and found these purple rails attached inside. They seemed to fit perfectly onto the side of the DVD drive so thats where we put them.

There was a big ugly traffic intersection in Auckland that the locals called spaghetti junction. I reckon the inside of this case could be called the same thing. Luckily Brad was on hand to sort it all out. The book actually came in handy at this point, however the clever little man (woman?) that designed all this stuff made all of the plugs and sockets just a little bit different so it was pretty hard to go wrong and with a bit of work it all looked quite neat when Brad finished.

The last thing to do inside the case was to install the video card. There were two spots where it could go but we liked the look of the blue slot so thats where it went. The little man in the photo on the video card seemed quite happy with his new home. Turning it on

Now it was time to turn it on for the first time. We checked and double checked everything, but there was a high probability of smoke so we asked the monkey to check the vents at the back. Brad actually detached his arm and put it on a long stick for this part (those are someone else's knees).

Brad promptly installed Windows XP and all of the drivers that came on the multitude of disks supplied with the boxes of stuff. Halo was the only game lying around at the time so that's what was played first.

For those people with nothing better to do here is a list of the raw materials that we used.