Part 2 of an easy to follow guide to build a dedicated music PC on the cheap. This section Adding cpu, ram, board. All prep prior to first BIOS boot.
![]() |
![]() |
On ONE side the attatching-clip has NO hinge and is simply angled over at 90 degrees with a thin slot-shaped hole in it which slips over the small oblong hook on the grey plastic CPU socket... The other end of the protruding clip has a hinged moveable clip hanging down off it with the same thin slot-shaped hole in it. The idea being that you FIRST locate & clip-on the NON hinged side, which being the first to be clipped-on doesn't require any hinging... Then to finaly clamp-down the heatsink you use the hinged clip on the other end, which being hinged, allows you to more easily angle it down to the correct position required to meet the small oblong hook on it's side of the grey plastic CPU socket.
So... still working on this as a test dummy trial run, once the heatsink is sitting on top of the CPU, line it's edges up so they are parrallel with the CPU socket, then take the heatsink end-clip WITHOUT a hinge, and slip that over the plastic hook built onto the edge of the grey plastic motherboard CPU socket... This leaves the other end of the clip dangling from the other end of the heatsink... Now you practice bringing down this hinged clip to the point you can hook it over the plastic hook on the CPU socket.... You need to practice this so as to know what to expect when the time comes.... so try that until you are satisfied that you can clip the heatsink on with the minimum of fuss... If you like, you can first put a little piece of clean white printing/writing paper onto the middle of the CPU covering the central CPU 'die' before sitting the heatsink on top of the CPU and experimenting with the heatsink clips... All that does is provide a thin protective bit of clean paper over the central CPU die so as to avoid accidently touching it or scratching it, or getting any dirt on it etc while practicing setting the heatsink onto the cpu... Only first time newbies need to do this really, but having said that, I do this with EVERY BUILD, whenever that is using an heatsink/cpu combi I never used before... I ALWAYS like to try a dry run first, to see how much pressure the hinged clip requires to bend it down & clip it over the cpu-socket connector hook... It's much better to do a dry-run and find out before you commit to the real-run and remove the protective thermal tape covering strip etc.... Basicaly it is like building a bike or car engine, always do dry runs of any connections first before actualy committing to any connection that requires the addition of any bonding paste or mating gaskets etc... that's just a rule of engine building and it carries over well to building PC's!!... Do everything with tender loving care, no excessive force etc...
Now we can move on to actualy fitting the heatsink/cooler assembly... There's two sections for this... WITH thermal paste, and WITHOUT thermal paste... first it is NOT necessary to use thermal paste... As noted already, the heatsink comes with a pre-applied small pad of thermal pate which melts down when the cpu is on to form a bond with the CPU die. When the PC is off, this tape firms up again back to it's cold state (sort of rubbery slightly sticky substance) - These Athl;on CPU's are designed to be built fast with no fuss for OEM's, so it is 100% fine when running a standard PC without any clocking to use the basic procedure for this and just add the heatsink and get on with it....
WITHOUT THERMAL PASTE
Preferably but again, not neccessary, clean the CPU die with isopropyl alchohol - Peel the protecting cover off the heatsink base to reveal the small bit of thermal tape (usualy pinky/orangy colour - Don't touch the tape... Bring the heatsink down onto the CPU as near as you can in one go to it's correct position for the clips to line up with the CPU socket hooks - Lower the heatsink home and attach the first static clip as described in the section above.... Now holding the Heatsink onto the CPU firmly, attach the hinged clip so the heatsink is seated.... and that is that... Now just attach the heatsink cooler fan power-lead to the appropriate motherboard socket (it can only go in the right way round... refer to the m'board manual to locate the power socket for the cpu fan) -
And that is that!!.... you can now add your ram!... then we fit the board top the case...
WITH THERMAL PASTE
If you bought a cheap generic heatsink like I have for this test build, then the base of the heatsink which attaches to the CPU die wont be milled to a super micron-fine mirror finish... it'll be roughly milled and probably have a slight visible 'grain' to the surface of the aluminium. Then the actual part of the base which connects to the CPU die has this gunky pink square of thermal tape on it which you need to remove... I wont go into this because it needs full instructions which are available on the website of the thermal-paste company - In this case I bought the common brand, 'Arctic Silver 3'
Basicaly, you need to get some isopropyl alchohol and some nail varnish remover (commonest solvent) - Use the nailvarnish remover to clean off the small pink piece of thermal tape from the base of the heatsink - scrape off the thermal tape from the heatsink which will just blob into a rubbery ball as you scrape it off, leaving behind smeary residues on the heatsink surface.... Once it's all removed, clean the area thoroughly removing all vestiges of the thermal tape... Clean it all and wipe off with some lint-free cloth preferably, then clean it off again with isopropyl alcohol concentrating on the center area where the CPU die will meet the surface...
Next, apply a small amount of the thermal paste to the center of base of the heatsink and rub it in and wipe off - This will fill the microscopic inconsistancies in the milling of the base of the cheap heatsink block... Next add a thin layer of the paste to the CPU die and offer the heatsink down onto the CPU and lock it down with the clips....
If you are interested about this procedure with thermal paste in detail, checkout the instructions link....
Arctic Silver 3 - fitting instructions online
Now, I didn't have any solvent to help remove the last traces of the pink thermal tape from the heatsink block.... So what I did instead was, I gently polished off every last visible smear of the thermal tape with 1200 grade wet & dry soaked in isopropyl alchohol until the center of the heatsink block was super-shiny and clean and ready for a final last clean with isopropyl alchohol to remove any last grease or particles of crap... If you do use this method just obviously be careful about wiping off properly and don't get ally dust on anything keep it wet with the Isopropyl alchohol and there'll be no problem...
Here's my prepared heatsink... I've polished it smooth and cleaned it thoroughly with isopropyl alchohol... Then i've worked in the thermal paste and cleaned it off (again you should use a lint-free cloth), leaving this brownish stain where the mciro-fine particles in the thermal paste have absorbed into microscopic surface irregularities of the aluminium block surface...
Next using a credit card or razor blade edge & following the 'Arctic Silver 3' instruction at the link above, smooth a very-thin flat film of the paste over the CPU die and you're ready to join them up...
And there she blows!!... Our heatsink and cooler all fitted to the cpu and all ready to go!.... That now achieved the rest is easy... Next we add our ram and we're ready to drop the board into the case...
ADDING THE RAM
Pretty staightforward realy, except to say, IMPORTANT: when pressing in the ram dimm/s make sure the board is located on a solid flat surface, sitting on the foam mat which came with it in the box... do NOT press ram into place with the motherboard on any sort of flexible surface, like the top of the motherboard box for example... we don't want the motherboard to flex when we apply pressure downwards into the dimm slots while pushing down on the dimm/s we are inserting....
For the newbie, the ram can only go in one way, so no worries there, just make sure the center gap lines up with the seperator on the slot and with both locating clamps at the side snapped fully OPEN, drop in the dimm and ease it into place with firm pressure... when it is fully seated the clamps will clip down into the notches on the side of the dimm locking it fully in place - make sure each clamp on either side is fully closed & locked.... and that is that!!....
Use the first slot, number-1... the dimm slots are marked 1, 2 & 3 on the motherboard next to the sockets, so it's easy to see which to use.... 512mb is the ideal amount for Win98, so I've used that, i do NOT plan to load HUGE sample sets into the pc, but having said that, since the build, this cheap-assed PC has handled some pretty impressive loads with alot of samples for a full-on mix.. More of that in the final section of this article tho... if you plan to use more than 512mb, then you'll need to make some system adjustments in Windows (with win98) - i think 512mb is a perfect amount for a ballsy but cheap PC - so for the newbie, stick to that...
Now our board components are all installed... It's time to fit the engine and start her up for the first burn!.....
Lower the motherboard into place and using the 9 supplied fibre-washers and the 9 largest little screws, fix down the board firmly all round.... Eee! it's just like rebuilding your 2-stroke twin or triple of a saturday, only easier!...
Note: in the image I've removed the entire rear plate where the rear ports such as USB, Comm & Printer etc reside - You'll see the case has one large hole in it's back, and that is fitted with a shiney pre-formed plate with individual holes for the ports - CHUCK IT! - just pop that whole shiny plate out with some pressure and sling it... Don't worry, just do it, it'll make everything easier and wont make any difference to the PC itself - That plate provides NO worthwhile support for any of the sockets which will protrude through it, so it's worthless keeping it there... Also it just makes dropping the motherboard into place much more difficult.
Anyways, lower the board in and clamp her down with the washers & screws - The screws should go in with easy finger turning... Use the right screws, don't try to force in a PCI slot screw or case screw... The motherboard locating screws are the smaller domed ones with a tiny surrounding flat lip which almost looks like a washer under the screw - There should be only 9 of them as mmentioned already - Also - when you screw down the screws, make it just 'finger firm' - that is hold the screwdriver with your fingertips and apply enuff pressure to just lock it down well.. DON'T screw it tight as anything using your whole palm and hand pressure. We're not locking down a head gasket on a car here!!... easy... firm, that's all... DON'T overtighten...
A word on screws - and I don't mean in The Scrubbs!
Rule 1 - seperate them out before you start the build, into their own types - put each type in a small tea-cup or something so they are all easy to see and choose between.
Rule 2 - IF you drop a screw onto a solid surface (not carpet), NEVER look round to 'see' where it went... As soon as it flies off or drops... FREEZE... Keep totaly still, and LISTEN to where it falls... you'll always find it that way... ah!... it's making me think of the fun you can have sneakily placing a spare woodruff key on your mates workbench when he's just finishing an engine build and watching his face as he spots it & thinks it's from HIS engine!!.. (hours of laughs!).. But i digress!...
FINISHING THE BASIC BUILD
So now we have our board in place, firmly screwed down and all our basic case leads connected... That is: ATX Power On/Off switch lead, HDD activity lead, Reset switch lead, & power LED lead... Refer to the motherboard manual for the connections... Be careful to get these connectors right, it can be confusing studying the manual but take care here to get the right connectors in the right pins... Not because you can damage anything if they are connected wrong, but it might not boot or it might cause your Windows OS install to bum-out later on, so spend some time studying the diagrams in the motherboard manual and get them plugged-in right...
Then finaly, seperate out the main motherboard power loom from the individual drive power leads and connect the ATX power block connector to the ATX connector block on the motherboard - You can't get this wrong newbies... Like fitting the ram, it can only go in one way and there is a clip on one side which plainly goes on the side where the socket clip is, so they meet and lock down... So, board is in all basicaly wired...
Next have a tidy up and then fit your AGP card and keyboard and connect your screen... I'm using a Samsung syncmaster 151S flatscreen which I can tell you is a bargain as they are to be had for around 325 quid cheapest and offer as much screen estate as 17" CRT screen visibility and even some 17" TFT's i've seen... very good screns imo....
Ok so in this build I picked up a Jetway branded Gforce 64mb cheap-ass card for 25 quid...
Obviously you can use your old graphic's card if this machine was a rebuild upgrade, or i could have gone round more shops buying individualy and getting specified components in which place i'd probably have gone for a cheap ATI or something... anyways.. as noted already, this is not a 'Classic/pro studio pc' build, where everyone recommends a dual head matrox or whatever - Honestly?... this machine wil deliver gobs of power for a piddling outlay so just think cheap & disp[osable is my motto. You can never build an 'Ultimate PC', and if it's performance you want, trust me this PC at a measly $400 quid will do all you need tracks & plugins-wise to make even complexed deep music....
As for the graphic card not working, clashing badly somehow with the audio side of the PC once we build it?... I can always change it if it's problematic anyway with the dealer... but it was simply bought to test a typical PC-Fair component bundle deal build...
Ok, so add in the AGP card.. This ASUS board has nice AGP slot locking clamp which slides over to keep the old board firmly in place during monitor lead fiddling & plugging in/out....
No need to connect CD-rom or hard-drive etc yet - we dont want to before we've even checked our boot will work... Ok!!... we're ready to boot the machine up & get it ready for the drives, formatting & installing the OS...
Next Article Section - FIRST BOOT-UP INTO THE BIOS + ADD DRIVES
i have just finished building a pc its a socket a athlon t-bird.duron atx motherboard, the thing i am having a problem with is the connectors that go down in the corner for the hd etc,i cant seem toget the right combination i.e the hard drive boots up but i cant get a picture, and because of the case i have this is the only power source for switching on and off any help greatly appreciated
You want to know to much, why?
can you adise me where I can get the type of standoff your talking about source please I know they came with your case but I need 4 others any help will be very much apreciated John
Read 3 comments
Add review/comment