My computer died. It was old, in computer terms, and the motherboard had had it. It wasn't much of a task to get my data files off before it completely went west, as I keep most of my data on Zip disks or USB portable drives. But it was time for me to get a new computer.
It isn't my first choice to go to Gateway or Dell or Hewlett-Packard and buy an already-assembled machine. First, I want on my computer only the software I will be using, not some techie-nerd's idea of the latest "in" thing. Second, I don't want to have to go round and round with someone on the other end of a telephone about what components are available. The bottom line is that I want what I want when I want it, and nothing more -- or less.
My preference for assembling is made much easier by having someone in-house who is experienced at it -- my husband, who is a computer specialist. He does everything; he installs hardware, software, LANs, the whole works. There are some things he doesn't know, but he knows enough to be able to put together a computer -- one that works. He's done it before, for himself and for others, on the job and at home.
He did the shopping for me because I get lost when it comes to putting one part of the computer in concert with another, and knowing what is more likely to work with what. You notice I said "more likely;" there never is a guarantee that it's all going to work once you get it together!
Having done business with Newegg.com before, he settled on them. He gave me a list of recommendations. I ordered; the next week, we had all the parts. That next Saturday, after breakfast, the assembly began.
I'll go though the process he used, making what I think are some important points to remember (marked by bullets).
- Don't always settle for the power supply that comes with your case. I ordered a mid-range case, which came with a 350-watt power supply. Probably not enough for my powerful and large genealogy database program and a lot of multi-tasking that will inevitably accompany its use, and certainly not enough for the motherboard I bought, because I also play games for which I bought a powerful graphics card and a muscular motherboard. And the motherboard I ordered states in its manual that it requires a minimum of 400 watts in the power supply. I bought 550 watts.
- If you do boost the power supply or you live in a hot climate (both apply to me), buy extra case fans. They're inexpensive, and the extra cooling they provide is crucial to computer health.
- The case came with one fan installed. My husband put in the two extra case fans first. Then he put in the power supply (Just PC model JPC-550C-12V). Next he put onto the motherboard (EPOX EP-8 NPA) the CPU (AMD Sempron 64 3100+), the memory (Corsair, 1 GB), and the graphics card (MSI NVidia P317). The sound card -- sound chip, really -- and the Ethernet card are integrated onto the motherboard.
- All during the installation, my husband used his digital camera to take pictures of each component and of the process. In addition, for my own file, I made notes of all the model numbers and serial numbers.
- Document, document, document! You'll be glad you did when a tech support person you're talking to on the phone about your misbehaving computer asks you for the serial number on your hard drive. You'll have the information right in front of you, either in a paper file or in a photograph, and won't have to open up the case and bend yourself into a pretzel to get the serial number off the hard drive!
- Meanwhile, back at the installation procedure, when my husband installed the motherboard into the case and tried to hook it up to the power supply, we hit a snag.
- Understand that the connector on one part which is supposed to connect to another part may not match up and may need an adapter.
- In my case -- you'll forgive the pun -- the power supply connector was 20-pin and the motherboard's corresponding connector had 24 pins. No panic yet -- there was an adapter in with the motherboard. But when my husband tried to hook it up at the power-supply end, the connector wouldn't connect. It was mismanufactured.
- Understand that there are going to be snags and that you just have to accept them when they happen, and come up with solutions. Cussing is optional.
- Understand that nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
- We live in a rural area, outside of an unincorporated little town in Florida. The nearest city is Jacksonville, up in the next county. It's quite a ways -- especially at these gas prices -- to go into the city for our needs. We try to avoid it as much as we can. However, there was not another adapter of the type we needed nearby.
- The next day, Sunday, my husband and I made a 60-mile round trip into Jacksonville to CompUSA for another adapter. He had been told on the telephone that morning that they had 20 of the item in stock. Fine. We got there, carrying with us the faulty adapter and the case's original 350-watt power supply as a test bed, since it had the same type of connection. Which leads me to:
- Be prepared. If you need to go to the store to replace a faulty component, take the bad one with you! Don't try to remember what type, brand, number or placement of pins... you never will. And telephone ahead, and make sure you talk to someone who knows what he's talking about, or should!
- We looked all over the store, ending up at a rack right beside a help station. A young woman came to the counter. We asked her about the adapter. Her first answer was the wrong one: "We don't have those." I informed her curtly we had been told over the phone they had 20 of that item in stock. She then gave some lame routine about not having been there long and something about some boxes just having come in. She looked to her left, at the rack where we ended up, and said, pointing, "There they are, right there."
- Do not take nonsense from store personnel. Speak plainly and to the point. Go to the next level, if you have to, repeating that subroutine as many times as necessary, until you get satisfaction.
- We wanted to open the package and see if the adapter therein would fit the power supply. We didn't mind making one 60-mile round trip, but would have been angry to get the new adapter home and find it also didn't fit! The young woman said we'd have to pay for it first, then take it to Customer Service and talk to them about opening and testing it. Thence we went. Two young men confirmed what we'd been told, then gave us a look that said, "Okay, go away." Not me. I took out my money, plunked it down on the counter, and said, "There's my green." I took the receipt, and then we opened the package, took out the adapter, and tried it. It fit.
- Always ask for what you want. Be firm, even adamant, about it.
- I could have ordered another of the adapters from Newegg.com, I'm sure. But there would have been several days' wait, and I wasn't willing to do that when we could find one near and in a short time. The thing only cost $7, and I probably would have paid that much just in shipping!
- Be willing to shell out a little bit more to get what you want when you want it.
- Back home, the assembly proceeded: hard drive (Western Digital Caviar RE 160Gb), DVD-RW (LiteOn SHW-160P6S), DVD/CD-ROM (LiteOn SOHD-6P9SV), card reader (Arrow Micro AICR-01), and the old 3.5" floppy drive from my old computer. He set it all up with the monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 740N: I had to treat myself to a flat-panel monitor), the keyboard (LiteOn SK-1688U), and the mouse (Radio Shack optical mouse 26-592, which I already had), and tested it.
- It all worked!
- I had followed all of my husband's recommendations except for one.
- Even if someone who knows more than you makes recommendations, check them out and see what you think.
- When making my hardware selections, I had gone online to Newegg.com and read the reviews and specifications for the components my husband had picked out. I agreed with all except one: the keyboard. The keyboard he selected was criticized in user reviews for sticking keys (which was why I had trashed my old keyboard) and for having too short a cord. I need a longer cord in my setup, so I selected another keyboard, which I'm happy with.
- We set up the machine at my desk. We looked at the BIOS and set it up the way I wanted it, which didn't involve many changes. Then it was time to install Windows XP professional (SP2). It seemed to go well, by all appearances, but we know how deceptive that can be! And it wasn't long until we found out we'd hit another snag. Somehow the OS had set itself up to think the C: drive was a removable drive which had no disk in it, and it wanted to call the hard drive "local drive I:." That would not have worked with some software which insists it be placed on Drive C:. This snag also caused the persistent appearance of an error message telling me that there wasn't a disk present in C: when I knew there jolly well was.
- Murphy loves operating systems! Whatever can go wrong, will.
- Here I will make a long story short: we used a software program my husband has (Darik's Boot and Nuke) to wipe the hard drive and start all over again. It took two more tries installing Windows XP Professional before the stupid software decided to give the drives their proper names.
- Be patient, persistent, and courageous when installing software, especially the operating system. It is going to fail a few times before succeeding, trust me!
- The computer works well, all things considered. I am not able to play a couple of my games, for evidently they require Intel rather than AMD chips. I haven't yet, but I'll go to the respective websites and see if there are any patches for us orphaned AMD users!
- No matter how well the installation goes, no matter how well the computer is working, there will still be problems. They're inevitable; get used to it or go back to the mid 20th century!
- The important thing is that it will run my genealogy software (The Master Genealogist), word processor (OpenOffice.org), e-mail program (Pegasus), and browser (Firefox), and other things vital to me. As well, it will run some of my games, so I'm happy with that.
- Once you get it going -- enjoy it!
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Karen Rhodes is not a techie, but she does appreciate a well-put-together computer. She's had many careers, some of them quite brief, and is currently studying genealogy through the distance learning facilities of the University of Toronto. She lives in Florida with her husband, her younger daughter, and a calico cat named Tiger.
There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author. The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
Date Revised: 28 August 2006
