In Part 1 of this series, we covered the fundamentals of the components used in today's PCs, discussed some of the important aspects of hardware configuration, and provided some shopping tips. Now, in Part 2, we will delve deeper, using a full tower case to explain how to assemble a standard PC.

An Overview Of Steps Involved

First, let's take a look at the various steps to putting together a PC.

• Opening the empty case;
• Preparing to fit the components;
• Fitting the motherboard;
• Fitting the RAM, processor, and cooler;
• Installing the graphics card and sound card;
• Fitting the hard disk and floppy drive;
• Installing the floppy and CD-ROM drives;
• Connecting the ribbon cables;
• Powering the drives and motherboard;
• Connecting the cables for the case front panel;
• Final check.

The above list is intended to be used as a general guide. In practice, you can vary the actual order of assembly to some degree. We use a tower case in our demonstration because it makes for clearer illustrations. The same assembly principles apply for midi and mini cases.

The case we use has a slide-out tray for the motherboard and the expansion cards. There are a variety of case designs on the market, and we've discussed this in depth in an earlier article, entitled How To Select The Right Case . Take time to familiarize yourself with the case before installing any components in order to avoid having to remove some of them later!