Class of Pepper PC Building Instructions

A PC is an increasingly more important tool as jobs have become more tech dependent. Having a PC is a necessity for most modern jobs, and building your own saves money and gives more customization of your setup.

Assuming you are planning to build a basic office computer you will need ALL of the following.

[make sure all of the form factors for these match!! Things to check for include PGA/LGA, ATX, MICRO-ATX, etc]

MOTHERBOARD

CPU,

CPU COOLER,

PC CASE,

RAM STICK (AT LEAST ONE),

DRIVE,

[check wattage and see what your parts require!]

POWER SUPPLY UNIT,

POWER CABLE,

SCREW DRIVER,

THERMAL PASTE,

STATIC WRISTBAND,

STATIC MAT

[computer is virtually useless without these]

MONITOR,

MONITOR CABLES

MOUSE

KEYBOARD

Place your new PC case on top of the static mat, and attach your static wristband to yourself and the mat, if you do not have a mat optionally you can attach the wristband to your PC case, just no matter what do not attach to the power supply!

Open the PC case with your screwdriver, this is where your components will go. I hope you purchased a large one, or else your hands are going to hurt a LOT.

Oke its actually building time now and this is THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP, we are going to put your CPU in your motherboard, kindly take a look at your adorable little CPU, it should have pins/holes on it depending on what form factor you bought in step one, figure out which one it has, if you got the correct motherboard it should in theory have a spot with the opposite of what your CPU has, for instance if you have pins on the CPU the motherboard should have some holes. P.S also make sure it is the same size!

The spot on the motherboard you just found is called the CPU BRACKET and it is where our kind sir will go, look for a triangle in the corner of your CPU, there should be a fairly obvious one in the corner, then locate the opposing one on the CPU bracket, line your triangle from the CPU and the triangle from the bracket up so that they will come as close as they can to touching when you put the CPU in the bracket.

Now drop the CPU in nice and gently, taking care to flick open any latches that your motherboard could have. Make sure to AVOID PRESSING your CPU in to the motherboard it should fall in nicely, do not make the same mistakes as Avery's first KCTC build. Once you do that you should be all well and good

After your lil guy is in the motherboard, close any latches or switches that there may be. Your CPU is now secure! But they get kind of hot quick. So we want to install a CPU Cooler! If all is well your form factor should match that of the CPU again... It is also hard to give general instruction for all coolers, there are many different types and there are some really strange one off designs I've seen before.

All I can tell you is to look up instructions for your specific cooler, and it should be relatively close to your situation, specifically, all coolers will have a HEATSINK (the metal bars) which works to absorb heat like a sponge. There will be a contact point on that which you will have touch the CPU, make VERY VERY SURE to use your thermal paste as well, apply a PEAS worth to the CPU, before putting the cooler on top, and we are talking GMO peas here, better more than less. (Side note, if you ever have future issues with sudden shutdowns and heat, this is a goto solution, normally you will need to renew the paste every few years)

There should be long vertical slots the length of your sticks near the CPU, starting closest to the CPU open the latches on both ends and put your sticks in, make sure that the little notch in the slot doesn't block your stick.

Now it is time for the power supply! Before installing it please please please do not have it plugged in EVER while your PC is open, even make sure that the switch on the back is set to OFF. While you are back there check the red switch, this is the regional switch and it tells the power supply what kind of current it runs on, If you are in the U.S keep it to where it is at (130) if you are in Europe set it to (200) if you aren't in either of those countries then perform a google search to find what it should be.

Ok now the fun stuff, put your supply in the case, it should be fairly obvious where it goes there will be a big hole close to the size of your supply, normally in the lowest section of your case. And screw it in, thats all you have to do!

DO NOT PLUG THE COMPUTER INTO WALL POWER UNTIL THE PC CASE IS SEALED AND COMPLETE! YOU CAN EXPOSE YOURSELF TO A MINIMUM OF 400 WATTS AND SOMETIMES MORE

Now we are going to put the motherboard in the case, there should be a thin long hole outside your case, normally up high where the tall grey part of your board will go, stick that in the hole going in from the case (You should have also received an IO SHIELD, which comes with the case normally, this goes in between your case and board and blocks dust, make sure to put that in too), then screw your motherboard in!

This is another important component, the drive stores virtually all of your computer data so its literally useless without it. Your drive should have come with a SATA cable, it kind of has an L shape, this is a data/power cable and it will be used to connect to the motherboard, find your SATA ports on your motherboard and plug it in with the cable

Now take a look at your PSU or Power Supply, you need only to find 3 cables connected to it, there should be one with a 20 hole end with a smaller 4 hole end coming out of its base, find the opposite matching connector on the motherboard and plug that in, this will power your motherboard. (Plug both the 20 hole and 4 hole in together)

Also find a 4 hole end with another 4 coming from it this is your CPU, and near your CPU there should be a spot for it, where you plug both of them in as usual.

Finally there should be a long SATA cable coming from your PSU which will go directly into your drive! And you are done! The computer should be nearly functional!

Finally, connect the cables from the front of the case into your motherboard! There should be a spot labeled frnt-panel or something along those lines. You should connect the cable descending down from your pc cable into those pins, if they don't work try switching them around in order. And if you see any pin sockets coming from the top labeled, something like, USB, AUDIO etc, then plug those in the corresponding motherboard labels and pins!

Seal your pc and plug it in to a wall and a powered monitor. If you see anything relating to the pc boot such as a command line, debug output, or an operating system your PC has successfully posted. If it says anything like input device not recognized, then you have failed. Please try again! If it works though you're Done!! Put on your best victory face and enjoy your new computer.