pc-technology

PERSONAL COMPUTER ASSEMBLY

This page discusses the assembly of an IBM-compatible PC from start to finish. This includes the selection (and availability) of all the components, the source of purchase for each component, assembly details, including problems and troubleshooting, and final integration and setup. The internet was used extensively for purchase of the components for my new PC. Generally, internet stores have good deals, but warranty information is hardly ever posted, and watch the postage. Always remember that the shipping is part of the cost. Get a feel for what it actually costs. The shipping should not be outrageous (i.e. $35 to mail two DIMM 128's) and it should not increment precipitously (i.e. $9.95 for each additional light-weight item). Take care with OEM (Original Equipment Manufacture) components, also called white box components. Companies like Panasonic will deal with an end user, while companies like NEC will not do so. Avoid hard drives that are sold just in the antistatic wrapper (because of potential lousy packing); rather, at least buy those that come in the padded white box. Usually, an attempt was made to use retail parts, if possible, instead of OEM or white box parts, due to all the possible warranty hassles.

	I wanted a new PC that was top of the line, without being cutting edge, state of the art. I wanted AGP video, 16 MB or more. I wanted a SCSI interface, for external scanners and internal SCSI drives. I wanted a CD-R drive and a DVD drive. I wanted a 500MHZ+ processor, a ZIP 100 drive, a large UDMA/66 hard drive, a PCI modem, PCI sound, and PCI LAN. This PC will replaces my aging PC: Soyo 5EAS motherboard, with Cyrix (now Via) MII-300MHZ CPU, and so forth. I would like to have gotten a motherboard with built-in sound, modem, and LAN with UDMA/66 and an AGP video socket, but no such motherboard exists.
	As much as possible was purchased over the internet, using iBuyer.net and CNET.com . Anyone assembling a computer might be able to get some help online; however, retailers and manufacturers are often not knowledgeable enough or unwilling to help. The motherboard finally selected was an ATX Tekram Socket 7 P5M3-A+ with built-in AC97 sound, 5 PCI sockets, UDMA/66, (only) 512KB of cache, a 100MHZ bus, and three SDRAM sockets, purchased from Computer Discount Outlet.
	In addition, the Tekram board allows booting from either IDE port, master or slave device, including ZIP100 and LS-120 drives. One inconvenient feature of this motherboard is that the ATX power connector is located between the rear ATX connectors and the DIMM sockets. I chose socket seven using an AMD CPU, because at this time, Intel PIII's and alternative CPU's are just too expensive, partly due to short supplies and high demand. This motherboard was not my first choice, rather a Tyan S-1598C2; however, this motherboard would not work even hitting the function key for failsafe boot mode. In the end, I opted for a brand that had worked before.
	The CPU selected was the K6-2/500MHZ by AMD . The retail version of this CPU has a fan included, but it is not an ATX-type fan. At the time of purchase from Micro X-Press, this was the fastest K6-2 CPU in a retail box. Now there are 533MHZ and 550MHZ versions, though no motherboard matches the required bus speed for the 533MHZ CPU. I had considered the K6-3/450MHZ CPU, but it was pricey or unavailable. AMD may have stopped making these.
	The SDRAM memory selected was an unbuffered 128MB 100MHZ Valuram chip from Kingston Technology, purchased from pcWonders.com. This memory module works fine, but definite compatibility was impossible to determine before hand.

	The case selected was an In-Win IW-A500-ATX case with a Powermaster 300 watt power supply, which sucks air from the upper area of the motherboard near the CPU socket. The case was purchased from PC Outfitters.com, whose website went dead. It has three external 5-1/2" bays, two external 3-1/2" bays, and two internal 3-1/2" bays. One of the internal bays is a tricky arrangement near the top rear of the case, alongside the power supply. This case is well-ventilated, and it has a slide out motherboard tray. The tray has built-in motherboard posts as raised bumps. The case is very sturdy, with real I/O panel covers, though the cut-outs for the ATX connectors look a bit flimsy.
	The video card selected was a Voodoo 3 2000 AGP made by 3dfx, purchased from buy.com. Not long ago, this was the most high-end video card, but now it has fallen from grace; however, it is still a great card for good graphics and moderate game playing. It is not all that cheap, and, surprisingly, the AGP version is in great demand and short supply, even though it is nearing the end of its production life. A coupon was enclosed for the WinDVD software from InterVideo . This does allow the Voodoo card to play DVDs (though the program does occasionally die), but only after the fix to WinDVD is downloaded from 3dfx.
	The hard drive selected was a Maxtor 92049U4 20.4 GB 5400 RPM UDMA/66 drive with 2 MB cache memory, purchased from buy.com. I decided to save money and go for the cache size rather than the higher 7200 RPM drive. This was a padded white box drive. The enclosed literature say the warranty is one year, while the Maxtor website says that it is three years.
	Here is a side-by-side comparison of an 80-wire UDMA/66 (left) cable and a regular 40-wire cable (right). The 80-wire cable has many ground wires to prevent cross-talk. On an 80-wire cable, the black connector is drive 0 (master) and the gray is drive 1 (slave). Inconveniently, the 80-wire cable has the black and the gray connectors on opposite sides of the cable, so adding another device may require the reversal of the master-slave relationship.

	Many components are in short supply, but DVD drives are still especially hard to get due to a component chip shortage. I got a 4.8X DVD/32X CDROM drive packaged by Digital Research Technologies, purchased from Outpost.com. This drive takes a long time to start a CDROM, and turning on DMA support (when Windows warns against it) will cause problems. Email to Digital Research Technology departments does not go through. A Chromatic Impact MPEG-2 card is included, but it does not work with the Voodoo card, and there are no Windows 98 drivers, since ATI TECHNOLOGIES took over Chromatic Impact and does not support the card.
	I have SCSI scanners, and I always use a card that has an external MD50 connector, not the card that comes with any device, and especially not DB25 cards that look the same as parallel printer cards. In the past, I have used Adaptec cards (i.e. AHA2910B), which tend to be expensive. So, I tried the SIIG AP-20, with a processor built by Initio. This card was purchased from buy.com. I was pleasantly surprised that this card seems to work better than then Adaptec card, and it can support bootable devices too, with options about what to do at computer boot up. My Microtek and Nikon scanners operate faster with this card. All connected SCSI devices that have their power on are clearly identified at boot time.
	I have tried IDE CD-R devices, but I have found that they do not work as well as SCSI CD-R units. I found a good deal on a refurbished 4X CD-R unit from Smart and Friendly (who have since gone out of business), so I purchased it from the manufacturer, even though it only had a ninety-day warranty.
	I selected Supramax 56K PCI modems made by diamond, purchased from buy.com. This modem seems to work fine, and is even not confused by the message waiting stutter. However, if I ever want to use Linux on my computer, I'll have to install a different modem, because Linux cannot work with a Winmodem.

	For future interconnection, I got a NETGEAR SB104 home network starter kit, purchased from buy.com. This sets up okay, but the 10Bps hub does not seem that fast.
	I got a Panasonic ATAPI ZIP100 drive, manufactured under a license from Iomega, purchased from CompuCare, an OEM retailer. I refuse to pay twice as much or more for full retail, when there is really nothing different about the ZIP drive. For information on the Click-of-Death and the TIP program, see Gibson Research. If a ZIP drive suffers the Click-of-Death, Iomega will only repair retail Iomega drives.
	I got the Internet Keyboard Pro by Microsoft, purchased from Costco. The box gives the mistaken impression that this is a USB keyboard, but it is not, though the USB connection works just fine during boot mode. The USB connectors on the board are actually extensions for the computer. Also, if the USB connector is plugged in while the computer is on, there is no prompt for extra information as the instructions imply.
	The mouse selected is the Intellimouse Mouse Explorer by Microsoft, purchased from Costco. The feel and motion of this mouse is great, though it occasionally seems to be the cause of computer hang up. Also, getting this mouse to display correctly meant booting up in safe mode to delete all mice and then restarting. This mouse is supposed to work as a USB mouse, but so far it has failed to do so.

	I was worried about having enough IRQ's for all the installed components, but this this is not a problem for the Tekram P5M3-A+ motherboard. Through a system of PCI bridging, it allows rampant IRQ sharing. This IRQ sharing is probably the reason for increased boot up time for Windows 98, second edition. If an older hard drive is copied, as in this case, it is almost a certainty that Windows 98 will have to be reloaded to set up all the complex IRQ sharing. Bulky CPU cases like this In-Win are hard to carry, so I added a handle purchased at Eagle Hardware.
	The only other undocumented component is the lowly 3-1/2" floppy drive, but it can be replaced. I have been considering the LS-120 and the Caleb iT; though LS-120's are apparently in short supply because they use the same chip as DVD drives. Neither of these drives are really that attractive, offering only a little more capacity than a ZIP100, and I really do not want to give up the regular floppy drive. But that still leaves one internal and one external bay. I have been considering an SCSI hard drive for the internal bay, and an SCSI Orb 2.2GB drive for the external. All SCSI hard drives (costing 2X to 3X more than a comparable IDE drive) are in short supply, especially smaller capacity 50-pin drives. Besides being in short supply, the SCSI Orb drive also requires a 68-pin to 50-pin adapter cable, an added expense. A cheaper and more practical route is to move the floppy drive to the empty 5-1/4" bay with an adapter and then put an EIDE Orb drive at the current floppy location, directly above the hard drive.
2001 Update	Nothing stays the same. This PC was updated in late 2001. It was upgraded to an Aopen AK-73 Pro(A) motherboard with Athlon 1GHz processor, an MSI 4MX440-Tvideo card (replacing an earlier Aopen card in 2002), a Yamaha (16/10/40) CD-RW drive, 256 MB more memory, a Buslink DR12 DVD drive, and a USB 2.0 card.