Building a PC: Step 3
Step 2, fitting cables, taken from Chris Worfolk's ICT Hardware coursework.

Fitting Cables
Once all the hardware is in the case you need to link it all to the motherboard and other important parts using cables both internally and externally.

Front Panel Cables
The case itself should come with it’s own cables for the front panel display. These will be fore the speaker (SPK), power switch (PWR SW), reset switch (RST SW), Power LED (PWR LED), HDD LED (HDD LED) and Sleep LED (SLP LED). You will need to refer to your motherboard’s manual to see where to connect these.

Connecting the FDD
Find the end with the twist in it – this indicates that this is for the first floppy disk drive in the system (drive A:). The pink coloured wire indicated which is Pin 1. Fit the cable with the pink cable on the left hand side of the 34 Pin socket on the back of the floppy disk drive.

Next look for the similar looking 34-pin socket on the motherboard and plug the other end of the cable into it. This should be easier as it is usually keyed in so that you will not be able to put it in the wrong way.

Connecting the CD-ROM
This is basically the same as connecting the floppy drive except that this time we will use the 40-pin cable. It does not matter which end you use when connecting the drive this time. The pink wire this time must be next to where your power socket is.

Once the connections are made you will need to plug the other end of the cable into the secondary IDE slot on the motherboard. This will be keyed in again and you should be able to find this with the help of your motherboard’s manual.

If you have a sound adapter in your system you will also need to connect the CD-audio cable. All you need to do is connect one end of the cable to the back of the CD-ROM, next to the IDE cable, then connect the other end to your soundcards CD-IN connector. If you have on-board audio with your motherboard, refer back to your manual again to find where the CD-IN connectors are located.

Connecting the HDD
If you have an ATA33 hard drive then great, it is exactly the same as fitting a CD-ROM. However if you have anATA66/100 hard drive then you will need a special 80way cable. These have twice as many cables and are colour coded, blue for the motherboard connector, grey connector to the slave drive, black connector to the master drive.

Make sure that the hard drive is connected to the primary IDE connector on the motherboard if it is going to be your main (and or only) hard drive.

Connecting power cables
Surprisingly, these cables supply each device with its power requirements. Make sure the connection from the PSU to the mains is turned off before you begin.

You will also need to connect the power cable into the deep white socket with 4 pins rising from inside. Each device will come with it’s own power cable to connect to the PSU. The HDD and CD-ROM will generally use a large connector each and the FDD will usually use a small connector. If any other devices require power, remember to connect these too.

Connecting the main power cable
Everything else is now pretty much connected up so we can go ahead and make the final connection, supplying the motherboard itself with power from the mains socket. Make sure the PSU is disconnected from the mains socket and find the main power cable connector from the PSU.

If you have AT power connects you should have two separate ends. Line the two black wires up so that they are next to each other and connect them to the socket.

If you have an ATX connector it should be keyed in so you won’t be able to put it in the wrong way. Once it is pushed far enough down it should click into place.

That is everything inside of the case done! Now we can move on to connecting the external devices to the computer. Before we move on though check everything is in the write place and screwed or locked in. Once done, close it up and make sure you have access to the ports at the back.

Connecting the monitors and speakers
Take the monitor display cable and insert it into the video card socket at the back of the computer. You may want to secure the cable further using the cable screws to make sure it stays in place.

If you have speakers you will also want to push the plug into the SPK socket. This is usually colour coded green in new PCs. If you have a built in sound card check your motherboard’s manual on what to do here.

Connecting the keyboard and mouse
Most keyboards will be PS/2, which are keyed so these will only go in one way. Find the similar looking port and rotate the plug until it lines up with the socket then gently push it in.

Unless you found your mouse is a skip for ancient junk (in which case it may have a serial connection) you are likely to have a PS/2 mouse as well which fits in the same way as the keyboard.

Posting
This article was posted by mworld.

Discuss
Discuss this article on the forums...