How to Build Your Own Computer

Level of difficulty: Intermediate

An electronic book or e-book in short is a type of media generated as the digital equivalent of a book using conventional printing methods. An e-book is supported by different electronic devices from computers, smart phones, and specialized hardware devices like e-book readers. Creating an e-book presents various advantages like automatic searching and cross-referencing, easier to carry compared to printed materials, inclusion of annotation and highlighting, adjustment of font face and size for improved readability, embedding of multimedia clips and animated images, and better color reproduction quality against CMYK printing. E-book also allows reading in total darkness via backlighting. Moreover, an e-book is a cheaper generation of textual contents. Although majority of products that can generate e-books require some form of payment, there are alternatives which will allow the zero budget creation of this digital media type.

Materials Needed:
- Word processor
- PDF converter program
- computer
- Internet connection
Step 1
To create a free e-book on how to build your own computer, first open the Microsoft Word or similar word processing program in the machine.
Step 2
Give the document a file name and save it using the DOC file format.
Step 3
Create the document on how to build your own computer by encoding the entries from Steps 4 to 15.
Step 4
In building your own computer system, it is important to identify the basic components that need to be purchased. These components are the PC case, motherboard, processor, memory modules, video card, monitor, hard drive, CD or DVD drive, audio card, and keyboard and mouse. Purchase a PC case based on the size of the motherboard.
Step 5
Buy a motherboard based on the type of processor to be used. Buy a video card, CD or DVD drive, hard drive, and memory module depending on the type supported by the motherboard.
Step 6
After purchasing all the basic components, open the PC case, and screw in the motherboard. Take care not to screw it in too tightly because of the risk that it may crack.
Step 7
Install the processor and its cooling fan. Make sure that the cooling fan is attached securely to provide adequate airflow and to prevent overheating.
Step 8
Usually, a hard drive is configured as the 'Master' drive, while the CD or DVD drive is used as the 'Slave'. Look at the back panel of these two components and position the jumpers accordingly.
Step 9
Position the CD or DVD drive at the uppermost drive bay of the PC case or just below the position of the hard drive. Secure these drives by screwing them in or locking them into position if applicable.
Step 10
Connect the cable for these drives (depending whether they are IDE or SATA) and securely plug the other end to the corresponding socket of the motherboard.
Step 11
Plug in the video card, audio card, and memory modules in their respective sockets which are adequately marked on the motherboard. Take extra care with installing the memory modules by observing their proper orientation based on the notch of the slot.
Step 12
Connect the largest socket of the Power Supply to the motherboard. Connect one socket from the Power Supply to all drives present in the machine.
Step 13
Close the PC case and securely tighten the screws.
Step 14
Connect the monitor cable to the video card socket and plug in the power cable at the back panel of the Power Supply. Connect the keyboard and mouse to their corresponding ports.