Building Your Own Graphics Workstation, Part Two
Page 4 of 6
Prepping the Motherboard
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Put on the static strap, and clip the other end of it to something grounded. What I like to do is to strap to my case with the power supply installed, but with the power supply’s power switch to off. Most ATX power supplies keep a 5V trickle of power running through the system even with the PC is off. But if you make sure it's unplugged from the wall, that will certainly stop all current to the board (when it's installed), unless you live in a Tesla coil. I clip the metal end of the strap to an unpainted metal part of the case, or the power supply itself. Just make sure you’re unplugged, especially once you’ve installed the motherboard.
Take the motherboard out of its box and out of the anti-static bag. Lay the motherboard down flat on the table on top of its anti-static bag, or on top of a grounded anti-static matte ($15-20 at a local electronics store like Fry's). It's a lot easier to install the CPU, heatsink, and memory with the motherboard out of the case.
Most of the articles I've read suggest installing the CPU and RAM with the motherboard installed in the case. The grounded anti-static mat is a good thing to have around if you do this sort of thing a lot. I've installed motherboards in and out of cases, with no problems either way. Just be careful with static in any event, by keeping the board grounded, and you should be fine. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
Notice the little Soyo fan mounted on the motherboard's chipset. Let's mess with it! Most new boards will have a heatsink or fan installed on the Northbridge Chipset. A fan isn't really needed, though; a good heatsink will do the job without the added noise. This fan is not really loud as much as it is high-pitched. A high pitch really adds to the overall annoyance factor to a PC's noise, so I contacted Zalman, and along with some other stuff, they sent me a Northbridge Chipset heatsink (ZM-NB32J). This replaces the fan assembly, but dissipates heat well enough for the chipset to stay cool.
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Next we'll pop in the CPU. Lift the lever on the side of the CPU socket. Take the CPU out of its packaging (make sure you are grounded), handle it by the edges only and orient the chip so the pins line up with the socket. The CPU will only go in one way, and if it is oriented properly, it will drop in with no effort.
Do not force it; you may bend a pin, which is about as bad as throwing it out onto a busy highway and shooting at it with a shotgun. Once the CPU is lined up and inserted into the socket, lower the lever back down till the lever snaps back into its place. The CPU is now installed. Your mom would be proud.
Depending on where you bought your CPU (whether you bought it as a retail boxed item or OEM), you may have an Intel CPU heatsink/fan. No matter if you do, we're tossing it. It's a good fan and all, but I'd rather install a Zalman Noise Prevention heatsink/fan instead.
The Zalman CNPS 6500B-AlCu heatsink is one hell of a nice design. With its fanned out fins, the heatsink easily absorbs generous amounts of heat the P4 CPU gives off. A separate fan that is held by a bracket over the heatsink then dissipates this heat by dispersing it into the case's airflow. By using a detached fan, you reduce the amount of noise from the CPU cooler. Most CPU coolers have a fan attached to the top of a heatsink unit that sits on the chip, and that makes some of them notoriously loud, clocking in at 30dB(A) or more. Might as well throw a couple of screaming two-year old kids in there with cocaine and a drum kit.
The Zalman heatsink comes with everything you'll need for installation. Use the thermal grease syringe to spread the grease evenly on the CPU, careful not to get any on the contacts or the motherboard. Seat the heatsink gently on top of the CPU, inside the black plastic retention bracket. Take the blue locking brackets and use them to secure the heatsink in place. Make sure the heatsink is locked into the retention bracket -- it's heavy, and when all is said and done, the motherboard will be standing up on its side. If the heatsink should fall, chances are the vacuum seal, between the heatsink and CPU via the thermal grease, will pull the CPU right out of the socket. And this is bad. Not that it will happen, just as long as it's seated firmly in place. Am I scaring you yet?
And now it's time for the memory. Take our Crucial 512 DIMMS out of their anti-static pouches, and insert them into the DIMM slots on the motherboard, being careful to handle them by the sides. They only fit in one way, so make sure you line them up right. Gently push them into the slots till they click into the retention brackets on both ends. Put the first DIMM into slot 0, and the second one into slot 1. You can mix and match RAM sizes with DIMMS, so you could in theory have a 512MB stick and a 256MB stick for a total of 768Mb. We'll get 1GB with our two 512MB sticks. The motherboard is now ready for installation into the case.
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