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Do It Yourself !                                                      

   I have enjoyed building computers for years.  I love to read the books such as "Building, Upgrading and Maintaining PC", "Do-It-Yourself PC book", and the like, love to shop the computer parts, and really enjoy putting them together to make my own most powerful and brand new computer.  I am excited and can hardly sleep a wink whenever I Build My Own. 

Followings are the pictures taken of the last machine I built a couple of months ago. 

Socket 7 - compatible processors include Pentium and Pentium MMX ; AMD K6 ; Cyrix 6x86 MX and MII

Slot 1 - a groove in which the processor cartridge sits on edge.  Compatible processors include Intel Celeron, Pentium II and Pentium III.

Socket 370 - compatible processors include Intel Celeron and Pentium III (these two ranges are available in both slot and socket designs)

Slot A - similar to Slot 1 but designed exclusively for AMD's Athlon and Duron ranges

Socket A (also known as Socket 462) - an alternative socket approach for AMD Athlon and Duron processors.  

Motherboard    

 **  System Bus - A motherboard will work with a processor that runs at a speed equivalent to the system bus speed multiplied by a factor of 0.5 and increments thereof.  That is, a 60MHz bus is compatible with a 90 MHz processor as in example (60 x 1.5 = 90) or a 150MHz processor (60 x 2.5 = 150).  It is not, however, compatible with a 200MHz processor, simply because 200 is not a multiple of 60.

Only the earliest Pentiums and 180MHz Pentium Pros ran with a system bus of 60MHz.  66MHz is far more common, with 100 and 133MHz now the new(ish) standards.  AMD claims a bus speed of 200MHz and 266MHz as well.

Bus design not only affects the speed and performance of your PC, but bus design also affects the type of interface card you can use in PC.

ISA	8-bit or 16-bit
EISA	32-bit
PCMCIA	16-bit
AGP	32-bit
PCI	64-bit (Most implementations are 32-bit)

                                                                                                                       

Processor  

The motherboard also affects the system's performance.  If you buy a fast, new CPU, it might not give you as much a speed boost as you want, because the motherboard's old bus could slow it down.  A motherboard with a faster bus will ensure that your new CPU runs as fast as it possibly can.

When you have a new motherboard, you'll be able to run your computer faster because it has a faster bus speed, you can put in a faster CPU, and you'll be able to expand it in other ways as well.

  RAM 

 ** Speed  It may seem odd to think of memory in terms of speed, but RAM modules talk to the processor at different rates, commonly 66, 100 and 133MHz.  This is important because it relates to the speed of the chipset on the motherboard, so make sure to buy the fastest RAM that the motherboard supports.

NVRAM (Non-Volatile Memory):

CMOS:

RAM (Random Access Memory):

All IDE drives plug into any IDE adapter.  The farther down the list below, however, the faster and more feature-laden the drive - but the slowest IDE device (which includes my PC's host adapter) sets the highest speed of the connection.  Plug an Ultra 100 drive into an Ultra 33 adapter, and you won't get anything more than an Ultra 33 connection.  Consequently, you may need a new host adapter to gain Ultra speed, and you'll definitely need an 80-wire cable for ultra 66 speed and above.

DVD drive

If possible, connect the DVD drive to the same channel as the CD-RW drive rather than the hard disk.  Set the jumpers on the DVD drive to slave if you share a channel (for example, with your CD-RW), or master if the DVD is the only device on the channel.

Bits and Buses

The physical path between any two computer components - in other words, the wires that make the connection - is called a bus.  The size, or width, of the bus is a measure of how much data it can handle at any one time.  
The ISA standard is based on a 16-bit bus, which means that it transfers a maximum of 16 bits of data per processor cycle (a bit being the smallest binary unit i.e. a single 1 or 0). 
PCI is a 32-bit standard and is thus capable of twice the workload within the same time.  When we say that one interface is "faster" than another, this is simply shorthand for saying that it's capable of sustaining a higher rate of data transfer.
Although AGP is also 32-bits wide, it operates at twice the speed of PCI (66MHz rather than 33MHz) and is thus better than suited to the high demands of graphics cards where a great deal of data has to be processed as quickly as possible to keep video and games in full flow.

U-S-B

"U" is for universal, a reflection of the fact that a single, standardized connector and cable combination works with all USB devices.  That means no more fiddling with X-to-Y-to-Z-to-whatever adapters and odd shaped, proprietary plugs.
"S" is for serial, which means that data passes through the connection one bit at a time (as opposed to parallel, in which several bits go through together).
And "B" is for bus, which is just the wiring along which data flows.

USB cables have different connectors on either end.  The flatter, wider connector - Type A - goes to the USB port, and the squat, square type B connector goes to the device.
Never use a cable with Type A connectors on both ends to try to wire two computers together.  For one thing, such cables are illegal ; for another, you'll blow up both PCs and burn down your house.
Don't buy a USB cable longer than 15 feet.  It won't work.  If you really need to cover a long distance, either add a powered hub every 15 feet or daisy-chain together up to five 'active extension' cables to boost the signal.

a Table of the Storage

^{Gary G. Goh is an MCSE, MCP+Internet, CCNA, A+, Network+, i-Net+ Certified Professional.}
Copyright goh720 All Rights Reserved. 1998-2001