Hello Paul,

  only a few short comments on your post. This is not a manual on
  assembling a PC... search the Internet on _excellent_ guides for
  building a PC, with extensive explanations and colour photos.

  Let me suggest you looking for '+build +computer' and other
  combinations like "assemble PC", "make PC", etc... Any search engine
  should pop a few good hits.

Wednesday, January 19, 2000, 11:12:51 PM, you wrote:

PR> My idea of building a computer is as follows (not having any experience);
PR> 1. Purchase the necessary hardware (case, motherboard, monitor, mouse,
PR> keyboard, sound card, video card, CPU, RAM, HD, power supply, fans, CD drive,
PR> Floppy drive and modem.
Power supply is usually sold assembled into the case.
Must match case to motherboard : ATX-ATX or AT-AT.
Fans : one will be present in power supply. More fans are optional, I
consider one more OK for anyone and two extra fans for a _very_ loaded computer.

PR>  (Not sure if cables come with any of this stuff.
PR> Also, not sure if parallel or serial ports come with this stuff either).
Cables: power, HDD, floppy - must come with motherboard
Audio cable for sound card - with CD-ROM
ports : preinstalled on motherboard [ATX] or sold with motherboard [AT]

PR> I'm
PR> sure I've missed something here, so please let me know.  Also, there must be
PR> compatibility issues to work out so I hope you don't mind follow up questions.
PR> 2. Assemble the components.
Gradually. This means assembling only video, memory and CPU, checking,
installing OS and only then adding more cards as you progress. You can
also stuff all in, and it can work, but if problems arise they will be
very hard to troubleshoot.

PR> 3. Turn on the computer. (Do I hear POST beep here?)
Only if you made errors in assembly. If all OK you should hear one
short beep after successful POST.

PR> 4. Partition the HD. (Don't know how)
PR> 5. Install the OS. (Send the check to Bill)
PR> 6. Install necessary drivers.
PR> 7. Install my favorite software.
If you install Windows98, I'm not sure you'll have to
partition the drive.

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