First Boot & Beyond

Before you boot make sure input and Output Devices (ex: mouse, keyboard, and monitor) are plugged into their appropriate places. Plug the monitor and case power card into their appropriate places and the wall outlet. Now it is time for the first boot, this is to make sure everything is working fine. When you first boot it up don’t expect everything to work, especially if it's the first computer you built. When you boot up, if you hear a single beep that means POST (power on self test) went fine and the motherboard can see everything works fine. Otherwise please refer to your motherboard manual to see what the beeps mean. If that doesn’t help, go back into your case and make sure everything is plugged in correctly. If that still doesn’t help, get some one very knowledgeable in computers to help you. Presuming everything went fine it is time to load an operating system, simply insert the CD upon boot up and follow the instructions.

Once you have your operating system loaded, make sure you install all the drivers that you got with the parts you purchased (ex: vide card drivers). Once that is done you have a brand new computer that you assembled your self. At the end of this section is price estimator so you can find out how much a computer with the components of your choosing will cost.