Page 3 - See the AMENDMENT section toward the end of this guide on what is; STEP X
2 SECTION 1 STEP-BY-STEP COMPUTER UPGRADE INTRODUCTIONS Elston Systems, Inc. has been building and upgrading computers for over five years now, with the trust and loyalty from our customers. W e have been successful in providing our customers with inexpensive alternatives to upgrade their old machin...
Page 4 - = Refers to the box that sits under or on top of your desk, the box that; DIN CONNECTOR; = Refers to the style or shape of the older keyboard style
3 Key words used throughout this document. Please become familiar with the terminology that this document will be using. 1. CASE = Refers to the box that sits under or on top of your desk, the box that everything connects to, I.E. mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc. 2. PS/2 = Refers to the style or shape...
Page 5 - MOTHERBOARD; = Refers to the main board that everything mounts to. The; CPU; = Refers to as the storage device on your computer, the piece of; ISA SLOT; black in color, and often referred to as a “legacy” device. See Figure #6; PCI SLOT
4 5. MOTHERBOARD = Refers to the main board that everything mounts to. The main circuit board that runs everything and everything snaps or plugs into. Figure #3 is an example of what a Super Socket 7 ATX motherboard would look like. (This is a FIC PA-2013) FIGURE #3 6. CPU = Refers to the brains of ...
Page 7 - - ASSESS YOUR COMPUTER
6 STEP #1 - ASSESS YOUR COMPUTER The first thing we need to do is determine an upgrade path. W e will do this by looking at the back of your case. Take a look at these pictures and find the case which looks closest to yours. Try and pay attention to how the slots are in relation to the case. AT styl...
Page 9 - – AT MOTHERBOARD BASICS; AT Style FIC VA 503+
8 If you have CASE #2, you have the newest style case, and are in good shape. GOTO STEP #3 If you have CASE #4 or CASE #5, or something that looks like either one of these cases with the video plugging into a weird place other than in a slot, or your slots are horizontal if you have a desktop, and v...
Page 15 - – ATX MOTHERBOARD BASICS; ATX Style MICROSTAR 815E PRO = Intel 815e
14 STEP #3 – ATX MOTHERBOARD BASICS This style case is the standard today, and the easiest to get parts for. Chances are though most of you will not already have an ATX case, but may already have an AT case and decided to get on the bandwagon and spend a little extra cash to change from AT to ATX ca...
Page 16 - Things to watch for that might be “GOTCHAS”:
15 Things to watch for that might be “GOTCHAS”: How many ISA slots devices do you have? Do you have a sound card that is ISA slot? What about a modem that is ISA? The newer ATX motherboards do not have as many if any ISA slots, so you might find that you have to purchase more hardware than you inten...
Page 20 - – COMPONENT INSTALLATION BASICS
19 STEP #4 – COMPONENT INSTALLATION BASICS After you get past the basic motherboard installation by either STEP #2 or STEP #3, the rest of the computer and component installation is pretty much all the same. W e will continue on in this step with our customer that we are building a CAD workstation f...
Page 22 - has
21 Next take a look at the above picture, you will notice two flat corners made up by the pins on the bottom of the CPU. This is there to help you insert the CPU correctly in the socket. If you look at the socket closely you will see what I mean. After installing the CPU, you will want to line up th...
Page 30 - Some troubleshooting to consider:
29 Now we are ready to press the power switch on the front panel. Go ahead a press the switch to power up. On our MSI motherboard we have LEDs that we can look at to see the status of the POST (power on self test) of the motherboard. MSI gives us a nice sticker that we can stick on the inside, botto...
Page 61 - ATX Style ABIT KT7A
60 AMD THUNDERBIRD & DURON – AMENDMENT Section ADDED: February 4, 2001. First of all let us make some things clear before we get into this added section. Elston Systems, Inc. has been building Intel based system for the last five years and has always kept a close eye on what AMD has been doing. ...
Page 62 - or
61 What are the differences? First let’s compare some of the differences between the models. What’s the difference between ABIT’s KT7 and KT7A? The KT7A has an ATA100 controller onboard is the main big difference. The KT7 is equipped with ATA66 controller onboard. What’s the difference between ASUS’...
Page 63 - Ok enough talk, let’s look at the BASICS of AMD Thunderbird building.
62 Let look at some cost figures. Today if you want to build an 800 MHZ Thunderbird computer, here is what the basic parts would generally cost, considering you already have a good ATX case, and left over parts from an existing computer: B.O.M. (Bill of Material) for our upgrade: Pricing Reflects pr...
Page 69 - COMPUTER PART CHECK LIST; Modem
68 COMPUTER PART CHECK LIST Section ADDED: August 19, 2001. Quite a few people have asked for a check list of parts required. So here is what you should need. Items in RED are REQUIRED or bare minimum for a PC to function. Items in GREEN are optional or enhance a computer’s abilities such as getting...
Page 70 - WHAT’S HOT
69 WHAT’S HOT Section ADDED: August 25, 2001. Motherboards: High End AMD = ABIT KT7A Best Bang AMD = MSI PRO266 Master DDR High End INTEL = ABIT TH7-RAID Best Bang INTEL = MSI 850-Pro CPU:High End = AMD 1.4 GHZ Best Bang = AMD Duron 900 Memory: High End = Crucial DDR Best Bang = Kingston Value Ram D...