Build your own PC
4. Fit it all together - page 1 of 5
One thing to remember about fitting things together is that
generally computers are well designed mechanically and if you
find it difficult to put things in a certain way or place then
maybe they just weren't meant to go there. Almost all things
have chamfered corners or bits of plastic to encourage you to
get things the right way round.
The hard drive (marked IDE) and floppy disk (marked FDC)
headers above have cutouts and the floppy cable below has
a plastic lug so that there is effectively only one way to
insert the cable into the socket.
There are however exceptions and some things will fit either
way
The floppy cable above does not have the lug to fit into
the socket at all so how do you know which way around do you
fit it ?. There are some useful rules for connecting data
cables and you will find that all data cables have a red stripe
down one edge. At the same time you will find that all headers
(whether enclosed or not) have either a number 1 printed on
the board or show some kind of marking which indicates pin
1. The rule is:
RED STRIPE TO PIN 1.
Please try to etch this into your mind with one of those
new fangled laser thingies or any other gadget you may have
as you will find it helps you position virtually all cables
correctly first time and will make you an absolute whiz at
fixing other peoples cabling nightmares.
With one major exception when you come across things that
will go either way (without the use of force) then it will
do no harm to things to put them the wrong way round. The
one major exception is USB headers on the baby AT style boards
where you need to fit a connector onto pins on the mainboard
as below (the connector fits onto the 8 pins just above where
it says IDE1)
Rather than the ATX style where they are permanently soldered
on as below
In the pin layour shown above you can place the connectors
on either way around. The problem is that when you put them
the wrong way around then you connect the live to earth and
vice versa. This becomes apparent when you plug in a USB device
and the smoke and flames start coming out (literally). The
results are rarely good in these circumstances and even if
you manage to catch all the smoke you just can't get it to
go back where it came from so best avoid it in the first place.
If you bear this in mind then you are ready to start the screwdriver
stuff.
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