PC Assembly, Installation, and Configuration
What this domain covers
Assessment here is procedural: the safe order for assembling a PC, which cable goes where, and the BIOS and OS configuration steps that follow assembly.
Core rules
- Remove static first: antistatic wrist strap clipped to bare metal, or touch the chassis; work on a hard, non-carpeted surface.
- Order: fit PSU and standoffs, CPU (align the pin-1 triangle), thermal paste (a pea-sized dot), heatsink, RAM, motherboard into case, drives, data and power cables, front-panel headers, then a POST check.
- Fit RAM in matched pairs in the colour-coded slots to enable dual channel.
- In UEFI/BIOS set date and time, boot order (USB or DVD before HDD), SATA mode and fan control, then save and exit.
- Install the OS, partition the disk, then install chipset, network and graphics drivers and verify them in Device Manager.
Worked example
After assembly the fans spin but the screen stays blank and there is no beep. Reasoning order: confirm the monitor is on and on the correct input; check the 8-pin CPU power connector, a very common omission because the 24-pin alone is not enough; reseat the RAM until the latches click; only then suspect the motherboard.
Traps
- Forgetting the standoffs, so the board shorts against the case.
- Over-applying thermal paste so it bridges onto the socket pins.
- Reversing front-panel polarity; power and reset switch pins are polarity-sensitive on some boards.
- Starting the OS installation before checking boot order.