How To Build A PC: Installing the Motherboard and Power Supply

Jumping right into it, the inside of your PC case has a pattern of screw holes. Look closely at your motherboard, and match its holes to those in the PC case. Once you've matched up these holes, put the stand off screws (see right for a picture of a stand off screw) in the right order, so that they will align correctly with the motherboard when it has been placed into the case.

You'll want to be extremely careful in handling the motherboard. Discharge any static electricity on your body by touching a piece of metal, such as the PC case cover (this sounds ridiculous, but it is a very well known precaution when handling static sensitive PC parts, such as the motherboard, hard drive and RAM). Don't touch anything on the surface of the motherboard! Handle it by picking it up on its sides using your fingertips.

Lay your PC case down on a flat surface. Gently lower the motherboard into your case, aligning it with the screws. The motherboard should have included enough screws to cover all of the corresponding holes in the motherboard. Simply insert a washer on each screw (if included), and insert each screw within the holes on the motherboard. Gently fasten them in, and stop fastening when your screwdriver meets the resistance of the screw being fully secured. Do not over-tighten the screws - the last thing you want is a cracked motherboard!



Above: The Antec Nine Hundred PC case, before the motherboard is installed. Look closely, and you can see the 6 brass stand off screws. The motherboard is fastened directly to them with supplied screws.



Above: The Antec Nine Hundred PC case with an ASUS Rampage Formula motherboard installed inside, and fastened to the six stand off screws.

Installing a motherboard is a fairly simple step, and there's not a hell of a lot to be said about it. As you can see, it has many connections on it, but don't worry about that just yet.

Above: The OCZ GameXStream 700W Power Supply.

Another simple install! Depending on your internal PC case setup, the power supply typically gets installed on the upper left or lower left hand position, if your case is laying down flat with the side open. All that's involved here is positioning the power supply in its slot, and fastening the four screws through the back of the case and into the back of the power supply. All of those tendril-like power cords will surely get in your way as you continue adding the internals of your PC case. You can let them simply hang out of the case so that they are out of your way, for the time being.



Above: The OCZ GameXStream Power Supply fits at the bottom of the Antec Nine Hundred case. In the Antec Nine Hundred case, a metallic fin must be bent upward to slide the power supply under it, and finally, it can be bent down again to secure the unit. Four screws fasten the power supply to the back of the case.

Make sure the exhaust fan(s) of your power supply are not blocked - this unit also needs free flowing air that should be exiting the back of the case somehow. Most of today's power supplies have two fans - a rear fan and a top fan. The rear fan should jut up against the back of the case, on a cut out area where air an flow out of it (this area should also allow for the power on/off switch to be accessible from the back of the case). The top fan is found in power supplies that reside at the bottom of the case.

On to the next step, Installing the Processor Chip & CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink >>
...or, go back to the main page: How to Build A PC