Some people will put power to a system several times during assembly and
for experienced builders this may serve some purpose. For first timers though,
its best to assemble a minimal complete system before powering up. Minimal
because that way there are comparatively few potential sources of trouble, complete
so that you can test everything at once and because the fewer times you
have to put power to an open machine, the better..
If youve been working along with us you should now have such a minimal
system put together. Briefly this includes a case with a motherboard in it, a
processor (and its cooling unit) and some RAM plugged into the motherboard,
hard and floppy drives installed, and some kind of video available. If your
motherboard has built-in video, you might want to use that for this first try,
even if you are going to install a video card later.
For this test, youll want to have the computer open, so that you can see all
of the fans, and youll need to connect a monitor and a keyboard and a mouse
(OK, you dont really need the mouse . . .)
Monitors will either have a VGA or a newer DVI plug (see picture, as they
are a lot less apparent than PS/2 / USB comparision). Most monitors use VGA
connectors, and so most graphics cards have VGA output. If you have one type
of plug and the graphics card has another, you can easily buy an adapter.
There are two standard connectors for mice and keyboards; PS/2 connectors
and the more modern USB connectors. Plug the mouse and keyboard in the
appropriate slot.
Note: If you intend to install an operating system from a boot CD or floppy,
or modify bios settings you will need to use either a PS/2 keyboard, a USB to
PS/2 converter, or a motherboard that supports USB devices. Otherwise your
keyboard will not work until the operating system has loaded USB drivers.
Once you have this all set up, its time to double check, then triple check
that you have made all the necessary connections and that you havent left any
foreign objects (wheres that screwdriver?) in the case.