In all my nerdery, I have never built a computer from complete scratch. I am back from my mission, and my computer is four years old. I need a new computer. I got a new computer. After deciding what I wanted, and $846.56 dollars later, I returned with my precious.

My intent on publishing this article is so that history does not repeat itself. Please educate yourself and learn from me. It was a great learning experience, and I’m now hardware competent.

The Specs:
Motherboard: ASUS P5N-E SLI
CPU: Intel 775 Core2 Duo 6300
RAM: 1 GB DDR2 800 MHz
Video Card: nVidia e-Geforce 600GS 256 MB (Video Card overheated and blew capacitors)
New Video Card: Sapphire HD 2600 XT
DVD-Rom: Pioneer 18x DVDRW
Wireless Networking: Marvell Libertas 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Client Adapter

Case: AZZA Xion 4 Black 450 Watt
BlueTooth USB

Mmmmm… Tastey.

I encountered 3 distinct problems, here they are, and here is how I solved them.

#1: Motherboard wouldn’t turn on (or boot up).
After installing everything properly and connecting all the power cables and the CPU, etc, my computer simply wouldn’t turn on. I messed with the frontside power cables to the case. I started taking everything apart one at a time and trying to turn it on, simply to find that nothing worked. Something kept prompting me (in my religion, I refer to this as the Holy Ghost), to LOOSEN THE SCREWS! So I did. And….. It Worked! My Computer actually turned on, the blue lights lit up, a smile came across my face.

#2: After being on for three minutes, my computer would simply shut off on its own.
I tried taking everything off, one at a time, again. Simply to find that this didn’t work either. I tried taking out the ram and repositioning it (many forums suggested this, it didn’t work in my instance.) I finally read and realized the my CPU was overheating and as a defense mechanism, it was turning itself off so that I wouldn’t waste $200 on my brand new Intel Dual Core cpu. I like my computer. So in the 3 minutes I had after boot up, I went in the BIOS and located the Hardware Observer that allows you to view the temperature of your CPU. My CPU was starting at 30 degrees Celsius and would climb to 68 degrees and then shut off. I found the problem. To solve it, I took off my heat sync, rotated it 45 degrees (so that the INTEL faced East), popped it in. Solved. My CPU now stays at 30 degrees Celsius.

#3: My Motherboard wouldn’t detect my DVD-Rom.
I switched the IDE cable to the secondary IDE position on the motherboard. Started up my computer. My motherboard loves my DVD-Rom now.

So here I wait while my 320 GB hard drive is being formatted so I can install XP. Please take notes, and let me know if this saved you some frustration. I do this simply to help others.