The Complete Building Your Own PC Manual - September 2019

The Complete Building Your Own PC Manual (3rd Ed) - September 2019

BDM's Made Easy Series

Black Dog Media Limited | ISSN: 2050-1129 | 129 pages | PDF | 91.2 MB



Introduction 3

PLAN YOUR BUILD 6

10 Reasons to Build Your Own PC 8

Choosing the System Type 10

Choosing a PC Case12

Motherboards16

Choosing a Processor20

The Right RAM 24

HDD, SSD or Both? 28

Choosing a Graphics Card (GPU) 32

Need More Power? 36

Do You Need an Optical Drive? 40

Expansion Cards and Extras 42

CPU and Case Cooling 44

Before You Build - Precautions 46

Build Your Own PC-Jargon Buster 48

BUILDING YOUR PC

Getting Ready to Build 54

Preparing the Case 56

NavigatingYour Motherboard 58

Fitting the CPU 62

Adding a CPU Cooler 64

Fitting the Memory Modules 66

Fitting the Motherboard into the  68

Fitting the Hard Drive (HDD) 72

Fitting Optical Drives 74

Installing the Graphics Card 76

Adding the Power Supply Unit 78

Power Connections 80

Cable Management 82

Final Checks and First Boot84

Troubleshooting Your Build 88

INSTALLING SOFTWARE

Installing the Windows OS 94

Upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8.1 96

Updating Your Motherboard BIOS 100

Updating Your Device Drivers 104

Optimising Your PC for Performance 106

Protecting Your PC from Malware 108

Upgrading to a Solid State Drive (SSD) 110

Migrating Windows 10 to a New SSD 114

118 Choosing Linux

120 Installing Linux on a PC

122 20 Essential Apps