Building the System

Figure 7-3 shows the major internal components of the SFF PC. The Seagate 7200.7 Barracuda SATA hard drive and the Plextor PX-708A DVD burner are on top of the Antec Aria case, with the Intel D865GRH motherboard at the lower left. To its right, front to back, are the two 256 MB sticks of Crucial PC3200 memory, the Pentium 4 processor, and the stock Intel CPU cooler.

Before you proceed, make sure you have everything you need. Open each box and verify the contents against the packing list. Make sure all driver discs, cables, screws, and other small components are present.

Preparing the case

The first step in building any system is always to make sure that the power supply is set to the correct input voltage. Some power supplies, including the unit supplied with the Antec Aria, set themselves automatically. Others must be set manually, using a slide switch to select the proper input voltage. If your case uses such a power supply, make sure that it’s set to the proper input voltage before you proceed.

Warning

If you connect a PC set for 230V to a 115V receptacle, nothing is damaged. The PC components receive half the voltage they require, and the system won’t boot. But if you connect a power supply set for 115V to a 230V receptacle, the PC components receive twice the voltage they’re designed to use. If you power up the system, that overvoltage will destroy the system instantly in clouds of smoke and showers of sparks.

Figure 7-4. Remove the thumbscrew that secures the ...

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