In part 1 I presented my wishlist, in part 2 I showed you the parts, now it is time to assemble the parts.

I carefully took out the mainboard and placed it on top of my kitchen table an removed the socket plate.

The insertion of the CPU wasn’t complicated at all, it only fits in one direction.

Same situation for the RAM. The retention and backplate for the cooler was more complicated. They didn’t fit the holes in the board 100%, so it was difficult to get four screws in at the same time.

But it got worse. I read at different places that installation of the Zalman 9700LED is a piece of cake compared to other coolers. Well, don’t let me try the others then. The basic installation and application of the paste worked well but I couldn’t get the clip screwed to the board. It took a while and more pressure than I thought would be good for the board, but finally the monster sat firmly on the socket.

Huge.

Now it was time to prepare the case. The PSU, the board and the additional fan were installed with ease.

A closer look.

The also huge graphics card found its way to the system and power was brought to the board.

An old monitor was prepared…

… and hey: We have a boot!

Euphoric I installed the HDD and all missing cables…

… and the DVD drive…

… closed the side door and began installing Windows.

Here it was glowing already…

… and Ms. computhomas benchmarked the system with spider solitaire.

I cleaned up my office for the admission of the new system. Unfortunately most of the glowing disappeared under the desk, but so far it looked really cool and worked.

In the next part I will benchmark the system and eventually overclock it a bit.

Read part 1 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 2 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 4 of the building a new computer series here.