Congratulations!
You're done! It took a good amount of time, a lot of effort, some serious concentration, and your back probably hurts. You are now done with everything hardware related. Take another minute to hide cables, shut your case, and connect your keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Now plug your rig in and press the on button. If you were successful, you should have gotten one "beep" from your computer, which is its way of telling you that your computer is ready for action. It will prompt you to "enter setup", so you should do that and make sure your computer at least knows what time it is.
Setup, or BIOS, is also how you perform advanced system functions such as enabling or disabling onboard audio. After you've saved your BIOS settings, proceed to install a copy of your favorite operating system, configure it however you choose, and have a good time with your brand new custom built system.
Once everything is all configured, remember one rule- If it isn't broke, don't fix it. It is a very hard rule to follow for computer modders, but you definitely won't regret it in the long run.
If you feel like doing any modifications, make sure you are ABSOLUTELY CONFIDENT with doing them before you even power down the system.
Special Thanks
I would like to thank everyone who helped me write this article, and here is a brief list of who they are and what they did. Thanks guys...I seriously couldn't have done this without you.
- W1zzard: Thanks for helping me with image problems, proofreading, and editing my article.
- Infrared: Thanks for the support.
- Dippyskoodlez: Thanks for the tips.
- Error-f0rce: Thanks for proofreading my article and giving me suggestions.
- Azn Tr14dZ: Thanks for proofreading my article.
- Djbbenn: Thanks for helping me figure out FTP.
- Wazzledoozle: Thanks for making sure I didn't kill techPowerUp!'s FTP.
- XxbulletinabiblexX: Thanks for proofreading and approving of my article.
- Joe Baker: Thanks for getting me into computers.