MaximumPC 2007 02

FEBRUARY 2007 MAXIMUMPC 

Videocard

BFG GeForce 8800 GTS

$450, http://www.bfgtech.com

Motherboard

EVGA nForce 680i SLI

$250, http://www.evga.com

CPU

Intel Core 2 Duo E

$182, http://www.intel.com

Memory

1GB Corsair TwinX

DDR2/

$150, http://www.corsair.com

Case

Antec Nine Hundred

$140, http://www.antec.com

Power Supply

Antec TruePower Trio 650

$125, http://www.antec.com

Operating System

Windows XP Professional

OEM

$99, http://www.microsoft.com

Hard Drive

250GB Maxtor

DiamondMax 9

$70, http://www.maxtor.com

Optical Drive

Lite-On It Super AllWrite

SHM-165H6S

$35, http://www.liteonit.com

7

MOUNT THE MOBO
Before you mount the board, you’ll need to
install the I/O shield into the case. This rectangu-
lar piece of metal prevents dust and stray electri-
cal signals from entering or leaving the case and
features punched-out holes for the mobo’s USB,
PS/2, and LAN ports. If your case has a generic
shield, remove it by hammering at it with the back
of a screwdriver, then carefully replace it with the
shield that came with your mobo (image A).
You should now prepare the mounting points
in the case for your board. You’ll need a mounting
point for each mounting hole in your motherboard.
If you have to install brass mounts, make sure you
torque them down enough, so they won’t back
out when you’re trying to remove the screw, which

could prevent

you from remov-

ing your moth-

erboard (image

B). Count up

the mounts

and commit

that number

to memory. Now lower the board into place and

screw it down (image C). (Make sure you use the

same number of screws as you have mounts, or

you’ll risk shorting out the motherboard.) When

screwing the board down, use a reasonable

amount of torque, so the screws don’t back out,

but don’t overtighten them or you’ll damage your

motherboard.

5

INSTALL CHANNEL RAM

You’ll need

to install DDR2/

RAM in pairs for best

performance. On

this particular board,

install the RAM in the

blue slots to enable

dual-channel mode.

If you’re using a dif-

ferent board, read the

manual to ensure you

use the correct slots.

Flip out the reten-

tion arms, then fi rmly

push the RAM mod-

ule into the slot with

your fi ngers on the

top corners until the

arms lock into place

(image A). The module features a key or notch in the center to

prevent you from installing it backwards (image B). Once both

modules are in place, you should move the arms for the empty

slots to their closed positions, as though you have RAM

installed. On some motherboards, arms left in the open posi-

tion can actually hit the graphics card and damage it.

6

CAGE THE HARD

DRIVE

The basics of hard-drive instal-

lation haven’t changed in more

than a decade, but one thing

has: Cases have gotten smaller.

Today’s midtower case would

have been considered a compact

in 1997. Combine a small tower

with a long-board GPU and its

requisite power cables and you

can run into space issues. We

chose to mount our hard drive as

low as possible to keep it from

bumping into the videocard.

The installation itself is simple

enough; for the Nine Hundred,

you should remove the hard drive

cabinet by removing the four

thumbscrews on either side of it.

Put the drive in the cabinet and

use four coarse screws to hold it

in place. You can insert the drive

cage back into the case now or

wait until after the motherboard

is in place.

A

B

A

B

C

PARTS AND

PRICE LIST

Total: $1,