AVOID COLORFUL
LANGUAGE
Have you ever wondered why there’s
no standard layout for power and reset
buttons, or hard drive and power LEDs?
It’s because the PC industry wants you
to curse them every time you plug in
the HD LED in reverse or confuse the
reset and power buttons. Seriously,
though, some mother-
boards are clearly
laid out and easy
to understand,
while others
almost seem
designed to con-
fuse. To compound
the pain-in-the-
neck factor, cases
don’t seem to follow
a standard either.
That’s why we recom-
mend that you grab
your flashlight and
crack open the manual instead
of guessing, which never seems
to work anyway.SCREW THE SCREWS
If your case uses the typical brass
motherboard mounts that must be
screwed into the case, make sure you
apply enough torque so they don’t
back out when it comes time to
remove the motherboard. If you don’t
have a small wrench that can grab
onto the hex-shaped nuts, use a
Leatherman or a set of needle-nose
pliers to crank them down. While
you’re there, make sure you tighten
the screws that hold the motherboard
in place. We can’t count the number of
systems we’ve seen with screws that
were backed out of the mounting
holes, teetering on the edge of
falling out and bouncing around the
case interior.TAKE A COUNT
An easy way to make sure you don’t have
an errant motherboard mount shorting out
your board is to count the mounts and
write the number on a piece of paper. If
you have eight mounting points, but you’ve
used only seven screws, you’ll know that
one mount is missing a screw.PUT YOUR SHIELDS UP
Before you drop in your moth-
erboard, and even before
you install the motherboard
mounts, remember to pop
in the I/O shield (which is
a fancy name for the metal
plate with holes that accom-
modates your USB, PS/2, and parallel
ports). Failure to do this will mean remov-
ing the entire motherboard from the case
just to install the
shield, or leaving a
dust-sucking hole in
the back of your PC.CHOOSE THE
RIGHT PORT
Don’t assume
that plugging a SATA
or PATA drive into any connector will allow
your system to boot. Many motherboards
integrate RAID and ATA controllers to run the
additional SATA/PATA ports. Those RAID and
ATA controllers will require extra drivers and
a floppy drive to get Windows XP up and
running. If you’re looking to boot off a single
hard drive without having to install extra driv-
ers, look for the ports plumbed directly into
the south bridge. As you might guess, these
ports are usually closest to the south bridge;
ports on additional RAID chips are usually
closest to those chips.MATCH THE DIMMS
It’s an age old-question: To achieve full dual-
channel capability, do you put the pair of
RAM sticks into the colored slots that match
or the slots that don’t match? Rather than
sitting there pondering the issue, we sug-
gest you read the fracking manual; other-
wise, you might accidentally configure your
system for single-channel mode.USE THE POWER PLAY
New-generation mobos need more
power than their prede-
cessors, so don’t hook
up just the blocky main
power connector—plug
in the four-pin ATX 12V
power connector, as well,
along with any auxiliary
ports that need to be filled.
If you’re not sure whether
to plug peripheral power
connectors into the board,
consult your mobo manual
for guidance.TWIST IT OUT
If you’re removing your old processor to in-
stall in your new board and it won’t budge,
don’t keep pulling on the heatsink. If you
slowly twist the heatsink in the socket, the
seal should eventually break and allow you
to pull the heatsink off. If you just yank on it,
you’re liable to pull the CPU straight out of
its socket. Ouch! nCAUTION!
LGA775 PRECAUTIONS:
Intel’s new-fangled LGA775
connector does wonders for a CPU’s
ability to hit higher speeds, but it can be scary
to install. Respect the LGA775 formfactor:
Bend a pin on the motherboard and it’s
adios,
muchacho. To properly install the proc, use
two fingers to hold the CPU parallel to the
socket. Once you have the notches lined up with
the socket, lower it in directly. Tilting the proc in
or sliding it around in the socket could kill your
motherboard.MOTHERBOARDS:A-Z46 MA XIMUMPC MAY 2005
Motherboard Installation Tips
Installing a motherboard might look as hard as pulling the engine and tranny out of your car, but it’s really about
as easy as changing its oil or air filter. Here are top tips for making the process even easier.CAUTION!
RAM ARMS: Motherboards are now
packed so tightly that there’s little clearance
between the RAM modules and videocards.
Make sure you don’t leave the holding arm for the RAM
modules extended; if you do, you’re likely to either break
the arms off the motherboard (bad, but not horrible) or
scrape components off the back of your brand-new video-
card (devastating).CAUTION!
USB PORTS AND
HEADERS:Don’t just
plug your case’s USB
ports into your motherboard’s USB
headers without first making sure
they match; otherwise, you could
smoke both the motherboard and
the USB device. Look up the pin
layouts in both your case and your
motherboard manuals before con-
necting the two.1
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