How To Put Together A Computer

[Zawmbeez]

So, after a fair bit of research (thanks to everyone who helped in my other threads :biggrin I've come up with what I think is a great build that fits my budget.
Here's the build.
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz
ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard ~ $239.98
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboDe...t=Combo.532110

G.Skill 4GB DDR3 1333 ~ $70.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16820231190

Zotac GTX 460 1GB ~ $191.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814500169

Samsung Spinpoint 500GB ~ $55.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16822152181

LiteOn 24x DVD Drive ~ 19.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16827106289

Corsair CX430 ~ $49.49
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16817139017

Antec Three Hundred Case ~ $59.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16811129042

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit ~ $99.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Shopping/Shoppi...82E16832116754

Subtotal: $788.41
Shipping: $33.82
Tax: $106.89
Total: $929.12


It's great that I have all the parts picked out but physically building it is another story. I've looked at the pictures of what I'm going to be getting, and after reading a few walk throughs (This and this and this), I feel a little bit of confidence in my self
I've drawn up some diagrams in Paint that I will use to explain all my knowledge about building the actual computer.

The CPU goes here. Line it up correctly, make sure the marked corners are aligned. Apply thermal paste on top of the CPU, then apply the fan/heatsink on top of the CPU. A little confused about the heat sink, but I think it's hard to understand without having it in front of me.
This is where the RAM goes Gently push the sticks of RAM in, until the 'things' on the side snap and hold them. For two sticks, you have to use two of the same colour slots right? (look at how much technical lingo I know )
Graphics Card Very carefully insert the 460 in here.
Power supply. Goes in from the back and sits there. Will have a Sh*tton of cables coming off of it.
Hard Drive Hard drive some how slides into this little tray thing and then gets fastened with screws.
DVD Drive Goes in basically the same as a hard drive, except you have to pop out a front panel though and align the front face of the disk drive with the front of the case.
IO Panel Pop the IO panel that comes on the case out, and replace with the one that came with the Motherboard. The thing circled in pink on the motherboard will come through the holes on the IO panel. Line this up before doing anything with the motherboard.
Motherboard screws Find the right screws that hold your motherboard to the side of the case. Mark them, and then put the mounting screws in them. Motherboard attaches to these.

This is how I would go about building it. A sentence surrounded by ?s means I'm unsure about this part.
Check that everything is there. Open up all the boxes. Makes sure nothing is obviously damaged, and that I got what I ordered.
Prepare a working environment. A wooden table on a hard wood floor would probably be what I would be building on.
Make sure I'm always grounded and touch something that is grounded before working with components.
Open up the case on one side by unscrewing the side.
Pop out the IO panel and replace with the one that came with the mobo.
Check the motherboard against the case. Find the correct mounting holes. Mark them and then put the screws in them.
Place the CPU, WITH OUT USING ANY FORCE in the CPU socket. Apply thermal paste in an even layer on top of the CPU. Attach the heatsink/fan.
Put the two sticks of RAM in THE SAME colour 'holes'. The things on the side will snap shut and hold the RAM.
Attach the motherboard to the case.
Unfasten the cover of the PSU spot. Slide the PSU in and refasten the cover.
Pop the other side of the case off as I will need to fasten hard/optical drive mounting screws on both sides.
Remove a drive bay cover and slide my DVD drive in until it is flush with the case. ?Connect the Sata cable that came with my motherboard to the drive?
Slide the hard drive in to a drive bay, fasten it with screws. ?Attach a Sata cable from the mother board to? ?Attach a SATA power cable to the hard drive? (Were do these cables come from?)
Install the graphics card into the PCI-E slot on the motherboard. Shouldn't require a lot of pressure. ?Attach a power cable to the graphics card? (Once again, does it come with PUS, GFX or mobo? Where does it go to, PSU or mobo?)
How am I suppose to hook everything together? Will all the hardware have documentation detailing what it needs to run? Will the motherboard manual have identification of which cable is which? Then after hooking all of that together, some how manage to route all the cables, so things aren't dangling all over the place and the case has decent air flow.

There its together!

In the BIOS select the DVD drive as 1st Boot Device in the Boot menu.
In the BIOS select, for the hard drive, ACHI over IDE mode.
Hit f10 to save changes and exit. Will saving changes and exiting power down the computer? Should I have to do anything else here if I want everything to run at stock?
Have the Win7 disk in the drive (do you have to manually open the disk drive to put the disk in, or do you sneak it in there while the computer is turning on.
Follow the on screen instructions to install it my hard drive.
There, am I done. Right?



Well, thats all my knowledge about putting together a computer. I figure I can do all of that pretty competently. Is getting everything into place that easy, or am I missing something?
But, my God! The wiring! In the guides I've looked at, it seems like everything has at least two wires going/coming from it. I don't know if I would be able to figure it all out. Is everything well documented in manuals that come with the hardware, or is it hell trying to figure out what goes where? How hard is it to wire a system? Any tips on wiring?

Well, that basically sums up my questions. I know that it is a lot to read, but I want to be sure I can put together to computer before me and family pay $1000 for parts. If you read it all, and help. Then thank you so so much.

 

[Zap]

But, my God! The wiring! In the guides I've looked at, it seems like everything has at least two wires going/coming from it. I don't know if I would be able to figure it all out. Is everything well documented in manuals that come with the hardware, or is it hell trying to figure out what goes where? How hard is it to wire a system? Any tips on wiring?

Worry about making it work first. Don't worry about making it look pretty. As long as it works and no wire is stuck in a fan blade, you're gold.

As for two wires/cables, are you talking about drives? Each drive needs a power cable and a data cable, just like your monitor needs a power cord and a VGA/DVI cord.

Good luck.

 

[Zawmbeez]

It's not so much making it look pretty, as making everything work. How hard is it to figure where each plug goes? It seemed in the pictures like everything had at least two wires/coming and going/ The case had about 4 going to the motherboard, and the motherboard didn't seem to give any indication of "Plug this in here!". Unless it's all very clear in the manual(s), I see my self having trouble with the wiring. Is every wire and port labelled so that I know what goes where?

Thanks for helping!

 

[KH85]

Wiring is pretty easy it can all only really go in one place as it wont fit anywhere else! It can be scary when you first look at it, but just take your time and read the manuals if you need too! Oh and try not to force a connection - they do only go one way round usually!

Motherboard needs:

24Pin power connector and a 4Pin (self explanatory when you see the PSU)
Power switch (from the case) - consult the manual for the motherboard
Reset (from the case) - consult the manual for the motherboard
Power LED (from the case) - consult the manual for the motherboard

The cables from the case usually look like 'Jumpers' and have what they are on them i.e PWR SW (Power Switch)

HDD/Optical needs:

Power - from the PSU
Data - from the motherboard (SATA Connector)

GFX Cards sometimes need power from the PSU (i have out of the GPU world for a long time!)

Good Luck!

 

[Zawmbeez]

@above thanks so much! That simplifies stuff. The GFX I would be using would require power from the PSU, so thats only 1 cable. More. Looking at that list, I think I can do it

 

[FishAk]

Ya, once you have everything in front of you, you'll soon see the wiring isn't so complicated. Your MB instructions will have diagrams and instructions for all it's connections, and the MB is probably labeled good, though very small words that are hard to see sometimes.

Obviously, you can always come back here if you're not sure about something, and someone will point you in the right direction.

 

[mfenn]

Your plan, with additions/corrections:

This is how I would go about building it. A sentence surrounded by ?s means I'm unsure about this part.

1. Check that everything is there. Open up all the boxes. Makes sure nothing is obviously damaged, and that I got what I ordered.
2. Prepare a working environment. A wooden table on a hard wood floor would probably be what I would be building on.
3. Make sure I'm always grounded and touch something that is grounded before working with components.
4. Open up the case on one side by unscrewing the side.
5. Pop out the IO and replace with the one that came with the mobo. Make sure that the IO panel is oriented correctly.
6. Check the motherboard against the case. Find the correct mounting holes. Mark them and then put the motherboard standoffs (should come with the case) in them.
7. Lift the CPU socket lever, Place the CPU, WITH OUT USING ANY FORCE in the CPU socket. Make sure that the CPU is oriented correctly (there should be a little triangle on the CPU and socket, line these up). Lower the CPU socket lever, this may require some force.
8. The retail heatsink should come with some thermal paste preapplied. Remove any plastic film covering the paste. Attach the heatsink/fan. Connect the heatsink fan's power cable to the motherboard CPU_FAN header.
9. Put the two sticks of RAM in THE SAME colour slots. The RAM has a notch in it, so they will only go in one way around. The things on the side will snap shut and hold the RAM.
10. Attach the motherboard to the case. Make sure the that all standoffs are lined up with screw holes on the motherboard and that there are no stray standoffs under the motherboard.
11. Attach the front panel connectors coming from the case (power switch, reset switch, power LED, HDD LED, front USB, etc.) to the motherboard. Consult the manual for details. If not marked, generally the colored wire is positive and the white wire is negative.
    
12. Slide the PSU in (the Three Hundred doesn't have any sort of special covering for the PSU AFAIK.)
13. Connect the 24-pin ATX connector and the 4-pin ATX power connector from the PSU to the motherboard.
14. Pop the other side of the case off as I will need to fasten hard/optical drive mounting screws on both sides.
15. Remove a drive bay cover and slide my DVD drive in until it is flush with the case. Fasten it with screws. Connect the Sata cable that came with my motherboard to the drive. Connect a SATA power cable from the PSU.
    
16. Slide the hard drive in to a drive bay, fasten it with screws. Connect the Sata cable that came with my motherboard to the drive. Connect a SATA power cable from the PSU.
17. Install the graphics card into the PCI-E slot on the motherboard. Shouldn't require a lot of pressure. Fasten it to the case with screws. Connect PCIe 6-pin connector(s) from the PSU to the GPU.
18. Connect the case fan to one of the PSU's 4-pin "Molex" connectors.
    
19. The motherboard manual is my friend. I love my motherboard manual. I also love posting pictures on AT if I get stuck/am unsure.
20. There its together!
21. In the BIOS select the DVD drive as 1st Boot Device in the Boot menu.
22. In the BIOS select, for the hard drive, ACHI over IDE mode.
23. Hit f10 to save changes and exit. Saving will cause the computer to reboot.
24. Have the Win7 disk in the drive. There is enough time to open the drive and put the disk in while the system is POSTing.
25. Follow the on screen instructions to install it my hard drive.
26. There, am I done. Right?

Let me repeat: The motherboard manual is your friend! ASUS manuals come with excellent diagrams detailing the installation of the CPU and heatsink.

 

[Bth47]

Pop out the IO panel and replace with the one that came with the mobo.

These IO panels love to cut fingers when popping them in and out, so be careful with this step.

 

[Zawmbeez]

Mfenn. I sincerely hope they are paying you for this. Seriously. That must have been a huge amount of work. But its super helpful. I'll be printing that list out and having it with me on construction day Thank you such much! I hope you understand how much you've helped.

Thanks for the tip bth47 I'll be careful.

 

[FishAk]

1. Make sure I'm always grounded and touch something that is grounded before working with components.

2. Check the motherboard against the case. Find the correct mounting holes. Mark them and then put the screws in them.

3. Place the CPU, WITH OUT USING ANY FORCE in the CPU socket. Apply thermal paste in an even layer on top of the CPU. Attach the heatsink/fan.

4. Put the two sticks of RAM in THE SAME colour 'holes'. The things on the side will snap shut and hold the RAM.

5. Attach the motherboard to the case.

6. Remove a drive bay cover and slide my DVD drive in until it is flush with the case.

7. Slide the hard drive in to a drive bay, fasten it with screws. ?Attach a Sata cable from the mother board to? ?Attach a SATA power cable to the hard drive? (Were do these cables come from?)

8. Install the graphics card into the PCI-E slot on the motherboard. Shouldn't require a lot of pressure. ?Attach a power cable to the graphics card? (Once again, does it come with PUS, GFX or mobo? Where does it go to, PSU or mobo?)

9. after hooking all of that together, some how manage to route all the cables, so things aren't dangling all over the place and the case has decent air flow.

10. In the BIOS select, for the hard drive, ACHI over IDE mode.

11. Hit f10 to save changes and exit. Will saving changes and exiting power down the computer? Should I have to do anything else here if I want everything to run at stock?

12.Have the Win7 disk in the drive (do you have to manually open the disk drive to put the disk in, or do you sneak it in there while the computer is turning on.

13. Follow the on screen instructions to install it my hard drive.

14. There, am I done. Right?

1. Depending on how dry your air is, it may be necessary to buy a ground strap you wear on your wrist. They aren't all that expensive anyway. I've never actually used one, but I'm always very conscious about holding some bare skin to a metal part on the case. These delicate electronics are easily fried by less electricity than you could even feel.

2. There will be more holes in the MB and case than are used for mounting. Check the MB documentation to identify exactly which holes you should use. The screws you put in that case are only stand off mounting screws (brass probably) and the MB gets screwed to those mount screws. The MB doesn't get screwed directly to the case proper.

3. Don't use EXCESSIVE force, not NO force. You will see when the CPU is properly seated. Not too much thermal paste. About the volume of 1 or 2 grains of cooked rice.

4. The MB docs will say which two to use if you are only using two.

5. Just to be clear, you attach the MB to the stand off screws. There's about a 1/4” air gap between the MB and case.

6. Until the drive is flush with the mounting screw holes, not the face plate.

7. Data cable from MB, power from PSU.

8. Again, power from PSU

8.5. The fans get plugged into the MB. Your MB docs will tell you which go where.

9. Don't worry about routing just yet. After the system is running properly, you can shut it down, and decide the best way to route your cables. Buy some small wire ties, and some 3M stickers that can hold your cable ties to flat surfaces of your case.

10. Some MBs don't have ACHI. In this case, simply use RAID. It's basically the same thing, and doesn't mean you need to run your disks in a RAID array.

11. Put your OS install disk in the DVD before you save and exit BIOS. The computer will automatically restart, and boot to the DVD. Only have the HDD you want the OS on plugged in. Windows will install boot files on your second drive if it gets a chance, so don't give it the opportunity. Read this thread concerning pre partitioning to confine Windows to a single aligned partition.

12. See 11. If the DVD is empty, you will just get a message that there isn't a boot device. You can put the DVD in then, and restart.

13. During the install, your computer will reboot. When it does, you need to remove the install DVD, or enter BIOS, and tell the system to boot from your hard drive. If it boots into the install DVD again, you will see the install wanting to start over. Just shut down, and remove the disk, or change BIOS if this happens. Put the DVD back in after the computer boots.

14. No. Install Macrium Reflect (free), and make an image of your install. Create a 50Gb partition through Disk management on the inside edge of your disk (far right in the GUI) Keep an image of the basic fresh install, and create another in a couple days, after you have all your programs installed and think you are done tweaking. These two images will be your backup to keep you from needing to start from scratch. It's much faster to recover from an image than the install DVD.

You will want an image set on your second HDD also, but you can't just copy it from your first disk. Images are fickle, and they must be originals to be dependable. To save an image on your earlier install, you must recover to it, and then create the image on your other drive(s). When you are done, you just restore back to your most current image. The one you made right before you reverted to an older version.

Edit:
Oops, mfenn beat me to most of this stuff, and his details are better.

 

[mfenn]

Mfenn. I sincerely hope they are paying you for this. Seriously. That must have been a huge amount of work. But its super helpful. I'll be printing that list out and having it with me on construction day Thank you such much! I hope you understand how much you've helped.

Oh yeah, they pay me the big bucks! :biggrin:

But seriously, you seem like a you've put a lot of effort into this yourself and you have a good head on your shoulders. Always glad to help somebody who is willing to learn and improve themselves.

 

[lxskllr]

Take your time hooking up the front panel connectors, and as mfenn said, refer to the manual often. It's a confusing mess of wires that can induce a panic attack if you haven't done it before. Taking your time, and separating everything, puts it all in perspective, and makes it less daunting.

Make double sure you hook the USB headers right if you have a front USB port. One one machine I built, I burned out a digital camera, and 2 mp3 players before I figured out I put the wires on backward. Interestingly, it worked fine for flash drives :^/

Everything else works like a puzzle for preschoolers. Stuff usually only fits one way, and it should fit easily. The two exceptions are the CPU, and ram. Some of the retainers, and the heatsink can take some force to attach correctly, and the ram takes a firm hand, but not a dying strain. For everything else if you're applying force, something's likely wrong.

 

[Zawmbeez]

Building the Computer

Check that everything is there. Open up all the boxes. Makes sure nothing is obviously damaged, and that I got what I ordered.
Prepare a working environment. A wooden table on a hard wood floor would probably be what I would be building on.
Make sure I'm always grounded and touch something that is grounded before working with components.
Open up the case on one side by unscrewing the side.
Pop out the IO and replace with the one that came with the mobo. Be careful not to get cut. Make sure that the IO panel is oriented correctly.
Check the motherboard against the case. Find the correct mounting holes. Mark them and then put the motherboard standoffs (should come with the case) in them.
Lift the CPU socket lever, Place the CPU, WITH OUT USING ANY FORCE in the CPU socket. Make sure that the CPU is oriented correctly (there should be a little triangle on the CPU and socket, line these up). Lower the CPU socket lever, this may require some force.
The retail heatsink should come with some thermal paste preapplied. Remove any plastic film covering the paste. Attach the heatsink/fan. Connect the heatsink fan's power cable to the motherboard CPU_FAN header.
Put the two sticks of RAM in THE SAME colour slots. The RAM has a notch in it, so they will only go in one way around. The things on the side will snap shut and hold the RAM.
Attach the motherboard to the case. Make sure the that all standoffs are lined up with screw holes on the motherboard and that there are no stray standoffs under the motherboard. About 1/4" of air between motherboard and the other side of the case.
Attach the front panel connectors coming from the case (power switch, reset switch, power LED, HDD LED, front USB, etc.) to the motherboard. Consult the manual for details. If not marked, generally the colored wire is positive and the white wire is negative.
Slide the PSU in (the Three Hundred doesn't have any sort of special covering for the PSU AFAIK.)
Connect the 24-pin ATX connector and the 4-pin ATX power connector from the PSU to the motherboard.
Pop the other side of the case off as I will need to fasten hard/optical drive mounting screws on both sides.
Remove a drive bay cover and slide my DVD drive in until it is flush with the mounting holes. Fasten it with screws. Connect the Sata cable that came with my motherboard to the drive. Connect a SATA power cable from the PSU.
Slide the hard drive in to a drive bay, fasten it with screws. Connect the Sata cable that came with my motherboard to the drive. Connect a SATA power cable from the PSU.
Install the graphics card into the PCI-E slot on the motherboard. Shouldn't require a lot of pressure. Fasten it to the case with screws. Connect PCIe 6-pin connector(s) from the PSU to the GPU.
Connect the case fan to one of the PSU's 4-pin "Molex" connectors.

There its together!

In the BIOS select the DVD drive as 1st Boot Device in the Boot menu.
In the BIOS select, for the hard drive, ACHI (or RAID) over IDE mode.
Put the install disk in the drive.
Hit f10 to save changes and exit. Saving will cause the computer to reboot.
Follow the install process to install the Operating System.
When the install reboots, remove the install disk so that the computer doesn't boot from the disk drive. This can be changed in the BIOS.

Install Macrium Reflect (free), and make an image of your install. Create a 50Gb partition through Disk management on the inside edge of your disk (far right in the GUI) Keep an image of the basic fresh install, and create another in a couple days, after you have all your programs installed and think you are done tweaking. These two images will be your backup to keep you from needing to start from scratch.

Okay. So thats how it all goes together. Did I miss anything. I tried to combine both mffen's and FiskAk's directions here. That you two so much. You've really helped a lot! And thanks to everyone else that helped me out too

I've got the parts :awe:, I've got the process :awe: and now I just need to convince my parents that building this is worth it and will be much better then a Gateway from BestBuy D:

 

[lxskllr]

I've got the parts :awe:, I've got the process :awe: and now I just need to convince my parents that building this is worth it and will be much better then a Gateway from BestBuy D:

Sell it as a learning experience. It'll teach you patience, and methodical thinking. Selling it as a pure dollar value really won't go, because they're close enough that home built is more expensive if you factor in your time. You really can't beat the satisfaction of doing it yourself though, and it'll make you a slightly better person in the end :^)

 

[Zawmbeez]

lmao. I guess I'll try that.

Here's what I've got so far For only $200 more, we get a solid quad core processor, the graphics card is ten fold what the 5450 is and every part is higher quality. Then later down the road, if something fails or we need to upgrade, I can do it. We don't have to go to some computer store and pay more for parts and pay the guy for his time.

That's it. I think it'll work. My dad was interest in building it, but he thinks it will be really hard. If I show him the steps, I think I can swing it.

 

[biostud]

Otherwise there's a forum of willing helpers

 

[jchu14]

Good luck on your build. Should be a lot of fun.

One thing I do recommend is do a barebone install outside of the case before you install everything into the case. I usually just put the mb on the box that it came with then install CPU, 1 stick of RAM, and GPU, and PSU. You don't need to attach the hard drive or case fans yet.

To turn on the system, use a metal object (I usually use the tip of the screw driver because that's what I have near me) to short the power switch pins on the motherboard (just briefly touch the two pins simultaneously). The CPU fan should spin up and you'll POST like usual. Then go into the bios and make sure the CPU is not burning up (though this may be unnecessary, it's a habit of mine from the days when CPU do not thermally throttle and a bad hsf install could mean a toasted CPU ).

After you have some confidence that the main components are working, then start moving the parts into the case. You should be able to keep the RAM and CPU installed while moving. Install the CPU/HSF outside of the case is much much easier than inside anyways.

 

[Zawmbeez]

Otherwise there's a forum of willing helpers

I hope I don't have to use you guys when I'm doing that actual building. Fingers are crossed!

Good luck on your build. Should be a lot of fun.

One thing I do recommend is do a barebone install outside of the case before you install everything into the case. I usually just put the mb on the box that it came with then install CPU, 1 stick of RAM, and GPU, and PSU. You don't need to attach the hard drive or case fans yet.

To turn on the system, use a metal object (I usually use the tip of the screw driver because that's what I have near me) to short the power switch pins on the motherboard (just briefly touch the two pins simultaneously). The CPU fan should spin up and you'll POST like usual. Then go into the bios and make sure the CPU is not burning up (though this may be unnecessary, it's a habit of mine from the days when CPU do not thermally throttle and a bad hsf install could mean a toasted CPU ).

After you have some confidence that the main components are working, then start moving the parts into the case. You should be able to keep the RAM and CPU installed while moving. Install the CPU/HSF outside of the case is much much easier than inside anyways.

Little apprehensive about this "barebones" install out side of the case. Seems like its more work that really isn't necessary. I'd rather not manipulate my mother board with a metal object I'm doing the CPU and RAM outside of the case, then it goes on the standoffs.

 

[mfenn]

That's it. I think it'll work. My dad was interest in building it, but he thinks it will be really hard. If I show him the steps, I think I can swing it.

Yeah, don't fear the unknown!

 

[Zawmbeez]

Yeah, don't fear the unknown!

I try not to

Once again. Thanks so much to everyone who's helped me!

 

[WildHorse]

``

 

[ScorcherDarkly]

It looks like most of these have been covered, but I'll reiterate.

- The CPU will drop into place without any force when you have it lined up correctly. When you clamp it down with the lever, there may be a horrible crunching sound (my i5 scared me to death). If you lined up the chip and it dropped in like it's supposed to, then you can ignore this.

- Thermal paste is already applied on a retail heatsink. You only have to worry about doing it yourself if you buy a separate one.

- Hard drive and optical drive mounting are specific to the case you buy. Hopefully your case comes with clear instructions on how to do it, otherwise this will be the most frustrating part of the build (speaking from experience).

- Your mobo is an ATX form factor, so it's likely the screw holes in your case will have a little "A" next to it to denote the ones you need to use.

 

[FishAk]

jchu14's shorting of the power pins isn't as scary as it sounds. It will be necessary for you to connect the front power switch to the MB. All the power switch does when you press it is short across the two pins it connects to. By identifying where the power switch plugs in, you will now which pins get closed.

The only extra work to the "bear bones" test is connecting the monitor, keyboard, and the power cables. The CPU, memory, and heat sync are easier to install outside the case. The GPU can go either way.

 

[acheron]

Most things only plug in one way nowadays, and those few that don't can be reversed when you figure out the problem. In the old days you could do things like plug the motherboard power in backwards, which released the lovely magic smoke.

 

[Zap]

In the old days you could do things like plug the motherboard power in backwards, which released the lovely magic smoke.

Don't forget the early days of ZIF sockets where the pins weren't keyed.