You don’t need to pay a measly sum of dollars just to recover from a boot block mode. Here it is folks:

AWARD Bootblock recovery:

That shorting trick should work if the boot block code is not corrupted, and it should not be if /sb switch is used when flashing the bios (instead of /wb switch).

The 2 pins to short to force a checksum error varies from chip to chip. But these are usually the highest-numbered address pins (A10 and above).

These are the pins used by the system to read the System BIOS (original.bin for award v6), calculate the ROM checksum and see if it’s valid before decompressing it into memory, and subsequently allow Bootblock POST to pass control over to the System BIOS.

You just have to fool the system into believing that the System BIOS is corrupt. This you do by giving your system a hard time reading the System BIOS by shorting the 2 high address pins. And when it could not read the System BIOS properly, ROM Checksum Error is detected “so to speak” and Bootblock recovery is activated.

Sometimes, any combination of the high address pins won’t work to force a checksum error in some chips, like my Winbond W49F002U. But shorting the #WE pin with the highest-numbered address pin (A17) worked for this chip. You just have to be experimentative if you’re not comfortable with “hot flashing” or “replacement BIOS”.

But to avoid further damage to your chip if you’re not sure which are the correct pins to short, measure the potential between the 2 pins by a voltmeter while the system is on. If the voltage reading is zero (or no potential at all), it is safe to short these pins.

But do not short the pins while the system is on. Instead, power down then do the short, then power up while still shorting. And as soon as you hear 3 beeps (1 long, 2 short), remove the short at once so that automatic reflashing from Drive A can proceed without errors (assuming you had autoexec.bat in it).

About how to do the shorting, the tip of a screwdriver would do. But with such minute pins on the PLCC chip, I’m pretty comfortable doing it with the tip of my multi-tester or voltmeter probe. Short the pins at the point where they come out of the chip.

AMIBIOS Recovery bootblock:
1. Copy a known working BIOS image for your board to a floppy and rename it to AMIBOOT.ROM.
2. Insert the floppy in your system’s floppydrive.
3. Power on the system while holding CTRL+Home keys. Release the keys when you hear a beep and/or see the floppy light coming on.
4 . Just wait until you hear 4 beeps. When 4 beeps are heard the reprogramming of the System Block BIOS went succesfull, so then you may restart your system.

Some alternative keys that can be used to force BIOS update (only the System Block will be updated so it’s quite safe):
CTRL+Home= restore missing code into system block and clear CMOS when programming went ok.
CTRL+Page Up= restore missing code into system block and clear CMOS or DMI when programming went ok.
CTRL+Page Down= restore missing code into system block and do not clear CMOS and DMI area when programming went ok
Btw: the alternative keys work only with AMIBIOS 7 or higher (so for example an AMI 6.26 BIOS can be only recovered by using CTRL+Home keys).
Boot Block Recovery for FREE

************************************************
BLACKOUT Flashing
*************************************************

Recovering a Corrupt AMI BIOS chip
With motherboards that use BOOT BLOCK BIOS it is possible to recover a corrupted BIOS because the BOOT BLOCK section of the BIOS, which is responsible for booting the computer remains unmodified. When an AMI BIOS becomes corrupt the system will appear to start, but nothing will appear on the screen, the floppy drive light will come on and the system will access the floppy drive repeatedly. If your motherboard has an ISA slot and you have an old ISA video card lying around, put the ISA video card in your system and connect the monitor. The BOOT BLOCK section of the BIOS only supports ISA video cards, so if you do not have an ISA video card or your motherboard does not have ISA slots, you will have to restore your BIOS blind, with no monitor to show you what’s going on.

AMI has integrated a recovery routine into the BOOT BLOCK of the BIOS, which in the event the BIOS becomes corrupt can be used to restore the BIOS to a working state. The routine is called when the SYSTEM BLOCK of the BIOS is empty. The restore routine will access the floppy drive looking for a BIOS file names AMIBOOT.ROM, this is why the floppy drive light comes on and the drive spins. If the file is found it is loaded into the SYSTEM BLOCK of the BIOS to replace the missing information. To restore your BIOS simply copy a working BIOS file to a floppy diskette and rename it AMIBOOT.ROM, then insert it into the computer while the power is on. The diskette does not need to be bootable or contain a flash utility. After about four minutes the system will beep four times. Remove the floppy diskette from the drive and reboot the computer. The BIOS should now be restored.

Recovering a Corrupt AWARD BIOS
With AWARD BIOS the process is similar but still a bit different. To recover an AWARD BIOS you will need to create a floppy diskette with a working BIOS file in .BIN format, an AWARD flash utility and an AUTOEXEC.BAT file. AWARD BIOS will not automatically restore the BIOS information to the SYSTEM BLOCK for this reason you will need to add the commands necessary to flash the BIOS in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. The system will run the AUTOEXE.BAT file, which will in turn flash the BIOS. This is fairly easy. Here are the steps you need to take.

· Create a bootable floppy diskette
· Copy the BIOS file and flash utility to the diskette
· Create an text file with any standard text editor and add the following lines

@ECHO OFF
FLASH763 BIOSFILE.BIN /py

In the above example I am assuming that you are using the FLASH763.EXE flash utility. You will need to replace the FLASH763 with the name of whatever flash utility you are using, and replace the BIOSFILE.BIN with the name of the BIOS file you are using. You will also need to change the ‘/py’ to whatever the command is for your flash utility to automatically program the BIOS without user intervention. If you do not know the command to automatically flash your BIOS type the name of the flash utility with a space and then /? to display the utility’s help screen. The help screen should pecify the command switch to automatically flash your BIOS. If you are using the FLASH763.EXE utility then the switch to automatically flash your BIOS is ‘/py’.

All latest Motherboards today, 486/ Pentium / Pentium Pro etc.,ensure that upgrades are easily obtained by incorporating the system BIOS in a FLASH Memory component. With FLASH BIOS, there is no need to replace an EPROM component. Once downloaded, the upgrade utility fits on a floppy disc allowing the user to save, verify and update the system BIOS. A hard drive or a network drive can also be used to run the newer upgrade utilities. However, memory managers can not be installed while upgrading.

Most pre-Pentium motherboards do not have a Flash BIOS. The following instructions therefore do not apply to these boards. If your motherboard does not have a Flash BIOS (EEPROM) you will need to use an EPROM programmer to re-program the BIOS chip. See your dealer for more information about this.

Please read the following instructions in full before starting a Flash BIOS upgrade:
A. Create a Bootable Floppy (in DOS)

•With a non-formatted disk, type the following:

format a:/s

•If using a formatted disk, type:

sys a:

This procedure will ensure a clean boot when you are flashing the new BIOS.

B. Download the BIOS file

•Download the correct BIOS file by clicking on the file name of the BIOS file you wish to download.

•Save the BIOS file and the Flash Utility file in the boot disk you have created. Unzip the BIOS file and the flash utility file. If you don’t have an “unzip” utility, download the WinZip for Windows 95 shareware/ evaluation copy for that one time use from _www.winzip.com or _www.pkware.com. Most CD ROMs found in computer magazines, have a shareware version of WinZip on them.

•You should have extracted two files:

Flash BIOS utility eg: flash7265.exe (for example)

BIOS eg: 6152J900.bin (example)

Use the latest flash utility available unless otherwise specified (either on the BIOS update page or in the archive file). This information is usually provided.

C. Upgrade the System BIOS

During boot up, write down the old BIOS version because you will need to use it for the BIOS backup file name.

Place the bootable floppy disk containing the BIOS file and the Flash Utility in drive a, and reboot the system in MS-DOS, preferably Version 6.22

•At the A:> prompt, type the corresponding Flash BIOS utility and the BIOS file with its extension.

For example:

flash625 615j900.bin

•From the Flash Memory Writer menu, select “Y” to “Do you want to save BIOS?” if you want to save (back up) your current BIOS (strongly recommended), then type the name of your current BIOS and its extension after FILE NAME TO SAVE: eg: a:\613J900.bin

Alternatively select “N” if you don’t want to save your current BIOS. Beware, though, that you won’t be able to recover from a possible failure.

•Select “Y” to “Are you sure to program?”

•Wait until it displays “Message: Power Off or Reset the system”

Once the BIOS has been successfully loaded, remove the floppy disk and reboot the system. If you write to BIOS but cannot complete the procedure, do not switch off, because the computer will not be able to boo, and you will not be given another chance to flash. In this case leave your system on until you resolve the problem (flashing BIOS with old file is a possible solution, provided you’ve made a backup before)

Make sure the new BIOS version has been loaded properly by taking note of the BIOS identifier as the system is rebooting.

For AMI BIOS
Once the BIOS has been successfully loaded, remove the floppy disk and reboot the system holding the “END” key prior to power on until you enter CMOS setup. If you do not do this the first time booting up after upgrading the BIOS, the system will hang.

BIOS Update Tips
note:
1.Make sure never to turn off or reset your computer during the flash process. This will corrupt the BIOS data. We also recommend that you make a copy of your current BIOS on the bootable floppy so you can reflash it if you need to. (This option is not available when flashing an AMI BIOS).

2. If you have problems installing your new BIOS please check the following:

Have you done a clean boot?
In other words, did you follow the above procedure for making a bootable floppy? This ensures that when booting from “A” there are no device drivers on the diskette. Failing to do a clean boot is the most common cause for getting a “Memory Insufficient” error message when attempting to flash a BIOS.

If you have not used a bootable floppy, insure a clean boot either by

a) pressing F5 during bootup

b) by removing all device drivers on the CONFIG.SYS including the HIMEM.SYS. Do this by using the EDIT command.

Have you booted up under DOS?
Booting in Windows is another common cause for getting a “Memory Insufficient” error message when attempting to flash a BIOS. Make sure to boot up to DOS with a minimum set of drivers. Important: Booting in DOS does not mean selecting “Restart computer in MS-DOS Mode” from Windows98/95 shutdown menu or going to Prompt mode in WindowsNT, but rather following the above procedure (format a: /s and rebooting from a:\).

Have you entered the full file name of the flash utility and the BIOS plus its extension?
Do not forget that often you will need to add a drive letter (a:\) before flashing the BIOS. Example: when asked for file name of new BIOS file which is on your floppy disk, in case you’re working from c:\ your will need to type a:\615j900.bin, rather than 615j900.bin only.

After repeated requests for beep codes i have decided to post them here maybe they could be pinned

Standard Original IBM POST Error Codes
Code Description

1 short beep System is OK
2 short beeps POST Error – error code shown on screen No beep Power supply or system board problem Continuous beep Power supply, system board, or keyboard problem Repeating short beeps Power supply or system board problem
1 long, 1 short beep System board problem
1 long, 2 short beeps Display adapter problem (MDA, CGA)
1 long, 3 short beeps Display adapter problem (EGA)
3 long beeps 3270 keyboard card
IBM POST Diagnostic Code Descriptions
Code Description
100 – 199 System Board
200 – 299 Memory
300 – 399 Keyboard
400 – 499 Monochrome Display
500 – 599 Colour/Graphics Display
600 – 699 Floppy-disk drive and/or Adapter
700 – 799 Math Coprocessor
900 – 999 Parallel Printer Port
1000 – 1099 Alternate Printer Adapter
1100 – 1299 Asynchronous Communication Device, Adapter, or Port
1300 – 1399 Game Port
1400 – 1499 Colour/Graphics Printer
1500 – 1599 Synchronous Communication Device, Adapter, or Port
1700 – 1799 Hard Drive and/or Adapter
1800 – 1899 Expansion Unit (XT)
2000 – 2199 Bisynchronous Communication Adapter
2400 – 2599 EGA system-board Video (MCA)
3000 – 3199 LAN Adapter
4800 – 4999 Internal Modem
7000 – 7099 Phoenix BIOS Chips
7300 – 7399 3.5″ Disk Drive
8900 – 8999 MIDI Adapter
11200 – 11299 SCSI Adapter
21000 – 21099 SCSI Fixed Disk and Controller
21500 – 21599 SCSI CD-ROM System

AMI BIOS Beep Codes
Code Description

1 Short Beep System OK
2 Short Beeps Parity error in the first 64 KB of memory
3 Short Beeps Memory failure in the first 64 KB
4 Short Beeps Memory failure in the first 64 KB Operational of memory
or Timer 1 on the motherboard is not functioning
5 Short Beeps The CPU on the motherboard generated an error
6 Short Beeps The keyboard controller may be bad. The BIOS cannot switch to protected mode
7 Short Beeps The CPU generated an exception interrupt
8 Short Beeps The system video adapter is either missing, or its memory is faulty
9 Short Beeps The ROM checksum value does not match the value encoded in the BIOS
10 Short Beeps The shutdown register for CMOS RAM failed
11 Short Beeps The external cache is faulty
1 Long, 3 Short Beeps Memory Problems
1 Long, 8 Short Beeps Video Card Problems

Phoenix BIOS Beep Codes
Note – Phoenix BIOS emits three sets of beeps, separated by a brief pause.

Code Description
1-1-3 CMOS read/write failure
1-1-4 ROM BIOS checksum error
1-2-1 Programmable interval timer failure
1-2-2 DMA initialisation failure
1-2-3 DMA page register read/write failure
1-3-1 RAM refresh verification failure
1-3-3 First 64k RAM chip or data line failure
1-3-4 First 64k RAM odd/even logic failure
1-4-1 Address line failure first 64k RAM
1-4-2 Parity failure first 64k RAM
2-_-_ Faulty Memory
3-1-_ Faulty Motherboard
3-2-4 Keyboard controller Test failure
3-3-4 Screen initialisation failure
3-4-1 Screen retrace test failure
3-4-2 Search for video ROM in progress
4-2-1 Timer tick interrupt in progress or failure
4-2-2 Shutdown test in progress or failure
4-2-3 Gate A20 failure
4-2-4 Unexpected interrupt in protected mode
4-3-1 RAM test in progress or failure>ffffh
4-3-2 Faulty Motherboard
4-3-3 Interval timer channel 2 test or failure
4-3-4 Time of Day clock test failure
4-4-1 Serial port test or failure
4-4-2 Parallel port test or failure
4-4-3 Math coprocessor test or failure
Low 1-1-2 System Board select failure
Low 1-1-3 Extended CMOS RAM failure

(I’m IT, I use these codes to trouble shoot hardware issues at my job. Enjoy) cold.gif

BIOS Beep Codes

When a computer is first turned on, or rebooted, its BIOS performs a power-on self test (POST) to test the system’s hardware, checking to make sure that all of the system’s hardware components are working properly. Under normal circumstances, the POST will display an error message; however, if the BIOS detects an error before it can access the video card, or if there is a problem with the video card, it will produce a series of beeps, and the pattern of the beeps indicates what kind of problem the BIOS has detected.
Because there are many brands of BIOS, there are no standard beep codes for every BIOS.

The two most-used brands are AMI (American Megatrends International) and Phoenix.

Below are listed the beep codes for AMI systems, and here are the beep codes for Phoenix systems.

AMI Beep Codes

Beep Code Meaning
1 beep DRAM refresh failure. There is a problem in the system memory or the motherboard.
2 beeps Memory parity error. The parity circuit is not working properly.
3 beeps Base 64K RAM failure. There is a problem with the first 64K of system memory.
4 beeps System timer not operational. There is problem with the timer(s) that control functions on the motherboard.
5 beeps Processor failure. The system CPU has failed.
6 beeps Gate A20/keyboard controller failure. The keyboard IC controller has failed, preventing gate A20 from switching the processor to protect mode.
7 beeps Virtual mode exception error.
8 beeps Video memory error. The BIOS cannot write to the frame buffer memory on the video card.
9 beeps ROM checksum error. The BIOS ROM chip on the motherboard is likely faulty.
10 beeps CMOS checksum error. Something on the motherboard is causing an error when trying to interact with the CMOS.
11 beeps Bad cache memory. An error in the level 2 cache memory.
1 long beep, 2 short Failure in the video system.
1 long beep, 3 short A failure has been detected in memory above 64K.
1 long beep, 8 short Display test failure.
Continuous beeping A problem with the memory or video.
BIOS Beep Codes

Phoenix Beep Codes

Phoenix uses sequences of beeps to indicate problems. The “-” between each number below indicates a pause between each beep sequence. For example, 1-2-3 indicates one beep, followed by a pause and two beeps, followed by a pause and three beeps. Phoenix version before 4.x use 3-beep codes, while Phoenix versions starting with 4.x use 4-beep codes. Click here for AMI BIOS beep codes.
4-Beep Codes
Beep Code Meaning
1-1-1-3 Faulty CPU/motherboard. Verify real mode.
1-1-2-1 Faulty CPU/motherboard.
1-1-2-3 Faulty motherboard or one of its components.
1-1-3-1 Faulty motherboard or one of its components. Initialize chipset registers with initial POST values.
1-1-3-2 Faulty motherboard or one of its components.
1-1-3-3 Faulty motherboard or one of its components. Initialize CPU registers.
1-1-3-2
1-1-3-3
1-1-3-4 Failure in the first 64K of memory.
1-1-4-1 Level 2 cache error.
1-1-4-3 I/O port error.
1-2-1-1 Power management error.
1-2-1-2
1-2-1-3 Faulty motherboard or one of its components.
1-2-2-1 Keyboard controller failure.
1-2-2-3 BIOS ROM error.
1-2-3-1 System timer error.
1-2-3-3 DMA error.
1-2-4-1 IRQ controller error.
1-3-1-1 DRAM refresh error.
1-3-1-3 A20 gate failure.
1-3-2-1 Faulty motherboard or one of its components.
1-3-3-1 Extended memory error.
1-3-3-3
1-3-4-1
1-3-4-3 Error in first 1MB of system memory.
1-4-1-3
1-4-2-4 CPU error.
1-4-3-1
2-1-4-1 BIOS ROM shadow error.
1-4-3-2
1-4-3-3 Level 2 cache error.
1-4-4-1
1-4-4-2
2-1-1-1 Faulty motherboard or one of its components.
2-1-1-3
2-1-2-1 IRQ failure.
2-1-2-3 BIOS ROM error.
2-1-2-4
2-1-3-2 I/O port failure.
2-1-3-1
2-1-3-3 Video system failure.
2-1-1-3
2-1-2-1 IRQ failure.
2-1-2-3 BIOS ROM error.
2-1-2-4 I/O port failure.
2-1-4-3
2-2-1-1 Video card failure.
2-2-1-3
2-2-2-1
2-2-2-3 Keyboard controller failure.
2-2-3-1 IRQ error.
2-2-4-1 Error in first 1MB of system memory.
2-3-1-1
2-3-3-3 Extended memory failure.
2-3-2-1 Faulty motherboard or one of its components.
2-3-2-3
2-3-3-1 Level 2 cache error.
2-3-4-1
2-3-4-3 Motherboard or video card failure.
2-3-4-1
2-3-4-3
2-4-1-1 Motherboard or video card failure.
2-4-1-3 Faulty motherboard or one of its components.
2-4-2-1 RTC error.
2-4-2-3 Keyboard controller error.
2-4-4-1 IRQ error.
3-1-1-1
3-1-1-3
3-1-2-1
3-1-2-3 I/O port error.
3-1-3-1
3-1-3-3 Faulty motherboard or one of its components.
3-1-4-1
3-2-1-1
3-2-1-2 Floppy drive or hard drive failure.
3-2-1-3 Faulty motherboard or one of its components.
3-2-2-1 Keyboard controller error.
3-2-2-3
3-2-3-1
3-2-4-1 Faulty motherboard or one of its components.
3-2-4-3 IRQ error.
3-3-1-1 RTC error.
3-3-1-3 Key lock error.
3-3-3-3 Faulty motherboard or one of its components.
3-3-3-3
3-3-4-1
3-3-4-3
3-4-1-1
3-4-1-3
3-4-2-1
3-4-2-3
3-4-3-1
3-4-4-1
3-4-4-4 Faulty motherboard or one of its components.
4-1-1-1 Floppy drive or hard drive failure.
4-2-1-1
4-2-1-3
4-2-2-1 IRQ failure.
4-2-2-3
4-2-3-1
4-2-3-3
4-2-4-1 Faulty motherboard or one of its components.
4-2-4-3 Keyboard controller error.
4-3-1-3
4-3-1-4
4-3-2-1
4-3-2-2
4-3-3-1
4-3-4-1
4-3-4-3 Faulty motherboard or one of its components.
4-3-3-2
4-3-3-4 IRQ failure.
4-3-3-3
4-3-4-2 Floppy drive or hard drive failure.
3-Beep Codes
Beep Code Meaning
1-1-2 Faulty CPU/motherboard.
1-1-3 Faulty motherboard/CMOS read-write failure.
1-1-4 Faulty BIOS/BIOS ROM checksum error.
1-2-1 System timer not operational. There is a problem with the timer(s) that control functions on the motherboard.
1-2-2
1-2-3 Faulty motherboard/DMA failure.
1-3-1 Memory refresh failure.
1-3-2
1-3-3
1-3-4 Failure in the first 64K of memory.
1-4-1 Address line failure.
1-4-2 Parity RAM failure.
1-4-3 Timer failure.
1-4-4 NMI port failure.
2-_-_ Any combination of beeps after 2 indicates a failure in the first 64K of memory.
3-1-1 Master DMA failure.
3-1-2 Slave DMA failure.
3-1-3
3-1-4 Interrupt controller failure.
3-2-4 Keyboard controller failure.
3-3-1
3-3-2 CMOS error.
3-3-4 Video card failure.
3-4-1 Video card failure.
4-2-1 Timer failure.
4-2-2 CMOS shutdown failure.
4-2-3 Gate A20 failure.
4-2-4 Unexpected interrupt in protected mode.
4-3-1 RAM test failure.
4-3-3 Timer failure.
4-3-4 Time of day clock failure.
4-4-1 Serial port failure.
4-4-2 Parallel port failure.
4-4-3 Math coprocessor.

What Processor Socket Motherboard Do I Need?
You need to make sure that the motherboard will support the processor that you want to use. Fist choose a processor and find out what socket the processor is. There are really only 4 different types of processor sockets, For AMD you will have socket 754 and 939. For Intel you will have socket 478 or 775. When new generation processors are released they are likely to use a different socket number.

Dual Core / Hyper threading Support
Don’t assume that all motherboards will support dual core and hyper threading processors. Virtually all AMD socket 939 motherboards will support dual core, make sure you check before selecting a motherboard. Dual core has become very popular these days, so its quite important to get a dual core motherboard.
�

Forward Looking Processors
If you are building a top of the range system then it might be worth keeping an eye on what processor speeds the motherboard supports because in a few months after you buy your system you might want to buy a faster processor to get that little extra boost out of your system. Some motherboards at release might only support a processor speed up to say 3.2gig, but make sure you check the motherboards website as BIOS upgrades are released which will possibly support a faster processor when installed.
AGP / PCI-E??

You need to check what form your graphics card is. It will be either AGP or PCI. Make sure that your motherboard has one of these slots available. Also AGP / PCI will run at certain speeds, make sure the motherboard supports this speed. For example I might have an AGP x4 speed graphics card, I need to make sure the motherboard has a slot that can support AGP x4.

Dual Graphics Card Or Not?
If you are building a top of the range gaming system, or you want to use your computer for heavy graphics use then you might want to use 2 graphics cards. It is possible to install two graphics cards and have them act as one, This will spread the load between them and let you achieve a far higher frame rate than you ever could with a single graphics card.

Sata Support?
I would recommend buying a motherboard that supports sata devices.  Sata hard-drives run at a much faster speed than IDE hard-drives so you will get a general speed benefit from using Sata instead of IDE.How Many PCI Slots?
You will need some free PCI slots. PCI slots are used for devices such as, sound cards, network cards. Always make sure you have a spare PCI slot, if you don’t think you will need some now, you might need a slot in the future.How Many USB Slots?
You will need to consider how many USB slots you need.  Think of what devices you want to connect to your system.  USB slots are usually located at the back of the PC and at the front,  typically there will be 1 or 2 USB slots

Do You Want To Over Clock Your Processor?
I would not recommend doing this as you risk breaking your processor.  But if you want to over clock your processor there are some motherboards that were specially made to do this job. Take a look at a few over clocking motherboards here http://www.devhardware.com/c/b/Motherboards/

Raid Support?
Do you plan to use raid?? With raid you can merge many disks in to one large disk and also add redundancy should one of your drives fail.

Onboard Audio?
Some motherboards have audio ports integrated,  These ports are okay to use but if you want surround sound you will need to buy a separate PCI sound card and connect your speakers to this.

My Recommendations and Why,,,
Entry Level System
For the entry level system I would recommend you buy the cheapest motherboard you can find that supports your processor. Also make sure you get onboard graphics and sound as this will save you a bit of money.
Mid Range System
I would recommend you buy any mid range prices motherboard, just make sure it supports all of the features you need. (Processor speed, Dual Core, Graphics card connection type)
Top Of The Range System
Buy a motherboard that supports your processor speed and then some. If you want to upgrade in the future you can with out changing the motherboard, which can be costly. Make sure the motherboard can support 2 graphics cards and has 4 memory slots which support dual channels.
�

The picture below shows a graphics card being installed.

�
Entry System – You might be able to get away with buying 128mb but I would recommend buying 256 as the price difference is very little
Mid Range System – I class my system at home as mid range and I have been using 512mb of memory and I have never had a problem of running out of memory. So I would say buy 512 – 1024mb of memory, If you plan to install and use windows vista I would recommend 2 gig of memory.
Top Of The Range – Buy 1gig or 2gig for a future proof machine.What Form Of Memory Do I Need?
There are two types of memory, SDRAM which is used in older systems and current budget systems, And DDR (Sometimes called SDRAM DDR) which is faster memory used in most new computers today. You need to select a motherboard before you choose the memory, So check your motherboard manual to see what memory types are supported.

You might think this is the most important component that will determine your systems overall speed, Well you are right we will help you in choosing a processor

but make sure you don’t spend all your money on buying the processor as the processor speed wont mean anything if you don’t buy the right memory, Storage device and motherboard.

How Is A Processors Speed Measured?
Every processor has a speed rating which is measured in MHZ. 1000mhz is usually addressed as 1gig so a 3.2gig processor would be 3200mhz. Intel’s processors are usually called Intel Pentium 4 3.2gig. So you know that the processor speed is 3200mhz. But be careful with AMD as they name there processors AMD Athlon 3200+ / 4500+ but 3200 and 4500 does not mean that the processor speeds are 3200mhz and 4500mhz, the mhz rating will be much less than this number and is sometimes in small print so watch out.

Do I Need A 64 Bit Processor?
Your software will only benefit from a 64 bit processor if you install an operating system which supports 64 bit. But be aware that some programs / games do not run on 64 bit operating systems.

Do I Need A Processor With Cache?
The more cache a processor has the faster it will be able to perform. Budget processors usually come with 128-512k of cache, Whilst the higher spec processors will come with 1-2mb (1024-2048k) of cache

How Many Cores Do I Need
You might of heard of something called a dual/quad core processor, This is a single processor that has two/four cores inside it. Each core acts like a single processor, So a processor will act as two/four because it has 2/4 processor chips inside it.

You will benefit from a dual/quad core processor if you run more than one program at a time. For our entry system you will not benefit from having a dual/quad core because you are not running processor hungry programs and you are also not running many programs at once.

The dual/quad core processors share the processing that a system needs to do which makes this processor a must for our top of the range system.

Which Processor Brand Shall I buy?
In recent years AMD have really taken over the market from Intel. The recent AMD processors have been out performing intel’s pentium processor range. AMD have also been packing in gaming performance enhancements in to there processors which makes AMD the clear choice for anyone.

Which AMD Processor Shall I Buy?
AMD’s processors include, The budget sempron, which is a low spec processor that will be used in our budget system. The sempron processor does not have a dual core and doesn’t have much cache.

The next step up processor is called an Athlon 64 processor. 64 means that the processor is 64 bit, some operating systems and software will greatly benefit and perform better from your system having a 64 bit processor. The amount of cache a processor will have vary’s, If possible pick the processor with the most cache. We will use the Athlon 64 processor for our Mid Range System.

The top end processors are called AMD Athlon 64 X2, The X2 means its a dual core processor. And the other processor is called Athlon 64 FX, Which is also a dual core processor Personally if I was building a top of the range system I would use these processors as they have been proven again and again that they out perform the Intel processors.

Which Intel Processor Shall I Buy?
Please be aware that sometimes Intel call dual core hyper threading

The intel lineup is a bit of a mess as they have released so many processors, But I will put them in to three bands. The intel processors are similar to AMD as they have budget and dual core processors.

Intel celeron, celeron D and Pentium M are all budget processors and will be used in our entry system. Just like the AMD processors all of these processors are single core and not much cache.

We have a wide range of mid range processors. There is the single core Pentium 4 processor, The lower rated dual core Pentium 4′s, The dual core Pentium D and Pentium 4 Extreme edition processor. To make matters even worse some processors come in 64bit versions as well. I would say for the mid range system pick a dual core processor and I personally would go for the Pentium 4 Dual core processor.

The top of the range processors are a bit easier to pick out. You have the top of the range Pentium 4 dual core processors and you also have Pentium D 800+ processors. These Pentium D processors are the fastest processors that Intel have released and this is what we are going to put in to our top of the range system.

Cooling Fans

 Don’t forget to buy a descent cooling fan.  The processor runs at a very high temperature so if you don’t buy a descent cooling fan you could find your processor will over heat regularly and become faulty / burnet out.  Also if you don’t cool your processor properly it will have a knock on affect and heat up your whole system.

 With a budget processor you might get away buying a cheat cooling fan but I wouldn’t recommend it.  If you have one of the high spec processors then it will be very important for you to buy a descent cooling fan,  You may also want to think about water cooling.

 You can also buy special compound which you put on the processor before you put the cooling fan on,  This compound will help cool the system as it improves the contact between the processor and the fan.

Future Processor Upgrades

 Whilst it will be possible to upgrade your processor you will probably be better off buying a new motherboard and processor. The reason for this is because computer hardware changes so much these days,  Your system might benefit slightly with a faster processor,  but with prices of components getting cheaper and cheaper I would recommend buying a new motherboard and processor.

Power Consumption

 Not really something you need to worry about for a desktop PC, but be aware that lower spec processors will consume far less power than the high spec processors.  If you are buying a laptop or buying a processor for a laptop you need to check how much power the processor will use,  as the more power it will use the less time your battery will last.

Processor Intensive Tasks

 Here is a short list of processor intensive tasks, try not to run these tasks for to long at one time if you can help it.

-Video playback / editing
-DVD ripping
-Playing games
-Speech recognition
-Running out of physical memory

My Recommendations and Why,,

Entry Level System
I would go for the cheapest processor you can find, Either the Intel Celeron or AMD Sempron. Make sure you get at least a 1.5gig (1500mhz) processor speed. In a budget system you don’t need much processing power and you can save a lot of money here.

Mid Range System
Again this is close, But I will go for the Dual Core Pentium 4, I feel this processor will give you the best value for money. But take a look at the price of the Athlon 64 X2 processors, If you want to spend a bit more money, or if you see a good price go for the Athlon.

Top Of The Range System
This is not a difficult choice, The new AMD Athlon 64 FX is by far the best processor on the market at the moment. It has dual core, 2mb / 4mb of cache, internally it runs at a faster (Bus speed). This processor was also designed for gamers and performance.