Woman + Goal to Assemble a Computer = Catastrophe?

This article is supposed to be a bit different from normal and bring a not-so-serious kind of article to our pages. The text is humorous, but nevertheless the happenings haven't been changed nor falsified. I recommend that the most bigoted hardware fanatics wouldn't even try to read the article:) The story begins from last spring when the better half of me decided to get her own computer. Different to the usual form she wanted to do everything herself: mod the case, order the components and assemble the PC. This article is story about how a female person takes a mission to assemble her PC from the beginning to the end, alone.

Because she had watched me doing my computer stuff she had a strong taste of how things should be done. Besides watching me do, she has also got to install IDE-cables and a motherboard and even fix some jumpers. We were very surprised about her interests as we started the project with abusing an old ATX-case. The case got some holes and blue paint on its surface. We also put a blue cold cathode in and a few fans. The modification happened together, me assisting when needed.

When it came to ordering components, we decided to lean on a German Minfactorys pages. She didn't want help with choosing components and with her self-learned knowledge she assembled a rather nice combination to her shopping basket. The main thing while choosing was the small space where the computer was supposed to put. Because of that our beauty had chosen f.ex. a TFT-monitor and a wireless desktop. My lectures were learned by asking, listening and reading internet sites.

The pictures and episodes are placed in a sunny July afternoon when everything was ready for the main thing. My friend and I were there to be sure that any kind of massive catastrophe couldn't happen. We tried not to advise and interfere the episodes.

WARNING!

The episodes in the article are done under the supervision of professionals. Our site doesn't take any responsibility of the hardware, nor the the female persons (girlfriend, wife, mother..) who have tried to do as we did and we also don't take responsibility of the people who have financed such possibilities. Any physical or emotional damage happened is on your own responsibility.

What was supposed to be assembled?

The assembling started at the same day when the man from the post office brought an enormous package containing computer hardware. Everything was inside, well packed and in good condition. When our hero got her package she mentioned that it was worth ordering from Germany. She had saved over 100 €.

Almost every component was waiting for their conviction. It was surely flattering for the components to get female handling, but as you can guess, the final result was in every microcircuits mind as a nightmare. The Enermax PSU, M-tec memory and Logitech’s wireless desktop our lady had bought from Finland already before. I bought a second-hand Thermalright SK-7+Papst 19dB because of her demands. The computer should look something like this:

Abit NF7 Rev2.0
M-Tec DDR333 256MB
MSI Starface Ti4200-8x 64MB
Maxtor Diamondmax 5400rpm 40GB
AMD XP Barton 2500+ and SK7+19dB Papst
Enermax 365W
MSI Starspeed 16x DVD
LG Flatron L1511S 15" TFT monitor

8.03 pm: The show begins

Everything is ready and we let our female data monster to her components. The PSU finds its way to the case with not any kind of hesitation. After this her attention hits the motherboards back panel. She leaves it alone anyway.

8.09 pm Installing memory

She took the motherboard and started progress. With a sense of purpose she takes a memory module ands slips it out of the antistatic protecting bag. She hesitates a bit with the module and slot and she is forced to ask for help which way it comes. We recommended her to examine the module and slot and to use pure logic. In this case we hoped that female logic would work even a bit like male logic. Before she hit the module on, our mechanic mentioned that she will not take responsibility of possible damage. As a man I was scared for my wallet and my prayers were heard; the module went happily to its place and everything went as planned.

8.18 pm Installing the processor

At this moment my friends and my feeling turned uncomfortable. The processor was a quite expensive part, and in the hand of a newbie, very easily broken.

Our honey had decided that now it's time to install the processor. The Athlon XP 2500+ Boxed package found its way to the garbage can, as everyone knows, the package is everything else than nice to open. This was also our Ms. Installer’s opinion after a 5 minute puff.

Finally after the package was opened the cooler found its way first to her hand. "Nice, eh" was the first comment. "Will we put this on my computer?" came straight away. We nodded towards the SK-7 on the floor and advised her to throw the boxed-cooler straight away.

Second part to reach her hands was the Barton covered with plastic. At this point I crossed my fingers, because she didn't have any experience playing with the processor. Bartons bigger core got a few admires and the beauty even had time to tease me with "who has the better processor now?". Having to hear this from a female wasn't easy, but for my own benefits I chose to shut up..

After emptying the processor package it found its cruel way to the garbage can. As "ugly & stupid" it didn't please anyone. Did it have to be so hard to open!!

I didn't concentrate for a moment, and as I turned my head back to the playground there was already a full attack started.:) She wasn't sure which way should the processor be installed, so we advised her to explore the processor and the basis. After a female break the processor found its way to socket.

I was very pleased after this result. She had seen many pi spreading it seemed to be a piece of cake for her. The amount was as perfect as it could be. Here is a great example for many of us males.

"This is cool", she said as picking up the SK-7. She had smoothened the bottom with my friend Mashsplit. "How was this installed?" she thought aloud. We had obviously reached the hardest point.

We were ready to save the catastrophe every second after this picture. Placing the cooler was still easy, but when...

...it was time to reach the screwdriver started disbelief conquer her mind. After a few careful tries, she decided to ask for help. The 100€ processor was too expensive to be broken. As you can see from the picture, she got a couple of helping hands. Help that wasn't planned to do in the beginning was done. But she was there installing the cooler anyway. Let's not allow this to affect the total result:)?

After a small disappointment installing the fan on the cooler was a piece of cake. She had surely been there watching my work with SLK-800.