|  | | | | | When first opening a case, collect screws and other small items in separate containers. | | | | | | | | | Keep food and drink on another table to avoid the inevitable accident. | | | | | | | | | After you have done one or two systems, the process becomes much quicker. We find that we can assemble nodes in well under an hour once we become familiar with the idiosyncrasies of any particular configuration. | | | | | | | | | Many of the instructions below may not apply in every case. Included are directions for such sub-assemblies as monitors, keyboards, sound cards that rarely show up in the majority of Beowulf nodes. However, there is usually at least one such node that is more heavily equipped to support user interface, operations support, and external connections for the rest of the system. | | | | | | | | | In a number of cases, the specific action is highly dependent on the subsystems being included. Only the documentation for that unit can describe exactly what actions are to be performed. For example, every motherboard will have a different set and positioning of jumpers, although many of the modern boards are reducing or almost eliminating these. In these instances, all we can say is: "do the right thing," but we still indicate in general terms the class of action to take place. | | | | | | | | | 3.10.1 Motherboard Pre-assembly | | | | | | | | | Set every jumper on the motherboard properly. | | | | | | | | | Look through your motherboard manual and verify every setting, since the default may not work for your CPU, memory, or cache configuration. | | | | | | | | | Locate every jumper and connector: floppy, hard drive, PS/2, COM port, LPT port, sound connectors, speaker connector, hard disk LED, power LED, reset switch, keyboard lock switch, etc. | | | | | | | | | Install the CPU | | | | | | | | | Pentiums, and Pentium Pros are keyed so that you will bend a pin unless you put it into the socket properly. Look at its gold pins: they will have an asymmetric pattern, and so will the socket. The Pentium II uses the SEC slot 1 connector which also has a key to prevent inserting the cartridge in backwards. Don't force. | | | | | | | | | Whatever the chip, match the notched corner of the CPU with the notched corner of the socket. | | | | |
