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 Remember the warning about delicate components? This also applies to the motherboard. When you open the box you will see that it is packaged inside a plastic bag. This is a special bag that ensures that it is free of static, so from now on it is important that you are earthed.
I took the motherboard out of the bag, and keeping it on the foam rubber pad it came packed on, I placed it on the table. The first item I mounted was the processor. As with most items it only fits one way, so there should be no need to force or coerce it into place – the little pins are easily bent, and once they are bent the processor is next to useless. Look for a tiny gold dot or triangle on one corner of the processor (as you look down on it. That will line up against a corresponding triangle on the processor mount on the motherboard. You should feel it drop into place. Once down, pull the locking arm over to secure it in place (rather like setting a mousetrap)  Once the processor was in place I attached the cooler. This does have to be done carefully, as if done wrong it can cause no end of hassle. My cooler (and most supplied onto the market these days) came pre-fitted with the correct amount of thermal paste. This is a seal between the processor and the cooler to ensure that the cooler works efficiently. However if you have to take the cooler off, before you can put it back on again, it is necessary to clean off all the old paste from contact surfaces of both the processor and the cooler, then apply new paste to the cooler.
Once again, on my machine there was a locking arm to secure the cooler to the processor and the motherboard.  Note that I was using an AMD AM2 socket processor, Intel or other sockets may connect differently. The final items I had to mount was the RAM kit. These generally come as packs of 2 cards. I was opting for 2x1Gb cards, leaving two spare RAM slots in case I wanted more memory in the future. When lining up the card against the slot, there is a break in the RAM card, which ensures that it can only be fitted one way. The RAM is needs to be push quite firmly (but not forced) into place, and is locked in by the cips at either end of the slot. That was all the components I was fitting. I could have opted for a graphics card, but as I previously mentioned I saw little virtue in this as I had no plans for gaming.
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