Precautions

• While the motherboard has to be fitted at a fixed place inside the PC cabinet, the locations of add-on cards (as and when used) and the drivers (hard disk drive, floppy disk drive, and CD-ROM drive) within the drivers bay of the cabinet can be changed within certain limits. But it is better to place them far away from each other. (The length of the cable provided for interconnections to the motherboard has to be taken into account, as there must be some slack after these are installed and connected.) This will improve the cooling and reduce the chance of electro-magnetic interference between them.
• The motherboard contains sensitive components, which can be easily damaged by static electricity. Therefore the motherboard should remain in its original anti static envelope until required for installation. The person taking it out should wear an anti static wrist strap that is properly grounded. In the absence of a proper wrist strap, you must make one on your own, using a peeled of multi-stranded copper cable and ground it properly. Similar handling precaution are also required for cards.
• Be sure to handle all the components with great care. If a small thing like a screw is dropped on the MB, it can damage the delicate circuitry, rendering the MainBoard useless.

Procedure

Installing Motherboard

You need to determine if the case has the appropriate risers installed. Risers, or spacers, keep the motherboard from touching the metal surfaces of the case after it is installed, avoiding a short-circuit and a wrecked computer. Any new case will include some form of riser, metal or plastic. See the picture on Side for typical examples. They may or may not be pre-installed into the case. Keep the cabinet panel on the table and fix the motherboard on it. A gentle pressure is enough to mount the Motherboard on it. There will be a mechanism to lock the motherboard in place. Identify its working and mount the motherboard accordingly. Tighten the screws on the motherboard to the panel.