Putting It Together

Let's jump right in and go into the details of the MSI MEGA 180 setup. MSI packages a thin "Quick Installation Guide" to help guide you through the setup process. Why is it so thin? Well the MSI MEGA 180 is one of the easiest systems to build assuming you have all your parts ready.

1. Open up the system

You'll need to open up the case in order to get anything done of course. The aluminum case is held into place by three thumbscrews located at the rear of the system. Once the screws are removed, just lift up the case and you'll have full access to the innards.

2, Install the Hard Drive

The first thing you'll notice when you open up the system is the cramped quarters on the inside. A great deal of the internal real estate is taken up by the drive cage at the front of the system. This case can house an optical drive and two 3.5inch hard drives (actually, it's two 3.5 inches ONLY if you remove the 6 in 1 media reader support).

In order to install your hard drive, you'll need to remove three screws from the cage. This will loosen the top hard drive module which you can then lift right out. The module looks as follows:

This module fits around the 3.5inch hard drive and then is held into place by six screws. When you're done with the drive installation, the user guide will tell you to insert the module back into the system and secure the screws into place. We actually decided to wait until the CPU was installed before inserting the hard drive module back into the system. Why? Well we thought we could use the extra space made available by the absence of the hard drive module.

3. Prepare the CPU

As mentioned above, there just isn't that much internal real estate space. You'll need to carefully prepare your Athlon XP processor ahead of time before inserting the CPU into the socket. We used Artic Silver thermal grease and applied a small dose onto the CPU die. A straight edge was then used to smooth out the thermal grease. (We actually used a razor blade). Be careful with the Athlon XP core - the surface is actually quite fragile.

MSI includes a proprietary CPU cooler design with two fans. Here are some pictures of the cooler.

We made sure to apply some thermal grease to the heatsink also.

4. Install the CPU and CPU Cooler

You're now ready to insert the Athlon XP processor into the socket. Raise the socket lever that is next to the socket and then place the processor into the socket. Make sure to carefully align the CPU pins to the socket. Once the CPU is place, lower the socket lever and then place the CPU cooler on top of the processor - making sure to align the cooler screws with the pre-drilled holes in the motherboard. The MSI Cooler uses four screws to create a strong seal between the heatsink and the CPU.

The cooler has a label on the top instructing what order the screws should be turned on the motherboard. Again - be careful to not apply incredible amounts of pressure which could damage the Athlon XP. Rotate the screws until you feel resistance to the pressure. The cooler also has two fan cables which you'll need to connect to the MEGA 180 motherboard.

Now that the CPU installation was done, go back and install the hard drive module. Make sure to connect the appropriate IDE cables and power cables. MSI identifies the internal cables with premade labels that are attached the cables.

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