Installing The I/O Connectors & Mouse Step 10

Now that the motherboard is in place, you can start connecting all the parts of the computer to it. The first step is to install the I/O connectors, such as your parallel and serial ports. Note that if you are installing an ATX motherboard, these connectors are built into the motherboard, and you do not have to do this step.

1.) Study the setup and determine mounting technique. AT style boards almost always come with slot inserts that have the parallel and serial ports mounted on them. These are just screwed onto a couple of your expansion slot bays on the back of the case. While this is easy, it steals the slots away from the motherboard slots, keeping you from using those slots later for expansion cards. To get around tying up these slots, you can remove the actual ports from the metal plate and install them into the dedicated port holes on the back of the case, if your case has them. These holes are located above the regular card slot bays and are usually covered with a metal cap that will need to be pried out with a screwdriver.