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How to build a stereo - Part ThreePosted by Andrew Poelstra on May 8, 2006.

Finally, we come to the final part of my three-part series on my stereo. In this section I fix the following issues:

Crappy wiring
Old hardware
Various fire hazards
Crappy speakers
No way to turn it off

Basically, I replaced everything. Here's a tutorial from scratch.
Supplies:

A new PSU, preferably ATX 1.3, although 2.0 will work fine
A decent CD drive, that won't catch fire or skip
A couple meters of speaker cable (double)
Alligator clips
Speakers (I got awesome Boseness)
Velcro straps (for cable management)
3.5mm headphone cable, preferably black
Some styrofoam
A good power switch

Now, the tutorial:

Prepare the PSU.
1. Velcro strap all the cables together into a nice bundle. Make sure that one connector is free for the drive.
2. Place a foot or two of speaker cable into the motherboard connector, with the copper wire in the green wire's slot and the aluminum immediately to the right.
3. Take the the drive and strap (or tape) it to the top of the PSU. Plug it in with the PSU connector.
Set up the speakers.
1. Put cabling into the back of both speakers, about a foot and a half into each.
2. Alligator clip the aluminum wire from both onto one end of the headphone cable: <=|==|===|||||||
3. Clip the copper wire from one speaker here: <=|==|===|||||||, and the other here: <=|==|===|||||||
Build your styrofoam chassis however you want. (See the picture for my setup). Drill a hole through it.
Run the free end of the headphone cable through the front, as well as the speaker cable connected to the mobo port. Once done, check to ensure you didn't wreck your connections.
Install the stereo where you want it. For me, that meant lifting the thing into my shelf. If you were lucky, you built it where it belongs, because it isn't made to move well.
Install the power switch. Solder the speaker cable hanging out of the front to your power switch. This should be fairly simple. Press it into the styrofoam and tape it in place.
Plug everything in. Put the 3.5mm headphone cable into the headphone port on the front of your CD drive, and the power cable into the wall. Flick your on/off switch to on, and press play!