1st Build Problems, Point me in a direction please

[lostshoe420]

Well, I got all the parts for my compter, I'll briefly list them:

Abit NFS-7 Mobo
2500+ Barton (week 47 i think)
Power Color Ati Radeon 9700 Pro
2x 80 gig sata hard drives
2x 512mb Muskin Black Level II
52 X Lite on
16 X Lite on DVD reader
Fortron 350watt psu
Cooler Master WaveMaster (black) - amazing

Ok, now i've never built a computer before, and I was reading the manual on my mobo and am I ever lost. I think the biggest thing I'm going to have to work on is connecting the power supply to the various parts.
My friend is coming over this weekend to help me get started, but I don't know what I'll do if he cant figure something out.

Where are some indepth instruction for hooking up specific parts, preferably written for a 6 yr old. There are just so many wires and ports its overwhelming. Any help would be appreciated.

[Steve978]

nice setup you got there. The plugs are alot more simple than they look, the biggest plastic plug goes on your motherboard, theres a small plug with 4 pins in a square formation that also plugs into your motherboard, now for your hard drives you will need converters for the power, these may or may not have come with your hard drives, the take those 4 pin plugs that are in a line formation and allow you to plug them into your hard drive. These 4 pin plugs will plug directly into your two lite-on drives.

Now when you put the CPU on the motherboard and clip on the heatsink, the fan on the heatsink will have a 3 pin power plug, this plugs right into three pins right next to your CPU socket.

As for hooking up the cables from the case to your motherboard (i.e power switch, power LED, etc.) your motherboard manual with have a diagram of how to do that correctly. The set of pins that these hook to are usually called the front panel header this might help you find the right instructions in your book.

oh and if you have any more problems post back. :D

[lostshoe420]

Oh yeah, i forgot to mention I bought the Thermalight 900a heatsink with the Smart Fan II

And I purchased 2 SATA power cables (the ones you're talking about I think)

[CalsonicGTR]

Steve978 gave you a pretty good guide to follow. However, I noticed that you just added the Thermalright heatsink to the list. This heatsink doesnt attach fans in the normal way (by being screwed into the HS). This HS uses two wire holders (they should have come with your heatsink as two different sets). Now, you have to attach the wire clips in the appropriate holes on the side of the heatsink (Thermalright has a detalied picture of this showing which fan sizes correspond to each holes). After you do this, you should place the fan on the HS, and flip the clips up so that the tips of the clip align with the fan holes in the fan. Check out Thermalright for more detailed instructions and pictures.

[don256us]

I'm certain that you will find this to be MUCH easier than you are thinking it is. For the most part, the cables are notched as such that they only fit in one way.

The general rule is that if it fits, you did it right.

The little cables from the case to the Mainboard (MB) are the hardest but even that will work out for you. The case cables should have writting on them to tell you which is power, speaker, reset, hdd, power LED, etc. Using the manual as mentioned above, you will match the power wire to the power position on the MB and so on. This part goes slow but, again, I'm sure that you will find it easy.

Just take your time.:)

[baltoos]

lostshoe420,
First read thru the manual a couple of times, comparing the manual diagrams with the motherboard. Check out this nice little GUIDE (http://www.motherboards.org/articlesd/how-to-guides/924_1.html) (w/ pics!) to see how everything goes together. Be careful! Take your time! TRIPLE check every connection! It's not really that difficult.
You also might want get some Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound to keep your Barton as cool as possible. You can get AS5 for $4.99 shipped from SVC (http://www.svc.com/arsi5hiplsit.html) & be sure to follow the INSTRUCTIONS (http://arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm) for applying the AS5.
Good Luck & I'm sure you'll get a lot if satisfaction from having built it yourself!
-Dave

[lostshoe420]

Sorry, I forgot to mention I already bought Artic Silver 5 :)
I saw a guide for applying it on their site that seems fairly straightforward.

Its snowing pretty good here, and I think school is going to be cancelled, so after work tomorrow I'll have some time to mess around.

Thanks for everything so far.

Oh, one more thing, do I really need to worry about all those static electricity warnings. My friend who has built a few computers said he never even worried about it.

I'll be working on a wood workbench in my basement, so do you think I really need to by a bracelet or any of that stuff?

[baltoos]

Looks like you've been paying attention! Good job!
I never bothered with those wrist straps. IMO, as long as you're regularly touch the case, you're grounding yourself & static won't build up.
That looks like a VERY NICE system you're putting together there! Good Luck!
-Dave

[don256us]

Originally posted by baltoos
Looks like you've been paying attention! Good job!
I never bothered with those wrist straps. IMO, as long as you're regularly touch the case, you're grounding yourself & static won't build up.
That looks like a VERY NICE system you're putting together there! Good Luck!
-Dave
I second that. You do have to worry about it but as long as you ground yourself to the case BEFORE you touch the equipment, you should be fine. I never had a wrist strap either. I've built and repaired many machines in the last 7 years.

[Bulwark]

Sorry to go a little off topic, but I noticed u're using a 350 W PSU. I'm not sure if I'm being a little overly cautious, but with the parts you have you might be reaching the limit of your PSU. I just thought I should bring that up as if you have any problems with your computer when u first turn it on, it might be on of your suspects.

[Steve978]

luckily he did buy a fortron 350watt, I don't know if that was a fluke or if someone suggested it but its an awsome power supply. It is actually comparable to most 400watt power supplies and the lines never fluctuate.

[lostshoe420]

Haha, I did my research :)

I probably spent 2 months tinkering with my wishlist before I even went to buy anything. And the only reason I finally did is because the stuff I wanted started to sell out haha.

By the way, that review at motherboards.org was very helpful...I didn't have off from school but I'm going to unpack everything and lay it out, and possibly work on applying the artic silver (and mounting processor and heatsink).

[luisjro]

Originally posted by lostshoe420
Well, I got all the parts for my compter, I'll briefly list them:

Abit NFS-7 Mobo
2500+ Barton (week 47 i think)
Power Color Ati Radeon 9700 Pro
2x 80 gig sata hard drives
2x 512mb Muskin Black Level II
52 X Lite on
16 X Lite on DVD reader
Fortron 350watt psu
Cooler Master WaveMaster (black) - amazing


we got almost the same set-up, except i got a Antec case and only one 80 gig HD. My first built up too and it when pretty smooth, except that I order the the wrong PSU (esp something not an ATX) :mad: so i had to temporaly use my old PC PSU. Abit manual is pretty easy to follow and plug everthing right the first time.