New computer assembly help !!!

[Teken]

I am trying my hand at building my very first computer system today with the parts on hand... I would greatly appreciate some help on a few things that I am unsure about...

The following hardware are present now:

1. Antec 1040B server case with a 400 watt PSU.
2. Asus P4T-E MOBO
3. Audigy Platinum sound card
4. Plextor 24x10x40 CDRW
5. Iomega 250 mb Zip drive
6. 3.5" floppy drive
7. Logictech Z-560 4.1 THX certified subwoofer speaker system
8. Microsoft Internet Pro USB key board & optical mouse
9. 3Com 56 bit NIC card
10. Creative Labs full duplex voice, fax, data, V.92 56K modem
11. 80 mm Antec front case fan with small (3) pin connetor
12. Maxtor 80 gig 7200 rpm ATA-133 hard drive
13. Sony G410R 19" flat monitor

I am currently waiting upon my Intel 2.0 ghz CPU with 512 L2 cache & fan / heatsink, ATI 8500DV video card, 512 RDRAM w/ECC, and on Zip cartrige...

These are my Q's for you computer GURU's... Some of the peripherals came with molex connectors with a Y shaped (split) power distribution plug...

Q: Can I plug the first female connector to say the CDRW, and then the other female plug end to my Zip drive... Then on the male end of the (Y) plug inserted into the PSU???

Q:I have done the very same wiring to the HD & the 3.5" FD but have used the other PSU wiring harness to connect a (mini 4) pin molex connector to the FD for power in the back... <---- Is this correct???

Q: There is also a (2 wire) blue & black "small" molex connector coming out of the Antec PP-412X 400 watt PSU... Where does it go on the Asus P4T-E MOBO???

Q: There is also a (6 wire) 3 black, 2 orange, 1 red colored "large" molex connector coming out of the PSU... Where does it plug into???

There are (2) rear Antec case fans each of them have (2) large male & female plug ends...

Q: Do the two case fans simply connect to one another, then I take another PSU power supply harness and connect to it??? Or would I plug each case fan into it's seperate PSU power harness???

Q: The front fan is a 80 mm Antec dual ball bearing case fan... This fan has a very "small" 3 pin molex connector... Where the heck does this plug into??? I did notice on the MOBO that there is a similar 3 pin connector labeled (PCI FAN JEN). Could this be used for the front fan??? Because there are no other similar plug jacks coming out of the server case PSU that would terminate into it...


There are (5) front server case wires for the following things:
POWER SW, RESET SW, SPEAKER, POWER LED, HDD LED...

I have found the corresponding pins on the Asus P4T-E mobo on the lower right side of the board just below the DIP switches for FSB overclocking features...

The MOBO is labeled as this (TOP ROW): MLED, SMI, PWRBTN, RESET...

The lower portion is labeled: PLED, KEYLOCK, SPEAKER...

Below is what the pins look from above to me: There are 10 rows of these dual (2) pin connectors that look like this= ::::::::::

. . . . . . . . . . <---- This is the top row labeled I think withe the words written below the pins.

Q: Do they simply plug into the board horizontal, or vertical???


I would greatly appreciate any and all positive feed-back in this matter to find a happy ending to this drama...

Thank you very much one and all...

Regards

Teken

 

[flounder43]

I am trying my hand at building my very first computer system today with the parts on hand... I would greatly appreciate some help on a few things that I am unsure about...

The following hardware are present now:

1. Antec 1040B server case with a 400 watt PSU.
2. Asus P4T-E MOBO
3. Audigy Platinum sound card
4. Plextor 24x10x40 CDRW
5. Iomega 250 mb Zip drive
6. 3.5" floppy drive
7. Logictech Z-560 4.1 THX certified subwoofer speaker system
8. Microsoft Internet Pro USB key board & optical mouse
9. 3Com 56 bit NIC card
10. Creative Labs full duplex voice, fax, data, V.92 56K modem
11. 80 mm Antec front case fan with small (3) pin connetor
12. Maxtor 80 gig 7200 rpm ATA-133 hard drive


I am currently waiting upon my Intel 2.0 ghz CPU with 512 L2 cache & fan / heatsink, ATI 8500DV video card, 512 RDRAM w/ECC, and on Zip cartrige...

These are my Q's for you computer GURU's... Some of the perpherals came with molex connectors with a Y shaped (split) power distribution plug...

Q: Can I plug the first female connector to say the CDRW, and then the other female plug end to my Zip drive... Then on the male end of the (Y) plug inserted into the PSU???

Eric says: sure.

Q:I have done the very same wiring to the HD & the 3.5" FD but have used the other PSU wiring harness to connect a (mini 4) pin molex connector to the FD for power in the back... <---- Is this correct???
Eric says: yep.

Q: There is also a (2 wire) blue & black "small" molex connector coming out of the Asus PP-412X 400 watt PSU... Where does it go on the Ausus P4T-E MOBO???
Eric says: it is probably a fan monitoring wire for a fan in the PSU. If you have a header for that on the mobo, plug it in there. I would suggest you consult your manual.

Q: There is also a (6 wire) 3 black, 2 orange, 1 red colored "large" molex connector coming out of the PSU... Where does it plug into???

Eric says: That is an aux power connector not used in most configurations. I believe that it is used in some servers. *edit, check your manual, I did. I believe it will plug in by by memory and ide connecors, near the edge of the mobo... It is labeled as number six in the photo diagram.*

There are (2) rear Antec case fans each of them have (2) large male & female plug ends...

Q: Do the two case fans simply connect to one another, then I take another PSU power supply harness and connect to it??? Or would I plug each case fan into it's seperate PSU power harness???

Eric says: you can connect them together, then to the PSU. There should be no problem with that.

Q: The front fan is a 80 mm Antec dual ball bearing case fan... This fan has a very "small" 3 pin molex connector... Where the heck does this plug into??? I did notice on the MOBO that there is a similar 3 pin connector labeled (PCI FAN JEN). Could this be used for the front fan??? Because there are no other similar plug jacks coming out of the server case PSU that would termintate into it...

Eric says: That is a connector meant to plug into a fan header on your motherboard. Consult your manual, it should be easy to identify. It is probably the thing you are describing. This will allow you to monitor the speed of the fan.

There are (5) front server case wires for the following things:
POWER SW, RESET SW, SPEAKER, POWER LED, HDD LED...

I have found the corresponding pins on the Asus P4T-E mobo on the lower right side of the board just below the DIP switches for FSB overclocking features...

The MOBO is labeled as this (TOP ROW): MLED, SMI, PWRBTN, RESET...

The lower portion is labeled: PLED, KEYLOCK, SPEAKER...

Below is what the pins look from above to me: There are 10 rows of these dual (2) pin connectors that look like this= ::::::::::

. . . . . . . . . . <---- This is the top row labeled I think withe the words written below the pins.

Q: Do they simply plug into the board horozontal, or vertical???

Eric says: It may be a combination of the two. Once again, the manual will probably have a diagram. My guess would be horizontal.

I would greatly appreciate any and all positive feed-back in this matter to find a happy ending to this drama...

Thank you very much one and all...

Regards

Teken

Here is a link to more info about your mobo, should you need to get the manual...
http://usa.asus.com/mb/socket478/p4t-e/overview.htm

*edit, I just looked through the manual, it is very good...*

 

[Teken]

Thank you for the concise reply...

Erik,

Thank you very much for the clarification on the above questions...

Q: Could you clarify wether or not the front case fan (can) in fact plug into the PCI_FAN 3 pin connector???

Q: I have located the AUX power supply 6 pin Jack for the plug... If I plug it into the MOBO... What are the effects of this if I do or not??? I would have to gather by common sense that the AUX is a secondary power supply for a auxillary component / device... But for what??? And if I choose not to plug it in, will there be any features disabled by default??? Or am I simply making this more complicated than it is??

Teken<---Points finger at himself

There is now only (1) spare PSU power distribution wiring harness... Do most people just wire tie it and leave it alone??? Or is it terminated to something???


Regards

Teken<----Who can see some positive head way, due to the help of Erik aka Flonder...

 

[flounder43]

Re: Thank you for the concise reply...

Erik,

Thank you very much for the clarification on the above questions...

Q: Could you clarify wether or not the front case fan (can) in fact plug into the PCI_FAN 3 pin connector???

Q: I have located the AUX power supply 6 pin Jack for the plug... If I plug it into the MOBO... What are the effects of this if I do or not??? I would have to gather by common sense that the AUX is a secondary power supply for a auxillary component / device... But for what??? And if I choose not to plug it in, will there be any features disabled by default??? Or am I simply making this more complicated than it is??

Teken<---Points finger at himself

There is now only (1) spare PSU power distribution wiring harness... Do most people just wire tie it and leave it alone??? Or is it terminated to something???


Regards

Teken<----Who can see some positive head way, due to the help of Erik aka Flonder...

The PCI fan 3 header does seem to be for a case fan.

I think that the aux power is just an "extra" power source, and have heard people go without it. But if your psu has it, plug it in, it can't hurt.

Finally, there is no problem with not plugging in your spare connectors. They all run in parallel, so you can plug or unplug any of them to your liking.

 

[Teken]

Much thanks !!!

Erik,

As always I am greatly appreciative of your time and to the point replies...

Could you clarify the following for me as well...

Q: With a brand new system such as mine... Will I have to partition the 80 gig HD into more than 2 partitions??? If so, how many partitions??? After partitioning the HD I am gathering that I would have to follow-up with a full format, then the installation of the Windows 2000 Pro O/S<---- Yes???

If no, then would the split be 50-50??? Or would it be more efficient and performance wise to split it up to a 80-20 partition where the 20 gig would be used for the O/S and the other 60 for various data storage???

Q: There 3 pin jacks for the following fans: Main fan, CPU fan, and PCI fan... I have already plugged the front 80 mm fan into the PCI jack, and will of course plug the CPU fan in the appropiate socket as well... But the main fan??? What the heck is that for???

Also, since the two rear fans are plugged directly into the PSU... Does this mean that I will have to live with a airplane cooling system right on start-up and running???

Q: In your IMO... Would it be best to configure the new system with only the minimum amount of hardware first... Then add on the remainder hardware equipment once the system is proven to be stable: ie All new Win2K service packs installed, Bios settings selected & engaged, Down load all current drivers & software updates for MOBO???

Regards

Teken

 

[BoBo007]

OK my 2 cents here,

you can format and partition your drive DURING windows 2K install. You will get a screen ask where to install, there are options to create a partition etc......Win 2K will see a 80G partition fine.
I always run fdisk on my new drives first, then do my partitions with partition magic, but you can do it right from win 2k setup.

I would not run a case fan off your mother board, connect it to the PS instead. its ok for most CPU fans, but a case fan can draw a little too much current for a mother board.

If your fans are too noisy, get quieter ones or do a 7 volt mod.

I would install every thing and go !

 

[Teken]

Thanks for the reply... Could you clarify the 7 volt mod you mentioned???

Regards

Teken

 

[flounder43]

Thanks for the reply... Could you clarify the 7 volt mod you mentioned???

Regards

Teken

You do it by using the +12 and -5 volt lines to power the fan. I wouldn't worry about that until you get a good handle on everything else...

Nomal case fans can be plugged into the mobo with the 3pin connectors with no problem. The high watt ones might pull a little too much juice, however. If you plug them right into the psu with nomal molex connectors, that is good, too. If you are worried about noise, a rheostat might help as well.

However, most normal case fans really don't make that much noise. Wait and see if it is a problem.

With regard to partitions, I just use one big partition, but that is just me. Some people like to split it up. I am not sure why.
Finally, main fan...maybe you could plug the fan monitoring cable from your psu there...