CPU/Mobo Need help 'assembling' my PC

[impulse1992]

can anyone tell me on wat surface should i keep the motherboard while installing the cpu+hsf & ram?

how to discharge static electricity?

 

[asingh]

^^

Keep it on the styrofoam sheet that would have come with motherboard. Preferably on a soft surface like a bed, so the solders at the bottom do not get bent.

Doubt there would be any issue of static.

 

[P.Ping Tom]

Also this link is good to read about various computer connectors. It explains common mistakes, and what is not what.

Dude awesome link thx a bunch . Let's hope I can understand it. Repped!

 

[P.Ping Tom]

That's it? No one else besides asingh ?? C'mon ppl - let's drop some much needed knowledge over here! :ashamed:

 

[P.Ping Tom]

All done!!!

Awright guys, I'm about 5 days late in posting this (mad crazy at work), but I finally got around to assembling my PC on monday night, by myself - and I was pretty much done within 3-4 hrs. A good part of that time was spent on just staring at the case/part/cables and thinking and planning on how to go about it - the actual installation part was much easier and quicker than expected . No hiccups, no issues, everything went smooth and steady. Took some time on choosing/planning the cabling (the fan connectors confused me for a while - had to ask someone for clarity), but once I laid all the cables out and looked at all my components, all of a sudden everything just made sense. I have to give credit to Corsair's modular cabling which made something I was very apprehensive about reasonably easy to understand (extra special thanks to asingh :clap: in this regard - without your link I would have been lost, and you were the only one to answer most of my questions. Thx buddy! :cheers.

Didn't boot the system up that day itself as I was too tired, so decided to finish up on tuesday. Connected the side and front case fan connectors, did a little bit of cable management to the best of my ability, quick once-over - and fired up. Ta-Da!!! :hap2:

(ASIDE) Still have this one question from an earlier post that needs to be answered, so if anyone can help out, pls do -

4.My mobo has 6 x SATA 3gb/s connectors (SATAII 0 upto SATAII 5), controlled by ICH9R on the South Bridge, and 2 x GSATA connectors (Gigabyte SATA2 chip) for a total of 8 SATA connectors. What is the difference if any between these two connectors? I'm not planning on setting up my HDD's in RAID, so is there any preference as to which device (HDD, optical drive) goes into which connector, and are they supposed to be in any particular order? Eg. primary/boot drive in SATA 0, secondary/storage drive in SATA 1, optical drive in SATA 2 (or GSATA 0) and so on, or can I connect any SATA device to any SATA connector on my mobo? Also have the eSATA bracket w/ 2 ports and the the eSATA port on my cabby that I need to connect.

Huge thanks to asingh, fah33m and all the others for your offers of help/advice/support. Since this is my very first build, I've included step-by-step pics of how I went about it. Please give your comments/feedback on the setup, cable management, or whatever. Advice, praise or criticism will all be equally appreciated. Time to see what this baby can do. Thanks again guys.

I'm trying to upload a couple of more pics - screenshot showing system specs, and one of the entire desktop, but seem to have exceeded some sort of attachment limit. Will post them once I figure out how. Will be adding speakers and sound card within a few weeks as well - can't wait till the whole thing is set up hyeah:. Cheers.

 

[intelcore2]

How did u go about applying the thermal paste ? and u call urself a noob:huh:
Be sure to monitor ur temps ateast for about 3-5mins in the bios to see that there is no heating issues causd by applying the thermal paste improperly
anyways cheers to ur new system :hap2:

 

[asingh]

Well good to see that the system is up and running decent. As mentioned above, monitor the temperatures for a few days. Also, get some cable ties, and 'tighten' the cables a bit more --- not that the cable management is bad..it is done well. Bravo..!

 

[vishalrao]

How did u go about applying the thermal paste ? and u call urself a noob:huh:

indeed. i should hang my head in shame then

my way of doing this is, if it fits then good, and if it does not blow up when powered on, then PARTY!

 

[P.Ping Tom]

How did u go about applying the thermal paste ? and u call urself a noob:huh:

Be sure to monitor ur temps ateast for about 3-5mins in the bios to see that there is no heating issues causd by applying the thermal paste improperly

anyways cheers to ur new system :hap2:

As much as I'd love to take credit for this one , the fact is that I installed a brand new arctic cooling freezer pro that already has thermal compound pre-applied, so all I had to do was simply align it correctly and put it on. There's a very good video on youtube about how to go about installing this very cooler, so that made it real easy for me. Will probably go in for an arctic silver or somethin' once I get into Oc'ing.

As of now, with not much installed and no real applications running in the background, CPU temp is between 35-37C, system temp hovering at 40C. Is that good?

Also - can someone tell me how to post pics within a post (like they do in members market/dealers paradise) instead of being attachments at the end of the post?

 

[impulse1992]

Also - can someone tell me how to post pics within a post (like they do in members market/dealers paradise) instead of being attachments at the end of the post?

first upload ur image to image uploading sites like imageshak, tinypic, etc

then get the code/url

For Eg:

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/6781/heatsinkbeast.jpg

then while replying put these

and paste ur image code between them

or u can press the insert image button(the one with the mountains) & paste ur image code/url in the box

 

[shravank30]

Inspired by your experience, I am also planning to do the upgrade myself for the 1st time.
In the past i have always relied on a technician to do the same.

However, I have some clarifications:
I will install
Asus M2N-E Motherboard
AMD 4400+ Dual Core Brisbane CPU
4GB DDR2 667 Transcend RAM
4670 512MB GPU
460W Coolermaster Real power SMPS
SCCF 120 CPU Cooler
120mm Rosewill side panel fan
2 Nos. HDD 500 GB & 250 GB
1 No. LG DVD Writer
1. I will install 2 Sata II HDD & 1 Sata II DVD Writer
The motherboard has 5 Sata data slots
Can any Data cable go into any slot or is there a particular sequence to be followed?
(I will not be going for RAID)

2. How to make the HDD primary & secondary ?

3. Most of the connectors that i have studied so far can be connected only in 1 direction so there cannot be any error. However, I am not sure about the 4 small connectors for the Cabinet Switches Lights power reset etc. ? Can they be fitted in any direction or there is any method to be followed ?
Also there is a slot for power fan? Which fan goes in here in my case or it is not applicable for me ?

3. Any particular care i should take while assembling

Thanks for advising

 

[intelcore2]

If ur not plannin to overclock there is no need to change the thermal paste

your temps are fine.always monitor your temp from the bios as they are right

u can also instal core temp.but since ur temps are fine and u also have an artic cooling freezr pro dont worry about he temp.

one word of advice do not ever take out the artic cooling freezer if your plannin to clean your comp in the future as the thermal paste will create gaps between the proccy and the artic pro

 

[asingh]

shravank30:

1. You can put the HDD cables into any slot you wish to.

2. During BOOT the BIOS will ask you which is primary. Of course the one with OS. Set it that time. Or during first BOOT go into the BIOS and set primary HDD in the Boot sequence.

3. The four small connectors can be fitted in any direction (singularly). But the arrangement on the pin header has to be as per the manual. Read that carefully. Your motherboard does has fan pin headers. The CPU HSF cable should go into the fan pin header closest to your CPU. (Close to the first yellow RAM slot).

4. Be careful when docking the CPU/RAM. It is easy to get the direction incorrect and try to force a fit.

 

[shravank30]

My SCCF CPU Fan has a 3 pin connector where as the Mobo CPU Fan slot has 4 pins
can i just ignore the last left pin or should i install the cpu fan also in the extra available Cabinet fans slot which have 3 pins ?

Also i want to build the upgraded rig with a new HDD 500 GB

I want to partition it into 250 GB each prior to installing the OS as i wish to go for a dual OS in future
How do i do it & at what stage.?
There will be no OS when booting the HDD

Thanks

 

[asingh]

^^

Yes, you can connect the 3 pin to the 4 pin fan header on the motherboard. You can partition it during OS installation. The procedure will prompt you, you can enter in the partition size(s).

 

[shravank30]

^^

Yes, you can connect the 3 pin to the 4 pin fan header on the motherboard. You can partition it during OS installation. The procedure will prompt you, you can enter in the partition size(s).

Thanks for the clarification on the HDD

But it is still not clear which pin i omit when i install the 3 pin in the 4 pin header or it does not matter & i can ignore any of the last pins ?

Please bear with me as this is my 1st experiment with assembling a PC and I may be repeating my queries due to ignorance.

 

[thetechmind]

Thanks for the clarification on the HDD

But it is still not clear which pin i omit when i install the 3 pin in the 4 pin header or it does not matter & i can ignore any of the last pins ?

Please bear with me as this is my 1st experiment with assembling a PC and I may be repeating my queries due to ignorance.

ur mobo is the Asus M2N-E as u have said right ?

see properly....the socket on the motherboard will have the numbering....1 on one side of the cpu fan connector header.....so ur fan connector will use 1-2-3 and ignore the last one. hope this helps.

edit :

 

[shravank30]

ur mobo is the Asus M2N-E as u have said right ?
see properly....the socket on the motherboard will have the numbering....1 on one side of the cpu fan connector header.....so ur fan connector will use 1-2-3 and ignore the last one. hope this helps.

edit :

Thanks a lot man..Thats what i wanted to know..which pin to omit

I was not able to explain it properly but i think you hit the nail on the head

Coming to the Bios, shall i leave most of the items on Auto or i should change some specifically ?

Should i activate the cool & quiet facility & the SMART HDD Facility ?

Any other pitfalls in the Bios i should watchout for ?

shravank30:
1. You can put the HDD cables into any slot you wish to.
2. During BOOT the BIOS will ask you which is primary. Of course the one with OS. Set it that time. Or during first BOOT go into the BIOS and set primary HDD in the Boot sequence.
3. The four small connectors can be fitted in any direction (singularly). But the arrangement on the pin header has to be as per the manual. Read that carefully. Your motherboard does has fan pin headers. The CPU HSF cable should go into the fan pin header closest to your CPU. (Close to the first yellow RAM slot).
4. Be careful when docking the CPU/RAM. It is easy to get the direction incorrect and try to force a fit.

I will put the 500GB HDD in SATA slot1 (This will have the OS)
the 250GB in SATA slot 2
the DVD writer in SATA slot 3
I hope this correct because you forgot to clarify the DVD writer sata slot.
Moreover please confirm that the Sata data cables are same for DVD writers & HDD's ?

 

[P.Ping Tom]

I will put the 500GB HDD in SATA slot1 (This will have the OS)
the 250GB in SATA slot 2
the DVD writer in SATA slot 3
I hope this correct because you forgot to clarify the DVD writer sata slot.
Moreover please confirm that the Sata data cables are same for DVD writers & HDD's ?

That's what I did. I read in one of the how-to guides that you should connect your primary hdd into the first sata slot, so that's what I did (sata0 on my mobo, looks like sata 1 on yours). Connected 2nd hdd into the next one, followed by the optical drive - so you're on the right path I guess. Then of course you have to set in BIOS when you boot up as to which is your primary/secondary drive, but that should be pretty self-explanatory.

As far as the fans go - this is what confused me the most during my build - the 3-pin fan connectors will go into the 4-pin mobo fan headers and they will only go in one way. If you look at the 4-pin header, it has that little plastic tooth/key on it, which aligns perfectly with the groove on the 3-pin fan connector. On my mobo, since all my 3 & 4 pin fan headers have the same voltage, but I only have two sys_fan headers, I plugged my top exhaust fan into the pwr_fan header on my mobo, and it works just fine.

As far as the sata cables go, they're the same - I think - but I used the cables that came with my with my optical drive for my dvd writer and used the cables that came with the mobo for the hdd's.

Anything else to watch out for? Read the guides I've linked to in earlier posts - they were actually pretty helpful. Go on youtube - lots of installation/self-help videos.

And take your time. I know I did . Good luck.
^^ *heh heh heh* me giving advice.....teh funny!

 

[shravank30]

Thanks man.

I am taking it very easy as my DVD writer has been delayed and will reach me only on Monday.

I am trying to clarify even small points even at cost of being branded a dunce, so that i dont fail in this setup or else i will never have the courage to do it again

If you teach others what was taught to you, that the best tribute you can give to your teacher:clap:

Shall i plug my side panel Rosewill fan in the pwr socket on the mobo or the chassis fan socket?

Any difference in operation between the 2 plug ins ?

If so which is a better choice ?