First Build Problem when turned on

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Hactar

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 18, 2004
Messages
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So I finally ordered all my stuff from newegg the other day and it'll hopefully get here tomorrow or monday. It'll be the first time I've built a PC so I'll probably post questions and stuff here for the time being...
Anyways, this is what I got.

Cooler Master Centurion 5
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
Corsair XMS 1gb (2 x 512)
Sapphire Radeon X800 256mb GDDR3 PCIex 16
Athlon 64 3200+ Venice
Enermax Whisper 2 535w PSU
Maxtor Ultra Series 7200rpm SATA 80gb
Lite-on IDE DVD Burner
Viewsonic G90FB 19" Monitor D-Sub
XP Home OEM version

So, post your suggestions/thoughts/highly intimate feelings/whatever
 
Ok: First two questions are here.

1. This sounds stupid, but how do I know which way to orient the mobo when I put it in the case?

2. Do I need to go download updated drivers for my mobo?
 
To answer your questions:

1. It's easy once you've gotten the parts in front of you. Just line up the screw holes in the mobo with the brackets in the case.

2. Though it's not necessary, I would recomend it.
 
If I may ask what did you pay for it? Not bad specs should be a real good gamer and good overclocker.
 
Wow, I was looking at your specs, and saw the enermax powersupply. I'm a big fan of enermax for cost and quality reasons, but had never heard of that line of powersupplies. Are those the new fanless kind? I have a noisetaker which is quiet but definately not silent. I'll look it up, but thought you might like to tell us about them.

________________________________________________________________________

Okay I looked it up... holy cow have powersupplies advanced in the last two years. That thing has some serious power...jeesh
 
The total price was about $1428...not too bad. $86 for shipping though >_<

Sc00ter - is it difficult to update the mobo's drivers? I've heard stuff about killing your motherboard trying to flash the bios...is that the same thing?

Right now I'm googling building guides.
 
Hactar said:
The total price was about $1428...not too bad. $86 for shipping though >_<

Sc00ter - is it difficult to update the mobo's drivers? I've heard stuff about killing your motherboard trying to flash the bios...is that the same thing?

Right now I'm googling building guides.
Click to expand...
Hello Hactar,

Here's an illustrated guide that you may find helpful:

http://www.omnicast.net/~tmcfadden/guides/build/index.html

Much luck and have fun with your new system. :)
 
Thanks guys! Anyways, everything just arrived via FedEx about 20 minutes ago. I found this guide through google and it looks pretty good, it even has videos and everything.

http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/pc_building/fitting/motherboard/

So far I've unpacked everything and I'm about to start putting the PSU into the case. This is my first build ever, so I'll probably be mad slow and ask a ton of questions.

By the way, the 19" viewsonic monitor I got is INCREDIBLY HUGE. The box it came in is so big that if I hadn't saw the viewsonic logo and picture I would have thought that all my stuff was inside that box. It weighs like 45 pounds. It probably has to be fed.

Edit - The guide you posted said not to work in a carpeted area...I don't really have much of a choice though! Is that OK or should I really move everything into my basement?

Edit again - I found a small card table with a synthetic leather / suade top. I'll just use that.
 
I wouldn't worry about updating (flashing) your bios because this motherboard has the following feature:

ASUS CrashFree BIOS2
The CrashFree BIOS2 feature now includes the BIOS auto-recovery function in a support CD.
Users can reboot their system through the support CD when a bootable disk is not available,
and go through the simple BIOS auto-recovery process.
ASUS motherboards now enable users to enjoy this protection feature without the need to pay for an optional ROM.

A few years back most motherboards only had one BIOS and is it flashed improperly the board would be useless. Now many companies offer additional protection that will make this process easier.

For instructions on updating your bios check here:

http://support.asus.com/technicaldocuments/technicaldocuments.aspx?root=198&SLanguage=en-us
 
Thanks. I have another question - do I need to do anything else to protect from static when I unpack my PSU aside from have the anti-static bracelet?
 
You should be fine clipping the strap to you and to your comp case. If you want to be extra safe touch the metal of the case before you touch anything else. ;)

That's my policy at least. Good luck.

 
Bah, 45lbs :p , my 21" crt is 75 lbs, and I bring mine to LAN parties :eek:
 
Hactar said:
Thanks. I have another question - do I need to do anything else to protect from static when I unpack my PSU aside from have the anti-static bracelet?
Click to expand...

I didn't use a bracelet when I built my computer and everything was fine
 
Cool, thanks guys. I just remembered I forgot to get thermal paste. Arctic Silver 5, correct?

Update: I have successfully installed the power supply, despite my mechanical ineptness.
There are many, many cables.
 
Onto the motherboard. There's probably more cables included with this than there are hairs on my head. Ahhhh!!!

Edit- I really need help trying to install the mobo. The I/O shield has a ton of small metal pieces sticking off the inside and I can't get it to stay on the mobo.
 
Install the I/O sheild in the case. If there is already a plate there remove it and snap this one in. It may take a little force. Once it's in there then put the mobo in the case.
 
Yep, I got it in. I just kinda had to push a little bit. Unfortunately, I don't really know which cables connect where on the mobo. Theres like 10 cables coming from the PSU, like 15 that were included with the mobo, and theres even more that are part of the case and from the DVD drive and video card. I'm a little overwhelmed.
 
Just go slow, take your time and everything will turn out ok.

First, look at the manual for the motherboard. It will basically tell you what to plug where.

Second, the cable coming from the case are sometimes a bit complicated. They will be marked on each connector. This will loosely correspond to what the mobo manual says (sometimes very loosely :rolleyes: ).

Third, the power supply has a bunch of wires, but you don't usually use them all. Just check at the end that each hard drive and each dvd/cd drive has one power cable connected to it.
 
Cool, thanks. I've been reading like 4 different guides and I pretty much have a good idea about everything except for those damn wires coming from the case that are for the power switch, reset sw, speaker, and the ones for the mic in, mic out, L out, R out, ect. I read through that part of the manual about 12 times (seriously) and it does not make it clear where I plug those in. The wires themselves are colored, and the connectors on the mobo are colored but the colors don't really match up! I'll be able to get pictures up in a little bit to show what I mean, maybe someone can point it out.
 
Damn. Oh well, I have pics now and I'll post them up in about 10 minutes.
 
Hactar said:
Cool, thanks. I've been reading like 4 different guides and I pretty much have a good idea about everything except for those damn wires coming from the case that are for the power switch, reset sw, speaker, and the ones for the mic in, mic out, L out, R out, ect. I read through that part of the manual about 12 times (seriously) and it does not make it clear where I plug those in. The wires themselves are colored, and the connectors on the mobo are colored but the colors don't really match up! I'll be able to get pictures up in a little bit to show what I mean, maybe someone can point it out.
Click to expand...
Hactar I know you've got your guides, but are your LEDS marked like this or no?

powertrip-1.jpg


If not and you just have a bunch of wires with plus or minus signs maked on them just go by this:

Switch cables may be connected in either orientation, ( you can flip them around later if they don't light up) but connect the ground wire (usually green or black) to the ground pin and signal wire (usually red or white) to the signal pin. And of course use the diagram in the manual of the mobo header....you see how the mobo header is cleary marked here on the board?
 
Papa - the LEDs just have pluses and minuses on them. Unfortunately I'm so new that I'm not sure what the mobo header is. Here are pictures of the wires:

Comp0001.jpg


And then where I'm supposed to be connecting it to. The manual doesn't state it specifically, it just says that that is the group of pins to put it on.

Comp0002.jpg


You can see that right above the "P-LED" it says "IDE-LED". I'm not sure if thats for the HD or what.
 
If you go in the manual on page 2-29 you will see this:



These are the directions on where to plug in the case wires (power, reset, LED's and so on).
 
Oh geeze, yeah. I found that like 5 minutes after I posted the pictures.

Ok, so i have those in, but i'm still not sure where to connect the "L-out", "R-out", "mic-in", ect... connectors from the front of the case. A

Also, on page 2-23, it shows a bunch of connectors for fans. The fans in my case didn't come with those little 4-pin ones, they came with the large molex 4-pin connectors. The antec fan i bought seperately did, though. It shows chassis fan 1, cpu fan 1, ect. How can I use those if the connectors don't fit?
 
Just be certain for now that the fan on your CPU Heatsink is connected to the cpu fan 1 header! Your HS/Fan will have the appropriate pin out for that. Don't start the PC without doing that.

The others can be connected to a regular molex from the power supply for now, as long as they're blowing air it's good. At a later date you can buy adapters for them, or new fans, whatever. ;)
 
Alright cool. I wanted to make sure that my fans were going to work... I'm going to post a picture of those damn audio connectors from the front of the case that I can't figure out where to put.
 
Page 2-28 #13 the manual makes mention of front panel audio connectors. That's where you plug in the audio out from the case.

Line out L and R are for the headphone jack and then there are also plugs for the mic plug. :)

You're getting there.

 
Ok, Here are the audio connectors from the front of the case that I can't figure out where to plug in. They are labeled L-OUT, R-OUT, L-OUT, R-OUT, MIC-IN, MIC-POWER, GROUND.

Heres what the manual has to say about it.

Comp0003.jpg


(diagram at right) I dont know what NC means, and I'm not sure if it matters which line_out I plug into which or not. I don't know what the +5VA means either. I'm pretty good on the last 3 which are pretty much self explanatory.

Heres where I'm plugging them into. Its the area with the 2 blue jumpers, which pose a different problem: How am i supposed to plug in the line_outs if i need those jumpers there? or should i just take them out?

The little black 4-pin socket and the white one beside it are also for audio, but the manual said those are for a CD or MPEG card, so I don't think that I'm supposed to plug it into them. The black one is labeled CD and the white one is labeled AUX.

Comp0006.jpg


Here are the plugs:

Comp0004.jpg
 
Yes, you have to remove the jumpers. They are put in there if you are not using these connectors the jumpers tell the board to bypass these connectors.

Can you list the labels on the plugs fom the case?

I see:

Mic IN
Mic Power
L-Out
L-Out
R-Out
Ground

What else?
 
I put that at the top of my post but you probably missed it. no worries!

They are: L-OUT, R-OUT, L-OUT, R-OUT, MIC-IN, MIC-POWER, GROUND.
 
Yes, sorry about that. :eek:

OK, here we go:

L-OUT - LINE OUT L
R-OUT - LINE OUT R
L-OUT return - BLINE OUT R
R-OUT return - BLINE OUT L
MIC-IN - MIC2
MIC-POWER - MIC PWR
GROUND - AGND

The ones labeled return are the little wires hanging from the other OUT wire.
 
Awesome, thanks alot!

By the way, I was checking out my CPU's heatsink that it came with and it has some thermal tape on it already. Should I scrape that off and put arctic silver on? and do i need to put arctic silver on the CPU itself as well as the heatsink?
 
Thermal tape is ok, but AS is better. scrape the tape off and clean it up with rubbing alcohol. When that's done, put a thin layer of paste on the cpu, follow directions from AS.

Not too much paste, not too little. ;)
 
What I've read before is that about a BB sized drop and spread it with a credit card or something.
 
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