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Getting E6600 system and I am worrying

H

hken

n00b
Joined
May 31, 2006
Messages
37
I will be getting a E6600 system soon and I have no experience at building hardware before. All reading some thread on troubleshooting the new pc system, I am worry, building a pc seems like not straight forward, especially for us noobie.

Please tell me what should I pay extra attention to so that I wont ruin my components? like prevent shorting, break the component, etc... I really need help from you guys

The followings are what I am getting

CPU - E6600 (Should I buy an extra cpu cooler for this?)
Graphics, HIS ICEQ3 X1900XT
Motherboard - Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (I heard that I need to update the BIOS to compatiable with Core 2, how can I do that?)
Memory - Corsair 2GB DDR2-800
Harddisk - Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache
PSU - OCZ ModStream 520w ATX2.2 Power Supply
Case - Antec P180 Black SPCR Advanced Super Mid Tower
Optical Drive - LG GSA-H10ABAL 16xDVDRW/RAM Internal Black

Thanks in advance for all your help guys
 
Buy an anti-static strap at your local radio shack or whatever, and make sure youninstall it properly. Don't touch the PCBs or stuff mounted on them too much, never touch any contacts (they are usually gold).

The real trouble spot is installign your HSF. The stock intel one can be somewhat stubborn. Follow the instructions, and each pin should "click" twice - once will be a dull one as the triangles go through the pcb, and another will be a sharp click as the plastic pins come down to spread out the aforementioned brackets. Play with the hsf beforehand so you know how it works, and boot up into bios FIRST and check your temps to make sure they are reasonable. You will know it if they are not. My procs ran at somethign like 65C and 75C with improperly install heatsinks. If your case has a removable mobo tray, you don't need to worry, just look underneath the board with a flashlight and make sure that everythign is alright

Buy a can of air too, to blow everything off when you are done.

You may or may bot need to update the bios. if you do, you will most likley download a floppy image, write ti to a floppy, and boot into it, or tell your bios you need to flash it. Look in your mobo manual. And if whatever disk writing program you ahve gives you the option to verify it, DO IT. You can essenitally kill your board with a bad bios flash, though you can likley just buy new bios chips... not an expert on this since I have never done it.
 
The thing i had trouble with the first time i built a pc was the reset, power on , hdd led . With the new mobos this should make it easier because they have these slot in plugs but you have to make sure you have lugged them in right first in order for them to work.

The main thing i advise you is that but your goods from a local retailer , it might be expensive but if you bought everything from them they will help you alot.

The ammount of damaged goods you will go through is high for pc components.

Make sure that the board has the bios for your cpu. Also switch off the electricty when troubleshooting.

Set your bios so it boots from the cd when you about to install windows.All in all make sure support for when you get stuck is around you , like the internet.

If you are not going to overclock then dont buy another cooler, you wont need it and if you are going to just do mild overclocking then even thats ok with what you got.
 
Word has it the P5W won't POST with the E6600 if your BIOS are below 701. You'll need another CPU or call ASUS for the BIOS chip.
 
Hey,

here are some solid tips. Trust me.

First off, make sure you do not touch anything PERIOD on the motherboard or cards. Always hold those from the edges. Never ever touch the gold connectors on the bottoms of the video / sound card. Do not touch the memory as well, always always handle these items by the edge of the product.

If you are smart, you can wear surgical gloves to avoid oily finger prints all over your case and shiney new component surfaces. I do.


2nd, ground yourself and touch anything metal. Anti Static Wrist strap is also good. Avoid working on carpet as carpet holds static.

3rd, make sure you install the memory, cpu and heatsink and fan to the motherboard BEFORE you put the motherboard in the case.

You can find instructions clearly printed in your motherboards manual on how to do this.

Note: Memory needs to be installed in the correct fashion to enable dual channel. Your manual will explain this.

4th, BEFORE you mount your motherboard to the inside of your case, make sure you install the stand-off's correctly into the case so that the motherboard and case match-up. If you install one too many and it's hidden under the board and you power on the motherboard, you will ground out your motherboard and maybe destroy something.

Eye ball the holes from the motherboard to the case, it's easy. This may sound silly but keep a running count of all screws and stand-offs in your head during this process. I do. Usally 9 to 10 holes will need stand-off's.

Always police the inside of your case for loose screws after you are done installing the motherboard and the rest of your new PC's components. Sometimes screws get wedged inside the case. You need to pay very careful attention to this. Also, once your PC is built, hold it up and gently turn it upside down or at least 180 degrees and gently shake it to find those loose screws in case there are any. A loose screw you did not catch or forgot about could mean serious damage to your new PC.

Avoid using a big heavy screw drivers. These often slip out of hands and could fall inside the case causing damage to the motherboard. Use the smaller types if at all possible. Also, to avoid stripping out these screws, make sure to use a screw driver head that fits snuggly into the heads of the screws.

When applying thermal paste to the cpu, you do not need very much. only apply the size of maybe a small pearl to the center of the top of the cpu. Also, sometimes heatsinks have a blue or clear protective film on the base of the cpu. Be sure to check for this and remove it. Very important.

Anyone else with good tips to help this guy out?
 
Take your time and set aside at least a couple of hours for the actual build.

I don't buy into the whole antistatic wrist strap thing, they just get in the way for me. Just touch a real metal part of your case to discharge any static you've built up. Despite what people say, computer parts are designed to be handled by idiots and they can take a lot more abuse than we give them.

Start thinking about wire management before you even put anything in the case.

Cooling is one of the big priorities, make sure you have both exhaust and intake fans if possible and ensure decent airflow over the CPU, RAM, and video card.

Don't forget to buy Windows with your parts, it can be pretty painful waiting another two days to boot it up. You might need a floppy for SATA drivers if you have an older WinXP CD. Your current copy won't activate on new hardware without calling microsoft to transfer the license.

It's not as difficult as it sounds. The toughest part for most of us is reading the motherboard manual to figure out the connections for the power buttons, hard drive lights, and USB/firewire ports between the case and motherboard.
 
Don't worry so much and enjoy it. It's not everyday that you get to build a new system. It's hard to really mess something up. Most of this is just precautions for things you don't want to do. If you take your time then you won't mess anything up.
 
Take your time. And most of all, ENJOY IT!
Building computers is such a blast IMO.
 
well, I would not tell him that it's hard to mess anything up.

Should teach him now to use caution.

ESD kills and damages a lot of components.

Edges only, ground yourself and and just be cautious.
 
A lot of the posts here are being a bit paranoid (I mean, I know I have touched some things I shouldn't have in previous builds with no ill results) but I suppose it can't hurt. It's summer, so unless you live somewhere extremely cool and dry, the chances of static damage are minimal.

Check your bios revision when your mobo comes in to see if it is compatible with Core 2 Duo, if not, you will need to bum a chip off of someone or buy a cheapo LGA775 CPU to do the flash (which you can then sell).

Install basic components first, CPU, Motherboard, RAM, Video Card, and see if you can post. After that add a hard drive and optical drives, install windows, shut down, add sound card and anything else.

The P180 should have a manual in english, I got a cheapo Chieftec Dragon clone for a case, and the manual (plus onboard markings) are in Chinese, so I was never able to figure out how to set up my reset button, other than that it works great.
 
I reckon with the help people have offered you can build a server. :)
 
Follow the instructions on the manuals, don't get frustrated if things don't quite go perfectly, and give yourself time to do this patiently. The last thing you want is to realize you missed something late in the game :S Oh, and have fun :D
 
And don't be in a hurry to install all of your stuff. The best time to break your machine is right after you build it. Stress it before you've spent hours installing devices and drivers. If you're running Windows make sure it's stable before moving on. Random blue screens are not acceptable. Some messages, like "Windows delayed write failure..." can mean your cabling is loose or funky.

You can put the parts together in 30 minutes, but it really can take a week to get things running exactly right, and along the way you may wind up reformatting several times. It's a lot less painful when there's nothing but a few essentials installed.

Building computers can be the most aggravating thing you'll do, but in the end it's a gas....
 
When plugging in your harddrive, make sure the sata cable is connected to the corresponding SATA 1 marked sata thing on the motherboard, I spent about an hour wondering why my hdd wouldnt boot windows and it was because it was plugged in the sata thing marked SATA 2. When you take your motherboard out of the box... do NOT put it on top of the antistatic bag it comes with, these bags are made to conduct electricty on the outside of the bag. Turn the bag inside out and use it as a static free area :p
 
When plugging in your harddrive, make sure the sata cable is connected to the corresponding SATA 1 marked sata thing on the motherboard, I spent about an hour wondering why my hdd wouldnt boot windows and it was because it was plugged in the sata thing marked SATA 2.
Click to expand...

Actually i think it depends on your motherboard, I know on DFI ultra-D that its better to plug it in sata 3 or 4 because Sata 1 or 2 are used by another sata controller that can mess with your overclock. Although, i still suggest to plug the hard drive in SATA1 to start.

The problem you have tought is that the motherboard you have is currently shipping (most of them)with bios 0501 wich does not support conroe. Myself ordered one, did not recieve yet, but i keep in mind that i may have to go to a local dealer and pay like 15$ so they can use a spare pentium 4 (pentium D or any LG775 chip) to make your computer boot. I suggest you to have a floppy disk on hand, with the bootable files and bios 0801 on it so they will be able to help you with that.

There is also another way to get it work, called hotflashing, but im not suggesting you that, it may be risky for starters. Im building computers for 3years now, around 6-8 per year, and i still wouldnt try this..

Im strongly suggesting you to go read http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=106563 and the Intel section on xtremesystems forums, you will learn a lot.

Here is the 3 filles you will need to flash your bios if you need.

Asus Flash UtilityAFUDOS.EXE
P5WDH.ROM

And dont forget the standoff screws for the motherboard, i killed a motherboard, the first time ive built a PC, big smoke coming out, because i did not align the crews correctly and one was touching the back of the motherboard insted of the protected holes.
 
Shogo said:
Here is the 3 filles you will need to flash your bios if you need.

Asus Flash UtilityAFUDOS.EXE
P5WDH.ROM
Click to expand...

Actually, you only need the ROM. And I'd download the latest from the Asus website. Put it on a disk and run the BIOS update tool from the BIOS itself.
 
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