sooo many cables..where do they go?

G

Gaby

n00b
Joined
Oct 7, 2009
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14
stupid power supply question
yes..i am building my FIRST computer...and already have a dumb question. it is late, so i prolly regret tomorrow asking it..
so i looked at the ps and started to wonder about all the cables. i see the ones that have to be hooked for the mobo to receive power, but what's with all the other cables? don't i hook up sata hard drives to my mobo? what are they all for?

my ps:
http://apevia.com/ProductsInfo.asp?KEY=ATX-WA900W

a ton of cables and no where to go?

THANKS!!!
 
Drives require both data connections and power connections. The data connections go to the motherboard, but the power comes from the PSU. SATA drives use special SATA power connectors. The nice thing about PC power connectors is that they are all keyed, so they'll only fit in the slots that they should be plugged into. It shouldn't be difficult for you to figure out what goes where. If you have a video card, you may also need to plug some power connectors into that.

And you should have come here before you decided to buy your parts and put together a PC, since the PSU you picked is a pretty low-quality one. If it isn't too late to return it, I would suggest that you do so. If you can't, then I suppose you'll have to make do.
 
thanks...i had a feeling that it can't be difficult as I haven't found anything on the web about it.
i still have time to return the psu. what would you suggest?
I am thinking about long term use so really don't want to go under 900w.
thanks much
 
Please provide the following information:

1) Your budget.
2) The full specs of the PC you will be using this PSU in.
3) Any future upgrade plans you have for this PC that will require additional power over your current needs.
4) Your location/any specific retailer you want to buy from.
 
this will be for gaming in the near future and for graphic design. lots of multitasking.

specs are as follows:

EVGA 896-P3-1171-AR GeForce GTX 275 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit DDR3 PCI Express

APEVIA WARLOCK POWER ATX-WA900W 900W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready

PLEXTOR 24X DVD/CD Writer Black SATA Model PX-880SA

Intel Core i7-950

nMEDIAPC ZE-C128 Black Aluminum Panel 5.25"All-in-one USB x 3 / IEEE 1394 / eSATA / HD (or AC97) Audio Internal Card Reader - Retail

ZALMAN CNPS 9700 NT 110mm 2 Ball Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler

Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

EVGA E758-A1 3-Way SLI (x16/x16/x8) LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard

2 Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS set up as RAID0

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

SIIG IC-710012-S2 7.1 Channels PCI Interface SoundWave

vista 64

BTW: the psu...DOA i just noticed.

THANK YOU!

oh budget: wasnt planning on spending more then $200 that would have to be including shipping taxes. no favorite retailers. just would love to have this by the weekend.
located in columbia, sc
yes...probably will be upgrading to a second graphic card within a year.
 
why do you say its dead? how do you know youre not doing it right? it wont turn on unless its plugged into the motherboard, so that might be your problem...
 
The power supply is complete crap. Stick with Enermax, Corsair, PCPC, Seasonic, even Antec...

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story4&reid=92
where do I even begin? The unit regulated well... until I asked for 900W. Efficiency was awesome... until I asked for 900W. Ripple and noise suppression was decent... until it hit 900W. I'm sure you can see where this is heading. For overrating the unit by a good 100W, for nearly cooking itself in the cold tests on test five, for blowing past those pesky ATX specs without even trying to shut down, for failing in the hot box, for using Japanese capacitors purely as a marketing bullet point without addressing performance, I wave my magic wand and bestow this unit with a dismal
Click to expand...
Apevia's reputation thus far has been tainted by consistant quality control issues and the tendency to optimistically rate their units
Click to expand...
OCP and OTP MIA
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Sure, your system's not going to be pulling 900W, it's probably in the 4-500W range, so it will boot and function, but 1.) it's the principal of false advertising 2.) it's a poor quality product, they skimped on design of ratings, whatelse? What kind of life can we really expect such a product to have? Huge violation of trust/confidence in the product, I wouldn't put it in my system.
 
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Why are you getting this soundcard?
SIIG IC-710012-S2 7.1 Channels PCI Interface SoundWave
Click to expand...
Honestly, I don't know anything about it, but seems like a waste of money. Most people generally 1.)use onboard, as onboard is very good generally these days 2.)get a X-Fi card for hardware accelerated audio for gaming, the XtremeGamer card is a very good value here or 3.) get some high end professional/audiophile solution.

I don't see the market for a SIIG card. It looks like it uses a c-media software codec which is very simliar to what many motherboards themselves might have integrated onboard. I don't see the point...
 
I also question why you're setting up 2 1TB drives in a RAID 0 as your only HDD option. Those drives are pretty damn fast on their own, I have 4 in my system. If you're looking for plenty of storage, you're better off with a separate drive for your OS apps and games, and a separate drives for all of your media and such. Also, don't trust anything you don't have backed up to a RAID 0. 1 dead drive and say good bye to all of your data.
 
oh wow, I thought I did my research but things changed. Thanks everyone.
ok...
I will return the PSU today. [I just found the exact same review, wish I would've found this site and the review a little earlier]

Will return the soundcard. [someone told me to get a SC and NOT use the onboard sound...don't ask me why]

already had the exact same HD, so I bought another one.
I guess I go RAID1 huh
 
you should probably find someone whos familiar with building computers to help you, or you can fry some very expensive components.
 
i am a not complete noob...just in building a computer. I am learning while researching/doing this stuff...

well that's actually not all true. I knew what I was doing bout 10 years ago...then I got a job and had no more time to play... now 10 years later EVERYTHING changed and I have to learn over. LOL

hey I DID learn never to believe any of the customer reviews before doing your own research first.
 
Gaby said:
oh wow, I thought I did my research but things changed. Thanks everyone.
ok...
I will return the PSU today. [I just found the exact same review, wish I would've found this site and the review a little earlier]

Will return the soundcard. [someone told me to get a SC and NOT use the onboard sound...don't ask me why]

already had the exact same HD, so I bought another one.
I guess I go RAID1 huh
Click to expand...
Don't mess with RAID, just adds complexity. RAID1, mirroring, is not a replacement for backups. All it does is ensure uptime. That is great for webservers, data servers, etc where uptime is critical, but for home use it's not worth the hassle.

RAID1 doesn't protect your data from viruses, house fire, theft, accidental deletion, etc. Ideally you want off-site backup, but that all depends on how critical/valuable your data is and you're budget.

Moby.com, Carbonite, and Logmein have some interesting online backup services, or your own shared hosting site + something like Cobian to encrypt and upload works well.

2x1TB drives wouldn't be my preferred solution, but if that's what I was stuck with, what I would do is this:
Drive 1:
Partition 1: ~250GIG, OS+applications installed here, no user data. If the OS gets wonky, crashes, whatever and needs a reformat, can reformat and reinstall apps fresh separate from effecting user data.
Partition 2: The rest of the drive. User files, windows profile, music/photos/video.

Drive2: Backup.
Automated scheduled full imaging of Drive1-Part1 on some schedule, weekly maybe. And automated scheduled incremental backups of the more important data of Drive1-Part2. Windows 7's built-in backup tool can do this.

Important data being things like financial documents, projects, family photos vs. random internet media which is expendable.

You have Vista64 listed in your specs, don't. 7 is being released on the 22nd of the month, stilly to buy and setup Vista today. The build-in backup tool alone is worth it.
 
I have vista 64 with the free windows 7. Would've never wasted money on vista if I didn't get the free upgrade.

I did look at moby.com, but not sure with business being really slow right now if that's what I can afford.
If I decide not to mess with RAID I probably will do what you suggested
I just like the speed increase of RAID, main reason why I thought about it. sounded really good. Never actually worked/played on a RAID system tho.

PSU and Sound is returned. Now I have to find a PSU locally. Arggg... local store opens at 10.
I guess with everything I did return I now can afford a better PSU.
 
Stick with Corsair, PC Power and Cooling, Antec, and Seasonic, you won't be disappointed.
 
Gaby said:
one of the local stores have a NSPIRE 750 Watt
good? bad?
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I wouldn't, never heard of them. Based on their website, it looks like they just rebadge some other brand. Probably the cheapest crap they can find. I listed several brands in my previous post I would stick to, or find a review by HardOCP, JonnyGuru, or on PCPer that gives a thumbs up to whatever you want to buy. IIRC those are the only 3 sites I've seen with reasonable proper/thorough power supply evaluations.
 
Overkill even with SLI. Quality supply but you are pissing away money.
 
Gaby said:
yes, thanks.
here's what I ordered:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139013

Plz don't tell me this one is NO good.
I know its overkill, but I am thinking about my kid wanting to add a second video card in once I give him the computer. [which will probably be in a year]
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Good PSU, but not modular, so you are going to have a ton of left over cabling to stash away somewhere.
I generally only use modular units these days, so I don't have to fight with unused cables.

You can never go wrong with Corsair PSUs.

Kudos for buying your son an EVGA Classified motherboard........my son uses one of my old 680i boards and a Q6600.:eek:
 
I was looking at the modular series. NICE. But it was either spend the money on the modular or next day shipping.
Trust me...you don't wanna see my kid stalk me day by day... it's not pretty, so I decided on the next day shipping.
the case is huge, so I can stack them right behind the PSU. there is space I won't use.

ok, i changed my order to the 850 modular...and decided to wait a couple of days for it to get here.
 
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Gaby said:
I was looking at the modular series. NICE. But it was either spend the money on the modular or next day shipping.
Trust me...you don't wanna see my kid stalk me day by day... it's not pretty, so I decided on the next day shipping.
the case is huge, so I can stack them right behind the PSU. there is space I won't use.

ok, i changed my order to the 850 modular...and decided to wait a couple of days for it to get here.
Click to expand...

Excellent choice, the 850 will be overkill as well but the modular will really help with cable management. And yes corsair is a great brand, I swear by their PSU's. You won't regret the investment.
 
Gaby said:
I was looking at the modular series. NICE. But it was either spend the money on the modular or next day shipping.
Trust me...you don't wanna see my kid stalk me day by day... it's not pretty, so I decided on the next day shipping.
the case is huge, so I can stack them right behind the PSU. there is space I won't use.

ok, i changed my order to the 850 modular...and decided to wait a couple of days for it to get here.
Click to expand...

Hehehehe..........I know how that is. My son will dog me if he has a problem until I want to pull my hair out.

That PSU will treat you well and the modular aspect is such a big help, you'll be glad you did it.
 
I just got the 850 modular myself and its well worth paying the extra for it being modular. Really quite too but given the rig your building that's not much of an issue anyway.
 
I got the 750HX and am loving it. I'm only using 3-4 of the cables and can stash the rest in this nice bag that came with it.
 
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