wires, cables and plugs oh my! need a 'lil help w/ wires

[phendyr]

hey folks,
well everything showed up today, except for my RAM which should be here tomorrow, so I'm working on setting everything else, and I just have a few questions. to recap, here is the gear I'm working with:

CASE: Cooler Master Centurion RC-534 W/ 430W PSU
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13Ghz
RAM: Patriot Extreme 2GB (2x1GB) SDRAM DDR2 800
VIDEO: GeForce 7600GT - $143 w/ $50 rebate
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 x2
DVD: HP 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With LightScribe

Onto my questions:
1) the cable on the case for the front audio I have plugged into the F audio, then further down the same cable is a 5-pin port with "AC'97" stamped on it. th cables continue and each wire ends with black single-pin plugs...has the tag 'azalia'...not sure what to do with these.

2) at the bottom of the mobo, there are several pins for the power button, reset button, speaker, NC (not sure what NC means)...there is a 3-pin "PWR" port there and I don't have anything to plug into it? not sure what to plug in there. *I pray I have these all correct*

3) I moved my side fan to the front and plugged it into the pwr fan pins, right? There is a 'sys fan' port but that looks like it's for something else that what I have.....right?

4) I've got a lot of leftover screws and a few spacers :lol: I used 7 spacers in the case, and then screwed the mobo to those. there is a set of 2 spacers, manual says 'especially for positioning the mainboard'...whatever that means..then there's this dark grey doughnut shaped thing about 1.5" in diameter...and a white plastic square thing with double sided tape on it - what the heck are they all for?

that's it. those are my 'oh man, what the heck am I doing' questions...appreciate anybody's help to calm me down and let me know I'm doing it right.

 

[cutthroat]

Everytime I build a PC I go through the same thing, it's never the same as last time.

Most important thing is to study the manuals, most of you questions about the connectors should be in there.

AC'97 is onboard audio, not sure about 'azalia'.

If the connector for your power button has a connector for two pins, and the motherboard has three, you likely just use only two of the pins, it should be in your manual.

There are generally many options on where to plug your fans in, if you want your monitoring software to monitor or control them properly you need them pppppued into the right spots, also should be in your manual.

There always extra parts, they are nice enough to give a few extra standoffs and screws and stuff in case you lose one. Often there are wires and stuff that you won't use because you don't have the equipment to go with it.

Only 7 standoffs, there is usually 9 holes to mount the motherboard.

White plastic square thing with tape? is it a logo of your motherboard manufacturer to stick to your PC?

Dunno what the donut is, it probably also mentions it somewhere in your manual.

 

[phendyr]

yeah, I know, I know RTFM I have been but it's just not that clear to me...but I guess I'm just a bit confused about a few things, like the F_Panel pins and the fact that I have nothing to plug into the PWR pins...It says it's to indicate whether the system is on or off...I don't have a 3-pin wire for it coming from the front though *shrug* The only things I don't have plugged in are the PWR pins and the 2 LED pins to the left of the PWR pins, which they say are for detecting chassis intrusion..

as for only 7 spacers instead of 9, there aren't any other holes in the board other than one in each corner of the board, but there's no holes in the tray underneath so i couldn't put anything if I wanted to. not sure about that.

what's the difference between pluggin my SATA drives into the 'controlled by Intel ICH8' or the 'controlled by gigabyte SATA/2' ports?

guess I'm just nervous to flip that switch not knowing if these things are set right.. :?

 

[cutthroat]

yeah, I know, I know RTFM I have been but it's just not that clear to me...but I guess I'm just a bit confused about a few things, like the F_Panel pins and the fact that I have nothing to plug into the PWR pins...It says it's to indicate whether the system is on or off...I don't have a 3-pin wire for it coming from the front though *shrug* The only things I don't have plugged in are the PWR pins and the 2 LED pins to the left of the PWR pins, which they say are for detecting chassis intrusion..must light up something...

Now that sounds like the connector for your power on LED.

as for only 7 spacers instead of 9, there aren't any other holes in the board other than one in each corner of the board, but there's no holes in the tray underneath so i couldn't put anything if I wanted to. not sure about that.

I'm confused. :?

what's the difference between pluggin my SATA drives into the 'controlled by Intel ICH8' or the 'controlled by gigabyte SATA/2' ports?

probably nothing noticable.

Sometimes (often) motherboard manuals are written in chinese and translated into english poorly. Sometimes the manuals are just wrong about some things. You can't mess up too badly with the front panel connections, If they aren't working correctly you can switch them, it is not uncommon to get the polarity wrong for instance.

 

[phendyr]

yeah, I know, I know RTFM I have been but it's just not that clear to me...but I guess I'm just a bit confused about a few things, like the F_Panel pins and the fact that I have nothing to plug into the PWR pins...It says it's to indicate whether the system is on or off...I don't have a 3-pin wire for it coming from the front though *shrug* The only things I don't have plugged in are the PWR pins and the 2 LED pins to the left of the PWR pins, which they say are for detecting chassis intrusion..must light up something...

Now that sounds like the connector for your power on LED.

still mixed up on these darn things, RTFM till 2am :?

as for only 7 spacers instead of 9, there aren't any other holes in the board other than one in each corner of the board, but there's no holes in the tray underneath so i couldn't put anything if I wanted to. not sure about that.

I'm confused. :?

join the club right now all the holes in the mobo, are filled with a standoff (what I was calling spacers) and screwed down. I'm good on this I think.

what's the difference between pluggin my SATA drives into the 'controlled by Intel ICH8' or the 'controlled by gigabyte SATA/2' ports?

probably nothing noticable.

Sometimes (often) motherboard manuals are written in chinese and translated into english poorly. Sometimes the manuals are just wrong about some things. You can't mess up too badly with the front panel connections, If they aren't working correctly you can switch them, it is not uncommon to get the polarity wrong for instance.

cool.

I'm such a newb Doesn't all my great questions just bring back fond memories of your first time

 

[will14]

Heh I can never figure out the power button jumpers. Trouble is my case/mobo always use different color schemes than each other. Anywho the mobo should have a book describing what each set of pins is for. Don't worry about extra screws so long as your mobo is in there stable and not laying flat against metal

 

[phendyr]

sittin here waitin on the ups guy to bring my RAM...

figured out that the 'azalia' tag on the front audio cable is for some realtek HD audio something or other...don't really know what the difference is between the HD audio plug, the AC97 and the azalia pins could be, but we'll see.

here's a pic of those two weird things I have no clue what they are..taken with a camera phone so it's not so great.

popped the little housing for the power/reset button off the case, and looks like I have the wires plugged in right, we'll see when the switch is flipped.

 

[occdavid]

Not sure about the blue doughnut thing - what box did it come in? (case, PSU, etc). I know what the white square is. It's for use with a zip-tie. You stick it to the inside of your case near where you would want to group some cables out of the way and then run a zip-tie through it.