More stupid questions (re the actual build)

[Jonesy1499]

Sorry to take up more of your time, but it'd be great if you could help me with some problems.

I'm trying to build the computer right now and it's giving me a hard time. (Venting - feel free to skip this part.) I thought the worst was over when I'd received the parts, but man was I wrong. All the manuals are vague, there wasn't enough screws for the standoffs, so I've spent hours struggling with the wrong screws and have dropped the screwdriver and screws all over the mobo dozens of times. Also I'm afraid I've damaged the CPU, the CPU fan doesn't fit very tight and fell out and onto the mobo at one point, and a fan speed cable was damaged when I removed it from the additional fan bracket. It's a miracle if this thing will ever power up.

(Vent over.)

Okay, on to the questions.

Firstly, am I supposed to connect both the ATX12V1, ATXPWR1, and ATX4P1 power cables? The manuals are extremely vague about this. My setup is:

Abit IP35-E mobo,
Q6600 CPU,
Corsair 620HX PSU,
1 Sata HDD,
1 Sata DVD,
2 GB RAM,
1 Geforce 7600 GPU (will get a better one soon)

Secondly, what am I supposed to do with the thing on the I/O plate that is covering the mouse port (or is it keyboard? I mean the one in the bottom left corner). What's the point of it, and should I just break it off?

(You can get a better view here: http://bp3.blogger.com/_xzncbUIhx4Y/RyzuDLZNbzI/AAAAAAAAABk/YVX4ZFpql2M/s1600-h/Hpim2271.jpg

Cheers - will get a pizza now.

 

[akhilles]

Look at this picture. You have to connect the 24-pin atx mobo, 8-pin cpu, 4-pin molex addition power cables in the color polarity/orientation.

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/13-127-031-05.jpg

Work on a flat table with a room light + a table lamp on. No liquid of any types here. The mobo should be on the mobo box. Grab an old plastic container & throw all your tools & screws, etc. in it. Every time you take something out, put it in there.

Now onto the i/o plate. It's installed in the back of a case. The photo is showing the back side of it. Put it in the i/o plate opening in the case with the back side facing the front of the case. Use a plier's handles to hold the bottom part. Use the handle of a screwdriver to force the top part in. Try every corner. It should go in place. When you install the mobo, lift the front side up a bit & slide it into the i/o plate.

Cheap cases may not come with enough screw for a basic build. If that's the case, you can use 2 screws on both side for the cd/dvd/hdd/fdd drives. You can ask the store where you bought the parts for more screws. If it's local, they'll probably give them to you for free.

 

[Jonesy1499]

Sorry, I forgot the most relevant part: Antec Nine Hundred case.

Thanks for replying, akhilles.

Okay so both ATX12V1, ATXPWR1, and ATX4P1 should be plugged in then?

About the i/o plate, I tried putting it and the mobo in before I wrote my last post. I thought it fit alright, but there is a strange metal thing covering the keyboard port. (You can see it here: http://bp0.blogger.com/_xzncbUIhx4Y/Ry0OkLZNb0I/AAAAAAAAABs/jbpc-OizJhg/s200/Hpim2277.jpg )

Does that mean I've installed it incorrectly? Or does it look okay, and could I just break the thing off or bend it out of the way? (By the way, some writing on the i/o plate is upside down!, but I'll be damned if I can see it fitting any other way?? )

About the screws *), the case came with about 30 screws or more, but only seven of the ones that seemed to be for the mobo standoffs. What I've done is I've just put those seven in. At first I put PSU screws in the last two holes, but I took them out again because I thought they might be too big and could maybe cause a short or something. Hope it can't hurt that two screws are missing?

Another thing though, is that I don't know what to use the seven washers for that also came with the case. Should I have put them in between the screws and the mobo? :/

Cheers.

*) (Or bolts or whatever it's called)

 

[Jonesy1499]

I've run into some even more serious problems, as I've just written to Hardforum. I'll quote my post to them here, if anyone wants to comment. :/

Need help installing Abit IP35-E & Corsair 620HX in Antec Nine Hundred!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, I’m a total noob and this is my first build, and (to quote ”Towlie”) I have no idea what’s going on, even after reading all manuals several times and googling.

My main question is how to connect the Nine Hundreds fan cables!?

The Nine Hundred has four fans and each has a red and a black cable that ends up in a four pin connector (or plug or whatever it’s called) that is female in the front and male in the back. The connector would seem to fit in the ATX4P1 connector on the mobo, but according to the manual this connector is ”an auxiliary power source for devices added on PCI Express slots”! Also these cables don’t seem to fit in the PSU or any of its modular cables.

OTOH The IP35-E has three three-pin fan power connectors called sysfan, auxfan and auxfan. These are obviously not compatible with the cables from the fans.

The PSU comes with a ”FAN ONLY” Y-adapter that has two plugs with two female pins and one plug with two male pins. I have no idea where it is supposed to go, and it doesn’t seem to fit in the PSU.

What am I supposed to do here? Have I bought incompatible parts?

Hope someone can help.

(PS. I also can’t find a power led cable from the Nine Hundred’s front panel? Doesn’t it have one? Also I’ve found no suspend led cable or system speaker cable - don’t know if it’s supposed to have any?)

 

[akhilles]

I don't see anything out of ordinary in that photo of the installed i/o plate. The top 2 round holes by the side are for mouse (top) & keyboard (bottom). From the 1st photo in your 1st post, the mouse has a metal thingy that holds the mouse port down. Don't cut it out.

Just make sure nothing is covering the ports.

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/13-127-031-10.jpg

A typical atx mobo has 9 mounting holes. If there aren't enough screws to go around, i.e. only 7 are there. I'd screw them so that the area of the cpu/memory & pci/pci-e slots is tight. o = screw; x = nothing.

OOO
XOX
OOO

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/13-127-031-06.jpg

The paper washers are not necessary if the screw heads don't touch anything. FYI:

(|#||=

Screw head + paper washer + mobo + standoff

Determine If Washers Are Required: Examine the heads of the screws that you will use to secure the motherboard to the metal standoffs under the screw-in mounting holes. If the head of the screw is large enough that after tightening the screw the head might make contact with the circuitry on the motherboard, you must use a plastic or paper washer under the screw head to prevent accidentally shorting out the motherboard. Most motherboard manufacturers are smart enough today to leave a little extra space around the mounting holes.

http://www.pcguide.com/proc/physinst/mb-c.html

The right & bottom cables 8-pin & 24-pin must be connected to mobo. The extra one to mobo can be any molex connector/cable:

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/17-139-002-07.jpg
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/17-139-002-09.jpg

This bottom center cable is for fans. The bottom ends are males.

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/17-139-002-09.jpg

These are female connectors. Plug the males in there.

http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/371/corsair_620HX_connectors.jpg

The female ends of a cable is to be connected to any male connectors such as the fan ones. You can chain the fans up, but don't connect the last end back to the psu. [ = female; { = male

[psu[==========={fan1[=={fan2[=={fan3[=={fan4[

 

[Jonesy1499]

Thanks akhilles, very much appreciated.

Somehow I must have managed to overlook that I should use the "peripheral" cables, but they fit like a glove. (I guess I'll never need the fan connectors on the mobo then?)

The PSU manual doesn't say anything about what connectors on the PSU should be used for what parts, so I'm guessing it doesn't matter what you put where, as long as they cable fits in the connector?

Anyway, I've plugged the three 120 mm fans on one cable (that had three connectors) and plugged it in the top connector in the right column of the PSU (see the image you linked to from legitreviews), and have put the 200 mm. fan on a separate cable and plugged it into the second connector from the top. And then I've connected the Sata HDD and Sata DVD on Sata power cable (that had two connectors) and plugged it into the third connector from the top on the PSU. Hope that's okay and want overload the PSU or something?

About the I/O plate there is still a weird metal thing covering the keyboard port, so I guess I'll just have to bend it away. The lan port is also completely covered - not sure what they were thinking.

 

[Jonesy1499]

Well it seems to work okay, but I'm getting some weird error messages. I've made a post about it on Abit's forum. Here's a link, in the unlikely event that anybody would like to read it. ;-)

http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=130160

Cheers.

 

[akhilles]

Re: i/o plate, if your install looks like this, then it's ok. However, if the metal thingy is outside the case, it's not ok. If installed right, there's nothing blocking any ports.

http://www.hardwarezone.com/img/data/articles/2002/491/io_plate.jpg

I don't use ANY of the mobo fan connectors, but I DON'T recommend this cuz it's a risk in that I have no way to tell if the cpu fan fails. At the very least, use the mobo fan connector for the cpu fan. The rest goes to psu.

A 120mm fan uses about 12V 1-3W. A SATAII harddisk uses about 20W. A dvd burner ~25W. You will run out of mounting spaces before you run out of wattages. It's good for cable management to use dedicate one power cable for drives, one for fans, etc. The other things like video, cpu & mobo power connectors can't be chained up so you can't overload those cables.

"CMOS CHECKSUM ERROR" may be eliminated by a bios update or clearing bios which is the 1st thing I do when I get a mobo.

"CPU is unworkable or has been changed. Please recheck - CPU SOFT MENU." may have to do with auto-detecting hardware. The wording may be different for each board. The very 1st post would cause that, then you enter bios & load defaults, & save & exit.

"Detect drives done, no any drive found" may mean the boot order is wrong. Gigabyte is notorious for defaulting to hard disk 1st, cd/dvd/floppy 2nd. That's wrong. Harddisk should be last. Go to bios, boot, change the boot order. See your manual for their whereabouts.

Lastly, a computer is supposed to be built by a qualified technician. A lot of people are buying parts to build their own computers to save money or to get the most out of it. Many are new to this. So they have no clues where everything goes at first. After one or a few builds, it becomes a 2nd nature. I used to help my friends pick out computers & install their parts when I was in college. So there.

You're welcome.

 

[Jonesy1499]

Thanks again for replying, akhilles!!

Re: i/o plate, if your install looks like this, then it's ok. However, if the metal thingy is outside the case, it's not ok. If installed right, there's nothing blocking any ports.

http://www.hardwarezone.com/img/data/articles/2002/491/io_plate.jpg

Originally the mouse port thing looked like in this picture except that it wasn't bent inwards, like it seems to be in the pic. Are you saying that the thing should be bent so much inwards that it sits next to the port inside the case? Would that be advantageous to bending it outwards like I've done?

Btw. the LAN port was 100 % covered and it was clear that I was supposed to remove that metal thing - I guess they cover some of the ports so the user can just remove the covers for the ports s/he needs and leave the metal things on for the rest, so there aren't any holes to gather dust. It boggles my mind what the point of the mouse/keyboard things are though. :/

I don't use ANY of the mobo fan connectors, but I DON'T recommend this cuz it's a risk in that I have no way to tell if the cpu fan fails. At the very least, use the mobo fan connector for the cpu fan. The rest goes to psu.

That's what I've done.
Btw, now that you mention it, do you think I should maybe try to connect one (or more) of the Nine Hundreds fans to the mobo in stead of the PSU so that it could also help monitor the temps and so on? That would require some kind of adapter though.

A 120mm fan uses about 12V 1-3W. A SATAII harddisk uses about 20W. A dvd burner ~25W. You will run out of mounting spaces before you run out of wattages.

Very helpful info, thx. Btw., do you happen to know how the connectors on the PSU relate to the rail thing? I mean is it the 12v rail that leads to the big power cables for CPU and MOBO, and all the modular connections are the 5v, or something?

Lastly, a computer is supposed to be built by a qualified technician. A lot of people are buying parts to build their own computers to save money or to get the most out of it. Many are new to this. So they have no clues where everything goes at first. After one or a few builds, it becomes a 2nd nature.

Sounds good. While I'm still a noob though, it's very nice that I can get help on forums such as this one. I've actually been surprised at the patience I've been shown by helpful people such as yourself - I haven't received a single "RTFM" or "GIYF" in the time I've been obsessively preparing the build!

Anyway I hope to reach a level where I can also be at the replying end at some point.

Cheers

 

[akhilles]

Are you saying that the thing should be bent so much inwards that it sits next to the port inside the case?

Exactly. After install, you can use a screw driver to bend it upward a bit until the mobo can barely slides into it.

It's up to you if you connect other fans to mobo. I don't anymore. I use a drive-bay fan controler to control the most important ones: cpu x 2; rear x 1; front x1.

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=11&name=Controller-Panels

Ok, this explains the basics of a psu:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_power_supply

RTFM! We assume you have the basic knowledge of building a pc when you post in this forum. Unless you say otherwise.

 

[jitpublisher]

Building a PC is not that difficult. But, if you have never done it before, it is highly suggested that you enlist the help of a more knowledgeable friend for your first build. There are also a lot of good step by step illustrated "how to build" guides on the Web, just Google for one. Can save a lot of headaches, and costly mistakes.

 

[Jonesy1499]

Are you saying that the thing should be bent so much inwards that it sits next to the port inside the case?

Exactly.

Okay then. Not to beat a dead horse or anything but does it really matter? I hope you're not saying I should take the computer apart and bend the plate and put it back together again?!

RTFM!

Of course. I've also been doing thousands of google searches.

Building a PC is not that difficult. But, if you have never done it before, it is highly suggested that you enlist the help of a more knowledgeable friend for your first build. There are also a lot of good step by step illustrated "how to build" guides on the Web, just Google for one. Can save a lot of headaches, and costly mistakes.

Well, I did the physical build myself and it seems to work so far (knock on wood). I did consult my brother a couple of times over the phone though (not to mention the gazillion noob posts I wrote both here and elsewhere).

Thx for your replies.

 

[akhilles]

As long as the thingy sits on the port, it's ok.