The other day was my brother's birthday and I wanted to build him a computer. I purchased a Raidmax Sagitarius with 500 watt psu, 8800 gs superclocked, 2 gigs corsair xms2 800 mhz, amd athalon x2 4000+, ECS AMD 780G Black series mobo, a sata dvd drive, and a western digital caviar se 160 gb hard drive.
Firstly, I discovered that I needed a 20 pin to 24 pin adaptor for the mobo, which I got and put in. After that I made the other powerconnection. I connected the front panel buttons and leds, although I'm not sure which way they are supposed to be plugged in so I have tried it with the words facing me and with them facing away, but they are in the correct place. Every time I have gone to hit the power button, nothing happens at all.
I need help determining the problem. My suspicion is that the PSU is dead, but I have no way of testing it. It could also be shorting out on the case, although I doubt it and I have no way of knowing for sure. Please, if someone could help me I would greatly appreciate it.
Out of all the parts you've listed, the PSU seems the most suspect to fail. Try the paper clip method to see if you can turn on other components like fans without your motherboard:
http://aphnetworks.com/tutorials/psu_paperclip_trick
Just be careful and try not to electrocute yourself.
I wish you were my brother You dont really need a 20-24 pin adapter for your motherboard, it will work fine without one... However I strongly recommend getting a powersupply that natively uses 24 pins (or the ones with a detachable 4 pin thing). As running extra current through a smaller number of pins heats them up.
Also buy a decent PSU, brand names are important here! Anetc, Thermaltake, Silverstone and Corsair are all good (you really get what you pay for in PSUs).
When you have everything all together and the PSU plugged in, do any lights on the motherboard come on? Generally there is some type of a standby light that will come on to show that it is getting power. This would help to rule out the case(buttons and such) as the culprit, but I do agree with the others. It sounds like a PSU problem. Check on the back of the unit to see if it is set for 120v or 240v. Something as simple as that could be the problem. Good luck.
