Power supply connections - confused, please help

[brianz]

I've got my new build nearly complete, but a few items are confusing me. This is my first build...

First, my Corsair 850TX only has two SATA power cables, which I'm using on my SSD and my Blu-Ray burner, both of which only take SATA power. However, I have two other Western Digital internal hard drives, and I need to supply power to them. I obviously can't use the SATA power ports since I already used the Corsair's two SATA cables up. I don't have anything coming from the power supply that matches the 8-pin male ports in the rear of the WD internal drives. What are they? The power supply has two "peripheral" cables, but they don't seem to fit into the WD power ports.

Second, I am confused about the 4-pin fan connection on the motherboard. I have a Cooler Master 932 case. All the case fans terminate in those huge white plugs (Molex?) so I took them off and went down to the 3-pin plug. The only problem is that one of the chassis fan ports on the motherboard is actually 4-pin port. Can I plug a 3-pin fan into a 4-pin motherboard fan port? I can match the grounding wire, but there's still an extra pin coming from the board. Does that matter? Should I get some kind of adapter/converter?

Third, on my Asus motherboard, on the Q-connector block that connects all front-panel lights and switches, there's space for the PC speaker. However, I don't see any PC speaker wires coming from the front case. Am I missing something?

Thanks for any help!

Brian

 

[jsc]

Your Corsair PSU has two SATA power cables, each with 4 SATA connectors. Because you can plug up to 4 SATA devices in to each cable, you have plenty of power connectors.

Second, yes you can plug a 3 pin fan connector into a 4 pin header on a motherboard.

Third, unlike the old days, many cases do not include a system speaker. If you case or motherboard didn't come with a system speaker you can buy one here: http://www.cwc-group.com/casp.html

Last, take a look at this thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems

The first part of it contains a checklist that may prevent you from making noobish mistakes.

Good luck.

 

[darkguset]

"I don't have anything coming from the power supply that matches the 8-pin male ports in the rear of the WD internal drives
. What are they?"

It sounds like you are referring to the option selection pins.
http://hothardware.com/newsimages/item8567/big_wd20eads-2tb-hd-back.jpg
You need not connect anything there, they are used with jumpers to set several options on the drive (eg. master, slave, SATA speeds, etc).

The small pins you see in the picture (in the middle) are the SATA power cables (from your power supply) and the far right (longer row of pins) is the SATA data port (cable coming from the motherboard).

 

[brianz]

Your Corsair PSU has two SATA power cables, each with 4 SATA connectors. Because you can plug up to 4 SATA devices in to each cable, you have plenty of power connectors.

So I can plug in each of those four SATA power jacks along the length of the SATA power cable and it will produce adequate power output in all four, despite being in series? Am I understanding correctly?

Third, unlike the old days, many cases do not include a system speaker. If you case or motherboard didn't come with a system speaker you can buy one here: http://www.cwc-group.com/casp.html

Will I hear the system warning beeps, POST beeps, etc without the PC speaker, or will that come from the motherboard? Or do I need to a buy a new speaker now?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Paperdoc]

Yes, the four SATA connectors all on one line coming from the PSU are intended to power four devices. They are in parallel, not in series. The PSU output and the wires all are suitable for four normal SATA devices all at once.

A few mobos actually do include small speakers on them - so small you don't notice them until they beep!. You may not know whether you have one until you hear one after powering up. Here's a small clue: IF the system works OK at power-up, the first thing done is a POST by the BIOS which takes a few seconds - maybe 10 - and it shows a few fast messages on the screen. If it is all OK the most common signal is a single short beep from the speaker. If you hear one beep, you have a speaker and a happy mobo. If you hear nothing, you may have no speaker and could go buy one.

darkguset is right to suggest the 8 pins you spoke of are NOT a connector - they are jumper pins. HOWEVER, they are NOT for setting Master and Slave - those are from the days of IDE drives. On SATA drives these pins and jumpers ARE used for setting some options. BUT only one of those (has to do with adapting a SATA II drive to older SATA controllers) should ever be changed by a user - the others are too obscure to fiddle with, and you could disable your HDD. In general do NOT change jumpers on a SATA HDD block unless you really have checked out the details and understand what you're doing.

 

[brianz]

Awesome, thanks for the clear reply paperdoc.