Started My First PC Build and Have Couple of Questions

[~Mel~]

So, this is my first attempt at building my own PC and I'm part way through. The processor, heatsink/fan, and ram are installed on the motherboard, and the motherboard is installed in the case. The power supply is also installed in the case. I'm at the point where I have to connect all these wires from the case to the motherboard. And, I've just got a couple of questions.

1) I bought an aftermarket heatsink/fan for my AMD processor. Now, I applied thermal compound to the processor and installed the heatsink/fan. But now thinking back, I noticed something sticky on the bottom of the heatsink. Should I have not applied the thermal compound? And, if so, what do I do now?

2) I'm a bit confused about how to plug in all the wires from the front of the case (hard drive, power, reset lights/buttons, etc.). It seems that the documentation from the case and motherboard conflict a little. The case manual refers to colored wires and black ground wires, but none of the wires are black. How do I know which is the ground wire? And, what's "pin 1"? Also, what's the little arrow on one side of the connector mean?

Sorry for the confusion and thanks for your help!

Mel

BTW... Here's a list of my parts:

Antec Performance I P160 Silver 1.2mm anodized aluminum ATX Mid Tower Case with Swiveling Front Control Panel features LED Display - Retail

COOLMAX CW-650T EPS12V 650W Aluminum ATX v2.01 APFC Power Supply w/ "SLI" - Retail - Retail

ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX - Retail

ASUS X-Mars Heat Pipes CPU Light Cooler for Socket 754/939/940 - OEM

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM

Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model KVR400X64C3AK2/2G - Retail

Western Digital Caviar SE WD2000JS 200GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

ASUS EN7800GT/2DHTV/256M Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro 70SB036000000 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail

ASUS Black IDE DVD Burner 2X DVD-RAM Read Model DRW-1608P2 BK - Retail

ASUS Black ATAPI DVD-ROM Drive Model E616A - OEM

SAMSUNG Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM

Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2 - OEM

[blue60007]

1) If the heatsink already had a thermal pad (that sticky stuff), you should take it off and completely clean off the thermal pad and the thermal paste (rubbing alcohol comes in handy), and re-apply the thermal paste. If you've got both on there, you'll just create insulation instead of something to conduct heat. Was this the aftermarker heatsink or the retail (stock) ?

2) If you could list what all the little connectors from the case say, we can help you match them up on the motherboard.

[doctorgonzo]

1) If you haven't powered the computer on yet, take off the heatsink. The sticky stuff is probably the thermal pad, and you either use the pad or thermal compound, but not both. Clean off both the heatsink and the processor, making sure you remove the pad entirely from the heatsink. Scrape as much off as you can using an old credit card or piece of plastic, then use something like Isopropyl Alcohol (if you don't have a specific cleaner) to get the rest of the residue off.

2) The power switch and reset switch have no polarity, so it doesn't matter how you connect them to the motherboard. The lights (power LED, hard drive activity LED) do have polarity, and one of the wires should be black or have a black stripe on it to indicate that it is ground. However, connecting the cables backwards won't really hurt anything. If you plug the cables in and the lights don't work, plug them in the other way.

If the case manual and motherboard manual conflict, go with the motherboard manual.

[trulad]

Also, the mother board manual for Asus usually has a pretty good diagram of where the wires such as HDD,Reset,etc. go. If they are reversed it wont hurt anything,just turn them around. It also shows where the pin 1 is for the floppy and IDE connectors.
trulad

[~Mel~]

So, first, thanks for all the fast responses. Very helpful!

As for the processor & heatsink/fan, I did what you guys said. Removed the heatsink and scraped off the pad and compound. Cleaned off the rest with isopropyl alcohol. Now I just have one nice thin layer of Arctic Silver 5 between the processor and heatsink.

As to the connections between the case and motherboard, I was mostly worried that if I hooked then up wrong I'd fry something and ruin some expensive part.

The wires are labeled: RESET SW, POWER SW, POWER and HDD LED. I was able to tell where they go from the motherboard manual and the labels on the motherboard (well kind of where the go). I just didn't know which way to plug them in (label facing front, back, etc.) Oh and the motherboard manual says one should be 3 pin and its only a 2 pin.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by ~Mel~ The wires are labeled: RESET SW, POWER SW, POWER and HDD LED. I was able to tell where they go from the motherboard manual and the labels on the motherboard (well kind of where the go). I just didn't know which way to plug them in (label facing front, back, etc.)

For the POWER SW and the RESET SW it doesn't matter which way you connect them...they work either way. But for the LED connection you do have to get them right or the LEDs won't light up. But if you get them the wrong way nothing bad will happen, just flip the connector 180 degrees. Normally the colored wire is the '+" or power and the white or black wire is ground.

Originally Posted by ~Mel~ Oh and the motherboard manual says one should be 3 pin and its only a 2 pin.

Check the motherboard manual again...some ASUS motherboards have both 2 pin and 3 pin headers for the POWER LED.

Cricket

[~Mel~]

So, I've got eveything connected assuming that the white is the ground. The only one remaining an issue is the system power LED. Motherboard manual says its a "Green 3-pin PLED". And I see it labeled on the board... it has 3 green spots. In the book, the left most spot is called "PLED+". The middle is unlabeled. The right most spot is called "PLED-". I do see two more green squares a little to the front and right, but they aren't labeled at all and they are a different color of green. So, not sure what to make of that.

[Cricket]

On the last build I did the ASUS motherboard had a separate header meant for 2 pin POWER LED connectors. It was located near the front panel header with the other connections.

If your ASUS motherboard doesn't have this then you may end up doing some minor surgery to get the POWER LED working.

Does the case have extra HDD LED connectors for extra HDD LEDs on the front of the case? If it does you can take one of those 2 pin connectors and use it for the POWER LED.

If you look on the connector for the POWER LED you'll notice one side you can see the brass connector. If you look closely you'll see a flap above the connector. Lift this flap up and the brass connector can be pulled out of the plastic housing. Once you know how to do that all you gotta do is figure out which wire is positive and which is ground. Then you remove one of the wires from the POWER LED connector and insert it into the HDD LED connector you removed the other wires from (both original wires must be removed). Now you have two separate connector and can hook up your POWER LED. Hope that made sense.

Cricket

[~Mel~]

Originally Posted by Cricket If your ASUS motherboard doesn't have this then you may end up doing some minor surgery to get the POWER LED working.

Wow, that sounds a little complicated. I hope I don't have to resort to "surgery". But, I guess I'll just have to wait until I'm done putting it together and try to turn it on for the first time.

[Cricket]

You could always just skip using the POWER LED...all it does is tell you the computer is on. It's not necessary at all.

Cricket