no power, question

[Ratheblade]

i just built a new system. if i'm not getting power, either i messed up on the wiring, or the mobo, cpu, or psu is bad right? if it was the video card or memory, wouldn't it get power, but give a beep code instead of boot up? i'm going to go back and check the wiring after work tonight. could i have damaged anything if i got the power switch, power led, reset, and hdd led backwards? well, anyways, here's the specs.

athlon 64 4000+ san diego core
asus a8n sli
evga geforce 7800gt
thermaltake xaser v8000a

the rest of the stuff was pulled from my old pc, most of the old stuff will eventually be replaced.. if i ever get this running

maxtor 30gb hdd
ocz 512mb ddr400 3-4-4-8
thermaltake purepower 480w psu
sound blaster audigy 2
nec nd-3500a dvd+/-rw DL
toshiba 16x dvd-rom
floppy (forgot brand, don't care much about floppy)

[doctorgonzo]

Follow the steps in this thread: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409

It does sound like you aren't getting power to the motherboard since you aren't getting anything. You probably didn't damage anything if you got the power switch and other connectors wrong.

[glc]

Is that a 24 pin ATX 2.0 power supply? 20 pin PSU's don't have the guts to power a PCI-E motherboard with a high end video card, even with an adapter. Not only that, in addition to the 24 pin connector, the 4 pin connector must be plugged into the motherboard into the 4 pin socket near the CPU and if the video card has a edge power connector, it must be connected too.

[Ratheblade]

here is the power supply.
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/2005/purepower/W00212.htm

a 24pin adapter was in the retail box with it, so i figured it supported the 24pin mobos. the psu also has the 4pin plug plugged in over by the cpu. do you think the psu would be ok?

[blue60007]

Nope, that's a 20 pin unit. An adapter makes it *compatible* but it isn't going to cut it unless you've got a low power system.

[Ratheblade]

*sigh* ok, i guess i'll start shopping around for a new psu.

[doctorgonzo]

That's not a bad brand but you really want a ATX 2.0 PSU. An adapter that makes it pin-compatible doesn't mean that it is meant for the newer motherboards.

If you do get a new PSU, make sure that it is SLI-certified if you plan on going the SLI route in the future.

[Ratheblade]

hmm, any recommendations on the new psu then? i found a sli certified psu on thermaltake's site, but when i went to newegg to check the price, i saw almost all bad customer reviews.

update:
i've been looking around newegg, and i could only find 2 psus that are 24pin and sli certified under $150. that's crazy.

[glc]

SLI certification doesn't come cheap. That requires prodigious amounts of clean power.

Here's the current cert list:

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone2_build.html

Even so, there's some brands on there that I'd take a pass on. I think you can get a decent one off that list for under $100, but not a heck of a lot under.

[blue60007]

I think the Antec TP-II 550 is one of the cheapest I would recommend, it's $90 I think.