Building My Music Computer--Questions!!!

[nickdahl]

EDIT>>>AS I RUN INTO ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS, I'LL ADD A NEW SUBHEADING.

Well, I'm building, and things seem to be going good. I'm getting ready to install the motherboard into the case, and I've put in the standoffs, but I've got a couple of questions:

1. The standoffs are metal, and the holes on the A8N-SLI Premium motherboard are very close to circuits and stuff. Should I use plastic washers to prevent any shortcircuits?

2. I'm not sure what I should do with the I/O panel on the back of the case. There's a bunch of thin little strips where holes have been punched, and they're keeping me from getting the jacks threaded through the holes. I've attached a link so you can see what I'm talking about:

http://home.twcny.rr.com/drnick/P2210043.JPG

These strips look like tabs, and I don't want to break them off if I'm not supposed to break them off. What should I do?

Thanks,

Nick

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by nickdahl 1. The standoffs are metal, and the holes on the A8N-SLI Premium motherboard are very close to circuits and stuff. Should I use plastic washers to prevent any shortcircuits?

Not necessary, but make sure not to put any standoffs where there aren't screw holes.

Originally Posted by nickdahl 2. I'm not sure what I should do with the I/O panel on the back of the case. There's a bunch of thin little strips where holes have been punched, and they're keeping me from getting the jacks threaded through the holes. I've attached a link so you can see what I'm talking about: http://home.twcny.rr.com/drnick/P2210043.JPG These strips look like tabs, and I don't want to break them off if I'm not supposed to break them off. What should I do?

Probably the things that are getting in the way are the tab abve the PS2 ports and the tabs above the USB/network ports. just bend them up a bit and the motherboard should slide right in.

[Zick Boy]

Hi,

1. Don't worry about the standoffs they won't short your motherboard.

2. Don't break the little tabs, they're there to prevent your motherboard from shorting. Is the face plate from the case or the MoBo? If its the one that came with the case, use the one that came with your motherboard. I had to do that with my latest build.

[nickdahl]

Originally Posted by Zick Boy Hi, 1. Don't worry about the standoffs they won't short your motherboard. 2. Don't break the little tabs, they're there to prevent your motherboard from shorting. Is the face plate from the case or the MoBo? If its the one that came with the case, use the one that came with your motherboard. I had to do that with my latest build.

Right! This is the motherboard's plate. I'll get back to it.

Thanks,

Nick

[nickdahl]

When I installed the heatsink/fan onto the CPU, the last step was to hook the fan's plug up to the motherboard, where it says, "CPU FAN."

Now, I'm to the step where I'm attaching power cables from the PSU to the motherboard, and I'm wondering if I did the right thing.

I'm using an AMD A64 X2 4400+ CPU, ASUS A8N-SLI Premium motherboard, and ENERMAX 535W PSU.

My camera won't take a detailed enough photo.

Thanks,

Nick

[nickdahl]

Also, what's the CHA1_FAN, CHA2_FAN, CHIP_FAN, PWR_FAN?

Two fans came with my case, a fan on the back of the box, and another on the lid.

Thanks,

Nick

[thefultonhow]

CPU_FAN is for the processor fan, CHA1_FAN and CHA2_FAN are for the case fans, CHIP_FAN is for the chipset fan (which you don't have), and PWR_FAN is for the three-pin connector coming from the power supply.

[nickdahl]

Originally Posted by thefultonhow CPU_FAN is for the processor fan, CHA1_FAN and CHA2_FAN are for the case fans, CHIP_FAN is for the chipset fan (which you don't have), and PWR_FAN is for the three-pin connector coming from the power supply.

Okay, if I've got this straight, I'd plug the processor's fan straight to the CPU_FAN location on the motherboard. CHA_1 and CHA_2 are for the case fans, and I should plug the fans directly into those locations on the motherboard (does it matter which fan I designate 1 or 2?). Don't worry about the chipset fan. Plug the 3-pin connector from the PSU into the PWR_FAN location of the motherboard.

Thanks,

Nick

[thefultonhow]

You've got the general idea, but if the case fans come with larger four-pin connectors (i.e. the kind that drives use), then you won't be able to use the motherboard headers for them and so you'll have to use the connectors on the PSU.

[nickdahl]

Great, thanks. The cables are little 3-prong jobbies.

For the PSU_FAN, is it's purpose to turn on and off the PSU's fans? Should I preset the variable fan speed knob on the PSU or leave it turned one way or another?

Thanks,

Nick

[thefultonhow]

It's mostly just for fan monitoring. Some PSUs use it to control speed, but others don't. It's actually not a big problem if you were to just leave it unplugged.

[nickdahl]

My case has a plug for front panel audio: 2 rows of 5 holes, with one hole plugged. My motherboard has a corresponding location on it. They're different. Here's what I mean:

My case offers a mic jack and an ear jack on the front panel (it also offers two USB jacks and a 1394 port. The plug that's associated with this part of the front panel confuses me: where the plug terminates there's also a number of single-holed plugs. They say:

MIC-IN
MIC-POWER
R-OUT
L-OUT
R-RET
L-RET
GROUND

The "FP_AUDIO" connector on the motherboard looks like this (pins are separated by a ":" )

BLINE_OUT_L:Line out_L
blank:NC
BLINE_OUT_R:Line out_R
+5VA:MICPWR
AGND:MIC2

How should I hook this up?

Thanks,

Nick

[thefultonhow]

Don't bother with the single-holed plugs -- those are for motherboards that don't use the standard header. You can just plug the bigger connector in.

FWIW, when I used front-panel audio on my old desktop I couldn't use the speaker jack in the back of the computer... hopefully you will have better luck.

[nickdahl]

Does the same thing go for the front-panel USB ports? There's a 9-holed header (am I using the term right?), along with 3-holed headers for USB 1 and USB 2, plus 2 single grounds.

Thanks,

Nick

[thefultonhow]

Yep, it should be the same kind of thing.

[nickdahl]

The first few steps (using the BYOPC steps) went fine, since I'm using a new case. After installing the PSU, I realized I needed to get the DVD cage out of the case, so I had to take out the PSU.

Installing the processor was easy. The AMD-supplied heatsink/fan was trickier, because the photos appeared different than the actual objects. I was a little scared to put some pressure on the latch when I locked down the heatsink/fan, but I did it anyway, and it looks fine now.

What went the best was having people help me on this forum. My questions were answered in minutes.

What didn't go so well? Getting the motherboard and the I/O panel to come together took a little patience, so the chassis screws would line up. I had to take the PSU out for a second time, so I could attach the front panel connectors to the motherboard. Finally, I was a little unsure about what color of wire was ground. Some case wiring uses black for ground, and in other places (system switch connector, power LEDs) they use white. And the pins you have to place these headers onto? Man, they're small.

Today, I hope to get my DVD drives and hard drives installed into the case. I'm crawling along, because I don't like troubleshooting stuff.

Nick

[glc]

I hope you have been testing for POST as you go along - would hate to have to see you tear everything back out and start over.

I do this on the bench before putting the motherboard in the case - and again when the motherboard and video card are in the case.

[nickdahl]

Originally Posted by glc I hope you have been testing for POST as you go along - would hate to have to see you tear everything back out and start over. I do this on the bench before putting the motherboard in the case - and again when the motherboard and video card are in the case.

I didn't do this...in fact, I'm not sure I know how to do this. I've been following the steps on the website, but I'd appreciate any advice or help on what I should be testing for.

Thanks,

Nick

[glc]

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409

If that works, then install the motherboard in the case, connect the power supply and the power button lead, and the video card. Do it again, this time press the power button. If it works, then you can be confident the motherboard is mounted properly and you can continue assembling.

[nickdahl]

I've installed my two DVD drives into the cage (LITEON DVD burner and LITEON DVD-ROM). Now, I need to hook up the cables, and was looking in the manual, where it said the DVD-ROM drive should be set up as a slave drive. But what about the DVD burner? Should it be set to be a master or slave (or CS?)? Will I need to run these drives on separate IDE channels?

Here's why I ask...I am also installing three SATA hard drives into the computer, and one of those will, of course, be the system drive. Since they're not on the IDE cable, what should I be concerned with?

My motherboard came with a CD-ROM cable that fits the two DVD drives, but I thought I read somewhere about problems when these devices share the same channel.

Hmm...I'm a little confused? Thanks for any advice!

Nick

[thefultonhow]

If you don't want to mess with jumpers, you can put them each on separate channels and leave the current jumper settings alone. However, I like to keep them on the same channel to make room if I decide to add a PATA hard drive.

[nickdahl]

Originally Posted by thefultonhow If you don't want to mess with jumpers, you can put them each on separate channels and leave the current jumper settings alone. However, I like to keep them on the same channel to make room if I decide to add a PATA hard drive.

Okay, let's do it this way, and keep them on the same channel. I made the DVD burner the master and the DVD-ROM the slave. I'll hook these to the Primary IDE channel.

Thanks,

Nick

[glc]

If you are using an 80 wire cable, set them both to CS.

[nickdahl]

Originally Posted by glc If you are using an 80 wire cable, set them both to CS.

I'm trying to figure out if I have an 80-wire cable or not. The one I'm looking at has two headers for devices, and one that fits the IDE location on the motherboard.

Thanks for all the help! I appreciate it!

Nick

[nickdahl]

I have 3 ribbon cables that came with my motherboard: a floppy cable, a CD-ROM cable, and a HDD cable. The HDD cable has a different product number on it than the other two:

COMAX E173433 AWM2678 150V 105C VW-132AWG

The floppy and CD-ROM cables have this product number:

COMAX E173433 AWM2651 300V 105C VW-132AWG

Hope this helps identify what I've got!

Thanks,

Nick

[Alaron]

You can tell the difference between 40wire and 80wire cables just by looking. The 40wire will be noticeably bumpier then the 80wire, which will be much smoother.

[kodmaster]

what does cs stand for?

[nickdahl]

Originally Posted by Alaron You can tell the difference between 40wire and 80wire cables just by looking. The 40wire will be noticeably bumpier then the 80wire, which will be much smoother.

This is good to know. The cable ASUS labels "HDD Cable" appears to be the 80-wire cable, then, because the ridges on it are about twice as close, and smoother, than the cables for the CD-ROM drive or the floppy drive.

Should I use that cable for the two DVD drives? Performance enhancements? The headers looks like they'll fit (one is black and the other is grey). The other end of the cable is blue.

Thanks,

Nick

[nickdahl]

CS stands for "cable select."

Nick

[Alaron]

I use the 80wires for hard drives and the 40wires for opticals.