More than I can Chew - I think?

[tiltazone]

I think I bit off more than I can chew. I never built a computer before so please don’t laugh at me when I say the most challenging upgrade I ever performed on one was a memory installation. I wish I found this forum a lot sooner, because now as the hardware is actually arriving at my door the reality of all this starts to sink in. The first reality slap was when I opened the box of my computer case and mother board. All other parts on my list are already ordered and I’m still waiting for shipment. I examined and stared at my behemoth computer case for many hours today. Taking it apart, putting it back together, moving parts around and just trying to get familiar with it as much as possible. This doesn’t look as easy as I thought it would be. I am very intimidated and worried that I just threw $$$$ out the window right before the holidays. I hope someone will let me know what they think about my build so I can decide if I should send back all parts or proceed with the plan…

Case = Cooler Master CM Stacker STC-T01 (I got this case because it supports E-ATX mobo’s incase I ever want to upgrade in the future. I also got it because of it’s cooling capabilities plus it has a lot of room on the inside. It supports Dual PSU which I will only be using one for the time being).

Mobo = ASUS M2N32 SLI Deluxe (Wireless Edition) AM2 Socket for Athlon (This mobo is probably overkill for me… but I like the features it comes with. I probably could of settled for something less expensive and easier to work with)

Optical Drive = ASUS - CDR-DVD ROM - COMBO ASUS|CB-5216AG BK OEM (This came as a special offer with the mobo purchase)

HDD = Western Digital WD2500YS 250GB 3.0 Gb/s 16 MB Cache 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive

Memory = Corsair CM2X1024-5400C4 1GB DDR2-675 XMS2-5400 Xtreme Performance Memory (only one chip for now)

PSU = OCZ OCZ700GXSSLI GameXStream 700W Power Supply (Probably overkill for now but looking for sufficient power in the future as I add on more)

CPU = AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4200+ Socket AM2 (There was a dual core opteron 1.8 GHZ with 2 MB L2 Cache a few dollars less expensive. I didn’t know which one was better. I wish I knew about this forum before buying)

Video Card = NVIDIA PCI Express GeForce 256MB GDDR3 ßwhatever that means)
Official Part and Model Number - VGA BFG 7600GT 256M BFGR76256GTOCE

I hope I am on the right track. If I can get this thing to POST correctly, then I will seek to purchase a monitor, keyboard, mouse and surely some other superb upgrades in the future. Until then I think I can work with what I ordered in conjunction with my older monitor, keyboard, mouse etc… Will someone, anyone PLEASE offer me advise.

[freakitchen]

Welcome to the forums!

Your parts list there isn't a bad one by any means - I'd have suggested a few tweaks, but you've gone for quality parts, and that's the most important thing by far.

Don't worry about building - it's not a complex process if you take your time and do things carefully. I'd first take a look at these two links - pretty good guides that walk you through the building process:

http://www.mechbgon.com/build/index.html
http://www.mysuperpc.com/build/pc_parts_list.shtml

Here on the forums, we have some instructions dedicated to troubleshooting problems with new builds - but whenever I build a computer I always assemble the core components in this way before putting anything in the case. It will let you know if they're working right before continuing:

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

FK

[Alaron]

I wouldn't really worry. Your part selections are pretty good. The AM2 platform should be paired with DDR2-800 for the best performance, but the ram you bought will be fine.

You might want to pick up a DVD Burner drive to copy CDs and DVDs. The optical you have now will only read them. Again, not required but a thought for later.

Overall, you're all set. Check out our guide for help building: http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/index.htm and ask any questions you have here.

[tiltazone]

Thank you so much for the encouragement. Online articles make one to beleive that anyone can build a PC quite easily. I don't know if these articles are a marketing tactic to sell hardware or what? However, I did have fun doing the research and then messing around with the case after it arrived was very interesting.

I have not started to assemble anything as of yet... Still waiting for parts to arrive. Ordered most of them from ZipZoomFly as they had better prices on quality parts and FREE SHIPPING. Newegg was good price for the motherboard and optical drive.

I will examine your links carefully before proceeding with this build and I thank you for your quick response and attention. You make me feel hopefull that this could be a fun journey with little to worry about.

[chipdip]

Yeah, don't worry about the building process, I find that it comes naturally. I recently build my first computer, and I just knew where everything went, no questions asked. You shouldn't have any trouble with that.

[freakitchen]

Originally Posted by tiltazone Thank you so much for the encouragement. Online articles make one to beleive that anyone can build a PC quite easily. I don't know if these articles are a marketing tactic to sell hardware or what?

Often the case, unfortunately. But the article in my first link makes no attempt to sell hardware I believe. Start your reading there

FK

[andper10]

You should be fine. You have picked out quality parts. Just make sure that you are careful with stuff, and discharge your static electricity on a metal surface before you handle things. Enjoy your build!

[tiltazone]

Originally Posted by Alaron I wouldn't really worry. Your part selections are pretty good. The AM2 platform should be paired with DDR2-800 for the best performance, but the ram you bought will be fine. You might want to pick up a DVD Burner drive to copy CDs and DVDs. The optical you have now will only read them. Again, not required but a thought for later. Overall, you're all set. Check out our guide for help building: http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/index.htm and ask any questions you have here.

On the DDR2 800 suggestion... I slipped up on my research with the Ram and waited to purchase that last. I had no idea how astronomical prices are on these rams so most of what I could find did not fit into my budget right away. The one I did find was in my price range so I clicked on the "BUY" button and kept my fingers crossed during the order.

The CD-DVD ROM i will add an additional optical down the road but the one I have now will read and write to CD's.. As far as DVD it only reads them.

Thanks for your suggestions.

[newbuilder14]

The XMS2 DDR2 675 RAM should work without any problems. Should be a nice build, don't fret too much about it, that is what we are here for. Just take your time and remember to read all the directions.

[tiltazone]

Thank you newbuilder14 and all of you for the help and encouragement. I'm scared as hell because I just shelled out a little over $1,000 for all of this (After mail in rebates a little over $900). I should have joined this wonderful forum before making my purchases but no use in crying over spilled milk now. For the most part I think I made ok choices on my hardware with a few mistakes that can be winked at for now. Newbuilder14, it's not easy reading all this material at once and absorbing it. A lot of the documentation in the manuals are pretty vague at times. Nowhere in the mobo manual does it explain about the stand-off screws. The manual only explains to set the motherboard correctly aligned on the holes of the tray and to place in screws to secure the board. What's up with that? They skipped the stand-off screws completely. I'm afraid I will run into a lot of vague areas of documentation and will be running to this forum every time that happens. I want to do this correctly as best I can, knowing that it will be difficult for a newbie like me to avoid mistakes.

I learned about the stand-off screws by reading freakitchen's advise http://www.mechbgon.com/build/index.html . If it wasn't for freakitchen posting those links I might be lookin to fry my mobo or shortcircuit that board within days. Thanks freakitchen! It also looks like this Cooler Master Case of mine had an attempt by someone before me but it is in good condition so I will keep it. I popped out the Case's I/O sheild and will replace it with the mother board's sheild. It looks like I have the stand-off screws correctly in place on the mother board tray, but will know better when the time comes to mount that mobo.

Hopefully by tomorrow I will receive the CPU and memory module. This Asus M2N32 SLI Deluxe mobo looks very tight in person and I always make sure I ground myself before touching it. It feels like I should be wearing special gloves or something because its hard to manuever this thing without grabbing a good hold on it. I try to grab it only by the edges but its impossible. Does someone have any advice how to handle this mobo and what areas to avoid touching. I dont want to break it or anything like that.

Im going to bed now and tomorrow will be a new day with a Fed Ex scheduled into it I hope

[chuck4456]

Happy Thanksgiving. It's always good to see a new pioneer. Good luck.

[tiltazone]

Happy Holidays to you also chuck4456. Bon Appetite for Thanksgiving

[flanzig1]

As always, read through the mother board manual. It should show you which holes on the mother board are for mounting screws and which are not.

[tiltazone]

Thank you flanzig1. I assure you that the manual does not elaborate in detail. It's a very short paragraph I can type out. "Hold components by the edges to avoid touching the IC's on them" (Its impossible to manuever this mobo to the chassis only holding the edges)...

"Place 9 screws into the holes indicated by the circles to secure the motherboard to the chassis." Do not overtighten screws! Doing so can damage motherboard"

THATS IT!!! No mention of stand-off screws at all!!! so what do I do? Use stand-off screws or don't use them? Common sense tells me to use them!

What troubles me the most is that this mobo should be brand new but the box was not sealed in plastic and the plastic bag that the mobo was inside of was not sealed either. Anyhow, I received all my parts yesterday and I'm still mulling this over before proceeding. I have a little time each day so I want to do this slowly - one step at a time.

Happy Thanksgiving

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by tiltazone Thank you flanzig1. I assure you that the manual does not elaborate in detail. It's a very short paragraph I can type out. "Hold components by the edges to avoid touching the IC's on them" (Its impossible to manuever this mobo to the chassis only holding the edges)... "Place 9 screws into the holes indicated by the circles to secure the motherboard to the chassis." Do not overtighten screws! Doing so can damage motherboard"

On most motherboards the mounting holes are the holes with the metal rings around them.

Originally Posted by tiltazone No mention of stand-off screws at all!!! so what do I do? Use stand-off screws or don't use them? Common sense tells me to use them!

You must use the standoffs and make sure you only install them in the holes in the case that line up to the motherboard mounting holes.

Originally Posted by tiltazone What troubles me the most is that this mobo should be brand new but the box was not sealed in plastic and the plastic bag that the mobo was inside of was not sealed either.

That's normal, don't worry about it.

Originally Posted by tiltazone Anyhow, I received all my parts yesterday and I'm still mulling this over before proceeding. I have a little time each day so I want to do this slowly - one step at a time.

Try not to "over-think" what you're doing...you'll only make yourself more confused. Use the guide Freakitchen gave you the link to and proceed at a pace that's comfortable to you. It shouldn't take you more than two hours to assemble the computer itself (not including the installation of the OS).

Cricket

[tiltazone]

Ok Cricket, Yes I think I have the 9 stand off's correctly aligned. I just finished taking digital pictures of everything before proceeding. This might help if I run into any problems, then I have a visual to offer you guys. This will take longer than 2 hours... sorry.

Im going to open the PSU now and proceed to install that on the case. Then I will set the mother board next to the chassis on it's original cardboard box and install only essentials such as CPU and memory and hook it up to the power supply. I'll bring over a keyboard and monitor from my other computer to hook into it and see if the MOBO lights up. What do you think? I'll be back later to announce the results or any hang ups I may encounter... I wont power up the mobo until someone can confirm I am on the right path.

I dont want to start installing everything directly into the chassis as of yet. I want to make sure the basics respond correctly first. Thank You.

[flanzig1]

To make sure that the stand-offs are in the correct place, could do a dry fit of the mother board to the case the check the correct placement and numbers of stand offs. This will also insure that the mobo is lined up with the I/O sheild.

[tiltazone]

flanzig1 did that already... fit looks good but since I never did this before I think actually mounting the motherboard to fit with the I/O sheild is going to be challenging. Once the mobo holes are setting correctly with the standoff's which of the screws would I use to secure the mobo to the standoffs? There are so many screws and the manual for the mobo or the case is non specific to this matter.

[freakitchen]

Originally Posted by tiltazone Im going to open the PSU now and proceed to install that on the case. Then I will set the mother board next to the chassis on it's original cardboard box and install only essentials such as CPU and memory and hook it up to the power supply. I'll bring over a keyboard and monitor from my other computer to hook into it and see if the MOBO lights up. What do you think? I'll be back later to announce the results or any hang ups I may encounter... I wont power up the mobo until someone can confirm I am on the right path.

You have the right idea in starting up with the essentials out of the case - but do it EXACTLY as described in the thread I linked to. I'd leave the power supply out of the case for this test - otherwise you might find that the connectors dont reach to the motherboard when out of the case. (A point to note - if your PSU is of the type that has a large 120mm fan on the bottom of the unit, then put it on its side on the desk - allowing that fan to suck in air).

Then install the processor and heatsink, one stick of RAM and the video card. Nothing else. Hook up a keyboard, and a monitor to the video card. Then power on the system by using a screwdriver to momentarily short the power switch posts on the motherboard (find the location in the manual).

Fans should start spinning, and you should get a display on the monitor. At this point, I enter BIOS and go to the 'PC Health Status' (or similar) option to check CPU temps are good. If you installed the heatsink correctly, they should be between 20 C - 35C.

FK

[flanzig1]

If you have a bunch of mixed screws; there are generally 3 types.
1: a sheet metal type screw used for case covers/card shields to the case/case parts to case parts
2: Machine threads/smaller size is for mounting drives to the case
3: Machine thread/larger size for mother board mounting
With the machine screws, try starting them by ahnd so as not to have a wrong sized scerw in a mounting hole.

[tiltazone]

Ok Flanzig1 I see a small bag of larger machine screws for this purpose I think...

Freakitchen, Im workin on it. The wires of this PSU looked long enough to reach from the case and I thought the power supply should be in the case for a good ground (I thought this before I read your last post) but I guess that is not so. Anyhow with newbie effort I was abe to mount the PSU inside the case now. I am not in the mood to remove it so hopefully all the wires might reach the mobo preinstallation. If wires won't reach, I'll mount the mobo to chassis after I connect CPU, heatsink, 1 GB memory (onechip - is all I have anyhow) and video card. I never ordered an antistatic wrist bracelet (never knew of them till now) but I keep my hands grounded on unpainted metal of the coolermaster case constantly.

Snack Break by order of Freakitchen!!! In the mean time during break I am looking for a place online to post photos of my build :-) .. will be posting my results again soon!

[freakitchen]

If the wires won't reach - take the PSU out of the case. The reason you're doing this out of case build is to make sure your core components all work when they are unaffected by the possibility of the motherboard being grounded to the chassis.

If all is good, then build the system in the case and add the Hard Drives and Optical drives.

I use photobucket to upload and link images, but get your system running first

Regarding which screws to use for the motherboard, just take one of the stand-offs and see which screws screw in easily (but firmly) by hand.

FK

[tiltazone]

Freakitchen you are awesome... I would email you some snack goodies if I could. I will follow up on your advise... It's taking time because I have other things here distracting me. Family, phone, ya know the usual being home kinda stuff...

I will remove the PSU because what you are saying actually makes a lot of sense. Going thru the process to remove and replace the PSU again is a hassle worth going thru in order to have peace of mind with this build. The mobo is still sitting comfortably in the plastic bag it came with :-)

The Fun hasn't begun yet but im having fun already.

[freakitchen]

Originally Posted by tiltazone Freakitchen you are awesome... I would email you some snack goodies if I could..

If you could, I'd definitely accept

FK

[tiltazone]

Alright, the wires are not long enough to reach from the case so here is what I did...

I took the cardboard case box of the mobo and laid it flat on the table. I laid the mobo on top of the box and installed the CPU (easy as pie). Installed the CPU Heatsink Fan which was very difficult to align the metal latches to the parallel stubs (made of plasitic BTW) in order for mobo to grab hold of fan device. It took a lot of force and I was afraid to break something. Grasping the latches took a lot of finger muscle and an exceeding amount of pressure on the lever in order to snap the fan on tight and snug. Even though this lever is made of plastic it did not break and process went without hitch and no breaks *Phew*). The wire from this fan is connected to the "chip fan" of the mobo.

Installed the video card (Easiest thing to do by far... took no pressure and snapped right in perfectly. I used the slot closest to the CPU (Is this creating a hot spot?) I figure the slot closer to the CPU is the best location for the video card.

Installed the memory into slot A1... This took a lot of pressure and I was afraid the mobo was going to crack but it went in fine after a snack break.

Now I took the case and laid in on its side. I placed the card board box with mobo onto the tray as if I was going to mount it. This way the mobo is protected from the screws on the tray and I can reach it with the power supply and will be able to hook up keyboard and monitor.

Questions related to PSU and wires to the mobo...

What exactly do I hook up onto the mobo from this PSU. I have the plug labeled "main power" with another one next to it labeled "24". I know where to plug this in but do I plug both of them in or just one of them? Common sense tells me both of them next to each other (fits perfectly :-)

I also have two wires with plugs. One is labled CPU1 and the other is labled CPU2. I see a place on the mobo that will receive one of these plugs. The receiver is labelled "ATX 12 V". This is the only receiver on the board that will recieve this plug. Should I plug it in?

Also I have two other plugs. One is called "PCI E1" and the other is called "PCI E2". I do not see a visible reciever on the mobo for these wires. Can someone tell me what these are for?

There are so many other wires that are labelled SATA up to six I think but also I have other wires not labled at all and I have no clue what they are for. Maybe I will find out later but if they are important right now, will someone let me know.

Please let me know about the power wires I described, before I bring in the monitor and keyboard.

Oh and another thing. The GeForce video card does not have a correct plug for my current monitor. The plugs on the video card are DVI, so I will have to plug the monitor where the I/O receiver is located the board. Does this mean we wont be able to test the video card?

Thats it for now...Snack Break!

[newbuilder14]

Connect the following cables: 24-pin main connector (obvious), a 2x2-pin ATX12v cable by the CPU, a molex connector to your optical drive(s), an SATA connector to your hard drive(s), and a molex connector to your fan(s). As for the monitor and video card, your video card comes with DVI to VGA converters. Look in the box.

[Alaron]

To power the motherboard, hook up the 24pin connector on the edge of the board, and the 4pin square connector by the blue PCI-E slot.

The PCI-E power would go to your video card, but I hear yours doesn't need one.

The SATA cables are for the hard drive. The thin red ones are for data that connect the drive to the board. The SATA connectors on the power supply are to power your SATA hard drive.

The video card should have come with a couple adapters for your monitor.

[newbuilder14]

The BFG Tech 7600gt doesn't need a PCI-E power connector, don't worry about that.

[tiltazone]

Right now I am only concerned with the basic powering up of this mobo (as Freakitchen described earlier) The rest of the wires I think I will worry about only when the time comes for them... (there are so many wires (quite confusing). Many of the wires are identifiable and others are not). At this point the reality of my situation is that I don't feel I can do the rest of this install without the help of this forum. This might take a few days since I have other things such as work on my plate.

Let us identify only the wires required for the basic power up as Freakitchen mentioned. The main 24 pin power line is obvious so I got that. The ATX 12 V on the mobo is not that obvious though. The only wire from the PSU that would fit to the "ATX 12 V" is the CPU1 or the CPU2 wire.

As far as the video card's adapters... yes they are in the box but how do they work? The adapter plugs do not match or fit to the DVI socket ports on the card so I dont understand this yet. I have an S-Video on the card also but this is not relevant now.

It doesn't look like this mobo will get power tonight. I don't even know where to stick the tip of a flat head screw driver to power it up.

Note: since the mobo is inside of the case (breathing very well at that), I have acces to connect wires from power button (located on front side of case) and I can also connect wires from PSU without having to mount the mother board yet. The wires from the front of the case are labeled but thet are in disarray and I have no idea how to connect them to the mobo. It is for this reason that now....

I'm going back to all of my documentation again... (Stumped with wires galore)

The PSU has no manual to explain all the wires. My case is laying flat on it's side and looks like an octopuss with all wires hanging out of it. Mobo is laying safely on large cardboard inside of case positioned on top of the mobo tray. I'm not an electrician but it appears one would have to be for this project... Please have patience with me and stand by...

[Alaron]

Plug in the CPU1 wire into the ATX12V.

The adapter for the video card should plug into the DVI port and leave a smaller VGA port for you to attach the monitor.

The screwdriver needs to touch the two pins that will later attach to your cases power switch. Your mobo manual will show their location.