Newbie needing help

[RRandal]

I am in the process of my first build (a digital photography/home office/general purpose machine), and am kinda' stuck on a few things. Below are the components that I have purchased:

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129021

Antec True Power Trio TP3-650 ATX12V 650W Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371001

ASUS P5B LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131030

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115004

CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145098

EVGA 256-P2-N550 -T2 GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130073

Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136033

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136003

LITE-ON 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 40X CD-ROM IDE DVD Burner included extra White bezel - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106050

Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2b 1pk w/Upgrade Coupon for Vista - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116175

I have everything installed in the case and connected to the MOBO as best as I can, but now have some questions:

1) Are all of these components compatible? I know that now is not the best time to find this out, but...

2) I did not get a floppy drive, thinking that I don't need one, but, do I need one?

3) The PS has a 2 wire cable (blue and black wires) with a small 3 pin connector that I do not know what it is nor where it should go. I think that it might have something to do with the temperature sensor/fan speed control, but... Anyone know what to do with this?

4) The PS has 2 "fan only" connectors that are supposed to regulate the case fans. My case has 4 fans (1 on the back, 1 LARGE on the top and 1 in front of each of the 2 HD cages). How should I connect the fans? I am guessing that 2 will go on the "fan only" connectors, and 2 on the regular power connectors, but which should go where?

5) There is an IEEE 1394 connection on the front of the case, but I don't see anywhere on the MOBO to connect it. Any ideas?

6) For the LiteOn CD/DVD, should there be an audio cable that connects to the MOBO? There was not one in the box.

7) I got the WD Raptor for the OS and programs, and the WD 320G drive for data. Will I need to partition the 320G drive into smaller (less than 137G partitions)? If that is the case, I probably should have bought multiple smaller drives...

Thanks for any help that can be offered,
Rodney

[Alaron]

Welcome to PCMech. We normally prefer that people ask what to buy before buying but not to worry. You did very well with part selections. I'll answer your questions.

1. Yes, all is compatible, and more importantly good quality.
2. Don't need it. And if you think you might later on, they are cheap.
3. Yes, that is to regulate the fan speeds on your PSU. Your motherboard should have some fan headers if you want to connect it. Otherwise you can skip it.
4. I'd connect the fan only pins to the big fan and the rear. The hard drive fans should be fine on other power connections.
5. The motherboard manual should tell you. And if you don't have any Firewire devices, you don't even need it.
6. No need for audio cables. In XP, the ribbon cable will carry the audio.
7. No need to partition the 320 unless you want to for organizational purposes. Otherwise you can use it as one big drive.

[Mr.Ferrari]

Edit: items have been already bought. my bad.

[doubledragon5]

I agree on the trio I have a 550 and the so called two pin connectors for the fan only doesn't even work...

[RRandal]

Alaron,
Thanks for the welcome and the answers! I still have a few questions:

Originally Posted by Alaron 3. Yes, that is to regulate the fan speeds on your PSU. Your motherboard should have some fan headers if you want to connect it. Otherwise you can skip it.

There are 4 headers, CPU_FAN(cpu fan plugged in), PWR_FAN, CHA_FAN1 and CHA_FAN2. The manual says that only the CPU_FAN and the 2 CHA_ fans support the ASUS Q-FAN 2 feature. So, I am assuming that I should plug in the 2 wire cable from the PS to one of the CHA_ headers, and then the PS should control ALL of the fans speeds..?

Originally Posted by Alaron 5. The motherboard manual should tell you. And if you don't have any Firewire devices, you don't even need it.

Apparently, I should have gotten the P5B-E MOBO which does have Firewire support . Since my board doesn't have it onboard, is there a way to get Firewire to the existing port on the front of the case?

Thanks,
Rodney

[RRandal]

Originally Posted by doubledragon5 I agree on the trio I have a 550 and the so called two pin connectors for the fan only doesn't even work...

So, are you saying that the fans connected to these connectors don't spin?

Thanks,
Rodney

[Alaron]

Plugging in the 2wire from the PSU to the CHA headers will control the speeds of the fans in the power supply. Your other fans that are connected only to the power supply will not have the speed control. But I recommend leaving them that way, rather then connecting them to the board. Its better for the motherboard not to have that extra power running through it.

As for the firewire, you can always pick up a PCI card to add firewire ports.

[glc]

Finding a Firewire card that has a header for a front port is not easy - it's easier if you can exchange that board for a P5B-E.

[RRandal]

OK, a follow up to my build.

All seems well (still no Firewire to the front panel, but that's OK for now), but there is an intermittent beep - not loud, but seems to occur about every 5-10 minutes. How do I find out what this is?

Also, I need help interpreting temp/fan speeds from various tools. When I run SpeedFan 4.32, the CPU temp is around 45-50 when idleing, the Core 0 is around 30, the Core 1 is around 32 and there is an AUX temp that is about 8-18 degrees above the CPU temp. What is the AUX temp?

How do I interpret these temps, and are they OK? How do I find out what are acceptable temps for the E6400?

Only 2 of my fan speeds are showing up, Sys and CPU. Sys is around 850 and CPU is around 1225. Are these OK?

Thanks,
Rodney

[kram 2.0]

1225 RPM for the CPU fan sounds awfully slow to me. Check your BIOS and see if the readings are significantly different.

kram

[RRandal]

Is there a way to check the BIOS other than when booting up - say while still in Windows?

Thanks,
Rodney

[RRandal]

I rebooted, went into the BIOS, and the temperatures/fan speeds were very similar to the numbers posted above.

Rodney

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by RRandal Is there a way to check the BIOS other than when booting up - say while still in Windows?

Nope.

Cricket