Building 2morro, First build! - Last min advice.

[Pulse-]

Hi guys, i'm going to do my first build tommorow morning, and would gladly appreciate any last minute guidance/tips/advice, ANYTHING!. I just want it to be a huge success and me to come out with a big cheesy smile after it .

My friend basically had the same setup as me, and he is having problems, which has got me paranoid. Here is my setup:

CPU: Intel core2duo E6400
CPU cooler: CPU cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
MOBO: Gigabyte GA 965P-DS3
HARD DRIVE: 250 Gb Western Digital WD2500KS Caviar
PSU: 700W Xclio X12S4P4 Modular SLi
Gfx: Palit 8800GTS
Case: Antec Nine Hundred/Ultimate Gamer Case
DVDRW: Samsung SH-S183A/BEBN Black SATA
RAM: 2GB Geil ultra PC6400 800mhz 4-4-4-12

Misc=
Thermal paste: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Anti-static strap.

The main areas i'd really appreciate tips on, is the cable connecting, any particular i should really look out for?. And also whether i'd be able to get into BIOS on startup (system will auto detect video card)?.

I installed the PSU today, going to finish the job off and spend basically most of the day building, any last minute tips would be absolutely brilliant, Thanks very much.

Danny.

 

[FooAtari]

All being good you will be able to get into BIOS straight away. If you cant see anything, something is wrong. check connections first, make sure the card is seated correctly. if still nothing listen for beeps which can indicate whats wrong.

As for cable connections, most will only go into one place, it's hard to go wrong IMO. Make sure everything is firmly connected before you turn on and you should be ok. Id say the most important one (apart from mobo of course, wont get far if that isnt connected, but it will only go in one way) is the CPU fan, miss that and you could fry it, and also make sure you connect video card.

Just take your time, double check things and you will be fine. Let us know how u get on

 

[raisin85]

don't panic.

 

[Syntonic]

"What isn't really talked about in building your own computer which isn't all entirely necessary but for just general ease, you should probably have some tools already at your disposal such as perhaps some needle nose pliers (small jumpers and big fingers? nooo problem.) and a ratcheting screwdriver. If it has multibit magnetic heads, avoid using them inside your case. Granted, you can use a NORMAL screwdriver but heck, a ratcheting one will save you some arm work for outside the case if you really need to do some work with fitting in fans where there isn't an easy slot and the like (more useful for cheap cases.) Other things that are helpful are some extra screws, nuts and washers. Especially the last item because there are times where a screw is just loose and won't screw in tightly. Sure it may not be a problem if it's the 3rd or fourth screw holding your hard drive but it's more of an issue with it's your 2nd screw suspending your PSU in the air in your case. Last thing you want is to take a chance that your PSU will drop down on to your oh so expensive video card (ok, so the chances of this happening are nil since most cases normally have a small railings underneath on the sides but hey, better be safe than sorry.)
The extra screws and nuts are useful for when you decide to add some odd fan in some place it isn't supposed to go or for whatever. Of course, you can always use those black plastic ties instead (tie-knots?) which are also useful for cable management. Edit: Forgot to mention, have a shotglass or a bowl or one of those cardboard boxes that they ship your stuff in around to put loose screws in that you are about to use."

Posted that in another thread before. Tie-wraps I think they are called actually. Handy and I like them better than tape or that velcro cloth junk and it's somewhat cheap as well. Unnecessary really but it helps even with modular power supplies to keep cables loosely together. Don't tighten the tie-wraps all the way as you might need to cut them or need wiggle room.

Other advice would probably be common sense like don't screw the motherboard screws so tightly that it begins to damage the pcb. In your case, your PSU is at the bottom if I remember correctly but you might not need washers there but maybe for other areas since your case uses alot of screws. I'd still hate to have loose screws regardless though.

Cable management is basically just planning ahead and see where you can tuck stuff around or into empty spaces to keep it out of the way and neat. There really isn't much to say about it. Try to avoid bending the cables too tightly and instead let it curve into place.

Don't lap off the mx-1 on the bottom of your arctic cooling freezer pro 7. I believe people have reported the mx-1 functions just as well or better at least for this cooler. It probably functions just the same and the people who reported the higher temps with the AS5 didn't let it set enough but I really haven't read too much into those posts.

I wish I had good experiences with Geil RAM but... I really don't unfortunately. Hope you have better experiences like others had.. some others. I actually don't really know anyone with Geil RAM in their machine personally.

At least skim the instructions for each item. Good testing ethic would be connecting a few components and seeing if it works with a test boot but heck, I never do that. I throw everything in and connect it and afterwards I start disconnecting if I need to troubleshoot.

Disclaimer: It's a random post on the internet. Take it with a grain of salt.

 

[Pulse-]

Thanks alot, starting in 2 hours or so, nervous ...

I'll let you all know how it goes, and hopefully i'll be posting on my new rig sometime today ^_^

 

[Pulse-]

I'm upto the point in connecting all the cables, i'm gunna do this tommorow now though. I'm stuck on a certain bit tho.

The little tiny 1 pin cables, named "MIC", "MIC-BIAS", "GND", etc.... i dunno where these connect to?. I have connected the "Audio" 4 pin cable to the F_PANEL in the "Speaker" slot, is this right also? Or should this "Audio" cable go into the "F_AUDIO" slot?.... It says in my case manual:

"Locate the internal audio connectors from your motherboard or sound-card."

I can't seem to find the internal audo connectors.... :|, unless its the ones on the F_PANEL, but they are labelled with things like "NC"....

Really stuck here and need help so i can go and do it correctly tommorow.

Thanks.

 

[skyguy]

Ok, I have the DS3 mobo so no worries. Here's a quick rundown, but it depends on how your case wires are labelled, all are a bit different:

1) F_Panel. on your mobo (at the bottom right with all the little pins lined up, different colors on the mobo) are for your power switch, power LED, reset switch, hard drive activity LED. The gray, round cables coming from the front of your case will be connected into these pins. The round cables from your case will be labelled something like "HDD LED" and "PWR LED" and "RESET" and so on. So you simply need to match those up with the same on your mobo.

Now, if you look closely at these case wires, you'll see that they each have 2 smaller wires at the end where the black plastic connectors are. Each cable will have a colored wire and a white wire. Colored is POSITIVE (+) and white is NEGATIVE (-). So when you look at your mobo manual under F_Panel (page 23, top right) you'll see a little diagram that says "HD+" and "HD-". Hook up that case cable oriented with the colored wire (often blue for HD) with the POSITIVE (+) on the mobo.

Same with all the other case cables. Just match them up to what the mobo manual says. + to the + on the mobo side. It'll be tricky fitting them cuz the space will be tight, but just take your time and make sure they're pushed all the way to the bottom.


2) F_Audio. On your mobo in the middle of the board at the very left side, you'll see more pins. Look at your mobo manual, pg. 24 for location. Now look at the detailed diagram at the bottom where it says "MIC", "GND", etc like you said. This is where you hook up the audio with the gray case cable that's labelled similarly. Now, every case is a bit different with their labelling, so this where you might find it confusing, but here's the scoop: On your mobo manual, see where it says "Line out (R)" and then below it says "NC"??? Well, that NC may actually be used by a little case connector that might be labelled as "Bline_R" or something like that. Same with the "Bline L". These are where you hook them up, in slots #6 and #10 on your mobo diagram. Not every case is the same, I dunno about the Antec 900. Normally, "MIC", "PWR", "Line Out (L)" and "Line Out (R)" are all the same on every case. It's the "NC" that might be different. Some cases have secondary hookups and the DS3 mobo manual doesn't really show that. But those extra connectors are for the secondary Line Out (R) and Line Out (L). So hook up them to the corresponding L and R slots on your mobo pins.

I know that all sounds confusing, but it's hard to describe over a forum, but read it again. Some cases even come with a bundled audio connector and you just plug it in and no separate little 8 connectors. Depends on your case.

Worst that will happen if you mix up all these connectors is that your Power Switch won't turn on for your computer, the hard drive LED won't work, the Reset won't work, etc. That just means you connected a wire backwards or put it in the wrong F_Panel slot. NO big deal, just hook them up again properly.

Same with F_Audio, all the channels/mic may not work. Just means a wrong hookup. No biggie, just swap them.

Cool? Report back and let us know how it goes.

 

[Pulse-]

Hi, thanks very much for that, it will no doubt help me. Last thing, i have a 4 pin cable named "Audio" at the end of it, this comes from the front of the case (and all the little tiny 1 pin cables are attatched to the same cable aswell), where does this connect to (the 4 pin "Audio" cable)? in the manual it says 4 pins on the F_PANEL are for a "speaker", does this go there, or does it go into the GREEN F_AUDIO slot (and then the tiny 1 pin cables go into the remaining pins on the F_AUDIO?), which if i remember the F_AUDIO is by the PCI-e x16 slot?

Edit: To save the hassle, i can take the PCI sound card from this computer (soundblaster) and put it in the new board, then i won't have to make this connections right? i think that would be better.

Thanks.

 

[skyguy]

The F_Audio is just above and to the left of the PCI-e x16 slot.

A 4-pin audio cable sounds like it's for the speaker pins in the F_Panel down on the bottom right of your mobo. F_Audio is usually an 8-pin or all single pins. So yes, I would tend to agree that the 4-pin goes down onto the F_Panel. And to be honest, I think hooking up the PC speaker is a waste, it's like a floppy drive but even more useless nowadays. I never hook it up. But I guess it might help beginners if something's wrong because they can hear the beeps.

Ya, you should be good to go with that setup now. Good luck!


[edit: Ya, I think the soundcard swap should make your life easier for the audio. Just remember to line up the F_Panel stuff right for the HDD LEDs, Power Switch, etc]

 

[Pulse-]

Fantastic, thanks very much for the help.

 

[Pulse-]

Right, my friend had this problem where all his fans were working, LED's, lights, etc. But the monitor would not get no signal and bootup. It seems this problem is commin with the DS3, The default RAM voltage setting is 1.8v, and my RAM requires 2.1v, i'm assuming that's why my friend cant boot and get into BIOS. So maybe i'll have to buy some cheap 256/512 ddr2 RAM at 1.8v, to bootup - get into BIOS then change the RAM voltage to 2.1, turn off, put 2.1v RAM in, then all should be ok, apparently. Have you heard of this problem Skyguy?.

Cheers.

 

[Viceras]

Just try booting with one stick of ram, then change the voltages and fit the second stick.

GL!

Viceras.

 

[Pulse-]

Friend had tried that, no luck.

 

[cozwin]

Well my bit of advice is.

I see you have bought Artic Silver 5 thermal compound but if you are going to put in on cpu and hsf DONT, benchmarks show the Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro performs better with the pre applied MX-1 then with Artic Silver applied instead.

So leave stock paste on the cooler.

Other then that good build and gl with it.

 

[cozwin]

Another tip would be to update bios to latest version before overclocking and also update video card to latest drivers (sometimes old drivers have big bugs especially with your video card).

 

[Pulse-]

Right, just like to say my first build was a complete SUCCESS (so far.)

The cables are a little mess, might have to get some cable ties to tidy it up, but it booted up FIRST TIME. With a slight noise coming from the PC though (i think a wire is clippiung a fan). I couldn't believe it, i didn't think it'd boot up first time, being a first build. Windows XP Pro = installed, just gotta sort all the drivers out, and check that HDD is working on SATA2, stuff like that. This isn't from the new rig itself, in school at the moment.

Last words:

Just like to thank everyone on this whole forum/website, i couldn't have succesfully built the rig without you people, much appreciated.

Pulse out -->

 

[skyguy]

Congratz! Good for you, another success story :lol: