(Virgin Builder- First build ) Half way done but need help so It doesnt explode and melt my face off please

[babyrodan]

So this is my first build. I am a noob builder with extreme emphasis on noob. I have found that most of the online guides and all the manuals have not really helped all that much. Most of what I have hooked up was just off of assumption. I have only screwed in the power supply to the case so far everything else is loose in there.

Here are some pics with some questions.

so far what ive done


these cables come from the front of the chasis, not sure where they go


does anyone know what each of these pieces are used for?


I already have my video card connected to the power supply so Im not sure what I do with these PCI E connectors. I don't even see a slot for them on the motherboard



for my hard drive, I already hooked it up to the power supply and got a sata cable going from it to the mothaboard, but theres this little 4 prong slot next to the sata connector that I don't know what to do with.



Also coming from the chasis is this grounding thing that I have no idea what to do with, doesn't seem to be any spot for it on the motherboard.



Also Im not installing an optical drive so how would I go about installing the OS via USB?
And the motherboard and vid card came with installation cd roms so I don't know what to do there.

 

[babyrodan]

and the build is

CPU AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor
ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Patriot Viper 3 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600
Seagate Barracuda ES 750GB 3.5"
MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti
Cougar Solution (Black) ATX Mid Tower
EVGA 430W PSU

 

[hunter315]

Going from top to bottom

1. Those are your front panel connectors, consult your motherboard manual to see what header on the board they hook up to

2. a. Grommet for WC hoses. b. Unsure c. Thumb screw either for holding case side panels on or holding drives in their bay d/f. Small screws used for mounting drives and screwing the motherboard onto standoffs e. standard motherboard standoff, goes between the case and the board g. weird motherboard standoff, consult manuals.

3. If your GPU doesn't have a spot for a PCI-e power connector then don't worry about them, they always hook into the GPU not the motherboard

4. It looks like someone got weird and put a floppy power connector on your hard drive, i don't know why.... If you already have a sata power connector from the PSU hooked up and a sata cable running from the motherboard to the drive you are done with it.

5. That is a USB connector, consult your motherboard manual to see where to connect that.


Now that we've gotten though those questions, go read the damn manuals!!! MOST OF THIS IS IN THERE! AT LEAST TRY!

 

[babyrodan]

my motherboard manual is vague and my case didn't come with one but thanks for helping

 

[hunter315]

Uhhhhh if you are calling the manual vague i want to know what your definition of specific is, they went to the effort of walking you through setting up crossfire! They can't give you a manual the size of a harry potter book, some stuff has to be left up to you, but they provided plenty of information to solve the puzzles.

All of those connectors in the second picture, refer to pages 30 and 31, for the USB connector in the last picture refer to page 29. All of the information is at your fingertips, you just need to hunt it out. You will learn more in the hunt than simply the answer to the question at hand.

 

[babyrodan]

Yeah I got it now. All of the chasis cables are hooked up. That last one though was apparently for a speaker port not a USB.

Anyways, I screwed everything in, only thing left to do (I think) is figure out if this needs to go somewhere. Its not labled so not sure what to do with it.

 

[hunter315]

Looks like a fan header, you should have a spot on your motherboard labeled "Sys Fan" that you can plug that into.

 

[babyrodan]

theres a PWR Fan on my motherboard but its only got 3 pins. Should I plug it in anyway? theres kind of like a divider on the head of the cable, like a little plastic ridge that sticks out a little more than the other ridges (look at pic 2). Am I supposed to plug it in and leave that last hole hanging off?

 

[babyrodan]

its not turning on

led light flashes for a second and nothing happens

 

[hunter315]

Run through the boot checklist, it covers the majority of issues that will cause a failure to boot
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems

 

[babyrodan]

I didn't do the gold looking things between the motherboard and the case, did I just break this shit

 

[hunter315]

Maybe, maybe not. Put it back together with the standoffs between the motherboard and case. Hopefully the PSU detected the short and decided to just not turn on.

 

[babyrodan]

wow this is awesome im so glad they only gave me two standoffs, they really are a life saver when it comes to frying motherboards

 

[hunter315]

Is this your case?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811553003

If so, it appears to have the bent out portions in the case behind the motherboard. The purpose of the standoffs is so that the motherboard and case only make contact and a few specific points, the bent out portions of the case serve as stand offs so it only makes contact at the location of the grounding screws. As long as you don't have the board touching the case somewhere there isn't a screw hole you are fine.

 

[babyrodan]

that's the one. I don't know why it wont start then I pretty much could check off all those things in that guide. going to try again from scratch. can I do a test outside the case?

 

[hunter315]

Yeah, its generally referred to as "breadboarding" Get yourself a non-conductive surface and lay the motherboard on that, a big piece of card board will suffice.

 

[babyrodan]

can I keep the psu in the case, and should I still connect all the cables from the case

 

[hunter315]

You can leave the PSU in the case, thats fine it doesn't matter either way.

You may want to leave the cables from the case off the board for the start, minimize your components, minimize your potential issues. You can start up the system by shorting the pins where the power button would normally connect on the board, it is a momentary push button so tapping those pins with a key or screw driver will send the start signal.

 

[babyrodan]

tried it and didn't work again
cpu fan spins for a second and then stops

 

[Pondering]

Switch the RAM to the slot furthest away from the CPU besides that everything looks good.

-Make sure the 4 pin CPU connector is the one with 2 squares.

-Connect the video card using the PCI-E connection and not the adapters.

-Both the hard drive and optical drives only use 2 connections: the SATA data cable and the sata power cable

-The '4 pin cables' from the power supply are for 3.5 floppy disk drives

 

[babyrodan]

got it working I think! re did it externally, changed the usb and I used the psi connector instead of that splitter thing on the video card. now all I have to do is figure out how to get this thing to actually work on a monitor

 

[Pondering]

Connect the monitor using the blue VGA cable, white DVI cable or a HDMI cable if your monitor supports it

Don't worry about attaching the USB 3.0 header, USB 2.0 header or the headphone/microphone jack.

Just connect the power button, since the power LED and the hard drive activity indicator lights are really bright.

Get it booted up past the BIOS and then put in the windows media to install the operating system if you have any issues just power off the computer using the power button and it should load the operating system media on its own.

 

[babyrodan]

I have it on a usb but idk how to do it, I changed boot up option 1 to USB and still get same black command screen

 

[Pondering]

Sorry. I have never installed from an USB media before since you are able to boot now, you can start a new thread to ask for help on installing the operating from an USB drive.

Just ask people to direct you to good guides since it is just rough searching for good guides under pressure.