Building my First Computer- Lost on Cabling

I recently bought this deal from the front page. It's my first build. I had been thinking it might be fun to try and build a computer for awhile. I saw the deal and I jumped. I now think I should have looked first. I have no idea what I'm doing.

Things are going okay, but just okay. I've been Googling like crazy about computer building. I've also read through the manuals that came with the equipment. As a result, I've managed to get the motherboard in, the hard drive in, and the DVD drive in. I've connected the CPU to the mobo, and installed the fan over that. The RAM is also in. All that stuff went well.

The problem is, however, I have no idea how the cables connect to anything. I don't even know how to connect the DVD drive! There's about a billion cables coming off the power supply, and maybe 2 large ones coming from the front and 5 tiny ones. I don't know what to do with these.

Does anyone have any tips for me? Can anyone point me to any videos or websites with guides on them that focus heavily on cabling?

Thanks in advance!

Cables are constructed so that they only fit in where they're supposed to go. Every device should have one cable going to it from the power supply.

Your motherboard has a 24-pin power plug, so you use both pieces of the 20+4 pin from the power supply. They only go in one way.
Your motherboard also has a separate 4-pin 12V power plug to which you should plug one piece of the 8-pin 12V power plugs from the power supply. The 8-pin 12V plug is separated into two 4-pin pieces, you only use one, the other is unused.
Your DVD burner and hard drives use the slim black SATA power plugs.

See the picture attached. You probably won't use the Molex, PCIe or Floppy power adapters.

You also need to connect your hard drive and DVD burner to your motherboard using a SATA data cable. Unfortnately it looks like your motherboard only came with a single SATA data cable in the box so you'll need to get another somewhere. Here's one for $0.89 Shipped [meritline.com].

The 2 large cables coming from the front of the case are probably USB headers and the 5 smaller ones are likely the connectors for the power button, reset button, HDD activity LED, etc. These all plug in to headers on your motherboard. You'll need to read the motherboard's manual to find the pinout for the headers and plug them in accordingly.

Thanks so much for your help! I'm going to order a couple of SATA cables from that link because I'd like to add a blu-ray drive in the future. I've ordered a memory card reader that will install in the 3.5 inch slot. Will that require a SATA cable as well? I was thinking USB.

Will I be using all of the cables coming from the power supply?

Some of the cables, for the hard drive, come down a bit, have a plug come out, and go down a bit more and have another plug come out. Do both of these plugs go in the same device? Or is that to plug in more than one device more easily? This is visible in the picture you linked.

Quote from someone28624 : Thanks so much for your help! I'm going to order a couple of SATA cables from that link because I'd like to add a blu-ray drive in the future. I've ordered a memory card reader that will install in the 3.5 inch slot. Will that require a SATA cable as well? I was thinking USB. Will I be using all of the cables coming from the power supply? Some of the cables, for the hard drive, come down a bit, have a plug come out, and go down a bit more and have another plug come out. Do both of these plugs go in the same device? Or is that to plug in more than one device more easily? This is visible in the picture you linked.

No you will have some left over. Hard drives and optical drives only have one place to plug in power, if they have more only do one. The left overs are for additional drives in the future.

This looks to be a pretty good place to start reading.
http://lifehacker.com/#!5151369/t...om-scratch

Quote from someone28624 : Thanks so much for your help! I'm going to order a couple of SATA cables from that link because I'd like to add a blu-ray drive in the future. I've ordered a memory card reader that will install in the 3.5 inch slot. Will that require a SATA cable as well? I was thinking USB. Will I be using all of the cables coming from the power supply? Some of the cables, for the hard drive, come down a bit, have a plug come out, and go down a bit more and have another plug come out. Do both of these plugs go in the same device? Or is that to plug in more than one device more easily? This is visible in the picture you linked.

Actually, there's a 3-pack of SATA Data cables for $1 today on the front page. See here: http://slickdeals.net/forums/show...?t=2653371

Multiple plugs on the same wire are to plug in multiple devices more easily.

I too built my first comp from some very slickdeals. It took some trying but it got done!

As they suggested, stock up on cables and what not, you can always use them.

Be sure to read and reread the motherboard manuals.

After I puchased a mb and processor combo, I had to turn around and buy a new case and power supply because the old one I had planned to use wouldn't cut it. I also grabbed a deal and upgraded my mem, but that took a bit of researching. But, after its all said and done, it will be a fun learning experience and well worth. Now, would I do it again...lol

BTW, the guys here at sd are awesome so keep the questions coming. I may be able to help as well but not as much as these guys.

Someone,

for instance you'll have 2 or 3 power cables for hard drives on one "chain"...the assumption is that you have the drives installed in the case right next to one another and thus you can plug them both in from the one power cable since it has 2 or 3 connectors on it...the same for the optical drives as they will line up the same way...

now if you have SATA drives but the old molex PATA connectors, you need the pata to sata power adapter..basically the white pata plug for the black sata plug...
I hope that makes sense to you.

Also there is 4 or 6 connector cable that powers a secondary port on the mother board near where the vid card or cpu is...in most cases you'll need to make that connection as well...or it won't boot up.

Another silly question- does order of the hard drives matter? My case has slots for 4 hard drives. I only have one. I had originally put the hard drive in the top most slot. I then saw the picture in the case manual and it showed a one hdd set up with the hdd in the lower most slot. I moved it. Does this matter at all?

Quote from someone28624 : Another silly question- does order of the hard drives matter? My case has slots for 4 hard drives. I only have one. I had originally put the hard drive in the top most slot. I then saw the picture in the case manual and it showed a one hdd set up with the hdd in the lower most slot. I moved it. Does this matter at all?

Does not matter. Ideally put it in a slot where your drive can get the most airflow. If you add a drive later, skip a space between them.

If you eventually end up with 3 or 4 drives stacked on top of each other, it's a good idea to have a fan in front of them for some active cooling.

Quote from someone28624 : Another silly question- does order of the hard drives matter? My case has slots for 4 hard drives. I only have one. I had originally put the hard drive in the top most slot. I then saw the picture in the case manual and it showed a one hdd set up with the hdd in the lower most slot. I moved it. Does this matter at all?

Quote from G37 : Does not matter. Ideally put it in a slot where your drive can get the most airflow. If you add a drive later, skip a space between them. If you eventually end up with 3 or 4 drives stacked on top of each other, it's a good idea to have a fan in front of them for some active cooling.

Right. I helped a friend built this deal yesterday. We put it in the middle so it could get airflow over the top and bottom (he has a front fan, which is a good idea to get much better airflow in the case. Location only becomes slightly important if your full and you want to manage heat/airflow. If the cables fit you could put the drive anywhere in the case it fit securely.

And I thought it was done. But it won't turn on.

The only cables I'm left with from the power supply are extra SATA, one that looks like a floppy, several that look like Molex, one that looks like a 6 pin PCI, one of the 2 pieces of the 8 pin power (like someone mentioned, I only had one spot to plug this in).

Here's a few pictures. From the earlier picture, I'm guessing these are the floppy, 6 pin PCI, and a Molex.





Slots on the mobo I have left include several SATA and USB spots, a spot labelled "PRI_IDE," a PCI slot, a PCI express slot, and a PCI x16 slot, a spot labelled AAFB, a slot labelled LPT, and a spot labelled COM1. There's also one spot labelled USBPW1 that looks like it can take 1 pin. I have no idea what connects there.

There's a slot on the mobo labelled "speaker." Two cords from the power supply fit here. one labelled HD Audio,and the other labelled AC '97. I'm just using basic speakers. Does it matter what I do?

When I plug in the computer, a light on the mobo turns on, but nothing else happens. No fans. I have the option on the power supply to have it set at 115 or 230.

Any help much appreciated.

Quote from someone28624 : There's a slot on the mobo labelled "speaker." Two cords from the power supply fit here. one labelled HD Audio,and the other labelled AC '97. I'm just using basic speakers. Does it matter what I do? When I plug in the computer, a light on the mobo turns on, but nothing else happens. No fans. I have the option on the power supply to have it set at 115 or 230.

What happens when you press the power button? If nothing happens, you may have the plug connected to the motherboard in reverse.

Quote from dhc014 : What happens when you press the power button? If nothing happens, you may have the plug connected to the motherboard in reverse.

You called it perfectly my friend! It is on! Time to connect a monitor and keyboard and mouse and install Windows and see what happens! But dinner, first. So freakin' excited! I'm helplessly dorky.

WTF, no power cable included with the monitor.