Physical build advice please...

GM2

GM2

GM2

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OK, so I've been putting together my pile of components for the odd couple of hours over the last few days.

Everything is in, but I now need to connect the power leads. So a few questions, if I may:

Spec:

Antec 300
ASUS P5Q-E
Q6600
PNY 8800 GT
4Gb OCZ (2x2)
Corsair HX520w
WD Caviar 640
Samsung SATA DVD

1 The 8 pin EATX12V socket on the PQ5-E has come with a rubber cover over 4 of the holes. Do I remove this and use the 8 pin cable from the PSU? Or, do I use the 4 pin cable from the PSU and leave the rubber cover on?

2 If I use the 8 pin (in 1 above), what is the 4 pin lead for?

3 What do I plug into the GPU? It came with a lead which I attached to the card, but that splits to two 4 pin connectors, each with only 3 wires / actual pins. What do these connect to?

4 As well as the SATA data lead and the SATA power lead, the HDD has 8 pins (2x4) on the rear. Are these for an alternative power source or something else?

5 What is the PCI-E cable for? It has 6 pins connector one end (PSU?) and 6pin + 2pin on the other end.

6 The fans have large 4 pin connectors (2 wires only). The PSU came with a lead labeled 'Fan Only' which has a 4 pin (2 wire) connector one end and then splits to 2 connectors, both with 4 pins (but only 2 wires).

7 Does it matter what is plugged in to which socket on the PSU (ie which of the 5 identical looking ones)?

8 The Mobo has a bright blue cover / sticker (which says EPU on it) on the southbridge heatsink. Is this meant to stay on - or should I remove it - which seems the sensible thing to do!

Many thanks

GM2
 
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1 I presume you're talking about the extra CPU power connector/socket. I've never come across one of these before, but If the 8 pin plug fits in the 8 pin socket on the board, then it will probably work. Although I honestly don't know what advantages the 4 extra pins give, so you could just use the 4 pin if you want to play it safe.

2 The 4 pin lead will probably be for people who (like me) have older boards that only have a 4 pin socket

3 Connect two 4 pin molex connectors, the same ones as your drives use, to the two connectors on the lead

4 Those sound like jumper pins, probably a legacy of the older parallel ATA drive on which your SATA drive is likely based, ignore them

5 I'd leave it unless it obviously fits somewhere - you've already provided extra power to the gfx card with the 2 molex connectors

6 You use that lead for your fans, but don't connect anything else to it. It provides a lower voltage, so fans run slower and therefore quieter. Drives, however, are unlikely to appreciate the lack of voltage.

7 No

8 It will almost certainly work better with it off

Hope this helps:)
 
To add to the above, remove the molex splitter from your graphics card and use the dedicated PCI-E lead. The lead you seem to have attached is for if you have an old PSU which doesnt have PCI-E power. Won't make much difference, but the PCI-E leads tend to use a thicker guage wire and be better protected.
 
DJ Baz said:
Hope this helps:)
Click to expand...

It helps hugely! Many thanks.

Just a couple of questions:

6 Do both case fans power from the same split lead? This doesn't plug into the PSU, so I presume I use another lead to connect it all together?

Also:

9(!) Can I use the same lead to power both SATA HDD and DVD?

Thanks again.
 
Just wondering if anyone can answer the last couple of questions in the above 2 posts?

Thanks...
 
20/24 pin connector = Mobo
8/4 pin = if mobo has an 8 pin you HAVE to use an 8 pin connector, a 4 pin in the 8 connector may perm damage your system
6 pin PCI-e = Graphics card only, no where else
4 pin straight connector [oooo] = IDE device only, so HDD or CD/DVD - EDIT: can be used on fans too
and the 'flat' black connector = SATA device only, again... HDD or CD/DVD

i hope that has covered every PSU cable you have :)
you dont have to use every cable the PSU gives you i.e if you have 2, 6 pins and only 1 graphics card you only need to use the 1, 6 pin :)
 
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6) I assume your case fans have the four pin molex connectors. I which case you can either use the Corsair splitter than says fans or just plug them straight into 4 pin molex connectors

9) You can power as many devices from a single lead as you have connectors on it... so yes that will be fine

AD
 
Many thanks for the succinct summary.

The PCI lead had 6 at one end (PSU) and 6+2 at the other. Do all 8 go into the graphics card?

QlimaxUK said:
you dont have to use every cable the PSU gives you
Click to expand...
I had managed to work that much out ;)
 
decto said:
6) I assume your case fans have the four pin molex connectors. I which case you can either use the Corsair splitter than says fans or just plug them straight into 4 pin molex connectors
Click to expand...

Yes they are.

Is there any advantage to using the splitter? Less cables?

Thanks

GM2
 
not sure, i have recently learnt that some of the newer graphics cards now use an 8 pin connector so the best thing to do would be to simply check your graphics card to find this out

EDIT: i have a question about this, are 8 pin mobo connectors and 8 pin PCI-e connectors exactly the same so can be used either way?
 
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Thanks all - hopefully that's it!

I'll try to find time to connect everything a bit later...
 
Drivers

Is it best to download the latest drivers and BIOS etc?

The mobo seems to have separate audio, lan etc, as well as the BIOS and various utilities. Is it best to download the latest version of all and then install them?

Presumably the same for GPU.

Thanks
 
latest drivers - always a good idea (specially for GPU)
BIOS - not unless your having a problem that requires a bios update
 
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