Do I need plastic washers?
- Thread starter Barso
- Start date
You don't no, that might interfere with grounding it. I've never bothered with them anyway, if it came with them they're probably just in case any of the motherboard tracks run a little too close to the mounting hole.
As for the PSU, you'll always have to fit the broad 24 pin ATX connector to the motherboard. Most modern boards also have either a 4 pin or an 8 pin connector somewhere around the CPU socket, and the cable usually has two 4 pin connectors on the same length of wire so you use one or both as needed: that'll need to be plugged in too, but these plugs are fairly unique so they shouldn't go anywhere else.
Apart from that, there are two other types of connector: PCIe connectors and SATA/Molex connectors. The PCIe plugs have either 6 or 8 pins, and they're rectangular/square. If your graphics card has a connector (usually at the rear or side, and often black plastic. Not all cards need them.) you'll need to plug it in.
SATA cables are the very slim ones with a small "L" shape at one end, Molexs are the more chunky rectangular ones with slanted corners. These are for hard drives and CD/DVD drives. All modern HDDs/optical drives use SATA so unless you've an old unit you'll hopefully not need to use molex. Every HDD/optical drive will need one.
On most PSUs the cables are labelled on the connector, or there should be a diagram in the manual if you're stuck. Once you've got the motherboard, HDD and optical drive plugged in plus the graphics card if it needs one that should be it.
EDIT: if all that blabbing about cables has was no use, this page has lots of photos. Your motherboard will need the 24 pin ATX/20+4 pin ATX main power cable depending on what your PSU has, plus something like the 4+4 pin +12 volt power cable. Each HDD/DVD will need either a Molex or a SATA, and your graphics card may need one of the PCIe cables.
As for the PSU, you'll always have to fit the broad 24 pin ATX connector to the motherboard. Most modern boards also have either a 4 pin or an 8 pin connector somewhere around the CPU socket, and the cable usually has two 4 pin connectors on the same length of wire so you use one or both as needed: that'll need to be plugged in too, but these plugs are fairly unique so they shouldn't go anywhere else.
Apart from that, there are two other types of connector: PCIe connectors and SATA/Molex connectors. The PCIe plugs have either 6 or 8 pins, and they're rectangular/square. If your graphics card has a connector (usually at the rear or side, and often black plastic. Not all cards need them.) you'll need to plug it in.
SATA cables are the very slim ones with a small "L" shape at one end, Molexs are the more chunky rectangular ones with slanted corners. These are for hard drives and CD/DVD drives. All modern HDDs/optical drives use SATA so unless you've an old unit you'll hopefully not need to use molex. Every HDD/optical drive will need one.
On most PSUs the cables are labelled on the connector, or there should be a diagram in the manual if you're stuck. Once you've got the motherboard, HDD and optical drive plugged in plus the graphics card if it needs one that should be it.
EDIT: if all that blabbing about cables has was no use, this page has lots of photos. Your motherboard will need the 24 pin ATX/20+4 pin ATX main power cable depending on what your PSU has, plus something like the 4+4 pin +12 volt power cable. Each HDD/DVD will need either a Molex or a SATA, and your graphics card may need one of the PCIe cables.
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