first new build - help!!

[JrFowler]

I need 2 ask two questions, they might seem silly to you but ive never built my own pc before so its a bit daunting to me..

most things have gone well, ive got the motherboard mounted and the majority of things connected.. but its the electrical that has thrown me a bit..

I am trying to understand 2 things..

1. I am trying to connect up the front panel on my case to the motherboard and it says that the coloured wires are CLOSE wires.. does this mean they are negative or positive? I cant afford to get this wrong so any help would be appreciated.. as obviously I want to get them the right way round..

Secondly, ive got my WD Raptor in place, connected to a power supply.. I can see where the sata connection goes on the motherboard but the opposite end of the cable ive got doesnt look like its gonna plug in the back of the raptor? whats up with that?

ohhh and thirdly.. my power supply.. ive connected the 4 pin ATX 12v, but theres a spare 6 pin one coming off my PSU, HX620 corsair btw.. can I just leave this dangling....

many thanks for any help with this..

wanna get this up and running today!!

 

[Jimmi]

1. I am trying to connect up the front panel on my case to the motherboard and it says that the coloured wires are CLOSE wires.. does this mean they are negative or positive? I cant afford to get this wrong so any help would be appreciated.. as obviously I want to get them the right way round..

I am sure there is a correct way round, but having just built my new unit yesterday i had some best guessing. If it doesnt work one way then you know it will work the other way.

ohhh and thirdly.. my power supply.. ive connected the 4 pin ATX 12v, but theres a spare 6 pin one coming off my PSU, HX620 corsair btw.. can I just leave this dangling....

Yes, i've got a few spare connectors floating about which i have "lashed" to one of the spare drive bays to keep them out of the way

 

[Trigger]

Right, firstly it would help if you could post your system specs

1. I am trying to connect up the front panel on my case to the motherboard and it says that the coloured wires are CLOSE wires.. does this mean they are negative or positive? I cant afford to get this wrong so any help would be appreciated.. as obviously I want to get them the right way round..

Simple Answer- it doesn't matter Polarity on the front panel switches doesn't matter, granted the case LEDs won't work but it won't break them if you connect them the wrong way around, the important thing is to make sure you get them over the right pins on the board but this is described in detail in the manual. Technical Answer- the coloured wire is normally negative and the single stripe white wire is positive

Secondly, ive got my WD Raptor in place, connected to a power supply.. I can see where the sata connection goes on the motherboard but the opposite end of the cable ive got doesnt look like its gonna plug in the back of the raptor? whats up with that?

It will go in- they are standard connectors. The will only go in one way however- they are sort of ' ¬ ' that shape

ohhh and thirdly.. my power supply.. ive connected the 4 pin ATX 12v, but theres a spare 6 pin one coming off my PSU, HX620 corsair btw.. can I just leave this dangling....

It will be for your graphics card if you have one which is why telling us your system specs would help with this one so if you post them up, I'll answer it again

 

[JrFowler]

Ok, sorry, I knew as soon as I posted I should have put the specs up..

Gigabyte Aurora Case
Gigabyte DS3 Motherboard
E6300 Conroe Chip
Corsair 620w PSU
HIS ATI 1950 Pro Gfx
2 GB OCZ Platinum RAM

I have worked around the front panel wiring, and the hdd was just me being stupid lol.. never seen sata connections before so it stumped me.. how old skool am I..

The only things I have left to connect up are the following..

for some reason I have that 8 pin spare supply off my PSU, the graphics card already has its independant supply on it..

I also have 2 molex's that come from the front of the case, and split into 2 like a Y plan... im guessing theyre front fans or hdd activity connections.. either way I have on space on my mobo to put them in if theyre fans as my rear fans are on the mobo, can they be wired directly to the PSU, ive looked at all the masses of cables I have with the psu, but none seem to give me the final connection..

I also have a IEEE 1394 connection, but I dont think the mobo supports it, so thatl have to hidden...

Theres also what looks like 2 PCI-e power supply connections on the mobo, one above my gfx card. one below, should these have power to them or are they surplus to requirements for now?


thankyou very much for ** time and effort in struggling with me.. ha

 

[Trigger]

Any chance of a picture? I'm struggling to understand how you've connected it now...

 

[JrFowler]

Any chance of a picture? I'm struggling to understand how you've connected it now...

Its ok, all connected bar the IEEE connection now, am I right in thinking the DS3 doesnt support Firewire anyway, so I guess thatl be left un attached?

 

[thefishdude]

somemotherboard use an 8pin connector instead of the square 4 pin. so i woud imagine t he 8 pin isnt needed on yours.


hmm thikn you may be right the board doesnt have firewire,so yeah can leave that out. there are oftyen spare wires over. even more so before modular cabling when you couldnt choose what was connected.

 

[JrFowler]

well, we are now formatting the hard drive for a fresh install of windows xp home.. il ask a somewhat dodgy question, a friend of mine gave me a legitimate copy of windows xp pro, still in the plastic wrapping, now ive had a read through it and I dont think il be able to install it because it says u need the certificate number from the machine, is this correct?

it doesnt bother me too much but I wouldnt mind upgrading to pro if I can..

 

[Trigger]

well, we are now formatting the hard drive for a fresh install of windows xp home.. il ask a somewhat dodgy question, a friend of mine gave me a legitimate copy of windows xp pro, still in the plastic wrapping, now ive had a read through it and I dont think il be able to install it because it says u need the certificate number from the machine, is this correct?

it doesnt bother me too much but I wouldnt mind upgrading to pro if I can..

No, you can't install it- all he has given you is the media and it is the expensive bit which you don't have (The license). Stick with XP Home which you know is all legal (I Hope )

 

[JrFowler]

No, you can't install it- all he has given you is the media and it is the expensive bit which you don't have (The license). Stick with XP Home which you know is all legal (I Hope )

yeah it is, the pro one was legal too... but he isnt living near me anymore so il struggle to get the licence code

thanks anyway

 

[Trigger]

yeah it is, the pro one was legal too... but he isnt living near me anymore so il struggle to get the licence code

thanks anyway

That doesn't sound legal at all - if it was the license code should be inside the wrapper. It was probably a VLK which is only licensed for businesses and is normally only an upgrade license IIRC. Stick with your XP home