New build - few quick Qs

Ryall

Ryall

Ryall

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Joined
6 Feb 2012
Posts
9
I'm just in the process of building my first pc, and had a few questions, which if anyone could help me with I'd be very appreciative! PC spec is as follows:

1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail
1 x Sapphire HD 6950 OC "Dual Fan Edition" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC)

Firstly, the hdd - does it matter which SATA port I connect this to? I've connected it to one of the SATAIII ports, but I don't know if it should be going into a SATA II one, or if it even makes a difference?

Secondly, with the F_PANEL section of the motherboard. There are three connectors marked Power Led - do I ignore the middle one and just connect to the + and -? There are also two connectors marked Message/Power/Sleep LED - do I need to do anything with these?

I'm also struggling a bit with the case cabling. There are two molex sockets coming out of the front panel, which I think lead to the fan control, but I'm not entirely sure. Do I connect the case fans to these, or do I connect them direct to the psu?

Finally, more general question here, but is the psu I've got good enough for this build? I upgraded my gpu last minute before check out, originally having planned to order a 6850, and I don't know if I should have upgraded the psu at the same time? I notice that others with the same card are using 600w+ PSUs, which is why I ask.
 
1) if it's a sata III hard drive then it should be fine, if not swap it to one of the sata II, unless its an SSD drive no real point connecting to the sata III ports.

2) check the motherboard manual for the connections it needs, will be a diagram of pins etc and whats needed.

3) if there molex i would imagine those are power connections to the psu as most fans don't have molex connectors on them.

4) psu will be fine, most go for 600w+ to give themselves a bit of overhead.
 
Thanks MP (and, er, you too Jeff...)

One more question. I haven't currently got a DVD drive in the pc. I had planned on using an older one, but turns out my motherboard will only accept SATA, so I'm currently waiting for a new one to arrive in the post. I'm installing Windows from USB at the minute, but I'm unsure what to do about the motherboard drivers, as they're all on a disc. The drivers for my motherboard are here, but I don't know which of these I need. Do I just download everything on this page? For some functions there's more than one driver, and I don't know whether I'm supposed to download them all.

A stupid question, I'm sure, but I'm never actually done this before...
 
any chance you can get them downloaded to usb key ?

from that list select the o/s your using.

obvious ones are for onboard audio, chipset, lan.

the rest really depend on whether you use the items listed (sata raid, usb3 etc).
 
I usually just do the Ethernet or wifi driver then do everything on the new rig, some downloads can be quite large and start to take up too much time transferring them all over.
 
Thanks for the help. I ended up downloading more or less everything listed, other than the SATA Raid drivers. I only downloaded the Intel USB 3.0 drivers - should I have downloaded the Etron ones as well?

In any case, I've since been through device manager and checked that everything's up to date. All seems to be ok, so far!
 
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