The (new) Official PC building thread!

Yeah, if I'm honest, this is the only area that I was dissatisfied with the Gigabyte board about. For my board the manual's description on how to use the connectors was wrong, so I can only hope it's correct for your version. IIRC the labels on the connectors all faced outwards from the row of pins. i.e. the writing on the connectors is always visible, and not hidden in the middle. Does that make sense?
The three pin power connector is normal, most cases only have two pins, but the board provides for three because some cases use a two-colour power LED, which requires three pins rather than two.

 

rob just so you know. NORMALLY colored wire is + and white wire is - in this occasion. HTH....

....gm

 

all these questions are from what idid lastnight. im in the middle of doing my husbandly chores. cleaning the house for the queen..lol about done and im gonna open it up again and go over it all again.

i still dont like that 4 pin 12v cable from the PSU being stretched like it is...lol messin up my wire managment...lol as if i got it looking good anyway..lmao

 

It's not something I like either, but we have to put up with it for bottom-mount PSU cases that don't have cable management features to resolve it... Until I swap to an NZXT case for my server, I'm in the same boat.

 

ok i got all the little wires onto the front panel headr now. pretty confident they are right now..

i even took off the power plug to my front fan and rerouted the short wire from the fan to fit onto the MOBO. heres the question.i have 4 fan plugins. 1 for the CPU of course its pluged in. then i have a sys1 spot a sys2 and a power fan spot.. i have that front fan pluged into that one the pwr fan am i right in doing it that way?
i have 1 spot left for a fan to go onto the mobo. and i assume that is for the fan thats on the side panel. another intake fan. i have 2 intake fans and 1 exhaust. is that to much intake and not enough exhaust?


seeing that everything is pluged in now i dont have any extra wires hanging around (other than the AC97 wires im not useing). im ready to power it up. once i do that should i wait to do any thing or go right into installing windows?

 

Sounds like you're good to go. As for the fans, it depends whether they push the same amount of air or not. If there's not too much of a difference between how much air is blowing in and how much is blowing out, then any remaining vents can cover that, if the case has any.
If there's a gross difference in how the case is setup, that's something to consider and work on.
You're probably ready to power on and install windows now though.

 

Yes after a little confidence booster(ty buddy) im ready to power this beast up.

as for the fans.i did some modding to the case again..lol
i took the side fan off the side seeing it had the 3 pin plug for the mobo. turned it around and made it a exhaust fan and put it on top of the tower. and then took a red thermaltake 120mm(A2368) fan that has the 4 pin plug and pluged it into the PSU. it is setup as intake.

so i have 4 120mm fans in it right now.
1.front fan =intake
2.side fan =intake
3.rear fan =exhaust
4.top fan =exhaust

plus there is plent of open space/vents to let air circulate on its own.. think it should be well ventalated

3 fans(not counting cpu fan) will be controlled by the mobo and the intake on the side well she'll be running full tilt..lol

i got some pics, BUT they are after i got stuff together. i got carried away lastnight installing stuff and forgot to take pics...lol
the ones i have right now show the inside and shows the AC97 wires i have to get a couple small wire ties and tie it up somewhere.
ill post the pics once i upload them to photobucket

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i196/Cincrob/100_2761.jpg
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i196/Cincrob/100_2762.jpg
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i196/Cincrob/100_2763.jpg
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i196/Cincrob/100_2764.jpg
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i196/Cincrob/100_2765.jpg

 

Looking good so far Rob.

I await with baited breath the results of the power up (seeing as how my MOBO and CPU will basically be the same )

Also as Im getting the same case (lol) you say you rerouted the 12v power cable, where did you route it.

Oh yeah and youve got to get some round IDE cables to replace the big flat blue thing gigabyte provide

 

I almost posted that too. he can do that anytime in the hopefully near future. man those ribbon cables can sure clutter up a nice build.

 

i took out the GPU ran the 12v cable just in front of the PCI slot and then put the GPU back in theres a nice little space just for the cable...

and once i get it up and running ok im gonna get a round ide cable. maybe a glowin the dark one..lol


well here is what we all are waiting for. getting ready to hhok up monitor and keyboard and turning on power.

 

well it fired up just fine. cant even hear it run

but my monitor isnt working. im gonna swap out this one and see if it works.

 

IMO, rounded ones are still massive, and restrict more airflow.

all you have to do is tape the flat ones to the side of the case, and then just raise it to put in the socket. no airflow loss, and easy

 

rob,

is the power light on the monitor orange? that is an indication that something is wrong (no signal) could be something as minor as the GPU not seated in the socket well to something as major as a problem with the cpu.

 

I have a bunch of extra Pentium 4 chips laying around, a 3.4ghz, a 2.8 ghz, and a 1.6ghz. I'd like to turn these chips into decent systems that could be potentially upgraded in the future to Core 2 Duos/Quads. , but I'm having a hard time picking out a motherboard. The only requirement I have is it should be an ATX board, and as cheap as possible. No extra features, just standard stuff, on board lan/audio, a single PCI-e x16, as many usb/sata as possible. I'm really just getting kind of confused about which chipsets are best for this kind of project.

Anybody have any suggestions?

 

The Gigabyte GA-P35 boards are pretty good, loads of USB and SATA, and compatible with all socket 775 chips out so far.

 

Yeah the GA-P35-DS3 boards are awesome! Sure you can get something cheaper, but if you plan on upgrading the CPU later on you want it based on a decent motherbaord. The GA-P35-DS3L would be my recommendation on a cheap and highly featured board.

 

Specifically the P35-DS3L, well featured for the price.
Rob: Don't mean to be a downer but the problem is almost undoubtedly not with your monitor. No video signal means there's a problem with part of the build, check the power connectors again thoroughly and reseat the cards and memory sticks.

 

Rob, are you getting POST beeps?

 

Yea I actually have a GA-P35C-DS3R, I just wasn't sure if they would support the older chips. I think I'll take a look at the DS3L, it's just so tempting to grab some of these $50-60 boards from Abit or whoever.

Thanks for the replies.

 

As tempting as it is, I'd advise against it.