Building my first PC, have a few last minute questions

[slinky22]

I'm building my very first system and almost all of my components have arrived so I'm trying to make sure I understand every last piece before I attempt to build. Here's what I'm building:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 90nm
MSI Neo2 Platinum mobo
512mbx2 Kingston PC3200 DDR400 RAM (non ECC, unbuffered)
BFG 6800GT OC
2x200gb Seagate SATA HD 7200rpm 8mb (going to configure in RAID 0)
NEC 3500 CD/DVD burner
Lite-on CD/DVD rom
Sony floppy drive
Antec Performance View Case (file server) + 3 additional 80mm fans (5 total)
OCZ Powerstream 520w PSU
Windows XP Home SP2 OEM

Couple of questions here:

1. Did I screw up and buy a component that won't work well with the other? I purposely avoided the 16mb maxtor HDs due to the complaints I read with setting up RAID. I picked the RAM because it was cheap ($66 per stick) but didn't do any research so I'm a little worried in that dept.

2. What timings (no OC) should I use for this RAM? Here's a link for exact kind I bought:
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=20-156-006&depa=0

3. What is the little power connector thing for that came with my Neo2? It's got a Molex on one end and two black things I don't recogize on the other end. Are these for powering SATA drives if your PSU doesn't have the SATA power connectors?

4. Shouldn't my mobo have come with an optional firewire thing for the front panel? I don't see it with the other accessories. I've have the USB one though.

5. How do I remove the stock thermal pad on the heatsink? I plan to use Arctic Silver 5 instead.

6. How loud do you think this sytem will be? I'll be running stock heatsink fan with 5 80mm case fans that run 25db each.

7. How should I setup my fans? How many should push air in vs pushing it out? Where do I put them to get the best cooling?

8. Do I need to plug anything into the sfan1 or sfan2 part of my motherboard? I assumed all my fans plugged straight into the PSU. Is there someing on the PSU I need to plug into this spot?

 

[slinky22]

bump

 

[LouPoir]

No answers for you - but that looks like one sweet system - IMHO

Lou

 

[Gorrillasnot]

5. Is it a square patch of thermal grease or an actual thermal pad on the heatsink? if it's grease use a soft cloth and wipe it off then use a lil isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol to clean off any residue. If it's a glued on thermal pad then I usually squirt a lil lighter fluid on it to loosen up the glue then wipe it down with alcohol.

7. All front fans should be pulling air in and all rear fans should be pusing air out.

 

[jonnyGURU]

1. Seagates are good SATA drives. I've only had two failures put of 70 or 80 drives in the last year. Maxtors, on the other hand, I've only used 6 and have had 5 fail. Bad math?

3. Yes. Those are SATA adapters the NEO comes with.

4. No. How is the motherboard manufacturer going to know what kind of case you're going to use? If the board has a Firewire header for front mounting, it's going to be a standardized pin out. Buy a case with a Firewire connector and hook it up.

5. If it's a pad, scrape it off with something softer than the aluminum (like wood, like the edge of a desk.) Since it's an Athlon64, there will likely be grease on the heatsink.

8. Do you HAVE TO? No. Is it NICE TO? Yes, because you can monitor their RPM's from the motherboard.

 

[Nessal]

Show us a pic of the molex with the 2 connectors on the other end so it would be easier to tell. Is your mobo advertised with firewire? If not then it won't have the cables for it. If you have a thermal pad on the heatsink, use some rubbing alcohol. It works pretty good. Also there was this chemical that removed that stuff really good, I can't remember on top of my head right now but when I used it, it was amazing. Your comp will be LOUD. I'm running 2 case fans, 1 cpu fan, and 2 PSU fans and it's not something you want to sleep next to. You want the fan to be oriented in a way that there are fans drawing the air into the case, and equavilent amount drawing it out. So in a sense, have 2 suck in air, and 2 sucking air out. The sfan plugs on your mobo aren't nescessary. However it will help if you want to monitor the fan speed later on either through bios or through other programs in windows.

 

[slinky22]

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
8. Do you HAVE TO? No. Is it NICE TO? Yes, because you can monitor their RPM's from the motherboard.

So what do I plug into it? Something from the PSU or something else?

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: slinky22

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
8. Do you HAVE TO? No. Is it NICE TO? Yes, because you can monitor their RPM's from the motherboard.

So what do I plug into it? Something from the PSU or something else?

Huh?

Look. Some boards have two or three headers other than the headers for the CPU fans. These are for case fans. Case fans that are made to plug into the motherboard have three wires. A positive, a negative and an RPM sensor. They're nice to use because you can monitor RPM's from the motherboard. REALLY nice fans have BOTH connectors so too much juice isn't pulled through the motherboard's PCB, but the RPM's can still be read by the motherboard. Using an adapter to adapt a fan that was meant to plug into the power supply so it can plug into the motherboard is useless because the fans that are made to plug into the motherboard only have two wires. A hot and a ground. No RPM.

 

[GasX]

Do yourself a favor and go buy the latest Maximum PC. It has a detailed walkthrough for building your own PC...

 

[AMD Die Hard]

You are going to LOVE that new system. It looks awesome.

 

[slinky22]

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU

Originally posted by: slinky22

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
8. Do you HAVE TO? No. Is it NICE TO? Yes, because you can monitor their RPM's from the motherboard.

So what do I plug into it? Something from the PSU or something else?

Huh?

Look. Some boards have two or three headers other than the headers for the CPU fans. These are for case fans. Case fans that are made to plug into the motherboard have three wires. A positive, a negative and an RPM sensor. They're nice to use because you can monitor RPM's from the motherboard. REALLY nice fans have BOTH connectors so too much juice isn't pulled through the motherboard's PCB, but the RPM's can still be read by the motherboard. Using an adapter to adapt a fan that was meant to plug into the power supply so it can plug into the motherboard is useless because the fans that are made to plug into the motherboard only have two wires. A hot and a ground. No RPM.

So then basically I just pretend those things don't exist because my fans are cheap.

 

[Nessism]

Sounds like a great system, but since you asked for commenets....

5 fans are not necessary and will only add noise. At most, use two in back sucking hot air out and one in front pulling cool air in.

The stock thermal grease compound is good stuff. There is no good reason to scrape it off. Use the Artic Silver next time you take the heat sink off.

The ram should be fine. Just set it to run a 400 with memory timings set at "SPD". The motherboard will do the rest.

Enjoy.

ed