First time building a comp (Need Help!!)

[TecHNooB]

Ok, to start off I'm a complete noob when it comes to computers (computer hardware especially). I have recently bought an entire setup worth of parts from newegg and have already installed the PSU, motherboard, vid card, RAM, and processor. Now I'm faced with choosing to install either the CD/DVD or the HD. But before I tried that, I attempted to figure out what connections go where and I'm totally lost. The Mobo has so many connections and I don't even know what they're all for. The mobo that I have is an ASUS Premium. Does that require jumpers? I hope not cuz I have no idea what goes where. Not really sure what kind of questions I should be asking right now. There are so many connections to be made and the PSU is sprouting with wires. So lost.......

 

[Blake]

Asus Premium has the heatpipe on it. Which model do you have? What case are you using?

To install the operating system you should have one harddrive and one CD rom drive installed and a floppy drive might be needed too. Read the motherboard manual to get to know what each socket on the board is for. The wires to hook up the on/off button and reset button are in a wiring diagram in the manual. Do you have a small speaker in the case for making beeps?

 

[TecHNooB]

I have an aspire x-cruise case and I'm using this model. The manual that came with this mobo sux (that's what I think anways). That or it wasn't written for noobs. I have a cd/dvd drive and a HD (no floppy drive) but I don't get how to set them to master/slave. All I know is on the back where the jumpers go the thing looks like this: ::l

Btw, are both the HD and CD supposed to be set to master?

 

[Blake]

You would want to put the harddrive on the primary master ide and have the jumper set to master alone and put the cd drive on the secondary master ide and have the jumper set to master alone. The manufacturer of the drives would have the jumper setting information on their websites under technical support "jumper settings". The 80 pin ide cable that comes with the board goes on the HDD to IDE primary socket on the board and the master connector of the cable is the end. A 40 or 80 pin ide cable goes on the cd drive to IDE secondary socket on the board and the master connector of the cable is the end.

You could also put the HDD on as master and cd drive as slave on the primary IDE cable.
Just make sure you have it jumpered correctly.

You probably won't need to use the floppy drive. It is often used to set up Raid or flashing the Bios. Who makes the harddrive you want to use?

 

[mechBgon]

I made a guide for noOb computer builders, maybe this will help: lots of photos & stuff. For your A8N-SLI Premium, hook up the EZ-Plug (which takes a 4-pin plug like a CD-ROM drive takes, see this pic for its location) as well as the ATX12V and the main 24-pin ATX plug. If your video card uses an auxiliary power cable then hook that up too.

Frankly, if you are using a freebie power supply that Aspire included with the case, my advice is to get a quality aftermarket unit instead. Something in the 500W+ range from Fortron, Enermax, Antec or Seasonic would be appropriate if you ever plan to SLI this thing, I would probably get a 550W Antec TruePower II myself.

 

[Blake]

That A8N-SLI Premium is a sharp looking board. I'm using a MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum with a AMD 4000+ processor. I wanted to use my AGP card, Sapphire X800 XT PE, so I haven't moved on to SLI just yet. I used an Antec NeoPower 480 watts power supply that has 18 amps on both 12 volt rails. I have seen some of the new SLI cards are real power hogs. I figure I'm using about 360 watts.

I used my old computer to make a Media Center Edition 2005 with a Asus P4P 800E-Deluxe and they will handle lots of HDD's. One thing I noticed after installing windows was that it wouldn't start until I disabled the Raid controller in the Bios. Thats something you'll probably need to do if you're using an IDE HDD without the Raid.

 

[TecHNooB]

mechBgon, your page is looking very promising. The photos are a BIG HELP. I had almost given up looking for a good photo site and was attempting to find actual videos instructing someone how to assemble a PC. Oh, and my case and PSU came in seperately (Rosewill RP500).

 

[mechBgon]

Feel free to send me a Private Message (padlock symbol at the right side of any of my posts) if anything needs clarification. Good luck, and make sure to install Service Pack 2 before your motherboard or video drivers, if your WindowsXP CD isn't already equipped with Service Pack 2 from the start

 

[Underclocked]

Don't look at all those wires at once - look at one at a time. Figure out where ONE wire/connector goes, then the next. mechBgon's builder's guide has got to be a big help.