HDD and Sata Cable Help Needed

[Ancalime]

First Build Help Needed!

I am in the process of building my first pc right now but I am running into many problems. One major problem is that I just cannot find where to connect my SATA cable to. I plugged one end to the SATA 1 place on my mobo but I cannot find where the other end goes! It would make sense if it went into my HDD but no slot can be found that would fit the SATA cable. Also I have a lot of wires, especially from my PSU, that I just have no idea where they go. I have a Western Digital 80 gig 7200 RPM Hard Drive, bought a OEM at newegg so no info was included.

Also this is a real newb question but since my hard drive is SATA, I do not connect an IDE cable to it right? I just connect the IDE cable to my burner and set that on master? Or am I wrong somewhere?

If needed I will post pics of anything necessary. Please help. I really want this first build to be successful. Thanks in advance!

 

[brinks]

If you just have one device on the ide cable, set it to master.

The other end of that sata cable connects to the hard drive for sure.
Either your not looking hard enough or maybe you didn't get a sata hard drive

The hard drive will either just use ide or sata. You don't need to connect an ide cable to it if your hard drive is sata.

 

[Ancalime]

I just checked my hard drive model and it turns out it is IDE. I could've sworn it was SATA though.

Should I ask about additional cable help here or make a new thread?

 

[an51r]

no just continue your questions in this thread
'

 

[Ancalime]

Ok. I just want to say I am more confused than I thought I would be before I started building this thing. I hope that someone can answer these questions for me, for the most part it is the cables that are giving me trouble:

1) Will I need to use all the power supply cables provided?

2) How do I connect the fans? My Raidmax Case came with two fans on the side panel and I also bought one 80 mm. Artic Cooling fan . My motherboard manual only shows one fan connector and it has 3 pins. I can not even find a cable with 3 pins! The fans have 4 pin connectors coming out from them and my PSU does not have 3 pin cables either. What am I to do?

3) I read some guides (including the cyrax one on this site) that said you need to connect the 20 pin cable and TWO 4 pin cables to your motherboard. On my motherboard though I only see the 20 pin plug and a 4 pin plug far off on the edge. Is there a problem here or do I just only connect one 20 pin and on 4 pin?

4) What do I do with some of the wires that came with my case? The ones that are labeled Reset SW, Power SW, USB, etc..? Do I have to plug them all in because I do not see that many slots on my motherboard? And towards the front of my case there are the HDD LED and Power LED wires which seem to be stuck. I'm not sure if it was just poor packaging of the wires or what but am I suppose to deal with them? I know they only enable the lights but that would be nice.

That is all I can think of now. I am sure I will run into more problems. I really want this first build to be successful and I realize most of these questions are pretty newb. Any help is appreciated! Thank you in advance!

 

[Ancalime]

Bump! Anyone please?

 

[brinks]

1) No, you don't need to use all the power cables.

2)80 mm. Artic Cooling fan, this one uses a 3 pin so you should connect it to your motherboard.

The other 2 case fans , probably uses 4 pin molex connectors, so connect those to the power supply.

3)Just connect the 20 pin and 4 pin.

4)Reset SW, Power SW, USB... Yes you need to plug all of these in. These don't take up much room on the motherboard since it's usually bunched togother.

HDD LED and Power LED wires, I don't quite understand what you mean by stuck, but if you want them to work you need to plug them to your motherboard aswell.

 

[Ancalime]

Thank you brinks! Your answers are extremely helpful. But for number 2, regarding the 3 pin fan connector, I do not seem to have such a connector. I see where to plug it in in my motherboard but don't see the wire itself. As for the LEDs being stuck, I mean that somehow they are like stuck towards the front of my case. I cannot pull them out far enough to plug them into my motherboard.

Thanks again!

 

[brinks]

On the link about the artic cooling fan, it says that it uses a 3 pin connector.

You just need to connect the fan wire to the motherboard only, the motherboard will supply the power for it, so no need to connect this one to the power supply.

If it's not 3 pin, then it uses the 4 pin molex like the other 2 fans, if that is the case, then just plug it to your power supply too.

As for the LED, I don't know what to do. Just try your best to get it unstuck I guess. They usually make the wires long enough for you to plug in.

 

[Ancalime]

I see thank you very much! I hope to start building again after I get some sleep.