Building my new PC

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mouse5150

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OK,

I have most my parts ready now to start to build my PC, i shall be doing this tomorrow :)

I was wondering if anyone had any tips, warnings, advice on the procedure?

Also i was wondering, what is the best way to avoid static shocks to parts? i dont have one of them wristbands, i was wondering if you could put your hands in flexible anti-static bags, kinda like makeshift anti-static gloves? :eek:

Also, when all hardware is installed and you switch it on for the first time, what (theoretically) happens? do you have to fettle with the BIOS? What about formatting my hard drive for a fresh install of Windows? Should i do that in my old system before i transfer the HDD? And then install Windows?

Thanks ... first time i've tried this :)

:beard:
 
If you do not have an anti static wrist band. Keep one hand on the tower at all times to keep you grounded to it. Also do the work on a wooden desk to keep static down. Good luck
 
If this is your first time, just to make sure your components are good. Go to minimum configuration. Install motherboard, cpu, video and ram. These will post on there own. You can go in to the bios if ness. If you get this far and it post's with out problem then you can start to add drives and cards. I do not know what to tell you about the static problem. Be sure to discharge yourself before you start work. Touching the PS of the computer can do this but is not a fail safe. If you have your jumpers set right and it detects everything fine you do not usually have to mess with the bios. But would check through it to make sure everything looks ok. If you encounter anyprobs during building. Just power down and ask some one. Post problems or even request a few people be online to helpyou out.
 
dont go scuffing your feet on carpets before you begin working. they say cold and dry is the worst for static. A wooden bench is also a good idea. Go out and get a wrist band, or an anti static matt. Im sure they are not too expensive.
 
Don't build the PC on your carpet, like trebor said, do it on your desk. Once you've installed the power supply and plugged it in to the outlet that swill ground the PC from ESD. Install MB, CPU, RAM and then start installing your PnP devices as tech4hire said.
 
GRRR!

My motherboard wasn't delivered today! Halting progress for a day :(

ARGH!

I did however manage to fit the PSU and case fans to the case. And i have four new questions:

Q1: My mobo has 2 IDE slots, i have 1 HDD, 1 main CD-ROM and 1 CD-RW (used infrequently), how should i attatch them? i'm thinking (end of ribbon cable left to mobo right)

CD-RW -> HDD -> IDE1
CD-Rom -> IDE2

Q2: One of my system fans and my graphics card (Ati Radeon 9800Pro) tap into the power supply, they do this by being attatched to a cable with both male and female 4-pin power connectors.

Am i right in thinking i plug the male power connector from the PSU into the female connector attatched to the fan's or graphic card's cable and then plug the fan or graphics card cable's male connector into whatever i was going to plug the original psu's male connector into?

*gosh*

Q3: Would standing on a metal PC case side-plate whilst working on my PC ground me? as i dont want to be restricted to one handed work whilst holding onto something (i haven't been able to source a wristband)

Q4: My case has two front usb ports, from which 8 cables are coming, labelled:

(1) -D
(1) +D
(1) +5v
(1) Ground

and

(2) -D
(2) +D
(2) +5v
(2) Ground

I beleive the USB header on my mobo (looking on an online manual) looks like this:

USB+5v / USB+6v
USB_p5- / USB_p6-
USB_p5+ / USB_p6+-
GND / GND
(nothing) / NC

Where do i put all them wires?

Also there is a green and black wire labelled "mb sw", having located places for all the other wires to go i am assuming this is for the power switch, is that correct?

Thanks
Karl
 
Also,

Q5: Included in my case was an 80mm fan blowing out of a vent in the "ceiling" of the case. Now i like to rest my legs on the top of my case (its on the floor under my desk) and the power supply has a great big fan (about 13cm) sucking air up to the top and out of the back. So this fan seems to be wasted to me.

Would i be better creating a hole in the perspex window in-line with the cpu area and sucking air out from (or maybe blowing air into, whichevers best) that area.

Bear in mind i have a fan halfway up the back sucking air out. These are the only 2 case fans.

Thank you.
Karl
 
IDE cable
HDDon black - on end
cd/rw on grey - in middle


header 5 header 6
+5V +5v
-D -D
+D +D
GND GND

Fans connectors as best I could understand you sound okay.

Radio Shack $5 for wrist band.

I have one from www.cyberguys.com that doesn't need to be connected to anything to work. Allows lots of freedom. Costs $12.75 I believe.

Motherboard should contain lots of helpful info in manual.
Good description of using thermal compound on cpu available on Artic silver website.

Make sure every standoff is used to connect the MB and none sit under the board to short it out. I don't tighten any screws until all are started (avoids having one or more a little off and causing a short.

I would order the wrist band and while waiting read all the documentation over - check out sites that cover building your own - and ask more questions.

Best of luck
 
Thanks for the help dude you cleared the USB dooley up.

Not sure about the IDE though.

are you saying on IDE slot 1 i should have the HDD on the end of the ribbon and the CD-RW in the middle? I assume then i just connect CD-Rom on its own to IDE slot 2?

In my current PC the HDD is in the middle and CD-RW on the end.

Strange

Even more confusing is when i looked up a site on IDE configs it said the followng:

"This is a common configuration when a second ATAPI device is added to a new system; the best configuration depends on what that device is. In general, put the hard disk by itself and share the secondary channel between the two ATAPI drives. However, if your two drives are a CD-ROM and a CD-RW drive, and you are doing a lot of copying from the CD-ROM drive to the CD-RW, you may have better luck separating those devices onto separate channels."

Gah! confused

Thanks
 
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