Building a Computer

Hey guess, how is it going. I need some advise, this is my situation. I been trying to put my computer for the past 7 hours. I am stuck.

Ok,
1. My mobo is an ATX, and my power supply is an EATX. What should I do?
2. What colors are positive and negative. I know Black in negative and red is positive, but what about when its green and white, orange and white, and so forth?
3. I notice that my AMD 64 4000 (socket 939) heat sink came with a little paste on the heatsink it self. Should I buy more, or just leave it like that?
4. My case came with two wires that are blue. They look like thermoniters. They are connected to I believe its a screen in front. I have the Lian Li PC-7. Where do thos wears go, and how do I tape them there?
5. My computer doesn't turn on, I have 480 watts. Its an ANTEC true blue 480. If any advice possible it would really help. Thanks.............

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1. My mobo is an ATX, and my power supply is an EATX. What should I do?

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Power supply EATX? I believe your case is EATX which means it will fit a bigger size mainboard..
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/case/formATX-c.html

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2. What colors are positive and negative. I know Black in negative and red is positive, but what about when its green and white, orange and white, and so forth?

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Black is Ground, 0V if you will, not negative http://xtronics.com/reference/atx_pinout.htm

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3. I notice that my AMD 64 4000 (socket 939) heat sink came with a little paste on the heatsink it self. Should I buy more, or just leave it like that?

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You can leave it like that but it's better to scrape it off and buy some decent heat-paste..

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4. My case came with two wires that are blue. They look like thermoniters. They are connected to I believe its a screen in front. I have the Lian Li PC-7. Where do thos wears go, and how do I tape them there?

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Anything in the manual (of your case)?

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5. My computer doesn't turn on, I have 480 watts. Its an ANTEC true blue 480. If any advice possible it would really help. Thanks.............

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Sounds like you forgot to connect the powerswitch to the mainboard.. Usually a two wire connector marked "POWER" that needs to be connected.. Look in the mainboard manual where you should connect those...

In case you don't have the mainboard manual, you can usually download it from the manufacture's site.

1. This should not be a problem. Some eATX PSUs allow you to detach the extra 4 pins. This would be the most desirable method (make sure your spare pins are sealed properly). If you cannot do this you should be able to buy a 20 pin mobo to 24 pin PSU adaptor.
Failing that you could even get an old 20 pin PSU plug and use it to replace your current one (only do this if you are happy messing around with this sort of stuff - remember this is voltage you are working with and getting it wrong can kill you and/or your computer.

2. Black and white wires are usually negative/ground , coloured wires positive. If the wires you are talking about are for your case (power button, reset switch, HDD LED, etc) then plugging them in the wrong way round will not cause you any trouble (but your LEDs won't light up).

3. If your heatsink already has paste/thermal pad on it then getting more paste is not needed. Just use what is there.

4. Sounds like you have the Lian Li thermometer. You should have two pairs of wires with temperature probes on the end (the other ends going into the LCD panel). You can put these anywhere you wish in the case to monitor temp. Common places to put these are HDD, CPU or free in the case (for ambient case temp). If you decide you would like to monitor your CPU temp then you would need to tape the probe (using proper thermal tape - this should have been supplied with the Lian Li thermometer) to the underside of the CPU and run the thin wires between the CPU pins and then plug the cpu into its socket (this is quite scary the first time you do it and very fiddly).

5. I'm not sure I understand you. Your computer won't turn on if there is no power to the mobo (and judging from your question 1 you havn't plugged it in yet).
However, if you mean that your PSU is not powering up (you can just plug it in and switch it on to test this) then you have a more serious problem. Check that all your connections (power cable from the wall, etc) are firmly seated.
If it still does not power up then you are probably better off getting it replaced - it's much safer not to mess around with PSUs.

Hope this helps.

omin


edit - SirDice, you beat me to it! But it looks like we've covered slightly different things so no prob. :D

Ok, my computer is running really good. I am playing FEAR and its nice. Just a quick question, when I first updated my bios, the motherboard was saying that the fan of the cpu was slow, how is that possible if the fan came with the AMD 64 4000. I have the ASUS A8N-E. Also, what temps must the cpu be at and how do I check it?

I would suggest that you check your BIOS settings................there may be a fan speed control, or it might be in some MoBo control software? same with temperature, look for something like "PC health"

I personally don't like them to go above 50c, and I am allowing that it is a gaming box.

I NEVER buy the boxed CPU and heatsink/fan sets.............the heatsink/fans are generally pretty insipid. I also don't use the thermal paste/pad that they supply.................something like Arctic Silver is the stuff to get, it is about 20 times more efficient.................you will probably need to get the cleaning kit as well as those pads are a swine to get rid of ;)

Basically a gaming machine is similar to a CAD box, and they will run hot................silver based compound is much more effective than the stuff that comes in the box.

You might take a look at sites like overclockers.com ;)

Your list of questions worry me. You bought an extremely expensive list of components, yet you lack the experience to assemble everything. Here are some suggestions:

1. Make sure you CPU fan is powered. It's powered through the motherboard so make sure it's connected correctly to the mobo. Wouldn't want a fried CPU before you even get to use the computer :p...

2. Make sure your continually grounding yourself throughout the building process... Just touch the metal of the inside of the case occasionally...

Well... those are the major ones I can think of... You might have already known this already, but I thought better safe then sorry... Just trying to protect YOUR investment :).

My computer is up and running, and for some reason my mobo probe software is telling me that the CPU fan is below threshold.

What specs should I look for?

This screen is what I get:


The CPU fan is running fine, but for some reason the mobo soft was is saying its not, should I purchase a new fan?

There is no fan control speed, I check the bios. My fan came with the AMD CPU. This is strange.

Well,

That shows that your CPU fan is stopped.............the "0" is RPM.

Check your connections against the MoBo build instructions.

I see there are "FAN" and "Settings" tabs on your MoBo management software..............what do they do?............what options are there?

:)

:confused: Did he like... ignore my post or something... :p

Hi The Duck ,

He says that the fan is running OK.

The power supply and case fan monitors are giving readings, which suggests that the CPU fan isn't connected properly or there is something wrong with the MoBo software settings?

His temperatures look OK as well? If he had a real problem I would expect the CPU temp to be far higher?

I would check that the fan sensor is connected properly (reversed polarity perhaps?), then look at his Asus Probe settings.

:)