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.

:)

hi,
i was terified when i read first of your post and concerned as the duck.
Look like you are lucking some skills to put that parts togather(very expensive excercise and costly sometimes).
But next post was pc is running which is very good.
Next time look on site like www.tomshardware which has instructions to build pc from scratch.
With asus motherboard and parts you can visit their site and they show in photos how to configure their parts too.
Your asus probe look excactly like mine.0 reading on pc fan but power fun is runing around 5000.
Hm i dont like when you say you dont have fan control because 5000 is 2000 more which i get when i start mine.(ops sorry you have original fan which comes with cpu)
Well mine motherboard has little feature in bios which can set up speed of fans automatically and is call Q-fan.
have a look on www/asus.com under your type of motherboard and print specifications of it which always come handy.
I do have speed controler as i dont like fans which comes with amd cpu.
I prefer much more better funs(installed termaltake one as amd tend to run hot).
Your temperature is fina and is reading on pc probe.You can set up treshold for your cpu on probe so its alarms you when it reaches set-up temperature.
I dont think you have to worry about as you pc han handle 80-90C which amd site suggest.( but as nihil said i dont like to go over 50c)
Set up your pc probe to 60c and you will be safe.Sometimes pc probe is not 100% accurate so look into bios set up and you can set it up there.
well have a look at the speifications here.i can see Q-fan as i mentioned before.You look little bit more deeper.
http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?m...3&l2=15&l3=171
and general information here:
http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l...55&modelmenu=1
good luck and i would definitelly recommend to buy different pcu fan if you into gamming.
You didnt mention how many fans you have in your case but i am gamer and have 6 plus one on pcu:)

Yes, I agree with nihil, the software says your temperature is safe... But I'm a bit concerned of it's accuracy... Your using a powerful processor and 34 C seems far to cool... especially if your using stock heatsink and fan...

If I were you I'd double check that... in bios there should be a PC health section that will tell temperatures and RPM's of fans... I'd also take a look at Everest... google it...

Hey, The Duck ,

We both missed it?...............we forgot to ask:

1. How long had the computer been running?
2. Had it been under "load"?

I would suggest that a no load reading should be taken 30 minutes after boot. Then play your game for 30 minutes and take another reading?

I have no science to back that; just gut feeling................also I do not expect normal users to abide by industry testing standards :D

Nihil, in this case it doesn't matter if it's been under load or not, or if the computer's only been on for 10 minutes... A processor like that with stock heatsink and fan would most likely be somewhere around mid to upper 40's celsius... It's really hard to get a powerful processor down to low/mid 30's celsius... you have to really work at it...

I'm sure your alright... inaccurate temp readings is no need for panic lol... If I were you though, or anyone with a gaming machine, it's always a good idea to keep an eye on the temperature of your components... The only way you can do this is with accurate temp readings :p...

Hey, The Duck

That is sort of what I was suggesting, in that if you let it run on no load for 30 minutes then load it for 30 minutes, you should see a marked difference in temperature? If not, you should question the values you are getting?

The other question we did not ask is what is the room temperature?...........................unless you take "unusual" precautions, I would expect the processor to be at about 10-15 C above the ambient (room) temp, and the case at about 5-10 degrees. And I am talking minimum values?

I am afraid I do not know that particular Asus MoBo, or its like, as I tend to use Gigabyte, on the grounds of value for money where I am. The Gigabyte boards only tell you the CPU and case fan speeds.....................this makes me wonder how the Asus board can detect the PSU fan speed?.........

Once again, as I do not use the "boxed" heatsink and fan ( for local economic reasons, I use "Coolermaster") I do not know what connectivity they have :( The Coolermaster will connect to the MoBo and has 3 wires, one of which is the speed sensor. So, if the OP has a connector from his CPU fan that has more that 2 pins, he is reading the CPU fan, and the MoBo software is giving false information.....................and a false alarm?

I would recommend the RayTek MiniTemp, however, as it is a very useful laser guided spot thermometer.................saved a few "lives" has that one! ;)

OK you need to mess with hardware a lot to justify the beer vouchers it costs? but it was a Christmas present :D

Cheers

My computer works GREAT, I fixed the mobo. The fan was placed in the wrong port. Thanks for the advice............