# First-Timer Assembly Advice



## saadzaman126 (Mar 16, 2011)

Hey guys, so after making like a gajillion threads asking for help with many different newbie questions I finally have all the components now the most terrifying thing... assembly. 

Pretty much I don't know anything... well i know where the the cpu and heatsing fan, and processor and vid card go but mainly the wiring and all the pins on the motherboard that random wires are going into is what is scary. Especially the wiring from the power button and my case, an old AeroCool Jetmaster Jr. has a front fan which i have no idea what do with or how to wire cause those wires with the wires from the power button and restart button are entangled and hooked up to the old mobo that i gotta take out. 

First should i just unplug everything from the mobo and just deal with how to wire the power and stuff later? or leave it plugged in for now?
Pretty much i have an unlimited list of Q's on how to assembly anything and any tips you guys have? and why are there so many molex things? and what are male female wires?!? ?! 

Case: AeroCool Jetmaster Jr.
Mobo: MSI 870-G45 ATX
CPU: AMD Athlon II x4 640
Heatsink/Fan: Cooler Master Hyper 212+
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W
GPU: Zotac 1GB GTS 250
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500gb SATA2
Optical Drive: Hitachi/LG GSA-H30L
RAM: OCZ Gold DDR3-1333 Mhz
Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N13
Thermal Paste: Arctic Silver 5
Case Fans: Terminator Case fan 80mm and 12cm front-facing fan

Cables: 2-3 x SATA Power and Data Cables

Also, am I suppose to have like a lot of screws or something to mount these HDD's or optical drives? cause i have none :/ After i unistall the old mobo i guess i'll have those scews but that's about it. 
Will I need more wires?

Thanks so much for all the help really, i need every last bit I can get.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Mar 16, 2011)

wheres your GPU?? What i did for my first time build is read the manuals on how to put in each thing. Go slow. Expect it to take all day or weekend. It took me about 6 to 7 hours to build my first. now im down to like an hour assembling and about hour or 2 installing windows and drivers and such.


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 16, 2011)

Oh right I'll put that in. I'm actually in the process of getting a GTS 250 from a fellow TPU'er

Actually speaking of drivers I had a Q about that, when I went to all these sites to get their links I saw drivers on there, when i install, say the optical drive or hdd? will it automatically install it in the bios and then i can update the driver from the site?


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## MRCL (Mar 16, 2011)

About the wires.

The PSU (power supply) wires are self explanatory really - basically you can't plug something into a slot that shouldn't plug in there.

The connectors for your on/off button and the HDD lights and such --> refer to your motherboard manual where they go. They're usually labeled. Also, if you plugged one of those plugs in the wrong way don't worry - it won't fry your PC 

Male and female plugs... look between your legs while showering. See that? Now look at plugs. Notice anything? 

The HDDs should actually come with screws, or at least your case should have them.

The fans. You seem to know what Molex plugs are. If it uses a smaller, female (aha! with holes) three pin plug, look on your motherboard where it could fit. Usually labeled with "FAN" or something like that. You can't f**k up there either. Either it fits or it don't.

About the motherboard assembly just one info, wether you know it already or not is irrelevant:
Use the spacers. Those screws that lift the motherboard a few milimeters above the backplate.


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## Jack Doph (Mar 16, 2011)

MRCL said:


> Male and female plugs... look between your legs while showering. See that? Now look at plugs. Notice anything?



LMAO!


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 16, 2011)

So the female molex plug plugs into the mobo? and the male into the psu? or im i totally wrong? somebody told me for fans you dont wanna use the molex plugs because they'll always spin at 100% and be very noisy, so if you plug em into the mobo they'll only spin when needed, PWM i believe?

Also my HDD is OEM so that wont come with screws will it? Will i have to get extras?


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## MRCL (Mar 16, 2011)

Fan with 3-pin plug:







Fan with molex plug:






You will notice that the fan having Molex plugs will not fit anywhere on the mobo - just directly to the PSU. And then it will spin at 100% thats right.

Now if you have the 3-pin fans, you can either hook them up to a fan controller (where you can adjust the fan speed similar to changing the volume on an old stereo) OR to the motherboard. 3-pin does not have PWM however. You may notice the fan on your heatsink has a 4-pin plug, that connects to a plug on the motherboard called CPU_FAN or something. THAT has PWM. It regulates the fan speed according to the temperature readout.






OEM or not it should come with screws. I have millions of HDD and case screws, just because every damn thing ships with a ton of them.


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 16, 2011)

AHHH and on the manual there's spots for "SYS_FAN" and im hoping that's where the fan goes with the 3 pin plug?! and are there molex to 3 pin convertors? and the front of the case has a fan controller, i think!


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## MRCL (Mar 16, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> AHHH and on the manual there's spots for "SYS_FAN" and im hoping that's where the fan goes with the 3 pin plug?! and are there molex to 3 pin convertors? and the front of the case has a fan controller, i think!



Depends. Some companies name it differently than others. If the plug on the board has four pins, its the one.

Yes there are Molex to 3-pin adapters. I've mostly seen those where you can connect a 3-pin fan to the PSU. So not exactly what you're after. There are Y-cables tho, so you can connecto two 3-pin fans to one 3-pin plug


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 16, 2011)

MRCL said:


> Depends. Some companies name it differently than others. If the plug on the board has four pins, its the one.



wait is the cpu fan the 3 pin or 4 pin? i thought the 3 pin was the case fan?


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## MRCL (Mar 16, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> wait is the cpu fan the 3 pin or 4 pin? i thought the 3 pin was the case fan?



Yes case fans have 3 pin. The fourth pin on the CPU fans is for the PWM function. Not to be confused with Molex.


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 16, 2011)

and the female molex that have the holes ( i think thats what they're called) get plugged in by the cpu, right? what about the male molex with the prongs?


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## MRCL (Mar 16, 2011)

Wait I think you're mixing something up.

MOLEX connectors, male and female:









3-pin male and female:





Okay. Now. A PSU has only female MOLEX connectors, and they're mostly only for the optical drives and such. They do not get plugged into the mobo, GPU or anything like that.

Those PSU plugs go into the mobo itself:

24 pin





8 pin for CPU (if your mobo only has a plug with four pins, you can still plug an 8 pin into it.)





Now, there are those PCI-e pins that look like the 8 pin for the mobo. But they will only fit in the GPU. Often they are labeled with PCI-e.





The SATA connectors are obvious where they go.

Cleared that up?


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 16, 2011)

you are legendary, ok so my male molex will get plugged into my female molex on my fans unless i get an adapter and plug em into the mobo. k, what is esata and what's the advantage of it? my mobo has all these optional plugins and stuff for usb addons or eSata addons i think?


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## MRCL (Mar 16, 2011)

eSATA is external SATA. Used for an external harddisk. You won't need it if you don't have an external harddisk.


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 16, 2011)

and you need one of those eSata brackets for that dont you?


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## Fourstaff (Mar 16, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> and you need one of those eSata brackets for that dont you?



Why would you need them? unless they are separate cards (plugged into pci or pcie slots), they should be found in your standard motherboard IO panel. And perhaps another attachment if your case offers an eSata port in front.


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 16, 2011)

there is no eSATA on my I/O panel, i listed the link for my mobo up there. And I do plan on getting an external HDD to transfer stuff to my new computer.


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## Fourstaff (Mar 16, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> there is no eSATA on my I/O panel, i listed the link for my mobo up there. And I do plan on getting an external HDD to transfer stuff to my new computer.



If you are getting an external HDD, more often than not they will come in USB flavours. Tf yours come in eSata instead, you will have to get an addon card (PCI or PCIe, whichever is more convenient). I don't think your case supports eSata from the front (counted 2 USB and one firewire).


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 16, 2011)

Would Sata external Hdd's be faster than usb? Also, I Have a built in front fan controller it has 2 wires comeing out of it which look like molex yet they only have 2 prongs, and 2 holes for male and female, respectively? what are these?

Also, on my PSU has 4 peripherals and 6 sata, so it has 6 female molex that'll plug into my sata's male molex for my HDD? and what are peripherals?

Is it true if you have onboard video on you're first boot you shouldnt install your gpu and use the onboard video?


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## MRCL (Mar 17, 2011)

Hey, hows your build going along? 



saadzaman126 said:


> Would Sata external Hdd's be faster than usb? Also, I Have a built in front fan controller it has 2 wires comeing out of it which look like molex yet they only have 2 prongs, and 2 holes for male and female, respectively? what are these?
> 
> Also, on my PSU has 4 peripherals and 6 sata, so it has 6 female molex that'll plug into my sata's male molex for my HDD? and what are peripherals?
> 
> Is it true if you have onboard video on you're first boot you shouldnt install your gpu and use the onboard video?



Yes its faster, but only if the external disc features an eSATA port. Which the cheaper ones don't. Also, simply for data backup, USB is sufficient.

If its Molex, don't worry. Fans only need two pins on a Molex connector.

See, I don't want to sound mean, but the sentence "plug into my sata's male molex for my HDD?" made milk come out of my nose. And I didn't even drank milk.
HDDs today don't have Molex connectors anymore. They have SATA connectors, both for power (from the PSU) and for data transfer (the cable goes into the L shaped SATA ports on the mobo). IF you have the rare kind of HDDs that feature both SATA AND Molex power connection, do NOT under any circumstance plug both in. 

So, SATA = HDD, and most probably for your disc drive, too.
Just to be sure, thats what SATA looks like on a HDD and ODD:





They go into the mobo on those:





With the cable looking like this, and mostly colored in the same fashion:





Peripherals are usually the things you plug into your tower. Keyboard, mouse, monitor etc.

Also, regarding the onboard video myth, thats not true. YOu may want to disable onboard video in the BIOS tough.


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 17, 2011)

OK, I understand all that but on an HDD don't you need two wires one is a SATA wire that goes to the Mobo which is on the right but for the HDD or ODD to get power, on the left there's another connection you plug in and then you plug the PSU into the that? Cables like these:






And the red SATA will go into my mobo but the male molex will be plugged into the female molex of my PSU, right?

Also, on an HDD:



What are those connections on the right? Where do they go and do i need special cables for them?


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## v12dock (Mar 17, 2011)

Use assembly lube... oh wait were talking about a computer not a engine 

Anyways good luck with the build


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## MRCL (Mar 17, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> OK, I understand all that but on an HDD don't you need two wires one is a SATA wire that goes to the Mobo which is on the right but for the HDD or ODD to get power, on the left there's another connection you plug in and then you plug the PSU into the that? Cables like these:
> 
> http://www.9mart.com/9dollar/Budget/EG0695-2-Data-cable.jpg
> 
> ...



The connector on the right is a Molex connector. This is one of those evil HDDs. If your PSU has SATA power plugs, use these and forget about the Molex connector on the HDD. The cable you showed is a SATA to Molex power adapter. Its only needed when your PSU has either none, or has run out of SATA power plugs.

I repeat myself, do NOT plug both SATA power and Molex power into the HDD. ONLY pülug in SATA power and the gay pink SATA cable that plugs into the mobo.


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 17, 2011)

so when my OCZ ModXStream says it has 6 x SATA that means it has 6 of those connectors that'll plug straight into my HDD from the PSU and them the red wire will go into the mobo, right? Shit, well that's a waste of $10 for two of those wires, lol


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## MRCL (Mar 17, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> so when my OCZ ModXStream says it has 6 x SATA that means it has 6 of those connectors that'll plug straight into my HDD from the PSU and them the red wire will go into the mobo, right?



Yes!



saadzaman126 said:


> Shit, well that's a waste of $10 for two of those wires, lol



Well...yes


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 17, 2011)

Also, idk if you can see it or not, but on the right there's these 4 pins, smaller than normal molex. This is the seagate barracude 500 gb sata2 hdd that came in today,






Should I worry myself about those?


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 17, 2011)

MRCL said:


> Quote:
> Originally Posted by saadzaman126
> so when my OCZ ModXStream says it has 6 x SATA that means it has 6 of those connectors that'll plug straight into my HDD from the PSU and them the red wire will go into the mobo, right?
> Yes!



So when it says it has 4 x peripheral, those are the 4 female molex, right?


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## MRCL (Mar 17, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> Also, idk if you can see it or not, but on the right there's these 4 pins, smaller than normal molex. This is the seagate barracude 500 gb sata2 hdd that came in today,
> 
> View attachment 41169
> 
> ...



 "squints exes* Look like jumper pins. No need to mess with those. 
Jumper pins are used to set the HDD either as master or slave, but with SATA thats generally no more necessary. So you can leave them alone 



saadzaman126 said:


> So when it says it has 4 x peripheral, those are the 4 female molex, right?



Correct.


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 17, 2011)

Does it make a difference whether I use the PSU's sata cable or my adapter and ther peripheral cable?


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## MRCL (Mar 17, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> Does it make a difference whether I use the PSU's sata cable or my adapter and ther peripheral cable?



No that doesn't make a difference.


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 17, 2011)

Ok, so i have a built in front fan controller and out of it are these wires. Look like molex but they have stuff written on em and they only have 2 prongs






Sorry the pics suck, taken them really quickly with my ipod but, the male 2 prong molex says "Input DC 12V" and the female 2 hole molex says "Output, 0.3 A, 4 Fan, Max 12 A" Now I'm assuming that fan controller has to be attached to the front fan I have with 1 of those? and the other goes to the PSU? maybe? idk.


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## MRCL (Mar 17, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> Ok, so i have a built in front fan controller and out of it are these wires. Look like molex but they have stuff written on em and they only have 2 prongs
> View attachment 41172
> View attachment 41173
> View attachment 41174
> ...



What does the manual of the case say? I've overlooked a few reviews of that case, it looks like the fan controller is only for the front fan. So, then, its likely that one Molex goes to the fan, and the other one hooks up to the PSU.


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 17, 2011)

It doesnt come with a manual actually and if it did I don't think I would still have it .


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## MRCL (Mar 17, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> It doesnt come with a manual actually and if it did I don't think I would still have it .



Eh, its like I said anyway most probably. Power via the PSU, but they slapped a potentiometer in between so you can regulate the power sent to the fan = fan controller.


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## happita (Mar 17, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> Would Sata external Hdd's be faster than usb?



I don't know whether or not you've made any permanent decisions based on your interest on getting an external SATA hard drive, but from what I disassembled from my old CoolerMaster 690 case, I took the eSATA plug from the top I/O port cleanly off. 

So if you want, I'll ship it to ya free. I'm at work right now, so around 12am EST I will post a picture here for you to see what it looks like.


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 17, 2011)

happita said:


> I don't know whether or not you've made any permanent decisions based on your interest on getting an external SATA hard drive, but from what I disassembled from my old CoolerMaster 690 case, I took the eSATA plug from the top I/O port cleanly off.
> 
> So if you want, I'll ship it to ya free. I'm at work right now, so around 12am EST I will post a picture here for you to see what it looks like.



Haha I live in canada so idk if that shipping's gonna be free any more . Also, you took the eSATA off your case? How would i possibly install that into mine?


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## MRCL (Mar 17, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> Haha I live in canada so idk if that shipping's gonna be free any more . Also, you took the eSATA off your case? How would i possibly install that into mine?



eSATA plugs into the SATA ports of your motherboard, you would just have to find a spot for the external port then


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 17, 2011)

MRCL said:


> Eh, its like I said anyway most probably. Power via the PSU, but they slapped a potentiometer in between so you can regulate the power sent to the fan = fan controller.



So the male 2 prong molex will connect to the peripheral connector on the PSU and the female will plug into the male on the fan? How will i power the fan then? Through the fan controller? 



MRCL said:


> eSATA plugs into the SATA ports of your motherboard, you would just have to find a spot for the external port then



external port on my case or coming out of one of the back panels then?


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## MRCL (Mar 17, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> So the male 2 prong molex will connect to the peripheral connector on the PSU and the female will plug into the male on the fan? How will i power the fan then? Through the fan controller?
> 
> 
> 
> external port on my case or coming out of one of the back panels then?




- The fan will be powered as soon as you switch on your computer. The fan controller simply regulates the speed the fan spins. 

- External port of your case. But you could always ghetto mod it to fit anywhere


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 17, 2011)

MRCL said:


> - The fan will be powered as soon as you switch on your computer. The fan controller simply regulates the speed the fan spins.



Don't I have to plug it into anything to actually juice it up. Like both the fan controller and fan have a male and female molex, fan controller's on have 2 prongs. So I was assuming to power the front case fan, it'd hook the male molex from the fan to the PSU? And to regulate the speed hook up the the female molex on the fan to the male on the fan controller.

In, contrast i could to it the other way, your way, in which i hook up the male 2 pronged molex(fan controller) to the psu and the female 2 pronged molex(fan controller) to the male molex on the actual fan?


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## happita (Mar 17, 2011)

Ohhhhhh yea, I forgot that you live in Canada.....dammit haha, well whatever, if its reasonable I'll just send it. I just sent you a PM.




MRCL said:


> - External port of your case. But you could always ghetto mod it to fit anywhere



This is true. Ghetto modding isn't always the prettiest though, but it will fulfill your needs  unless your creative by nature.


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 17, 2011)

How hard is it to do a "ghetto mod"


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## MRCL (Mar 18, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> How hard is it to do a "ghetto mod"



Depends on your skill, creativity and tools at hand. Theres a Ghetto Modding thread here on TPU, have a look.


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 18, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> Quote:
> Originally Posted by MRCL
> - The fan will be powered as soon as you switch on your computer. The fan controller simply regulates the speed the fan spins.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ...



I hate to quote myself, but haha I actually have no idea... any thoughts geniuses of TPU?


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## MRCL (Mar 18, 2011)

saadzaman126 said:


> I hate to quote myself, but haha I actually have no idea... any thoughts geniuses of TPU?



Oh. Well how many plugs does that thing have? If its only two (a male and a female Molex), do as I said. The fan controller will only act as a potentiometer and doesn't need to be powered separately.

Now if there are more wires I have no idea


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 18, 2011)

The LED on the fan has it's own wire, I presume i power that with the PSU?


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## saadzaman126 (Mar 18, 2011)

Also, after reading my mobo manual that i downloaded online I noticed some things. Firstly on this page of the manual, how come there's two "Power LED" pins? Also, on the manual it shows the Power LED as being 2 pins side by side, whereas the Power LED wire coming from my mobo takes up 3 spots and is just one wire, in contrast to the two separate wire the mobo wants.


Also, problem #2: The Front Audio my mobo wants has the following pins it:
 

So the mobo wants 9 pins, only 1 of them being a ground. However the wire from my front audio on my case are

L-RET
R-RET
L-OUT
R-OT
MIC-POWER
MIC-IN
GROUND
GROUND

I only have 8 pins, 2 of which are ground and none of which have the same name as the ones the mobo wants?


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