omfg im lost

[DJ_MikeyRevile]

So all my comp parts came into today, i thought it would be a peice of cake ut nope... my noob ass is more lost then a wandering soul!

first question.. would my prossesor come with a tube of thermal paste? or all ready applied to the CPU fan? im assuming the small grey square on the cpu fan is thermal paste....

also.. i have no fucking idea what all these cords are and little connectors. The installation guides dont tell me what goes where it only tells me what they are.
like all these JCOM and JBAT shit i ahve no idea.. lastly.. i am looking at all the cords for my power supply and feel like an infant staring at a calculus equation.

HELP!!!!

[Andrew_Pavlik]

I am sure you will get better help then I can offer, but here is what I can without looking at it. The cables on the power supply will hook up to your DVD drive, hard drives, motherboard and most likely your video card, so with that, just match up to what connects, sometimes multiple things can connect to the same cords like hard drives and DVD drives.

No clue on the thermal paste question. Perhaps google?

And for the motherboard, it should have came with a book, a wide cable would hook up to the harddrives and DVD drives. while smaller cables hook up your USB and other random fans and your on/off and restart buttons.

[Amon]

Thermal paste is supplied most of the times, even though it may be crappy. If you bought a third party heat sink for your processor (you should, Zalman or arctic cooling).

Dab some thermal paste on the center top of the processor you want it to spread evenly when you put the fan on top of it. I like to keep the computer running for the first couple days after putting everything together because you want the paste to settle in, and with the heat it'll start working more efficient as time goes on.

Everything that needs power will require a cable from the power supply, I don't know if yours is modulated or not (difference being cables able to disconnect from the power supply or not). But as Andrew said, anything that has the right hole for it should be connected. You will need to connect a couple to the mother board for processor and board itself. If it's not modulated, you wont need all the cables probably.

Off the top of my head the things I do when building a comp.

- Put motherboard in
- processor (might want to do this last before you start wiring because you don't want it to stay for long without the heat sink on it, just to keep it as clean as possible before you apply paste and fan.)
- Power supply
- ram (make sure if you have ddr2, or ddr3, or even ddr4, you put them in the right slots or else you wont be getting the benefits of channeling. This will be found on your motherboards manual)
- hard drives (sata connection if you have it)
- disc reader
- video card and any other pci express slots (wireless card, etc.)

Pretty much put all your components together, then worry about wiring.

I'm sure I've forgotten some stuff, but hopefully this'll get you started in the right direction.

[StarsMine]

If you bought a third party cooler, usually the thermal paist comes with it. Im fairly sure all stock coolers use thermal pads instead.

also I would hook up all the cords last, dont be overwhelmed by those, you cant really go wrong with PSU cords, however fan headers and all the things tied to the front panel, look in your mobo manual to see where those hook up

[toma]

most of the cords are additional to what you need, just in case you have different hardware requirements like PATA items vs SATA items...etc, after my build i just finished the other day, i have 1 PATA cord left over, couple of power adapters left over and a shit ton of screws left over, just follow the board instructions on the manual and you should be fine. if not there are guides on the interwebs

i dunno if this will help but maybe it might
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/building-pc,511.html

[DJ_MikeyRevile]

will i have extra cords wityh this PSU?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207003&nm_mc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-

[toma]

yes cause it's modular, you're prob not gonna use all of them i use the ones already coming out of the psu and 1 additional PCI-E power cord, other then that nothing

[acolyte_to_jippity]

will i have extra cords wityh this PSU?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207003&nm_mc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-

most often, you get like, 2 cords to the mobo, to for disc drives, and 2 for hard drives. some companies give more, some less. you really need to read the fucking manual. only thing i can say is that if you got extra screws with your stuff, don't ssume it's ok if you drop one in the case while building. it doesn't matter if youre putting the case back on and are almost done. you get that screw out of there, even if you need to take the thing apart to do it, because that one screw WILL end up melting your mobo accidentaly

[toma]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371025&cm_re=antec_truepower_750-_-17-371-025-_-Product

runs really quiet i wish i had gotten this one for my own build

[DJ_MikeyRevile]

psu is easy now that iv been reading up... but the only thing left i have no idea about is these small little connecter things that have writing on the side of them saying stuff like usbo+ usb0-
GND Sled Pled

all sorts of them.. i have no idea what they are and were to put them.

[toma]

usually the usb connectors for the front or top hubs are located at the bottom of the board near the middle, they will have print on the with like USB097 USB### and so on, next to that to the right corner bottom is where all the cables go for your LED lights, and Power/Reset Switch.

the motherboard manual will tell you exactly where they go and the back of those cords usually have a down arrow on the + side and those usually go on the left pin of the set.

[StarsMine]

USB+ is frount usb power USB- is frount usb ground

every board has slight variations, this is the only part you really need to consult a manual for

[DJ_MikeyRevile]

thank you all for your help! i am now posting from my new computer!!!!!!!! ust need to start installing and DLing games/drivers/ and other things.


how do i check to see if my graph card drivers installed properly?

[Amon]

go to your video cards website, find your card under (support) download the latest drivers.

Your Device Manager will show any uninstalled drivers. (Right click My computer/properties/device manager)

[Curdy]

all you need is a hammer

[dice]

So what setup did you go with mikey?

[DJ_MikeyRevile]

So what setup did you go with mikey?
what you recommened with my graphs card i wanted and a diffrent cpu cooling kit for now. I will here soon in the next month upgrade my disk space as well.

everything is a 7.4 rating except for disk space.

and no, im sorry.. i didnt just "take your word for it"
i did a month of reading up on each part and found that it is collectively, for the price, beast mode of a comp.

[toma]

prob 5.9 for HD...not gonna get good ratings till you get an SSD lol...

the pc i built got a 7.4 7.6 7.7 7.7 5.9.....FU HD!!

but glad u got ur pc setup :)

[elpolloloco]

Ahh the joys of doing it yourself.

What operating system did you get? Vista home 64bit?

I've been building my own puter since 2004. I built it back in 2004 and I think I even have the same case. Eventually something breaks or is outdated so I upgrade stuff, after about 2-3 years nothing is originaly and everything is new.

It's fun when you get the hang of it. But lord is it a pain in the ass when stuff goes bonkers and you can't figure it out. Some of those common problems I've had (and seen others have when building PC's)

1) Computer constantly restarting. Usually ends up being an issue with the heat

2) Incompatible ram. Even though the specs match, one I had to do a ton of research to find out that tons of people had problems with OCZ Reaper ram and my brand of motherboard. If the ram doesn't work you'll often get constant rebooting (see above) only you won't even be able to boot up the operating system

3) Computer just hangs when booting up (Stuck at windows splash screen). Probably means your hard drive = FAIL. Best bet is to get a new on, install operating system on new one and then later on put your old one back in and get the files off of it (if you can)

---------- Post added at 04:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:14 PM ----------

BTW: Best place to get computer parts (if you're on the east coast) is NEWEGG.COM

The have good deals, LOTS of random sale items, don't give you hassle when returning, and they ship fast.

Well at least they used to ship fast. They ship out of NJ (near NYC) I think. I live in Maryland near DC. I used to constantly order stuff and if I got it in before 1pm, I'd always get it next day (even when using UPS ground).

However the last two times I bought from NEWEGG it took forever for some reason. I hope these are exceptional cases and not the new norm for them

[toma]

if there is a microcenter near where you live get the Processor from there def. Cheapest place to get one from. I bought an i5 2400 for $150 when sticker price is like $220, got an asus motherboard so i don't have to worry about mismatched memory A-OK Memory ftw...cept i still use the same memory lol.

newegg has good prices, but other places have better sometimes. but i'd check

Directron.com (based in houston, some parts are really cheap here, bought case/mobo/memory from here, they give discounts on bundle packs)

Newegg.com for PSU/Optic Drive

Microcenter for GPU/CPU/HD

[elpolloloco]

yea man. microcenter is awesome

---------- Post added at 04:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:38 PM ----------

BTW toma\

Ever been to a Fry's in California?

[toma]

yeah, there are 3 of them here in Houston, sometimes they have good deals on HDs as well, but they're kinda out of the way for me, i check the prices, and if they aren't that great i'll go with someone else.

[elpolloloco]

I didn't know they had em in Houston. I go out there sometimes on business. I'll check it out next time I'm there

[toma]

coo, yeah i'ma be in the Dulles area in like 2 weeks lol...but yeah, flying in to houston, there is one right off the 45 Freeway heading south from the airport(IAH) there is another one on the southwest side of houston on the 59 freeway and one down south on the 45 Freeway on the other side of houston south of Hobby if you go through that airport. i would check out directron as well, their customer service is lacking...sometimes....most of the time...but they have good prices, but they don't have a showroom it's all in their warehouse so you gotta order online first(which they have stations where you can online order from) and just pickup from there. (try not to get the hispanic lady there, she's friggin rude and thinks that she's the shit. try to get the goofy lookin asian dude, he's pretty helpful haha. Microcenter is on the 610 Freeway close to Uptown if you know where that area is (Galleria mall area)