So guess what? It’s done. My first computer build was a success. Let’s take a few steps back though. As of yesterday, I was lost. I couldn’t get the thing to stay on for the life of me. After talking to a few people and finding the same complaints on-line I stumbled upon the solution. Now, I really don’t want to admit what I did wrong, it is very much a palm-to-the-forehead kind of moment, but I’ll let you know anyhow.
There are two cables that run form your power supply that have to get plugged into the motherboard. Not one. So you first have your main connecter. In my case a 24-pin connector. That one was easy enough. My problem was with the 8-pin connector that also needed to be attached. With the first PSU that I had, I don’t remember seeing an 8-pin connector just two PCI-E connecters which where each a set of 6-pin and 2-pin (making eight). The two pin part wasn’t compatible with my motherboard so I only plugged in the 6-pin part. Once it didn’t work, I bought the new PSU and plugged it in the same way... a little better results but still not working right. Plugged my problem into Google search and I came across a similar situation. (Sadly, because I’m on the new computer I have no history to link to the sight I found.) Whatever I read made something click. I went back to my mess of electronics and stared for a moment, looked at the cords spilling out of the PSU and found an 8-pin connector. Plugged it in. And it ran! (Ran even better once I remembered to stick the RAM back in.)
At this point in time, I had arranged for back up to come and double check my work, so I didn’t move forward, though I knew what to do next. Having the back up was useful. He answered some questions I had. Mostly about the fans, and how they plug in. They could all be strung together like Christmas lights and attached to the PSU or the motherboard, or you could attach each of them separately to the motherboard or the PSU. Which is good because as of right now I have four fans in my case not including the one on the heatsink or the graphics card. The motherboard only has three fan connections (that’s not the CPU fan).
Some “fun” facts:
Right now I have four programs on my computer. And I actually know what each of them are and why they are there.
1.Coral WordPerfect Office - iFIlter 64 Bit
2. Microsoft Security Essentials
3. Mozilla Firefox 4.0
4. Word Perfect Office X5
My ratings (1.0-7.9):
Processor: 7.5
Memory (RAM): 7.5
Graphics: 6.7
Gaming Graphics: 6.7
Primary hard disk: 5.9
Base Score: 5.9
Much better then the 2.5 I was getting on my laptop because of my graphics.
This computer, with all six fans running is ridiculously quiet. Honestly the exhaust fan in the bathroom, with the door closed, is still louder then my computer and I’m not two feet away.
I will be back in the next few days with updates on the different programs I’m installing and the pictures that I’ve promised, because I have them.
hooray!
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