reply to post by Jenna
Yeah I forgot to check the Ampere of the PSU from Newegg and then suddenly remembered it could be important to take a look at those numbers.
And I was a little stressed out for the moment because the phone was ringing non-stop! and thereof the Panic U2U
But no worries! it will do just fine!
I'm glad I was able to help! and great to hear that you found nice deals for the parts!
And I think you can use at least one of your old IDE PATA disc-drives with the motherboard - they usually also include a flat cable with the board.
I'm going to give you some advices here that may will sound stupid and obvious, but could be useful to remember - here goes:
1. Take your time and read the "installing part" of the motherbord manual twice before you assemble or connect anything! since this is your first
build. And as you said: there are also very good guides on the Internet to follow - this is an old You Tube video about Ram Memory, but there's a lot
of videos around for every part. For example:
www.youtube.com...
RAM modules are also sensitive to static charges and should be handled carefully - hold them by the ends.
Remember to ground yourself by using an anti-static pad or wrist strap to discharge any static electricity - to be on the safe side, try to wear the
wrist strap when you assemble your parts.
en.wikipedia.org...
Dual channel operation for the memory sticks are often color coded and usually written/pictured out in the m-board manual.
All current 32 bit MS consumer level operating systems have a 4 gig limit. That's how much RAM the OS can address due to it's own internal
limitations. However, some of that 4 gig of addressing capability must be reserved for other devices (other than your system RAM) which also have RAM
on them - RAM which also needs to be addressed by the OS, so the OS reserves a chunk of it's address space off the top for those devices so you will
net about 3.25 gig of RAM (Most people end up with 3.2-3.4 GB usable RAM if they install 2x2GB in a box and run a 32-bit OS) - so don't worry if you
only can read that after you booted up!
Sometimes there can be problems when installing 4GB Ram from start (mostly win 64bit) but if that occurs - try an install using only 1 stick of RAM
and then add the other stick when everything is fine.
I think I read from Newegg? that on this PSU you now bought, there are 3 speed alternatives: Low - Auto - High
If so? don't use the Low speed position/alternative, to keep the internals & the componants of the PSU cold enough,
use the Auto Speed
alternative.
I think I read in the reviews that it comes with the position at Low by default - if so? please change it to auto for the best performance/quietness
ratio.
So you could read those reviews to see if I'm right about that!? - or maybe I dreamt it?
2. this will sound very silly but never rub or place any parts against fabrics or carpeted floors
(I remember when my sister built her
first computer on her carpeted floor and that motherboard unfortunately never fired up) I sadly laughed when she told me that she sat on the carpet
because it was soo soft & fluffy!
She also used to vaccum the inside of her dusty PC which is a big no-no and not good, static charges can jump over and destroy the mother-board - so I
explained that to her and told her to stop doing this
Vacuums cause static electric build up which in theory can damage electronics.
So if you want to clean the PC later - don't touch anything inside the computer with the nozzle of the vacuum - always keep a good distance from the
parts and blow out the case with the canned air/compressed air and in the worst case use the vacuum to suck the dust bunnies out of the air - It's
always better to use compressed air without the moist (but never spray very near or directly against m-boards components) and then after clean up the
dust outside the PC instead.
en.wikipedia.org...
Sorry if you knew all this!
But always remember that most parts are sensitive to static charges!
And it's also not soo good leaving the computer standing on carpeted floors because of the dust build up, in that case it's better to have it
standing on your desk.
3. It could be useful to place the motherboard on top of its anti-static wrap bag material on top of the motherboard box to protect the backside of
the board until you screw it in.
When everything is assembled, try to bundle the cables as good as you can, so that they are not hindering the air-flow - you could use zip-ties for
this. This procedure is more known as good cable-management
But don't bundle any HDD/Sata/Pata cables together with the cables from the PSU, it's better to keep those a little bit apart from the electricity
to avoid interference in the HDD data stream.
You'll see! It's going to be easy-peasy! take your time and don't rush the build and you'll be fine!
So I wish you to have good luck while you're building your first PC from scratch, it's fun! And soon after you'll get the urge to build one more
and do water-cooling!
And please tell us later here in the thread how it all went!
Have fun!
[edit on 22-9-2009 by Chevalerous]