Building a computer. Need answers...

S

Spi1lz

New Member
K, I just got my comp from newegg and am putting it together. All the parts in this computer where reccomended by you guys here.

So here we have a problem:

I have an ASUS a8R-MVP XPRESS200 mobo
And a 250GB|WD 7200 WD2500JS SATA2 HD...

The HD cable that came with the mobo is not the same as the jack on the HD... They are totally different. What is up?
 
Does the motherboard you have support SATA2 connections? It might just be SATA, which I think is a different type of cable.
 
From looking at specs it looks as if it supports plain old SATA. With no mention at all of SATA2, I'd guess it's not backwards compatible.
 
On the actual newegg history I ordered this: "Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM "

On the packing sheet it is labeled as: "HD 250GB|WD 7200 WD2500JS SATA2%"


Did they ship out the wrong one?
 
No that's right, I believe SATA2 is SATA3Gb/s connection. And now that I realize this, the site says it can support up to 4 SATA2 3Gb/s. So maybe it's just the wrong type of cable? I've never run SATA2 before, only plain SATA...
 
SATA and SATA2 use the same physical cable. Those thin red cables with black ends? Those are SATA cables that you should conect from HDD and motherboard. Also make sure you conect the SATA power cables.

By the way, I'm almost sure that motherboard supports SATA2.
 
Well does anyone know? The HDD cable the mobo came with has all the pin holes on it... But the HD input is like bars, not pins...

Anyone know what is going on?
 
See my post above, look for those long thin red cables with black ends. The wider "bars" are for the SATA power cable.

The cable your looking at is for IDE.
 
Figured it out... problem solved... Thanks man...

Another Q...

That red cable with the black end, which plug does it go into on the mobo? There 2 black plugs, and 2 red ones...

And for the RAM: Theres 2 black and 2 blue inputs... Which do I put the ram in? (I put them both in the black ones)
 
34erd said:
See my post above, look for those long thin red cables with black ends. The wider "bars" are for the SATA power cable.

The cable your looking at is for IDE.
Click to expand...
The longer bar, the power cable, Just goes from the HD directly to power right? (there's 2 bars on the cable and the power connector)
 
Spi1lz said:
The longer bar, the power cable, Just goes from the HD directly to power right? (there's 2 bars on the cable and the power connector)
Click to expand...
The SATA power cable goes directly from the PSU... if not you might need a convertor but I think your PSU comes with SATA power cable.

That red cable with the black end, which plug does it go into on the mobo? There 2 black plugs, and 2 red ones...
Click to expand...
Doesnt matter from what I've been able to tell.

And for the RAM: Theres 2 black and 2 blue inputs... Which do I put the ram in? (I put them both in the black ones)
Click to expand...
If you've got 2 sticks put them in the same color slots so that you run dual channel. Doesnt matter which color as long as its the same.

i.e. put both stick in blue or both sticks in black
 
34erd said:
The SATA power cable goes directly from the PSU... if not you might need a convertor but I think your PSU comes with SATA power cable.
Click to expand...
There is a SATA cable with the mobo... Has 2 bars on it though. I imagine for 2 HD's? Just plug one in the HD and merge with the PSU power cords, right?

And another Q: The tiny one pin connectors, like HDDLED / SWLED (not entirely sure of the names, trying to run off of my memory here)... The black output ends say what they are on them. Does it matter which way they are facing? Like towards the top of the tower, or towards the bottom?
 
Spi1lz said:
There is a SATA cable with the mobo... Has 2 bars on it though. I imagine for 2 HD's? Just plug one in the HD and merge with the PSU power cords, right?
Click to expand...
Yes, the SATA power cable may have more than one plug on it.

And another Q: The tiny one pin connectors, like HDDLED / SWLED (not entirely sure of the names, trying to run off of my memory here)... The black output ends say what they are on them. Does it matter which way they are facing? Like towards the top of the tower, or towards the bottom?
Click to expand...
Yes, the LEDs are polarised. The positive terminal corresponds to the colored wire. If they're working, then they're plugged in correctly.
 
ceewi1 said:
Yes, the LEDs are polarised. The positive terminal corresponds to the colored wire. If they're working, then they're plugged in correctly.
Click to expand...
can anything go wrong if those are plugged in incorrectly?

(the white wire would be the ground, then, right?)
 
Can ya answer my question above this post? I am getting my video card and CPU today and am going to fire it up.

Just in case I plugged those in wrong I wanna make sure something bad doesn't happen.
 
Can you start the comp without the CPU and Video card in?

I know you can't use the comp, but just to check if everything is plugged in right?

or is that bad?
 
Spi1lz said:
Can you start the comp without the CPU and Video card in?

I know you can't use the comp, but just to check if everything is plugged in right?

or is that bad?
Click to expand...
No, it will not boot.
can anything go wrong if those are plugged in incorrectly?
Click to expand...
No, the LEDs just won't work.
(the white wire would be the ground, then, right?)
Click to expand...
Yes
 
K I have everything plugged in to my knowledge...

I powered it up, everything turns on... etc...

(don't have an OS installed, but shouldn't the monitor turn on and show something regardless?)

No video signal...

On the video card, which is a beast by the way, there is a 3 prong input and a 6 block input. (meaning it takes a 6 wire plug)... I plugged in the 6 wire plug from the PSU... Do I need to put anything on the 3 prong?
 
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