Connectors

Those are just molex converters to use them with a SATA drive (either HDD or CD).
 
The red cables are also for SATA drives if you don't use a controller card. The newer plugin for SATA on the board as well as the drive is smaller then the standard eide cable. For a look at how those plugin here's a MAC setup.
 
Yes, speaking of SATA. As you know this is my first build so i dont know a whole lot. I have put everything together except for all these dang SATA cables. What is their purpose first of all, and do they plug into the hard drive and all other drives? thanks.
Scott.
 
Each one goes direct from the drive to the board. Boards that will handle four drives will have a pair of primary as well as a secondary. They don't run between drives. If you're board is also ide equipped that will override the SATA controllers by default. Getting the drives recognised at times can be... ?
 
Ok so I don't need to worry about connecting SATA cables as long as my IDE cable is connected to the motherboard?

So you have the hard drive installed, then you have the power source to it, along with the IDE cable and there is the jumper. Does anything plug into the jumper? Thanks.
Fish.
 
Nothing plugs into the jumper. The jumper is a small plastic tab with a metal contact inside to connect two pins to each other. There are generally three or more pairs that are set according to the position on the cable the drive is on. If you plug in the connector at the end of the cable that is called mastering the drive and the pair under the MA marking on the drive casing is where the jumper is moved to. With the center connector used it then becomes slaved to another drive or device and is moved to the SL.

By default when shipped the jumper will be in the CL or Cable Select position for use with either of the two connectors on the cable. That can be helpful at times when a second drive isn't being detected as a slave.
 
Ok thanks a lot. That deffinetly helped clear things up for me. I do however have another question lol. My case has usb, mic, headphone, and fan control on the side of it. I plugged in the USB cable to the one on my motherboard and those USB ports work fine on the case. Am I supposed to plug anything in for the mic, headphone, and fan contol? Thanks.
Scott.
 
It would first depend if those were even wired to the board. The mic and headphone jacks would be used for things like chat rooms, voice recording. using the pc to make phone calls, etc. there. The fan control suggests that you have a manual method for controlling the speed of one or more cases fans that are plugged in through the controller itself. If you try adjustiing that and hear/see no difference in speed while looking at the one or more fans installed that would be for additional fans added later.
 
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