I feel... so not smart....

ThatOneDude

ThatOneDude

New Member
Hello again, so I think I am just about ready to begin my build, however there is one thing that I just can't seem to figure out. And that is how exactly to connect my case wires (Power on/off hdd lights and all that good stuff) to the motherboard. It just seems so daunting to me for some reason. I have read the manuals for the case and mobo, a couple times but I still just cannot for the life of me figure it out. My mobo is the ASUS M4A785-M and my case is the ANTEC 900. Anyone have any step by step suggestions, with pictures or video would be perfect.
 
Don't be afraid to experiment a little. If you reverse the leads on the case wires (system panel connector) it won't cause any harm; it just won't power on until they are in the right spot. Download the motherboard user manual from Asus here. After unzipping the English global manual, look at pdf page 38 (1-26) to see the motherboard connections spelled out.

The Antec 900 case user manual is here.
Notice on pdf page 3-4 of the Antec manual it talks about connecting the wires labeled RESET SW. This would go to the pins on the motherboard labeled RESET in the motherboard user manual. In the same way, the POWER LED wire goes to the motherboard spot PLED. The POWER SW wire goes to PWRSW. HDD LED goes to IDE LED, etc. Look for a + symbol on the wire, or sometimes a mark of some kind to signify the polarity. If can't tell, guess. If it doesn't work, swap it.

EDIT: don't just guess and swap for other PC components, the system panel connector polarities happen to be one aspect of PC builds where you can't hurt anything.
 
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EDIT: don't just guess and swap for other PC components, the system panel connector polarities happen to be one aspect of PC builds where you can't hurt anything.
Click to expand...
Yep, luckily switches work no matter which way you put them on but the worst that can happen with the front pannel connectors is the LEDs don't work. That's just a simple case of rotate the connector and reconnect.

All the audio and USB header cables should be keyed now so you can't put them on wrong.
 
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