In process of building- Quick Question

Mr.Moose

New Member
Hey people,

Currently putting all the parts to my build together and now I'm down to installing the HDD activity LED's, power switch, reset switch, and power LED's.

The thing is I can't tell which side is negative and which side is positive. It's clear on the motherboard but on the wires the only indicator is an arrow on one side of each wire. I'm assuming the arrow indicates the positive side as on my motherboard only the positive sign is shown.

One other question, I noticed that neither my motherboard or case came with a speaker? Is this built in nowadays? (the motherboard I'm referring to is in my sig)

Thank you for reading my post,

Have a nice day
 
Hey people,

Currently putting all the parts to my build together and now I'm down to installing the HDD activity LED's, power switch, reset switch, and power LED's.

The thing is I can't tell which side is negative and which side is positive. It's clear on the motherboard but on the wires the only indicator is an arrow on one side of each wire. I'm assuming the arrow indicates the positive side as on my motherboard only the positive sign is shown.

One other question, I noticed that neither my motherboard or case came with a speaker? Is this built in nowadays? (the motherboard I'm referring to is in my sig)

Thank you for reading my post,

Have a nice day

The black wire is always negative, but most time different color is positive. See any + on your motherboard? It mean you should put positive wire into motherboard +. More important, you have to read motherboard book to find right port like power switch, LED power, reset switch, and hard drive LED. Most time positive is on left and negative is on right. About speaker, it was recommend. It will alarm if overheat CPU or system. Try not follow my advice too much because my motherboard is GA-H55-USB3 and it might be different from your motherboard.
 
The black wire is always negative, but most time different color is positive. See any + on your motherboard? It mean you should put positive wire into motherboard +. More important, you have to read motherboard book to find right port like power switch, LED power, reset switch, and hard drive LED. Most time positive is on left and negative is on right. About speaker, it was recommend. It will alarm if overheat CPU or system. Try not follow my advice too much because my motherboard is GA-H55-USB3 and it might be different from your motherboard.

Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to answer but my question is how can I tell which side if positive and which side is negative on the wires. On the motherboard it's clear which side is which, I'm only inquiring about what is on the wires.

Thank you though
 
can you post a pic of what your talking about?

There are a few different wires that run different volts in the computer.
Red +5v
Yellow +12v
Orange +3.3v
Black ground
white -5v
blue -12v
Purple 5v standby
grey power good
green power on.

As to what goes where, you will need to look at the motherboard manual. The front panel connectors should be labeled and the manual will tell you where each goes.
 
Pictures:

img2084h.jpg


Direct Link: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/267/img2084h.jpg/

img2087d.jpg


Direct Link: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/859/img2087d.jpg/


Just to clarify, I know where each wire goes I'm just not sure which side is positive, and which side is negative on the wires. The only indication of positive or negative on the wires it seems is a small arrow (see second picture).

Thank you for replying by the way
 
is there any script on the wires going into that connector?

As it stands, it appears to both be negatives (2 black wires), but there is more to it. Any writing on the wires will aide in the ID of +/- or voltages for them.
 
The only thing I could make out on one of the two intertwined wires (It's extremely small and faded) was "VW-1" "AMC" and "300V". The power LED wires have it clearly labeled + and - but no other front header wire does Do those numbers/letters mean anything?

EDIT: Also this may sound like a silly question but if I put it in the incorrect way would anything major happen? For example if I put the power front header wire in with the positive/negative flipped (incorrectly) would it cause any problems or would it just not turn on and I could flip the wire around?
 
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Some of them would not cause any damage. If you put the wrong USB wires in, you might fry your USB device, but thats about the worst that will happen.
On the power, you will not get a power up if you switch the + and -.
 
Just to clarify... If I got the connection flipped so that positive side of the connector went to the negative side on the motherboard or vise versa the only thing that would happen would be that the computer wouldn't turn on? (assuming I'm talking about the power connector) until I flipped it around and tried again?

What I mean:

(Motherboard)
+ -
- +
(Power header wire)

EDIT: SOLVED

I was looking in the corsair forums and came across this: http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=99944

The response said "PWR SW, RESET SW,& PWR LED. Does not require polarity. Only the HDD LED, which should be labeled."

I feel like quite the fool now. I'm truly sorry for wasting your time, wolfeking, I do appreciate your help though.
 
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I am pretty sure it wouldn't cause any damage. The power switch is just an interrupter switch anyway, like the ignition on a car. It may work with the wires reversed, it may not. No damage will come from it though.
 
I was looking in the corsair forums and came across this: http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=99944

The response said "PWR SW, RESET SW,& PWR LED. Does not require polarity. Only the HDD LED, which should be labeled."

I feel like quite the fool now. I'm truly sorry for wasting your time, wolfeking, I do appreciate your help though.


Again, thank you wolfeking for taking the time to help me.

I appreciate it

Admin can close this thread, my question has been answered.
 
Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to answer but my question is how can I tell which side if positive and which side is negative on the wires. On the motherboard it's clear which side is which, I'm only inquiring about what is on the wires.

Thank you though

Negative is black wire. The code color wire from front panel is positive. Also arrow on lead wire is positive.

EX: Arrow come from negative then went into positive.
 
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