Just remember to READ the manuals chip, they often contain very important information. Most specifically, you absolutely must read the motherboard manual, as it will notify you of any jumpers that may need to be set (very, very unlikely, though), but more importantly, how to plug in all the connectors from the case (power and reset switches, power and hdd LEDs, front USB, front firewire, front audio, etc...) I recommend connecting these BEFORE you screw down the motherboard in the case, as once its in the case, it can be rather tricky to see which pins you must connect. It should also tell you how to enable dual-channel memory, which requires the memory to be inserted into specific DIMM slots (often color coordinated, but it can vary)

I would also read the how-to install for the CPU, as it will tell you the proper method of securing down the HSF unit

And I shouldn't have to remind you to be extremely careful, not to do this on carpet, and to ground yourself before handling anything (do this by touching something metal that is grounded - I often just touch the case of my PSU, which is grounded when its plugged in)

I'm following a guide that NetWiz created on UTI. It's very good and thorough. I'm going to take this very slow and carefully, but from what I've read static electricity is no longer really an issue. It's not a problem none-the-less because even though I plan on doing this on a carpet, I made the nerdiest purchase of my life. I spent my best buy gift card on thermal paste and a computer assembly kit (complete with non-static wrist band, hex wrenches, screw drivers, pliers, tweasers, screws, and a flashlight).

I received the audio cables yesterday, and I got the rest of the stuff today. I'll have tomorrow afternoon free to set this thing up, but I have a lot of reading to do tonight.

I think that's the same videocard and proc as I'm getting.

I found out that the windows labs at the college I'm going to go to have 512MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GTX Video Cards

The linux labs only have 6800 GTOs, but that's still cool.

http://cs.millersville.edu/labs/linux.html
http://cs.millersville.edu/labs/windows.html

It is

@Chip: Static is still very much a real concern. The amount of static needed to fry something is actually less than the amount it takes for you to feel it. While it is unlikely and rare to actually see something die from static, anyone who tells you its not a problem is a fool.

As for building on carpet, just don't do it with socks on and rub your feet across the floor, and you should probably be fine (Do ground yourself, though). I built my rig on carpet too

It's not like I'm not going to wear the anti-static wrist watch I bought.

I just finished reading through the motherboard manual. It looks like this shouldn't be too hard to set up. There aren't many jumpers, and the ones I could set, I'm not going to because they deal with features I'm not using at this point (there's a jumper for RAID 1 or 0).

This motherboard also has a lot of features I didn't even know it had. For instance, it has an mp3 player input that goes directly to the speakers so the computer can be off and you can still play sound through the speakers. Also it has ATI crossfire but apparently no SLI support. Perhaps it would have been better to go ATI with this board... It also has extra coolant features and has support for water cooling.

I can't wait to start working on it, but I'm going to hold off until I get home from work tomorrow. Any last words of advice?

nVidia is being stuborn and only letting SLI work on their nforce SLI chipsets - of which the latest Intel one's have been having some issues that are supposed to have been solved, but I didn't want to have to put you through flashing the BIOS right after you bought the board. I don't consider it a worthwhile feature unless you have a ton of cash and are a hardcore gamer, as adding a second video card in SLI isn't going to net you anywhere near a 2x performance gain, and so far each new generation has been faster than two previous generation cards in SLI/Crossfire, so I wouldn't worry about it

Status: Nearly complete!

I spent today from 4pm-7pm tediously following an online guide and the manuals. I got everything setup, cleaned up and was ready to POST.

Here's how long it took me to do different sections:

Disassemble old stuff: 30 min

Mount motherboard: 20min

Install Processor: 10min

Install Ram: 10min*

Jumpers other single cables: 40 min (Including fans, usb, external sound, power jumpers, etc)

Installing drives: 30 min

Installing other cards: 10 min

Cleaning up and seting up computer for POST: 30 min

Now here's where the problems started. I hooked up a monitor and keyboard and a powercord to the computer. I saw the mobo light turn on. I then read up on what I should expect during POST. I crossed my fingers and held my breath and then pressed the power button...nothing! No sound no fans no nothing turned on.

Ok, ok, ok. I can deal with this I thought. I thought and thought and I decided it was probably a problem with the power jumpers. I realized that the wording on my jumpers was slightly different than the matching ones on the motherboard. After rearranging a bit, I got it to turn on. Fans roared to life. Unfortunately that's where the awesomeness ended.

I noticed that the lights on my ram were not turning on. Oh, no I thought. I knew there was a problem when I installed them. Try as I might, I couldn't get them to fit into the first two dual channel ram slots. I put way more force than I should on this thing, and even got it to snap in on a number of occasions, but it would just pop back out. Ok, this absolutely sucks I thought, but I tried the black ram slots just for the heck of it. And wouldn't you know it, they fit. Alright, I thought, I hope this is ok. Well, I'm guessing it's not. After deeply examining the ram slots it looks like there's a plastic piece that separates the two sides of the ram that's a little bigger in the orange slots than the black slots. I bet this is the sorce of the problem. But why the hell are the slots different?!?!? So I can't do anything further with the computer until I get this problem resolved.

Here are some pics:









HELP!

My guess would be the way you are inserting the RAM, and not that little piece of plastic in the middle. HOWEVER, it shouldn't matter if you don't use the orange slots. You should be able to just have the RAM in the two black slots just fine (double check w/ mobo manual on this, though)

The way I always end up doing it (and which isn't technically proper) is to kind of "rock" the RAM in by pushing one side in a little, and then the other side, and clipping in the one side and then pushing the other side in the rest of the way. The little white tabs are *supposed* to close by themselves, but I often just help them along the last little bit

EDIT: Uhh... chip? Why isn't the 24pin power connector plugged into the motherboard? For that matter you DID also connect the additional 4pin header to the motherboard, right?

I tried everything trying to jam this ram into the orange slots. I even got it to fit in for a second, but it would immediately pop one of the white tabs up and pop out.

I do think the problem lies with the size of this little piece of plastic.

The reason I think it matters if I have it in the black or orange slots is because when I attempted to boot before with the RAM in the black slot, the monitor never displayed anything. I would think this is evidence of the RAM not being setup right, although I guess it could be something else.

PS. I unplugged the power connector so I could better get at the RAM.

I guess I'll get a good nights sleep and see what I can make of things tomorrow.

I'm starting to think that we may have misinterpretted what type of RAM I had. The previous mobo had something called PCI-Extreme which was an incompatable type of PCI-E. Perhaps this RAM is abnormal as well? Just a thought.

There is no such thing as PCI-Extreme. There is PCI-Express, are you sure you didn't just misread it? And the Intel LGA sockets have only ever used DDR2 as far as I know, but that doesn't matter, because if it wasn't, the little plastic tab wouldn't even be near the indent on the RAM.

You said you had it in for a second before it poped out. RAM does take a fair amount of force to get in. Once its in, the white tabs shouldn't be able to just pop open. Thats what I was saying about making sure the tabs are all the way closed (even if you just use your fingure to push them in the rest of the way)

Things to try, though:

1) Just use one stick, try it in every slot (and then try just the other stick)
2) Double check all connections
3) Try hooking the monitor up to the other DVI output
4) Clear the CMOS (read motherboard manual on how to do this)
5) listen for any beeps from the PC speaker (the one inside the case, not ones that you'd have plugged into the soundcard)

Also, do make sure you have all the power connections made. The motherbaord should have TWO seperate connections. One is just a 4-pin connector, the other is the big 20+4 pin one. Double check with the manual, but there shouldn't be any open power connections on the mobo.

EDIT: And jeez man, wire management 101 is just down the hall

There IS such a thing as PCI-Extreme, and the POS mobo that I had, had it. I reference you to here for proof.

The white tabs were just popping open. I think I better record a video of me attempting to jam these things in.

I'll try that stuff tomorrow.

Where are all these open power connections you're bitching about? The main ATX power socket that you are seeing in the above picture was only unoccupied for the duration of my strugles with the ram and subsequent picture taking.


When I had the ram hooked up to the black slots and turned on the computer with a keyboard and monitor plugged in, this is what happened:

Fans turned on
Other sounds (no beeps) were audible
No keyboard lights turned on
Nothing apeared on the monitor
The ram lights did NOT go on

OMG

This ram is fucking DDR not DDR2!!! I assumed you guys knew what you were talking about from the grainy photos from before, but I guess not. A quick google on the product number on the side of the ram yields this:

http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/products/specs/cmx512-3200xlpro.pdf

That is my ram in the pictures.

So does this mean that I have to buy DDR2 ram? Argh! If so, what needs to be bought?

ARGHH

I have had a problem with ram to. I was installing 2 gb of ram in this comp and it fit and everything, but it wouldn't work. I have no clue why though, it was definitally not because of the type of ram though...

just a sec, let me find the topic - here

Ouch Harq, that stinks. At least I know what the problem is... Did you ever get that resolved?

I went ahead and order these. I'll update you guys when I get them.

We just returned them and bought 2 gb from a local computer store >.> (I have no idea why it didn't work though...)

I've found a use for this ram after all. It appears my current computer takes DDR ram. I put it in, and at first the motherboard just beeped at me. After just putting one in, it managed to boot. I put the second and everything remained fine. So now I've got a gig of ram on this computer (up from 512). And I have two old sticks of crappy 256 DDR ram lying around. :p

Hey! so do I =D

...and your "proof" agrees with me. There is no such thing as PCI-Extreme, its just a marketing buzzword that means nothing

As for the RAM, sorry about that chip. I do apologize. (but I would like to point out I initially guessed it was DDR and not DDR2 - of course, clear pictures would have helped )

I'm aware that PCI-Extreme isn't a legitimate type of slot, but it does exist. Anyways, let's not get hung up on this.

It's alright. I probably should have looked more closely into it myself because there were mixed messages from you guys about what it was. I think I wanted it to be DDR2 so I turned a blind eye.

Well, at least if you will remember back I remember talking to you (on IM) about possibly upgrading the ram in this computer. I remember you suggested this exact ram (or something very similar). So it looks like I got it after all.

Plus, now I'm going to have 2 gigs of ram! Although it's the most expensive piece of this entire computer...