Help A newbie out!:Building A dolphin

[followingtom]

Well I got tired of paying for those lousy overpriced computers and I decided I would try and make my own. I didn't want to aim to high so I tried my hands at making the dolphin build that is posted on the home page (or was its pushed back a few pages now). All was fine and dandy until after I installed my graphics card. I have a few problems,1 on the case I don't know where I can put the dvd drive, there doesn't seems to be a slot. 2 The wiring is extremely confusing and I don't know what goes where. And 3 I don't know where I can put the heatsink. This is my first attempt at building a computer so please go easy. Maybe somebody who has made the Dolphin Build computer can post a picture of their fully completed computer so I have something to base the wiring and other stuff off of.

Dolphin
Case NZXT GAMMA Classic - $35
Power Supply Corsair 650TX V2 - $80
CPU AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition - $122
Heatsink Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $30
Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 - $130
Memory 4GB G.Skill Ripjaws F3 4GB 12800 DDR3 - $62
Graphics Card EVGA GTX 460 - $152/ $180
Hard Drive SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB - $61
DVD $25 Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $25

[Djinni]

1) The case will likely have removeable panels on the front (for optical drives, card readers), or the back (for graphics cards, sound cards, etc..) so you only expose a hole where you actually want to put a device. (IE Optical drive)

2) All the wireing should be labeled, and most stuff on the motherboard will be appropriatly labeled. Reffer to the motherboard installation user manual, which usually further details what each and every pin on the board does, along with what to plug in it.

3) Read the thread with the YouTube video giving an example of building a PC.

4) Usually the heatsink goes ontop of the CPU, it should already have a thermal "pad" pre-applied, IF in the extreamly unlikely event it doesn't you will need to get some thermal paste and apply it to the heatsink BEFORE attaching it to the CPU. and definatly before attempting to turn on your PC.


Most things are pretty self explanatory, ( I haven't personally built a PC in about a year so... im a little rusty but.) Your Fan that attaches to the CPU Heatsink will usually plug into a pin near the CPU on the board. Similarly the Power Button from the Case will usually plug into a pin near the front of the board (usually the bottom left corner)
Again EVERYTHING is labeled. I don't know about Gigabyte boards, but ASUS boards have a "Q-Connector" which more clearly labels what each pin is, so you can plug things into that and then plug the whole connector into the board.

[Cantii]

Everything Djinni said, but here's a muuuuch better video on how to build a PC:

http://www.youtube.com/user/newegg?b.../3/d_56kyib-Ls

Yay Newegg!

[Havermeyer]

Have you tried: http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Computer and http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_To_...e_A_Desktop_PC ?

1. That case should have four 5.25" drive bays at the top for a DVD drive, then it connects to power from the power supply and an SATA port with an SATA cable.
2. The guides linked should go through most of the wiring steps.
3. The heatsink/fan comes with instructions: http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/uplo...s%20manual.pdf and there's a newegg installation video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l2h0...layer_embedded The actual instructions are for an Intel board, but he mentions/shows the differences with an AMD board.

[followingtom]

Now I have a new problem. I got everything hooked up and running, but when I turn on the computer there is no display!

---------- Post added 2011-06-08 at 03:23 AM ----------

Is it possible that the screen I am using is incompatible? Its from a much older computer so I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

[Zulandia]

Is the bios posting and you're just not getting video or does everything just turn on but BIOS never posts (assuming you hooked up the motherboard speaker this will make a small dinging noise when it happens but considering almost no one hooks that annoying thing up don't be stressed if you hear no beep).

If you hear no beep however turn your computer off (and then flip the hard power switch) and confirm that the GPU has all connectors hooked up and that your monitor is plugged into it. (looking at your mobo you'll also want to make sure your GPU is in the PCIe slot closest to your CPU as this one is your x16 which with a single card set up will be faster than the lower one which is x8 *note* this wont actually cause any problems but it will optimize it later).

If you know all your graphics related parts are set up it's likely that BIOS is not posting, go back and check all your connecters are in properly, secondly check your Ram as a lot of first time builders tend to just throw it where it fits but you need to make sure your two sticks are operating on the same channel (generally the board will color code the slots so blue goes with blue and black with black for example, but in the case they do not you will fill alternating slots).

Those are my main tips if they don't get it going just keep rechecking everything eventually you'll find something which wasn't hooked up, it can be finicky/frustrating the first time but be happy knowing you saved money and it gets easier :P

Is it possible that the screen I am using is incompatible? Its from a much older computer so I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

Unlikely, your card appears to have both HDMI and DVI support (your monitor is almost guranteed to be this one if it's old) so as long as you can plug the monitor into it it will work.

One more thing I just though about is make sure you are plugging your monitor into the connectors on your graphics card and not your onboard set [your motherboard does have integrated graphics with a DVI and HDMI port].

[Havermeyer]

Did you connect the two 6 pin power connectors on the graphics card? And your monitor is plugged directly into the graphics card and not the on-board video?

If you still can't get a video post, you can try removing the graphics card and hooking the monitor up to on-board video to confirm everything else works.

[Djinni]

Did you connect the two 6 pin power connectors on the graphics card? And your monitor is plugged directly into the graphics card and not the on-board video?

If you still can't get a video post, you can try removing the graphics card and hooking the monitor up to on-board video to confirm everything else works.

By the way, all graphics cards will work on standard power without the extra power connectors, they just default to "safe mode" which just downclocks all your graphics settings to work with the reduced power.

[followingtom]

WOOT! looks like I got it! Thanks a bunch guys. If I have any other problems I'll be sure to come back ahha.

---------- Post added 2011-06-08 at 03:28 PM ----------

Here my next problem, my computer can not detect any networks even when it's wired directly. I'm
using windows 7 ultimate

[Cantii]

WOOT! looks like I got it! Thanks a bunch guys. If I have any other problems I'll be sure to come back ahha.

---------- Post added 2011-06-08 at 03:28 PM ----------

Here my next problem, my computer can not detect any networks even when it's wired directly. I'm
using windows 7 ultimate

Install the drivers for your NIC (will be your on-board ethernet drivers that came on your motherboard's driver disc) and you'll be good.