You can buy what are known as "Y Splitter cables" to add more SATA power connectors if needed.
Liam
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You can buy what are known as "Y Splitter cables" to add more SATA power connectors if needed.
Liam
^ I just looked and the mobo that I have ordered comes with two 4-pin molex to SATA connectors which gives me capability of 4 extra SATA devices to plug in. Is this what you are talking about though?
Also, the PSU being recommended here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817190007) has a fan and LED on its top. The case that I have ordered doesn't have see-thru panel on top and parts of the side. Would I be paying too much by getting this PSU or is this a good price regardless?
Having those fans with LEDs in them makes no difference to the overall price, or if it does it's only a matter of a few cents. It's not a bad price at all for a top quality 600W PSU :)
This is my personal favourite brand:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...cription=tagan
Anything $70 or less is a great price for it. I don't have see-thru panels, it makes no difference.Quote:
Originally Posted by masif
The XION PSU cited mounts in a standard case with the fan facing downward toward the mobo, pulling warm air out of the case and exhausting it out the back. Here's what it looks like in my case, above the 120mm rear fan and the HSF (sorry for the blurry pic):
Regarding the Molex/SATA question, some HDDs (usually the older ones) have both power ports. If so, use one OR the other, NOT BOTH. This other pic shows my HDD bay, note I only have two SATA connectors but I just used a Molex for the top HDD. The newer XIONs supposedly are coming out with six SATA connectors, but I haven't seen that yet.
BTW, Tagan is a really good PSU as well, as Nick notes. It may be easier to find over your way than the XION.
^ thanks for taking the time to post these pictures. From looking at the PSU unit picture on newegg.com, I was under the impression that PSU fan faces upwards in the case. That is why it made no sense whatsoever. The pcitures you posted, cleared it all up. I place the order for this power supply by the way. The tagan brand suggested by Nick was very expensive, the ones they had left on newegg.com were expensive anway. The less espensive ones were out. The one you recommended seemed reasonable so I went with it.
Thanks again!!!
Yeah, Tagan is expensive here. It's way more competitive in Europe where it's made (Germany, I think). Be that as it may, if the XIONs weren't available I'd buy Tagan instead. I understand they're worth it.
I completed building my PC yeserday. I am very happy with the outcome. There were a few set backs but not a big deal. All in all, it was a great, rewarding experience. I haven't overclocked the processor or the video card yet but I may be doing this in a few days.
Here are the issues I ran into:
- The case has two 3.5 drive bays. The holes in upper one didn't match the holes in the hard drives so I cannot screw my HDs in there. The upper bay that carries 3 hard drives is useless for me. The bottom bay that has 4-hd capacity was the way to go anyway becasue thats where the front panel fans are blowing lotsa air. So I ended up using that bay. That bay is a removable bay with thumb screwes. Makes it very easy to handle. I like!!!
- The Case doesn't have a slot for floppies. I was planning to use a floppy disk but there isn't any slot for it. I dropped the idea of putting the floppy. You can put one in the 5.25 bay with some tools but than you will see dark holes on the both sides of the floppy drive in your front panel. No biggie but still.
- The SATA power cable that came with the PSU was one cable split into two and could only go so far apart. The SATA DVDRW that I bought was placed on top inside the machine and the SATA HD was at the bottom. The sata power wire couldn't reach both of them. Still no biggi. Fortunately the SATA drive had the standard power pins too.
- The motherboard only had one IDE connector but I knew that up front. So it wasn't really a setback. Most IDE hard drives you can have on it would be two unles you buy a PCI IDE Controller card or use a SATA to IDE adapter or something.
- No Serial port on the mobo. I knew this up front too so no biggie here.
- The Case has USB ports and audio outputs on top of the case in (instead of on the front). These are in addition tot he ones in the rear panel. I have to slide the whole case out of my work desk to be able to use it.
- The case is slightly bigger and heavier than normal mid tower.
- The side air duck is giant. It was pushing one of the wires to get in the way of the CPU heatsink fan. I had to tie some of the wires to avoid that.
Here are the good things...
I love the hydraulic door and the LED lights, especially the front lights. I love how easy it was to put all the pieces together. A lot of space inside the case. Very good ariflow. Hard drive access is extremely fast. DDR2 800 SDRAM worked like a charm. The ASUS mobo is rock solid. The utilities it comes with are superb, espeically the one for BIOS update from within Windows. Everything powered up with the very first try without a glitch. The picture is very crisp and clear.
I haven't updated the BIOS yet. I don't know if I should.
I haven't updated the Catalyst drivers yet so I don't think I am using the Video Card to its fullest. How can I tell? Again, I don't know if I should update the drivers. Are there good video card testing utilities? Maybe some high graphics FREE games that someone could recommend?
Also, what are the normal CPU/System tempratures?
^ yeah I figured there must be something out there but I don't really need a floppy. I originally planned to put one in but dropped the idea later.
Those upper bays are typically for 3½" drives (floppy, ZIP, etc.), not hard drives, but XION says they're internal bays?! Interesting. Try removing the front panel and see if there are knock-out plates to open them up for exterior use. If not, you could always mount the floppy for internal (occasional) use.Quote:
Originally Posted by masif
Sounds like a normal assembly (in other words, there's always something!), glad to hear it went OK. The Intel afficionados here can give you the temp range to expect.
If you want to make use of the front-panel USB ports, get one of these PCI cards with the internal header in place of a port. You can plug your front panel connector to it.