Assembled my PC

[Shadax]

I didn't mess with ANY jumpers and I don't know if I was supposed to. Both harddrives are SATA so I don't think they matter, the mother board (MSI Neo2 Platinum), though, I think they do. The manual mentions they can be setup to erase some kind of data. I left them alone and I don't know if I should touch them. I'm just running a basic setup, I just wanna get the sucker started.

I haven't even powerd it on once yet... and I'm not sure if I should yet.

EDIT: Maybe this will help:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+
MSI Neo 2 Platinum skt 939 Nforce 3 Ultra
Gigabyte ATI Radeon x800 xt
Creative Lab Audigy ZS
Corsair XMS Series 1GB

 

[erikistired]

i didn't have to adjust any jumpers on my motherboard but it's a soyo p4 board. the only jumper i have is to reset the bios (i think that's the only one). if you want you can always take out everything but the ram, video, cpu (and hsf), psu, board and start there. see if it posts, then TURN IT OFF and add in another component.

but you're probably safe to just turn it on unless the neo2 doesn't have autodetect for cpu speeds.

 

[Shadax]

It should.... right?

 

[AmdEmAll]

Just turn it on!

Most motherboards are jumperless now. The one you mention that erases data is just for clearing the bios back to it's original settings.

Make sure you have the wires from the case speaker, reset, pwr on, etc hooked up.

 

[Shadax]

So nothing can go wrong? IThe components are expensive, you can't blame me for being hesitant. What are the worst things that can happen assuming I used my common sense and manuals to hook everything up...

 

[AmdEmAll]

Hmm not much, this isn't an older athlon so it wont fry if the heatsink isn't touching it. As long as the motherboard is screwed into the standoffs and nothing is touching the back to short it out it should be fine. Make sure everything is seated correctly (ram, video card, sound). What I do the first time I boot it up is if it post, go right into the bios and check the temps. If they are fine and voltages are normal then continue with windows install (after adjusting bios to my liking).

 

[Shadax]

what are the standoffs?

 

[AmdEmAll]

Depending on the case you may not need them but they are the little brass things that separate the motheboard from the case tray. You screw the stand-offs into the case, match the motherboard holes up to them and then screw the board into the stand-offs.

Heres a picture of some stand-offs.


Text

 

[mauiblue]

Hmmm. A brand new system and you are afraid to turn it on? I understand you've got some green stamps invested in this mofo, but if you had RTFM and followed all the steps in bringing this beast alive, then you should have the confidence and TURN IT ON. You won't know if something is wrong until you fire it up.

I was hesitant to turn on my new system but I went through all the hookups a couple times and then turned it on. I was disappointed to find that it wouldn't POST when I first turned it on. Come to find out, my video card was DOA. No problem. I was able to get a cheap video card and in the mean time RMA'ed my other card. I got to POST after that and never looked back. Four months later, I am OCing and having a blast video editing and gaming.

Good luck with your new system and enjoy!

 

[imported_NoGodForMe]

It's not uncommon for people to have problems the first time they power on their board.

I think you should power it on with the least amount of things connected to the MB just to see if it posts.

That means, only the power and reset leads going to the MB. Don't hook up the sound wires, usb or firewire connectors, just the video card, and one hard drive. Leave case fans disconnected in case the molex plug has a short in it.

Check to make sure the power connector is pushed in correctly on the MB, and make sure both connectors are plugged in. There is a 20 pin and 4 pin 12v connector. Make sure that no pins are pushed back.

If something is wrong, the PS fan will spin for a fraction of a second and that's it. Then you pull more stuff off until you are left with the MB and video card as the only things powering up.

Hopefully, that won't happen to you. But don't worry about frying something. It's usually the opposite that happens, the PS starts for that fraction of a second and then nothing.

 

[AMD Die Hard]

I have a similar setup and it was the easiest system I ever built. Just turn that puppy on it should be ready to roll. Just make sure you have the 4 pin power connector and the main 22 pin (?) power conector connected directly to the motherboard. Also, if you vid card requires it, make sure it has its 4 pin connector hooked up too. Just so you know, that board can be very demanding on the 12V rail, so you better have a good power supply in there. Check the voltage in the bios to see how it reads. Check it again with a motherboard monitor while the system is under full load too. Finally, upgrade the BIOS to 1.3 - that gives you a 10 degree C drop in temperature just by doing that (or at least thats what it reports in the bios under system health). You still have a long way to go with installing the operating system and getting that all updated and tweaked as well as the system and hardware drivers, so get going!!!! My only criticism is putting an ATI card into a NVIDIA chipset motehrboard. Apparently there is some sort of conflict with this configuration and games that use punkbuster. I'm running a GeF 6800 so I never actually experienced it first hand. Its highly unlikely that you are going to fry something just by turning it on. You would have to have it hooked up pretty strangely to do that. You are much more likely to screw something up by handling the componets incorrectly and not protecting them from electro static discharge during the installation process by making sure that you are properly grounded when you do handle them.