Assembly questions - connecting case to mobo

[radhak]

My initial thought was to build an i5, but then I got the i7-3770K for cheap. I decided to not buy any graphics card now, but hold off for a GTX 660 or 670 couple of months later, for some gaming and advanced Adobe.

So finally my motherboard is this : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157296 (or the manufacturer's page)
and case is this : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119196

Now I have received all the components and have started assembling them, and have specific questions.

a. The case has 3 fans included, and the mobo has 2 headers marked 'chassis fan'. But I don't see any connectors/cables from the case for the case fan. I only see the molex plugs for power that I assume would go to the PSU. Is that okay? Aren't I supposed to connect the case fans to the mobo too?

b. The case has a cable from the front-panel headphone/mic-jacks to the motherboard; this has two plugs in series - one marked "HD Audio", the other "AC '97". The motherboard header is marked HD Audio, but its manual says

1. High Definition Audio supports Jack Sensing, but the panel wire on the chassis must support HDA to function correctly. Please follow the instruction in our manual and chassis manual to install your system.
2. If you use AC’97 audio panel, please install it to the front panel audio header as below:

A. Connect Mic_IN (MIC) to MIC2_L.
B. Connect Audio_R (RIN) to OUT2_R and Audio_L (LIN) to OUT2_L.
C. Connect Ground (GND) to Ground (GND).
D. MIC_RET and OUT_RET are for HD audio panel only. You don’t need to connect them for AC’97 audio panel.
E. To activate the front mic.

For WindowsXP / XP 64-bit OS: Select “Mixer”. Select “Recorder”. Then click “FrontMic”.
For Windows 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista / Vista 64-bit OS: Go to the “FrontMic” Tab in the Realtek Control panel. Adjust “Recording Volume”.​

So which of these do I use - the HD Audio or the AC 97?

c. The board has 24pin and a 8 pin ATX 12V power connectors. I should be connecting both to the PSUs, right? The PSU does have corresponding plugs.
I ask because the NEWBIE ALERT: don't blow up your hardware! piece is a bit scary, even though I cannot see the different wire-colors on the cables.

 

[Bricked]

a. The mobo connectors are for PWM fans that have their speed automatically adjusted by the mobo. Non-PWN fans should be connected to the PSU. You could connect them to the board but they will just run at full speed all the time.

b. Use HD Audio. It's newer and better, although honestly you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference with normal audio equipment.

c. Yes. The article is just warning about trying to put the +4 part of the 20+4 connector into the 8-pin connector, which I don't see happening. If you look at the connectors, it's pretty obvious that the 20 pin and the 4 pin connectors go together when you have a 20+4.

 

[radhak]

Great, thanks! I can go ahead and complete my build now.

I understand I can connect to a monitor and turn on my system even if not completely attached to all drives and cards, just to see if the motherboard, CPU and the memory work fine. Any caveats on that?

 

[DSF]

No caveats other than making sure that you connect everything you actually need to get the computer to start, like the power button.