HELP! Need some 1st computer building answers

[sumrtym]

I've got an Antec 1035B with the 350 W power supply and an Asus P4B533-V mobo. Here's my questions (please excuse my stupidity....first try assembling a computer):

1) All the LED's, sound, etc., from the front of the case use black as their POSITIVE wire? Other wire is different colors...red, green, etc.

2) There's a connector on the power supply I can't quite fathom. It's a 3 pin connector by itself, one black and one white wire. It's not in a bundle....what is this for, and does it connect to this Asus board???

3) This one I feel stupid about....I bought a Samsung OEM floppy. The power is on the right, and the controller cable on the opposite left. Is the red stripe to go on the LEFT (edge of the floppy) of the controller with the connector with the ribbon twist. Seems kind of odd since the red stripe goes on the bottom of the Asus board connector and causes the cable to twist. However, if it goes the other way, then the slave connector would be twisted wrong. How I have the floppy connected is illustrated below:

|--------------- ---- |
connector power
^
red stripe

 

[tboneuls]

Yup...kinda strange, but black is the positive wire on my computer as well. The three pin connector sounds like a connector for a three pin fan (some cpu fans need three pin connectors). I wouldn't recomment plugging the cpu fan into the psu though, because I think that motherboard has the capability to moniter the fan's rpm, so I'd plug the cpu fan into the motherboard. As for the floppy, if you do plug it in upside down, it shouldn't hurt it...it just won't be detected. So if it isn't detected, just flip it.

 

[minendo]

The 3 pin wire coming from the PSU should be the power wire/monitoring wire for the PSU fan. Red stripe goes nearest the power connector.

 

[sumrtym]

All right, I think that takes care of 1 and 2. Thanks guys!!!

However, #3 still bothers me a bit. I know it's usual to have the red line nearest the power plugin. However, if I do that, then the slave connector faces into the case, and not the front, and instead of the cable coming out of the bottom of the connector to the floppy, it has to flip over the top. That seems really odd. Has anyone bought a Samsung floppy drive that could verify this for me??

I think it can damage the drive, if not the mobo, if I get this wrong, so I don't want to screw it up.

 

[Yamyam]

I've plugged in a floppy drive backwards several times, and it doesn't seem to hurt any of the hardware. Here's my technique:

1) Orient the plug in whichever direction is most convenient
2) Boot and put in a "disposable" floppy
3) If you can read/write the floppy, you plugged it in correctly
4) If the floppy access light stays on forever, power down and switch the plug around. Throw the floppy disk in the trash.

 

[sumrtym]

Thanks everyone for your help!

I unmounted the floppy, and found that I could see behind the ribbon cable connector to the PCB and identify the pin (which wasn't visible when mounted). It DID go on the left hand side, farthest from the power supply, by the way.

Second, according to Antec, the front connectors all have a tiny black arrow on the connector. That arrow signifies what wire is ground. On mine, only one had the black as positive, and all the others had black as ground. Think that's a "need to check every time" item.

Just FYI, and thanks again everybody!

 

[mechBgon]

Just FYI, if you did plug an LED in backwards, the LED doesn't light up. No harm to the LED, however. And if you plug your floppy drive in backwards, generally the LED on the drive will remain on, signalling that the ribbon cable needs to be flipped. 😀

As for the 3-pin connector coming from the PSU, that is for monitoring one of the fans' RPMs. I generally do a nice spiral-twist on those and then tuck them away, since mobos have too few 3-pin headers already without wasting one on monitoring a PSU fan.