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What all does a motherboard need installed to run..?

I

iNSAN1TY

Member
Im new here so,hello everyone.

On to my question..im in the process of building a computer paycheck to paycheck,and was wondering..ive got my HD, PSU,CPU and a sound card hooked up to my MOBO so far,and when I press the power button,it turns on for about 30 seconds,then turns off..is this because I have no ram installed yet,and will it boot when I install my ram?

Thanks

(Motherboard is a ABIT AV8 3rd eye if that helps any,im pretty new to computers so be gentle)
 
Thanks for the reply TheBDB,this is my first PC build so I just wanted to make sure nothings wrong, I figured it was that I didnt have any ram yet. Thanks for the welcome also
 
lol. Build a system with all the parts first. i've accidently turned on my PC w/o RAM. Wasnt pretty. Welcome to Anandtech!!
 
Thanks s1len7 n1nj4. Hmm..ive been turning mine off and on to see if my fans work etc,hope I didnt mess anything up : /
 
nah prob won't cause any problems. You'll just get to a bios screen (maybe) and it'll hang there with some error. Still, try to have some patience and wait til your get your ram in there 🙂
 
Yeah i'll be sure and do that Crimson. Im ordering my first stick of ram tommrow (will be getting another one soon) ,gonna get CORSAIR XMS, Xtra-Low Latency 2-2-2-5, 184-Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 to go with my AMD Athlon 64. Dont have my graphics card or moniter yet,so ill be using the graphics card/moniter from my older computer to see if everything works ( im kinda scared i'll hit the power button and...nothing,but so far everything is going smoothly)
 
No offense iNSANITY, but you do seem a lil wet behind the ears right now, do ya mind posting the parts you have so far for my sake, I know when I built my first penitium 166 MHZ (out of the bones and souls of 4 other pentium 166 to 488's) their were loads of compatibility issues, I was 11 at the time and it was junk my dad didn't want, but if you don't mind.
 
Critical components for a working PC (working defined as booting to an OS):

Power Supply
Motherboard
Processor
System Memory
VGA Chip (onboard or add-in)
Hard Disk Drive
Some kind of input (optical/floppy/etc) drive through which to load software.

Though they are not technically neccesary for a working unit, I would also heartily recommend some user input devices such as a keyboard, mouse, and monitor....
 
Thanks for the replies guys. And no offense taken ComatoseDelirium,I am a newbie at this. As of now, I have:

ABIT AV8 3rd eye socket 939 MOBO
Maxtor 120gb SATA HDD
Amd Althon 64 3500+
350 Coolermaster PSU(came with case..will be upgrading to better(antec most likely)
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS soundcard

that's what is in my case right now (which is a Coolermaster Centurion). I have so far replaced the stock 120mm exhaust fan with a Thermaltake Smart Fan. Will soon be getting:

1 gb of
CORSAIR XMS, Xtra-Low Latency 2-2-2-5, 184-Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200

BFG Technologies 6800 GT graphics card

1x dvd burner/1x cd burner

moniter/mouse/keyboard etc..

Thanks alot for your input and advice guys.
 
oo, everything seems fine, do you have basic IDE theory understanding? primary master, primary slave, secondary master, secondary slave etc? Yes upgrading the PSU is a good idea, you could probably trade that one in for a few bucks at some second hand comp place, make sure the new PSU (i like antec, and a brand called safe power for more cost effective builds) is sata ready, that mobo should be sata ready too, so thats fine, good cards, good hdd, good ram(especially if your going for overclocking, you could save a bundle if) you went with the value kingston ram I have it and run it at 2.5-3-3-6 and its only like 67 bucks for a 512 MB at http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=20-141-424&depa=1
but really! if ya have the money go for it dude, also if you want good budget speakers, go for a 6 piece altec lansing 5.1 dolby surround sound system, I GOT MINE TODAY ITS GREAT! also, if your getting a dvd burner you probably don't need that CD burner, unless you plan to do alot of instanteous copying, but truly.. to copy from disk to hdd isn't too slow, but I dont know what application your using it for, monitor.. I'd go CRT if your on a budget, a second hand 17 or 19 inch can be had locally probably very cheap, mouse.. optical, keyboard i'd go with a plain multi media keyboard, I dunno if you have a floppy drive, but salvage one... and I cant think of anything else so my ramble will end here, just my 2 cents, people feel free to shoot it down, poke holes and belittle it... i'll just like it
 
Originally posted by: ComatoseDelirium
oo, everything seems fine, do you have basic IDE theory understanding? primary master, primary slave, secondary master, secondary slave etc?
Click to expand...


No not really, I mean..I understand that since I am only going to be using one HDD at the moment,it needs to be on primary master..but how do I do that? Do you have to plug it in a certian way or..?

Oh and ive already got speakers,got the Logitech z-5330's, I wanted the 5500's,but these were on sale at best buy,and they sound pretty good so I couldnt resist 🙂
 
Ahhh pretty, speakers, the one problem i have with the speaks i got, is the fact that they are narrow and im bad with hitting fragile things down, I've already hit 1 down 3 times.. the same one, onto my hard wood desk, though!! nothing happened to them, but that is not how I'd like to test durability lol.. *mounting them to the wall.. far... far away from my flayling hands* and onto your questions, yes putting the ide cables in a certain way does matter... erm now a sata drive.. (which I am unknowledgable about) Does it need an ide cable i assume so, cause im assuming the only difference is the molex connector being a sata connector.. if so, check your mobo manual, find out which ide cable is IDE1, ide 1 should power the hdd, and i dont know if your still going for 1 or 2 optical drives, but they would be secondary on the power supply, so from my understanding.. the hdd would be IDE1 primary master, and now depending on whether you get 2 optical drives or not, you'd run the IDE1 to the dvd burner and make it IDE 1 primary slave, and the cd burner IDE 2 secondary master.. and you know about the jumpers right? and how to set each one differently to correspond with the cable? *Disclaimer* that is off a very basic understanding of mine, I would suggest you post a new topic seperately about this issue, and have more qualified people explain to you what is the best way to set up the cables, and how to set the jumpers if you don't know about that, but im happy to lend more advice (which when i tell you to.. you should ALWAYS double check lol)
 
No the SATA HDD just has 1 cable that goes to the MOBO,then you put the molex power connecter from the PSU into the hdd. No IDE cables with SATA. I wonder if the master/slave thing still applies then..
My motherboard manual said something about plugging the master drive into the mobo SATA connector 1,and the slave drive into 2. I wonder if maybe you set up master/slave drive in the BIOS..hmm.
 
mhmm maybe it would be better to have the hdd on ide1 cable on its own and the 2 optical drives on the secondary, OR maybe its better to have the harddive on ide1 cable, and with the cd burner, and let the dvd burner have its own.., both good questions you should some how summarize, with... my aide if need be! to post a new topic and get some answers
 
AHH ok, just got your post in, and the bios will tell you which is connected as master or slave on each ide cable, now if sata doesn't need a ide cable you could give each optical drive its own ide cable. the bios doesn't let you change the master/slave system, its all dependant on where you position it on the cables, and what jumpers you have them set on, (dont know if sata drives have jumpers) but the optical drives will.
 
Originally posted by: iNSAN1TY
No the SATA HDD just has 1 cable that goes to the MOBO,then you put the molex power connecter from the PSU into the hdd. No IDE cables with SATA. I wonder if the master/slave thing still applies then..
My motherboard manual said something about plugging the master drive into the mobo SATA connector 1,and the slave drive into 2. I wonder if maybe you set up master/slave drive in the BIOS..hmm.
Click to expand...

You would put the cd drive as the master on ide0 and the burner as the master on ide1. The HD is SATA so neither optical drive would be on that channel.
 
Also IMHO you are probably just better off getting 2 DVD burners with todays prices. You can get 2 NEC 3500A's for around 130 bucks from Newegg.
 
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