Building a PC from scratch- my first attempt

1. KBVP
   Member

   
   Despite my age and lack of GEEKNESS, I'm putting this PC together. This is my first time trying this, so I'm open to any suggestions for tweaking the hardware and software. The PC will have to do regular office tasks along with some photo/video work. OS is Windows XP Media Edition.
   
   
   Case: http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15900
   Reader,I/O, fan control: http://www.xpcgear.com/fp801bk.html
   Motherboard: http://www.xpcgear.com/p5bdeluxewifi.html
   700w Power Supply: http://www.seasonicusa.com/m12.htm
   Video Card: http://www.xpcgear.com/evga7900gsn620.html
   Memory 2 dual channel DDR2= 2 gigs: http://www.xpcgear.com/khx6400d2llk2.html
   Intel Core 2 Duo: http://www.xpcgear.com/e6600.html
   2- Maxtor 160 GB Sata II/300 7200rpm Hard Drives
   2- Sony DVD+/-RW dual & double layer drives
   

   Posted 5 years ago #

2. compusolver
   Member

   
   They often don't mention this clearly, but do take care that your motherboard gets mounted in a way that does not allow any of the circuitry to touch the mounting plate. When I had my computer stores, we had three questions we would ask of anyone buying a motherboard. If they couldn't answer them, we (gently) refused to sell the board.
   
   We had a doctor whose office was at the other end of the strip mall. He came in one day and bought a motherboard, refusing to answer our questions. (I wasn't there at the time or he wouldn't have gotten it). He screwed the board to the mounting plate through holes that were not meant for that purpose. A big burn mark marked the spot of the short. Of course he claimed it was the motherboard's fault.
   
   The next day, he came back with an apology. He'd taken it to another shop where they explained his error to him. We became good friends afterward.
   
   Take your time and when you run into trouble, use the motherboard's support website, Google, etc. and you'll do fine, assuming there are no component problems. When there are problems, it can be difficult for an individual to troubleshoot because "parts swapping" is the most effective and time-saving way.

   Posted 5 years ago #

3. KBVP
   Member

   
   I have 20 years of Navy avionics experience, but a lot has changed since the mid eighties. Trying to read non-military schematics is trying at times, but industry standards are improving. This is the first SATA wiring that I will experience, but easy. The worst will be finding all the correct pins and connectors on the motherboard. The only major issue is when it initially boots to the BIOS. Hopefully the choices will be straight forward. Since the card reader's firewire, usb ports, line, mic, and headset plug directly to the motherboard, detection shouldn't be an issue. The fan controller will be interesting to experiment with. So far this has been a fun project, even after about 10 hours of researching parts and ideas on the web. :D

   Posted 5 years ago #

4. KBVP
   Member

   
   Soon as my two 1 gb dual channel DDRs arrive, I'm done. A few wire labeling issues between the fan/audio controller and the MB, but should be good to go.
   Thanks Hank
   
   
   

   Posted 5 years ago #

5. KBVP
   Member

   
   Well, couldn't find a front panel line in connection to the motherboard and nobody else did either. ASUS(motherboard) tech support hasn't answered my question. I'll boot it in the morning, fire extinguisher handy 8-O
   
   
   
   
   

   Posted 5 years ago #

6. ;0)
   Member

   
   Just remember:
   All things electronic run on magic smoke.
   If something goes wrong and the magic smoke escapes from the electronics...
   the electronics won't work anymore.
   javascript:emoticon('8-O')

   Posted 5 years ago #

7. KBVP
   Member

   
   I installed an ionizer in HD bay 6. This keeps the magic smoke not only in the case, it balances the quantum effect of the dreaded 33rd bit, which keeps parity in check. ;-)

   Posted 5 years ago #

8. cfulton
   Member

   
   Ha! Although for the optimum in safety, should probably go with the photo/ion unit... (groan... yes, a really bad joke.) Yes, ideally, none of your smoke alarms should sound when you boot it up... that would be a very bad thing indeed.
   I know how you feel, though--I just finished building my last one, and when I booted it, it didn't POST. Turns out the ultra-spiffy SATA RAID card I chose had a cold solder joint. I just got its replacement today, so guess what I'm doing this evening...
   And a request in the same vein--anyone know a definitive source for info on front-panel audio connections? My new mobo has HD audio onboard so the names of the pins are vastly different than they were for AC97. The way I got around it before was to just get cases without audio jacks, but since the computer that's getting passed down is getting handed down to my parents, I figure all of the jacks should probably be connected as they would expect them to be. Not that I mind talking to them, though. :)

   Posted 5 years ago #

9. KBVP
   Member

   
   In BIOS, you disable HD AUDIO which defaults to the AC'97 standard. This enables the front panel audio connections. I had to do this with the module I put in the top bay that has all the audio, firewire, usb, and fan speed controllers.
   
   
   

   Posted 5 years ago #

10. KBVP
    Member

    
    I had a major issue with my two Sony DRU-120C drives. All audio worked except for DVD playback. Since CD audio played and wmv from file worked, I was getting into software issues. Sony drives came bundled with Nero- which I custom selected the load. To shorten this to the bottom line, Nero was at fault with a bad DVD audio codec. I removed Nero and installed Cyberlink Power DVD. The system now works with all related software stable. It took me many hours to resolve this problem since it's a scratch build with no reference as to what was originally good.
    I hope this will save somebody else hours of headaches.
    
    PS: this PC Rocks!
    on the "test Bench"
    
    
    

    Posted 5 years ago #

11. KBVP
    Member

    
    One strange issue remains unresolved. Both Sony DVD drives(DRU-120C) are detected on boot, but when coming back from hibernate only one drive shows up. The solution has eluded me.

    Posted 5 years ago #

12. KBVP
    Member

    
    Here's a screenshot of what I have found. Note Drive D has DLA and drive E doesn't. Trying to figure out how to resolve this.
    

    Posted 5 years ago #

13. ;0)
    Member

    
    I'm not smart enough, to solve that one (today).....wise enough to buy a mac to avoid things like that...wise a$$ enough to point that out...
    am following this thread and learning good stuff hope you get it sorted....I may wind up using some linux box set up on a robotics project ( too cheap to hire another photo assistant, decided to build one that can follow directions instaed).

    Posted 5 years ago #

14. KBVP
    Member

    
    When the system starts from a shutdown, both DVD drives appear. After a sleep/hibernate, not only do I lose one drive, but the only one that appears has swapped drive assignments! I just noticed this. That is really weird!

    Posted 5 years ago #

15. compusolver
    Member

    
    Ya know what guys? I used to own a few comuter shops. Trained quite a few techs in my day, but got out of the biz back around '98. I've built a couple of computers in the past few years, but always had headaches. So I got "smart" a few months back when I got my new editing machine and had a guy I know in Dallas build it for me. It was about as cheap as building it myself, but absolutely no headaches! Everything worked from day one and still does.
    
    Moral of this story? If you don't build them all the time, it's probably best to let a pro do it.

    Posted 5 years ago #

16. KBVP
    Member

    
    I know what you mean Hank. I have 20 years of Navy electronics experience, making the transition from tubes to surface mount technology, carbon paper to computers. I was the first tech trained in the Navy's computerized P-3 sub hunters and took care of 9 planes, 2 sonars each, 27 boxes in each system. I was very good with these computer based sonars.
    I am getting my butt whipped by this little pain in the #%! problem and will continue to task my skills to figure it out.
    
    PEACE
    
    
    
    
    Keith Breazeal / Flight Video Magazine
    http://www.kbvp.com

    Posted 5 years ago #

17. KBVP
    Member

    
    The DVD drives are now working correctly. Seems when the systen initially booted, the selection of controllers was SCSI instead of IDE. So much for Windoze.
    
    Keith Breazeal http://www.kbvp.com

    Posted 5 years ago #

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