I have put everything together the way that was most logical and according to the motherboard manual. Just to be on the safe side I used a copper bracelet (made by Shmithers) attached by a wire to the case to ground me. I double checked the connection every once in a while with my ohm meter. I used 1300 watts of lighting power to install the CPU.
I was too much of a sissy to scrape off the thermal paste that was on the CPU heat sync and then apply my arctic silver paste that I had bought. I hope this is ok. What is left to do is setup the software and stuff.For my initial boot up I was thinking of having the cover off, just to make sure all the fans are working. I was also thinking of using my fathers laser thermometer to measure the temperature of the stuff inside the box. What do you guys suggest for the initial boot up?
I installed the drives first, and my only problem was that I couldn't install screws to both sides of the floppy drive. It is covered up by the plait that the motherboard sits on, and couldn’t be removed. Attaching the wires to the motherboard was the hardest part of the setup. I was very confused at first about which way I was supposed to put the on/of switch in. Then I realized that polarity isn't important on a switch (right?). there was a grounding wire attached to my USB ports, giving a total of 5 connectors for the top USB ports (front, in most cases, but top on mine. Cases as in computer case, not as in situation), however there was only 9 pins to attach two USB ports. Thankfully there was another set of 9 pins. How necessary is the grounding pin for the USB ports? How is the best way to tell polarity on the USB wires? Since I have two open places for USB connectors on my motherboard, could I buy more cables for USB connections to the motherboard and just leave them coming out the back of my case through an empty PCI slot cover?
Oh, and one great thing happened: I realized that my graphics card supports dual monitor output, in either VGA or DVI (comes with converters that go from DVI to VGA), and my card also outputs HDTV and S-Video singals. This is going to be an awesome comp. I really hope I can get another 17” LCD soon. I know my bro will want one too, so maybe he will buy one early and I can “borrow” it for a while.
What kind of virus protection do I need before I hook up to the internet to get my updates for XP? Is it good enough to just get Norton Antivirus, or should I get some spyware program too? I will be behind a router, if that makes any difference in security.
The case and motherboard and components really hooked together well. They were definitely meant for computer construction by armatures. When I screwed the motherboard on to the standoffs, I noticed that there was metal around the screw hole on the motherboard. Am I supposed to use rubber washers to isolate the screws from the motherboard, or are they supposed to touch? It looks like they are meant to ground the motherboard to the case, but I just wanted to double check.
And thanks again for all your help, it has made everything go very smoothly so far.
