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Connecting the Power
Cables
All of the power inside a PC is converted to low voltage
(usually 12 volts or less) by a large transformer at the
back of the case. Inside the case there are a large number
of power cables coming from the back of the power transformer.
Some of these will not be needed. Pull the cables that you
need (main and Pentium 4 motherboard power, CD drive and
floppy power connectors) straight and tuck the others away |
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| Connecting
the Pentium 4 power cable |
Connecting
the Pentium 4 power cable |
Connecting the main motherboard power cable |
Connecting the main motherboard power cable |
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Pentium 4 power connector is a four pin connector with two
yellow wires and two black wires. It plugs into the motherboard
at the back of the PC near the CPU |
Pictured:
the P4 connector in place and the optional case cooling fan
also connected to the motherboard.
Take care to route all cables away from the fan |
The main power connector is the largest with many multi-coloured
wires. |
Push
it into the appropriate socket on the motherboard and try
to route all of the cable neatly out of the way |
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Connecting the disk drive power
cables |
Connecting
the disk drive power cables |
Adding
the ribbon data connectors |
Adding
the ribbon data connectors |
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Hard disk and optical drive power connectors are the same.
Floppy drive ones are smaller. Both types are handed.
Illustrated: three power connectors on a single loom |
Try to loop the same power cable
between all of your drives (say CD drive, hard drive and floppy)
as this is neater. |
Plug in the ribbon connectors. Remember keep the coloured
edge of the ribbons towards the power connector on the drives
and the bottom of the case on the motherboard. |
Keep the run of the cables
neatly away from the CPU in order to preserve the flow of
air and allow maximum cooling.
IMPORTANT
If you use the same ribbon connector
for more than one IDE device - the devices MUST be set one
to master and the other to slave |
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Installing the hard drive |
Installing
the hard drive |
Connecting the case cables |
Serial ATA connector |
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Sometimes hard drives are screwed in under or over the floppy
drive.
In this example the hard drive is installed in a removable
cradle.
Remember to use course threaded screws |
Hard drives may use the Serial ATA connector (illustrated)
or, on older drives, an IDE ribbon connector. If the latter,
then set the hard drive to master and connect to the primary
IDE channel on the motherboard.
Connect the data and power cables in the appropriate positions |
The motherboard manual will show where to connect the various
connectors for lights and switches on the PC case.
Connections include; power and reset switches, power and
hard disk LED’s, USB front header and front panel audio.
Carefully tie up the cables with a cable tie |
With reference to the motherboard manual, connect the Serial
ATA connector to the appropriate connector on the motherboard.
Usually you will use the lowest numbered connection |
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IDE primary and secondary, master and slave
settings
It should be noted that older hard drives use the IDE ribbon
connectors similar to those illustrated here for optical
drives. Each IDE cable can support up to two drives and
some motherboards have two IDE channels (primary and secondary)
enabling the connection of up to four IDE devices.
Where two IDE drives are connected to the same channel;
they must be set as master and slave. This is done by the
use of jumpers on the drives themselves. See instructions
that come with the drive. Typically the hard drive carrying
the operating system (the boot drive) will be set as the
primary master. Keeping drives on separate channels improves
data flow although increasing the number of cables used
and potentially restricted airflow inside the case.. |
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Motherboard sticker
Inspect the sticker that was enclosed with the motherboard
showing the position of the main components. Various parts
of this sticker can be peeled off and located on the appropriate
inside and outside portions of the case |
