More Computer ??? Pleae Help....

jakelm

I just got all my PC parts in for building my first computer from scratch.

My MB is

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131125

With a case form Geeks.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=BLK-CPXMAN-02&cat=CAS&cpc=CASbsc

The case has USB and Mic input and head phone out.

Im not sure where on the MB to hook this up.

There are 7 individual wires coming from the case for the mic and head phone.

Pink = Mic in
Yellow = Mic Bias
Green = Speaker right
White = Speaker left
Black = ground
Blue = Return Left
Grey = Return right

Does this go directly to my Sound Blaster soundcard?? Or doest it plug into the AAFP on the MB?

The 2 USB ports on the case are wired as such, individualy"

1 USB:

Black = Ground
Green = Data1 +
White = Data1 -
Red = VCC1

2 USB:

Black = Ground
Green = Data 2 +
White = Data 2 -
Red = VCC2


I hooked them to

Ground to GND
Data1 + to USB_P5+
Data1 - to USB_P5-
VCC2 to USB+5V

and the same for the second,

Is this right?

jakelm

Here is the manual if that helps:

http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8V-XE/e2235_a8v-xe.pdf

ledhed

I think you need to plug the audio into your soundcard otherwise you will be using the motherboard's built in audio.

jakelm

ledhed wrote: »

I think you need to plug the audio into your soundcard otherwise you will be using the motherboard's built in audio.

Thanks led...I figured that

I hope I have the external USB's hooked right.

I got confused about the P5+/P5- and P6+/P6-. Whats the difference?


Vcc1 and VCC2 must be volatage control.?

ledhed

My Asus board and my case had the usb, audio and firewire ports in little blocks that just plugges straight onto the motherboard headers. So I'm not so sure about yours

jakelm

ledhed wrote: »

My Asus board and my case had the usb, audio and firewire ports in little blocks that just plugges straight onto the motherboard headers. So I'm not so sure about yours

I know, that would have been much easier.

My wirers are individual and labeled with black insert tabs on them. The plug in easy, its just making sure where to plug it in. But with the way I have it now, no wires are crossed and it seems to be correct.

Is hooking a DVD-rom and/or hard drive to the SATA 1, 2, 3 inputs better than the ribbon cable? Or can that even be done? I read that the SATA was faster.

ledhed

Sata can transfer at speeds up to 3 Gbps. So it is faster if what ever you are communicating with can do its task that fast. I hooked my DVD burner up through SATA just so I didn't have to bother with my IDE controller because I've read some Asus boards have trouble with IDE

dudeinaroom

usb is hooked up right. I have the ASUS A8V-VM and had no problems with the IDE. I've got a DVD and CD burner hooked up to the IDE and my HDD is SATA 2. I'm running my HDD on AHIC or AHCI or what ever mode it is, It allows for full SATA 2 functionality as apposed to running it in IDE mode. Eventually I will get another 3 more 160 gig dirves and run them raid 0+1

lomic

Not to **** on your thread, but any reason you purchased socket 939? AM2 can be had for the same price and has future scalability.

jakelm

lomic wrote: »

Not to **** on your thread, but any reason you purchased socket 939? AM2 can be had for the same price and has future scalability.

It was recommended by another Polkie. Did I purchase a bad board?

I think its because with a 939 socket, I can use Intel too. But I'm really not sure.

You would have recommended AM2 socket, why? And what future scalability do you refer to?

jakelm

dudeinaroom wrote: »

usb is hooked up right. I have the ASUS A8V-VM and had no problems with the IDE. I've got a DVD and CD burner hooked up to the IDE and my HDD is SATA 2. I'm running my HDD on AHIC or AHCI or what ever mode it is, It allows for full SATA 2 functionality as apposed to running it in IDE mode. Eventually I will get another 3 more 160 gig dirves and run them raid 0+1

It is as easy as a ribbon to SATA and plugs into SAT as it would the IDE?

Do you find your hard drive faster with it hooked to SATA?

cheddar

jakelm wrote: »

It was recommended by another Polkie. Did I purchase a bad board?

I think its because with a 939 socket, I can use Intel too. But I'm really not sure.

You would have recommended AM2 socket, why? And what future scalability do you refer to?

Don't try and plug an intel processor into any AMD board. The sockets are not compatible.

When AMD came out with their first processors that could actually beat intel in performance they were its opteron brand. Although intel took back the performance edge recently, opteron is where AMD's high performance chips started. And they were server chips.

The opteron socket started out as 940. They made non-server versions of the opteron (FX series) for the desktop that used the socket 939. AM2 replaced the 939 and is the newer socket. So it will have greater support and choice. However, you can now get quad core processors from newegg for the even newer socket F.

AMD still has an advantage in price. But I believe intel currently has better performance and has had quad core processors out longer as AMD is still playing catch up. There's nothing wrong with a socket 939 board and you can still get very good processors for it. But it is a dated board.

jakelm

cheddar wrote: »

Don't try and plug an intel processor into any AMD board. The sockets are not compatible.

When AMD came out with their first processors that could actually beat intel in performance they were its opteron brand. Although intel took back the performance edge recently, opteron is where AMD's high performance chips started. And they were server chips.

The opteron socket started out as 940. They made non-server versions of the opteron (FX series) for the desktop that used the socket 939. AM2 replaced the 939 and is the newer socket. So it will have greater support and choice. However, you can now get quad core processors from newegg for the even newer socket F.

AMD still has an advantage in price. But I believe intel currently has better performance and has had quad core processors out longer as AMD is still playing catch up. There's nothing wrong with a socket 939 board and you can still get very good processors for it. But it is a dated board.

Where were you guys when I asked about parts??????? :mad: LOL If I would have known this before hand. Can a better board with the same options, be purchased for the same price?

How does the Opteron FX compare to my 4200 x2?

I do like the options I have on the board for that price, 4 gig, 4 SATA, 2 PCI-express 1, 1 PCI exp 16 , 2 PCI ,among other things.


But the next $250 I spend on a computer, that I build, will have the AM2 socket. Or even the F socket.

jakelm

I just looked at the AMD options for AM2 socket. In the $70 price range, there looks to be the same CPU, just different socket.

I know with an AM2 socket I can upgrade later on. But for now, with $70 to spend on a CPU this is the same thing.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103747

cheddar

It's almost never too late to rearrange things through newegg. They have the best customer service in the business and if you pack up your board and send it back, I'm sure they would be more than willing to allow you to upgrade to a different one.

That said, in the price range you got that board for and the options you are looking at, I think that your current board will offer you all the choices you need for now. Like I said, there are still very good processors available for it. It's just a PITA to switch motherboards later on if you can't find new options you want on your current board. Especially if they make a new processor that doesn't have a socket 939 version or you want options on a new board but can't reuse your current processor in it.

But old boards still have life to them. I have a dual socket 940 workstation board that had these super hot ineffecient old opterons running in it. Used to push internal cpu temps to the 70C limit even with all half-dozen case fans running full blast. I recently upgraded them to new low power dual core HE opterons and I'm now running twice the cores at half the temperatures. So even the 940 boards still have support and options.

If the board matches your needs, you shouldn't worry too much. If you want to upgrade in the future, you may end up just upgrading the motherboard then anyways.

jakelm

Your right Chedder.

I will probably build another one in a year or so anyways.

One more question:

In the past, whenever I would pull a HD out of one computer and put in another, the HD would recognize new hardware and Microsoft would not allow me to certify the new system. I always had to format the drive and reinstall XP.

Is there something I am doing wrong?

cheddar

Microsoft locks its OS to the motherboard and drivers are installed using a specific motherboard's I/O configuration. You aren't doing anything wrong. If you have a retail version of the OS, you should be able to phone up microsoft and tell them you upgraded your hardware so they can authorize the new setup. But you will need to install the drivers again on the new system. Backing up your data files and a fresh reinstall of the OS is the best way to go when you change out a motherboard.

petrym

Nope cheddar, you're doing nothing wrong. Micro$oft has a "ten item" check system based on the existent hardware and writes this info to a file. When your old HD boots up in a new computer, the system tallies the results/values returned and finds non-matching results, so it won't boot properly.

Here's how Windows Product Activation works (and denies).

jakelm

I have a XP upgrade disk. I keep having to install my old 98 and then install XP upgrade. For some reason I just format the drive and reinstall XP directly from the disk.

I have reformatted my disk so many times, my code quit working. So I already have the experience of calling MS, and what a pian it is.

cheddar

petrym wrote: »

Nope cheddar, you're doing nothing wrong. Micro$oft has a "ten item" check system based on the existent hardware and writes this info to a file. When your old HD boots up in a new computer, the system tallies the results/values returned and finds non-matching results, so it won't boot properly.

Here's how Windows Product Activation works (and denies).

But most of the votes are associated with the motherboard, especially if your NIC is integrated to it.

If you keep the motherboard, with the same amount of RAM and processor, and an always present cheap NIC (available for $10 or less), you can change everything else as much as you like.

petrym

jakelm wrote: »

In the past, whenever I would pull a HD out of one computer and put in another, the HD would recognize new hardware and Microsoft would not allow me to certify the new system.

Your original question asks about putting the old HD in another computer; different MB and processor serial number would make WPA balk.

jakelm

Well, it will take as much time to backup my DATA as it will to call MS. As much upgrading as I do (swopping boards and RAm and , formatting), it gets aggrivating to have to call every time.


But it looks like another phone call is unavoidable.

cheddar

...nevermind...;)

jmwest1970

cheddar wrote: »

Don't try and plug an intel processor into any AMD board. The sockets are not compatible.

When AMD came out with their first processors that could actually beat intel in performance they were its opteron brand.

The first statement is true. AMD and Intel processors do not use the same cpu socket. The second statement is way off. AMD's first processors to outperform Intel were their 386DX40 processors. AMD has been marketing processors for general use for ~15 years.

When you compare AMD and Intel processors head to head you can arrive at varied results. Using performance testing software they're practically even. Usually Intel wins these comparisons by a slight margin. However, real world software tests often result in AMD outperforming the Intel processor. This happens primarily with games. With typical office applications Intel is usually slightly faster.

I don't think you'll go wrong with either an AMD or an Intel. Also, I don't think you'll find any reason to worry about going from a socket 939 to a socket AM2 if you get the performance you want with the 939. Many people believe that the later processors will help "future proof" your system, but there really isn't such a thing. If you're looking for a big jump in performance in a year or two, more than likely you'll need a new board, processor, RAM, and video card, otherwise almost a complete new system.

cheddar

jmwest1970 wrote: »

The first statement is true. AMD and Intel processors do not use the same cpu socket. The second statement is way off. AMD's first processors to outperform Intel were their 386DX40 processors. AMD has been marketing processors for general use for ~15 years.

Forgot about all the early competition in the low end...but the opterons were what allowed AMD to increase its high margin server market share most recently and give it the crown (temporarily) for high end gaming solutions...

jakelm

cheddar wrote: »

Backing up your data files and a fresh reinstall of the OS is the best way to go when you change out a motherboard.

You think a fresh install would make a perfomance difference?

I have done both, usually a fresh install is done only when crash or virus occurs. But perfomance has never changed no matter which way I installed the HD with new hardware.

cheddar

Well, there's a lot of stuff that windows accumulates over the years. And there is stuff that's installed specifically for all the old hardware you're replacing. So it should streamline your install and clear out all the unnecessary junk. So it should increase performance, but whether it will be perceptable to you, I don't know...

jakelm

cheddar wrote: »

Well, there's a lot of stuff that windows accumulates over the years. And there is stuff that's installed specifically for all the old hardware you're replacing. So it should streamline your install and clear out all the unnecessary junk. So it should increase performance, but whether it will be perceptable to you, I don't know...

I generally just go into Hardware manager and delete the old hardware. But I think your right, a fresh start is needed.


The other problem , is all the MS upgrades. It takes forever to run Microsoft update.

cheddar

jakelm wrote: »

The other problem , is all the MS upgrades. It takes forever to run Microsoft update.

You got that right. Kinda reminds me what a piece of swiss cheese Microsoft software is every time I do a new install...:rolleyes: ...and then there's migrating mail accounts, browser preferences, reinstalling applications etc.

dudeinaroom

jakelm wrote: »

It is as easy as a ribbon to SATA and plugs into SAT as it would the IDE?

Do you find your hard drive faster with it hooked to SATA?

little better than twice as fast moving big files

jakelm

dudeinaroom wrote: »

little better than twice as fast moving big files

What inexpensive cables would you recommend? Cable that would go from a stadard ribbon (HD) to SATA (motherboard)?

Can you even go from ribbon to SATA?