Lolz, won in some little Linksys lucky draw, me puzzles of how I entered.. then, yea must be danged router I’ve brought from them last year… hehheh.. got the 10th prize linksys gift pack.. *duh* check out this link, and yea my name’s there too. When you come to think about it, in the whole of Singapore, mmm, out how many people who brought linksys products, about 80 ppl won…MMmmm..
dang! mind my babbling! cos I am thinking bout the math involved and the probalblity of winning.. *DUH again* sips coffee to get me going.. well, its just lucky me…

Ok, on the site. I have the lastest design finalised tomorrow, noon (the time which I normally wake up in mornings) the colour scheme you see here (yellow, black) is a small preview to what you can expect tomorrow. In the mean time, take time to appreciate ver 9.0, cos v10.0 is here to RULE.

Additional cabling for output ports
So what’s all about the front panel output ports? These section focuses on connecting the connectors found at the front of your casing, these can be audio cables, USB, firewire ports to important items such as your power and reset button.

Nowadays, output ports are readily available as an good option for many DIY people out there. It allows external devices to be plugged in directly in front of your computer’s casing. The type of output ports can range from the all common USB to firewire, audio, parallel, game and serial ports. In fact, it’s safe to say that for any ports you find at the back, you are sure to find a similar panel option at the front. Some of them come integrated into the case itself, while some come in the form of add-on parts, such as the Thermaltake hardcano 7 in one such example spotting firewire and USB as shown below on the top of the casing.

Most motherboard manufacturers these days include expansion ports on top of those offered as standard at the back output of the motherboard. They usually come bare with pins on the board itself and require accessories such as an S-bracket or and external connector to route the input externally into a proper USB port, usually through specially fitting plugs which fits the pins. We usually see 2-4 additional USB port from these expansion pins, but the total number of ports too varies from motherboard to motherboard.

The motherboard I am using as an illustration here have 4 USB 2.0 ports at the back of the motherboard and 2 USB 2.0 expansion ports. Each USB port typically requires the following connection to work and they are identified as individual pins for each USB port (usually labeled USB0 and USB1, etc).

Consult your motherboard manual on its availability and also, to locate the pins to where the the extra USB ports can be connected. It should contain info like where the VCC, USB0-, USB+, Ground and key pins are located. Each (One) USB port requires you to connect to all the following 5 pins in total for each port. While some connectors come with a separate lead for each pin, some motherboards feature and assembled plug which you can simply just plug in one way without having to go through the connectors pin by pin.

As shown on the left picture below, the connectors I’ve got from my Hardcano 7 USB output ports come in messy connector combination and not like those multi-pin pin connectors, where one plug is all you need to get one port working. Given this messy but flexible combination (as not all motherboard manufacturers have the same pin allotment, separate pins connectors are recommended to fit all different type of boards), you have to start on the painstaking task in plugging the connectors to the respective motherboard pins one by one.

Lucky for me, I decided to arrange the connectors in order as the pins shown on my motherboard. Then a simple dash of electrical tape to secure them altogether (on upper right fig) to keep them in order before plugging it with one easy short on the mobo. Do it so for all the ports you have and as simple as it is, it all pretty easy!

Other types of cabling
In addition to that, some output port panels do not necessary require you to mess with pins, but rather uses one of the your rear USB ports and extends the output to the front of your case into a hub. The same can be said if you wish to send an audio input (e.g like your microphone) or and output to the front, the most widely used way is to use a cable extender.

These extenders go from the front, through your whole casing and come out at the back slots and looping back to connect to your motherboard back output ports. This is useful if your board do not have the additional expansion pin port option and want to allow easy front connection of your back plate be extended to the front through of your enclosure’s front output port panel.

With these cabling done, we shall touch on the finishing touches for your system.

Graphics, Soundcard & addon cards
Installing cards are considered one of the most easiest things to do on DIY, it is just mostly locate, align, slot, align and secure. For most cases, you will require just a basic screwdriver to secure the cards in place on the rear mounting slots of your case itself. If you enclosure feature plastic tool-less clips for card installation, the better. Just follow this few ‘golden rules’ and you will be fine for all kind of cards in general.

Graphic card install
Modern day motherboards should have at least a graphics port slot it can come in PCI-E or AGP formats for older boards. It can be identified as the slot closest to the processor or north bridge or the only port with a locking mechanism. It is also usually the shortest port and is normally located on the top of the line of PCI slots. Other performance boards can feature dual PCI-E slots either in PCI-E 1.0 or 2.0 to allow SLI or crossfire configurations. For 2 and up to 4 GPUs to be linked together.

Optimal card placement
What I am focusing here is nothing much on how to find the best way to install an add-on card or the nicest way of slotting it in, but locating strategic locations for your card. You do not have a choice in the location of the graphic card slot, you however, have a choice on the location for the PCI add-on cards and if you have any, you might want to place them as far as possible from each other.

Having said that, the best location for any add-on card with proximity to your graphics card is at least one or 2 PCI slots away from it. As a video card is essentially a mini PC with it’s own processor itself, it dissipates a lot of heat in operation and breathing space is necessary. This is further more paramount if you intend to do some overclocking. Moreover, extensive amounts of heat from a nearby adjacent card can cause an unnatural build up of operating ambient temperature, which is not efficient technically and might do significant damage of even shorten the lifespan of the cards placed close together. So place great caution on the location of your cards.

Miscellaneous add-on card
Add-on cards will encompass any additional cards plugged in either on the motherboard PCI or mini PCI-E slots, usually for added functionality for the system. For example e.g. Wireless network card, FM/Digital TV Tuner, firewire PCI card and sound cards are few of them.

Fig 4.1

Fig 4.2

For my sound card in this case- a Creative sound blaster Audigy card (Fig 4.1), good place to install it in the case is at the bottom row of the PCI slots, leaving a more than enough 5 PCI slots between them for optimum heat flow and better performance. Anymore additional cards will go in between this space. If you have a network card or say a TV tuner, it’s relatively safe to place these cards side by side slotted next to each other as they do not release much heat when in operation.

With the add-one card installed, lets head onto the media drives installation next.

Cabling, PSU, case LED lights & power button
With all your major components now assembled, it’s time to link them up with the power supply unit which essentially, feeds power to your your connected components when the system is turned on.

PSU installation
The PSU (power supply unit) provides electrical power to all the components you have on your computer (Eg All drives, motherboard, etc) and send output voltages based on fixed rail voltages – e.g 12volts, 5volts etc. Upon releasing the wired beast from the packaging, locate the ATX 12V power supply plug (20 pin rectangular connector, usually the largest).

This will go into the motherboard ATX power connector plug to power the motherboard and its components, some PSU have an adapter for an additional 4 pins which you can clip along side the 20 pins for motherboards which require 24 pin power connectors, though this is found mostly on newer boards which require a larger power input. Another smaller square 4 pin ATX connector provides power for the CPU (JPW1), the rest of the cables will go into your other components such as drives.

Type of power connectors
You will notice that there is quite a few smaller rectangular flat molex 5V power (4pins) connectors, which look as similarly pictured, these are 12 volt supply and will go into your CD-ROM drives and hard drives. Coincidentally, your casing fans will also feature the same molex 4 pin connectors, usually these are labeled “Fan only” and feature 5volt output, these will plug into your casing fans.

Do also note that some fans can take the regular 12 volt output as well, particularly those with additional funky LEDS or temperature readouts and/or with variable RPM with a temperature sensor, these may not even power up on a 5 volt line. If you have many fans, you might want to consider getting a power Y-cable splitter to run more fans in parallel.

Fig 1.1

Fig 1.2

As with most casing, the PSU will normally go at the top back of the casing, secure the unit into the casing using the provided screws and secure it tightly. PSUs can be one of the nosiest units in the whole computer. Insecure PSU rattling in resonance with the spinning fans due to improper fitting of the unit, what’s more the screws connecting the PSU and the case serves as a ground linkage for safety as well so your PC case will never have the risk of being “live”.

IDE Cabling
I believe I touched briefly on hard disk cabling a section before, so this is the part where you physically get to connect them.

SATA or IDE cables are most probably included bundled in your motherboard package, otherwise head down to any computer hardware store and get them. You need one SATA cable for each drive, while an PATA IDE cable can take 2 hard drives in master and slave configuration. The same is for one IDE cable for two CD-ROM/internal Zip drives as well. Lastly, the floppy cable is dedicated for one floppy drive.

Many PC part stores sell cables in different lengths and makes, let be thickness, so if you are using a mid or full tower casing, its good to get longer-than-standard cables for reach. For smaller casings, standard (or shorter) cable lengths are recommended to prevent unnecessary clutter with the casing. Though you can always tie up excess cable with a cable tie for neatness.

ATA cables are used for hardrives for maximum transfer speeds (ATA-100 for 100MBS and ATA-133 for 133MBS), while SATA I & II goes at ATA-150 and beyond, depending on your motherboard generation. SATA is backwards compatible so SATA 3.0 can work with SATA I in generally. The same rule still applies- one SATA cable per motherboard connector per drive device, so there’s no jumpers or configuration to worry about.

For PATA IDE cable, some cables have a third output in the middle of the cable, that output is used only if you are intending to connect a slave drive in that particular IDE port. One end of the ATA cable will connect to the motherboard, on the other extreme end, into your primary master drive (make sure you’ve set the jumper settings corrected to MASTER, head to the previous drives installation section on setting jumpers if you’ve not caught that part).

Floppy cable install
The floppy drive had evolved much over the 5.25″ floppy disks to the 3.25″ variant we see today, these days, floppies are dying out and you usually do not need them considering that PCs these days can boot from thumb drives or external mass storage devices- areas where floppies used to proved invaluable in the past.

Having said that, installing a floppy drive is purely optional now, infact many PC manufacturers do now feature such a drive unless you request for one.

Installing a floppy drive can be a easy one step affair or a nightmare depending on your setup. Unmistakably, the floppy drive has always been the most notorious and troublesome drives to install in computers. Firstly because many manufactures do not follow the same standard settings pin setting and some even manufacturers have them reversed. Installing it is very much of a trail and error game, trying to find the correct slot configuration.

To detect whether you have this problem (widely named as the curse of the floppy drive syndrome), upon turning up your computer later, you will notice that your floppy drive light will always stay on during operation and won’t go off. Try not to insert any floppy disks into the drive when that happens, as it have the capabilities of destroying any floppy disks it consumes.

To fix this “always on problem” when connecting the floppy cable, you must completely stick the the 1st pin to red connector rule. Even if the floppy cable have notches on them, allowing them to be inserted to the drive in one direction, you have to still find a way to get the floppy cable’s 1st red cable (identified as the 1st red wire strip on the cable itself) to be in line with the labeled 1st pin on the floppy drive itself.

My Sony floppy drive have the pins reversed from that of the floppy cable provided by my motherboard manufacturer. Given this problem, you can get another floppy cable with the notch revered, or you can do what I’ve done- I filed the notch on the connector end of of the cable so that it can be inserted into drive in the opposite direction. And wollia it works in the end.

LED lights and power button
Ok, now, onto connecting the LED lights, power and reset buttons of your casing. Firstly, locate the front panel cables in your casing and identify them. Usually it will be a long string of thin coiled wire running internally from the front of your case. These cables are usually attached to a simple push button switch which in turn is simply held in place using glue, so it’s very fragile and you should not tug on this cable. This cable will connect straight to your motherboard power and LED activity pins.

Secondly, from your motherboard manual locate the front panel pin connectors (usually labeled JFP1 & JFP2) JFP2 is a so-called standard specification with only the power button and computer mono speaker functions. While the JFP2 pins, which are of intel specifications, have power and hard drive operation LEDS outputs, reset and power buttons outputs. Plug the respective cables to their motherboard pins.

Following each pin plug, plug each of them into the labeled pins on your motherboard. Some cases have the pins all fitted in a plug which can be fitted only one way and can be inserted with ease, while others might have them separated, so you might want to tape them up with duct tape to make it into a big socket where you can simply just plug into your motherboard.

Generally there are 5 components you need to wire up, you can use the diagram above as an illustration of how the layout could be:

Usually each JFP1 is not isolated to the other, you need to use both of them for a comibination of features can one can work without the other. You can have both the power and HD LEDS, power and reset buttons from the first set and the speaker from the other connector. Do note that the arrangement of the pins differs from motherboard manufacturers, but this shouldn’t be much of a problem.

Well, that’s all about the basic cabling, now to cover on additional miscellaneous cabling you might encounter.