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 I need all 24 pins so ill match the arrows and stick the whole shebang into the receptacle.

 
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All motherboard power connectors are along an edge of the motherboard, don’t try and stick the power supply connector in the IDE connector.

 
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DON’T FORGET- If youre running this CPU you HAVE TO HAVE the +12v 4 pin connector or the cpu wont have enough power to start up. 

 

This power supply has two connectors that look identical until further inspection.  Notice the shape of the plugs.  The one on the left is the one I need with the two square plugs, other motherboards require both connectors, in which you would need both.

 

 
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Here’s the receptacle, notice the two square kitty-corner plug receptacles.

 
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Here you can see how the wires came for this power supply.  Most come permanently affixed to the power supply.  On the left end of this is the end that connects to the power supply and on the right are two SATA power connectors.

 

 
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Here you can see the end that connects to the power supply.  This end will not connect to anything on the motherboard or in the computer besides the power supply so you cant accidentally hook something up improperly.

 
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Here are all of the connectors that are connected to the power supply permanently, the little 4 inch leads.  Notice theyre all the same setup EXCEPT for the red one, that’s for a very good reason, the red one is for the PCI-E power.  You wouldn’t be able to jam anything on the PCI-E connector that wasn’t supposed to be there unless you seriously muscled it on; the shapes of the plugs are different.

 
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Here I have taken that SATA power connector shown first and connected one plug to the optical drive.  The plug on this optical drive looks identical to the SATA power connector on the hard drive.  This optical drive takes a SATA power connector, others may take a peripheral power adapter depending on the type of connection the manufacturer wanted to use; some have both, you don’t need to connect both.

 
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Once the SATA end is plugged into the optical drive then I connect the opposite end of the SATA power cable to the short 4 inch lead coming out of the power supply.


 
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This is a peripheral connector on the bottom left.  The top right plugs into the power supply lead and the other connector is for an ancient floppy drive, remember those?  Yea I know, I feel old too.


 
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The same connection is made to the hard drive.  And you can see I plugged in the rear fan connection to one of the peripheral connectors.  You will notice most of the fans also have another plug so they can offer a pass through power connection, this is because fans usually take very little power and allow you to pass power through them, though I usually just connect fans to fans where I can.


 
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On to installing the video card.


Here are the package contents.  From left to right we have: a video out converter that allows connection of component video, two dvi-vga converters for connecting old monitors, a peripheral to PCI-E power converter that I wont be using because this power supply has a dedicated PCI_- power connection, the disk with the drivers and software, and finally the video card in an anti static bag sitting on the manuals and install instructions.


 
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The video card will be installed in the blue slot.  Notice the little ivory colored clip on the end, this is important for removing the card.


 
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This installs just like the RAM, place it over the slot and press down gently and evenly, the little lock on the back should self engage.

 

On the front end of the card is a screw hole so that when you plug in your video cables you don’t snap the flimsy video card to motherboard connection.  This case used the same screw that I used on the power supply.


 
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On the opposite end of the video card you will find a familiar looking plug.  This plug is the PCI-E power plug.  Because the motherboard cannot provide all the power the video card needs over its circuitry, the video card requires its own, dedicated, connection.


 
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Here’s where that red plug comes in.  The red plug connects to the red plug on the power supply and then the other end goes into the video card.  Again, you can’t get this wrong, they only go one way.

 

 


 
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TA-DA!


 
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Ok so now that everything is able to receive power we have to make the data connections.  Ill start at the top and work my way down and ill use these.  These are SATA data cables, they’ll be connected to the optical drive and the hard drive.


 
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Notice the “L” shape, this ensures correct connection.  The end I’m holding has a 90 degree plug, because the optical drive has the power supply right behind it I often find this plug to be the easiest to connect to the optical drive.
Note:  These cables are the same on both ends.


 
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Here you can see it connects right next to the SATA power connector.


 
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On the bottom right of the motherboard you will find these little guys.  This is where the opposite end of the SATA data cable connects. 


 
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I went ahead and made the connection to the hard drive and plugged both the optical and hard drives into the motherboard receptacles.  It doesn’t matter which receptacles you use unless you’re setting up a raid.  If you’re setting up a raid it is motherboard specific so you will have to read the directions on that.


 
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The last sets of connections are the ones I HATE the most.  They are different for every single computer and of course the case manufacturers and the motherboard people never agreed on one uniform plug so you have to plug everything in separately.


 
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These are the case connections, usually a power switch and reset switch connection, audio connection, USB connection and possibly a firewire connection.  This case doesn’t have a firewire connection but here are the plugs for the rest.

 


 
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These are the prongs that the power switch, reset switch and speaker that came with the case connections slide over, they’re found on the absolute  bottom right edge of the motherboard.


 
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These are usually the easier plugs, the firewire and usb connections.  These are usually just one plastic block that slides over,


 
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I cant show a specific setup for the power switch and reset switch because every motherboard and every case is set up.  My connections have always been that the colored wires are the + and the white wires are -. These are marked on the motherboard most of the time.


These are the most frustrating and intimidating connections for someone who has never built a computer before.  If these aren’t hooked up correctly no damage will be done but your computer may not turn on or will continue to reset itself and never make it to the log in screen.


If you absolutely need help search the web first, if that doesn’t work and you can provide me with a clear picture of the plugs with the labels showing AND a readable picture of the connections on the motherboard I can draw you a diagram for the connections.

 

My first build had all of the connections with those little individual plugs and I nearly lost all my hair trying to connect those correctly so I understand the frustration.


 
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Here is the final computer before I zip tied everything together and cleaned it up.  This case has a window fan so I left one peripheral connection with some length so I can connect or disconnect the fans power to get the side panel off.


 
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And now we hope all the components are working or else it’s a lengthy troubleshooting process!


 
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If you cant find an answer online or through the help provided with the component go ahead and send me an email. Be as descriptive and provide pictures if possible, I'll see what I can come up with. DanManther@gmail.com

 

 

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