CPU fan, front panel connectors & case fan

[dncb777]

I'm a newbie. I know. Don't groan.

I have an Antec Sonata II case, MSI K9N SLI board and an AMD A64 X2 5200.

1) The CPU cooler fan that comes with this processor has a 3 hole connector. The motherboard's CPU FAN1 is a 4 pin. May I assume that I should still use FAN1, not SYS1 on the motherboard (which is a 3 pin) since the 3 hole plug fits on 3 of the 4 pins on FAN1?
2) case front panel wires: front panel connectors are described in Rob's building directions for another case as "black=ground and color= +." Does this hold true for the Sonata II wires too (also since it has wires not mentioned in the other build)?
3) Last, also coming out of the front panel (On-Off LED's?) are 1 each red and white wires terminating in a regular 5 pin male 12V Molex connector piggybacked to a female Molex. May I assume that I just plug this into the any power supply Molex connector, or does it have to be connected to the same Molex chain as is plugged into the motherboard in order to sense something?
Thanks for the help. I'm sure these won't be the last questions.

[The Wise Monkey]

Why should we groan? This forum is about helping people with new builds.

1. Check your motherboard manual, but I'm pretty sure that there won't be a problem. I think that you put the power socket over the 3 left hand pins, but I cant remember. :)

2. The wires are the same for pretty much every case. Don't worry about this too much, as nothing bad will happen if you get the connector the wrong way around e.g. the power light will stay off, or something like that.

3. Can't really help you with this one as I don't know the case, but the power connections only really transport power, not sensing things. It might be for the front case fans - the LED power comes from the front panel collection of pins that you mentioned in 2.


Hope this helps. :)

[dadbuilt]

This is a place were I have learned from. Anything and everything I know mysuperpc has given birth to. Now we have a forum, wow. Other sites will talk over the heads of a so called newbie. Never will I . And shame on anyone on this site who ever try's.


1.Ditto

2. The instucs from the motherboard and the case might not correspond well at times but some things are going to look obvious (HDharddrive-Led ,PWRPower-LED, RSTReset connect those first and then use the process of elemination on the others you can even call a repair shop and ask. I made a quick friend at my local custom PC shop. Really helped on that one a few years back.

3. No it's just for either lights or an extra case fan or if the case has front panel volt meters or led meters. Or if the case has extra powered USB ports like mine on the side it might power that.

[dncb777]

1). I was reading all over the place last night on the web (can't even remember where the answer came from now). It seems the CPU fan MUST be plugged into FAN1 since that is the connection which the MB uses to sense whether the CPU fan is running or not and will shut everything down if it is not sensed.
2) Thanks for the reassurance.
3). I emailed Antec on the front panel red and white wires. Their answer was that they went to "LED's around the USB ports." OK.......whatever for??? Anyhow they evidently just need power from anywhere. I'll post a more complete answer to this after I get this thing running.

Thanks for the help guys! ........... and the lack of newbie attitude :-)

[dncb777]

Update:
1st boot went well, except that I got no beep. Everything else seems to work fine: got into CMOS menus fine, etc. I guess that means I got one of the plugs backwards??


Red and white front panel wires on Antec Sonata II are for two rather pretty blue LED's that are behind conical lenses on each side of the USB, Firewire, Mic and Spkr connections "hidden" panel.

[The Wise Monkey]

I really like the blue LEDs that cases have - very soothing. :)

There may have been a speaker wire to the front panel which deals with the beeps - its usually a 4-pin plug with red and black wires. Make sure that this is the right way around.

[dncb777]

Well, it has been about two weeks and I have to report that I agree that the blue lights are rather cool looking -- and I'm not much on stuff like that usually. It does let me know that I left the computer on when I go to bed from across the room at a glance !
The beep mysteriously appeared on around the fourth boot or so. Most likely, it was there on the first three and I just didn't hear it. I do have a room AC unit in this room that would win no prizes for quietness.
I do have a mystery that may or may not have anything to do with the computer's hardware and more likely has to do with software that I'll just post here for your thinking pleasure. :-) My Logitech cordless trackball looses its button assignment memory on restart every time. I've reloaded the software from disk -- even downloaded an updated version from Logitech. No effect. I went into the BIOS and turned off Quickboot to make it check everything on boot. No difference. Could this have to do with some setting in Windows XP about remembering my settings on shutdown that I do not know about???

[ralphf926]

Is this mouse connected to usb port controller? I was having problem with Logitech cordless mouse and when I contacted Logitech they had me switch to another usb port and that took care of my problem.

[dncb777]

Well, it's been so long since I posted that problem with the mouse that I almost didn't remember how I fixed it. I uninstalled the Logitech Mouseware and reinstalled it from disk. I had migrated from my old computer saving settings and that was one thing that didn't like.