Step 14: Install the switches and LEDs
the switches and LEDs are on the other side of the module
The power and reset buttons on the front of
your case need to be connected to the motherboard if they’re to function, as do
the power and hard disk activity LEDs. Reset and power cables simply close a
circuit and can therefore be installed in either polarity, but the LED headers
must have their positive cable connected to the corresponding positive pin and
they negative cable connected to the negative pin. In most cases, the positive
wire is coloured whereas the negative is plain white. Every motherboard
manufacturer has a slightly different pin layout for the switch and LED
connectors so refer to the motherboardmanual before making a mistake. Trying to
reposition these pins in a finished machine – particularly one with a large
video card – can be fiddly, so double check your diagrams and get it right
first time.
Step 15: Install the PSU
the PSU
As is now standard for high-end PC chassis,
the Fractal Design Define R3 case has its power supply mounted on the case’s
floor. This frees up the case’s ceiling for extra cooling fans and facilitates
a tidier build but does require a PSU with longer cables. If you’re building a
very inexpensive machine, double-check that your cables – the 12V auxiliary CPU
lead in particular – are long enough to reach from the bottom of the case to
the top. If they aren’t, you’ll need to buy extension cables. Before mounting the
PSU into its tray you’ll notice we pushed all the leads through one of the
handy holes cut into the motherboard tray. Fractal has left us enough room
behind the tray to rout all our leads, resulting in a much tidier finished PC.
All PSUs are mounted using four coarse-threaded screws.
Step 16: Route your cables
Route your cables
If using a modular PSU, you’ll have a much
easier ride for this step. Just fit the leads you need for your particular
build and leave the rest in the box. Our PSU is a Corsair TX750, which is a
great PSU but has a fixed cable design. We therefore have to find a home for
spare leads. The first step is to untangle the leads and group them by where
they ultimately need tethering. We know the 12V auxiliary CPU cable needs to go
up to the top of the board, and that the drive cables need to end up near the
front, so position them accordingly. Likewise, we know how many PCI-Express
cables our video card needs (two), so these also need careful routing. You can
tether spare leads that are not needed together and stow them in a spare drive
bay for future use.
Step 17: Connect hard dive cables
All disk drives require two cables: one for
power and one for data. The power connector is long, flat and L-shaped and runs
directly from the PSU. The data cable is also flat and L-shaped but is much
smaller. The L-shaped connectors mean that you can only plug the drives in one
way around. SATA connectors are fragile, so be very gentle when handling them.
If you plan on adding more hard drives later, it makes sense to prep the power
cabling for them now. You’ll notice that our SSD has a slightly different cable
to the normal black variety used by conventional drives. This is because it’s
and ultra-speedy 6Gbps Corsair drive, which requires a special 6Gbps-compliant
cable. You should refer to your motherboard’s manual to find out which of the
SATA ports is 6Gbps compatible, otherwise you’ll lose half of your SSD’s
performance potential. These faster ports are usually colour coded.
Step 18: Connect thee optical drive cables
All modern optical drives use the exact
same connectors as those used for hard drives that we say earlier in step 17.
As before, you need to connect a SATA power connector from the PSU and a data
cable. If you do not have enough SATA power connectors on your PSU you can
inexpensively purchase adaptors that allow you to convert a traditional
four-pin Molex lead into extra SATA cables. If you’re using a premium grade PSU
this should not be a problem, but cheaper supplies often ship with just two
SATA power connectors, frequently mounted on the same cable, meaning you don’t
have the length needed to fit one on the hard disk and one on your optical
drive from an old PC, but with 24x DVD-RW drives available for less than $20,
we’d recommend you splash out!
