825TQ-R720LPB build questions

[stefanks]

Hi,

My case has a lot of extra power connections coming out of the power supply.

In the motherboard compartment, there are one 24 pin, two 8-pin, and one 4-pin. I'm only using the 24-pin and one of the 8-pin, both attached to my x11ssh-f motherboard. Do I need to attach the other ones somewhere? What are they used for?

In the backplane compartment, there are three "stalks" of wires, where each "stalk" has 4-pin linear bigger, to connected to a 4-pin linear bigger, connected to a small 4-pin one. I have the backplane connected to two of the big 4-pin ones from the same "stalk". Is this correct? What is the use for all the other connections?

My e3-1230 v6 came with a heat sink fan, which has some grease on the place where cpu touches. Do I need thermal paste? Intel manual doesn't mention it.

My chassis came with two i-spgio cables. Do I use both of them to connect backplane to motherboard? How do I know the correct orientation?

Thanks!

 

[jro]

The second 8 pin is only needed if your motherboard has a second 8 pin connector (generally only on dual socket boards). If you've got the 24 pin and one of the 8 pins connected, you should be fine for power on the motherboard. The case fans will usually plug into the motherboard. The 4 pin power connector is only needed if you have some other device in your chassis (internal drives, etc). It doesn't sound like you have any of these.

The backplane generally will have a bunch of plugs for all those 4 pin connectors. Just make sure every 4 pin plug on the backplane is connected and you'll be okay. The extra connectors are for backplanes that need more power connections.

The grease on your heat sink fan is thermal paste and it's fine to use the pre-applied paste for an application like this. If you ever remove the heat sink after mounting it, you'll need to clean off all the paste (use rubbing alcohol) and re-apply some new paste.

SPGIO cables would generally run between the backplane and the HBA, but often, the SAS cable you run between your backplane and HBA will carry all the SPGIO signaling. Try it without the SPGIO cable(s) connected and see if the drive activity LEDs light up.

 

[BigDave]

have the backplane connected to two of the big 4-pin ones from the same "stalk". Is this correct?

No, it's not.
IMHO you should use one four pin molex connector from different
bundles for each plug on your backplane (in your case 2 of them),
one plug for up to 4 hard drives

 

[stefanks]

Thank you so much! This fully answers my questions.