2 00 MAMAXIMXIMUUMMPPCC JANUARY 2007FEBRUARY 2007
$1,
ULTIMATE8
DROP IN THE GPU
Graphics cards tend to be heavy
and can slide out of their slots when a
system is moved. To combat this, boards
use retention clips to hold the cards in
place. Unfortunately, many people forget
about these safety clips and just start
yanking on the videocard until either the
card or motherboard breaks. Before you
install your videocard, take a second
to familiarize yourself with your board’s retention mechanism (image A). When you
need to use it, it will be hidden behind your videocard.
This particular motherboard features three full-length x16 PCI-E slots. You
should insert your card into the slot closest to the CPU. If you add a second GPU,
put it into the third slot. The blue slot is for a third graphics card, should GPU-based
physics accelera-
tion take off.
Installing the
card is a snap.
Simply align the
PCI-E edge con-
nector over the
slot (image B)
and then carefully
insert the card until
it is fi rmly seated
in the slot. Use
two coarse-thread
screws to hold the
card in place.9
CONNECT YOUR DATA
UMBILICAL CORD
Most new cases, including the Nine Hundred,
feature an individual cable block rather than a
loose jangle of wires to connect the USB ports
on the front of the case to the headers on the
motherboard (image A). These connectors are
keyed, so you should be able to insert them only
one way—just make sure you connect the USB
to USB and FireWire to FireWire. Mixing these
up will damage your peripherals. You should
also use the included parallel ATA cable to hook
the optical drive to the PATA port on the moth-
erboard and run a SATA cable between the hard
drive and the motherboard (image B). Generally,
you should hook the SATA drive up to the ports
closest to the south bridge chip, which is usually
located near the top graphics card.10
FINISH OFF THE FRONT PANEL
The case’s power, reset, HD-activity light, and power-indicator
LED all connect to the motherboard’s front-panel headers (image A). It’s safe
to ignore the polarity on the power and reset switches; just plug them in. The
orientation of the hard-drive-activity light and power LED does matter though
(although the Nine Hundred does not have a power LED since the front fans
light up when the system is on). Your manual will tell you which header is
positive and which is negative. For the lights (image B), the negative
wires are white. You can also just plug in the wires and fi gure it out
later—there’s no risk of damaging anything by reversing the polarity.
No one in the
recorded history
of PC building
has ever gotten
the lights right
the fi rst time, so
don’t worry if
you don’t.A
B
A
B
A
B