Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 5-37.
Verify that the pivoting latches have locked each memory module into place
InstallingtheMotherboard
Installing the motherboard is the most time-consuming step in building the
system because there are so many cables to connect. It's important to get all
of them connected right, so take your time and verify each connection before
and after you make it.
Connectingdrivecables
We'll install six drives in this system—the SSD boot drive on SATA port 0, four
hard drives on SATA 1 through SATA 4, and an optical drive on SATA 5. The SSD
will be installed in the removable drive bay, which has a captive black SATA
data cable. We found a silver metallic SATA data cable to use with the opti-
cal drive. That leaves us with four standard red SATA data cables for the hard
drives.
As you're building a system, it's pretty easy to determine which drive is con-
nected to which port. After the cables are dressed, it's a lot less obvious. So,
for example, if at some point our disk monitoring software tells us that the
hard drive connected to SATA port 3 is failing, figuring out which physical drive
needs to be replaced can be nontrivial.
The easy way to avoid having to tear down the system to figure out which
drive is which is to label the SATA data cables, as shown in Figure 5-38. Use a
felt-tip pen to draw lines on both sides of both ends of each SATA cable.
The SATA ports on most motherboards are vertical. The SATA ports on the Intel
DX58SO motherboard are horizontal, facing the front of the board, so we de-
cided it would be easier to connect the SATA data cables to the motherboard
before installing the motherboard in the case. Connect the optical drive data
cable and the four hard drive data cables, as shown in Figure 5-39.
