It's build day! Months of planning and trying to talk myself out of the costs are a thing of the past. My parts are here and after watching the Newegg 3 part video of how to plenty of times, the build begins. I'm off to pick up some reusable zip ties that I forgot earlier. Thanks for all of the help and input; this commutiy is one of the best hands down.

Wish me luck!

Hey That is GREAT. Just take your time building it and just follow the directions or if you get stuck just post here.

Take some pics along the way and after the build you can post pics of your Components.. I myself always read the Build logs.. it is always a good day when one gets new hardware..

Dont forget your Thermal paste for the CPU.. unless your heatsink comes with it preapplied..

OOoooooo... build day! Good luck, and hope it boots up first time!

Thermal paste, check! I'll be sure to take some pics. I already have one of the case opened up. VERY impressed with it, all of the accessories was a nice touch.

I have a quick question about the LAN drivers. There are FOUR listed for the ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe/Gen3. Do I download and install ALL of them, or do I pick just one? This is the only driver question I have. All of the others were pretty straight forward. The USB driver section had 2 choices however the file size for them was exactly the same so I picked the later dated one. PLEASE let me know what you think about the LAN drivers.

Thanks again,
Mark

You might want the latest for the LAN drivers as well... no sense in installing 4.

Jeez, thanks for the quick reply!!! So basically they all do the same thing, just different ways of getting there? I'll take the latest then.

Almost finished with the build....haven't flipped the red switch yet. I only have two questions so far.

1) What to do with the red front SATA cable coming from my case. CoolerMaster Haf 932 ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe/Gen 3

2) On my Western Digital hard drive, there is an extra connection on the back an 8 pin male. Not sure what connector fits over that, if any.

1) it's for the eSATA port on the front of your case. Look in the manual, for the SATA connector on your motherboard that can be changed in the BIOS to eSATA.

Also, set your BIOS to AHCI as it is the newer more advanced SATA standard.

2) Disregard that connector. Not used by 'us'.

JAMF, not sure how to change the BIOS to AHCI right now. I just plugged the cord into one of the ports with the rest of the SATA connections.

HOWEVER....I'm happy to report that SHE'S BREATHING!!!!!!! All of the plugs are in, got the POST boot, all fans are running, LEDS are lit, beeped at me and everything! I can't tell you how relieved and happy I am. There's a palpable sense of my being proud of myself. I couldn't have done it without Paul's vids from Newegg but I still did it, with some help from you guys. I'm sure I'll have some more questions a about drivers and such, but it's done. I've got a spare parts box now not to mention a destroyed kitchen! haha I took a bunch of pics along the way so I'll get them up when I can (do you have to host pics?).

Thanks again guys...I'm going to sit down for a minute and catch my breath.