You're usually not supposed to put a thin uniform coat of thermal paste on the CPU, IIRC you're supposed to draw a little line with the paste on the CPU, push the heatsink down over it and give it a little twist because due to the fact that a lot of times the little heat spreader on the chips as well as the contact surface of the heatsink are not perfectly flat(most are pretty concave/convex actually) which means there could be small pockets of air in between the two surfaces.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/intel_application_method.html

it should be fine .... in worst case scenario it would reach a high temp and it will force a shut down. barely (if any) doing any harm since it shuts off before it get that bad unless your overclocking then it might be too late then. if the compound works why have him redo it and I would recommend it the way he did it. but to be fair I would make it thin but not too thin.

Hey Matui, try putting it together and plugging your monitor into the DVI port. Maybe you'll get some video

Yeah, its strange. On the specs it says no video.. however, it does like like a DVI port was included. The manual says it must be purchased separately but it came in the box. The manual calls it a serial port connector (which means nothing to me...) and I plugged it into the COM1 slot of the motherboard as directed. I'll try plugging the monitor into that port and see what happens.

I'm pretty much done installing everything now.

Yeah, its strange. On the specs it says no video.. however, it does like like a DVI port was included. The manual says it must be purchased separately but it came in the box. The manual calls it a serial port connector (which means nothing to me...) and I plugged it into the COM1 slot of the motherboard as directed. I'll try plugging the monitor into that port and see what happens.

I'm pretty much done installing everything now.

No that's not what I was talking about, that's a serial port(it's for older I/O devices). The DVI that I'm talking about is right there mounted on the board in between the two sets of USB ports and right above the optical audio-out It's a big white rectangular plug

No that's not what I was talking about, that's a serial port(it's for older I/O devices). The DVI that I'm talking about is right there mounted on the board in between the two sets of USB ports and right above the optical audio-out It's a big white rectangular plug

Alright, gotcha. I understand. Ok, going to turn on this sucker. Hopefully it'll at least turn on.

Ok, it didn't turn on at all. Monitor is showing no signal, and the CPU shows no activity other than one green LED light located above the USB8 port that is now light up. No fans are whirling, etc.

Let me get this right you found how to hook up your power button but not you LED also did you hook up your CPU speaker (I think this is the only thing you need to get ground and positive right or you will burn out CPU speaker)

Ok, it didn't turn on at all. Monitor is showing no signal, and the CPU shows no activity other than one green LED light located above the USB8 port that is now light up. No fans are whirling, etc.

So your power button wiring might be on wrong because something should of happened.

BTW going to bed got work in about 4 hours so if you run in to a brick wall sorry.

I'm dumb. Turns out I didn't attach the power and reset button cables to the motherboard, so duh, my power button isn't doing anything. :P And the LED light is showing up on the motherboard because the power supply is on.

Ok, so I attached the power/reset/led cables, and turned on the comp. The fans are now going, but I'm not seeing anything on my monitor unfortunately.

Ok, so I attached the power/reset/led cables, and turned on the comp. The fans are now going, but I'm not seeing anything on my monitor unfortunately.

Well it was worth a shot gusse you need to wait for that one thing also since it was on dose everything seem to be running at least fan wise.

Yeah, all the 3 built in fans in the cases are spinning, the red lights are working, the CPU heatsink fan is going, and the powersupply is working. I'm surprised by how quiet it is. My laptop is so much louder (and much hotter.) I was admiring the inside of the computer case and it just as good as a fan blowing cold air on a blistery hot summer night. Very impressed so far.

Obviously I can't tell whether the memory was detected, and the harddrive or DVD drive are responsive, but hopefully once I get that graphics card I'll be able to go through the BIOS setting and find out. At least I think I'm over 90% done at this point.

 

Thanks for the help everyone! I'll probably still need it going through the setup of the BIOS since I've never done that but we'll cross that bridge when the time comes.

Ok, graphics card just arrived today. I installed it and then turned on the comp, but still the monitor is showing no signal. What could the problem be? I've got the monitor connected to a connector on the graphics card, and the card itself is connected to a power cable from the PSU...

This is the kinda thing where a photo would be handy.

Make sure your graphics card is properly seated in the slot. Sometimes they just need pushing down a little, gently until there's a click where a little clip locks it into place.

check your ram also see if it's the monitor do you got an old one laying around.

Also put in the CPU speaker (witch came with the case.) and make sure + and -(ground) right so it will work. it shoots out error codes (by beeps) then refer too your motherboard book for help.

Here's a quick snapshot I took (sorry about the quality).



The manual mentions that the motherboard should give out some beeps to clue you in as to what is the problem, but I'm not hearing a single beep.

Here's a quick snapshot I took (sorry about the quality).



The manual mentions that the motherboard should give out some beeps to clue you in as to what is the problem, but I'm not hearing a single beep.

So you did hook up the CPU speaker are you sure you hooked it up right. also take a picture with the hardware in.


Just in case you don't know what I'm talking about 6:18 to 6:22 he calls it a buzzer but it's really a mother board speaker so it can make those Beeps.

Is your GPU actually in a PCI-E x16 slot? Check the manual. It probably is but you never know...
Checked with this, it is http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ImageGallery.aspx?CurImage=13-131-648-Z05&SpinSet=13-131-648-RS&ISList=13-131-648-Z01%2c13-131-648-Z02%2c13-131-648-Z03%2c13-131-648-Z04%2c13-131-648-Z05&S7ImageFlag=1&Item=N82E16813131648&Depa=0&WaterMark=1&Description=ASUS%20P7F7-E%20WS%20SuperComputer%20LGA%201156%20Intel%203450%20w%2f%20NVIDIA%20NF200%20SATA%206Gb%2fs%20USB%203.0%20ATX%20Intel%20Motherboard

Make sure all cables are super pushed in.

Can't see anything wrong with that pic atm, may need more inspection.

Check your ram is in the right slots as according to the manual.

Is your GPU actually in a PCI-E x16 slot? Check the manual. It probably is but you never know...
Checked with this, it is http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ImageGallery.aspx?CurImage=13-131-648-Z05&SpinSet=13-131-648-RS&ISList=13-131-648-Z01%2c13-131-648-Z02%2c13-131-648-Z03%2c13-131-648-Z04%2c13-131-648-Z05&S7ImageFlag=1&Item=N82E16813131648&Depa=0&WaterMark=1&Description=ASUS%20P7F7-E%20WS%20SuperComputer%20LGA%201156%20Intel%203450%20w%2f%20NVIDIA%20NF200%20SATA%206Gb%2fs%20USB%203.0%20ATX%20Intel%20Motherboard

Make sure all cables are super pushed in.

Can't see anything wrong with that pic atm, may need more inspection.

Check your ram is in the right slots as according to the manual.

That too If I had to guess (but still check the manual) the first ram should be in the blue one Also I would still like to see the hardware on the mother board so I can see if something is off.

The manual is kind of confusing in regards to the DDR3 slots for the memory. It says that there are 2 channels, A and B, and memory can go into either channel A or B, with the "system mapping the total size of the lower-sized channel for the dual-channel configuration". Right now it looks like I put all three sticks of memory into channel A.

Tell you what, I'm going to take that photo of the motherboard and photoshop in what cables I have plugged in where to make it easier for everyone.

EDIT: There:


Now, I do seem to have some random cables that came with the motherboard that I haven't used.. maybe that's the problem? I'll take a photo of them.

EDIT:


And I realized I didn't plug in the built in speaker - it's this little contraption:


So I just plugged it in, yet the computer still makes no beeps whatsoever through it.

Oh, apparently my mobo came with a GP Diagnostics card, so I plugged that in and turned on the computer. It shows me three numbers and then ER, which I'm assuming means error:

01 68 04 ER

So maybe if I figure out what these numbers mean I'll know what's wrong. Unfortunately the manual for the motherboard doesn't include a legend for them.