How to Wire My Computer Inside the Tower

By Dean Lee

The computer will not work properly if it is not wired inside the tower.
i computer power station image by davidphotos from Fotolia.com

When building a computer, you will reach a point where all the components, such as the motherboard, RAM, hard drives, etc., are in the computer tower, but they need to be wired together. The main concerns when wiring the inside of the computer is to make sure the power supply is connected to everything that needs power and to make sure all the components are connected to the motherboard.

Step 1

Connect the fans to the motherboard. There is usually a fan for cooling the CPU, as well as, one or two on the case. Refer to the motherboard manual for the specific location, but the fan connectors are usually in the general vicinity of the CPU (which is under the heatsink/fan unit). The connectors can only go in one way.

Step 2

Connect the hard drive(s) and disc drive(s) to the motherboard. If you are using IDE hard drives and disc drives, connect an IDE cable from the primary IDE to the hard drive. Connect the secondary IDE to the disc drives. If you have more than one hard drive, use the IDE Y-Cable (has two IDE connectors one end). If you are using SATA drives, simply connect the SATA cables from the motherboard to the back of the drives.

Step 3

Connect the case wires to the motherboard. The case wires go in the bottom right hand corner of the motherboard. Refer to the motheboard manual for exact wiring because connector locations may differ based on the brand of the motherboard.

Step 4

Connect any peripheral cables to the motherboard. The computer may have additional USB ports or the disc drive may have an audio cable that needs to be connected. The connectors for the USB ports are usually along the bottom edge of the motherboard, as is the disc drive audio connector. The motherboard manual can give you exact locations.

Step 5

the white connector is molex, the black is SATA
i SATA power connector. Close up. Isolated on a white background. image by Andrey Khritin from Fotolia.com

Connect the power supply to the motherboard and drives. There should be a 20-pin large, rectangular connector that can be plugged into the motherboard. The location of the connector is usally in the upper right hand corner, but this may differ between brands. Also make sure to connect any additional connectors specific to the CPU. Some CPU's have an additional four pin connector that may go next to the 20 pin connector or near the CPU. This depends on the CPU being used. Also plug the SATA or Molex power connectors to the back of the drives. The molex connectors are white and rectangular. SATA power cables are black and wide, but thin. Some video cards require a six-pin power connector as well.

×