Just bought all the components for my first build. Can anyone suggest a good online guide to building a computer?

What I’m putting together:

CoolerMaster Centurion 5
Enermax Noisetaker 485W EG495AX-VE(G)
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ S939
Zalman CNPS7000B-ALCU
2x Crucial Ballisitix 512MB DDR PC3200
Samsung SpinPoint P80 160GB SATA150
NEC ND-3520A DVD+-R/RW 16x Dual Layer
2x Leadtek WinFast PCX6600GT-TDH

Also I mistakenly bought the OEM version of my DVD-RW (NEC ND-3520A DVD+-R/RW), so I’ve only got the optical drive and none of the manuals and/or drivers that I’ll need. I can’t seem to locate the drivers or manual on the NEC site. Does anyone know where they might be available (either on the web or by e-mailing me)? Due to problems with the online retailer, I don’t want to return it as it took 4 weeks to get the drive in the first place, when they said it would only take 2-3 days.

Thanks.

There doesn't appear to be any drivers for your DVD-ReWriter. Optical drives don't usually have a driver as they are natively supported and recognised by Windows - are you sure you need one?

I guess, not. I am very new to this, so I wasn't sure if there were any or not. What I will need are the cables to connect the drive. Is there just a standard cable I will need to connect to the mobo or is there also a power cable I will need to connect?

Your power supply inside your case will have a number of power connections for drives. You can just plug one of these power cables into the back of your DVD-RW.

With regards to the data cable, it's most likely to just be a standard IDE ribbon cable to connect it to a standard IDE port on your motherboard. Have a look inside your PC. If you have a standard IDE hard disk (as opposed to the new SATA type), then there will be an IDE ribbon cable going to that already. You might find that there's a spare connector on that cable. If not, you'll need to go and buy one from your local PC shop (about £10 or less) if you didn't get one with the DVD-RW.

When fitting the drive, make sure you understand the concept of master and slave devices, otherwise you may find that you plug it in and your PC won't boot up.

With regards to the power cable, I am unsure which one to use. The manual is a little unclear (at least to me).

The PSU (Enermax EG495AX) has seven connectors as illustrated in the online manual: http://www.maxpoint.com/downloads/ps_installguide.htm.

Do you know which connector I would plug into the DVD drive?

There ought to be only one kind that fits - it's labelled number 10 in the install guide.

Thanks for the help. I'm sure I'll be asking more shortly.

I recently purchased this burner, and after installing it, the drive does not recognize blank DVD's. It properly detects burned DVD's I created with my old burner. Does anyone have any ideas what might be wrong?

This is not uncommon. You may find that using a different brand of DVD media helps. It could possibly be that the media is rated at a higher or lower speed than the drive and the drive is then having difficulty auto-detecting what speeds it can burn the files at.

P.S. Please don't hijack another member's thread. Anyone who has commented in this thread previously is now being emailed unnecessarily because you have replied. In future, please start a new thread if you wish to log a problem that you need help with. Thanks.