You can use the sata power plugs in what order you like, And I would probably use a different one for the harddrive although probably not necessary. On sata drives there is no master / slave jumpers I would plug the boot drive in number 1 sata port on the mobo.
Started building and got a few more questions. The heat sink was not easy to install lol, my god I thought I was gonna slip and trash something. The 4 screws with springs on don't seem to tighten they just keep turning, is this normal? Is it normal that I can twist the heat sink if I apply force? I lowered the CPU in as far as my fingers would allow, one side was touching the CPU bed but I slipped and the other side fell in. It wasn't a great height at all but I'm worried I may have damaged something. How delicate are they? With the cooler being so big I'm also worried about me transporting the computer back and forth between uni and home. I will be traveling by car and will keep the tower on its side so the cooler is facing upwards. You think there will be a problem?
So what heat sink did you get ?? Motherboards are pretty strong, I've driven around with computers in the boot and never had any problems just tie it down. So long as you wasn't to rough when you was putting the cpu in I doubt that you have done any damage its the the pins in the socket you have to be a bit more carefull with.
The most important thing to due is make sure you shutdown correctly. This process is very important because the read heads in your Harddrive then are locked to one side. This prevents most cases of "head crashes" in your HDD. other then what you already mentioned just take the speed bumps slowly as possible.
I went for the Thermalright ultra extreme that you recommended. Ok, it wasn't hard to fit I just found it a bit difficult as I was concerned about damaging something. Should the screws with springs on them be tight? I keep turning but they don't seem to get to a point where they stop? Having said that the heat sink is fairly tight, although with force I can twist it. Should I wait and see what my temps are like before worrying about it? I'm concerned about it vibrating and snapping something becuase of its weight when transporting in the car. On a side note I'm going to remove the hard drive before I go and package it separately in a box with foam. Also what programs should I use to test the memory, cpu and temps?
The screws can only tighten so far anyway so fully tighten it just dont force it, Make sure you have the top bracket fully opened as the screw can catch on it, It will still have some movement it sounds like you have it right. I use realtemp or coretemp for CPU temps and and Memtest for the memory. LOL I always lay it on a blanket and tie it down it if I'm transporting a computer in the car. Its really unlikely it will damage the mobo they are pretty strong. I tried to break one once took a lot of force to do it.
