Okay, here's the issue now.

Everything is in, I'm now doing the wiring, and going painstakingly slow as to ensure I've got everything wired right. But now I've run into a bit of a problem, and wanted to ask for some advice.

My Corsair 850 is 100% modular. I mean not even the main power cord was attached. NOTHING was attached when I installed it. However, while there's lots of room in the case to work, the lighting isn't so good and I'm having trouble seeing the back of the power supply well enough to plug the different cords into the correct holes.

So, I'm thinking of taking the power supply back out, and wiring everything like that, and THEN put it back in. Does anyone think that will cause something I'm not thinking of that I'll regret?? This case has all kinds of room to run the wires in a neat and orderly fashion, so I don't think getting the wires neat after taking it out and wiring it that way will be a problem. Is there perhaps some other problem I'm not thinking of?? Sure would be easier to see if it was out than with it in, that's for sure. Plus I'm old, and my eyesight ain't what it used to be. :P

Assuming there is enough space to be able to take the PSU out and put it back again, there shouldn't be any problems. Think of it as having a non-modular PSU, you would install it with all the cables attached to it, so there isn't a problem there.
Disconnect everything from the PSU, remove it, remove any plugged power cables from the other components, plug them into the PSU, put the PSU back in, plug the cables back to their places.
You are doing fine, and you will have a nice computer in a while.

Motherboard fan connectors are designed to power only a single fan. Do not try to piggyback multiple fans onto a single motherboard fan connector (the likely result is that one of the fans just won't work, as the fan wiring is likely set up to only pull power from the large 4-pin connectors, not push any power to them). For powering fans beyond what the motherboard will support you need to connect the fans in-line to the cables powering your HDDs or optical drives.

Well, real life keeps interupting my damn play time!!!

Oh well, no good to complain, especially since I'm luckier than most in that regard, but I do think I've discovered a potential serious problem. Or it's nothing at all. lol. That's how it is when you've never built one before.

I'm doing all the wiring, my arm hits the CPU cooler, and I feel it slide.

I've gotta believe that's not good. Then again, I've seen some directions say to put "thermal grease" on the CPU prior to the cooler, instead of what I thought it was supposed to be thermal paste, so grease means slippery, so maybe it's ok if the cooler slides around on top of the CPU even after it's completely mounted????

Doesn't seem good to me. Seems to me you'd want that thing tight tight tight to conduct as much heat as possible, but what do I know??? Plus, it really seems wrong to me because I didn't follow the instructions and use the included thermal "grease" and instead purchased some Artic Silver thermal "paste." Now paste to me means sticky. Means it most definitely should not be moving. Is there really thermal paste and thermal grease or those two terms used interchangably even though grease and paste couldn't be further from each other in literal meanings if they tried???

And real life may interrupt the rest of this weekend to so please if anyone knows any advice go ahead and put it up even if it's Monday. I would certianly LIKE to finish this damn thing (EVERYTHING is in, wiring is all that's left, probably about 30% done with that) up but I'm not gonna touch it again until I give this a chance for a response since I'm thinking I may now have to remove the cooler and redo that whole thing.

Any help appreciated.

Grease and paste could also be used to denote the fluidity of the item, IMO. A grease being a "thinner" type and a paste being a "thicker" type. Think the difference between a garlic butter sauce and mayo. Not necessarily a term denoting adhesive properties.

Could be completely wrong, but that's what I see as the difference between the two. Wikipedia (yes, I know, standard wiki disclaimer applies) equates the two terms.

A properly installed CPU heatsink/cooler should be mounted very tightly, and should not slide easily. Thermal paste is only there to maximize contact between the heat-spreader on the CPU and the heatsink- it doesn't contribute in any meaningful way to the attachment of the cooler. What specific cooler are you using (I'd like to see what kind of mounting system it uses)?

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus.... I'll find a link, gimme a sec...

http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6603

Also, now would be a good time to mention this since the possibility already exists that I may have to take it off anyway.

This particular cooler was recommended to me by someone who's always given good advice before. And to be fair, it does state it works for LGA 1155 motherboards. But on this particular MB, the memory is close enough to the CPU that if I mount the fan on the same side as the memory (which makes the most sense, since it would be blowing from front to back then) it actually blocks one of the memory slots. Slot number 1 in fact. So, I mounted it on the other side, which means it will be blowing hot air out toward the memory chips, which also doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

Between these two problems should I remove it and use the stock fan? I'm not overclocking, so overclocking won't be an issue, but I did want a good fan so I had the option in the future to overclock if necessary since this is an unlocked chip (Intel i7-3770K).

Or would it be ok to have the fan mounted on the other side?

I have checked ALL FOUR SCREWS. They are TIGHT.

There is a "screw" in the middle, that's hard to get to, that I tried to tighten, but it didn't seem to do anything so I'm not sure if that one does anything or not. I turned it and turned it and turned it and it didn't seem to do anything. Even tried turning it the other way, lol. Not sure what that screw is for. Maybe that's the problem???

Of course, if having the fan pointing the "wrong" direction is more of a major issue than the cooler being loose enough to slide a little than it doesn't much matter why it's not tight anyway, right? I'll need to choose a different cooler anyway???

Can't you mount it so that the air is blown upwards? My Noctua can be aligned in any direction, and I'm fairly sure the same applies to the 212 Plus.

As for using the stock cooler, I would recommend against it. It's a dog.

No, if I turn it around, then the heatsink is blocking slot 1 of the memory slots. Already tried that.

ADDED IN EDIT: I do have another fan option.

When I ordered my parts initially, I ordered another cooling fan. But when I showed this person my build specs, he said he wasn't sure about that cooler and recommended this Cooler Master.

The one I originally ordered now I will admit I got due to price, so it may not be great either, but it was one of those newegg weekend deals and I got a StarTech fan. I'll try to find a link for that one. It's similar to the stock fan, in that it blows straight down.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006K25OE4/ref=asc_df_B006K25OE42021327?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=shopzilla_rev_406-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395093&creativeASIN=B006K25OE4

I've gotta go again for awhile (damn real life lol).

PLEASE, if anyone has any advice, I would appreciate it. I can't get a response from the guy that originally recommended that cooler to me and even if i do, he may not have a good fall back position either.

Either I have to figure out a way to tighten this thing more (I just tried again, it does slide if I try) and I just tried all four screws again and they are TIGHT. Or, I've got to live with it being able to slide. AND I would have to live with it blowing in the "wrong" direction.

OR

Take it out, and put another cooler in.

Those are the issues. I should be back later this evening (I hope) and hope to hear from him and will check here as well.

THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL THE HELP. And sorry I'm such a moron regarding computers. Once again feeling like I probably shouldn't have done this. But in this case, it's just this motherboard. The memory slots are just too damn close to the CPU slot. It's a new board, I saw last week newegg doesn't offer it anymore, and I wonder if that's why.

Checked your motherboard, now I understand the problem better. Weirdly, my Noctua NH-U12P SE2 (just rolls right off the tongue) seems to have less clearance than the 212, and despite this it hovers over one of my RAM sticks no problem at all.

To me, the StarTech seems pretty underwhelming. However, I'm sure it'll wipe the floor with the Intel stock POS, and it'll probably be sufficient since you're not going to overclock. You can get another cooler later on: I'm guessing you're eager to just get the sodding thing up and running right now. It can cope with a mediocre cooler for a while.

There are some odd-shaped coolers around that should give you sufficient clearance: Cooler Master GeminII, Noctua NH-C12, Thermaltake Flexi and so on. Their dimensions, including clearance, should be reasonably easy to find online.

Lol, this is going to all end in tears and sirens.

Okay, with that mounting bracket a little bit of side-to-side sliding can be expected initially. Just make sure that there's no vertical movement (in other words that the heatsink is pressed firmly against the CPU). As for the positioning of the fan and the direction that it blows air, from the link you posted it appears that the fan is symmetrical and can be anchored to the heatsink an either side and also pointing in either direction. This means you can place the fan on the side where it isn't blocking your RAM slot, and also orient the fan so that it's blowing air towards the back of your case (not towards the RAM). You just need to take note of which way the fan spins when plugged in to determine in which direction to mount it (or alternatively just pick a direction, feel which way it's blowing air once everything is put together, and if you ended up getting the direction wrong then just unmount it, flip it around, and re-mount it).

If you have a cup of hot drink, do you blow on it or try to suck the heat away? The reason why fans blow through heatsinks rather than away from them is that the latter does pretty much nothing.