seic may have sponsored this exhaustive guide but we won't specifically be
recommending them today because this is designed to give you the tools to identify the patterns that make for a
good build not the exact components themselves those always change the
process does not so without further Ado
how to build a PC step one picking the
parts to start you need to ask yourself some questions what am I going to do
with this computer are you a hardcore gamer you're going to want to at more of
your budget to your graphics card and maybe CPU are you a content creator
maybe you can ease up on the GPU a little bit and splurge on CPU and RAM
are you just using as a glorified Nas then you'll be looking for a motherboard
with lots of IO and a case with lots of Drive mounts and maybe you'll want to
Splash out on a specialized redundant power supply no matter what your budget
is this is the question you need to answer before going any further so I'm
going to roll that intro while you figure it out
now that you have your answer ask the question again but deeper what kinds of
games do you play Mr or M gamer RPGs and
Visually complex games where exploration and sightseeing our priorities mean
you'll probably want a high resolution display for the best experience
preferably with HDR peripherals may not matter as much to you and in fact you
may prefer to get a console controller for some of your games rather than a
typical PC gaming keyboard and mouse do you prefer hardcore competitive Shooters
though where every millisecond counts well now you'll want a premium Mouse for
sure and maybe even a high-end keyboard not to mention a high refresh rate
display even if that costs you some resolution or some color accuracy the
games you play will also affect the number of CPU cores you should get since
different genres of games tend to utilize them differently A good rule of
thumb for future proofing your build is to make sure that you have at least as
many cores as a current gen console if you want to stream or record your
gameplay then maybe throw on two to four more and make sure that you've got a GPU
with a highquality Hardware video encoder built in as for the content
creators out there what should you focus on well it depends on what you create a
digital artist might not need anything special for a GPU but would definitely
benefit from a drawing tablet a musician would want tons of RAM to load up on
instrument patches and samples without slowing to a crawl a video editor needs
at least a modest GPU a lot of RAM and a
buttload of storage preferably fast so they can review their footage at full
quality a 3D modeler needs a reasonably fast CPU and GPU for rendering a GPU
capable of real-time Ray tracing helps tremendously in prototyping and previews
an engineer might sacrifice raw horsepower for validated Hardware like a
Quadro GPU to ensure pain-free operation a programmer wants a hefty CPU with a
lot of threads for handling frequent compilation and a lot of RAM to go with
it whereas as a writer really only needs a keyboard a decent display or two and a
quality water bottle to stay hydrated LGT store.com is this a Nas or home
storage of some other sort if so what is it for Cold Storage that won't often
change like backups ripped Media or game installs won't need highp speed to be
usable instead you'll want higher capacity hard drives warm storage that
changes frequently like a document or photo dump is where you'll want a
balance of capacity and speed hot storage like a footage inest or for use
as a Network boot device will demand higher speed increasing cost you may
also need a fast CPU depending on the scale of your storage space adding
additional roles like Plex increases system requirements so while slower
computers can get by as a basic file server you're going to need to account
for CPU overhead especially for transcoding now let's talk about form
factor computers are available in all shapes and sizes from complete PCS the
size of a pack of gum to entire racks that contain only the storage for a bank
of machines elsewhere in the data center the most common variants or form factors
are as follows ATX is your classic it's
the big beige box size it usually features at least five expansion slots
and a taller chassis you can find these in mid Tower and full tower
configurations which basically just indicate height full Towers tend to be
easier to work with but are much more difficult to move around and find a home
for so they've been falling out of fashion if you're not sure what to buy
an ATX form factor case can accommodate any smaller size motherboard although
installing an ITX motherboard in one of these seems more than a little silly
although maybe that is an aesthetic that you want to uh Embrace Micro ATX is
smaller than ATX with at most four expansion slots and for most people
that's totally sufficient but you should always check to make sure that you've
got everything you need you'll find some of the more interesting case designs in
this size like these cute Cube shaped ones like ATX you can fit smaller form
factors like DTX and ITX in here and it won't look as silly if you do mini ITX
and DTX are the smallest mainstream sizes with only one and two expansion
slots respectively these are the boards you'll find in the tiniest builds and
can often pack impressive variety of features into their diminutive size
however their IO can be somewhat limited and if your goal is to go as Tiny as
possible you'll either want to get a couple of larger builds under your belt
first or pay extra careful attention to
your case manufacturer's documentation a DTX board may fit in the ITX case but
also may not and if you have a larger GPU or cooler it may not fit in your
case of choice at least not without some difficulty the next big question is
arguably most important what's my budget if your answer is anywhere from less
than I'd like to I'll take what I can get then your best bet is often to buy
used you can find off least Business Machines available for a fraction of
their original price as we've shown a number of times in the past these can be
a great starting point for a new build most of the work is already done for you
and many can be improved for a relatively small budget another option
is to look for previous gen Hardware you can sometimes find killer deals as
retailers clear out old stock to make way for the next big thing but this is
mostly applicable to used gear the good news is that solid state components with
no moving Parts like CPUs rarely fail
and components with worn thermal compound or bad fans can have those
repaired I nearly always start my builds around my CPU and GPU because apart from
being the most expensive components and therefore taking up most of my budget
they also dramatically narrow down the other parts that I might select for
example I won't be able to buy an Intel chipset motherboard if I use an AMD CPU
and vice versa and I won't be able to use a small form factor case if I've got
a gigantic triple slot graphics card when shopping for a CPU there are a few
things to keep in mind first is that across brands or even different
generations of the same brand specifications like clock frequency and
cache are not likely to be useful indications of per performance you can
find out more detail about this in this video but that doesn't mean that you can
ignore them outright let's say you've decided on a CPU series but there are
literally dozens of options obviously choosing the best one is easy just sort
by Price high to low but is it really that much faster is it worth it well
this is where the specs can help you make direct comparisons between multiple
products in a single lineup take for example Intel's Core i 91900 k this is
an 8 core CPU with with 16 threads that runs it up to 5.3 GHz that's the turbo
speed of course its base frequency is just 3.5 meanwhile the core i71 700k is
also an 8 core 16 thread CPU that only
runs at up to 5 GHz meaning that the real world performance between these two
chips is 6% at most but with a price
difference of over $100 there's more to picking a CPU than raw power however
sometimes you want Graphics sometimes you want more or faster PCI Express
Lanes and sometimes you just want less heat and noise there's still debate as
to whether PCI Express Gen 4 really matters that much to Consumers but the
fact is that Gen 4 is double the speed of gen 3 on a perlane basis and likewise
Gen 5 is double the speed of Gen 4 on a perlane basis this means that a CPU with
fewer but faster Lanes can avoid bottlenecks that otherwise might harm
performance it's worth pointing out that some motherboards and chips might differ
in their PCI Express version support so pay close attention if your first
Choices put you over budget it's time to experiment in Bargain Hunt for Intel
users an f-s series CPU might be a good option as those lack integrated graphics
and cost a little less to buy while for AMD users paradoxically buying the G
Series CPUs Nets you integrated graphics and a decent savings over the more
expensive X Series without sacrificing much performance if you end up going
back a generation or two to make your budget work be mindful of which CPU
socket and motherb board chipset you end up with locking into something older
might save you a ton of money and still result in satisfactory performance but
it could limit your ability to upgrade to a new processor later on other parts
work in much the same way when the GeForce RTX 2080 came out its price was
higher than the cost of a GTX 1080ti while offering effectively Zero
Performance advantage and a new headline feature that hadn't even been used in
games yet let alone proven Savvy Shoppers were scooping up 1080 TI for
great prices left and right and the only drawbacks ended up upcoming later with
more limited support for software features like RTX voice ambient noise
cancellation and in the longer term probably an earlier driver support end
dat at least that's the way things used to be as of writing the world is in the
middle of a silicon shortage that isn't likely to let up anytime soon and we're
in the utterly unique situation where many discontinued gpus are worth more to
scalpers than their original MSRP unfortunately there's little to do in
times like these other than to hold on and if you absolutely must get something
today try to snipe a GPU at a retail location or pick up an older GPU that's
not being scalped to hecken back so that you can limp along while you wait out
the storm now as with CPUs you must read
reviews to evaluate the performance of a graphics card do not be tempted to draw
a conclusion based on clock speeds and memory do look out though for features
like Hardware video encoding real-time rate tracing support and anything else
that your game or your application might be able to use take for example example
dlss which increases performance at a small cost to visual Fidelity or the
blender optics renderer for NVIDIA and on the AMD side there's the Fidelity FX
Suite which has some pretty cool stuff in it as well now if you have a choice
between two otherwise identical gpus but with different amounts of onboard memory
or frame buffer I would recommend the one that has more but be careful that
it's not slower memory both AMD and
NVIDIA have been caught putting large amounts of crummy memory on entry-level
gpus sometimes even mid-range gpus
seemingly in an attempt to make them look more enticing even if it comes at
the cost of extremely poor performance motherboards are a contentious issue
because it's easy to go for the biggest baddest board around but the reality is
that unless you're the kind of Master overclocker who gets all their boards
sponsored anyway you're unlikely to see a big performance difference between
low-end chipsets and the higher end ones much less between two models that use
the same chipset that's not to say just buy the cheapest thing a lower-end
chipset will usually have some artificial limitations on things like
RAM speed overclocking ability or PCIe bandwidth AMD's a series chipsets for
example don't support overclocking as of a520 and feature fewer expansion ports
while their B series and X Series chipsets do have much more expansion
including the ability to bifurcate or split PCIe lanes for multi-GPU or
high-speed storage support the bottom line is that while some people get
bogged down on Dil details like voltage regulators and cooling them the reality
is that a mid-range board with good user reviews that has all the slots sockets
and RGB ports you need for other Hardware is the path of leas resistance
and there's no shame in that system memory or RAM can be both
straightforward and Incredibly deep depending on who you ask and what you
plan to do with it it's usually labeled according to three main values capacity
speed and timings the higher the capacity the more concurrent tasks your
system can work work on but the more memory you have the more strain on your
CPU's memory controller which usually means reduced frequency and increased
timings both of which are bad frequency determines how often information can
travel from the memory stick or module to the CPU and vice versa higher is
better while timings determine how long the wait is for actual memory chips to
respond to a given request lower is better it's important to note that there
are points of diminishing returns for all of these attributes and that some
CPUs prefer certain memory frequencies because they can lock their memory
controllers to match such as AMD's ryzen 3000 and 5000 series CPUs which tend to
work best at memory speeds of 3600 or 3800 megatrans per second ddr4 after
which point it's better to drive down latencies than go for more speed and it
should be noted most of the fast kits on the market are overclocked meaning both
the memory modules and the CPU's memory controller will be pushed harder and
with More Voltage than usual ryzen 5000 and Intel's 11th gen core and later CPUs
support up to 32 200 megat transfers per second ddr4 natively after which you're
in overclock territory regardless of speed you'll want to buy your memory in
matching pairs for dual Channel motherboards triplets for triple Channel
and so on and while you're at it for best performance you'll want to make
sure your memory is also running dual rank now rank is essentially one or more
memory modules that receive commands as a group if all of the memory sticks
memory is in one group that's single rank while some larger memory modules
come split into two which is dual rank the advantage is that while each rank
has to be accessed separately no matter what they can still split the low
between themselves for better performance if you've got a matched pair of dual rank memory you'll get the
benefits by default but you can also install four matched single rank modules
for the same effect if your motherboard has four slots generally speaking larger
modules tend to be dual rank but you can usually tell single Rank and dual rank
apart by one r or two R in the model number one more thing to consider for
memory is error correction code or ECC memory this has recently become a pretty
hot topic due to the per chip error correction that's making its way into
ddr5 but there's a difference full ECC
memory has an extra chip that allows it to detect and correct errors even when
the data is moving to and from the CPU DDR5's error correction is only making
sure that the data inside each chip is safe this lets ddr5 vendors still offer
overclocked memory kits while you'd be hardpressed to find anything like that
for full ECC the more robust nature of full ECC memory meanwhile has made it a
favorite for servers and high-end workstations where stability is key even
if it comes at the cost of some performance so if that's you then you've
got some things to untangle first true ECC can come in three flavors
unregistered registered and load reduced
unregistered memory also called udm is the same kind that goes into your
desktop and notebook PC so your CPU will
access the memory chips directly with nothing in between registered memory
also called R dim includes a goete chip
that the CPU talks to that manages the data coming and going from each memory
chip load reduced memory called LR GM takes this one step further by replacing
that register chip with an ultra fast buffer this buffer reduces the amount of
chatter required to communicate with the memory allowing the CPU to access as
many as eight ranks per module that's how servers can have multiple terabytes
of memory in them the trade-off of course is higher latency don't go
thinking you can just mix and match by the way consumer motherboards almost
exclusively accept udims and not much else and while some motherboards can
support both R dims and LR dims this is
no guarantee so check the manual for your motherboard for information on what
it can handle before you pull the trigger most motherboard manufacturers
will have manuals available online in their support section storage drives can
be divided broadly into two categories old school SATA and PCI Express based
NVMe drives there are different connections for both of these with this
being the most common for SATA and this being the most common for NV andme your
motherboard manual will include a list of these ports that tells you exactly
how many you can install mean mechanical hard drives are for bulk storage on the
cheap and typically use a SATA interface we'll talk a bit more about these later
solid state drives or ssds are more expensive but are recommended as a boot
drive for your operating system and for key applications at almost any price
point due to their much higher performance they are available with SATA
interfaces but have mostly gone NVMe at this point in the m.2 form factor
remember that term it means size and shape even among NVMe ssds there is an
obvious broad performance spectrum and with Microsoft's upcoming implementation
of direct storage a premium PCIe Gen 4 SSD or greater might offer a clear
performance benefit but for most average users and Gamers the main things you
want are a dam cache and some kind of manufacturer indication of endurance
which is a measure of how many times the drives can be written before the cells
wear out drives with short warranties are probably best avoided and even
quality drives should be backed up regularly now let's talk cooling
enthusiasts tend to instinctively gravitate towards custom Loop liquid
cooling and this is usually the absolute
best you can get without going Subzero which isn't sustainable long term if
you're a coward but from a cost to Performance standpoint it rarely makes
sense liquid cooling is a topic all in its Health but the short version is that
your primary concerns are going to be the water blocks and the total surface
area of your radiator setup generally speaking surface area is King more fins
on your coal plate means more heat transfer from your CPU and more radiator
surface area means the more heat you can remove from your liquid or if you like
more silence the slower you can run your many fans materials are less intuitive
though copper is the superior conductor but it's more expensive than aluminum
which might make you think you could get away with copper for your GPU and
aluminum for everything else but if you try to mix and match them it's going to
be terrible I give you my lonus tech tips guarantee that galvanic corrosion
will ruin your day sometime down the line you can try out those like you know
anti-corrosion mixtures don't do it it'll be really bad some metals can be
mixed relatively safely here's a chart of what's safe to mix and what's not
most people don't want to deal with all of that though and AIO Solutions or
Allin ones are both cheaper and easier to work with the general rule is that a
240 mm radiator will be fine for most
CPUs with only the most exotic requiring a 280 or a 360 the main drawbacks of iOS
is that they are more expensive less reliable and offer questionable
performance benefits compared to large Tower style heat sinks that's why for
most people we recommend a large heat sink for hassle-free long-term operation
the only drawback of these that due to their size some consider them unsightly
they're wrong and they can be a hazard during Transportation due to their
immense weight at the end of the day whatever comes of your CPU is fine for
most people but it might run hotter or louder than you want thermal compound
for most people doesn't matter as long it's a decent brand and it's not some
just bulk stuff you got off of wish but there are a couple things to consider if
you're not going with the easy to use but not thermally amazing graphite pads
that cover your CPU like a cozy little blanket you're going to want to make
sure that whatever you get is electrically non-conductive and the best
way to do that is to just look at the label most companies exclusively carry
non-conductive compound pound with the exception being liquid metal thermal
Grizzly's conductonaut for example is an actual metal alloy called gallon stand
that's fully liquid at temperatures as low as 8° C it's both electrically
conductive and potentially reactive with aluminum parts like heat sinks and this
reaction is not a good thing while an aluminum oxide layer is usually present
on aluminum a tiny scratcher scuff is all that's needed for the gallium to
work its magic and turn your cooler into a crumbly mess that doesn't even look
real if you decide to try liquid metal make sure you're using copper or
nickel-plated coolers if you're content with cheaper traditional compounds then
you've got nothing to fear there are some things you just shouldn't cheap out
on however power supplies are a major one while early on it was pretty easy to
figure out whether a power supply was decent by just looking at its 80 plus
rating and it is 80 plus gold that is
the real draw for this power supply Series right there it is so easy to hit
the 80 plus standards these days that it's not really a useful measure anymore
the good news is cybernetics lab has stepped up to build a more meaningful
certification system that addresses both efficiency and noise levels and
hopefully more in the future beyond that the main feature you need to decide if
you need is a modular interface it costs more but as connectivity standards
evolve like the new PCI Express Gen 5 power connector for example it means
that you have a chance of replacing just a cable rather than using an adapter or
replacing your power supply and power supplies have reached a level of
reliability that I wouldn't really consider one with a warranty shorter
than 5 years now cic even goes as high as 12 years on their Prime series power
supplies like motherboards and cases have different form factors that you
need to look out for though this consideration is mostly important for
small form factor builds where the sfx standard provides a smaller footprint in
order to accommodate tinier builds while sfx defines a maximum depth for a power
supply that sort of makes it look like a flat rectang angle sfx L relaxes this to
a square shape and while it doesn't necessarily offer more connections
you'll actually find that usually the more powerful small form factor units
are sfx L and they have the added benefit of using larger fans so they
tend to be a little bit quieter just double check your cases compatibility
because not all cases that support one can also support the other another class
of power supplies that has grown in popularity over the last 10 years is DC
to DC converter power supplies these use an external brick just like
some monitors or your laptop and then have a super efficient DC todc
conversion hence the name that takes whatever the input voltage is and splits
it out to all the voltages that you need internally they tend to be fanless and
extremely small though it does come at the cost of that external brick now
there are other esoteric form factors like tfx that is often used in rack
mount servers but for nearly everything else you'll be fine with an ATX form
factor power supply it's big it's chunky and it's the standard that we've had
since not long after the Windows 95 days these offer the highest wattages on the
market with the largest assortment of peripheral and 12volt plugs for CPU and
PCI Express devices and drives and all that good stuff but buyer beware the ATX
form factor only specifies the width and height of the power supply at the back
plate it says nothing about the depth so you will need to take into consideration
whether your power supply will fit your chosen case if it's not in the typical Square
footprint make sure you buffer a little extra if you have a modular interface
because those plugs take up a little bit more space now cases this is where
builds can get very interesting there are options that can be found for as low
as $20 on sale and there are options costing well over 10 times that much or
100 times who cares just keep going if you want something truly unique we've
already gone over the different major form factors but even Within These
constraints there is an incredible amount of variety out there because pick
making a case on its own is so personalized and situational we're just
going to go over a few basic things to keep in mind while picking one out first
and foremost is airflow regardless of whether you're after a quiet rig or an
extreme cooling rig you're going to need air flow and there's no substitute for a
mesh front panel counterintuitively they tend to even offer better acoustic
performance than closed front panel cases because the fans don't need to
ramp up as high not everyone is into that aesthetic though so vendors like
Corsair come up with options with glass front panels instead with spacing and
even extra intakes on the motherboard side panel to keep things looking pretty
while maintaining solid air flow secondary to air flow should be ease of
maintenance if your case has great airf flow but it's a pain to clean once it's
sucked a bit of dust in you're going to have a bad time removable dust filters
and easily accessible front panels help tremendously with maintenance and most
good cases will come with these features finally expansion what you get will
depend on how much of what kind of stuff you want to cram in plain and simple
then beyond that it should ideally be well laid out for cable management and
open enough that it's easy to work in of course you won't have any cooling
without fans so what do you buy there
are several considerations here including the fan diameter and bearing
type whether the blade is optimized for air flow or static pressure and of
course whether or not it has addressable RGB bearings are what let the fan blade
spin freely so the better quality the bearing the more efficient and less
noisy a fan can be there are are three major types sleeve bearings are coste
effective and quiet but tend to wear out quickly because they rely on a lubricant
to keep them going higher quality sleeve bearing fans can last for years thanks
to better seals but that lubricant will expire and once it does so does the fan
sleeve bearing fans are also designed to run vertically to prevent the lubricant
from pooling making them unsuitable for use in the top or bottom of cases ball
bearing fans are far more reliable and much more expensive to match but they
tend to be louder because they utilize actual physical ball bearings to
overcome friction instead of a lubricant this also means they're much more likely
to survive high temperatures than a sleeve fan so they're common in servers
and other reliability first environments more advanced sleeve style bearings
called fluid dynamic or hydrodynamic bearings are positioned as a bridging
gap between traditional sleeve and ball bearing fans while their mechanisms are
similar to sleeve bearings they're typically filled with pressurized oil
and higher quality seals than a regular lubricating grease not all fans that use
these bearings are good but Noctua for example exclusively uses their SSO
series bearings which are hydrodynamic and very well regarded think corers are
also pretty good too there are other bearings like mag glove which use
magnetic levitation for effectively zero friction and are thus extremely quiet
long lasting and they also cost significantly more than other types of
bearings Corsair famously has a magb series of fans in their ml lineup but
they tend to have fewer RGB options and cost significantly more than their other
fans regardless of the bearings fans tend to get graded on two major criteria
static pressure and air flow with some designs leaning further one way than the
other Corsair's SP and noct TOA P series
fans are optimized for static pressure the higher the static pressure the more
air that can be forced through a restrictive filter or fins of a radiator
or heat sink on the other side of the spectrum Corsair's AF and Noctua a
series are examples of fans that are optimized for pure air flow so don't put
it in front of your radiator but it like the back of your case with no
obstructions they're really great for that you'll often run across different
diameters of fans ranging all the way from diminutive 40 mm all the way to
Behemoth 200 mm and Beyond as a rule of
thumb the smaller the fan the faster it needs to spin to push the same amount of
air as a larger one and the faster a fan spins the louder it will be which is why
120 to 140 mm fans have become the go-to
thanks to the amount of air that they can push while being relatively quiet 80
and 92 mm used to be common place in older computer cases and you can still
find mounts for these in some small form factor Rigs and on smaller air coolers
like Noctua 9s thickness is another thing that can vary and again the
thinner the fan the less air it can push at a given noise level a full full-sized
92mm fan for example will actually push more air with more pressure than a 120
mm slim fan you'll only really want to use thin fans for small form factor
builds where you have absolutely no alternative then there's the connectors
some fans have three pins on them and some of them have four what gives with
that well practically speaking they both work the same but the three pin variant
speed is controlled by changing the voltage being delivered to the motor the
four pin variants on the other hand use a control scheme called pwm which means
that the motor exclusively receives 12vt power but it gets it in bursts so it's
rapidly turned on and off depending on the speed that is requested by the user
in short pwm fans tend to be more efficient and offer finer control over
their rotational speeds but it's more important to match your fan type with
your controller than to choose one over the other most of your fans are going to
be plugged directly into your motherboard but if you have a truly ridiculous number of fans or you just
want to control and cable manage them all from one place you can get
controller hubs from companies like Corsair or NZXT that provide
significantly more connectors to suit your needs and depending on your needs
you might want to add one or more hard drives to your system either for long-term storage or maybe to give
storage tying a go for a blend of high performance and low cost whatever the
reason there are some things you should be aware of like the RPM cache size
noise level and cost per Gigabyte or terabyte it used to be common to just
pick a 7200 RPM Drive no matter what for extra speed and lower response time but
it's actually becoming more of a liability ility for the drive's long-term Health now that high-capacity
ssds exist higher RPMs mean more noise and critically more heat so before
committing to a high-speed hard drive you should consider whether it's needed at all and when you do install one be
aware of its operating temperature so that the platter stays spinning for as long as possible for everybody else a
5600 or 5900 RPM hard drive should suffice and should be significantly
quieter and kick out less heat finally if you want to really class up your
build you're probably going to want RGB and that means you're going to need to
learn what to look for currently there are three major types of controllable
RGB non-addressable addressable and USB non-addressable is
inexpensive and is the original RGB header that uses 12vt power and four
pins each device in the chain be it a light strip or a fan plugs into the
header on a motherboard a splitter or into another RGB device in a daisy chain
every LED in this chain will show the same color of your choosing which is
fine for ambient lighting or for when you don't really care about pattern and
animations but if you do care about those addressable is your new best
friend because like its name suggests it allows each individual LED in the chain
to be controlled independently it typically uses a 5volt three pin header
that's the same physical size as the non- addressable type with a pin blocked
off to differentiate it if you have a lot of LED strips you should be aware
that only a limited number of strips can be run off a single connector without
running into problems like dimming at the ends or the inability to control all
the LED d s if this all sounds complicated well it kind of is that's
why some companies like Corsair have devices that use their own method via
USB this lets them know exactly what devices are connected and how many LEDs
each of them has these will usually plug into a USB header on your motherboard
and while Cable Management can be more complex overall setup is much simpler
frustratingly unlike the non-usb options they're usually not cross- compatible so
you'll probably have to choose your and use the same vendor for all your RGB
or else deal with adapters this especially sucks because some companies
offer LED strips with different styles that might be more in line with what
you're going for visually like fantex digital RGB neon strips finally finally
you'll probably want some cable ties and to make sure that you have the tools you
need to set everything up if you go for zip ties for a lower profile cable
management job you'll need to make sure that you have Flush Cutters for the cleanest look whereas if you go for hook
and loop ties like the ones you can find on LTT Store
then you don't need anything special you should consider though whether optional
stuff like custom cables will be in your build at this point they're pretty
costly but they're a cool way to Jazz up your rig if you've got the cash to spare
and you're after a specific look if not though don't sweat it not everybody is
out to build an art piece and there is no performance benefit to them
whatsoever and besides building a PC yourself is already a bigger step
towards making it yours than most people will ever take once you've settled on a
build you can go ahead and click through the checkout process and wait for the
parts to arrive or if you live near a computer store with all the stuff that
you need lucky you you get to haul it all home yourself assemble the boxes in
a photogenic pile for a quick social media pick and finally you're ready to
begin step two setting up your work areer are we only on step two jeez all
right don't worry guys the hard part's over things are going to go a little
faster now clear your desk or table you're going to want a well-lit area with enough space to be able to easily
move around your case whether it's laid flat or upright and grab any tools
you'll need a Phillips head screwdriver is a must and if it's got a long neck a
magnetic tip and a ratcheting mechanism that'll make things a lot easier one or
two coffee filters and some isopropyl alcohol is optional but useful for
cleaning surfaces without leaving behind lint paper towels will work in a pinch
just be careful about the little bits that might get left behind and for when
you're finishing up another optional item is a microfiber cloth to get rid of
all the greasy fingerprints that you might leave behind less optional is a
flashlight of some sort even if it's just the flash on your phone since it
can otherwise be tough to see what you're doing when you're trying to get that one last wire installed after
everything else is in place now set aside completely any food or drink while
you're setting up your machine this is build time not snack time
Anthony and make sure that there's nothing around that could fall if it's
bumped accidentally an antistatic mat or a desk pad is ideal here to prevent
scuffs and scrapes not only on your desk but also on your new machine now this
next bit is a bit contentious but if the air in your area is dry then you will
definitely want an anti-static wrist strap we did show that that it takes a
lot to outright destroy PC components in this collab with Electro boom but what
we don't know is what kind of minor damage might have been done internally
with each of those zaps it is possible that each one of them took a year off of
our victim's life and no by the way Wireless antistatic R straps do not work
your strap needs to be connected to a proper ground and the same goes for an
antistatic mat that's what that connector on the end is for to do that
the most foolproof way that works in any country is to plug your power supply
into Main's power and clip your antistatic lead to its chassis just make
sure you're not using one of these never use one of these unless you know exactly
how to use one because if you're not actually grounded you're doing all of
this work for nothing to say nothing of the safety risk if you don't have a
strap it's a lot better than nothing to plug in your power supply anyway and
then periodically touch it especially if you move your feet around if you are
using a strap though a pro tip is to wrap it around your ankle instead of
your wrist so you don't end up yanking things around while you're focused on
building step three motherboard and CPU install
aka the delicate part we'll start by unboxing our motherboard and placing it
on top of its box a convenient and free static safe surface if you want to power
on your system before you put it in the case which I highly recommend you'll
want to use the box it pulls double duty by letting you slot in a GPU which
wouldn't be possible if the motherboard was FL on a desk or an anti-static mat
now your motherboard may have one of two types of sockets as of today a pin grid
array or PGA where the pins are on the the CPU or a land grid array or LGA
where the pins are on the motherboard why is this important because if your
motherboard is LGA you need to inspect the pins before you do anything else if
you bought the board at a brick and mortar store then they'll often get you
to do this Step at the store to cover their butts in case you come back with
bent pins because this is something that's typically not covered by the
manufacturer's warranty to do this on an Intel socket push down on the retention
latch and pull out away from the socket if you're dealing with a high-end desktop socket there could be a
secondary latch for the retention mechanism that comes out the same way
and they'll only open in the correct order when you ease up on the clip it
should want to Spring upwards this is good pull it upwards all the way and the
retention clip will come up revealing the socket beneath don't worry about the
plastic cover plate for now for AMD Threadripper and epic s sp3 derive
sockets you'll need to undo these three screws in order with the included torque
wrench and then let the retention clip flip open the CPU's carrier will need to
come up next which you can easily do by pulling up on these tabs finally remove
the the plastic cover plate to reveal the socket beneath for Intel's high-end
server and workstation Zeon motherboards using LGA 3647 the socket is only
covered by the plastic cover plate the cooler screws down directly into the
retention plate with the pins visible it's easier to spot damage if you angle
the motherboard so the pins are reflecting light directly back at you and rotate it around to make sure that
everything looks even any pins that are bent will need to be dealt with before
you go any further you can refer to this video we did on LGA repair here but the
short version is you may need to use a magnifying glass and a pair of fineo
tweezers or similar instrument to try and straighten it back out fresh out of
the factory a motherboard shouldn't have bent pins at all but if you bought open
boxed or used it's a possibility once you're satisfied your pins are okay it's
time to unbox your CPU for most CPUs the outer box is Expendable unless you want
to put it on display but make sure you take care of the inner plastic clam
shell that actually contains the processor not only do you not want to
drop it under any circumstances you'll also want to keep it for future in case
you need to RMA or sell your CPU to someone else regardless of your CPU you
want to avoid touching any of the exposed gold contacts be they on the
flat underside of an LGA CPU or the fragile pins of a PGA CPU we'll get to
those but first we're going to keep going with consumer style LGA line your
CPU up with the socket usually there will be a triangular Arrow or dot or
other indicator to help you figure out which orientation is correct Intel for
instance has notches on the side of its CPUs that only allow you to insert a
compatible CPU and only in the correct orientation so you can line up with
those I like to line up the bottom edge of the CPU with the bottom edge of the
socket as a bit of an anchor point then gently lower it in give it a little
wiggle once it's down to make sure it's seated completely before closing the
retention mechanism and pushing the latch down if it feels a little stiff
and creaky that's okay it's supposed to
and then the plastic socket cover is going to kind of pop off that's normal
too keep going until you can hook the latch back into place then store the
socket cover somewhere safe like in the motherboard box you'll need this in case
you need to RMA your board or sell it later on if your CPU is PGA take this
time to make sure that your pins are all straight it should be as easy as looking
at it from two different angles to make sure that you can see through Straight
rows of pins if any of them are bent your best bet is to use a mechanical
pencil or a very thin piece of metal like a razor or an iFixit Jimmy opening
tool to gently nudge them back into position too much force though or too
much back and forth and these can easily snap off making for a very difficult
repair job so make sure you have steady hands once you're satisfied lift the
Locking ARM and line the CPU up just as we did with LGA using the indicator on
the CPU and the socket to determine the correct orientation on PGA CPUs you can
also just have a look at the pins and the holes in the socket typically the
pins are arranged so that there's a corner with fewer pins so that it can
only drop in one way and it will drop right in so if you encounter any
resistance at all do not push check your
pins then line it up and try again a few
more seconds of your time now is worth it compared to hours for totally mashed
pins once the CPU is in place I like to press down on it to prevent it from
moving while I close the lever if you're a high roller and you've got a more
exotic socket you'll be surprised to learn that it's actually pretty easy
despite how complicated it looks before you begin some high-end motherboards
have support for dual CPUs these are usually epic or zeeon if that's what
you're building and you only have one CPU you'll need to consult your motherboard's manual for which socket to
use and which RAM slots are connected to said socket if you have two then just
double up on the CPU installation instructions trust me it's exactly as
fun as it sounds for AMD sp3 based sockets remove the plastic dummy CPU
from the carrier ARM then grasp the CPU's plastic tabs and gently guide it
into the carrier rails it helps to pull back a little bit on the tab while you
do so in order to make sure the CPU stays aligned with the top of the ARM
you'll know what I'm talking about if you end up slipping once it's almost all the way in it'll stop moving freely and
you'll need to push it down another notch before you're ready to start closing things up lower the carrier ARM
to the socket until you can't move it freely any further if we've guessed we
need to push it a little more you're right Each corner clicks into place and
with that done all that's left is to close the retention mechanism if you're
using the screwdriver that came with the CPU this is easy take note of the close
order and screw in the screws in that order it makes things a little easier to
get them all started a tiny bit before tightening them down all the way it's
important not to overtighten the screws however this is where the included
screwdriver is great once it reaches the right tension the driver will snap to
let you know you're done when the last screw is down Intel xon sockets are
pretty simple too it's an intimidating looking mechanism at first but in fact
it's so simple that you aren't even supposed to install the CPU into it wait
what yeah you install the CPU onto the cooler itself first and then the cooler
is the carrier that lines the CPU up onto the socket which thanks to this
pattern of screw holes and posts means you can't really misalign it unless
something goes very very wrong the way this plays out is like so you have your
CPU Cooler motherboard and plastic CPU carrier the CPU snaps into the carrier
by lining up a Golden Triangle on one corner of the CPU with a triangle cut
out on the carrier itself then angling it in like so you might need to bend the
carrier a little to make it snap together but once you do it'll be a firm hold then after applying thermal
compound more on that soon align the Triangular cutout of the CPU carrier
with the heat sink and clip it into place it doesn't matter which orientation you use but if you're using
a liquid cooler you'll want to pay attention to which side the tubes will be coming from to align with the socket
once you're ready line up the triangle on the CPU carrier with the triangle on
the motherboard socket and place it down the posts automatically align everything
for you so all you have to here is tighten the torque screws until they stop we'll come back to the cooler in a
moment first we want to deal with RAM because depending on your cooler it
could be anywhere from a little bit to a lot easier to install it now rather than
later unbox your RAM and lay it out in front of you depending on your
motherboard and your priorities you might have anywhere from one stick to 12
or 16 sticks of memory or even more the
ultimate Authority for which slots to use will be your motherboard manufacturer so check your manual to be
sure you never know when some engineer is going to get a fun idea for how
things are supposed to be color coded but we'll go over the most common
configurations anyway if you look at your motherboard closely you'll usually
see silk screen labels for the memory channels on ASUS for example dim A1 dim
B1 dim A2 and so on the letter here
indicates which channel the slot is connected to so for two sticks in dual
Channel you'd install each module in the same numbered slot one in Channel a and
the second in Channel B dual Channel now we've mentioned before that dual Channel
operation is is usually best for Consumer PCS but if your motherboard
only has two RAM slots you might have opted for a single large stick today so
that you've got room to upgrade later rather than two smaller sticks adding up
to the same capacity that will need to be discarded this is a valid strategy
and if that's you then you should install your memory module in the slot that is nearest to the CPU if that
sounds weird to veteran Builders that's because they're used to dual Channel
configurations with two sticks of RAM usually unless you're filling out all
the slots you should leave the slots closest to the the CPU empty in order to
improve the stability of the system at higher speeds this is because the
farthest slots from each channel are where the channel itself ends when you
have something in the near slot but the far slot is empty signals can reflect
off of the empty slot and mess things up in fun and unpredictable ways the same
principle applies to triple and quad Channel setups they're just usually that
many more RAM slots although the exact layout can change from board to board so
for these setups it's almost always best to rtfm multiple CPUs get weird still
with two entire rows of memory slots with potentially opposite Channel
Arrangements due to the orientation of the CPU again in this scenario rtfm do
not skimp on rtfm do it are you still with me good here's how you actually
install memory first push down the tabs at the ends of the slot that you're
installing the memory into some boards will have two tabs one on each end While
others will have just one which can make things a little bit easier if you have
clearance issues with a large graphics card next look at the pins on the memory
module itself there will be at least one notch as shown here with ddr4 memory
this is offset from the middle of the module and there's a matching Post in
the slot itself so that it can only go in one way hold up the module so the
notch is aligned with the post then line up the module with the grooves on the
slot getting one lined up at a time is often easiest and push down until you
feel resistance at that point press a little harder until the tab or tabs lock
back into place on their own you should hear a distinct click if it's done
correctly then repeat these steps for any more memory modules that you have to
install here's a pro tip by the way you can skip figuring out subsequent modules
orientations by looking for the label side of the stick you already installed
and matching against that instead keep in mind though for some motherboards
with RAM on both sides of the CPU socket one side will often be flipped if your
build has an m.2 SSD Now's the Time to install it it's pretty common for the
slots to be hidden under heat sinks so if you don't see any you'll want to
check your motherboard manual to figure out where these slots might be hiding
some m.2 slots only support NVMe while some only support seta and some support
both your motherboard manual again will help you to identify them so if your SSD
is seta you should purposely avoid an NVMe slot that's labeled as going to
your CPU to leave it open for a faster NVMe SSD later on down the road but it
really shouldn't matter as long as the slot supports SATA on the flip side if
your SSD is NVMe you should avoid slots label as going through the chipset or
PCH because these could bottleneck the drive's performance compar compared to a
CPU connected slot if you have multiple NVMe ssds and don't really have a choice
you'll want to use the CPU m.2 slot for the faster SSD if applicable thankfully
because m.2 slots have the same installation instructions regardless you
don't need to take any of that into consideration when it's time to actually
put it together remove the heat sink from your motherboard if applicable and
For the Love of All that's good take off the protective film on the thermal pad
now so you don't forget next make sure
that the standoff is in the appropriate position most m.2 ssds use the 80 mm
long 2280 position it may already be installed here and if so it may also
have a very small Philips screw inserted into it you'll need to remove that
philli screw before going any further if so but if you don't have a standoff at
all you'll had to find it in your motherboard box usually it's in a little
baggie along with the tiny Phillips screw free it from its prison twist it
into place on the 2280 position and you're up to speed visually line up the
SSD's pin side with the slot taking note of the notch that's cut into it this
should line up perfectly with a tab on the m.2 slot and typically results in
the SSD's label facing out it's okay if your SSD has two notches but your slot
only has one this keying means that the SSD is either SATA or supports two PCI
Express Lanes rather than four a special note for if your SSD has its own heat
sink the connector side will almost always be on the bottom of the heat sink
with the fins facing outwards if your motherboard has a heat sink for this
slot you might want to remove the heat sink from your SSD now in order to use
that instead there's usually some clips on the sides that you can just prize
apart to release it there will be a gummy thermal pad on the inside that
sticks to it but no one I'm aware of glues these together so it shouldn't be
a big deal to peel it free all right enough foreplay already angle the SSD by
about 30° or so relative to the slot and
line it up it should slip in easily with a little bit of pressure and once you
can no longer see the pins it should stand up freely on its own from here
it's easier if you get the tiny Phillip screw on the tip of a magnetic
screwdriver before going any further because you'll need to push the SSD down
flat against the standoff we installed earlier and hold it there while you
screw it into place now you want to be careful with this screw it's very thin
very fragile and very easy to misplace
also offends easily line it up and twist it counterclockwise until you feel a
little click then start turning it clockwise to tighten it it only needs to
be snug enough that the SSD no longer moves when you let go now you can put
your motherboard heat sink back on if applicable now there are other ways to
install an m.2 SSD including on a PCI Express card or ASUS dim. 2 interface
and these are conceptually similar to connecting directly to the motherboard
with the exception of how they slot in dim. 2 installation is identical to
standard RAM modules open the tab line up the key notches with the slot then
align yourself with the vertical posts push down and click into place the PCI
Express card is the same as any other expansion card and we'll take care of
that later for now it's time to move on to your cooler if you've got an all in
one liquid cooler this step will be just installing the appropriate bracket but
if you have an air cooler or a CPU block for a custom Loop both of these will be
installed now most coolers use similar mounting mechanisms in theory but often
the actual install will be pretty different for air coolers noctu a SECU
firm system is by far one of the easiest for Consumer processors no matter what
socket it consists of two pieces of metal with screw down posts on the top
side that screw into a back plate there are spacers fitted to make sure the
vertical alignment with the socket is just right for optimal mounting pressure
and the cooler itself screws down into these screw posts right here for a
secure connection let's see what that looks like in practice on Intel consumer
systems nocta provides a back plate since that socket actually lacks one out
of the box so instead of screws going down into it the back plate has posts
that stick up through four holes in the motherboard along with a little Notch
that allows it to clear the retention bolt on the lower side of the socket
spacers are added per the instruction manual double check the color and then
the appropriate bars are put on top now because Intel's cooler dimensions are
symmetrical that means they can go in either orientation depending on how you
want your air to flow in your case in most situations you want your cooler to
blow air towards the rear of the chassis so you would install These Bars
laterally then screw them down with these reverse thumb screws on AMD
because a back plate is included the spacers simply fit over the parts of the
back plate that stick up through the motherboard which means that your first
order of business is to remove these plastic clip adapters that come standard
on AMD boards make sure you keep those by the way because some coolers do
require them and losing them is pretty bad for resale value then your mounting
bars go on and get screwed down in the same way now because AMD's cooler holes
are asymmetrical there are two sets of mounting bars one long and one short the
short bars are what most people will use as these are installed laterally so the
cooler can exhaust air towards the rear of the case once it's screwed into place
you're ready to go Intel's LGA 2011 and 2016 six sockets are a little more
straightforward simply screw in the four nuts slot the mounting bars over them in
the orientation you prefer and tighten them down with reverse thumb screws
similar to LGA 115x or LGA 1200 finally
Threadripper and epic sockets are simpler still the cooler just bolts down
straight onto the socket's own retention mechanism because of the socket design
the cooler can only go on one way so make sure to align it properly one side
is spaced narrow and the other side spaced wide but that mechanism is so
simple that we're getting ahead of ourselves we need thermal compound first
many coolers come with some compound pre-applied and feel free to use that if
you like it's usually fine and it's easier than cleaning it off to apply something different but if you do want
something fresh that's where rubbing alcohol and coffee filters come in WIP
the bottom of the coffee filter with alcohol then rub away the thermal compound from the cooler in a circular
pattern until most of it is wiped away then go over it one more time with some
fresh alcohol on a clean part of the filter to make sure any finger grease and dust is removed you should repeat
the last step with the CPU itself too with the surface is clean you can grab
your thermal compound most of the time it'll be in a syringe like this so Twist
Off the cap then hold it at an angle against the C you like so making sure
it's flat and perpendicular to your work surface perpendicular I think we should just
leave that I age I actually prefer that slowly squeeze the plunger until the
thermal compound flows the amount you want and where to put it varies by CPU
Intel consumer CPUs is need about as much as a cooked grain of brown rice
from there LGA 2011 and 2066 and AMD's
am4 processors get about a p size blob and it's up to you if you want to just
plop it down in the middle or go for the line or the X method it really doesn't
matter that much at the end of the day for large CPUs like Threadripper epic
and Zeon Platinum however you're going to need a lot more you can go with two
psize blobs and hope for the best but the recommended pattern looks like a
five on the die with a series of small dots like so in theory this gives the
best possible coverage but Gamers Nexus testing in 2017 showed that a large x
pattern can also work very consistently here the main takeaway is just to make
sure you use enough to completely cover the Cooler's integrated heat spreader or
IHS that's the metal part on top of the CPU with its name lasered onto it once
you're satisfied with the amount of thermal pce you used you can press the
tip flat against the CPU to break the surface tension of the paste so it doesn't come up off the CPU when you
lift the syringe away don't forget to recap it of course if you're using a
thermal pad don't just plop it down on there make sure you buy one that's sized
for the CPU you want to use it with you might need to use multiples for a big
rectangular Beast like Threadripper now with the thermal compound sorted just
bolt down your cooler for no TOA air coolers you'll first want to uncp the
fan from the cooler like so in in order to access the screws then it's as simple
as aligning the heat sink with the screw posts and tightening it down it's best
to tighten one side a little then the other a little more then keep going back
and forth until you can't go any further this way pressure is being applied
evenly helping spread your thermal compound around for coolers that have
four screws like the custom Loop CPU blocks and air coolers like the hyper
212 you'll first want to make sure there's no sticker on the coal plate and
then you'll want to screw them in in an X pattern it helps to get all of them
started partway first then start teing them down a bit at a time by alternating
to the opposite corner until it's tightened down all the way if you're
using an air cooler now is as good of a time as any to attach the air part
depending on the configuration you might have one fan two fans or zero fans if
you're one of those passive types UL Lo can just ignore the bin you can also
ignore it if your fan is integrated into the cooler like with a stock one fans
are directional and we'll talk more about this later in the case fan section
but here is all that you need to know for now some fans have markers that show
the direction the air will flow from them but if you're unsure the side with
the stickered part that doesn't move usually indicates that's the side the
air will come out of when installing a fan into a cooler it's tidiest to have
the Fan's power cable coming out towards the motherboard so take that into
account while your fan dagging it back into place Tower coolers like the nhd15
and nhu2 come with wire clips that hook into the Fan's mounting holes in order
to then clip it to the cooler itself it can be a little tricky but it's
basically just a matter of placing the fan in the desired orientation and
stretching those wires over the grooves in the heat sink it'll clip into place
and you're good to go repeat as desired if your cooler takes more than one fan
but be careful about the orientation and especially note any clearance issues
with nearby motherboard heat sinks or memory you may need to either Mount the
fan a bit higher than you otherwise would or just scrap it entirely it's
still fine one fan will do it once the fans are in look for the four pin header
labeled CPU fan on your motherboard or similar this is almost always right next
to the CPU socket and for ASUS motherboards it tends to be on the top
Edge as seen here line up the tabs on the cable with the one on the motherboard and press it into position
either a three pin or a four pin fan can function perfectly plugged into a
connector like this and as we said previously all the fourth pin does is at
a separate pin for a finer fan speed control via pwm so four pins are ideal
but not necessary and in the case of liquid coolers there might actually only
be one wire to sense the RPM of the pump because it will draw power from a
separate Molex or SATA connector so that RPM sense wire is just to ensure that in
the event your pump fails your motherboard can either set off an alarm
or initiate a safe shutdown now if your cooler has two fans you're going to want
to check for a CPU opt or two header if
there isn't one the cooler will often include a y splitter that lets you
connect both fans to a single header usually it is no problem to have two
fans on one header but don't go overboard because there are current
limits through those connectors with that done we're finished with our
motherboard for now but now is also an excellent time to power on our system
and make sure that everything's working while it's easy to access for you air
jockeys you get to relax while the all-in-one liquid cooler users awkwardly
hook their coolers up now outside the case only to uninstall them again once
they're done and reinstall them yet again when everything is inside the case
yes it is a pain but it's a small price to pay for not having to tear everything
down if it doesn't work now most liquid coolers simply have a bracket that
twists on and off depending on the socket that you're using and then screw
straight down onto the mounting bracket that you installed earlier if that's you
make sure you tighten them down in an x pattern going a little on each Corner
one by one until none can go any further there are unfortunately some vendors
like Cooler Master that use Clips instead and this is where those standard
AMD plastic clip things come in it's inelegant in the modern age but it
ensures that coolers remain compatible backwards and forwards to an absolutely
ludicrous degree so you can't really blame AMD for this Slide the clips
through the holes on the Block start the retaining thumb screws enough to keep them from falling out and then put the
whole thing in place and make sure the tabs were captured by the clip then
while holding the Clips in position tighten it all down it's going to feel
really delicate but stick with it and eventually it'll all be okay consider
this a practice run for when you don't have so much room to maneuver as for
those of you who just have a water block and nothing else right now well you
could fill up your loop on the bench and that is what I would recommend but if
all you want to do is verify that it's working you can slap the block on
without water in it and Power on for just long enough to see the post screen
about 10 to 20 seconds it should be fine
let's get into what that looks like step seven pre-build test aka the part where
it going horribly wrong is a good thing because if you don't find out now you'll
definitely find out later in order to do a quick test you'll need three things
your power supply with accessories your graphics card if applicable and a
screwdriver first if you have one install your graphics card this is
significantly easier to do while the system is outside the case make sure
that the tab on the long PCI Express x16 slot is pushed down then grab your
graphics card pull off any protective covers on the card Edge connector then
light it up with the slot giving it a gentle push until the retention clip is
pushed into the Locking position make sure it's in straight and you can't see
any pins because outside of the case there isn't anything to hold it down
once it's in one trick to make it a little bit more stable is to use the
motherboard Box's flap to Anchor the card in place if it does have a flap
that you can kind of slide it into next grab your power supply cables at a
minimum you'll need the 12volt CPU connector which is usually eight pins
but sometimes four a 24 pin connector and if you're running a GPU you'll need
as many connections as your GPU requires most won't work without them expect to
see a combination of six and8 pin connectors although sometimes there are
12 volts on newer machines but note that these eight8 pin connectors are not the
same as the eight pin for the motherboard and your CPU do not force
anything lining these up outside the case is easy make sure the tabs line up
then push them down until they clip into place if your motherboard has more than
one 12volt CPU connector usually the one marked as one is the primary one that's
actually required but it's good practice to install all of them if you can these
cables can often be split into two groups of four if for example your
motherboard has an eight and a four pin connector rather than two eight pins
with all that done connect up your keyboard and display making sure of
course to plug into your graphics card and not your motherboard if you have a
graphics card installed then you can flip on the power switch on your power supply and wait um where's the power
button about that there isn't one not
always anyway this is where the screwdriver comes in find the front
panel header for your motherboard often in the lower right corner and then find
the pins labeled for power switch what now stick the screwdriver in yes
seriously your screwdriver doubles as a button who
knew wow what else can screwdrivers do LTD store.com maybe someday anyway if
you have a boot screen mash the setup key which is usually delete until you
get into the BIOS check to be sure that everything's been detected all your
memory your CPU your fans and your m.2 ssds should all be visible either on the
main info page in the system health section or in a storage related menu
like NVMe configuration or SATA configuration if you're using an empty
water block this is as far as you want to go your CPU is probably already
getting toasty however for anyone else it's worth making sure that your
temperatures are okay here let it sit powered on for a few minutes and see
where the temperatures get to when it's warmed up a bit some CPUs will idle
pretty hot in the BIOS regardless of the cooler and that's normal what you're
looking for is temperatures to stay stabilize and for them to not get any
better or worse by pushing down on the cooler if they do change that's an
indication that your cooler may not be making proper contact with the CPU so
what you should do now is shut it down pull off the cooler check the pattern of
your thermal compound to be sure that it's spread evenly then repaste and try
again but what if every novice Builder's worst nightmare happens and nothing
shows up on the screen after powering it up thankly there are often ways to
understand what's gone wrong some motherboards have led displays that show
a two character heximal code that should help identify which part of the boot
process failed and you can look up what those mean in your manual or online
often another LED indicator somewhere on the motherboard is present either
instead of or alongside that help make it even more clear ASUS for example
tends to put a kind of stoplight type of array of LEDs that show red to indicate
CPU tests orange to indicate memory tests white to indicate storage and
green to indicate graphics with these you can tell at a glance exactly where
the issue is even if there's nothing on the screen other vendors have LEDs that
light up each section of the motherboard as they're tested at startup so check
around your CPU socket RAM slots or graphics card to see if there's anything
lit up the most common cause of no video is of course having plugged the display
cable into the wrong Port it doesn't really matter where on the graphics card
you plug it in but if you plug it into the motherboard especially for AMD
systems without integrated Graphics you're not going to get anything failing
that make sure your graphics card is fully inserted receip if you aren't sure
and do the same for memory if you have more than one memory module try removing
all but one and then if everything works try adding them back one by one if none
of that helps but the PC turns on you may need to try reating your CPU and
especially check to be sure that there are no bent pins and that there's no
lint or anything in the socket that might prevent a good connection it's
rare these days but some computers won't boot or stay on without the CPU fan
header connected so that's one more thing to try if the rest doesn't help if
nothing happened at all when you press the power button I'm sorry uh the first
thing you should check is that the motherboard is getting power usually
there will be an LED or two that turns on when you flip the power supply into
the position assuming of course you've plugged it into the wall you check that
right oh wait okay good if there's still
nothing then turn off the power supply and make sure your cables are properly
connected the 24 pin connector can often split into a 20 and four pin connector
for compatibility reasons so it's possible that summer all of one part
hasn't been fully inserted push the clip holding it into place and pull it out
then make sure it's all lined up and try again same thing can happen with the
12volt EPS connectors so triple check those too and of course make sure
they're all plugged into to the proper power connection points on the power
supply itself most modern power supplies should make it impossible to plug these
things into the wrong connectors but you never know failing all of that there
could be some compatibility reasons your system isn't firing up some AMD
motherboards in particular might require a BIOS update to enable support for
certain generations of CPUs or it might
be too far forward and you need to roll it back for your generation of CPU just
look it up in the motherboard manual you may need to contact the store you bought
it from or AMD directly to arrange to have that done if none of that helps
then you'll need to do some more advanced troubleshooting preferably with
a different computer or sets of components check the LT forums for more
info there once you're satisfied that everything's powered on and working
flick off the power disconnect everything and then put it to the side
it's time to make your case it might help to lay down a blanket or a towel or
something so you don't scratch up your case or your desk while you work with it
as a bonus it'll reduce the friction of the feet so you can rotate it around
more easily while working every case is going to be different in terms of layout
build quality and cable management but there are some general notes to keep in
mind when prepping first take off your side panels and store them in a safe
place the Box the case came in is a good candidate depending on your case the
side panels might need a screwdriver or have thumb screws if they're plastic or
metal or they might have side screws or even be held in magnetically on a hinge
of their tempered glass if they're fancy with your case open remove the hardware
box if it's stored inside the chassis and put it aside for now if your
motherboard comes with an IO Shield you should install that now line up the io
shield with the back of your motherboard to determine which orientation it should
go in the flat end faces towards the motherboard then align the io shield
with a cutout in the rear of the case and snap it into place Place using one
corner as an anchor it may take a bit of force to get it in just right and
cheaper cases May Flex when you do this and cause it to pop back out but don't
get discouraged keep at it until you're satisfied it's not going to pop out when
you look at it the wrong way another thing you should do now is move any
cables out of the way sometimes they'll be tied up with a twist tie or zip tie
but generally you want to get them on the other side of the case so you don't
have to worry about pinching them or getting them trapped under the motherboard when it's installed it also
makes it much easier to C manage later now let's talk standoffs some cases will
come with some or all of these pre-installed and if not everything you
need will be in the hardware box that you removed earlier they're essentially
just extensions for the screw holes on the motherboard tray to prevent the
motherboard from shorting on on the tray and they screw in the same way that a
normal screw would just you know without a screw head you can check the whole
pattern on your motherboard to determine where the standoffs should go and which
extra ones might need to be removed hand tightening these is enough to build but
I've run into issues disassembling systems that were only hand tight where
the standoff will come out instead of the motherboard screw just be careful if
you do decide to tighten them with a 5mm hex socket driver because cheaper cases
will often just strip the threads or skip back out instead of just tightening
down if you're trying to remove one and you don't have an adapter or driver or
your fingers just aren't cutting it then pliers can give you quite a bit more
leverage but this will damage its finish if that matters to you a sacrificial
paper towel or microfiber cloth can help mitigate this you'll notice that there
are more holes than there are standoffs what's up with that while there are
standard layouts for these for each form factor not every motherboard will use
every mounting point or some may use non-standard ones while you don't
strictly speaking need a standoff for every Mount point on your motherboard
let's just say it's highly recommended and it's absolutely critical that there
are no extras a standoff placed where
there isn't amount Point could short something out if you aren't careful or
worse it could cause your motherboard to flex and potentially break something if
you screw the others in and the motherboard ends up flexing once you're satisfied you can do a test fit first
count the numbers of standoffs in the case and the holes in your motherboard
watch out some motherboards actually have holes that are hidden by cosmetic
covers and SSD heat sinks these days if they match gently lay your motherboard
into the case and align it with the standoffs you should see screw threads
for each hole if you don't then make a note of which is missing remove your
motherboard and rearrange the missing standoffs until you've got everything lined up if everything looks good then
now is a great time to hook up your 8 Pin 12volt cables for the CPU these are
also called EPS connectors these things are notoriously difficult to get plugged
in when the motherboard and especially the cooler are installed so if your
power supply is modular go ahead and attach the motherboard side then feed
the other end through the cable management hole that is probably up here
otherwise you'll just have to drape it across the motherboard with that done
it's time to screw your board down now each case is a little different so check
the manual before proceeding but if you don't have one then usually the larger
632 screws are used for this rather than the smaller finer and three screws you
can safely test this by threading one into a standoff with your fingers if a
632 screw doesn't tighten easily then you need to use an M3 and if it's loose
with an M3 then you need to use a 632 it's easiest to start with the central
Mount point if present this will anchor the board into place and help keep
things alive while you're screwing everything in hence the peg version that
some cases come with align the screw in the hole twist counterclockwise until
you feel a click then go clockwise to screw it into place Pro tip by the way
don't fully tighten this screw yet leaving a little bit of slack helps you
reposition the motherboard as you're putting in the rest of the screws next
get the corners and if you did everything right the motherboard should now be perfectly aligned and you can
tighten everything down completely if you've got more Mount points to screw
down keep going until they're all done ideally you would populate every Mount
point with a screw but in the event that you can't due to a clearance issue a
missing one isn't going to hurt anything it's easiest to wire the front panel
header now while there are a few obstructions and cables in the way because you're dealing with small one or
two wire connections before doing anything grab the whole bundle of them
and make sure they're not Tangled Up in anything else they should hang freely
from where they enter the case from the front panel from here you'll want to
find a hole that's close to where they need to go as mentioned before the front
panel header is often located the lower right corner of the motherboard and
there are often silk screened markings on the motherboard to indicate which pins are for what if you don't see any
markings for it consult your motherboard's manual if your case has Cable Management guides it's best to use
these now so you don't have to rewire anything when cable managing later just
because of how fiddly these can be be conscious of how long the wires are and
how far they have to go and try to make sure that they don't cross anything that
needs access you don't want to knock them loose by accident later at a
minimum all computers should come with a power switch lead that needs to be
plugged into the front panel header but they may also come with a power LED HDD
LED and reset switch very occasionally these days you may also have a speaker
or buzzer in the hardware box and this is also where that goes the usual layout
is to have the power LED plus and minus on the top left power switch immediately
right of that and PC speaker plus and minus to the right of that on the top
row the bottom row usually goes HDD LED plus and minus then reset switch
sometimes there will be a second three pin wide power power LED plus and minus
to the right of that for compatibility with older cases using a wider power LED
connector of these connections you might note that three have plus and minus or
polarity that is it matters in which orientation you have them the connector
will usually have a positive and negative indicator silk screened onto it
or even be separated into individual wires but if not they should be
colorcoded and the white or black wire is usually the negative for LEDs the
polarity needs to be correct or your lights won't function properly the good
news is that if you put them in wrong it won't hurt anything just flip them
around the PC speaker header follows the same black equals negative wire
convention but these are becoming so rare that you may never see one while
building a computer for yourself its primary role these days is to provide
feedback during boot beep codes can be useful for troubleshooting but have
largely been replaced by diagnostic LEDs it has other uses but it's mostly just a
relic of a bygone era two of the front panel connections absolutely do not
matter which orientation they go in and that's the power switch and reset switch
because unlike devices like LEDs or speakers that need to draw Power these
are simple switches that close a circuit still it's neatest to make sure that
they line up with the other cables if present once you've wired up the front
panel gently pull the slack back through the rear panel it's a good idea to also
wire up USB and front panel audio now if present front panel audio may have two
connectors AC 97 and HD audio or aelia
both are keyed the same way that is the have a blank out pin on the connector
that allows them to go in only one way
but how they work is different the tldr is that ac97 is a mostly dumb connection
that doesn't provide any feedback as to what's plugged in in HD audio or aelia
allows for things like Jack sensing and reassignment most computers since the
mid 2000s will have support for HD audio so use that unless your computer is
really old the header for this is usually on the lower left corner of the
motherboard but if you don't see it there check your manual to locate it like your front
panel wires from before make sure they're completely free of obstructions
then use the cable management guides now if you have them to reduce the need for
rewiring later find a hole close to the
header then go through it for an ATX motherboard you can usually get away
with pulling it through this little channel here even if your power supply
will go right up against it and that will give you a very clean look a common
mistake when plugging these in is to only plug in one row make sure there are
no pins hanging out directly above or below your connector when you plug it in
it can only go in one way yes but only if all the rows are aligned first when
it's on there pull the slack through and move onto the next one front panel USB
is broken up into three types USB 2.0
USB 3.0 and USB 3.2 often used for the
type-c ports USB 2 connectors consist of
two row rows of four pins with a fifth pin on only one row to make sure you
don't plug it in the wrong way around usually but not alwayss there's a
plastic shield around these on the motherboard to make sure it lines up
exactly when it's plugged in but it's usually pretty easy and they can share
this design with both seral and fire wire make absolutely certain that you do
not plug a USB into anything that's called fire wire FW or 1394 cuz uses a
much higher voltage and will destroy USB devices plugged into it usually the
right headers will be labeled with USB sometimes followed by a port number and
the headers that correspond to it but if it doesn't say or you aren't sure
consult your motherboard's manual follow the same procedure as front panel audio
for these cables make sure they're free from obstruction use the cable
management guides and find a hole close to the header for it to go through
remember it can only go on one way so don't force it and mash up the p pins
pull the lock through for the cable management later and repeat as necessary
but what about USB 3 and 3.2 these are
much larger stiffer cables and usually you'll find their headers on the right
edge of the motherboard or at the bottom Edge they're quite wide and sometimes
difficult to get through Cable Management channels so if you haven't been paying attention to Cable
Management pay attention now because these are the worst as before find a
hole near the USB 3 h on the motherboard and line it up but don't connect it just
yet listen first usb3 connectors are
very fussy and it's easy even for a professional builder to mash the pins
due to the way that it's installed the connector easily contacts the pins
before it is fully aligned and the force required to plug it in is much higher
than the other connectors we've seen so far that basically means that you won't
know if it's aligned and you won't know if you've mashed anything by feel alone
if you do manage to bend a pin chances are it won't unbend without snapping so
bar carefully line it up and don't apply pressure until you are reasonably sure
that the pins are aligned if all goes well it should snap or click into place
and you can breathe a sigh of relief unlike the other cables this one is very
stiff so Cable Management should be done with a very gentle touch if you
accidentally pull it out you'll probably end up bending all the pins in the
header at the same time and at that point you can just say good bu front USB
3 USB 3.2 is a lot easier but has the
annoying quality of being both both very stiff and standing straight up off the
motherboard most of the time usually these connectors will be found near the
24 pin power connector and are keyed to only go in one way you don't have to
worry about mashing pins on this one thankfully so you can just plug it right
in but it does have the annoying tendency to kind of rock out of place so
again a light touch is needed for cable management now there are other older
headers that you might come across even today like cereal fire wire parallel and
more and you can think of these the same way that you think of the USB 2 or front
panel audio connectors just make absolutely certain that you are
connecting to what you think you are serial for example is often labeled calm
parallel will often be labeled lpt and fire wire may be labeled 1394 just keep
this in mind if you're hunting around for more USB headers to plug into oh a
fun little aside is if you run out of internal USB 2 headers you can actually
get hubs that will expand them since that's a thing that USB can do if you
have any 2 and 1/2 in or 3 and 1/2 in drives now's a good time to get them
installed most modern have dedicated trays behind the motherboard or
elsewhere for the smaller 2 and 1/2 in type usually with the expectation that
you'll be using them with an SSD and let's face it you probably are these are
almost always removable with a thumb screw or something like that just remove
the screw and slide it free to get access your SSD will also have fine
threaded M3 holes that screw onto the bottom of the tray as well as the sides
some trays use one set or the other and there will be counter sunk or flat
screws for this purpose included with the case Hardware box align the SSD with
the holes then screw in place when it's solid go ahead and slip it back into the
position by aligning the tabs and using the thumb screws to secure it if you got
more go ahead and repeat the process most cases come with removable trays for
3 and 1/2 in hard drives these days usually clipped in with two tabs like
this pinch them and Slide the tray out to remove it and like the 2 and 1/2 in
sled it may have holes either on the sides or the bottom depending on the
manufacturer the drive should face label up with the PCB on the bottom and its
connector should be on the side without tabs so that when it slides back in
they're facing the motherboard Trace side of the case many of these will have
shock absorbing rubber grommets through which long course threaded 632 screws
from the hardware box are inserted these are the good ones some however are
completely toolless and these can be kind of annoying because you need to kind of stretch it around the hard drive
to get it to clip into place it never feels quite right regardless of the type
most modern 3 and 1/2 in trays also have 2 and 1/2 in mounting holes for ssds too
which follow the same installation steps unless they don't have grommets in which
case you're just going to screw it directly in like the other 2 and 1/2 in Drive sleds we mentioned earlier
assuming that's the case screw in the fine threaded M3 screws from the bottom
with the label up and the connectors facing the rear repeat these steps until all of your drives are installed if your
case is an older design with fixed mounts as is common with extreme budget
builds then you'll need to angle the drive into place and then line it up on
the rail with the connectors facing inside of the case yes it is as messy as
that sounds when you line it up two mounting holes for course threaded 632
screws on each side should be visible through the cutouts and while some cases
give you some leeway from counting it further forward or rearward you're
limited to these holes a lot of people neglect the screws on the other side but
you're not like them are you you're not one of those no of course not I mean if
you need to mount to 2.5 in SSD this way
that's fine they don't have any moving parts and they're not all that heavy so
you can even just like double-sided tape them to wherever you want if it comes to
that but heavy 3.5 in hard drives need
to be screwed in properly at least if you want them to last for any period of
time you're probably wondering how the computer talks to these drives at this
point and that's where the data cable comes in Serial ATA has made things dead
simple and most motherboards will come with cables for it in the Box sometimes
they'll have locking tabs on them to keep them in place while installing them
they'll kind of clip in automatically but to remove them you need to press down on the clip to pull it out
regardless as to whether or not they clip though they're key in an L shape
that makes it very obvious which way is the right way to insert them line the L
and the cable up with the L and the drive and just plug it in making sure
it's flush with the drive then route the cable through to your motherboard sounds
simple but these are stiff cables that
are tough to Cable manage so you may need to get a little bit creative when
hiding them especially if the corresponding connector on your motherboard isn't facing the edge like
this and instead sticks up like this like the usb3 connector you'll want to
be careful while cable managing these if you accidentally overdo it you can break
off the L block on the drive rendering it useless unless you've got some pretty
mad soldering skills I mean I guess it's not that difficult but oh you don't want
to do it anyway go ahead and connect the other end of the cable to the drive now
you should check with your motherboard manual which Port you're plugging into because some may actually share
bandwidth with PCI Express devices especially m.2 drives so you may either
get worse performance or completely lose the ability to use these ports in those
circumstances it's worth mentioning that you'll sometimes get Serial ATA cables
with right angle ends and some with straight ends uh what gives with that well right angle
is usually cleaner for hanging off the back of a hard drive that's installed in
a removable tray like this while straight cables are almost a necessity
for 2.5 in ssds mounted on a dedicated tray behind the motherboard or anywhere
else they mount flush with the case they're way cleaner this way and
depending on the orientation it may not even be possible to connect a right
angle connector on one of these drives so saving the straight ones for flush
fitting drives is a good idea what's that other connector for though power
we'll get to that soon but first this is an excellent time to wire up any case
fans you might have and for builds with liquid coolers this is where those come
in if you're going to use a fan controller then you should find a
centrally accessible place for it to go usually they'll come with an adhesive
backing so you can just find your own spot for it and hook it there just don't
cover up any holes or cable management holes if you can help it we'll deal with
the power for that later for now let's get to the fans themselves whether
you're replacing EX existing fans or installing new ones you'll need to pay
close attention to the direction the fan will blow some people prefer a balanced
approach to airflow with equal number of fans pulling air in than pushing it out
while others prefer to have more fans facing in resulting in a slightly
positive pressure environment inside of the case combined with filtered intakes
this can help control dust and debris the opposite negative pressure is not
recommended regardless you want to have a direct path for air to travel with
fresh FR air being pulled over your hottest components so ideally drawing
Air at the front and bottom and exhausting it from the top and rear also
make sure you don't have any intake and exhausts on the same side how you
install the fan will be determined by what the fan is going to do if the fan
is strictly for case airflow then it's as simple as lining it up with the
correct set of holes in the location you want it and screwing it in with these
chungus fan screws or little rubber doodads like these ones be sure to keep
the fans cabling clear of the blades and Chassis while you do this and it's
optimal to have the fan cable sticking out of the corner closest to the fan
header that you expect to use it with usually towards the back panel it helps
to not tighten down all the screws until they're all at least a little bit in and
you'll want to do opposing Corners first to stabilize it so that it doesn't slip
around on you while you torque in the screws some cheaper cases by the way
might warp while you do this leading to the unfortunate situation where your fan
blades will brush against the chassis which is both irritating and not great
for air flow you can try to bend out the metal but the best solution in this case
is to undo the screws a little bit or better yet find something to use as a
spacer rinse and repeat for every fan you need to install if these fans are
part of a liquid cooling setup then your radiator is going to go in now and you
can put away those chungus fan screws in favor of Slimmer but potentially even
more chungus screws where the radiator goes is up to you some people like to
have it exhaust air out the top of their chassis While others like to have it
pull cool air through the front but at the end of the day you're probably going
to put it wherever it fits best which is usually in the top of the case now from
a performance standpoint it doesn't really matter whether your fans pull air
through the fins or push air through the fins but what it does affect is
maintenance I always recommend installing fans in a pull configuration
that allows easy access to the radiator to clear off dust for Aesthetics you may
decide to take a different path but just remember that in 2 years when you're
taking your whole cooler apart so you can get the cat hair out of it I
freaking told you another important consideration is that aiio coolers are
quieter and last longer if the combination pump and coal plate is below
the area where the tubes connect to the radiator you want to make sure that any
air that might be trapped in there Rises to the top and that top is not your pump
this isn't as much of an issue for custom Loops because the pump is usually
going to end up at the bottom of the case anyway but if you didn't know this
now you do put your pump down low lining up the radiator with fans on the outside
is a major pain in the butt which is why some fans like arctic's bionics can
daisy chain together with a bridge connector which helps hold them in place
regardless you want all of your cables to be clear with the fans and the
radiator pinching them here and having to redo the whole thing sucks line
everything up like so and then use these long screws to secure Each corner then
the other and then Each corner of the fan until you've got them all secure if
you're lucky your case will let you detach the r rator Mount and make it so
much easier by just doing the whole thing on a bench and dealing with the
completed assembly after it gets much
more Awkward with a front panel Mount where you need to basically hold the
radiator and fan together like this and screw them in one at a time so they
don't just fall around everywhere again if your case lets you remove this
bracket your life will be so much easier another key benefit to a pull
configuration is that it usually allows you to screw all the fans into the
radiator Ahad of time then Mount the radiator to the case using these little
screws now we're not going to revisit cooler and thermal compound application
at this time please go back and refer to that section from earlier if you need to
and don't forget to check your manual as many all-in-one coolers have their own
little installation quirks like for example the inclusion of a dedicated
pump power plug or an extra USB connection for controlling RGB lighting
or even a little built-in screen or an integrated fan splitter that's
controlled by the aiio through software I'd recommend using that by the way if
you you got it because it'll let your pump and your fans work together when
they need to cool your CPU during a heavy gaming session now let's power up
the rest of our fans if you want them to be controlled by the motherboard you'll
either need to plug them into a Fan Hub that is plugged into your motherboard
some cases include these by the way or directly into the motherboard itself
either individually into their own headers or using Splitters now depending
on how many fans you have you may run out of fan headers on the motherboard
and you might need to use wi Splitters they won't harm anything but they do
tend to look a little Messier most of the time time there's at least one case
fan header to the lower left of the CPU socket and there are usually at least
another two on the lower right edge of the motherboard but motherboard
manufacturers do strange things sometimes so if you can't find your fan
headers of course check your manual plugging them in is the same as any
other fan like we already did for the CPU just align the tabs on the cable
with the tab on the board cable managing them though can be a bit of a challenge
for the exhaust fan next to the io panel you can usually run it through and
bundle it up against the motherboard's io section for a clean look but intake
fans can be trickier still do your best with it RGB wiring can also end up
really messy look at all the cabling that requires hope you like cable
management most of this can be hidden behind the motherboard tray temporarily
we'll come back to this later for now step 12 power supply if you're counting
this has been many many more steps than 12 and you're probably sick of wearing
that anti-static strap well good news
it's time to get the power supply in to ground the whole dang computer if you've
been following along your power supply is already out of its box and connected
to the wall go ahead and disconnect it now turn your case around and look at
the power supply cutout are there thumb screws if so remove those to free the
back plate this plate and plates like it sometimes make it a little bit easier to
install later the orientation of the power supply determines which screw
holes you'll end up using and the ideal is to have the fan facing downward
pulling air up through a filtered intake at the bottom of your case if there is
not an intake there you'll want to mount it fan up unless you want to starve it
for air flow and spoiler alert you do
not want to stve it for airf flow begin plugging in your power supply cables if
you've got a modular unit now the end for the power supply will usually have a
PSU marking to tell you where it goes first grab the power connectors for your
GPU if you haven't already it'll be some combination of 1 to three six pin or 8
Pin connectors or it might be one of those new fangled NVIDIA 12 pin
connectors in which case you'll need to grab the adapter included in your GPU
box if your power supply didn't come with one it's worth noting that these
daisy chain connectors and six plus two pin connectors aren't inherently bad
it's just preferred to use individual cables with actual dedicated conductors
for each pin if possible once you're satisfied with your choices clip them
into place and Route the cabl somewhere accessible for now it's time to install
the PSU itself if you've got a back plate go ahead and attach it to your
power supply Now using coar threaded 632 screws most of these back plates are
going to have enough clearance to put in all four screws but if your switch gets
in the way for example don't stress you can put in three screws it's going to be
okay once it's secure feed the wires through the power supply mount on your
case and Slide the power supply into position it's at this point that you'll
want to connect your 12volt CPU cables to your power supply if you've got a
modular unit next if you've got a back plate all you need to do now is tighten
the thumb screws but if you're raw dogging it this is where you'll screw
the power supply into the back of your case pay attention to which of the mounting
holes on the case have screw threading from the power supply behind them though
it is very easy to make the mistake of accidentally screwing into one of the
honeycomb shaped holes that are for ventilation on the back of the power
supply that is not actually secure if
you don't have a modular power supply handling the 12vt CPU cables will be a
little trickier at this stage but if you got small hands or a high pain threshold
you can make it work line up the tabs and click them into place make sure that
they're in there before moving on by the way because if you really can't get in
there there is no shame in pulling off your CPU heat sink temporarily now and
putting it back on when you're done at this point the instructions are the same
between modular and non-m modular power supplies it's time for your 24 pin ATX
connector separate that cable from the others and fish the cable out through
the nearest Cable Management hole to your motherboard's 24 pin connector from
here it's just like before line up the tabs and press it in until it clicks
with that done you can use the peripheral cables to wire up power to any drives or fan controllers you have
installed in your system usually these have just enough spacing between the
connectors to line up neatly with hard drive stacked in a bay like this
plugging these power cables in is the same as plugging in the SATA data cable
just line up the little l-shape and press it into place these ones usually
don't have locking connectors though so make sure it's on straight before moving
on this will also tell you if you've accidentally half connected it upside
down which is a thing that you can do even today you'll need to occasionally
install these Molex connectors instead of SATA power connectors and they're a
bit of a pain because of how big they are but on the bright side they're
really difficult to install wrong you can also use them for just 12 volts and
5 volts to connect up to your projects if you really want to they have a
beveled Edge on one side and they fit quite snugly so much so that'll
sometimes push the pins out of things like fan adapters if this happens slip
the pin back into place it should just clip in there then try again just be
patient and line it up correctly finally your power supply might have come with
with a button like this one this is usually for hybrid fan control in the
out position the fan will only power up while load or heat levels are high
enough while in the in position the fan will just always be on there's little
reason to have it in the in position unless you're counting on your PSU
contributing as a case fan so just leave it out for lower nose levels but wait
did I say finally there's still something we haven't plugged in yet the
GPU if you're lucky enough to have one that is
or if you're watching this in the future when the Great silicon shortage SL skulp
apocalypse is over if that's you then now is the time for the centerpiece of
any gaming PC first you need to figure out which slot you should use for ITX
motherboards it's going to be obvious the slot the one you get but things get
a little murkier the larger you go as a rule of thumb the topmost slot is
usually the best it's almost always connected directly to the CPU for
maximum bandwidth and you'll often see this pointed out in your motherboard's
manual as well once you've determined the right slot you'll need to remove the
corresponding slot covers usually by simply removing the screws that hold
them in place but on some cheaper cases you'll need to break them off instead
and if if so be careful it's simple
enough to do you can push it down with a screwdriver and then finish the job with
your fingers but if you're too aggressive you could slip and when it finally snaps off that's a bad
time um I've gotten bit by cheap cases
before and uh it there was there was a mess for a
while be patient and just use a gentle
up and down motion don't twist push or pull it'll come free before long just
just fatigue the metal and it'll just come right off now that the covers are
gone make sure the tab at the end of the slot is pushed back if there is one then
line up the card with the slot and press it in it should slide in relatively
easily and the clip at the back will snap shut once it's all the way in next
line up the GPU's bracket with the holes on the case that used to hold in those
slot covers and use the screws you either removed previously or retrieved
from your accessories bundle to secure it into place a course threaded 632
screw is usually the right one for the job here if you're not too sure but some
cases are a little bit different if you have a multi-lot GPU and you find
yourself with only one screw for some reason put it on any other slot than the
top one for best results you still have all your screws though right by the way
this is the GPU section but what you just did should work with any PCI
Express expansion card unlike most cards some big gpus might sag a bit even after
you've secured them into place and some cards even come with adjustable anti-
sag brackets or spacers that you can sit on the bottom of your chassis this isn't
strictly necessary but it just keeps everything looking nice and reduces the
risk that something will break if you move your PC just slip it into place and
Slide the bracket up until it's holding your GPU at the right height then tighten it so it stays there other
Solutions may involve drilling into your case or some cases even include a sag
bracket on their own now it's time to run power to your GPU we already
determined which cables we need and how many when we install their power supply
so grab those and Route them through the appropriate Cable Management hole according to your preference some people
like to come in from behind the GPU and others like the cables coming straight
up from the basement like me whichever you choose you should make sure you have
enough slack to get them into position and that it's clear of all the other cables to simplify your cable management
just like with the 12volt CPU connectors PCI Express connectors are key to only
go one way although a six pin cable can be inserted to an 8 pin connector if
you're not careful this won't harm anything but the GPU will probably
complain and prevent you from booting if you tried regardless of how many pins
you're looking at just line up the tabs and click them into place if You' got a
6 plus2 connector make sure it's coupled so all the pins are flush and the two-
pin wire can't move once it's all plugged in congratulations you've just
finished building your PC except you haven't really finished not quite yet if
you've been following the guide up until now congratulations it's h been a
marathon and also you should have reasonably well-managed cables at this
point but they're all going to be kind of loose and not very tidy on most
modern cases you should at the very least have little Hoops to slip zip ties
to to provide a solid anchor for the cables that are running all around your
case the platonic ideal of cable management is a single trunk of cables
where little branches come off and go wherever they need to go with no overlap
unfortunately cables are finite in length so unless you pre-measured and
picked up some custom length cable mod cables or something you'll almost always
have to improvise we've actually got a full video on cable management that you
can go check out here but for now let's get to
tidying troubleshooting is a whole other kettle of fish but here are some quick
things that you can do if you don't get any output and you're sure that the
power supply and the outlet it's plugged into are both switched on check all your
cables first these are the most likely culprits then check your RAM and your
expansion slots to make sure that they are properly seated if your PC is
powering on but you're not getting any display make sure you've plugged your
monitor into your graphics card rather than into your motherboard directly you
can also check the diagnostic LEDs on your motherboard ASUS has a little stop
light that goes along with this where red means CPU orange means memory white
means GPU and green means good others might have LEDs that light up for each
section of the motherboard that's been initialized as well you just might have
to look them up in your motherboard's manual to figure out exactly which codes
and which numbers and letters correspond to what one of these codes is 0 if you
get this one you should try reting your your CPU and firing it up again if your
system simply isn't powering on but is getting power you might have a short
this is an annoying problem to diagnose but the most common culprit is an extra
standoff between the motherboard tray and the back of the motherboard or some
errant piece of metallic something sitting bridging two pins if you're
still having trouble you can always hit up the linest tips.com Forum to get more
help now that you've got the ufi bio setup screen the very first things you
should do in order are check your CPU temperatures check that all your RAM is
showing up and check that your storage is showing up if all of that looks good
then you can continue on otherwise you'll need to power down and reat your
cooler memory or storage devices until they all show up one unintuitive thing
is sometimes you might have some memory that's not showing up and it's actually
caused by your CPU not being seated in the socket correctly so you might have
to reseat that and with that your PC is now built whoa hang on your RAM's not
running at the right speed what's up with that time to adjust some common
settings first things first you should enable XMP also called docp or memory
overclocking this will set your memory to the timings and frequency rated on
the package rather than the defaults and is almost certainly what you want unless
you're running ECC memory next check the status of the multi-core enhancement
setting this is usually an advanced option if it's even present on your
motherboard but turning it on can improve performance at the expense of
heat and vice versa stock operation is with this setting disabled but if if you
have a beefy cooler you might want to use it to get a little bit more oomph
out of your Hardware most other settings can be left at their defaults although
if you're installing Windows 11 you should make sure to enable the TPM and
secure boot modules and disable the compatibility support module or CSM
exactly how to do that varies by vendor so check your motherboard's manually to
be sure finally your operating systems installer should automatically boot
after inserting the flash drive but if it doesn't you can usually hit f8 or F12
on the first boot screen to bring up a boot menu and select it that way if it
still doesn't show up there go back into the UEFI settings and make sure that the
Legacy USB devices setting is enabled you shouldn't have to enable this under
normal circumstances but sometimes having it disabled is enough to disable
USB storage alog together most operating systems should just boot at this point
now your PC is built Big thanks to seic
for sponsoring this video this is easily the longest video that we have ever done
and quite frankly if they're paying by the word they've got a big Bill headed
their way hey good thing they make great
power supplies so they can sell lots of them to people like you and afford to
pay us to sponsor more videos like this we're going to have links for more
information about their products in the description down below thanks for
watching guys if you're looking for something else like this to watch you
absolute mad freaking Lads you then
maybe check out one of our classic build guides that's really how we wanted this
to go but then we kind of got off the rails a little
bit let us know how we did once you're done watching by the
way you're rolling right y sick