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Draw your curtains and lock the door because in this historic and groundbreaking build guide,
we indulge your every guilty pleasure,
even your secret desire to see the old kitchen set one last time.
Welcome to the $2,500 gaming RGB build guide.
It's all RGB, all the time.
Deal with it.
We'll start as always at our safe, clean, static-free workstation by
whipping out all the tools we're gonna need.
A magnetic multi-bit screwdriver and a parts tray are for screw management.
A pair of side cutters and needle nose pliers are for cable management.
And these shoes ...
These are for party management!
Okay, but getting serious.
I always recommend plugging your components in and powering your system up once
outside of the case to verify that the system posts or powers on and outputs to a display.
You can use your motherboard box as a free, non-conductive test bench.
So our CPU choice shouldn't surprise anyone.
There's nothing to be afraid of. The CQ30 is going to bring usиком件事情. So, this is just the first time we've used it.
There's nothing to be afraid of. The CQ30 is going to bring us impedance. So, this is just the first time we've used it.
Nothing RGB about the Core i5-7600K from Intel, but it's great for gaming, it's unlocked for overclocking,
and it offers more performance per dollar than any other Intel chip, as we outlined here.
For content creators, you might want to switch over to the i7-7700K,
and everything else in this build will still be hunky-dory.
So lift the retention ARM like so, then, holding the CPU by the edges,
identify the corner with the gold triangle, align it with the blunted corner of your socket,
place it in with no force,
give it a little wiggle, lower the cover, and fasten the retention ARM again.
The plastic cover should pop off all on its own.
Put that somewhere safe, just in case you ever have to RMA your board.
There are a few options available for RGB RAM, including Corsair's Vengeance RGB series,
and
the Shield RGB from new kid on the block, Zadac 5.11.
But for this build, we chose a 64GB kit of Trident Z RGB memory from G.Skill.
Unlike the competition, each DIMM sports five individually addressable LEDs,
and G.Skill built-in ASUS Aura Sync support, so you can configure RGB waves and animations
to your heart's content,
which is a great way to get the best out of your GPU software.
Pull back the tabs on all four RAM slots, then,
position each DIMM so the notch on the bottom lines up with the notch in the socket,
and press firmly until the tab on the end snaps back into place on its own.
Rinse and repeat.
If you're only using two DIMMs, go ahead and just use the gray slots.
So as for the case,
we looked at a bunch of options across
and noticed a bit of a trend.
The more you pay, the more RGB lights you get.
So then, which case has the most lights per dollar?
The answer is clear.
You can't have more than Infinity,
and that's why we chose the InWin 805 Infinity.
It sports tempered glass side panels,
and the front uses RGB strips and mirrors to create an Infinity Hall effect
that looks even better in real life.
Better in person than it does on camera.
And, it's Aura Sync ready to boot.
Now, the front of the 805 Infinity is completely impermeable.
So for supplementary cooling,
we're going to be using a three-pack of 120mm HD RGB fans from Corsair.
Pull both tempered glass side panels off,
and stash them, using both hands, somewhere safe.
Preferably, right back in the box,
where they're not going to get knocked over.
You'll need to set aside the thumb screws,
and the rest of the included hardware at this point as well.
After that, install your nine motherboard standoffs,
here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
And then, we're going to swap out the rear exhaust fan.
This little arrow indicates the direction of the airflow.
Place the fan with the leads toward the top of the case.
Then, you can turn your attention to the bottom.
To remove that drive cage,
take off the magnetic air filter,
pop off the rubber feet, and stand, and these screws.
Being sure, of course, to stow your drive cages somewhere safe,
in case you need to, oh, I don't know,
add an RGB hard drive down the road,
when and if they become available.
Then, use the included hardware with your fans
to install the two remaining RGB fans,
with their leads oriented inward towards the motherboard.
Before finally, replacing the case stand,
and snapping on the air filter.
Choosing the motherboard took a bit of shopping.
We decided to go with ASUS,
because we wanted our lighting effects
to be as fully synchronized as possible.
And at the time of writing,
their Aura Sync RGB ecosystem offered the widest compatibility
with third-party products.
But that wasn't the end of the journey.
ASUS offers a pretty extensive lineup of Aura Sync motherboards.
In the end, then, we chose the motherboard, which is the Aura Sync RGB ecosystem.
The Aura Sync RGB ecosystem is a Maximus IX hero,
with its discreet and neutral black PCB.
It's got two included glow zones,
both the PCH and the IO plate are lit,
two auxiliary RGB headers to support all the chaos we're about to unleash,
and support for NVIDIA SLI.
More on that later.
One shortcoming of this motherboard, though,
is that it only has a single USB 2.0 header.
And our case, cooler, and RGB strip,
and our case, cooler, and RGB strip,
are all fighting for that precious real estate.
So for an extra 25 bucks,
we grabbed this internal USB hub from NZXT
and taped over the white LED to keep it from harshing our RGB vibes.
Press firmly, then, in all four corners of the IO shield
at the back of the case until they snap into place,
then set the motherboard into place and slide it back,
run the cable for the SLI bridge behind the board,
and plug it into this header here.
Then, use the included screws with the case
to fasten the motherboard to the nine standoffs.
Now, while we have easy access to the board,
is a great time to plug in everything.
You can plug the 8-pin CPU power connector in
to make cable management slightly less nightmarish later.
Then, you're going to want to do the front panel connectors
for the power and reset switches,
and the power and drive activity LEDs,
the front USB 3 and HD audio,
over here,
and an RGB strip way up here.
We used double-sided adhesive to mount our internal USB hub right here,
then connected it to the motherboard using the 9-pin USB 2 header here.
Finally, we'll connect power for our three fans
using the headers here, here, and here.
We chose a big old 280 millimeter radiator for this build.
Corsair's H110i should help back up the power,
and balance out the thermal impediments imposed by the case design that we referred to earlier.
But much more importantly than that,
it glows in every color of the rainbow.
Inside the H110i box,
we have two different mounting backplates.
This is the one we'll be using.
Mount the backplate to the back of the motherboard indentation side up.
If the fasteners don't immediately align with the holes in your motherboard,
don't freak out.
Their position on the backplate,
can be adjusted.
Fix the backplate in place using these included standoff screws.
Then leave this area alone for now,
and move over to the radiator cage,
where we'll remove the case's radiator mounting bracket
by unscrewing these two screws,
setting them aside for a moment.
To assemble our cooler,
we have three components that we need to fasten it together,
using the long screws that came with it.
The radiator,
our recently freed mounting bracket,
and our Corsair HD140 RGB fans,
which we're going to use instead of the boring corporate slave ones that were included.
Arrange and screw together these components,
such that the fans are closest to the center of the case,
the mounting bracket is closest to the front of the case,
and the radiator is sandwiched in the middle.
Be sure to orient the fans,
so that they pull fresh air in from the front of the case,
and blow it towards the motherboard,
with the fan leads against the motherboard tray for optimal cable management.
Place the completed unit inside the case,
the fan leads should be passed through the side of the case,
the radiator should be hidden behind the front panel,
and these little legs on the mounting bracket should nest inside these receptacles.
With everything set,
fasten the mounting bracket to the case again,
using the screws you set aside before.
Now finally,
connect the pump and block to the CPU.
Start by removing the plastic cover that protects the included thermal compound,
then place this mounting bracket over the block,
and align it with the standoffs you installed earlier.
Then use the included thumbscrews to secure all four corners,
being careful not to over crank them.
Plug in the included mini USB cable,
then run the pump power connector,
and the two fan power cables over to the rear of the motherboard tray.
Connect the fan power leads from your HD 140mm fans,
to those leads coming off the pump,
plug the nine pin USB connector into the hub,
and you're good to go.
Now, RGB power supplies do exist.
Thermaltake actually has a whole lineup of them.
But if we got one of those,
it wouldn't sync with the rest of our fans,
and gosh darn it,
this is Linus Tech Tips.
So what did we do?
We voided the warranty,
of a Corsair RM650X,
and swapped out the fan for yet another Corsair HD 140mm.
To be clear,
this is a really janky solution,
and we wouldn't recommend it.
The fan leads didn't have the same number of pins,
the screw holes didn't line up at all,
and it is very easy to get shocked,
or even killed,
if you open up a power supply.
So, if you want a non Thermaltake RGB PSU,
write your local congressional representative,
or ask Corsair to make an official one.
Because space is tight
between the power supply interface and the fans,
we're going to plug everything into the PSU
while it's still loose,
and then mount it once everything's connected.
You already ran the eight pin connector
when we cheated a bit on the last step.
So now, plug in the 24 pin connector,
being cognizant of the space you'll need
behind the motherboard tray for cable management,
and then plug in two SATA cables,
and one four pin Molex cable,
and run them through the cable management hole here.
We'll use the Molex to power our USB hub.
Then, plug in your PCI Express connectors,
and let them hang out here.
Slide the power supply in grill side up,
so it sucks hot air out of the case,
and exhausts it from the back,
where you'll use four screws to fasten it to the chassis.
Our drive selection for this system,
was a no brainer,
because at the time of planning it,
there was literally only one option.
So when our new friends at Zadac 511,
graciously offered to provide us
with one of their Shield RGB 240 gig SSDs,
which according to ASUS's website,
are compatible with Aura Sync,
though we haven't been able to get the two talking just yet,
we said, yeah boy!
This case has a few options
for two and a half inch drive ports,
and you can choose to use one of them,
or you can choose to use one of them,
and we'll talk about that in a bit.
So let's get right into it.
So we've got our drive placement,
but we chose to put ours here.
Though I can't help but imagine how awesome it would have been
to have two of these puppies in RAID over here.
Attach the drive to the mount,
using four of these small screws,
and then slot them out onto the chassis.
Plug in one of the SATA power connectors,
keeping it in the ASUS family.
For our video cards,
we went with their ROG Strix GTX 1070,
a big card with big disco appeal.
But what could be better than this bad boy,
crunchin' numbers and blastin' rays?
How about two of them?
Crunchin' numbers and blastin' rays,
connected by this totally lit AF RGB SLI bridge.
Bam!
I'll be honest,
this thing right here,
is the sole reason that this build uses SLI.
I mean, how could we not?
You're welcome.
Start by taking out these PCI slot covers.
Then, align the first card,
carefully with the motherboard's PCI Express 16X slot,
and the openings on the back of the case.
Push the card in firmly,
until the tab snaps shut.
Then, put the case screws back in,
lockin' that sucker down.
Repeat these steps,
for a second card.
Then, plug in the 8-pin PCI Express power connectors,
that we plugged into the power supply earlier.
And now,
it's time for the crown jewel.
Connect the two video cards,
with the SLI bridge.
If you put it on backwards,
you'll know.
Then,
this cable that we sneakily ran under the motherboard before,
plug that into the SLI bridge.
That's gonna power its RGB lighting.
Onto lighting.
Our three pack of Corsair,
HD 120 RGB fans,
came with a fan hub,
which we can use to coordinate the colors,
on all six,
of our system fans.
The order matters here though.
You have to connect them,
in the order that you'd like,
certain color effects to be displayed.
We're going to attach our fan hub,
to a lighting node pro module.
Which we'll also use,
to power its four included LED strips,
and then we'll plug both of those,
into our second SATA power cable,
from before.
Finally,
we'll connect the node to our USB hub,
and as for a spot to mount both of these things,
yeah,
we'll figure that out after we,
clean up our cables a little.
Onto cable management.
Because both sides of this case,
are tempered glass,
we don't have the luxury,
of simply covering up,
our mess we made in the back,
with a bulging right side panel.
So we're going to try to run,
as many of the cables,
as we can,
around the perimeter,
tucking them into the inseam.
We'll also use black cable ties,
to bunch up,
as much of the clutter as possible,
and route it,
in as straight lines,
as we can.
So while we had to settle for,
two separate RGB ecosystems,
ASUS's and Corsair's,
inside the case,
at least everything on top of the desk,
is under one umbrella,
Corsair's.
We've got the K65,
10 keyless RGB keyboard,
the M65 pro RGB mouse,
atop an MM800 RGB mouse pad,
and finally,
the RGB void headphones,
which,
could use a little more RGB,
I think.
But forget about that,
let's get all this stuff synced up.
First,
we need to power on the system,
watch it spring to life,
and wipe the tears,
from our eyes.
It's,
beautiful,
but also untamed,
and chaotic.
We'll fix that later.
First, we need an OS.
To install Windows,
create a bootable USB drive,
then reboot the system,
while mashing F8 immediately,
to get into the boot device selection menu,
where you'll pick,
your USB drive.
Once the setup process has begun,
mash next,
until you land on the desktop.
Head to Intel,
NVIDIA,
Corsair,
ASUS,
and InWind sites,
to update your drivers,
and while you're over there,
you might as well download,
the latest version,
of the various,
lighting control softwares,
that you will need.
Yes,
that does seem like a lot of them,
and it is,
but the good news is,
Corsair has announced,
that they'll be consolidating,
Q and Link at least,
into a single software,
in the near future.
But even with our imperfect mish mash,
of different utilities,
we did manage to create,
a few cool things.
Remember guys,
the point of RGB,
isn't to blast,
rainbow unicorn barf,
into people's eyes,
at all times.
But with that said,
we do totally endorse,
that use case for it.
Most people like it,
for the flexibility.
So you can,
rock your favorite team's colors,
during the playoffs,
or get festive,
during the holidays.
So conclusion time then.
You know what?
I think it's pretty safe to say,
that now that our build is done,
I can't help but think,
gee,
could there ever be,
a more beautiful machine than this?
Probably not.
So it's time to turn the lights out,
and bask,
in it's outrageous,
rainbow dash wizardry.
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