even with all of the guides we've created over the years building a
computer can still be pretty challenging if you've never done it before wrong CPU
socket confusing case and what do I do
with all of these RAM slots our goal with this build then was to create a
gaming PC that is not only darn near
impossible to screw up but that you can
build yourself in less time than it would take to drive to the store and buy
a console Micro Center stepped up and sponsored us then to give you the
foolproof PC so grab a screwdriver
preferably one from LTT Store.com and follow
along after slipping an ESD bracelet over my
ankle we will start as always with the motherboard and ASUS R stricks b6i and I
can already hear you saying lus small form factor is hard
and you got to trust me okay an ITX
motherboard might not have as much room for expansion but it also has almost no
room to screw up which memory slots do I
use the only ones where do I get it
Microcenter obviously see easy the Box
will serve as a handy build surface just unlatch the retention ARM and pull it
open then Orient your unboxed LGA 1700
CPU using the Golden Triangle on the CPU and on the socket cover or by lining up
the notches on the top and bottom we went with Intel's Core i5 12600 K
because it offers great gaming performance and we like the value that
those efficiency cores bring to the table for multi- threaded workloads once
it's in give it a little wiggle to make sure it's seated correctly then push the
lid down until the top latch grabs hold of the lid push the retention ARM down
you got really Giver here and tuck it under its holder the socket cover should
pop off on its own set that aside in case you ever want to RMA or sell your
motherboard the next step is to install our SSD a Samsung 980 Pro it is pricey
but Samsung regularly performs very well in pits reliability reports and it's a
really fast drive that can truly take advantage of PCIe Gen 4 capacity as
always is a personal choice but since we only have two m.2 slots we decided on a
2 tbte model so you won't need to upgrade right away unless of course
you're a data hoarder in which case make sure to get subscribed so you don't miss
our upcoming video about who's the biggest data hoarder at LMG and what
Solutions everybody uses both slots on
this board are Gen 4 so there's no wrong answer but both have slightly different
installation methods the rear slot goes in like this and needs this screw from
the motherboard box to secure it I prefer to use this one for now since
this slot is going to be harder to access when it's time to upgrade when
that time comes the front slot is under the motherboard armor take out these
three screws a number one Phillips will do the trick then lift it off and set it
aside peel off the film covering the thermal pad and slide in the SSD until
it clicks into place push it down and check this out ASUS calls this m.2 Q
latch and it makes SSD installation as simple as rotating this little plastic
dad love it at this stage you can just
not bother putting the armor back on if you want to save some time it's really
unlikely to affect performance but if you like the look peel the film off the
underside place it over the drive and screw it back down into place now for
the CPU heat sink the LGA 1700 socket is
still pretty new so any cooler that's been sitting on the shelf for a year
might not include the right Hardware but if you reach out to nocto with proof of
purchase they will send you a free mounting kit this is a potential extra
step in our foolproof PC but thankfully
this kit makes it impossible to screw up your Mount we went with the nhu12s for
its excellent performance compatibility and ease of use also it's available at
Microcenter but another solid option the community seems to really like is the
Scythe mugan 5 rev B pick up your motherboard with one hand by the io
shield and push the back plate into place through these holes it's
symmetrical so the only thing that really matters is that the holes correspond to where the screws are
sticking through the socket so easy right place the board back down on top
of the box Slide the plastic spacers over the bolts
like so then install the two mounting bars over top of the spacers with the
bars curving outward finally we'll use the thumb nuts to screw down our four
corners to keep everything in place when it comes to thermal compound don't
stress nocta includes a non-conductive
non-capacitive paste with all of their coolers so it won't hurt anything to put
on some extra for these longer LGA 1700
CPUs we're going to go with the thin line down the middle technique and it
can be about the width of an uncooked grain of rice then remove the fan from
the heat sink by pulling out these two wires and place the heat sink over the
two mounting points and tighten it down until the screws bottom out honestly
that was the hardest part but if you still think that all of this is too
difficult Microcenter has technicians who can put everything together for you
for a $150 build fee the leave Hardline
water cooling for an upcharge let's move on to RAM ddr5 installs exactly the same
as ddr4 and we only have two dim slots
so you can't put them in the wrong one we've also chosen lower spec ddr5 to
ensure that we don't run into any instability or compatibility issues when
enabling XMP we also considered the size of our modules you might choose to
mostly follow our parts list but maybe you change your cooler for example these
Corsair Vengeance 5200 megat transfer per second CL 38 modules will fit in
just about anything push down the tabs on the top end of the dim slots then
align the notch of your memory module with the notch on the slot Slide the
first module into the rails then guide it to the bottom and press firmly with
two thumbs until you hear a click on each side do it again for the second
module and then you are all set now that
our memory is installed we can attach our fan to our heat sink with the side
clips like so then plug the cable into the gray fan header at the top this is
your CPU fan header and the one directly next to it is the aiio pump header we'll
get to our case selection in a second but for now since we know that it comes
with two case fans we're going to use a handy y splitter and plug it into the
chassis fan header up here near the CPU power connector if you don't want to pay
the extra few dollars that's okay you can use the pump header for your second
chassis fan it just might require a little bit of extra configuration to get
it to properly ramp up and down according to your system temperatures
all right remember when I asked you to trust me small form factor is hard but
we're not building small form factor our biggest trick today is the Jake tyy
special putting an ITX board in an ATX
case specifically the h510 flow from
NZXT ah so much room for
activities okay we're going to do this in sort of a weird order but you'll
thank me later starting with our power supply yes I know fully modular power
supplies are a super cool upgrade for experienced Builders but while it's hard
to put cables in the wrong way it's not not impossible and it does add extra
steps so we went with an EVGA 700 GD
it's rated for 80 plus gold efficiency and outputs a bit more juice than we
need today with some to spare for the reportedly power hungry upcoming RTX
4000 series let's grab the only three cables we actually need for our build
now the ATX 24 pin CPU 8 Pin and PCIe 8
Pin we'll take the others that we don't need like these SATA and Molex cables as
well as these extra PCIe cables bundle them together and and forget about them
for now put your power supply close to your case like this then take the 8 Pin
CPU cable and feed it through the cutout at the top give yourself as much slack
as possible for now we're going to clean that up later while you're up here feed
the rear exhaust fan cable out through that same cutout this next step can be
done with your case standing which will make the CPU power cable easier to
manage but if you're more comfortable resting your motherboard on the standoffs and then screwing it in with
two hands rather than one that's perfectly okay either way we're going to
take our CPU cable in one hand and the motherboard in the other and bring it
close enough that you can plug in the CPU connector by pushing this Cable in
with the clip pointed out if you're not using the Y splitter for fans plug in
your chassis fans now as well then as you place the motherboard on these four
standoffs align the I/O no Shield installation for us our board comes with
one pre-installed and gently push it into place our ITX board fits perfectly
on the pre-installed standoffs and I promise you that using these screws to
secure the three corners here here and here and then resting the last one on
the pre-installed Center Post will be fine but if you're truly worried feel
free to swap out that post with any of the other standoffs using their handy
standoff tool now remember that y splitter we plugged in earlier tuck the
ends of that cable out through the same cutout as your CPU power connector and
then plug in the front and rear case f we can now wire up our case iio since
we're in here and this is why we chose NZXT the power switch reset switch and
power LED are all properly grouped together for us so we can plug them all
in at once I mean I get it Universal
compatibility with the broken out ones that's pretty cool but most modern
boards are the same and man is this ever a timesaver USBC goes here usba goes
here both of them are keyed so they only go in one way then we're going to take
our HD audio and stretch it across our board so it can rest snugly between our
GPU and our CPU Cooler now it's time to push your power supply
into the basement through the side get your ATX 24 pin and PCIe 8 pin out of
the way then you can tuck all those extra cables out of sight so roomy run
the ATX 24 pin up the side then out through any of the nearby cutouts and
plug it in it's keyed to only go in one way then the PCIe cable comes up through
the basement and we can leave it hanging there for now next grab the four screws
included with your power supply and secure it here here here and here at
this point if we were using integrated Graphics we'd be ready to rock but the
GPU shortage is finally settling down Microcenter has lots of stock mostly in
their stores to help reduce online scalping so we chose an EVGA RTX 3060 XC
it's a great match for our 12600 K and being a Twan card in a case this size it
is a breeze to install remove the two
top slot covers from the case then put them with your case hardware and keep
those two screws grab your GPU remove the PCIe protect ctor as well as
whichever display out covers you'll need and if you're an office I would suggest
laying your case down for an easier time here line up the slot with the connector
might have to wiggle this around a bit to get it just right and push it down
until it's seated you can check if you're done by trying to spot the case
holes through the rear bracket like this or by checking the PCIe lock to make
sure that it's engaged and we are in business now we
just need to screw it back down and plug in our last power connector a little
like so and that's it following this
guide you could conceivably complete this PC in 10 to 15 minutes and I'm so
confident that it's going to work I'm going to put the panels on before I
power it up you can check out all the products that we used by the way in the
links down below while we get Windows installed and get some games fired out
blah blah BL this is a fantastic gaming experience
Doom Eternal is not the most difficult game to run but anything that can do
Doom Eternal 1440p 130 to 150 FPS is going to be
having a pretty darn good time in just about any AAA game that has at least
some reasonable level of optimization and the craziest part of all this is
gpus are finally coming down to prices that you could conceivably actually
build this thing I love it right we have struggled so much to make videos for the
last two years this is great so whether
you want to build it yourself or just pick out something you know has good
parts rather than rolling the dice on a pre-built you can find everything you're
looking for at Microcenter they've got a great selection of products
knowledgeable Associates to help you when you're shopping and plenty of
products available in store not feeling social you can place your order online
and get your products fast with their 18-minute inore pickup options they've
got fantastic prices 25 Us locations
with their own service and repair department so you can avoid shipping RMA
products overseas and if you're a new customer well microser wants to offer
you a free 128 gig USB flash drive and a
128 gig micro SD card check out the link in the video description new customers
only no purchase necessary limited time offer valid and store only limit one coupon per customer if you guys enjoyed
this video make sure to check out the build stream that we did recently for a
solid budget build that was also sponsored by Micro Center right yeah
yeah it was