ULTIMATE AMD Value APU PC Computer "How To" Build Guide
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
6,477 words · ~32 min read
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w you guys have asked for it and we are
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delivering it this is our very first value oriented system build guide and
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our very first AMD build guide so we're
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going to be going through the usual stuff so that is best practices when
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choosing your components best practices when building your system and of course
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because we're going with an APU from AMD we're going to explain some of the
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benefits of an APU versus a more traditional CPU as always our
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configuration starts at the heart with the CPU actually this is an APU so a
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traditional CPU has General processing cores built into it that communicate
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with your system memory and do most of the things that your PC needs to do now
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over time this has begun to change and what an APU does is it integrates Radeon
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graphics course and what AMD is really calling direct X11 discret grade
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Graphics into what would normally be a traditional CPU so in addition to the
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four traditional CPU cores in here we've got a bunch of radon cores that are
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great for running games and for other
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applications as well so for example
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rather than just being good for games integrated Graphics can now be used to
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accelerate open CL compatible applications and in the transition
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towards HSA or heterogeneous system
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architecture which is a way of saying that all of the processors are not going
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to be differentiated the same way that they use to so okay well this is a CPU
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and this does this and this is a GPU and this does that instead they'll be able
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to work together to reach a goal at the same time rather than you know say for
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example waiting around for each other to do work until it becomes their turn to
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work on the same task it's going to amount to better performance for your
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system overall although it was a little
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bit complicated to get the whole thing going because we needed Hardware support
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and software support and it's all got to kind of happen at the same time now for
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our system we chose the A10 6790 K which
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is a new model we chose this because of its great balance between price and
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performance and the fact that it includes very powerful Radeon graphics
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so lower-end apus will tend to have less powerful Graphics in addition to less
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powerful CPU cores so for some of the open CL demos that we're going to show
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you this is going to be quite important for your Apu system you may find some
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other very interesting choices with either lower prices or even better
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performance than this one so don't feel like this is the only option it's just
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what we went with to demo this platform for memory our usual considerations
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pretty much come down to well the size how much RAM we need and then how many
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channels we need it to run in whether it's dual triple or quad Channel however
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for an APU there are some special considerations speed becomes much more
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important because Graphics course that is the the radon cores built into the
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Apu require higher bandwidth for Optimal
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Performance than traditional CPU cores do so we went with 8 gigs of AMD's radon
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series memory in a dual Channel configuration for our value optimized
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config but another option if we were willing to sacrifice some performance
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particularly in gaming and opencl applications now for better
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upgradability in the future would be to get a single 8 gig stick and then throw
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another 8 gig stick in later on down the line and run it in dual Channel then
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because our motherboard only has two slots now why did we go with AMD memory
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frankly there is no difference in terms of performance between AMD memory and
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some other memory that's running at pretty much the same speed and timings
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the key difference here is compatibility because AMD is the one building the
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memory controller that's on the chip itself and they're the ones validating
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the memory for it you know that it's going to work with that said there are
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many other reliable memory Brands out there and if you buy something from you
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know Kingston or Corsair or who whoever else there's I mean there's a very very
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slim chance that it's not going to work it's just what you're comfortable with
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they have several series of memory including their entertainment performance and gamer series modules and
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you can find a capacity and speed that's going to work for you pretty much
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regardless of your needs and your budget we went with a very value oriented
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option for our motherboard in order to demonstrate the potential well cost
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effectiveness of an APU based system with some of the lower cost apus and a
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motherboard like this if you don't need want much in the way of expansion and
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you just want performance for your dollar it's pretty hard to beat it I
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mean this one right here this is the fm2 a55m dgsr 2.0 from ASRock doesn't have
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many Frills it doesn't even have USB 3 for example but it only costs about 50
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bucks you can take small steps up in terms of features and robustness you can
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add USB 3 here and better audio there all the way to fully featured gaming
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grade boards like this one but I guess the point of all this is that the
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choices up to you so this is a G1 sniper a88x it's a fully overclocking ready
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gaming ready Crossfire supporting motherboard on the fm2 plus socket which
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is going to have support for upcoming cavar apus and so everything in between
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this and this totally exists so let's be clear about the power
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supply and case choices we made here there are much less expensive options
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you can spend about a third of what we did on a case that has a bundled power
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supply that will fit all this stuff and it'll probably work just fine at least
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in the short term it's just that that's not
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necessarily the only way to go about it so we wanted to show off what you can get in terms of a case with great
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ventilation great compactness and very reasonable build quality for about 40
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bucks with the fractal design core 1000 But ultimately the choice will be up to
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you with a value oriented build a lot of the time the difference between 20 bucks
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and 40 bucks is a lot so it'll come down to whether you're going to be doing any
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upgrading in the future and you want that expandability whether it's worth
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the additional investment as for the Standalone power supply you
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versus using the bundled power supply that might come with a case um we never
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recommend using that bundled power supply even if it came with your case
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throw it away and get a real power supply you never know what's inside them
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and just because it says 400 watts on the outside doesn't mean that it's
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actually capable of outputting 400 watts only use bundled power supplies if
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they're from a reputable brand like antech for example for our PSU we went
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with a seic 400 wat OEM unit seic is
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great they build quiet reli power supplies and are often available for
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less than other brands this one right here has nothing special about it on the
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outside with non sleeved cables and like
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an ugly metal housing but it's like the Millennium Falcon it's got it where it
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counts nice quiet 120 mm fan nice solid
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weight to it which is usually a good sign for a power supply because it means
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there's actual components inside versus it just being a metal box and of course
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80 plus bronze efficiency is still something we care about because it can
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be an indicator of the quality of the components inside storage is always a
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tricky one for us to talk about and there are a couple of options here so
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for 60 bucks you can get a wd blue one
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tbte drive which has mediocre performance and decent capacity it's one
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tbte but you could also spend a bit more
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and get something else so you could either get a wd black one TB which will
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give you better performance and still good capacity
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or you can get a Kingston v310 gig SSD
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if you don't mind planning for a quick upgrade to your storage because that
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will give you Lightning Fast performance but only 120 gigs of storage which isn't
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going to be enough for you know massive video collections or a bunch of games or
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anything like that so we opted for the blue drive just because we wanted this
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to be a pretty inexpensive rig but I wanted to talk about those other options
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as well talking about graphics with a computer like this is another tough one
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because we set out to build a good allround performer and to do an APU
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build guide here and because an APU has decent onboard Graphics there's no
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compelling reason to add a dedicated graphics card unless we were serious
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about gaming now if we were serious about gaming there are some fantastic
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options out there in terms of Graphics so for example we've got the r7260x that
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is fully supported by our motherboard by
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our power supply and by our case thank
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goodness for custom rigs right the actual ability to be able to upgrade
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them is awesome and adding something like this will take our gaming
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experience to the next level there are however a couple of reasons I can think
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of to go with an APU out of the gate even if you do intend to upgrade to a
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graphics card later because remember guys there are AMD CPUs on the fmx
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platform that are a little bit less expensive so if you were to put a graphics card right in you might not
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want to do that okay so number one reason is maybe you're not sure how much
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you're going to gain the Apu this one right here will handle Battlefield 4 at
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720p with medium details so at least this gives you the opportunity to play
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it and make a decision later on down the road about whether or not you want to
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have a graphics card and it is less expensive to go for an APU versus a CPU
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than it is to just buy the graphics card outright number two is maybe you just
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plain old don't have the budget right now with an APU you can get the system
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up and running and decide later so that's tied in very closely to reason
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number one reason number three is maybe
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the gaming aspect of the PC just isn't even for you you can still benefit from
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the Apu from a compute perspective more on that later and the system will at
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least be capable of having a little bit of oomph when you know the grandkids
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come to stay for the weekend and they bring a couple of their games with them
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for example the last thing you want is a situation where it just flat out doesn't
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run the Apu is not going to give you nearly the gaming experience as a
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dedicated graphics card like this but at least it brings the system to within
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gaming capability range without costing a whole lot more onto our peripherals
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choices we went with the h236 lb for our
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Monitor and the mk120 for our keyboard
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and mouse I mean the Logitech mk120 is nothing special it's very inexpensive
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but a cheap mouse and keyboard we can kind of live with especially if we're
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not gaming and especially when you consider how much more you really need
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to spend to to get a great keyboard and mouse so we'd be spending probably
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another you know 10% of our total budget
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on something like a k 30 from Corsair
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and an M40 from Corsair which would deliver a great gaming experience and
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actually most of the performance of even higher cost Solutions than those ones
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but just is a little bit more than we're willing to spend if we're not gaming but
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now if you're serious about gaming and you do opt for the GPU upgrade for
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example then maybe you can add something like that later on down road for the
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monitor though I really believe that you should purchase a monitor more like a
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piece of furniture everyone benefits from a better monitor it's less
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fatiguing on your eyes and things just plain look better they look like the
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content creator wanted them to look like
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the the great thing about monitors is that unlike something like a graphics
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card where you buy it now and it runs all the games really great and then two years down the road it's doesn't run
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anything very well anymore a monitor performs as well as it does pretty much
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throughout its lifetime so if if you buy a good monitor you'll be looking at a
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good image 5 years from now and if you buy a lousy monitor you'll still be
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looking at a lousy monitor 5 years from now so we went with an IPS monitor
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because the experience is so much better
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it looks better and it really just doesn't cost that much more when you
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consider how long you might keep it but this is a very personal thing look at
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your desk how long have you had that monitor if it's more than 3 to 5 years
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and it's lived through a couple of full system upgrades and you skim last time
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maybe think about getting something a little nicer for yourself this time
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around on the other hand if it doesn't bother you at all then that's great but
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I personally find it very frustrating particularly with uh for example low-end
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TN panels when you're in something like an email application even and the red
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versus unread messages are difficult to distinguish from each other because you
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can't tell the difference between pale yellow and white that that drives me
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crazy and a better monitor makes that a non-issue for our OS Windows 8 is the
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obvious choice for a machine like this because it actually provides better
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performance on an APU versus Windows 7
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this is getting fairly well documented and I'm interested to see how things
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continue to progress in this direction in the future well it's time for the
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actual building now so start with a safe
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static free workstation as always an anti-static strap I like to keep mine on
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my ankle to keep it out of the way cuz I find when it's on my wrist it just get
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caught on things and I'm more likely to make a mistake and then beyond that all
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we really need for assembly is a multi-bit screwdriver now I always
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recommend building the system outside of the case to ensure that there are no
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issues with something getting shorted out and to make sure that everything is
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already working before it's all jammed
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into a case and it's difficult to swap things in and out and troubleshoot it
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the motherboard box makes for a very handy non-conductive test bench however
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this is a very very comp mistake don't use the antistatic bag that's on the
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outside of your motherboard on top of the box okay once the power is actually
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applied to the board some of these bags have conductive outer Coatings and can
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actually short out the board if it's powered on so guys just to be very very
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very clear when the board is not powered on
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on top of static bag okay when the board is powered on on top of rather on top of
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anti-static bag not optimal I would rather have it on something like a piece
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of cardboard like the top of the box so we're going to start with CPU
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installation first carefully remove the CPU and heat sink from the box the pins
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on the CPU are extremely fragile AMD has
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the pins on the processor not in the socket versus their competitor so we're
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going to leave the CPU inside the plastic shell while we determine the
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correct orientation next we're going to lift up the retention ARM on the socket
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then align the small Golden Triangle on the corner of the CPU with the small
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plastic triangle on the corner of the socket finally we're going to place the
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CPU down onto the socket until it falls in on its own we don't push the CPU into
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the socket with any kind of force just give it a little wiggle to make sure
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it's in there okay and once that's done you can lower the retention ARM and your
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CPU is installed in the socket just a couple things to consider when you're
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putting the heat sink down on the CPU number one is to make sure that the
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metal Clips on either side of the heat sink are positioned correctly to hook
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over the bracket around the CPU socket and number two is make sure your fan
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wire is as close as possible to the CPU fan header that is usually labeled on
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your motherboard so first now that it's in position is to take the clip that's
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on the side that does not have a plastic
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ARM on the heat sink and put it over the bracket around the CPU socket then turn
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it around and this metal clip does have a plastic retention ARM so we're going
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to go ahead and put the metal clip onto the CPU bracket then take the ARM and
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turn it pretty much a full 180° this
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requires a little bit of force until it locks into place finally guys take your
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fan wire and I recommend twisting it up a little bit here so that the wires
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don't spread out and get into the way of everything and then plug that into the
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fan header which should be again clearly labeled now please note guys that I
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recommend better CPU cooling than the
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Box cooler that's included if your objective is to have an extremely silent
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computer or to run Beyond stock speeds by overclocking your processor neither
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of those things are very appropriate with our config here and a better
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motherboard would be required in addition to better cooling to make that
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possible DDR3 installation is simple
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especially in a motherboard that only has two slots so you don't have to worry
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about which ones are right for dual Channel operation or color coding or
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anything like that all you do is take the modules and align the notch in the
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module with the little notch in the socket open up the
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clips position the module in the socket then push down firmly on both sides it
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should be noted guys that we're installing gamer Edition memory from AMD
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and we had talked about using more value optimized memory in this system don't
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worry the way high-end memory works is it's just rated at being able to operate
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at a higher speed what we're going to be doing for performance numbers later on
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in the video is turning it down manually to simulate what you'd be able to get
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with entertainment class modules hey now
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we're ready to start putting stuff in the case so first we're going to remove the two side panels by using the handy
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dandy thumb screws that come included on this case then we're going to take those
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side panels and put them somewhere safe where they're not going to get lost
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speaking of keeping things safe and not losing them a really handy trick that I
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use all the time is when you take out a screw put it back where you got it so
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that you're not going to lose it so all those thumb screws can go back into the
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case once we've taken off the side panels just don't get confused when
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you're trying to put the side panel back on you're going like oh why doesn't it fit back on oh there's a thumb screw in
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the way so I've I've definitely done that before uh next thing just another
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sanity check type item is take your IO shield and make sure that it matches the
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motherboard and that it is oriented correctly before you go ahead and
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install it into the back of the case by aligning it and then firmly pushing in
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all four corners until it is poking through a little bit and sits in place
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without falling out so the thing about a power supply with no packaging is that
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it doesn't have any screws included or anything like that don't worry guys it
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doesn't matter in spite of the fact that the handy dandy box full of mounting
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hardware that comes with your case doesn't list power supply screws on the
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back of it they are indeed included and they look a little something like this
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the next step is to take your power supply and decide on the orientation
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when you put it into the oh wait no because we have a top mounted power
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supply in this case we only have one orientation that it goes in with you can
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actually see that there's only one set of screw holes so the reason for that is
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that while on a bottom mounted power supply case you can decide to pull air
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away from your graphics card area or to pull air through what is normally a
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filtered intake on the bottom of the case with a top mounted case if we flip
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this power supply around it would have no where to draw air from because the
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top of the case is completely solid so it's for the safety of the power supply
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itself that it only has one option another handy thing about this
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orientation is that our cables are now at the back of the chassis where it's a
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little bit easier to Route them and manage them behind the motherboard tray
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so all that's left is to slide it into position and then do up the four screws
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that we pulled out of that unlabeled box and that's pretty much it the power
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supply is in to install the motherboard in our case we're going to need the
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little brass standof as well as the little black screws with the tight
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threads on them that are required to actually secure the motherboard to the
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standoffs now before you put the standoffs onto the motherboard tray in
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the case you're going to want to make sure you're putting them in the right place because there are some options
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depending on the kind of motherboard you have so we have a fulllength matx board
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but it is narrow so we only actually require six standoffs all we got to do
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is hold the motherboard up and we can see which holes the motherboard
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standoffs need to go into so once we've determined that there are a couple of
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different ways to install them number one is if you happen to have one of
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these handy dandy little screwdrivers you can go ahead and install them with
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one of those but unfortunately this case doesn't come with one of them the other
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option is to install them by hand and then tighten them the last little bit
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with a pair of pliers or something along those lines once all the standoffs are
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in carefully position the motherboard over them but not touching them because
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you don't want to scratch the back of it I usually hold the motherboard by the
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heat sink itself cuz it gives me some something firm to grip onto that won't
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damage anything then inserting at an angle to ensure that we're not scraping
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the board across the standoffs as we put it in we go ahead and put the io through
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the back of the case then lay it down flat and put in at least one screw right
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away so that the board's not going to slip anywhere and slide around all over
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the place again we don't want to damage it finally finish up by installing all
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six of the screws that secure the board in place and that's pretty much it your
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motherboard is now installed with the motherboard physically installed now
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it's time to install all the wires and cables and connections because this is
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the point in the build where it's easiest to get at the allall so we're
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going to start with the 24 pin connector this is the large thick connector with
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well 24 pins it only goes in one way so if it doesn't seem like it's fitting
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turn that baby around and put her in followed by the what would normally be
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eight pin connector on a high-end board but this board really doesn't need that
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much power for the CPU it's very efficient so we can break away four of
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the pins and plug in the four pin connector above the CPU socket here that
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is followed by the front panel connectors so this is our power switch
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our reset switch our power LED and then our drive indicator led the power switch
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and reset switch the orientation is not important as long as you get them on the
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correct pins which are often labeled on the board but if not you can check out
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the motherboard manual that's in the Box whereas the power LED and the drive
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activity led the orientation does matter so make sure that the colored wires
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correspond to the positive pins on the motherboard the last one is the speaker
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this one the orientation is important as well so same thing colored wire to
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positive terminal and if you get any of those wrong in the first place and the
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lights or the speaker don't seem to be working don't worry about it just flip
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them around it's not going to damage anything next up we've got our front USB
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this case supports a single front USB 3 connector but unfortunately our board
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doesn't so we weren't able to plug that one in but it does support front USB 2
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so we just want to know where the pin is missing on the connector where the pin
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is missing on the header and then go ahead and plug that in front panel audio
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is installed in much the same way there's a missing pin in the brick and a missing pin on the board just like that
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you go ahead and plug that in and you're pretty much ready to rock the last thing
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now is the fan so there's a front fan in
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this case that gives us positive air flow inside or probably about neutral
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when you factor in that the power supply is going to be exhausting some air as
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well which is lots of air flow as long as we're running um you know integrated
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Graphics or a low-end graphics card otherwise I would recommend installing
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maybe a rear exhaust fan or something like that but since we don't have a rear
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exhaust fan we're going to use that space right there to manage some of our
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wires so because there's no room on the back of the motherboard tray on this
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case for cable management we are going to just kind of secure these wires to
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each other most important of all is getting them out of the way of the CPU
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socket area and the vrm area which is that area to the left of the socket so
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that you don't have any overheating in those areas and then making sure there's
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a little bit of clearance between them and the power supply so that there's no
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interference with the air flow that needs to happen there and then finally
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we're going to do a little bit of you know strapping together of these wires
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at the front to make sure that that front fan has an unobstructed airflow
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path to the inside of the case for the hard drives we need very specific screws
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ones that have threads on part of them and then just a straight part that
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actually goes through the rubber grommets that are pre-installed in the
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hard drive mounting plate that is positioned vertically in kind of a
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unique way so you can either put two three and 1/2 in drives on the rubber
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mounts or you can position three 2 and
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1/2 in drives such as ssds if you space
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them out correctly and you don't already have a 3 and 1/2 in Drive installed
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otherwise you can do 1 3 and 1/2 in and one 2 and 1/2 in it should be noted that
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there's also a converter up in one of the 5 and 1/4 inch Bays that can support
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either 3 and 1/2 or 2 and 1/2 in dries now one of the things I like about this
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case is how clever the hard drive mounting system is most people buying a $40 case don't need half a dozen hard
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drives so it's designed to not only well
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be targeted towards the right people yeah they're probably just going to have a couple drives but also deliver a great
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experience for those people by allowing much more air flow over the drives in
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order to keep them very very cool compared to most cases in this price
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bracket which are just going to have your typical standard hard drive cage in
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the entire front of the case that really obstructs air flow a lot so it's a it's
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a smart design that I quite like now in terms of actually hooking up the drive
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once we've screwed it into the plate we've just got our single 3 and 1/2 in
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Drive we're going to run a SATA cable directly from the motherboard over to
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the hard drive there's not a whole lot of cable management to be done given we've only got one drive then we're
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going to run a SATA power cable from our power supply down to the drive and then
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we'll do a little bit of cable management with them to get them mostly
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out of the way and that's it
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now I can't emphasize enough how optional this particular step is it's
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more of the kind of thing where after you build the system if you realize it's
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time for a graphics card go ahead and do this so all you got to do to install a
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graphics card again because this case and power supply and motherboard all
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support this kind of an upgrade is pull out the top two PCI slot covers by just
26:19
uninstalling the two thumb screws then position the graphics card in this case
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it's an r7260x over the PCI Express slot that's
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a 60 next slot push down firmly until it
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locks into place then screw the two thumb screws back into place and finally
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plug the PCI Express power cable into
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the back of the card now you will have noted probably that this card only has a
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single six pin PCI Express connector required in order for it to function but
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because this 400 W power supply is a good quality one and comes with two six
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plus TW pin PCI Express connectors we could actually go ahead and install even
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much higher higher end cards without any difficulty because we have that
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flexibility that we built into our initial
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system with the side panels back in place our system is pretty much ready to
27:10
be well fired up but there's still some software stuff that we're going to have
27:14
to do so we'll start with BIOS configuration go ahead and mash on
27:17
delete to get into the BIOS and there's a couple things to double check so let's
27:20
make sure that ahci mode is enabled for our SATA ports and also ensure that our
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components are all detected and our memory is running out the correct speed
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in this case we're simulating DDR3 16600
27:32
cuz that's sort of what would fit within our budget next up Windows installation
27:36
is a snap if you know how don't worry about the lack of a disc drive in this
27:40
machine installing off of a USB is as simple as finding a friend with an
27:44
optical drive copying all the files directly off your dis onto your USB
27:48
drive and then throwing that into the system booting from it and you're ready to install in a simple system like this
27:54
there's only one drive to install Windows to so it's pretty much click
27:57
click click click click name your PC click click click click and you're done
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the system will automatically reboot a couple times and you'll be dumped at the desktop now drivers are something that
28:06
many people struggle with once we're at the Windows desktop but it's not too
28:10
overwhelming if you break it down even devices that already have drivers
28:15
installed automatically from Windows update I would still recommend checking
28:19
the to make sure you have the latest ones from the manufacturer or website um
28:23
asrock's website should have the latest AMD chipset drivers land drivers and
28:28
sound drivers but it's never a bad idea
28:31
to double check by going directly to AMD site real Tech site or whoever else is
28:36
the actual manufacturer of the chip of the component that's on your motherboard
28:40
if you're having trouble finding a driver for something here's a trick that I use go to device manager rightclick
28:45
the component in question then go to details and use the drop-down box to go
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to Hardware ID Google the venore number
28:54
Dore number string and it will usually tell you exactly what it is and often
28:59
there's a link to where to download the driver so the conclusion of this video
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is not so much about the system but more about the future of the Apu on the
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desktop moving forward okay so amds made it very clear that AP is sticking around
29:15
and the evidence is starting to really increase to indicate that we don't
29:19
necessarily need the best CPUs to have a
29:22
great Computing experience if we can augment it in other ways so let's have a
29:27
look at how our system system actually performs starting with gaming in
29:31
Battlefield 4 at 720p with medium details it's as advertised it works it's
29:37
playable and of course we can add our 260x graphics card to it and all of a
29:41
sudden it's a great 1080p capable gaming machine but at least it functions out of
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the box other applications that can take advantage of the GPU that is built onto
29:51
the CPU the Apu so to speak are things like wiip or batch filter processing
29:56
scripts for Photoshop for example these were able to perform much better with
30:01
the Apu using open CL acceleration versus just relying on the CPU all of
30:06
this sounds particularly awesome and promising when we compare it to other
30:10
options available in the market like older PCS that are not able to leverage
30:14
their GPU compute in order to improve performance or things like gaming
30:18
consoles that are a little bit locked down in terms of their functionality the
30:21
value of a of a value PC I guess we we call it value PC but we don't often
30:25
think about it that way is you know the additional functionality web browsing uh
30:31
a vast number of supported apps um
30:34
upgradeability and all the things that we can change about the way we use it in
30:38
the future speaking of the future AMD's got some pretty exciting things coming
30:42
for the Apu platform including support for True audio better graphics and
30:45
compute performance with their upcoming cavar apus and the continuing evolution
30:51
of the processor technology that's on them towards HSA which is the equivalent
30:55
of having your CPU and GPU working together on a Google doc at the same
30:59
time to get work done versus them like making revisions to a Word document and
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then emailing it back and forth to each other then waiting for replies I I know
31:08
I actually already talked a little bit about HSA earlier in the video but they wanted me to use that analogy but I
31:13
liked my construction versus rowing one better so I compromised by putting them
31:17
both in whichever works best for you let me know in the comments and until next
31:21
time peace out guys and don't forget to subscribe here's some Glam footage of
31:24
our value AMD Apu system really hope you
31:28
you guys enjoyed the video like it if you liked it dislike it if you disliked
31:31
it leave a comment if you know something you know compels you to leave a comment
31:36
and as always don't forget to subscribe I think I already said that but I'm just
31:39
basically buying time here while you guys check out some of the Glam footage
31:42
of the system yay I'm now credits
31:58
a