Highspeed PC Tech Station Assembly Guide Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2012-05-07
·
2,303 words · ~11 min read
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okay guys this will be my installation well rather assembly guide for the
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high-speed PC uh XL ATX top deck tech
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station that I have for my personal use now or well rather my tech tips use so
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I'm going to show you guys step by step what to do the first thing is you will
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need a Phillips head screwdriver they recommend a powered one but I don't have
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one so I'll be using this one next you should compare all the parts included
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with the reference in the instruction manual here to make sure that
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everything's included if it's not there email support at highp speed pc.com all
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right finally you can get started you
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should clear a desk give yourself room
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and yeah that's pretty much it okay so
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step one assemble the testbench
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feet for this step you will use the four rubber feet four stainless washers and
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four 1-in screws that look like this you'll position the
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feet over the mount over the uh guide
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holes right here position the screw and then you
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will screw them in until they just barely poke through you're going to
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tighten it the rest of the way later on when you attach the upright
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post I'm going to show you guys how deep I'm going to
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go so just about like that so where you
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have a little bit
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exposed the next step is pretty straightforward we're going to install
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the motherboard uh rubber standoff guys okay
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so basically you're going to screw these down tight enough that the rubber
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doesn't rotate anymore but not so tight
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that the rubber starts to pucker because if you drive down tight enough you can
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put the screw right through the Rubber and you may ruin the rubber standof now
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for a couple of the holes so invariably
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this one up here which is going to be the top of where your motherboard is
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mounted and uh all the way through there
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we go and then uh sometimes this one
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sometimes this one and sometimes this one you're going to put these two nylon
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screws and then you're going to hand thread
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down a rubber standoff and this is to
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hold the board in place cuz the threads
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on these guys here hopefully I can get this see the threads on here we'll keep
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the board from slipping off okay so just hand tight on there so you put it here
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for matx here for ATX and here for uh XL
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and
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hptx so I'm going to show you guys quickly this is what it looks like if
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you overtighten it see how it starts to
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flare out at the bottom so I'm just going to untighten that one and put it
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back right where it's supposed to be there can't turn the rubber can't do
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that okay and finally see these little nuts right here I never ever used them
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but in theory after you put a motherboard on you can screw this on to
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hold the motherboard in place more permanently next step is to install the
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fan bracket so we're going to use these little guys and we are going to do fan
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one first please Focus please Focus
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there we go so you just flip this guy over put it like that and then drive the
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screw into the this is going to be the bottom
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of the top deck so you can see the nylon washers poking through here so that is
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where the back of the motherboard will be on the other side of this piece and
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just like that these ones I do pretty tight just because uh I'm often doing
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weird stuff like hanging radiators off them and whatnot uh don't do them super
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super tight right now because you're going to want to have a little bit of give when you're installing your fans
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and then you can uh crank it a little bit later then you just repeat that
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process for fans two and three
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respectively for this next step the hard drive stopper you will need the spacer
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the stopper right there it goes right there so just to show you guys I have
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the fans on now already and you will need the slightly longer screw that
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looks like this put that in there and then screw it
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in the next step is installing the hard drive rails so my older Tech Stations
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don't come with the option for 2 and 1/2 in but the new ones do so regardless you
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put in this one so so you can see you use a nylon spacer right here you use a
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screw and then you use the plastic rail which is going to hold on to the drives
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like this see like so so you'll either put your 2 and 1/2 in drive in there or
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you'll put your 3 and 1/2 in drive in there okay hopefully you guys can see
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that now it is imperative that you don't overtighten this screw right here like
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you see this doesn't move much remember it's not holding up the world it's just
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holding up a couple of drives so you make sure it's not moving around but I
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can still spin the water in here or the nylon spacer in here freely so don't
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like crank it tight I'm going to do mine for 3 and 1/2 in cuz ssds are not much
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of a problem to just stuff between your optical drive and your power supply not
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to mention that if you drop an SSD while you're moving your TX station it's not a
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big deal and if you drop a hard drive it's pretty much dead this next step
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seems a little tricky but actually it's quite easy you take this piece right
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here which is a threaded bolt you push
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it through uh so remember this is where the back of the motherboard is where
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these nylon post come through so you're putting it through this very Corner one
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here and the Very Corner one here then what you do is you take your shorter of
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your two uh types of posts you put the
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hole at the top because remember that's where the uh expansion cards are going
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to eventually plug into and you thread this one on from the top and then you
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take a longer one and you thread it on from the bottom turning at the same time
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so you can see here's one that I've partially completed I'm just going to
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adjust my chest cam here so I can show you guys what I'm doing and I am
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twisting them both at the same time now high-speed PC mentions that it's a
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little bit tricky to ensure that this hole stays facing outward and that's
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very important so you want to tighten this one in all the way then hold it
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outward and tighten in the bottom one the rest of the way to make sure that it
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faces the right way because you want a nice snug fit between these otherwise
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your tech station is going to be loose when you pick it up for this next step
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all you need is the remaining two support posts and what we're going to be doing is
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we're going to be taking those screws that we threaded ever so slightly
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through the bottom platform and we are
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going to be screwing them into the support post so it's quite important
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while you're doing this to hold the post
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very snugly against the tech station
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please Focus Mr camera oh come on all
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right so here what I what I did was I held it between my
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legs focus
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focus thank you okay held it between my legs like this and then I use a
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screwdriver from one side holding it snugly and just screw that in like that
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you go until the foot compresses a little bit and then once that happens
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you want to do about a half turn so I think we're pretty much there holding
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the screw in place do about a half turn or even a quarter turn with the uh
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support stand itself to make sure that you've got a nice snug fit against the
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base it's starting to look pretty complete compl I have taken my bottom
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portion and I have put it down on top of the top portion just like this I'm
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lining up these screws that are poking through a little bit with the
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holes right there and then I'm going to tighten them down in much the same
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manner being careful not to overtighten through the feet so that the washer pops
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out you see the washer that's uh that's in there all right until I have a nice
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snug fit and then it's pretty much put
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together and all we're really left with is a couple finishing
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touches now I flip around the tech station one more time I put together
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this assembly where I have the final silver screws we don't really have any
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silver screws left a washer and a little cap to go over it and I'm threading
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those in well screwing those in to the
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final part of the two platforms that needs to be supported so I'm just going
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to go till I can see it sticking through a little bit line that up with the hole
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there you can see what I'm doing here okay and then I'm going to hold it snug
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and screw those in and it's pretty much structurally complete at that point so
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I'm just going to put some pressure here I'll do this on camera since I want to
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show you guys one of these finishing pouch
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steps all right so that's nice and snug then I just close up that little cap
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keeps that metal screw from being exposed and shorting anything out all right so now we're going to put that PCI
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support bracket on at the uh back where so here so you can
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see here's where the io of the motherboard is so this is where the
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expansion cards go please note that these holes are going to be closer to
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the motherboard rather than further away from it or the brackets on your PCI
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cards will not line up you're going to use two different screws for this one
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you're going to use a sharp one that goes into this post and then you're
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going to use a blunted
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one come on let's see focus focus
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whatever you're going to use a blunted one that goes up into this this nylon
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piece here so you're just going to use an L bracket position it right there and
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then screw them in completely so that it's nice and tight like I've done on
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this side here oh and last but not least for this
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piece going to put a little cap on there so it looks nice and finished you
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know there so I'm mounting my fans I'm
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putting my neoprene nonslip pad into the
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bottom of the tech station here so that's where I'll put my power supply
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all that good stuff so it doesn't move around once I put it down I'm also
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screwing in the fans so fans go in just like this now I
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person they provide a suggestion for how to mount the fans I believe fan mounting
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is very personal so you know maybe I want to take hot air away from the CPU
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area maybe I have a tower heat sink here blowing air that way and then maybe my
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graphics cards are installed in the lower slot so maybe I want to push coal
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there towards them whatever the case may be you can install the fans however
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suits your personal needs um the rest of the stuff I consider optional uh so
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these guys I mentioned before are for securing the motherboard down which I
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consider highly optional I'll just throw these away um also we have plastic thumb
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screws which there's no way I'll use I have my own thumb screws that I prefer
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that are a little bit easier to work with cuz the um I don't know they just
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cooperate with the threads better see these ones I have a little bit of trouble with I don't really like those
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um and then obviously we've got fan screws uh this is another thing that I
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probably won't do but if you have curious pets or children then it's
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definitely a good idea to install these fangu guards just like that okay so just
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screw those in from the other side just two screws is good enough to secure a
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fangu in place and have it not vibrate so I would just do it like that remember
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the whole point of this is efficiency and quick Hardware testing so there it
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is that is my assembly guide for the high-speed PC top deck tech station I
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