seasonic may have sponsored this
exhaustive guide but we won't
specifically be recommending them today
because this is designed to give you the
tools to identify the patterns that make
for a good build not the exact
components themselves those always
change the process does not so without
further Ado how to build a PC step one
picking the parts to start you need to
ask yourself some questions what am I
going to do with this computer are you a
hardcore gamer you're going to want to
allocate more of your budget to your
graphics card and maybe CPU are you a
content creator maybe you can ease up on
the GPU a little bit and splurge on CPU
and RAM are you just using it as a
glorified Nas then you'll be looking for
a motherboard with lots of i o and a
case with lots of Drive mounts and maybe
you'll want to Splash out on a
specialized redundant power supply no
matter what your budget is this is the
question you need to answer before going
any further
so I'm Gonna Roll that intro while you
figure it out
[Music]
now that you have your answer ask the
question again but deeper what kinds of
games do you play Mr Ms gamer RPGs and
Visually complex games where exploration
and sightseeing are priorities mean
you'll probably want a high resolution
display for the best experience
preferably with HDR peripherals may not
matter as much to you and in fact you
may prefer to get a console controller
for some of your games rather than a
typical PC gaming keyboard and mouse do
you prefer hardcore competitive Shooters
though where every millisecond counts
well now you'll want a premium Mouse for
sure and maybe even a high-end keyboard
not to mention a high refresh rate
display even if that costs you some
resolution or some color accuracy the
games you play will also affect the
number of CPU cores you should get since
different genres of games tend to
utilize them differently A good rule of
thumb for future proofing your build is
to make sure that you have at least as
many cores as a current gen console if
you want to stream or record your
gameplay then maybe throw on two to four
more and make sure that you've got a GPU
with a high quality Hardware video
encoder built in as for the content
creators out there what should you focus
on well it depends on what you create a
digital artist might not need anything
special for a GPU but would definitely
benefit from a drawing tablet a musician
would want tons of ram to load up on
instrument patches and samples without
slowing to a crawl a video editor needs
at least a modest GPU a lot of RAM and a
butt load of storage preferably fast so
they can review their footage at full
quality a 3D modeler needs a reasonably
fast CPU and GPU for rendering a GPU
capable of real-time Ray tracing helps
tremendously in prototyping and previews
an engineer might sacrifice raw
horsepower for validated Hardware like a
Quadro GPU to ensure pain-free operation
a programmer wants a hefty CPU with a
lot of threads for handling frequent
compilation and a lot of ram to go with
it whereas a writer really only needs a
keyboard a decent display or two and a
qual water bottle to stay hydrated
ltdstore.com
is this a Nas or home storage of some
other sort if so what is it for Cold
Storage that won't often change like
backups ripped Media or game installs
won't need high speed to be usable
instead you'll want higher capacity hard
drives warm storage that changes
frequently like a document or photo dump
is where you'll want a balance of
capacity and speed hot storage like a
footage ingest or for use as a network
boot device will demand higher speed
increasing cost you may also need a fast
CPU depending on the scale of your
storage space adding additional roles
like Plex increases system requirements
so while slower computers can get by as
a basic file server you're going to need
to account for CPU overhead especially
for transcoding now let's talk about
form factor computers are available in
all shapes and sizes from complete PCS
the size of a pack of gum to entire
racks that contain only the storage for
a bank of machines elsewhere in the data
center the most common variants or form
factors are as follows ATX is your
classic it's the big beige box size it
usually features at least five expansion
slots and taller chassis you can find
these in mid Tower and full tower
configurations which basically just
indicate height full Towers tend to be
easier to work with but are much more
difficult to move around and find a home
for so they've been falling out of
fashion if you're not sure what to buy
an ATX form factor case can accommodate
any smaller size motherboard although
installing an ITX motherboard in one of
these seems more than a little silly
although maybe that is an aesthetic that
you want to embrace Micro ATX is smaller
than ATX with at most four expansion
slots and for most people that's totally
sufficient but you should always check
to make sure that you've got everything
you need you'll find some of the more
interesting case designs in this size
like these cute Cube shaped ones like
ATX you can fit smaller form factors
like DTX and ITX in here and it won't
look as silly if you do mini ITX and DTX
are the smallest mainstream sizes with
only one and two expansion slots
respectively these are the boards you'll
find in the tiniest builds and can often
pack impressive variety of features into
their diminutive size however their IO
can be somewhat limited and if your goal
is to go as Tiny as possible you'll
either want to get a couple of larger
builds onto your belt first or pay extra
careful attention to your case
manufacturer's documentation a DTX board
may fit in the ITX case but also may not
and if you have a larger GPU or cooler
it may not fit in your case of choice at
least not without some difficulty the
next big question is arguably most
important what's my budget if your
answer is anywhere from
less than I'd like to I'll take what I
can get then your best bet is often to
buy used you can find Off Lease Business
Machines available for a fraction of
their original price and as we've shown
a number of times in the past these can
be a great starting point for a new
build most of the work is already done
for you and many can be improved for a
relatively small budget another option
is to look for a previous gen Hardware
you can sometimes find killer deals as
retailers clear out old stock to make
way for the next big thing but this is
mostly applicable to used gear the good
news is that solid state components with
no moving Parts like CPUs rarely fail
and components with worn thermal
compound or bad fans can have those
repaired I nearly always start my builds
around my CPU and GPU because apart from
being the most expensive components and
therefore taking up most of my budget
they also dramatically narrow down the
other parts that I might select for
example I won't be able to buy an Intel
chipset motherboard if I use an AMD CPU
and vice versa and I won't be able to
use a small form factor case if I've got
a gigantic triple slot graphics card
when shopping for a CPU there are a few
things to keep in mind first is that
across brands or even different
generations of the same brand
specifications like clock frequency and
cash are not likely to be useful
indications of performance you can find
out more detail about this in this video
but that doesn't mean that you can
ignore them outright let's say you've
decided on a CPU series but there are
literally dozens of options obviously
choosing the best one is easy just sort
by Price high to low but is it really
that much faster is it worth it well
this is where the specs can help you
make direct comparisons between multiple
products in a single lineup take for
example Intel's core i911 900k this is
an 8 core CPU with 16 threads that runs
it up to 5.3 gigahertz that's the turbo
speed of course its base frequency is
just 3.5 meanwhile the core i7 11 700k
is also an 8 core 16 thread CPU that
only runs at up to 5 gigahertz meaning
that the real world performance between
these two chips is six percent at most
but with a price difference of over a
hundred dollars there's more to picking
a CPU than raw power however sometimes
you want integrated Graphics sometimes
you want more or faster PCI Express
Lanes and sometimes you just want less
heat and noise there's still debate as
to whether PCI Express Gen 4 really
matters that much to Consumers but the
fact is that Gen 4 is double the speed
of gen 3 on a per Lane basis and
likewise Gen 5 is double the speed of
Gen 4 on a perlane basis this means that
a CPU with fewer but faster Lanes can
avoid bottlenecks that otherwise might
harm performance it's worth pointing out
that some motherboards and chipsets
might differ in their PCI Express
version support so pay close attention
if your first Choices put you over
budget it's time to experiment in
Bargain Hunt for Intel users an F-series
CPU might be a good option option as
those lack integrated graphics and costs
a little less to buy while for AMD users
paradoxically buying the G Series CPUs
netsu integrated graphics and a decent
savings over the more expensive X Series
without sacrificing much performance if
you end up going back a generation or
two to make your budget work be mindful
of which CPU socket and motherboard
chipset you end up with locking into
something older might save you a ton of
money and still result in satisfactory
performance but it could limit your
ability to upgrade to a new processor
later on other parts work in much the
same way when the GeForce RTX 2080 came
out its price was higher than the cost
of a GTX 1080 TI while offering
effectively Zero Performance advantage
and a new headline feature that hadn't
even been used in games yet let alone
proven Savvy Shoppers were scooping up
1080 TI's for great prices left and
right and the only drawbacks ended up
coming later with more limited support
for software features like RTX voice
ambient noise cancellation and in the
longer term probably an earlier driver
support end date at least that's the way
things used to be as of writing the
world is in the middle of a silicon
shortage that isn't likely to let up
anytime soon soon and we're in the
utterly unique situation where many
discontinued gpus are worth more to
scalpers than their original MSRP
unfortunately there's little to do in
times like these other than to hold on
and if you absolutely must get something
today try to snipe a GPU at a retail
location or pick up an older GPU that's
not being scalped to heck and back so
that you can limp along while you wait
up the storm now as with CPUs you must
read reviews to evaluate the performance
of a graphics card do not be tempted to
draw a conclusion based on clock speeds
and memory do look out though for
features like Hardware video encoding
real-time Ray tracing support and
anything else that your game or your
application might be able to use take
for example dlss which increases
performance at a small cost to visual
Fidelity or the blender optics renderer
for NVIDIA and on the AMD side there's
the Fidelity FX Suite which has some
pretty cool stuff in it as well now if
you have a choice between two otherwise
identical gpus but with different
amounts of onboard memory or frame
buffer I would recommend the one that
has more but be careful that it's not
slower memory both AMD and Nvidia have
been caught putting large amounts of
crummy memory on entry-level gpus
sometimes even mid-range gpus seemingly
in an attempt to make them look more
enticing even if it comes at the cost of
extremely poor performance motherboards
are a contentious issue because it's
easy to go for the biggest baddest board
around but the reality is that unless
you're the kind of Master overclocker
who gets all their boards sponsored
anyway you're unlikely to see a big
performance difference between low end
chipsets and the higher end ones much
less between two models that use the
same chipset that's not safe just buy
the cheapest thing a lower end chipset
will usually have some artificial
limitations on things like Ram speed
overclocking ability or pcie bandwidth
amd's a series chipsets for example
don't support overclocking as of a520
and feature fewer expansion ports while
their B series and x-series chipsets do
have much more expansion including the
ability to bifurcate or split pcie lanes
for multi-gpu or high-speed storage
support the bottom line is that while
some people get bogged down on details
like voltage regulators and cooling them
the reality is that a mid-range board
with good user reviews that has all the
slots sockets and RGB ports you need for
other Hardware is the path of least
resistance and there's no shame in that
system memory or Ram can be both
straightforward and Incredibly deep
depending on who you ask and what you
plan to do with it it's usually labeled
according to three main values capacity
speed and timings the higher the
capacity the more concurrent tasks your
system can work on but the more memory
you have the more strain on your cpu's
memory controller which usually means
reduced frequency and increased timings
both of which are bad frequency
determines how often information can
travel from the memory stick or module
to the CPU and vice versa higher is
better while timings determine how long
the weight is for actual memory chips to
respond to a given request lower is
better it's important to note that there
are points of diminishing returns for
all of these attributes and that some
CPUs prefer certain memory frequencies
because they can lock their memory
controllers to match such as amd's ryzen
3000 and 5000 series CPUs which tend to
work best at memory speeds of 3600 or
3800 Mega transfers per second ddr4
after which point it's better to drive
down latency sees then go for more speed
and it should be noted most of the fast
kits on the market are overclocked
meaning both the memory modules and the
cpu's memory controller will be pushed
harder and with More Voltage than usual
ryzen 5000 and Intel's 11th gen core and
later CPUs support up to 3200 Mega
transfers per second ddr4 natively after
which you're in overclock territory
regardless of speed you'll want to buy
your memory and matching pairs for dual
Channel motherboards triplets for triple
Channel and so on and while you're at it
for best performance you'll want to make
sure your memory is also running dual
rank a rank is essentially one or more
memory modules that receive commands as
a group if all the memory sticks memory
is in one group that's single rank while
some larger memory modules come split
into two which is dual rank the
advantage is that while each rank has to
be accessed separately no matter what
they can still split the low between
themselves for better performance if
you've got a matched pair of dual rank
memory you'll get the benefits by
default but you can also install four
matched single rank modules for the same
effect if your motherboard has four
slots generally speaking larger modules
tend to be dual rank but you can use
really tell single Rank and dual rank
apart by one hour or two hour in the
model number one more thing to consider
for memory is error correction code or
ECC memory this has recently become a
pretty hot topic due to the per chip
error correction that's making its way
into ddr5 but there's a difference full
ECC memory has an extra chip that allows
it to detect and correct errors even
when the data is moving to and from the
CPU ddr5's error correction is only
making sure that the data inside each
chip is safe this lets ddr5 vendors
still offer overclocked memory kits
while you'd be hard-pressed to find
anything like that for a full ECC the
more robust nature of full ECC memory
meanwhile has made it a favorite for
servers and high-end workstations where
stability is key even if it comes at the
cost of some performance so if that's
you then you've got some things to
untangle first true ECC can come in
three flavors unregistered registered
and load reduced unregistered memory
also called udem is the same kind that
goes into to your desktop and notebook
PC so your CPU will access the memory
chips directly with nothing in between
registered memory also called rdim
includes a go between chip that the CPU
talks to that manages the data coming
and going from each memory chip load
reduced memory called LR gym takes this
one step further by replacing that
register chip with an ultra fast buffer
this buffer reduces the amount of
chatter required to communicate with the
memory allowing the CPU to access as
many as eight ranks per module that's
how servers can have multiple terabytes
of memory in them the trade-off of
course is higher latency don't go
thinking you can just mix and match by
the way consumer motherboards almost
exclusively accept udims and not much
else and while some motherboards can
support both rdims and LR dimms this is
no guarantee so check the manual for
your motherboard for information on what
it can handle before you pull the
trigger most motherboard manufacturers
will have manuals available online in
their support section storage drives can
be divided broadly into two categories
old school SATA and PCI Express based
nvme drives there are different
connections for both of these with this
being the most common for SATA and this
being the most common for nvme your
motherboard manual will include a list
of these ports that tells you exactly
how many you can install mechanical hard
drives are for bulk storage on the cheap
and typically use a SATA interface we'll
talk a bit more about these later solid
state drives or ssds are more expensive
but are recommended as a boot drive for
your operating system and for key
applications at almost any price point
due to their much higher performance
they are available with SATA interfaces
but have mostly gone nvme at this point
in the m.2 form factor remember that
term it means size and shape even among
nvme ssds there is an obvious broad
performance spectrum and with
Microsoft's upcoming implementation of
direct storage a premium pcie Gen 4 SSD
or greater might offer a clear
performance benefit but for most average
users and Gamers the main things you
want are a dram cache and some kind of
manufacturer indication of endurance
which is a measure of how many times the
drive can be written before the cells
wear out drives with short warranties
are probably best avoided and even
quality drives should be backed up
regularly now let's talk cooling
enthusiasts tend to instinctively
gravitate towards custom Loop liquid
cooling and this is usually the absolute
best you can get without going Sub-Zero
which isn't sustainable long term if
you're a coward but from a cost to
Performance standpoint it rarely makes
sense liquid cooling is a topic all in
its Health but the short version is that
your primary concerns are going to be
the water blocks and the total surface
area of your radiator setup generally
speaking surface area is King more fins
on your cold plate means more heat
transfer from your CPU and more radiator
surface area means the more heat you can
remove from your liquid or if you like
more silence the slower you can run your
many fans materials are less intuitive
though copper is the superior conductor
but it's more expensive than aluminum
when which might make you think you
could get away with copper for your GPU
and aluminum for everything else but if
you try to mix and match them it's gonna
be terrible I give you my Linus Tech
tips guarantee that galvanic corrosion
will ruin your day sometime down the
line you can try out those like you know
anti-corrosion mixtures don't do it
it'll be really bad some metals can be
mixed relatively safely here's a chart
of what's safe to mix and what's not
most people don't want to deal with all
that though and AIO Solutions are all in
ones are both cheaper and easier to work
with the general rule is that a 240
millimeter radiator will be fine for
most CPUs with only the most exotic
requiring a 280 or a 360. the main
drawbacks of aios is that they are more
expensive less reliable and offer
questionable performance benefits
compared to large Tower style heatsinks
that's why for most people we recommend
a large heatsink for hassle-free
long-term operation the only drawback of
these that due to their size some
consider them unsightly they're wrong
and they can be a hazard during
Transportation due to their immense
weight at the end of the day whatever
comes of your CPU is fine for most
people but it might run hotter or louder
than you want thermal compound for most
people doesn't matter as long as it's a
decent brand and it's not some just bulk
stuff you got off of wish but there are
a couple things to consider if you're
not going with the easy to use but not
thermally amazing graphite pads that
cover your CPU like a cozy little
blanket you're going to want to make
sure that whatever you get is
electrically non-conductive and the best
way to do that is to just look at the
label most companies exclusively carry
non-conductive compounds with the
exception being liquid metal thermal
Grizzlies conduct or not for example is
an actual metal alloy called gallon
stand that's fully liquid at
temperatures as low as 8 degrees Celsius
it's both electrically conductive and
potentially reactive with aluminum parts
like heat sinks and this reaction is not
a good thing well an aluminum oxide
layer is usually present on aluminum a
tiny scratcher scuff is all that's
needed for the gallium to work its magic
and turn your cooler into a crumbly mess
that doesn't even look real if you
decide to try liquid metal make sure
you're using copper or nickel plated
coolers if you're content with cheaper
traditional compounds then you've got
nothing to fear there are some things
you just shouldn't cheap out on however
power supplies are a major one while
early on it was pretty easy to figure
out whether a power supply was decent by
just looking at its 80 plus rating and
it is 80 plus gold that is the real draw
for this power supply Series right there
it is so easy to hit the 80 plus
standards these days but it's not really
a useful measure anymore the good news
is cybernetics lab has stepped up to
build a more meaningful certification
system that addresses both efficiency
and noise levels and hopefully more in
the future future beyond that the main
feature you need to decide if you need
is a modular interface it costs more but
as connectivity standards evolve like
the new PCI Express Gen 5 power
connector for example it means that you
have a chance of replacing just a cable
rather than using an adapter or
replacing your power supply and power
supplies have reached the level of
reliability that I wouldn't really
consider one with a warranty shorter
than five years now see Sonic even goes
as high as 12 years on their Prime
series power supplies like motherboards
and cases have different form factors
that you need to look out for though
this consideration is mostly important
for small form factor builds where the
sfx standard provides a smaller
footprint in order to accommodate tinier
builds while sfx defines a maximum depth
for a power supply that sort of makes it
look like a flat rectangle sfxl relaxes
this to a square shape and while it
doesn't necessarily offer more
connections you'll actually find that
usually the more powerful small form
factor units are sfxl and they have the
added benefit of using larger fans so
they tend to be a little bit quieter
just double check your case's
compatibility because not all cases that
support one can also support the other
another class of power supplies that is
grown in popularity over the last 10
years is DC to DC converter power
supplies these use an external brick
just like some monitors or your laptop
and then have a super efficient DC to DC
conversion hence the name that takes
whatever the input voltage is and splits
it out to all the voltages that you need
internally they tend to be fanless and
extremely small though it does come at
the cost of that external brick now
there are other esoteric form factors
like tfx that is often used in rackmount
servers but for nearly everything else
you'll be fine with an ATX form factor
power supply it's big it's chunky and
it's the standard that we've had since
not long after the Windows 95 days these
offer the highest wattages on the market
with the largest assortment of
peripheral and 12 volt plugs for CPU and
PCI Express devices and drives and all
that good stuff but buyer beware the ATX
form factor only specifies the width and
height of the power supply at the back
plate it says nothing about the depth so
you will need to take into consideration
whether your power supply will fit your
chosen case if it's not in the typical
Square footprint make sure you buffer a
little extra if you have a modular
interface because those plugs take up a
little bit more space now cases this is
where builds can get very interesting
there are options that can be found for
as low as 20 on sale and there are
options costing well over 10 times that
much or a hundred times who cares just
keep going if you want something truly
unique we've already gone over the
different major form factors but even
Within These constraints there is an
incredible amount of variety out there
because picking a case on its own is so
personalized and situational we're just
going to go over a few basic things to
keep in mind while picking one out first
and foremost is airflow regardless of
whether you're after a quiet rig or an
extreme cooling rig you're going to need
airflow and there's no no substitute for
a mesh front panel counterintuitively
they tend to even offer better acoustic
performance than closed front panel
cases because the fans don't need to
ramp up as high not everyone is into
that aesthetic though so vendors like
Corsair have come up with options with
glass front panels instead with spacing
and even extra intakes on the
motherboard side panel to keep things
looking pretty while maintaining solid
airflow secondary to airflow should be
ease of maintenance if your case has
great airflow but it's a pain to clean
once it's sucked a bit of dust in you're
gonna have a bad time removable dust
filters and easily accessible front
panels help tremendously with
maintenance and most good cases will
come with these features finally
expansion what you get will depend on
how much of what kind of stuff you want
to cram in plain and simple then beyond
that it should ideally be well laid out
for cable management and open enough
that it's easy to work in of course you
won't have any cooling without fans so
what do you buy there are several
considerations here including the Fan's
diameter and bearing type whether the
blade is optimized for airflow or static
pressure and of course whether or not
has a dressable RGB bearings are what
let the fan blade spin freely so the
better quality of the bearing the more
efficient and less noisy a fan can be
there are three major types sleeve
bearings are cost effective and quiet
but tend to wear out quickly because
they rely on a lubricant to keep them
going higher quality sleeve bearing fans
can last for years thanks to better
seals but that lubricant will expire and
once it does so does the fan
sleeve bearing fans are also designed to
run vertically to prevent the lubricant
from pooling making them unsuitable for
use in the top or bottom of cases ball
bearing fans are far more reliable and
much more expensive to match but they
tend to be louder because they utilize
actual physical ball bearings to
overcome friction instead of a lubricant
this also means they're much more likely
to survive high temperatures than a
sleeve fan so they're common in servers
and other reliability first environments
more advanced sleeve style bearings
called fluid dynamic or hydrodynamic
bearings are positioned as a bridging
gap between traditional sleeve and ball
bearing fans while their mechanisms are
similar to sleeve bearings they're
typically filled with pressurized oil
and higher quality seals than a regular
lubricating grease not all fans that use
these bearings are good but noctua for
example exclusively uses their SSO
series bearings which are hydrodynamic
and very well regarded I think corsairs
are also pretty good too there are other
bearings like maglove which use magnetic
levitation for effectively zero friction
and are thus extremely quiet long
lasting and they also cost significantly
more than other types of bearings of
Corsair famously has a maglev series of
fans in their ml lineup but they tend to
have fewer RGB options and cost
significantly more than their other fans
regardless of the bearings fans tend to
get graded on two major criteria static
pressure and airflow with some designs
leaning further one way than the other
corsair's SP and noctus P series fans
are optimized for static pressure the
higher the static pressure the more air
that can be forced through a restrictive
filter or fins of a radiator or heat
sink on the other side of the spectrum
of Corsair is AF and noctua's a series
are examples of fans that are optimized
for Pure airflow so don't put it in
front of your radiator but at like the
back of your case with no obstructions
they're really great for that you'll
often run across different diameters of
fans ranging all the way from demand
negative 40 millimeters all the way to
Behemoth 200 millimeter and Beyond as a
rule of thumb the smaller the fan the
faster it needs to spin to push the same
amount of air as a larger one and the
faster a fan spins the louder it will be
which is why I have 120 to 140
millimeter fans have become the go-to
thanks to the amount of air that they
can push while being relatively quiet 80
and 92 millimeters used to be
commonplace in older computer cases and
you can still find mounts for these in
some small form factor Rigs and on
smaller air coolers like noctua's u9s
thickness is another thing that can vary
and again the thinner the fan the less
air it can push at a given noise level a
full-size 92 millimeter fan for example
will actually push more air with more
pressure than a 120 millimeter slim fan
you'll only really want to use thin fans
for small form factor builds where you
have absolutely no alternative then
there's the connectors some fans have
three pins on them and some of them have
four what gives with that well
practically speaking they both work the
same but the three pin variant speed is
controlled by changing the voltage being
delivered to the motor the four pin
variants on the other hand use a control
scheme called pwm which means that the
motor exclusively receives 12 volt power
but it gets it in bursts so it's rapidly
turned on and off depending on the speed
that is requested by the user in short
pwm fans tend to be more efficient and
offer finer control over their
rotational speeds but it's more
important to match your fan type with
your controller than to choose one over
the other most of your fans are going to
be plugged directly into your
motherboard but if you have a truly
ridiculous number of fans or you just
want to control and cable manage them
all from one place you can get
controller hubs from companies like
Corsair or NZXT that provides
significantly more connectors to suit
your needs and depending on your needs
you might want to add one or more hard
drives to your system either for
long-term storage or maybe to give
storage tiering a go for a blend of high
performance and low cost whatever the
reason there are some things you should
be aware of like the RPM cash size noise
level and cost per gigabyte or terabyte
it used to be common to just pick a 7200
RPM Drive no matter what for extra speed
and lower response time but it's
actually becoming more of a liability
for the drive's long-term Health now
that high capacity ssds exist higher
RPMs mean more noise and critically more
heat so before committing to a
high-speed hard drive you should
consider whether it's needed at all and
when you do install one be aware of its
operating temperatures so that the
platters stay spinning for as long as
possible for everybody else a 5600 or
5900 RPM hard drive should suffice and
should be significantly quieter and kick
out less heat finally if you want to
really class up your build you're
probably going to want RGB and that
means you're going to need to learn what
to look for currently there are three
major types of controllable RGB
non-addressable addressable and USB
non-addressable is inexpensive and is
the original RGB header that uses 12
volt power and 4 pins each device in the
chain be it a light strip or a fan plugs
into the header on a motherboard a
splitter or into another RGB device in a
daisy chain every LED in this chain will
show the same color of your choosing
which is fine for ambient lighting or
for when you don't really care about
patterns and animations but if you do
care about those addressable is your new
best friend because like its name
suggests it allows each individual LED
in the chain to be controlled
independently it typically uses a 5 volt
three pin header that's the same
physical size as the non-addressable
type with the pin blocked off to
differentiate it if you have a lot of
LED strips you should be aware that only
a limited number of strips can be run
off a single connector without running
into problems like dimming at the ends
or the inability to control all the LEDs
if this all sounds complicated well
it kind of is that's why some companies
like Corsair have devices that use their
own method via USB this lets them know
exactly what devices are connected and
how many LEDs each of them has these
will usually plug into a USB header on
your motherboard and while Cable
Management can be more complex overall
setup is much simpler frustratingly
unlike the non-usb options they're
usually not cross-compatible so you'll
probably have to choose your favorite
and use the same vendor for all your RGB
or else deal with adapters this
especially sucks because some companies
offer LED strips with different styles
that might be more in line with what
you're going for visually like fantech's
digital RGB neon strips finally finally
you'll probably want some cable ties and
to make sure that you have the tools you
need to set everything up if you go for
zip ties for a lower profile cable
management job you'll need to make sure
that you have Flush Cutters for the
cleanest look whereas if you go for hook
and loop ties like the ones you can find
on lttstore.com then you don't need
anything special you should consider
though whether optional stuff like
custom cables will be in your build at
this point they're pretty costly but
they're a cool way to Jazz up your rig
if you've got the cash to spare and
you're after a specific look if not
though don't sweat it not everybody is
out to build an art piece and there is
no performance benefit to them
whatsoever and besides building a PC
yourself is already a bigger step
towards making it yours than most people
will ever take once you've settled on a
build you can go ahead and click through
the checkout process and wait for the
parts to arrive or if you live near a
computer store with all the stuff that
you need lucky you you get to haul it
all home yourself assemble the boxes in
a photogenic pile for a quick social
media pick and finally you're ready to
begin step two setting up your work area
are we only on step two jeez all right
don't worry guys the hard part's over
things are going to go a little faster
now clear your desk or table you're
going to want a well-lit area with
enough space to be able to easily move
around your case whether it's laid flat
or upright and grab any tools you'll
need a Phillips head screwdriver is a
must and it's got a long neck a magnetic
tip and a ratcheting mechanism that'll
make things a lot easier one or two
coffee filters and some isopropyl
alcohol is optional but useful for
cleaning surfaces without leaving behind
lint paper towels will work in a pinch
just be careful about the little bits
that might get left behind and for when
you're finishing up another optional
item is a microfiber cloth to get rid of
all the greasy fingerprints that you
might leave behind less optional is a
flashlight of some sort even if it's
just the flash on your phone since it
can otherwise be tough to see what
you're doing when you're trying to get
that one last wire installed after
everything else is in place now set
aside completely any food or drink while
you're setting up your machine this is
build time not snack time Anthony
and make sure that there's nothing
around that could fall if it's bumped
accidentally an anti-static mat or a
desk pad is ideal here to prevent scuffs
and scrapes not only on your desk but
also on your new machine now this next
bit is a bit contentious but if the air
in your area is dry then you will
definitely want an anti-static wrist
strap we did show that it takes a lot to
outright destroy PC components in this
collab with electroboom but what we
don't know is what kind of minor damage
might have been done internally with
each of those zaps it is possible that
each one of them took a year off of our
victim's life and no by the way Wireless
anti-static wrist straps do not work
your strap needs to be connected to a
proper ground and the same goes for an
anti-static mat that's what that
connector on the end is for to do that
the most foolproof wave that works in
any country is to plug your power supply
into Mains power and clip your
anti-static lead to its chassis just
make sure you're not using one of these
never use one of these unless you know
exactly how to use one because if you're
not actually grounded you're doing all
of the this work for nothing to say
nothing of the safety risk if you don't
have a strap it's a lot better than
nothing to plug in your power supply
anyway and then periodically touch it
especially if you move your feet around
if you are using a strap though a pro
tip is to wrap it around your ankle
instead of your wrist so you don't end
up yanking things around while you're
focused on building step 3 motherboard
and CPU install aka the delicate part
we'll start by unboxing our motherboard
and placing it on top of its box a
convenient and free static safe surface
if you want to power on your system
before you put it in the case which I
highly recommend you'll want to use the
box it pulls double duty by letting you
slot in a GPU which wouldn't be possible
if the motherboard was flat on a desk or
an anti-static mat now your motherboard
may have one of two types of sockets as
of today a pin grid array or PGA where
the pins are on the CPU or a land grid
array or LGA where the pins are on the
motherboard why is this important
because if your motherboard is LGA you
need to inspect the pins before you do
anything else if you bought the board of
the brick and mortar store then they'll
often get you to do this Step at the
store to cover their butts in case you
come back with bent pins because this is
something that's typically not covered
by the manufacturer's warranty to do
this on an Intel socket push down on the
retention latch and pull it out away
from the socket if you're dealing with a
high-end desktop socket there could be a
secondary latch for the retention
mechanism that comes out the same way
and they'll only open in the correct
order when you ease up on the clip it
should want to Spring upwards this is
good pull it upwards all the way and the
retention clip will come up revealing
the socket beneath don't worry about the
plastic cover plate for now for AMD
threadripper and epic sp3 derived
sockets you'll need to undo these three
screws in order with the included torque
wrench and then let the retention clip
flip open the cpu's carrier will need to
come up next which you can easily do by
pulling up on these tabs finally remove
the plastic cover plate to reveal the
socket beneath for Intel's high-end
server and workstation Xeon motherboards
using LGA 3647 the socket is only
covered by the plastic cover plate the
cooler screws down directly into the
retention plate with the pins visible
it's easier to spot damage if you angle
the motherboard so the pins are
reflecting light directly back at you
and rotate it around to make sure that
everything looks even any pins that are
bent will need to be dealt with before
you go any further you can refer to this
video we did on LGA repair here but the
short version is you may need to use a
magnifying glass and a pair of fine
point tweezers or similar instrument to
try and straighten it back out fresh out
of the factory a motherboard shouldn't
have been pins at all but if you bought
open boxed or used it's a possibility
once you're satisfied your pins are okay
it's time to unbox your CPU for most
CPUs the outer box is Expendable unless
you want to put it on display play but
make sure you take care of the inner
plastic clam shell that actually
contains the processor not only do you
not want to drop it under any
circumstances you'll also want to keep
it for future in case you need to RMA or
sell your CPU to someone else regardless
of your CPU you want to avoid touching
any of the exposed gold contacts be they
on the flat underside of an LGA CPU or
the fragile pins of a PGA CPU we'll get
to those but first we're going to keep
going with consumer style LGA line your
CPU up with the socket usually there
will be a triangular Arrow or dot or
other indicator to help you figure out
which orientation is correct Intel for
instance has notches on the side of its
CPUs that only allow you to insert a
compatible CPU and only in the correct
orientation so you can line up with
those I like to line up the bottom edge
of the CPU with the bottom edge of the
socket as a bit of an anchor point then
gently lower it in give it a little
wiggle once it's down to make sure it's
seated completely before closing the
retention mechanism and pushing the
latch down if it feels a little stiff
and creaky
that's okay it's supposed to and then
the plastic socket cover is going to
kind of pop off that's normal too keep
going until you can hook the latch back
into place then store the socket cover
somewhere safe like in the motherboard
box you'll need this in case you need to
RMA your board or sell it later on if
your CPU is PGA take this time to make
sure that your pins are all straight it
should be as easy as looking at it from
two different angles to make sure that
you can see through Straight rows of
pins if any of them are bent your best
bet is to use a mechanical pencil or a
very thin piece of metal like a razor or
an iFixit Jimmy opening tool to gently
nudge them back into position
too much force though or too much back
and forth and these can easily snap off
making for a very difficult repair job
so make sure you have steady hands once
you're satisfied lift the Locking arm
and line the CPU up just as we did with
LGA using the indicator on the CPU and
the socket to determine the correct
orientation on PGA CPUs you can also
just have a look at the pins and the
holes in the socket typically the pins
are arranged so that there's a corner
with fewer pins so that it can only drop
in one way and it will drop right in so
if you encounter any resistance at all
do not push
check your pins and line it up and try
again a few more seconds of your time
now is worth it compared to hours for
totally mashed pins once the CPU is in
place I like to press down on it to
prevent it from moving while I close the
lever if you're a high roller and you've
got a more exotic socket you'll be
surprised to learn that it's actually
pretty easy despite how complicated it
looks before you begin some high-end
motherboards have support for dual CPUs
these are usually epic or Xeon if that's
what you're building and you only have
one CPU you'll need to consult your
motherboard's manual for which socket to
use and which Ram slots are connected to
said socket if you have two then just
double up on the CPU installation
instructions trust me it's exactly as
fun as it sounds for AMD sp3 based
sockets remove the plastic dummy CPU
from the carrier arm then grasp the
cpu's plastic tabs and gently guide it
into the carrier rails it helps to pull
back a little bit on the tab while you
do so in order to make sure the CPU
stays aligned with the top of the arm
you'll know what I'm talking about if
you end up slipping once it's almost all
the way in it'll stop moving freely and
you'll need to push it down another
notch before you're ready to start
closing things up lower the carrier arm
to the socket until you can't move it
freely any further if you've guessed we
need to push it a little more you're
right Each corner clicks into place and
with that done all that's left is to
close the retention mechanism if you're
using the screwdriver that came with the
CPU this is easy take note of the close
order and screw in the screws in that
order it makes things a little easier to
get them all started a tiny bit before
tightening them down all the way it's
important not to over tighten the screws
however this is where the included
screwdriver is great once it reaches the
right tension the driver will snap to
let you know you're done when the last
screw is down Intel Xeon sockets are
pretty simple too it's an intimidating
looking mechanism at first but in fact
it's so simple that you aren't even
supposed to install the CPU into it wait
what
yeah you install the CPU onto the cooler
itself first and then the cooler is the
carrier that lines the CPU up onto the
socket which thanks to this pattern of
screw holes and posts means you can't
really misalign it unless something goes
very very wrong the way this plays out
is like so you have your CPU Cooler
motherboard and plastic CPU carrier the
CPU snaps into the carrier by lining up
the Golden Triangle on one corner of the
CPU with a triangle cut out on the
carrier itself then angling it in like
so you might need to bend the carrier a
little to make it snap together but once
you do it'll be a firm hold then after
applying thermal compound more on that
soon align the Triangular cutout of the
CPU carrier with the heatsink and clip
it into place it doesn't matter which
orientation you use but if you're using
a liquid cooler you'll want to pay
attention to which side the tubes will
be coming from to align with the socket
once you're ready line up the triangle
on the CPU carrier with the triangle on
the motherboard socket and place it down
the posts automatically align everything
for you so all you have to do here is
tighten the Torx screws until they stop
we'll come back to the cooler in a
moment first we want to deal with ram
because depending on your coolant it
could be anywhere from a little bit to a
lot easier to install it now rather than
later unbox your RAM and lay it out in
front of you depending on your
motherboard and your priorities you
might have anywhere from one stick to 12
or 16 sticks of memory or even more the
ultimate Authority for which slots to
use will be your motherboard
manufacturer so check your manual to be
sure you never know when some engineer
is going to get a fun new idea for how
things are supposed to be color coded
but we'll go over the most common
configurations anyway if you look at
your motherboard closely you'll usually
see silk screened labels for the memory
channels on Asus for example dim A1 dim
B1 dim A2 and so on the letter here
indicates which channel the slot is
connected to so for two sticks in dual
Channel you'd install each module in the
same numbered slot one in Channel a and
the second in Channel B dual Channel now
we've mentioned before that dual Channel
operation is usually best for Consumer
PCS but if your motherboard only has two
Ram slots you might have opted for a
single large stick today so that you've
got room to upgrade later rather than
two smaller sticks adding up to the same
capacity that will need to be discarded
this is a valid strategy and if that's
you then you should install your memory
module in the slot that is nearest to
the CPU if that sounds weird to veteran
Builders that's because they're used to
dual Channel configurations with two
sticks of ram usually unless you're
filling out all the slots you should
leave the slots closest to the CPU empty
in order to improve the stability of the
system at higher speeds this is because
the farthest slots from each channel are
where the channel itself ends when you
have something in the near slot but the
fire slot is empty signals can reflect
off of the empty slot and mess things up
in fun and unpredictable ways the same
principle applies to triple and quad
Channel setups they're just usually that
many more RAM slots although the exact
layout can change from board to board so
for these setups it's almost always best
to rtfm multiple CPUs get weirder still
with two entire rows of memory slots
with potentially opposite Channel
Arrangements due to the orientation of
the CPU again in this scenario rtfm do
not skimp on rtfm do it are you still
with me good here's how you actually
install memory first push down the tabs
at the ends of the slot that you're
installing the memory into some boards
will have two tabs one on each end While
others will have just one which can make
things a little bit easier if you have
clearance issues with a large graphics
card next look at the pins on the memory
module itself there will be at least one
notch as shown here with ddr4 memory
this is is offset from the middle of the
module and there's a matching Post in
the slot itself so that it can only go
in one way hold up the module so the
notch is aligned with the post then line
up the module with the grooves on the
slot getting one lined up at a time is
often easiest and push down until you
feel resistance at that point press a
little harder until the tab or tabs lock
back into place on their own you should
hear us distinct click if it's done
correctly then repeat these steps for
any more memory modules that you have to
install here's a pro tip by the way you
can skip figuring out subsequent modules
orientations by looking for the label
side of the stick you already installed
and matching against that instead keep
in mind though for some motherboards
with ram on both sides of the CPU socket
one side will often be flipped if your
build has an m.2 SSD now is the time to
install it it's pretty common for the
slots to be hidden under heatsinks so if
you don't see any you'll want to check
your motherboard manual to figure out
where these slots might be hiding some
m.2 slots only support nvme while some
only support SATA and some support both
your motherboard manual again will help
you to identify them so if your SSD is
seta you should purposely avoid an nvme
slot that's labeled as going to your CPU
to leave it open for a faster nvme SSD
later on down the road but it really
shouldn't matter as long as the slot
supports setup on the flip side if your
SSD is nvme you should avoid slots
labels going through the chipset or PCH
because these could bottleneck the
drive's performance compared to a CPU
connected slot if you have multiple nvme
ssds and don't really have a choice
you'll want to use the CPU m.2 slot for
the faster SSD if applicable thankfully
because m.2 slots have the same
installation instructions regardless you
don't need to take any of that into
consideration but it's time to actually
put it together remove the heatsink from
your motherboard if applicable and For
the Love of All that's good take off the
protective film on the thermal pad now
so you don't forget next make sure that
the standoff is in the appropriate
position most m.2 ssds use the 80
millimeter long 2280 position it may
already be installed here and if so it
may also have a very small Phillips
screw inserted into it you'll need to
remove that Phillips screw before going
any further if so but if you don't have
a standoff at all
you'll have to find it in your
motherboard box usually it's in a little
baggy along with the tiny Phillips screw
free adverts prison Twisted into place
on the 2280 position and you're up to
speed visually line up the ssd's pin
side with the slot taking note of the
notch that's cut into it this should
line up perfectly with a tab on the m.2
slot and typically results in the ssd's
label facing out it's okay if your SSD
has two notches but your slot only has
one this keying means that the SSD is
either SATA or supports two PCI Express
Lanes rather than four a special note
for if your SSD has its own heatsink the
connector side will almost always be on
the bottom of the heatsink with the fins
facing outwards if your motherboard has
a heatsink for this slot you might want
to remove the heatsink from your SSD now
in order to use that instead there's
usually some clips on the sides that you
can just prize apart to release it there
will be a gummy thermal pad on the
inside that sticks to it but no one I'm
aware of glues these together so it
shouldn't be a big deal to peel it free
alright enough foreplay already angle
the SSD by about 30 degrees or so
relative to the slot and line it up it
should slip in easily with a little bit
of pressure and once you can no longer
see the pins it should stand up freely
on its own from here it's easier if you
get the tiny Phillips screw on the tip
of a magnetic screwdriver before going
any further because you'll need to push
the SSD down flat against the standoff
we installed earlier and hold it there
while you screw it into place now you
want to be careful with this screw it's
very thin very fragile and very easy to
misplace
also offends easily line it up and twist
it counterclockwise until you feel a
little click then start turning it
clockwise to tighten it it only needs to
be snug enough that the SSD no longer
moves when you let go now you can put
your motherboard heatsink back on if
applicable now there are other ways to
install an m.2 SSD including on a PCI
Express card or Asus dim.2 interface and
these are conceptually similar to
connecting directly to the motherboard
with the exception of how they slot in
dim.2 installation is identical to
standard Ram modules open the tab line
up the keyed notches with the slot then
align yourself with the vertical posts
push down and click into place the PCI
Express card is the same as any other
expansion card and will take care of
that later for now it's time to move on
to your cooler if you've got an
all-in-one liquid cooler this step will
be just installing the appropriate
bracket but if you have an air cooler or
a CPU block for a custom Loop both of
these will be installed now most coolers
use similar mounting mechanisms in
theory but often the actual install will
be pretty different for air coolers
knock to a secufirm system is by far one
of the easiest for Consumer processors
no matter what socket it consists of two
pieces of metal with screw down posts on
the top side that screw into a back
plate there are spacers fitted to make
sure the vertical alignment with the
socket is just right for optimal
mounting pressure and the cooler itself
screws down into these screw posts right
here for a secure connection let's see
what that looks like in practice
on Intel consumer systems Knoxville
provides a backplate since that socket
actually lacks one out of the box so
instead of screws going down into it the
back plate has posts that stick up
through four holes in the motherboard
along with a little Notch that allows it
to clear the retention bolt on the lower
side of the socket spacers are added per
the instruction manual double check the
color and then the appropriate bars are
put on top now because Intel's cooler
dimensions are symmetrical that means
they can go in either orientation
depending on how you want your air to
flow in your case in most situations you
want your cooler to blow air towards the
rear of the chassis so you would install
These Bars laterally then screw them
down with these reverse thumb screws on
AMD because a back plate is included the
spacers simply fit over the parts of the
back plate that stick up through the
motherboard which means that your first
order of business is to remove these
plastic clip adapters that come standard
on AMD boards make sure you keep those
by the way because some coolers do
require them and losing them is pretty
bad for resale value
then your mounting bars go on and get
screwed down in the same way now because
amd's cooler holes are asymmetrical
there are two sets of mounting bars one
long and one short the short bars are
what most people will use as these are
installed laterally so the cooler can
exhaust air towards the rear of the case
once it's screwed into place you're
ready to go Intel's LGA 2011 and 2066
sockets are a little more
straightforward simply screw in the four
nuts slot the mounting bars over them in
the orientation you prefer and tighten
them down with reverse thumb screws
similar to LGA 11 5x or LGA 1200 finally
thread Ripper and epic sockets are
simpler still the cooler just bolts down
straight onto the socket's own retention
mechanism because of the socket design
the cooler can only go on one way so
make sure to align it properly one side
is space narrow and the other side
spaced wide but that mechanism is so
simple that we're getting ahead of
ourselves we need thermal compound first
many coolers come with some compound
pre-applied and feel free to use that if
you like it's usually fine and it's
easier than cleaning it off to apply
something different but if you do want
something fresh that's where rubbing
alcohol coffee filters come in what the
bottom of the coffee filter with alcohol
then rub away the thermal compound from
the cooler in a circular pattern until
most of it is wiped away then go over it
one more time with some fresh alcohol on
a clean part of the filter to make sure
any finger grease and dust is removed
you should repeat the last step of the
CPU itself too with the surfaces clean
you can grab your thermal compound most
of the time it'll be in a syringe like
this so Twist Off the cap then hold it
at an angle against the CPU like so
making sure it's flat and perpendicular
to your work surface perpendicular I
think we should just leave that I agree
I actually prefer that slowly squeeze
the plunger until the thermal compound
flows the amount you want and where to
put it varies by CPU Intel consumer CPUs
need about as much as a cooked grain of
brown rice from there LGA 2011 and 2066
and amd's am4 processors get about a
pea-sized blow and it's up to you if you
want to just plop it down in the middle
or go for the line or the X method it
really doesn't matter that much at the
end of the day for large CPUs like
threadripper epic and Xeon Platinum
however you're going to need a lot more
you can go with two pea sized blobs and
hope for the best but the recommended
pattern looks like a five on the die
with a series of small dots like so in
theory this gives the best possible
coverage but Gamers next is testing in
2017 showed that a large x pattern can
also work very consistently here the
main takeaway is just to make sure you
use enough to completely cover the
Cooler's integrated heat spreader or IHS
that's the metal part on top of the CPU
with its name lasered onto it once
you're satisfied with the amount of
thermal paste you've used you can press
the tip flat against the CPU to break
the surface tension of the paste so it
doesn't come up off the CPU when you
lift the syringe away don't forget to
recap it of course if you're using a
thermal pad don't just plop it down on
there make sure you buy one that's sized
for the CPU you want to use it with you
might need to use multiples for a big
rectangular Beast like threadripper now
the thermal compound sorted just bolt
down your cooler for noctua air coolers
you'll first want to unclip the fan from
the cooler like so in order to access
the screws then it's as simple as
aligning the heatsink with the screw
posts and tightening it down it's best
to tighten one side a little than the
other a little more then keep going back
and forth until you can't go any further
this way pressure is being applied
evenly helping spread your thermal
compound around
for coolers that have four screws like
the custom Loop CPU blocks and air
coolers like the hyper 212 you'll first
want to make sure there's no sticker on
the cold plate and then you'll want to
screw them in in an x pattern it helps
to get all of them started part way
first and start tying them down a bit at
a time by alternating to the opposite
corner until it's tightened down all the
way if you're using an air cooler now's
as good of a time as I need to attach
the air part depending on the
configuration you might have one fan two
fans or zero fans if you're one of those
passive types u-lock can just ignore the
spin you can also ignore it if your fan
is integrated into the cooler like with
a stock one fans are directional and
we'll talk more about this later in the
case fan section but here is all that
you need to know for now some fans have
markers that show the direction the air
will flow from them but if you're unsure
the side with the stickered part that
doesn't move usually indicates that's
the side the air will come out of when
installing a fan into a cooler it's
tightest to have the Fan's power cable
coming out towards the motherboard so
take that into account while you're fan
daggling it back into place Tower
coolers like the nhd15 and nhu12 come
with wire clips that hook and into the
Fan's mounting holes in order to then
clip it to the cooler itself it can be a
little tricky but it's basically just a
matter of placing the fan and the
desired orientation and stretching those
wires over the grooves and the heatsink
it'll clip into place and you're good to
go repeat as desired if your cooler
takes more than one fan but be careful
about the orientation and a special note
any clearance issues with nearby
motherboard heatsinks or memory you may
need to either Mount the fan a bit
higher than you otherwise would or just
scrap it entirely it's still fine one
fan will do it once the fans are in look
for the 4-pin header labeled CPU fan on
your motherboard or similar this is
almost always right next to the CPU
socket and for Asus motherboards it
tends to be on the top Edge as seen here
line up the tabs on the cable with the
one on the motherboard and press it into
position either a three pin or a four
pin fan can function perfectly plugged
into a connector like this and as we
said previously all the fourth pin does
is add a separate pin for a finer fan
speed control via pwm so four pins are
ideal but not necessary and in the case
of liquid coolers there might actually
only be one wire to sense the RPM of the
pump because it will draw power from a
separate Molex or SATA connector so that
RPM sense wire is just to ensure that in
the event your pump fails your
motherboard can either set off an alarm
or initiate a safe shutdown now if your
cooler has two fans you're going to want
to check for a CPU opt or two header if
there isn't one the cooler will often
include a y splitter that lets you
connect both fans to a single header
usually it is no problem to have two
fans on one header but don't go
overboard because there are current
limits through those connectors
with that done we're finished with our
motherboard for now but now is also an
excellent time to power on our system
and make sure that everything's working
while it's easy to access for you air
jockeys you get to relax while the
all-in-one liquid cooler users awkwardly
hook their coolers up now outside the
case only to uninstall them again once
they're done and reinstall them yet
again when everything is inside the case
yes it is a pain but it's a small price
to pay for not having to tear everything
down if it doesn't work now most liquid
coolers simply have a bracket that
twists on and off depending on the
socket that you're using and then screws
straight down onto the mounting bracket
that you installed earlier if that's you
make sure you tighten them down in an x
pattern going a little on each Corner
one by one until none can go any further
there are unfortunately some vendors
like Cooler Master that use Clips
instead and this is where those standard
AMD plastic clip things come in it's
inelegant in the modern age but it
ensures that coolers remain compatible
backwards and forwards to an absolutely
ludicrous degree so so you can't really
blame AMD for this Slide the clips
through the holes on the Block start the
retaining thumb screws enough to keep
them from falling out and then put the
whole thing in place and make sure the
tabs were captured by the clip then
while holding the Clips in position
tighten it all down it's going to feel
really delicate but stick with it and
eventually it'll all be okay consider
this a practice run for when you don't
have so much room to maneuver as for
those of you who just have a water block
and nothing else right now well you
could fill up your loop on the bench and
that is what I would recommend but if
all you want to do is verify that it's
working you can slap the block on
without water in it and Power on for
just long enough to see the post screen
about 10 to 20 seconds it should be fine
let's get into what that looks like step
7 pre-build test aka the part where it
going horribly wrong is a good thing
because if you don't find out now you'll
definitely find out later in order to do
a quick test you'll need three things
your power supply with accessories your
graphics card if applicable and a
screwdriver first if you have one
install your graphics card this is
significantly easier to do while the
system is outside the case make sure the
tab on the long PCI Express x16 slot is
pushed down then grab your graphics card
pull off any protective covers on the
cart Edge connector then light it up
with the slot giving it a gentle push
until the retention clip is pushed into
the Locking position make sure it's in
straight and you can't see any pins
because outside of the case there isn't
anything to hold it down once it's in
one trick to make it a little bit more
stable is to use the motherboard boxes
flap to Anchor the card in place if it
does have a flap that you can kind of
slide it into next grab your power
supply cables at a minimum you'll need
the 12 volt CPU connector which is
usually eight pins but sometimes four a
24-pin connector and if you're running a
GPU you'll need as many connections as
your CPU requires most won't work
without them expect to see a combination
of six and eight pin connectors although
sometimes there are 12 volts on newer
machines but note that these eight pin
connectors are not the same as the a-pin
for the motherboard in your CPU do not
force anything mining these up outside
the case is easy make sure the tabs line
up then push them down until they clip
into place if your motherboard has more
than one 12 volt CPU connector usually
the one marked as one is the primary one
that's actually required but it's good
practice to install all of them if you
can these cables can often be split into
two groups of four if for example your
motherboard has an 8 and a 4 pin
connector rather than two eight pins
with all that done connect up your
keyboard and display making sure of
course to plug into your graphics card
and not your motherboard if you have a
graphics card installed then you can
flip on the power switch on your power
supply and
wait
um
where's the power button
about that
there isn't one not always anyway this
is where the screwdriver comes in find
the front panel header for your
motherboard of it in the lower right
corner and then find the pins labeled
for power switch what now stick the
screwdriver in yes
seriously your screwdriver doubles as a
button who knew wow what else can
screwdrivers do ltdstore.com maybe
someday anyway if you have a boot screen
mash the setup key which is usually
delete until you get into the BIOS check
to be sure that everything's been
detected all your memory your CPU your
fans and your m.2 ssds should all be
visible either on the main info page in
the system health section or in a
storage related menu like nvme
configuration or SATA configuration if
you're using an empty water block this
is as far as you want to go your CPU is
probably already getting toasty however
for anyone else it's worth making sure
that your temperatures are okay here let
it sit powered on for a few minutes and
see where the temperatures get to when
it's warmed up a bit some CPUs will idle
pretty hot in the Bios regardless of the
cooler and that's normal what you're
looking for is temperatures to stabilize
and for them to not get any better or
worse by pushing down on the cooler if
they do change that's an indication that
your cooler may not be making proper
contact with the CPU so what you should
do now is shut it down pull off the
cooler check the pattern of your thermal
compound to be sure that it's spread
evenly then re-paste and try again but
what if every novice Builder's worst
nightmare happens and nothing shows up
on the screen after powering it up
thankfully there are often ways to
understand what's gone wrong some
motherboards have led displays that show
a two character hexadecimal code that
should help identify which part of the
boot process failed and you can look up
what those mean in your manual or online
often another LED indicator somewhere on
the motherboard is present either
instead of or alongside that help make
it even more clear Asus for example
tends to put a kind of stoplight type of
array of LEDs that show red to indicate
CPU tests orange to indicate memory
tests white to indicate storage and
green to indicate graphics with these
you can tell at a glance exactly where
the issue is even if there's nothing on
the screen other vendors have LEDs that
light up each section of the motherboard
as they're tested at startup so check
around your CPU socket Ram slots or
graphics card to see if there's anything
lit up the most common cause of no video
is of course having plugged the display
cable into the wrong Port it doesn't
really matter where on the graphics card
you plug it in but if you play it into
the motherboard especially for AMD
systems without integrated Graphics
you're not going to get anything
failing that make sure your graphics
card is fully inserted reseed if you
aren't sure and do the same for memory
if you have more than one memory module
try removing all but one and then if
everything works try adding them back
one by one if none of that helps but the
PC turns on you may need to try
resetting your CPU and a specially check
to be sure that there are no bent pins
and that there's no lint or anything in
the socket that might prevent a good
connection it's rare these days but some
computers won't boot or stay on without
the CPU fan header connected so that's
one more thing to try if the rest
doesn't help if nothing happened at all
when you press the power button I'm
sorry the first thing you should check
is that the motherboard is getting power
usually there will be an LED or two that
turns on when you flip the power supply
into the on position assuming of course
you've plugged it into the wall you
check that right
oh wait
okay good if there's still nothing then
turn off the power supply and make sure
your cables are properly connected the
24-pin connector can often split into a
20 and 4 pin connector for compatibility
reasons so it's possible that summer all
of one part hasn't been fully inserted
push the clip holding it into place and
pull it out then make sure it's all
lined up and try again same thing can
happen with the 12 volt EPS connectors
so triple check those two and of course
make sure they're all plugged into the
proper power connection points on the
power supply itself most modern power
supplies should make it impossible to
plug these things into the wrong
connectors but you never know failing
all of that there could be some
compatibility reasons your system isn't
firing up some AMD motherboards in
particular might require a bios update
to enable support for certain
generations of CPUs or it might be too
far forward and you need to roll it back
for your generation of CPU just look it
up in the motherboard manual you may
need to contact the store you bought it
from or AMD directly to arrange to have
that done if none of that helps then
you'll need to do some more advanced
troubleshooting preferably with a
different computer or sets of components
check the LTT forums for more info there
once you're satisfied that everything's
powered on and working flick off the
power disconnect everything and then put
it to the side it's time to make your
case it might help to lay down a blanket
or a towel or something so you don't
scratch up your case or your desk while
you work with it as a bonus it'll reduce
the friction of the feet so you can
rotate it around more easily while
working every case is going to be
different in terms of layout build
quality and cable management but there
are some general notes to keep in mind
when prepping first take off your side
panels and store them in a safe place
the Box the case came in is a good
candidate depending on your case the
side panels might need a screwdriver or
have thumb screws if they're plastic or
metal or they might have side screws or
even be held in magnetically on a hinge
of their tempered glass if they're fancy
with your case open remove the hardware
box if it's stored inside the chassis
and put it aside for now if your
motherboard comes with an i o Shield you
should install that now line up the i o
shield with the back of your motherboard
to determine which orientation it should
go in the flat end phases towards the
the motherboard then align the i o
shield with the cutout in the rear of
the case and snap it into place using
one corner as an anchor it may take a
bit of force to get it in just right and
cheaper cases May Flex when you do this
and cause it to pop back out but don't
get discouraged keep at it until you're
satisfied it's not going to pop out when
you look at it the wrong way another
thing you should do now is move any
cables out of the way sometimes they'll
be tied up with a twist tie or zip tie
but generally you want to get them on
the other side of the case so you don't
have to worry about pinching them or
getting them trapped under the
motherboard when it's installed it also
makes it much easier to Cable manage
later now let's talk standoffs some
cases will come with some or all of
these pre-installed and if not
everything you need will be in the
hardware box that you removed earlier
they're essentially just extensions for
the screw holes on the motherboard tray
to prevent the motherboard from shorting
on the tray and they screw in the same
way that a normal screw would just you
know without a screw head you can check
the hole pattern on your motherboard to
determine where the stand and off should
go and which extra ones might need to be
removed hand tightening these is enough
to build but I've run into issues
disassembling systems that were only
hand tight where the standoff will come
out instead of the motherboard screw
just be careful if you do decide to
tighten them with a five millimeter hex
socket driver because cheaper cases will
often just strip the threads or skip
back out instead of just tightening down
if you're trying to remove one and you
don't have an adapter or driver or your
fingers just aren't cutting it then
pliers can give you quite a bit more
leverage but this will damage its finish
if that matters to you a sacrificial
paper towel or microfiber cloth can help
mitigate this you'll notice that there
are more holes than there are standoffs
what's up with that while there are
standard layouts for these for each form
factor not every motherboard will use
every mounting point or some may use
non-standard ones while you don't
strictly speaking need a standoff for
every Mount point on your motherboard
let's just say it's highly recommended
and it's absolutely critical that there
are no extras a standoff place where
there isn't a mount Point could short
something out if you aren't careful or
worse it could cause your motherboard to
flex and potentially break something if
you screw the others in and the
motherboard ends up flexing once you're
satisfied you can do a test fit first
count the numbers of standoffs in the
case and the holes in your motherboard
watch out some motherboards actually
have holes that are hidden by cosmetic
covers and SSD heatsinks these days if
they match gently lay your motherboard
into the case and align it with the
standoffs you should see screw threads
for each hole if you don't then make a
note of which is missing remove your
motherboard and rearrange the missing
standoffs until you've got everything
lined up if everything looks good then
now is a great time to hook up your
8-pin 12 volt cables for the CPU these
are also called EPS connectors these
things are notoriously difficult to get
plugged in when the motherboard and
especially the cooler are installed so
if your power supply is modular go ahead
and attach the motherboard side then
feed the other end through the cable
management hole that is probably up here
otherwise you'll just have to drape it
across the motherboard
with that done it's time to screw your
board down now each case is a little
different so check the manual before
proceeding but if you don't have one
then usually the larger 632 screws are
used for this rather than the smaller
finer M3 screws you can safely test this
by threading one into a standoff with
your fingers if a 632 screw doesn't
tighten easily then you need to use an
M3 and if it's loose with an M3 then you
need to use a 632 it's easiest to start
with the central Mount point if present
this will anchor the board into place
and help keep things aligned while
you're screwing everything in hence the
peg version that some cases come with
align the screw in the hole twist
counterclockwise until you feel a click
then go clockwise to screw it into place
Pro tip by the way don't fully tighten
this screw yet leaving a little bit of
slack helps you reposition the
motherboard as you're putting in the
rest of the screws
next get the corners and if you did
everything right the motherboard should
now be perfectly aligned and you can
tighten everything down completely
if you've got more Mount points to screw
down keep going until they're all done
ideally you would populate every Mount
point with a screw but in the event that
you can't due to a clearance issue a
missing one isn't going to hurt anything
it's easiest to wire the front panel
header now while there are a few
obstructions and cables in the way
because you're dealing with small one or
two wire connections before doing
anything grab the whole bundle of them
and make sure they're not Tangled Up in
anything else they should hang freely
from where they enter the case from the
front panel from here you'll want to
find a hole that's close to where they
need to go as mentioned before the front
panel header is often located in the
lower right corner of the motherboard
and there are often silk screened
markings on the motherboard to indicate
which pins are for what if you don't see
any markings for it consult your
motherboard's manual if your case has
Cable Management guides it's best to use
these now so you don't have to rewire
anything when cable managing later just
because of how fiddly these can be be
conscious of how long the wires are and
how far they have to go and try to make
sure that they don't cross anything that
needs access you don't want to knock
them loose by accident later add them
minimum all computers should come with a
power switch lead that needs to be
plugged into the front panel header but
they may also come with a power LED HDD
LED and reset switch very occasionally
these days you may also have a speaker
or buzzer in the hardware box and this
is also where that goes
the usual layout is to have the power
LED plus and minus on the top left power
switch immediately right of that and PC
speaker plus and minus to the right of
that on the top row the bottom row
usually goes HDD LED plus and minus then
reset switch sometimes there will be a
second three pin wide power LED plus and
minus to the right of that for
compatibility with older cases using a
wider power LED connector of these
connections you might note that three
have plus and minus or polarity that is
it matters in which orientation you have
them the connector will usually have a
positive and negative indicator silk
screened onto it or even be separated
into individual wires but if not they
should be color coded and the white or
black wire is usually the negative
for LEDs the polarity needs to be
correct or your lights won't function
properly the good news is that if you
put them in wrong it won't hurt anything
just flip them around the PC speaker
header follows the same black equals
negative wire convention but these are
becoming so rare that you may never see
one while building a computer for
yourself its primary role these days is
to provide feedback during boot beep
codes can be useful for troubleshooting
but have largely been replaced by
diagnostic LEDs it has other uses but
it's mostly just a relic of a bygone era
two of the front panel connections
absolutely do not matter which
orientation they go in and that's the
power switch and reset switch because
unlike devices like LEDs or speakers
that need to draw Power these are simple
switches that close a circuit still it's
neatest to make sure that they line up
with the other cables if present once
you've wired up the front panel gently
pull the slack back through the rear
panel it's a good idea to also wire up
USB and front panel audio now if present
front panel audio may have two
connectors AC 97 and HD audio or Azalea
both are keyed the same way that is they
have a blanked up pin on the connector
that allows them to go in only one way
but how they work is different the tldr
is the ac97 is a mostly dumb connection
that doesn't provide any feedback as to
what's plugged in in HD audio or Azalea
allows for things like Jack sensing and
reassignment most computers since the
mid-2000s will have support for HD audio
so use that unless your computer is
really old
the header for this is usually on the
lower left corner of the motherboard but
if you don't see it there check your
manual to locate it like your front
panel wires from before make sure
they're completely free of obstructions
then use the cable management guides now
if you have them to reduce the need for
rewiring later
find a hole close to the header then go
through it for an ATX motherboard you
can usually get away with pulling it
through this little channel here even if
your power supply will go right up
against it and that will give you a very
clean look a common mistake when
plugging these in is to only plug in one
row make sure there are no pins hanging
out directly above or below your
connector when you plug it in it can
only go in one way yes but only if all
the rows are aligned first when it's on
there pull the slack through and move on
to the next one
front panel USB is broken up into three
types USB 2.0 USB 3.0 and USB 3.2 often
used for the type-c ports USB 2
connectors consist of two rows of four
pins with a fifth pin on only one row to
make sure you don't plug it in the wrong
way around usually but not always
there's a plastic shield around these on
the motherboard to make sure it lines up
exactly when it's plugged in but it's
usually pretty easy and they can share
this design with both serial and
firewire make absolutely certain that
you do not plug a USB into anything
that's called firewire FW or 1394 this
uses a much higher voltage and will
destroy USB devices plugged into it
usually the right headers will be
labeled with USB sometimes followed by a
port number and the headers that
correspond to it but if it doesn't say
or you aren't sure consult your
motherboard's manual follow the same
procedure as front panel audio for these
cable make sure they're free from
obstruction use the cable management
guides and find a hole close to the
header for it to go through remember it
can only go on one way so don't force it
and mash up the pins
pull the slack through for the cable
management later and repeat as necessary
but what about USB 3 and 3.2 these are
much larger stiffer cables and usually
you'll find their headers on the right
edge of the motherboard or at the bottom
Edge they're quite wide and sometimes
difficult to get through Cable
Management channels so if you haven't
been paying attention to Cable
Management pay attention now because
these are the worst
as before find a hole near the USB 3
header on the motherboard and line it up
but don't connect it just yet listen
first USB 3 connectors are very fussy
and it's easy even for a professional
builder to mash the pins due to the way
that it's installed the connector easily
contacts the pins before it is fully
aligned and the force required to plug
it in is much higher than the other
connectors we've seen so far that
basically means that you won't know if
it's aligned and you won't know if
you've mashed anything by feel alone if
you do manage to bend a pin chances are
it won't unbend without snapping so very
carefully line it up and don't apply
pressure until you are reasonably sure
that the pins are aligned if all goes
well it should snap or click into place
and you can breathe the sigh of relief
unlike the other cables this one is very
stiff so Cable Management should be done
with a very gentle touch if you
accidentally pull it out you'll probably
end up bending all the pins in the
header at the same time and at that
point you can just say goodbye front USB
3 USB 3.2 is a lot easier but has the
annoying quality of being both very
stiff and standing straight up off the
motherboard most of the time usually
these connectors will be found near the
24-pin power connector and are keyed to
only go in one way you don't have to
worry about mashing pins on this one
thankfully so you can just plug it right
in but it does have the annoying
tendency to kind of rock out of place so
again a light touch is needed for cable
management now there are other older
headers that you might come across even
today like serial firewire parallel and
more and you can think of these the same
way that you think of the USB 2 or front
panel audio connectors just make
absolutely certain that you are
connecting to what you think you are
serial for example is often labeled calm
parallel will often be labeled lpt and
firewire may be labeled 13 1994 just
keep this in mind if you're hunting
around for more USB headers to plug into
oh a fun little aside is if you run out
of internal USB 2 headers you can
actually get hubs that will expand them
since that's a thing that USB can do if
you have any two and a half inch or
three and a half inch drives now's a
good time to get them installed most
modern cases have dedicated trays behind
the motherboard or elsewhere for the
smaller two and a half inch type usually
with the expectation that you'll be
using them with an SSD and let's face it
you probably are these are almost always
removable with a thumb screw or
something like that just remove the
screw and slide it free to get access
your SSD will also have fine threaded M3
holes that screw onto the bottom of the
tray as well as the sides some trays use
one set or the other and there will be
countersunk or flat screws for this
purpose included with the case Hardware
box
align the SSD with the holes then screw
it in place
when it's solid go ahead and slip it
back into the position by aligning the
tabs and using the thumb screws to
secure it
if you got more go ahead and repeat the
process most cases come with removable
trays for three and a half inch hard
drives these days usually clipped in
with two tabs like this pinch them and
Slide the tray out to remove it and like
the two and a half inch sled it may have
holes either on the sides or the bottom
depending on the manufacturer the drive
should face label up with the PCB on the
bottom and its connectors should be on
the side without Taps so that when it
slides back in they're facing the
motherboard tray side of the case many
of these will have shock absorbing
rubber grommets through its long coarse
threaded 632 screws from the hardware
box are inserted these are the good ones
some however are completely toolless and
these can be kind of annoying because
you need to kind of stretch it around
the hard drive to get it to clip into
place it never feels quite right
regardless of the type most modern three
and a half inch trays also have two and
a half inch mounting holes for ssds too
which follow the same installation steps
unless they don't have grommets in which
case you're just going to screw it
directly in like the other two and a
half inch Drive sleds we mentioned
earlier and
screw in the fine threaded M3 screws
from the bottom with the label up and
the connectors facing the rear repeat
these steps until all of your drives are
installed if your case is an older
design with fixed mounts as it's common
with extreme budget builds then you'll
need to angle the drive into place and
then line it up on the rail with the
connectors facing inside of the case
yes it is as messy as that sounds when
you line it up two mounting holes for
coarse threaded 632 screws on each side
should be visible through the cutouts
and while some cases give you some
leeway for mounting it further forward
or rearward you're limited to these
holes a lot of people neglect the screws
on the other side but
you're not like them are you
you're not one of those
no of course not I mean if you need to
mount a 2.5 inch SSD this way that's
fine they don't have any moving parts
and they're not all that heavy so you
can even just like double-sided tape
them to wherever you want if it comes to
that but heavy 3.5 inch hard drives need
to be screwed in properly at least if
you wanted to last for any period of
time
you're probably wondering how the
computer talks to these drives at this
point and that's where the data cable
comes in Serial ATA has made things dead
simple and most motherboards will come
with cables for it in the Box sometimes
they'll have locking tabs on them to
keep them in place while installing them
they'll kind of clip in automatically
but to remove them you need to press
down on the clip to pull it out
regardless as to whether or not they
clip though they're keyed in an L shape
that makes it very obvious which way is
the right way to insert them line the L
on the cable up with the L on the drive
and just plug it in making sure it's
flush with the drive then route the
cable through to your motherboard sounds
simple but
these are stiff cables that are tough to
Cable Management so you may need to get
a little bit creative when hiding them
especially if the corresponding
connector on your motherboard isn't
facing the edge like this and instead
sticks up like this like the USB 3
connector you'll want to be careful
while cable managing these if you
accidentally overdo it you can break off
the L block on the drive rendering it
useless unless you've got some pretty
mad soldering skills I mean I guess it's
not that difficult but oh yeah you don't
want to do it anyway go ahead and
connect the other end of the cable to
the drive now you should check with your
motherboard manual which Port you're
plugging into because some may actually
share bandwidth with PCI Express devices
especially m.2 drives so you may either
get worse performance or completely lose
the ability to use these ports in those
circumstances it's worth mentioning that
you'll sometimes get Serial ATA cables
with right angle ends and some with
straight ends uh what gives with that
well right angle is usually cleaner for
hanging off the back of a hard drive
that's installed in a removable tray
like this while straight cables are
almost a necessity for 2.5 inch ssds
mounted on a dedicated tray behind the
motherboard or anywhere else they mount
flush with the case they're way cleaner
this way and depending on the
orientation it may not even be possible
to connect a right angle connector on
one of these drives so saving the
straight ones for flush fitting drives
is a good idea what's that other
connector for though power we'll get to
that soon but first this is an excellent
time to wire up any case fans you might
have and for builds with liquid coolers
this is where those come in if you're
going to use a fan controller then you
should find a centrally accessible place
for it to go usually they'll come with
an adhesive backing so you can just find
your own spot for it and hook it there
just don't cover up any holes or cable
management holes if you can help it
we'll deal with the power for that later
for now let's get to the fans themselves
whether you're replacing existing fans
or installing new ones you'll need to
pay close attention to the direction the
fan will blow some people prefer a
balanced approach to airflow with equal
number of fans pulling air in then
pushing it out while others prefer to
have more fans facing in resulting in a
slightly positive pressure environment
inside of the case combined with
filtered intakes this can help control
dust and debris the opposite negative
pressure is not recommended regardless
you want to have a direct path for air
to travel with fresh air being pulled
over your hottest components so ideally
drawing Air at the front and bottom and
exhausting it from the top and rear also
make sure you don't have any intake and
exhausts on the same side how you
install the fan will be determined by
what the fan is going to do if the fan
is strictly for a case airflow then it's
as simple as lining it up with the
correct set of holes in the location you
want it and screwing it in with these
chungus fan screws or little rubber
doodads like these ones be sure to keep
the Fan's cabling clear of the blades
and Chassis while you do this and it's
optimal to have the fan cable sticking
out of the corner closest to the fan
header that you expect to use it with
usually towards the back panel it helps
to not tighten down all the screws until
they're all at least a little bit in and
you'll want to do opposing Corners first
to stabilize it so that it doesn't slip
around on you while you torque in the
screws some cheaper cases by the way
might warp while you do this leading to
the unfortunate situation where your fan
blades will brush against the chassis
which is both irritating and not great
for airflow you can try to bend out the
metal but the best solution in this case
is to undo the screws a little bit or
better yet find something to use as a
spacer rinse and repeat for every fan
you need to install if these fans are
part of a liquid cooling setup then your
radiator is going to go in now and you
can put away those chungus fan screws in
favor of Slimmer but potentially even
more chungus screws where the radiator
goes is up to you so some people like to
have it exhaust air out the top of their
chassis While others like to have it
pull cool air through the front but at
the end of the day you're probably going
to put it wherever it fits best which is
usually in the top of the case now from
a performance standpoint it doesn't
really matter whether your fans pull air
through the fins or push air through the
fins but what it does affect is
maintenance I always recommend
installing fans in a pull configuration
that allows easy access to the radiator
to clear off dust for Aesthetics you may
decide to take a different path but just
remember that in two years when you're
taking your whole cooler apart so you
can get the cat hair out of it I
freaking told you another important
consideration is that AIO coolers are
quieter and last longer the combination
pump and cold plate is below the area
where the tubes connect to the radiator
you want to make sure that any air that
might be trapped in there Rises to the
top and that top is not your pump this
isn't as much of an issue for custom
Loops because the pump is usually going
going to end up at the bottom of the
case anyway but if you didn't know this
now you do put your pump down low lining
up the radiator with fans on the outside
is a major pain in the butt which is why
some fans like arctic's bionics can
daisy chain together with a bridge
connector which helps hold them in place
regardless you want all of your cables
to be clear of the fans and the radiator
pinching them here and having to redo
the whole thing sucks line everything up
like so and then use these long screws
to secure Each corner then the other and
then Each corner of the fan until you've
got them all secure
if you're lucky your case will let you
detach the radiator Mount and make it so
much easier by just doing the whole
thing on a bench and dealing with the
completed assembly after
it gets much more Awkward with the front
panel Mount where you need to basically
hold the radiator and fan together like
this and screw them in one at a time so
they don't just fall around everywhere
again if your case lets you remove this
bracket your life will be so much easier
another key benefit to a pull
configuration is that it usually allows
you to screw all the fans into the
radiator ahead of time then Mount the
radiator to the case using these little
screws now we're not going to revisit
cooler and thermal compound application
at this time please go back and refer to
that section from earlier if you need to
and don't forget to check your manual as
many all-in-one coolers have their own
little installation quirks like for
example the inclusion of a dedicated
pump power plug or an extra USB
connection for controlling RGB lighting
or even a little built-in screen or an
integrated fan splitter that's
controlled by the AIO through software
I'd recommend using that by the way if
you've got it because it'll let your
pump and your fans work together when
they need to cool your CPU during a
heavy gaming session now let's power up
the rest of our fans if you want them to
be controlled by the the motherboard
you'll either need to plug them into a
Fan Hub that is plugged into your
motherboard some cases include these by
the way or directly into the motherboard
itself either individually into their
own headers or using Splitters now
depending on how many fans you have you
may run out of fan headers on the
motherboard and you might need to use y
Splitters they won't harm anything but
they do tend to look a little Messier
most of the time there's at least one
case fan header to the lower left of the
CPU socket and there are usually at
least another two on the lower right
edge of the motherboard but motherboard
manufacturers do strange things
sometimes so if you can't find your fan
headers of course check your manual
plugging them in is the same as any
other fan like we already did for the
CPU just align the tabs on the cable
with the tab on the board cable managing
them though can be a bit of a challenge
for the exhaust fan next to the i o
panel you can usually run it through and
bundle it up against the motherboard's i
o section for a clean look but intake
fans can be trickier still
do your best with it RGB wiring can also
end up really messy look at all the
cabling that requires
hope you like cable management most of
this can be hidden behind the
motherboard tray temporarily we'll come
back to this later for now step 12 power
supply
if you're counting this has been many
many more steps than 12 and you're
probably sick of wearing that
anti-static strap well good news it's
time to get the power supply in to
ground the whole dang computer if you've
been following along your power supply
is already out of its box and connected
to the wall go ahead and disconnect it
now turn your case around and look at
the power supply cutout are there thumb
screws if so remove those to free the
back plate this plate and plates like it
sometimes make it a little bit easier to
install later the orientation of the
power supply determines which screw
holes you'll end up using and the ideal
is to have the fan facing downward
pulling air up through a filtered intake
at the bottom of your case if there is
not an intake there you'll want to mount
it fan up unless you want to starve it
for airflow and
spoiler alert you do not want to starve
it for airflow begin plugging in your
power supply cables if you've got a
modular unit now the end for the power
supply will usually have a PSU marking
to tell you where it goes first grab the
power connectors for your GPU if you
haven't already it'll be some
combination of one to three six pin or
eight pin connectors or it might be one
of those newfangled Nvidia 12 pin
connectors in which case you will need
to grab the adapter included in your GPU
box if your power supply didn't come
with one it's worth noting that these
daisy chain connectors and six plus two
pin connectors aren't inherently bad
it's just preferred to use individual
cables with actual dedicated conductors
for each pin if possible once you're
satisfied with your choices clip them
into place and Route the cable somewhere
accessible for now it's time to install
the PSU itself if you've got a backplate
go ahead and attach it to your power
supply Now using core threaded 632
screws most of these back plates are
going to have enough clearance to put in
all four screws but if your switch gets
in the way for example don't stress you
can put in three screws it's going to be
okay once it's secure feed the wires
through the power supply mount on your
case and Slide the power supply into
position it's at this point that you'll
want to connect your 12 volt CPU cables
to your power supply if you've got a
modular unit
next if you've got a back plate all you
need to do now is tighten the thumb
screws but if you're raw dogging it this
is where you'll screw the power supply
into the back of your case
pay attention to which of the mounting
holes on the case have screw threading
from the power supply behind them though
it is very easy to make the mistake of
accidentally screwing into one of the
honeycomb shaped holes that are for
ventilation on the back of the power
supply that is not actually secure if
you don't have a modular power supply
handling the 12 volt CPU cables will be
a little trickier at this stage but if
you've got small hands or a high pain
threshold you can make it work line up
the tabs and clip them into place make
sure that they're in there before moving
on by the way because if you really
can't get in there there is no shame in
pulling off your CPU heatsink
temporarily now and putting it back on
when you're done at this point the
instructions are the same between
modular and non-modular power supplies
it's time for your 24 pin ATX connector
separate that cable from the others and
fish the cable out through the nearest
Cable Management hole to your
motherboard's 24-pin connector from here
it's just like before line up the tabs
and press it in until it clicks with
that done you can use the peripheral
cables to wire up power to any drives or
fan controllers you have installed in
your system usually these have just
enough spacing between the connectors to
line up neatly with hard drives stacked
in a bay like this plugging these power
cables in is the same as plugging in the
SATA data cable just line up the little
L shape and press it into place these
ones usually don't have locking
connectors though so make sure it's on
straight before moving on this will also
tell you if you've accidentally half
connected it upside down which is a
thing that you can do even today you'll
need to occasionally install these Molex
connectors instead of SATA power
connectors and they're a bit of a pain
because of how big they are but on the
bright side they're really difficult to
install wrong you can also use them for
just 12 volts and 5 volts to connect up
to your projects if you really want to
they have a beveled Edge on one side and
they fit quite snugly so much so they'll
sometimes push the pins out of things
like fan adapters if this happens slip
the pin back into place it's just clip
in there then try again just be patient
and line it up correctly finally your
power supply might have come with a
button like just one this is usually for
hybrid fan control in the out position
the fan will only power up while load or
heat levels are high enough while in the
in position the fan will just always be
on there's little reason to have it in
the in position unless you're counting
on your PSU contributing as a case fan
so just leave it out for lower nose
levels but wait did I say finally
there's still something we haven't
plugged in yet the GPU if you're lucky
enough to have one that is or if you're
watching this in the future when the
Great silicon shortage slash
scalpocalypse is over if that's you then
now is the time for the centerpiece of
any gaming PC first you need to figure
out which slot you should use for ITX
motherboards this is going to be obvious
the slot the one you get but things get
a little murkier the larger you go as a
rule of thumb the topmost slot is
usually the best it's almost always
connected directly to the CPU for
maximum bandwidth and you'll often see
this pointed out in your motherboard's
manual as well
once you've determined the right slot
you'll need to remove the corresponding
slot covers usually by simply removing
the screws that hold them in place but
on some cheaper cases you'll need to
break them off instead and if so
be careful it's simple enough to do you
can push it down with a screwdriver and
then finish the job with your fingers
but if you're too aggressive you could
slip and when it finally snaps off
that's a bad time
um I've gotten bit by cheap cases before
and uh
it it there was there was a mess for a
while be patient and just use a gentle
up and down motion don't twists push or
pull it'll come free before long just
feeding the metal and it'll just come
right off now that the covers are gone
make sure the tab at the end of the slot
is pushed back if there is one then line
up the card with the slot and press it
in it should slide in relatively easily
and the clip at the back will snap shut
once it's all the way in next line up
the gpus bracket with the holes on the
case they used to hold in those slot
covers and use the screws you either
removed previously or retrieved from
your accessories bundle to secure it
into place a course threaded 632 screw
is usually the right one for the job
here if you're not too sure but some
cases are a little bit different
if you have a multi-slot GPU and you
find yourself with only one screw for
some reason put it on any other slot
than the top one for best results
you still have all your screws though
right by the way this is the GPU section
but what you just did should work with
any PCI Express expansion card unlike
most cards some big gpus might sag a bit
even after you've secured them into
place and some cards even come with
adjustable anti-sag brackets or spacers
that you can sit on the bottom of your
chassis
isn't strictly necessary but it just
keeps everything looking nice and
reduces the risk that something will
break if you move your PC just slip it
into place and Slide the bracket up
until it's holding your GPU at the right
height then tighten it so it stays there
other Solutions may involve drilling
into your case or some cases even
include a sag bracket on their own now
it's time to run power to your GPU we
already determined which cables we need
and how many when we install their power
supply so grab those and Route them
through the appropriate Cable Management
hole according to your preference some
people like to come in from behind the
GPU and others like the cables coming
straight from the basement like me
whichever you choose you should make
sure you have enough slack to get them
into position and that is clear of all
the other cables to simplify your cable
management just like with the 12 volt
CPU connectors PCI Express connectors
are key to only going one way although a
6 Pin cable can be inserted to an 8-pin
connector if you're not careful this
won't harm anything but the GPU will
probably complain and prevent you from
booting if you tried regardless of how
many pins you're looking at just line up
the tabs and click them into place if
you've got a six plus two connector make
sure it's coupled so all the pins are
flush and the two pin wire can't move
once it's all plugged in congratulations
you've just finished building your PC
except you haven't really finished not
quite yet if you've been following the
guide up until now congratulations it's
uh been a marathon and also you should
have reasonably well managed cables at
this point but they're all going to be
kind of loose and not very tidy on most
modern cases you should at the very
least have little Hoops to slip zip ties
to to provide a solid anchor for the
cables that are running all around your
case
the platonic ideal of cable management
is a single trunk of cables where little
branches come off and go wherever they
need to go with no overlap unfortunately
cables are finite in length so unless
you pre-measured and picked up some
custom length cable mod cables or
something you'll almost always have to
improvise we've actually got a full
video on cable management that you can
go check out here but for now let's get
to tidying
[Music]
troubleshooting is a whole other kettle
of fish but here are some quick things
that you can do if you don't get any
output and you're sure that the power
supply and the outlet it's plugged into
are both switched on
check all your cables first these are
the most likely culprits then check your
RAM and your expansion slots to make
sure that they are properly seated if
your PC is powering on but you're not
getting any display make sure you've
plugged your monitor into your graphics
card rather than into your motherboard
directly you can also check the
diagnostic LEDs on your motherboard Asus
has a little stop light that goes along
with this where red means CPU orange
means memory white means GPU and green
means good others might have LEDs that
light up for each section of the
motherboard that's been initialized as
well you just might have to look them up
in your motherboard's manual to figure
out exactly which codes and which
numbers and letters corresponds to what
one of these codes is zero zero if you
get this one you should try reseeding
your CPU and firing it up again if your
system simply isn't powering on but is
getting power you might have a short
this is an annoying problem to diagnose
but the most common culprit is an extra
standoff between the motherboard tray
and the back of the motherboard or some
errant piece of metallic something
sitting bridging two pins if you're
still having trouble you can always hit
up the linustechtips.com Forum to get
more help now that you've got the UEFI
bios setup screen the very first things
you should do in order are check your
CPU temperatures check that all your RAM
is showing up and check that your
storage is showing up if all of that
looks good then you can continue on
otherwise you'll need to power down and
reseat your cooler memory or storage
devices until they all show up one
unintuitive thing is sometimes you might
have some memory that's not showing up
and it's actually caused by your CPU not
being seated in the socket correctly so
you might have to reseat that and with
that your PC is now built
whoa hang on your Rams not running at
the right speed what's up with that time
to adjust some common settings first
things first you should enable XMP also
called docp or memory overclocking this
will set your memory to the timings and
frequency rated on the package rather
than the defaults and is almost
certainly what you want unless you're
running ECC memory next check the status
of the multi-core enhancement setting
the usually an advanced option if it's
even present on your motherboard but
turning it on can improve performance at
the expense of heat and vice versa stock
operation is with this setting disabled
but if you have a beefy cooler you might
want to use it to get a little bit more
oomph out of your Hardware most other
settings can be left at their default
although if you're installing Windows 11
you should make sure to enable the TPM
and secure boot modules and disable the
compatibility support module or CSM
exactly how to do that varies by vendors
so check your motherboard's manually be
sure finally your operating systems
installer should automatically boot
after inserting the flash drive but if
it doesn't you can usually hit f8 or F12
on the first boot screen to bring up a
boot menu and select it that way if it
still doesn't show up there go back into
the UEFI settings and make sure that the
Legacy USB devices setting is enabled
you shouldn't have to enable this under
normal circumstances but sometimes
having it disabled is enough to disable
USB storage altogether most operating
systems should just boot at this point
now your PC is built Big thanks to
csonic for sponsoring this video this is
easily the longest video that we have
ever done and quite frankly if they're
paying by the word they've got a big
Bill headed their way hey good thing
they make great power supplies so they
can sell lots of them to people like you
and afford to pay us to sponsor more
videos like this we're going to have
links for more information about their
products in the description down below
thanks for watching guys if you're
looking for something else like this to
watch you absolute mad freaking Lads you
then maybe check out one of our classic
build guides that's really how we wanted
this to go but then we kind of
got off the rails a little bit
let us know how we did once you're done
watching by the way
you're rolling right yeah sick