[0:00] Oh man, I keep watching all these PC build videos,
[0:03] but the camera angles are so confusing.
[0:06] Where does this even go?
[0:07] I'll help you.
[0:08] Oh no.
[0:10] That was a close one.
[0:12] Let's do this.
[0:13] Here's how to build a PC.
[0:14] Start by clearing a tidy workspace
[0:16] with everything you need and gathering the necessary tools.
[0:20] While realistically you can build a modern computer
[0:22] with just a number two Phillips head screwdriver
[0:24] and maybe a number one,
[0:25] there's a few other things I like to have in my kit.
[0:27] Some cutting implements for opening packages and boxes, a pair of side cutters for terminating zip ties,
[0:33] a pair of needle nose pliers for tightening the odd nut or reaching into tight spaces,
[0:37] some cable management ties, I like these reusable hook and loop style ones,
[0:42] an anti-static wrist strap, I'll show you guys how to use this later.
[0:46] These are great so you don't end up playing baby simulator instead of PC building simulator.
[0:50] The first thing I'm going to have you open up is your power supply.
[0:53] Don't worry too much about the documentation or the accessories just yet.
[0:57] I want you to grab the main power cord, the power supply unit itself, and a delicious snack.
[1:08] In all seriousness, those are not nearly as delicious as they sound.
[1:11] Now we plug this boy in and plug it into the wall.
[1:15] Then from here, we've got a couple of options.
[1:17] Either we can diligently touch this anytime we're about to handle something sensitive,
[1:21] or...
[1:22] We can know we're just bound to be focusing on other things and put on our ESD bracelet with the metal side in making
[1:29] Contact with our bare skin and then attach our clip to any exposed metal on our power supply
[1:35] Realistically paint is not a great conductor if you get given a little scratchy scratch
[1:40] It'll conduct ever so slightly better now, obviously there are other ways to ground yourself
[1:44] I'm looking at them right now
[1:46] But if you know how these work, I don't need to explain to you how to use an ESD bracelet
[1:51] Even you smarties might not be using the end clip hack yet, though
[1:53] I'm a big fan of this you just clip on and your hands are completely unencumbered. Also if you forget
[2:01] whatever let's break away baby now we're ready all we need is any reference
[2:07] materials that we might find useful and if you've got one a sponsor like iFixit
[2:12] it's May so it may be time to fix up your old broken gear from now until May
[2:18] 31st you can get 20% off select iFixit toolkits by going to the link in
[2:22] the video description let's start with the motherboard
[2:25] We're gonna have all these parts linked below if you guys want to follow along at home
[2:28] But don't feel pressure to use exactly the same stuff
[2:31] That's kind of the beauty of building a custom PC
[2:34] The basic process is the same even if the part numbers change a little bit from year to year
[2:39] Now one thing to note is anytime you're handling a board
[2:42] You're gonna want to handle it by the edges
[2:44] by big plastic pieces like this or large metal pieces like here and
[2:49] Back here and as for where you're gonna want to put it down. Well, see I have an ESD safe
[2:54] work mat, but you probably won't so conveniently your motherboard comes with a non-conductive platform called the box
[3:02] Just put it on there before we get too far ahead of ourselves though
[3:05] There are a couple of things we need from in here this small m.2 retention screw this IO shield
[3:12] our Wi-Fi antennas and I
[3:15] Don't know a SATA cable sure if you're a first-time builder or even if you're not now is a much easier time to
[3:21] Familiarize yourself with the layout of your motherboard
[3:24] The B760 DS3HAC from Gigabyte is not a particularly high-end board but what it does have is the features we need and a very standard layout
[3:33] Our CPU power connector is up here in the top left in its usual location
[3:37] Our motherboard power connector is along the right hand edge
[3:40] Our CPU socket is right here dead center at the top with our RAM slots just to the right color coded for dual channel operation
[3:48] Our M.2 storage slots are just south of the CPU socket and between the
[3:53] PCI Express expansion slots, and then all of our front connectors are along the bottom edge
[3:58] with audio, RGB, USB 2, fans, our front I/O, so that's our front power button and front lights,
[4:07] some internal connectors for SATA, those are for our hard drives, and,
[4:11] these are pretty important, USB 3 and USB 3 type C along the right hand edge, usually under the motherboard power connector.
[4:19] The last thing is at the top, there's going to be a special fan header, usually called CPU.
[4:25] That one is special because if for whatever reason your CPU fan fails, the system can be programmed to shut down safely instead of overheating.
[4:34] Now let's talk CPU.
[4:36] I don't know quite how this happened, but Intel has become a great choice for budget gaming builds these days,
[4:41] and the Core i5-12600KF is a fantastic choice. It's got six P Cores and four Poo Cores.
[4:48] That is to say, six performance cores and four that don't perform quite as well. It turbos to up to 4.9Ghz.
[4:56] And jokes about them aside, those weaker, efficiency cores actually make it a formidable choice, not just for gaming,
[5:03] but even for streaming and light content creation.
[5:05] Something to note though is that as an F SKU, this is not going to allow us to use our onboard graphics outputs
[5:11] and we do prefer to have those even if its just to simplify troubleshooting.
[5:15] But for a $30 difference in budget at this price point,
[5:19] it's just not something that we can justify for something we'll be replacing before we ever even power on the system. Now, it's time to get this thing installed.
[5:27] All we've got to do is push down the arm here, lift up this bad boy right here, find the little golden triangle that's on the corner of our CPU, in this case.
[5:40] Right there, then find the corresponding triangle at the corner of the socket, or
[5:44] if you want to be even more careful not to accidentally touch these pins, you can check before you lift it up.
[5:49] Line those two triangles up, drop the CPU into place with no force whatsoever.
[5:55] If it doesn't go in, it may not be keyed correctly. So watch out for that. Give it a little wiggle to make sure it's in place.
[6:02] Lower the top cover, lower the arm.
[6:06] And this should pop off. Just a little something like that. Hold on to this though.
[6:11] If you ever need to RMA your motherboard back to the manufacturer, they will require you to have this.
[6:18] Now let's talk about another area where we saved a few bucks.
[6:21] We went with 32 gigs of DDR4 memory, opting for this kit of G.Skill RipJaws 5.
[6:28] Some folks might have preferred we went with DDR5, but at around $80, this is a great kit for gaming today
[6:34] and in the near future and fit comfortably within our approximately $1,000 budget.
[6:38] For installation, the first thing you're going to want to do is check where they go and, ooh, conveniently,
[6:44] this motherboard has a little silkscreened legend that tells you, but if not, you can double-check your motherboard manual.
[6:49] Usually, you're going to use color-coded slots and usually the slots furthest away from the CPU.
[6:56] Just peel back the tabs, press down firmly until they click, and you should be good to go.
[7:03] By the way, if you noticed how three-dimensional and spatial all of that was, you're probably watching on the Vision Pro
[7:11] with the file that we provided at lmg.gg/floatplane.
[7:14] For everyone else, guess what? You're also a winner because you didn't spend $3,500 on a Vision Pro.
[7:20] Now we're going to need some storage for our operating system, and hey, what are you doing?
[7:25] What year is it? For the operating system? Yeah, that's better. We've gone with the Crucial P3 Plus.
[7:31] Is it the fastest drive on the market? No. Does it have a DRAM cache which can improve longevity and performance? No.
[7:39] But what it does have is good enough performance and a very attractive price.
[7:44] We've got a one terabyte drive here which will be enough for our operating system,
[7:47] our applications, and maybe even a couple of games.
[7:51] And while we recognize we could have spent more on a higher performance drive,
[7:55] we found that a mainstream PCIe Gen4 drive is all most people are bound to notice in desktop use anyway.
[8:01] So the only question is, do we install it in the top slot,
[8:04] which tends to run at higher speeds and lower latency, and is connected directly to the CPU,
[8:09] or do we run it in one of the bottom slots, which typically shares its lanes with other nearby slots?
[8:15] For us, it's really not going to matter. So...
[8:18] Eenie meenie miney this one.
[8:20] All we've got to do is align our little gum stick form factor
drive.
[8:24] With the slot right there, push it in, push it down, and then retrieve that little screw that we had earlier.
[8:31] And this is where you're going to need that number one phillips head screwdriver.
[8:35] And screw it down a little something like this.
[8:39] It's worth noting that many modern motherboards have unique tool- less installation methods for
[8:43] these m.2 drives, or even large shrouds or heat sinks that cover up the slots.
[8:48] So if you find that that's the case, just consult your manual for how to operate these
[8:52] slots and
[8:53] how to gain access to them. When you're installing your CPU cooler, the first thing you're going to want to do is double check what socket you're using.
[9:00] This will often be silkscreened on the motherboard. In our case, we can see socket 1700.
[9:05] But otherwise, you will certainly find it in the manual or on the product page for your CPU.
[9:10] Then what we're going to do is we're going to open this up. Ignore absolutely everything except get out of here.
[9:17] Ah, there it is. We missed it. This is very important.
[9:21] Because pretty much every cooler installs a little bit differently
[9:25] and sometimes a little differently on every single socket.
[9:29] So we're gonna want to find the specific instructions for Intel 1700.
[9:35] Now obviously your mileage may vary for this part depending on which cooler you bought,
[9:39] but the Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE is a great choice at just about any budget.
[9:44] So I'm gonna show you guys how to install it.
[9:46] Starting by grabbing the backplate and flipping over your motherboard.
[9:49] Aye.
[9:50] I don't generally like peeling these
[9:52] and actually sticking this thing down,
[9:54] but as you can see in a previous take, I already started.
[9:56] So I guess we're down this path now.
[9:58] So all I'm gonna do is kind of stick it to my shirt
[10:00] a little bit to make sure that it's not too sticky.
[10:03] Now on older sockets, the orientation mattered,
[10:05] but on LGA 1700, it doesn't.
[10:07] So we're just gonna pop these little posts
[10:09] through the holes in the motherboard,
[10:12] stick that down, and we should be good to go.
[10:15] Now we put all of our fun little blue spacers in place.
[10:18] Line up our little mounting bars.
[10:22] Now for one of the most controversial steps applying thermal compound. Here's how you do it.
[10:32] That's not how I would do it. That's how you do it. Look at the mess you made. Being serious though
[10:37] that would have worked fine. You can't really put too much thermal compound on your CPU.
[10:42] All it does is make a mess, but if you don't want to waste it,
[10:45] then an amount more like this is more reasonable.
[10:48] We used to say the size of an uncooked grain of rice.
[10:51] Now I would say, think of whatever the trendiest,
[10:54] most hipster rice you can think of is
[10:56] and how big it is when it's cooked
[10:58] and kind of go with that.
[10:59] If you have a much larger CPU,
[11:01] like a workstation size or server size CPU,
[11:03] either spread a thin layer
[11:05] across the entire Shiny integrated heat spreader
[11:09] or check their documentation.
[11:10] Now for the most important step.
[11:13] Everything else you did was for naught.
[11:15] If you do not remove this peel, remove the peel.
[11:20] Now, whoo shiny take that shiny put it on the other shiny
[11:27] Line up the post with the screws then give her but not fully once it's caught
[11:32] I would strongly recommend tightening the other side until it catches and then tightening slowly in an alternating fashion
[11:40] you can just wrench one side all the way down and then
[11:43] try and get the other side to go, but it can be a little bit tricky.
[11:47] It puts a lot of strain on the motherboard too.
[11:49] We are done.
[11:52] Well not done done, I mean it's not a computer is it, but done enough to deserve a nice snack.
[11:59] Now that we've enjoyed a light meal and a very heavy trip to the toilet,
[12:03] we're ready to put these wire clips on to our fans, a little something like so.
[12:10] Then we lower the fan down, make sure it's even, not that it really matters, but it matters a lot to me, and pull the clips.
[12:20] Just like that. See? Not going anywhere. Not that it would want to, anyway. Look, I brought it a little friend.
[12:26] It's worth noting that this one is
[12:28] not gonna go all the way down, because it interferes with our RAM, but that's okay.
[12:33] We're still getting most of the benefit of that airflow.
[12:36] Now, because modern day, we need to plug in a thousand connectors.
[12:41] JK, it's not that bad. All we've got to do...
[12:44] is daisy-chain together these RGB connectors. You can see there's just three pins, so they only go in one way.
[12:51] Boop! Then take this female end and plug it into where there is
[12:56] usually a header at the top of the motherboard.
[12:59] Then for these other two, you've got a couple of options. Our cooler did include a Y cable,
[13:03] so we can just plug into that and plug both of them into our CPU fan header,
[13:08] but our motherboard has a CPU fan and
[13:12] CPU opt header. So
[13:14] we can just plug both of them into that.
[13:19] Delicious.
[13:21] Now for cable management.
[13:24] Okay, I'm just kidding.
[13:25] A, don't do that because you can actually accidentally
[13:29] end up with cables that are stuck in your fan blades
[13:32] and then they won't spin.
[13:33] That's bad.
[13:34] And B, because it's not really the time
[13:36] for cable management.
[13:37] Now is the time to do a quick test boot
[13:39] here on the test platform before you assemble
[13:42] the whole system and cable manage everything.
[13:44] It's a lot easier to swap a component now
[13:45] than it is to do it two hours from now.
[13:49] And moment of truth,
[13:51] we can see our power button is these two pins right here.
[13:54] We short them and it's alive.
[14:02] Well, you don't know that yet.
[14:04] Believe it or not, it's normal for the system
[14:06] to take quite a while to turn on in the first place,
[14:08] especially AMD systems
[14:10] while they undergo a process called memory training.
[14:13] So I'm not digging into my motherboard manual
[14:15] for what these diagnostic LEDs mean
[14:16] for probably at least a solid.
[14:19] A minute or two.
[14:20] Oh, well, okay, well, the monitor has to be on.
[14:24] That's step one.
[14:25] Boom booted.
[14:27] Great sign.
[14:28] For bonus points, we could install Windows now,
[14:31] get all of our drivers set up,
[14:32] make sure everything's working correctly,
[14:34] run some stress tests,
[14:35] but realistically, you're not that patient.
[14:38] You're gonna put the rest of the system together.
[14:40] Now that you know all the bits and pieces work,
[14:42] you can set these aside
[14:43] and it's time to get back to the build
[14:45] and meet your case.
[14:47] Doesn't she look so beautiful? Just lift up the veil, give her a little kiss.
[14:54] We settled for the Phanteks Eclipse G360A.
[14:57] It's a great value at the best of times and when we put together this parts list, it was just
[15:02] $50 after rebate. It comes with three
[15:05] 120 millimeter fans in the front and even if we're not a huge fan of the configuration
[15:11] we'd suggest moving maybe this top one to be a rear exhaust or a top exhaust.
[15:17] There's no doubt that it'll be enough cooling for our rig.
[15:20] Personally, I like to remove all my side panels and put them aside,
[15:24] so there's no risk of them getting scratched or damaged while I'm completing the rest of the build.
[15:28] A safe place to put them is in the box with foam separating the two pieces.
[15:32] Now it's time to track down all of your mounting accessories.
[15:35] These will usually be in either a bag or a box somewhere in the case or in the case packaging.
[15:40] In Phanteks's case, pun intended, it's clearly labeled in this box.
[15:46] And, nope, this one does not include their little trademark organizers.
[15:50] I guess that's only on their more premium cases.
[15:53] Good luck figuring out what all these are for.
[15:55] JK, I'm gonna help.
[15:56] But before we get to that, there's one really fun step that everyone loves.
[16:01] Installing the I/O shield.
[16:03] If you have a mid-range or a high-end board, it's possible that it didn't come with one of these.
[16:08] Congratulations.
[16:09] If you're anyone else, now's a great time to find any of the little pieces that fold back like this.
[16:15] Give them a little extra fold to make sure that they don't end up stuck behind your port.
[16:20] Then, line it up with the rectangular opening at the back of the case,
[16:23] pushing on each corner one at a time,
[16:25] knowing that there's a solid chance one of the other corners will pop out when you do it.
[16:30] If you're not sure about the orientation,
[16:32] you can just check the back of the motherboard
[16:34] and make sure that the holes correspond to the ports.
[16:37] Speaking of your motherboard, now's a perfect time to install it in the case,
[16:41] but first we're gonna do a quick sanity check.
[16:43] Some cases come with motherboard standoffs pre-installed in the motherboard tray. In fact, you can see I've got
[16:51] nine of them in this particular case. This is really convenient,
[16:55] but if you happen to have a mismatch between the whole layout of your motherboard and the
[17:02] pre-installed standoffs in your case, it can cause a standoff
[17:05] to correspond to a spot where there isn't a hole and scratch the traces
[17:10] permanently destroying your board. So
[17:13] We've done a quick count and determined that we have both nine standoffs and nine holes.
[17:18] We're going to orient the back of the board with the I/O shield,
[17:22] then keeping this side well clear of those metal standoffs,
[17:26] slide it toward the back, and hopefully, there we go, get it to line up perfectly with our
[17:33] standoffs. You may find this process easier if you lay the case down, but I'm making a video,
[17:39] so I can't do that.
[17:41] Now quickly install one screw, and only one for now. There's a couple of quick things that we want to check.
[17:48] First, are there any metal tabs sticking into our ports, preventing us from using them, or worse,
[17:53] shorting them out causing damage to our board? No. Good to go.
[17:58] Second, have we accidentally caught anything under our board that prevents us from screwing it down?
[18:03] Ah, there you can see. We've got a cable that's stuck back there.
[18:07] If we tried to screw the board down with that back there, we could accidentally cause a lot of undue stress
[18:13] as we tighten down the one side while this part is bulging out.
[18:17] Also, since we're pushing it down, the last thing we want to check is that through every single hole,
[18:23] we can see a standoff. If we pre-counted them and we know that they match,
[18:28] then if we can see a standoff through every one, that means we have no extras that can damage our board.
[18:33] Time to start screwing, but which screws do we use?
[18:37] This case comes with coarser threaded 6/32 screws and finer threaded M3 screws.
[18:42] Which ones are for the motherboard?
[18:44] Well, it actually varies from case to case, so there's a couple ways to check.
[18:48] You can consult your manual or you can just trial and error it by starting with a finer threaded M3.
[18:54] It won't do any damage, it'll just slip out if it's not the right size,
[18:58] and you can switch over to a 6/32.
[19:01] In our case, M3 is the right size.
[19:03] So we're going to go ahead and do our other eight screws.
[19:07] If you're having trouble getting a screw installed because there's a cooler in the way or another obstruction,
[19:12] honestly, the best advice I can give you is not to sweat it.
[19:15] If you've got eight of your nine screws installed, that's no problem, as long as you don't have any extra standoffs.
[19:21] Before we plug in our front I/O, let's go ahead and get one of those fans moved.
[19:25] Normally, I would suggest removing the front panel, usually by grabbing it firmly from the bottom,
[19:30] but in this case...
[19:32] They are not screwed in from the front. They are actually screwed in from the back.
[19:38] You can use scissors to cut these, but I really don't recommend it. Side cutters are much safer
[19:42] if you don't want to risk damaging any of the wires that they're holding.
[19:46] It's worth noting that many modern fans will have two or even three connectors coming off of them.
[19:51] This guy right here, with four pins or three pins in these little ridges, is for power.
[19:56] This one right here is for RGB, and the last one is for RGB daisy chaining.
[20:02] So I'll show you guys how to hook this back up once we've moved it.
[20:04] Since we're gonna be using this as an exhaust now,
[20:06] we're gonna want to look for the little arrows that indicate the direction that the blades travel.
[20:10] This one right here, and the direction that the airflow goes.
[20:14] And then I usually like to have the leads up towards this cutout at the back of the case,
[20:20] so that I can road it back behind the motherboard tray.
[20:23] Now just tighten these boys up.
[20:25] You want to go hard enough that the fan is held firmly to the case without vibrating or rattling,
[20:30] but not so hard that you strip out the threads, and they are plastic, so you do need to be a little bit careful.
[20:35] Now it's time to hook our RGB back up, and in order to do this correctly, we need to understand a little bit of how the RGB works in this case.
[20:43] It has a lead that plugs into your motherboard to get an RGB signal, and then it has a built-in hub.
[20:49] So we're gonna need to power this with a SATA power adapter later,
[20:52] but more importantly for us right now...
[20:55] We need to have a look at how the other devices are plugged into it and daisy-chained together.
[20:59] So the first link goes to our bottom fan here, which then is daisy- chained into our second fan here,
[21:07] meaning that any multi-device animations are gonna start at the bottom front of the case and...
[21:14] make their way to the top back if we connect it like this.
[21:18] If we had additional fans, say here and here for example,
[21:21] we would want to make sure that we plug in this one, then this one, then...
[21:24] this one, otherwise things are going to end up looking a little weird.
[21:27] Since we're back here, now's a great time to route any other cables that need to make
[21:31] their way to the front of the case as well.
[21:33] So we're going to put our USB 3 over here, we're going to put our power switch right
[21:38] around here, and we're going to put our front panel audio, oop, is there a hole
[21:42] there?
[21:43] Oh yeah, there is.
[21:44] Right around there.
[21:45] Hey, stay in there.
[21:46] Hey, hey, hey, stay in there.
[21:48] Back at the front, here's our USB 3 connector, you can see it's got a little key...
[21:52] ...and a little slot to make sure that it only goes in one way.
[21:55] The most important thing here is just to make sure you've actually got it perfectly lined up before you press down...
[22:01] ...because those little pins in the socket are extremely fragile.
[22:05] Woop!
[22:06] There we go!
[22:07] The power switch is not keyed and, like the rest of these
connectors for the reset switch, power LED, and drive activity LED...
[22:15] ...is not really very fragile.
[22:16] So we're just gonna throw it on there and the reality of it is...
[22:20] If you plug any of these in in the wrong orientation, it won't harm anything.
[22:23] Just try it the other way if your LEDs don't illuminate.
[22:27] Finally, our front panel audio connector is keyed and is going to go into...
[22:31] Oh, look how handy-dandily labeled that is.
[22:35] Into our audio header right there.
[22:38] Boop!
[22:39] Wow, look at all that progress!
[22:41] Now let's plug in our fans.
[22:42] Usually there are headers along this edge, along this edge,
[22:46] and potentially at the top left, and that's where they are.
[22:49] So...
[22:50] Sure, let's plug these two into the headers right here, and let's plug this one into the one up there.
[22:56] Something you may notice, by the way, about plugging things in in the top corner of the case here,
[23:01] is that when you have an air cooler installed, it's pretty freaking tricky.
[23:05] So, if you have a modular power supply, a good pro tip is to plug in this connector and, realistically, anything else before you put on your cooler.
[23:14] Otherwise, hey, worst case scenario, you can pop off this fan, take the cooler out...
[23:19] ...plug everything in, and then pop it right back on.
[23:22] Don't sweat it, it's a minor mistake.
[23:24] Now it's time to plug in our RGB, woohoo!
[23:27] Let's just go ahead and run it over to...
[23:30] Oh no! We already used it when we plugged in our cooler!
[23:34] Hmm, wow, there is another 4-pin RGB connector here,
[23:39] but don't try to force it.
[23:41] The 4-pin ones run at 12 volts,
[23:43] and they will fry any of these 3-pin 5-volt LEDs that you plug into them.
[23:47] Fortunately, we've got a couple of options.
[23:49] Our motherboard, like many modern ones, has two RGB connectors.
[23:53] So, we can just run that down there, or, if you remember, we have daisy chains already.
[24:00] We could just plug this into our motherboard here.
[24:07] And then grab the other end of our daisy chain for our CPU RGB.
[24:12] It's up to you.
[24:13] Just whatever you do, don't bend the pins like I just did.
[24:17] Now it's time for our power supply, which I realized I mentioned earlier, but never really talked about.
[24:21] We've gone with the RM750E from Corsair.
[24:24] It's fully modular, it's quiet, it's reasonably priced, and,
perhaps most importantly,
[24:30] it's rated platinum from Cybernetics, who I trust quite a bit more than the folks at 80+ these days
[24:36] to tell me what's a good power supply.
[24:38] We haven't done any of our own testing on this one, but that'll be coming soon enough at lttlabs.com.
[24:44] Now there's two different orientations. You can see that I put it in with the fan facing the bottom.
[24:49] And that's great, as long as I've got a case that has a filtered air intake on the bottom, just like this one.
[24:55] Ooh, and it's easy to clean too.
[24:57] But if I had a case that either didn't have a filtered intake on the bottom or didn't have raised feet
[25:04] to make sure that it's getting a supply of fresh air and it's not going to get suffocated by my carpet,
[25:09] then I might turn it around and have my intake at the top.
[25:13] But that would mean that it would typically run a little bit warmer.
[25:16] You can see that I pre-attached my cables, and the ones that I need for this build are
[25:21] my 24-pin connector, my 8-pin EPS connector, oh, where'd it go, aha, there it is, my
[25:29] 8-pin EPS or CPU power connector, distinguishable from the other 8-pin by the fact that it
[25:35] separates into two 4-pins rather than a 6 and a 2.
[25:41] So my two PCIe 8-pin power connectors, and finally a SATA power connector.
[25:48] I'm gonna need that. Actually, I'm gonna need two of these, but I have four.
[25:51] Now, just to mix things up, I'm gonna be using the 6/32 screws that I mentioned before but didn't use.
[25:57] Just four of these in the back of the power supply, and if you have any extras, hey, don't worry, they're delicious.
[26:04] Now to run these to where they go. This one goes about here.
[26:09] Yeah, this one goes
[26:11] Yeah, this one goes where our GPU is gonna end up right around
[26:15] and our SATA power is gonna hang out down here. I'll show you guys what we're gonna do with that later
[26:20] The trickiest part of plugging in these big long connectors is just making sure you've got them oriented right?
[26:26] So there's a little latch here. There's a little catch here those go on the same side
[26:31] Line them up and you're gonna really press and make sure that you hear that click you guys hear that
[26:37] Try again
[26:39] Click if it's not clicked it didn't stick
[26:47] Sure, I mean sometimes they don't click
[26:51] Same goes for our 8 pin up in the corner
[26:53] let's go ahead and click that back together to make the installation a little bit easier and then
[26:58] Yeah
[27:00] This will be a little bit tricky, but but nothing you can't handle you dextrous folks now
[27:05] It's time to install our hard drive. We went with the 2 terabyte WD blue
[27:09] from WD because it was affordable and we needed somewhere to put our games so let's go ahead and just
[27:16] pop these little sides out of these tool less hard drive trays then we just put this bad boy in here
[27:21] we're going to want these screw holes to line up with the little nubbins that we're going to close
[27:26] onto them anytime now buddy then we just close these up take the whole thing and give it a
[27:33] little shovel of into this tray down here look at that
[27:38] Since we're down here now is a perfectly good time to go ahead and plug in our SATA power note that this is
[27:43] Also keyed like so many other things
[27:47] There we are and oh I guess now's a perfectly good time to plug in our SATA data as well
[27:53] We have a side panel to close here
[27:55] So I'm gonna go ahead and use this right angle connector as long as we've got enough clearance
[28:00] There we go. Oh
[28:02] Yeah
[28:06] There you go the lock goes on the top now we plug our next SATA power connector into our front panel there
[28:12] There we go, and we can just tuck these boys. I don't know right around there now
[28:17] It's worth noting by the way that these trays can accommodate two and a half inch drives as well
[28:21] You can see they've got these little holes so you can screw in an SSD
[28:24] I don't really recommend buying SATA SSDs anymore though now that the prices are so similar to NVMe SSDs and the performance is
[28:32] Decidedly last-gen, but hey if you're bringing over an old drive
[28:36] You can either install them on these sleds or because they have no moving parts, and it doesn't matter you can hook them on these
[28:41] You can just pile them up in the bottom of your case
[28:44] Like I've seen so many people do you just kind of you do you do you, you do whatever works for you now
[28:50] Let's take the other end of this SATA cable
[28:52] Thread it through here. Oh
[28:54] Wow, that's an amazing noise
[28:57] There we go turn this around and plug it into our right angle SATA connector here at the front of the case
[29:04] This motherboard will support up to four drives. Not bad. Now look at that
[29:09] We're just about done. All we got to do is a little bit of cable management. You don't have to do a lot
[29:13] I won't judge you but think of yourselves like a PC building detective. You want to be able to at least
[29:20] Close the case, you know now for the big moment
[29:23] Unboxing our GPU we went with the Radeon 6800. Is it the most modern thing? No, it's actually last-gen but
[29:32] It's a great value which has been kind of a theme for this build and compared to the 7700 it
[29:38] Yeah, it consumes a little bit more power
[29:40] but performs similarly and is less expensive and
[29:44] Compared to similarly priced offerings from team green like the RTX 4060 series
[29:49] It has 16 gigs of video memory which should make it
[29:53] Hopefully a good performer for quite a few years to come
[29:58] Before we can install it though, we need to prep our case for the surgery.
[30:01] Let's go ahead and loosen our PCI slot cover holder thing.
[30:05] Not every case is going to have one of these, but every case will have these screws at the back.
[30:10] So let's just figure out which slot we're going to be using.
[30:13] It's going to be this one.
[30:14] So we're going to take out these two screws to accommodate the double slot I/O plate.
[30:24] With that out of the way,
[30:24] now's a great time to take a closer look at our GPU
[30:27] and talk through some of the choices that we made earlier.
[30:29] You saw us pop off this PCIe slot cover earlier.
[30:33] Damn it.
[30:34] Well, whatever, I don't need that.
[30:35] So if you didn't test on the bench,
[30:37] now's a good time to take that off,
[30:38] as well as any display ports that you're planning to use,
[30:41] be they HDMI or display port.
[30:44] Now there's two other things.
[30:45] Remember when I said that the fan
[30:47] that we wanted to take away was this one in the top?
[30:50] The reason for that,
[30:51] is that our GPU uses a three-fan design that draws air in...
[30:59] here.
[31:00] So we want to be bringing that fresh air from those bottom fans
[31:02] and blowing it right across our GPU.
[31:04] The other decision that we made earlier
[31:06] was to use our old-school 8-pin PCIe power connectors.
[31:11] That's because this car does not use
[31:13] the new 12-volt high-power connector.
[31:15] It uses dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors.
[31:18] Now...
[31:19] We can go ahead and get this installed. All we got to do is line up the slot with the slot.
[31:27] Watch out for this, okay? Make sure that these are inside the case and not ramming into the motherboard.
[31:36] Push down firmly. You should feel a little bit of resistance. And then if you want to make sure
[31:42] that it's in, you can just see if this lock at the back of the PCI slot here is engaged.
[31:48] Mine is.
[31:49] And it's not going anywhere.
[31:52] Now all we got to do is find those power connectors
[31:55] that I just showed you, hope that we didn't,
[31:57] oh no, get them mashed under the GPU.
[32:01] Aha, there we go.
[32:02] And then just like we did on our motherboard connectors,
[32:05] check for where the clip is,
[32:07] check for where the holder for the clip is,
[32:09] make sure we didn't cable manage them too tight
[32:12] and plug them in.
[32:13] It's worth noting by the way
[32:14] that some folks recommend using two separate cables.
[32:17] Rather than a daisy-chain style connector like this one, if you've got a GPU that requires two plugs, they're not wrong, that is better.
[32:24] But the actual risk of anything going wrong by using one of these is pretty much negligible,
[32:30] and this isn't a particularly high draw GPU in the first place, so I am taking a calculated non-risk here.
[32:37] Now it's time to screw our GPU back in.
[32:38] These are often thumb screws, but I strongly recommend using a screwdriver to install them anyway, because it can be really tricky.
[32:46] To get these holes aligned just right and have your thumbs in there like that.
[32:49] So just do yourself a favor.
[32:51] Use a magnetic screwdriver if you can.
[32:53] I also like to lift the GPU up a little bit while I'm installing it,
[32:56] because you know it's going to sag a bit anyway, and I like to see it level.
[32:59] That's also one of the reasons that I like having the power connectors
[33:02] come from the top, and then I'll tension them quite tight
[33:04] to take a little bit of the strain off if I don't happen to have a GPU support.
[33:08] Of course, if you have a 3D printer and also one who has one,
[33:10] there are like a bazillion GPU supports that you can print out.
[33:14] And...
[33:16] Is that it? Let's get her buttoned up.
[33:20] Oh, good job, you did it.
[33:26] Treat yourself to a snack.
[33:31] And she still works, fantastic.
[33:33] Not only that, but wow, great job.
[33:36] Your RGB lighting looks amazing.
[33:40] Now, if you don't mind,
[33:41] I'm just gonna excuse myself to the washroom.
[33:43] I think I might have bruised my head earlier.
[33:45] Ugh.
[33:52] Oh no, if I can't get these off,
[33:55] I'll never be sponsored again.
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[34:44] If you guys enjoyed this video, go check out how to set up your PC, the last guide you'll ever need.
[34:50] It pretty much picks up right where we left off here.