Steps to building a gaming computer

For everyone else, take the individual pins, and, using the motherboard installation handbook, identify which pins and cables need connecting.

Try to do this part gently do, so as to not to bend the pins. Audio is located on the bottom left of most motherboards. It will be labelled, and the pin outs will be different to the USB 2. Install your USB 3. Identify your 8-pin EPS cable, and slide it up the back of the chassis, through the cable grommet and plug it into the 8 pin power slot at the top of the motherboard.

Then, find the bulkier pin cable, slide that through any cable routing recesses on the chassis and plug it into the corresponding pin ATX power port on the motherboard. Next up, take your SATA power and connect it to any storage drives. If you happen to have a something mounted onto the front of the case, run this SATA power cable through the PSU shroud, appropriate grommets or holes, and into your front mounted 2.

This is a good opportunity to plug in the SATA Data cables between any storage drives and the motherboard as well. First take a look at your motherboard and locate the PCIe slot closest to your processor. Take your graphics card out of the anti-static bag and line it up with the slots we just opened up.

Take your temporarily built tower over to your pre-setup computer space and plug it into power, a screen, keyboard and mouse too. Power it on, and mash the delete key to get into the BIOS screen.

Then hit F10, save and exit. Then power off. That means using cable ties to bunch together cables as much as you can. Most PC cases come to cable cut-outs to use as tie down points. MasterAir Maker 8 , fan ex. These days, a laptop is essential Read Article. What if we told you that Read Article.

There are many reasons why Chromebooks Read Article. Skip to content. It should break into 2 parts for motherboard that only use one half. The case will have a small 3 pin connector for the case fan. Hook this in the indicated spot. There will be another in the back that will need a 3-pin to molex adapter. Hook the adapter into the PSU and the other end to the 3 pin connector. The motherboard comes with a SATA cable.

Connect one end to the hard drive and the other to the motherboard. Press the power button on the case and hopefuly the computer turns on! You still need to install the OS and drivers. I have a guide on this upcoming. Thanks to duncan's youtube video for the photos.

If you are new, use pc part picker to manage parts and stuff. Use their system builder to pick your case, cpu, etc. Here is a link. I found it useful. Tip 1 year ago. You know, the cables are really confusing and should explain that more. Also be grounded and touch something metal to discharge once in a while. PSU, maybe. Invest more money in cpu and gpu cause those are the most important. Tip 3 years ago on Introduction. Tip 3 years ago. Reply 4 years ago. Reply 5 years ago. Tip 1: Check out this list of good cable management examples.

This will give you a good idea of where everything will plug in. Tip 3: Skim through this guide before you build to get a sense of when you will install each component. Tip 4: Before you start building, temporarily place your motherboard inside of your case so you can get an idea of where the ports line up in relation to where cable cutouts on your case are. This will give you a good idea of where you should run your cables so that they will come out closest to the ports they need to be plugged into.

Tip 5: As a general rule of thumb, you want to run as much of your cables behind the motherboard tray and storage cages as possible. In some instances, your cables may not be long enough to where they can be routed behind the motherboard tray. Tip 7: Most modern cases have hooks and cutouts that you can use to tie your cables down with a zip tie.

Use them! Tip Bundle cables together that are going in the same direction. It will be tough to get your cable management perfect on the first try. But, having some sort of plan on cable management before you start building is half the battle. Take off both of the side panels. Typically, these are held in place by thumbscrews at the back of the case. All modern cases come with at least a single fan installed at the back of the case.

And, most options come with at least one fan installed on the front of the case as well. Installing case fans is simple, as pretty much all cases have specific slots where extra fans can go. And, all you have to do is use the provided screws to mount the fan to the case. This is especially true for those of you that want to install fans on the top panel of the case—once the CPU cooler is installed, it can make installing case fans on the top of the case difficult.

It should also be noted, though, that if you do install additional fans on top of the case before you mount your motherboard and you have a more compact case, it can be tough to access the mount-holes on the top of the motherboard, making it difficult to screw the motherboard into the upper standoffs. Check with the existing fan configuration of your case, first, though, before you assume that your front fans are pulling in air and your rear fans are exhausting air.

If you have a case that has a single fan on the back of the case, you can probably assume that it is exhausting air out of the back. Also, most fans have an arrow on them that tell you which direction the fan pushes the air through it. The arrow will help you properly configure your fan so that the air is flowing in the right direction. Power supplies are fairly easy to install.

However, some cases opt for a top-mounted PSU. It will be fairly easy to tell where your PSU needs to be mounted because on the back panel of the case there will be a large cutout where the PSU will be mounted to.

This will give you a good idea on how to go about doing your cable management. I use the various packing components to wedge under the corners of the case to help keep it level and stable. The fan on your power supply is an intake fan.

Its job is to pull in air from outside the power supply to help keep the internal components of the power supply cool.

However, if your power supply fan is pointed up into the case, it will be pulling air from inside your case. That air will be warmer than the air outside of the case. So, if your case has a vent below where the power supply will sit, you can turn the power supply so that the fan is pointing down, and the power supply will pull in the cooler air from outside the case instead.

You can install those components after you mount your motherboard, but it makes the process difficult, and, depending on what case you have, it may be difficult to mount your CPU cooler after mounting your motherboard.

You can do so by placing the motherboard on top of the box that the motherboard came in and then installing the components listed above. If you have a stock Intel CPU cooler, you will need to follow a specific set of instructions to install it correctly.