Building your PC

PC buildout

With all your components at hand, it's time to start building your beast. You will need a few basic hand tools:

• Non-magnetic screwdriver (-).
• Non-magnetic Philips head screwdriver (+).
• Pliers. Flat nose is best, pointy nose will suffice.
• Bandaids. You will cut your finger on something.
• Torch/flashlight. Something small will be in a shadow and you'll need help to see it.

Magnetic screwdrivers will fuck up your components. Keep them away.

With your tools and components at hand, you're ready to begin. Rose has a basic introduction. Your first build time will probably take around 4 hours. Most of that time will be spent taking rests and calming down. Dumb shit will go wrong and you will get frustrated and want to scream. That's why you need 4 hours. If any of these steps are confusing, there will be videos on YouTube showing you exactly what the components look like and how they fit together. You may have to put up with shitty music and autistic voices, however.

1.      Unpack your case.

·         Remove both sides of your case for easy access, keeping track of where you put the case screws.

·         Use the case's cardboard packaging box as your "bin".

·         Remove all plastic bag packaging and throw it in your bin.

·         Included in the packaging will be a small ziplock bag of screws. Put these with your screwdrivers.

·         Included in the packing (if your case has a PSU) you'll have power cables (the computer to wall outlet kind). Keep these.

·         Your case will have some cables that connect to the front of the case. These will include the Power button cable, the Reset button cable, the power and drive activity light cables and perhaps USB port cables and audio cables.

·         Your case may have a fan attached which has a cable coming from it.

2.      Install your PSU.

·         If you bought a case without a PSU, unpack your PSU and install it.

·         PSUs generally take four screws to install.

·         Give the case a good shake to see if the PSU is in tight. PSUs are heavy and having one fall on a circuit board will likely break it.

3.      Unpack your motherboard.

·         It will come in a anti-static charge bag. The bag will look like a plastic bag with black stripes criss-crossed on it.

·         Lay your motherboard ontop of it's anti-static bag.

·         Included in the box will be a manual. You will need this.

·         Included in the box will be some sata data/power cables. Keep these.

·         Included in the box will be a rectangle of metal with holes in it. This clips onto the inside of your case and the holes will allign to the ports on your motherboard. Keep this.

·         Included in the box will be a CD with some Windows drivers on it. These will likely be out of date, but good enough to get you started (check the manufacturer website for the latest drivers).

4.      With your case and motherboard unpacked, figure out where to install your mounting screws.

·         Mounting screws are the gold, weird looking screws that came in the little ziplock bag with your motherboard. One end will look like a regular screw, the other end will allow a screw to be screwed into it. Kind of like an adapter. It'll make sense shortly.

·         Your motherboard will only go into your case one way. All the ports will be gathered near one corner, and this corner will eventually stick out the back of your pc (i.e. where you plug your mouse in). Figure out which way the motherboard will eventually be mounted and put it in your case this way.

·         Your motherboard will have six or more screwholes in it. With your motherboard in the correct orientation, you'll be able to see which holes in your case align with holes in your motherboard. These are your mounting points.

·         With the mounting points figured out, put your motherboard back onto it's anti-static bag.

5.      Insert your mounting screws into your case. Screw them all in fingertight before you forget where they go. Once they're all in, use your pliers to give them an extra quater turn. Doing this stops them coming out if you ever unscrew your motherboard (i.e. saves you having a screw ontop of your motherboard and a mounting screw underneath it, both only attached to the motherboard).

·         With all your mounting screws in place, double check with your motherboard incase you missed one/misaligned one.

6.      Install the rectangle of metal that came with your motherboard into your case. Make sure it aligns with your motherboard's ports. It only fits one way.

7.      Your case is now prepared. Things get more exciting from here on in. If you're sweating or tiring, have a break.

8.      Install your RAM.

1.                  With your motherboard on it's anti-static bag, locate the ram slots.

2.                  Click back the catches on either end on the slot.

3.                  Unpackage your ram and bin the packaging.

4.                  Install your RAM:

·         The RAM slots closest to the CPU are the ones you want.

·         Insert your RAM into the slot(s). It will only go in one way (check the gap on the bottom of the stick and your slot).

·         Use both thumbs to push the ram down. The catches will click in.

9.      Install your CPU.

0.                  Unhook the arm from the CPU housing on your motherboard. This will free the main CPU housing and let you lift it up and over like turning the page of a book.

1.                  If there's an obvious plastic protection square in place of the CPU, take it out and bin it.

2.                  In the square of the CPU area, one corner will be marked with a triangle. Take note of it.

3.                  Unpack your CPU from it's box. You will find the CPU and it's heatsink/fan, and a manual.

4.                  One corner of the CPU will have a triangle that matches the marking on your motherboard. Now you know which way to place your CPU.

5.                  Lay your CPU into it's home. You won't need to push or wiggle or press it.

6.                  Close the CPU housing over the top of your installed CPU (like closing a book).

7.                  Close and lock the arm of the CPU housing. You will need to apply a small amount of pressure here, but be careful. If anything seems off, doesn't fit, won't lock, scrapes - STOP! Watch two or three Youtube videos of CPU installation to get a feel for this. If you go all gung-ho on it, you'll bend pins and fuck your CPU and cost yourself dearly.

10. Install the CPU heatsink/fan.

·         CPUs come with a stock heatsink/fan setup with thermal paste already applied. If you have a third party heatsink, refer to its manual

·         The heatsink/fan combo will have a cable wrapped around it, hooked in to plastic clips. Carefully unhook the cable so that it's free.

2.      Place the heatsink over the CPU. Four plastic legs will align with four holes on the motherboard.

3.      Install each leg of the heatsink.

·         Each leg must be pushed through the motherboard and then swiveled to lock into place.

·         Gentle/mild pressure on the middle of the fan/heatstink can help.

·         Looking at the underside of the motherboard will give you a better indication as to whether each leg is installed properly.

·         The last leg will be the trickiest.

·         Refer to the manual that came with your CPU for official instructions on installing the heatsink.

4.      Ensure all four legs are correctly installed and locked.

5.      Connect the fan's cable to your motherboard (refer to your motherboard's manual for the location of the pins). It will be an obvious caddy to slot into once you find it.

11. Install the motherboard into your case.

·         Your motherboard at this stage has it's RAM, CPU and CPU heatsink/fan connected.

·         Your case at this stage has it's mounting screws installed.

2.      Align your motherboard with it's mounting screws.

3.      Insert your screws and screw them in fingertight.

4.      With all screws in, screw them in the rest of the way.

12. Connect motherboard power cables.

·         Refer to your motherboard manual to insert the main motherboard power cables from your PSU. One of these will be quite large and may require an amount of force to insert correctly.

13. Connect motherboard case cables.

·         Refer to your motherboard manual to insert the power button/reset/power led/hdd led/case front usb cables to your motherboard's pins. Take your time here. You'll be dealing with small, figity cables and tiny, figity pins. Use your flashlight and don't rush. This is the most finicky part of your build.

·         Again refer to your motherboard manual to install the case fan cable.

14. Install your GPU.

0.      Check the motherboard manual to find which PCIe slot should be used for the GPU.

1.      Align your GPU to your PCIe slot and figure out where it's going to go. You'll need to remove one or more silver metal slot covers from the back of your case (where the GPU ports will stick out of).

2.      Check your PCIe port for a little lever that you'll need when slotting in your GPU.

3.      Slot in you GPU, wiggling the little level until in clunks in.

4.      Use a screw to secure the GPU to the back of the case (where you took out the slot cover).

5.      Connect any additional power cables required to the end of the GPU.

15. Install your storage drives.

·         Your case will have several bays ready to slide a HDD or SSD into.

·         A cheap case will have screws to secure the drive, whereas other cases will have fancy clips to secure drives. These usually require turning a plastic dial to lock/unlock.

·         You'll need to have both sides of your case open to properly secure a drive.

3.      Slide in your drive from the inside of the case and secure it with screws or fancy clips.

4.      Connect the SATA data cable between your drive and your motherboard.

5.      Connect the SATA power cable between your drive and your PSU.

16. Install your optical drives.

·         Your case will have several slots for these, but you'll need to prepare each slot:

1.                  Decide on your slot (don't forget to check if your sata data and power cables will reach!)

2.                  Wrestle out the metal barrier at the front of the case which corresponds to your desired slot. If there's ever a time to get rough with your case, this is the time.

3.                  With the metal barrier gone, a plastic section will either punch out and away from, or into the case, leaving a gap for your optical drive.

1.      Insert the drive from the outside of the case and secure it with screws/fancy clips.

2.      Connect the SATA data and power cables.

17. All of your components are now installed, but take a breath before you turn the machine on.

18. Check that none of the cables are in a position to be hit by fans.

19. Don't put the case covers on yet - something will be wrong.

20. Connect up your mouse/keyboard/screen/power to your new machine and power it on.

21. Check that your PSU, case and CPU fans are running.

22. Double check that no cables are in danger of being hit by fans.

23. Shut down your beast.

24. Close up the case.

25. You're done/install your OS.