It's almost time to throw your motherboard into your case, but first you'll need to screw in some standoff screws that you'll place your motherboard onto before screwing it in. These standoffs will come with your motherboard, and once you've located them, you can start screwing them into your case. There should be about a dozen holes for the standoffs to fit into.
Refer to your case's manual if you're having trouble finding them. Once the standoffs are screwed in, you're ready to insert your motherboard. The standoffs make it easy to place your motherboard into your case, but don't start screwing it in straight away.
It'll be a rectangle, and you'll want your motherboard to be inserted comfortably into this space so that you can access all of the ports. Once everything fits, you can start screwing your motherboard onto the standoffs with the appropriate screws. Don't forget that you don't want to screw anything too tightly. Just turn your screwdriver until everything is securely tightened, and then you're ready to move on. Installing the power supply into your case is often quite easy.
You'll want to refer to your specific case's manual for this, but it's pretty straightforward. First, we took our case's mounting bracket and screwed it onto the back of our power supply. You'll notice your power supply also sports a fan, which is used to circulate air. If you're planning on placing your finished gaming PC on a hardwood floor or desk, then feel free to aim this fan downward; if you're placing your gaming PC on a carpeted floor, then you'll want to aim the fan upward. Once you've figured out which way your PSU needs to be oriented, and screwed on the mounting bracket, you can easily slide it into your case and tighten the bracket's screws.
Depending on how much room you have for your PSU, you may want to hold off on screwing it in until you've plugged in all of its various power cables. Your case should have a specific bay area dedicated to holding these kinds of drives. Locate this area, then look for two metal clasps on the left and right side of each bay.
Squeeze these clasps and then pull the bay out. Here is where you'll be able to screw in your SATA drive and keep it stable inside your case. Find the SATA slot on your motherboard and plug the other side of the appropriate cable into it, then plug the other side of the PSU cable into your power supply. Your drive is now installed, though you will need to format it once your PC is up and running.
Now, you're ready to start plugging cables into your motherboard. This part requires some patience, as your case cables are extremely tiny and can be difficult to orient. You'll want to reference both your case and motherboard manuals during this step. Some motherboards, like our Aorus Ultra, come with a bus that you can plug the case cables into before inserting them into the motherboard.
This makes this step much easier. Your case cables make it so you can use the various ports on the front of your PC in addition to the power button itself.
Of course, nothing is going to happen when you press that button if you don't plug your PSU into your motherboard.
Installing your cooling system can be a somewhat nerve-wracking experience, particularly when applying the thermal paste, but it's a lot easier than it sounds. The first thing you need to do is mount the system's bracket to the motherboard. You'll need access to the back of the motherboard tray, as you'll be screwing part of it to the back of the tray.
This'll give you the spots you need to set the cooler's pump onto your CPU and motherboard. Before you do this, however, there are a few other steps. Liquid-based CPU cooling systems come with a radiator equipped with fans, which you'll want to screw into your case. Of course, you'll need to figure out where you want to install it. We recommend screwing it into your case's top grill, as it'll allow for more airflow, but some cases may not have a top grill, and you'll need to install it on the back of the case.
Once you figure out what position you're going to go with, you'll screw the radiator into the grill itself. Once you're done this, you're ready to attach the pump. First, you'll want to apply some thermal paste. You'll want to apply a pea-sized glob of thermal paste into the center of your CPU. During this step, always go smaller than bigger. Once applied, you can press the cooler into its position on the CPU and thermal paste. If you feel like you've accidentally applied too much thermal paste, don't worry: It's as easy as wiping the CPU off with a dry cloth and rubbing alcohol and trying again.
Once the pump is installed, you'll want to make sure all of your cooling system's wires are plugged into the right spots. Our particular cooler required us to plug a micro-USB cable into our pump and the other side into our motherboard. Before we move on to the last step of physically building your PC, you may want to do some cable management to clean up.
This'll create some room for air circulation and accessing your components if you ever want to upgrade later. Most cases come with Velcro straps or zip ties, but I always keep a bag of Velcros on hand just in case. The case we went with, Fractal's Meshify C, includes an awesome area for cable management that's equipped with a series of Velcro straps. It's located on the back of the motherboard tray. We were able to slide all of our cables into this space and keep it all fastened up nicely. The only zip ties we used were for our CPU cooling system's wires, which were thin and plentiful.
This made it easier for us to orient them through the holes in our case to reach our desired spot. Just make sure you don't over-tighten your zip ties as doing so could damage your cables. The graphics card is easy to install. Firstly, they come in several sizes , and as we mentioned, those sizes typically match up to your PC case measurement.
Additionally, motherboards are normally manufactured by way of considered one of two companies: Intel and AMD. When opting for a motherboard, you are going to want to make sure that your chosen CPU is made through the similar corporate as your motherboard. The full checklist of the commonest motherboard sizes contains:. Generally, full-tower cases can are compatible any dimension motherboard , whilst mid-tower circumstances can have compatibility ATX and under , mini-tower instances can fit mATX and under , and small form-factor cases can fit simplest mITX motherboards.
Generally, the bigger your motherboard is, the extra powerful it has the prospective to be. However, you might not be mindful that PSUs , regardless of being just about the similar between manufacturers, even have a few things you wish to have to learn about. Firstly, simply as computer instances do, PSUs can come in different sort components and types. If you may have a smaller pc, you need to have a smaller PSU.
Remember that PSUs come in numerous power ranges, too. When development your PC, be mindful the general wattage requirements of all the power-consuming aspects of your PC. Programs like the Power Supply Calculator from Newegg may also be very useful for this, but be certain that to depart a little extra for future upgrades to your PC, too. PSUs also have efficiency scores , identical to furnaces in houses.
Moreover, a less-efficient PSU will result in power loss and, as such, larger electrical use. The more efficient your PSU, the more expensive it's going to be, so take a look at to find a happy medium between potency and value. The CPU , as you might know, is the intelligence at the back of the whole lot your pc does.
When a bottleneck happens, it way the opposite components within the pc are processing data sooner than the CPU can deal with, and your CPU is likely suffering to keep up.
Besides hanging pressure on the CPU, a bottleneck also leaves different components of your PC idling or waiting for directions after they might be operating. This equates to an rapid efficiency loss. To prevent CPU bottlenecks from going down, be certain that your CPU is powerful enough to stay alongside of the remainder of your computer. When building a custom PC, you will need most of your parts to be roughly of the same high quality caliber.
When taking a look at CPUs, there are 3 metrics you will have to take note: cores , threads , and clock pace. Generally, the higher your cores, threads, and clock speeds, the easier the CPU can carry out, however the clock velocity is typically probably the most essential metric. However, how new the CPU may be makes a huge difference, as numerically-identical PCs produced in several years can show massively other performances.
Basically, overclocking method over-tuning the CPU to get more efficiency out of it. However, overclocking can be a tricky thing to do, as overclocking your CPU an excessive amount of or too abruptly may cause permanent injury to your PC. Instead of worrying about overclocking in your first build, try stepping up to a higher-quality CPU as a substitute.
Multiple channels i. There was also the question of whether to buy two SSDs: a small one just for system files, and a larger one for games. The benefits from this setup tend to be limited, however, and it increases the overall system complexity. Depending on how you build your machine, the motherboard may be either the first or last component you choose. I also knew I wanted a motherboard with Wi-Fi built in, since my computer desk is far from my router.
There are also mini- and microATX motherboards, and you can do some very cool things with them, but they can be expensive and difficult to put together. A common meme in PC-building communities is a power supply as a ticking time bomb. The best-case scenario is overheating your components and burning them out well before their expected lifespan. The worst-case scenario involves a fire extinguisher.
Selecting a case is mostly a matter of looks. I was actually hoping for something a little cheaper than the Corsair D Tempered Glass case, but it was the least expensive case I could find that also had a USB-C input on the front. Remember: Your motherboard will have front-facing USB options, so make sure that your case has the proper connections for them. As such, our final build may have slightly different components, depending on what they have available.
This article was originally published on October 11, , and is Part 1 in a three-part series. Part 2: How to build a gaming PC for beginners: Putting it all together.
Part 3: How to build a gaming PC for beginners: What to do if it all goes wrong. Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, you can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.
Building a gaming PC is arguably the best technological investment you can make. Marshall Honorof. Topics Gaming. See all comments 5. No offense, but are you pulling off one of those "just buy it" Tom's Hardware pulled off recently and went super well for them? Unless this is to make Intel and nVidia happy, this guide should really be made after those come out to actually recommend parts based on reviews of everything.
Sorry, but it is paculiar timing. So every time something new is coming out. This is less of a guide as a shopping list of what you bought. You didn't talk about making sure your power supply has an efficiency rating so it doesn't blow up.
This the Verge build in article form. This is fine but I don't know about this being a "guide" per se. Seems more like a blog with a few helpful tips.
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