How To Build a PC in 2023 for $900 - Step-by-Step Guide

I have not done a proper how to build a PC  tutorial video since like 2020 so it is now   time in 2023 to update things a little  bit have things changed when it comes   to building your own PC maybe a little bit  but a lot of stuff is still the same today   I'm going to be building a system with  the parts I have here the total cost is   about 900 and this goes along with the year  around 1250-ish dollar full system setup that   I started off the year with this is also  a tutorial designed for beginners so I'm   going to be walking you through the build  process step by step so let's get started today's video is brought to you by Micro Center  this is one of my favorite places to buy PC parts   so if you're building or upgrading your PC  I highly recommend making your way down to   one of their 25 retail stores in the US they have  consistently competitive prices and an excellent   selection of PC hardware and other Tech goodies  and they have a custom PC Builder on the Micro   Center website use it to spec out your rig and  it will show you Parts in store at your nearest   location while ensuring compatibility then  you can pick up in store or have their Pros   assemble it for you so click the sponsor Link  in the description to find a Micro Center near   you so with my PC build guides I often say that  all you need is a screwdriver and that is still   mostly true but there are a few other things  that I'm assuming you're bringing to the party   today one is that you have already watched my part  one video where I explain all the different parts   of a computer we're going to be working with the  seven core components doing a budget build today   but I'm going to be spending a little bit less  time explaining what each part is and more time   explaining how the parts actually fit together  I'm also assuming that you have chosen the parts   for your PC and purchase them and have them on  hand and if you're still looking to check out my   monthly parts list videos where I give suggestions  for parts that I would choose if building your own   system the only other things that you should  need for this project are about one to four   hours of time depending on how fast you work and  how complex your build actually is a nice open   workspace preferably something that's high enough  to keep it out of the reach of animals and small   children something to protect the surface you're  working on like a large mouse mat is a good idea   some scissors or a cutting tool to open up your  boxes and of course a screwdriver and you will   want a Phillips head version although a Phillips  head and a slot screwdriver are good to have and   you don't need a super fancy screwdriver like the  LTT ones you can totally get away with a basic one   but you might also consider both a normal sized  and a small or teeny tiny screwdriver as I like   to call them mine came from my iFixit kit that is  for mounting some of the smallest components in   the build like our little m.2 drive over there and  that pretty much sums up our preparation checklist   one last thing to note is that I am building  an am4 system which is last generation for the   AMD processors that are out there but if you're  doing a build on one of the newer platform forms   like am5 for AMD or LGA 1700 for Intel I will be  showing you how to do the installation for those   CPUs too let's quickly run down the parts I will  be building with today I already covered these   in my build guide video but just to point out  we have a ryzen 5 5600 CPU that's going to run   you about 130 and this also comes with a stock  heatsink fan a stock cooler as it's known so we   will not need to be adding that on as an eighth  item I'm recommending a 350 to 400 GPU for this   budget range and today I'll be building with the  RTX 3060 TI this is the Asus tough gaming version   of that card of course if you're still considering  products you should also consider the Radeon RX   6700 XT which can be found in the same price range  and will give a little bit better performance in   terms of frame rates so those are the two main  components of the build that most affect our   performance everything else is just making sure  that those can work properly our power supply is a   cooler master master watt 750 bronze I caught this  one on sale for this build because it's partially   modular 80 plus bronze rated and again so 750  watts which means if I didn't want to upgrade   the graphics card in the future I could without  needing to swap in a more powerful power supply   and the PSU in this budget range is going to cost  70 to 80 dollars our motherboard is the gigabyte   b550 gaming xv2 and part of the reason we're  building on am4 even though it is last generation   is because you can still find reasonably priced  motherboards and you should be spending around   120 to 150 dollars for a reasonable b550 board  if you're building with am5 or Intel's latest   platform the motherboard is probably going to run  you closer to 200 at minimum here's our memory 16   gigs total two 18 gigabyte sticks of ddr4 memory  we went with this kit because it cost around 45   dollars which is a great bang for the buck and  do note that if you're building on am5 you need a   ddr5 memory not ddr4 and if you're building on  Intel LGA 1700 your motherboard will actually   determine whether you're using ddr4 or ddr5 so  double check that I have once again spent an   extra 10 to 20 on the case this is the NZXT h510  flow and this is going to run you around 90. some   sometimes it goes on sale for a little bit less  than that but it has good airflow pre-installed   fans a nice big tempered glass panel and a USB 3.2  Gen 2 front panel connector for USB type-c which   is nice to have and rounding things out with  our storage we have the Kingston nv2 this is a   great bang for the buck it's a one terabyte drive  for about fifty dollars maybe a few dollars more   than that and no it is not the fastest nvme drive  that's out there but it's way faster than a SATA   drive I have now taken a few minutes to get all of  the components out of their retail boxes hopefully   you guys don't need to walk through for that it  is one of the very entertaining parts of building   a new pc especially if you're opening brand new  parts which is really satisfying but other than   the case which I'll get to in a moment because  we're going to do what's known as an outside the   box build first to make sure that our components  are functional before we go to the trouble of   installing them into the case so I've grabbed  each part and the accessories that you might   need so we have our CPU and the heatsink fan that  came installed in the box we have our nvme m.2 SSD   right here we don't actually need this for this  part but since we're doing all the motherboard   set up anyway we might as well drop it into we're  gonna need our memory kit of course we're going to   need our motherboard screwdrivers yes we got the  big and the small Phillips head I always like to   have my motherboard manual handy while doing a  build because there are often things that you're   like oh I gotta check the manual for that and for  this specific build that's all you should need   because this motherboard has a fixed I O Shield  here on the side which is nice and we just have a   single m.2 nvme drive to install however not all  motherboards have a fixed I O Shield so you're   going to want to grab that out of your motherboard  box too we will be using this when we install the   board into the case unless of course you have a  fixed IO shield in which case you won't need to   do that and then if you'll be adding additional  storage besides your m.2 drive to your build so   if you have any 2.5 inch ssds or 3.5 inch hard  drives that use a SATA connector for data and   that also require a separate power connector  you'll want to grab a SATA cable out of your   motherboards box for each drive that you plan to  connect now again you do not need to connect your   storage for the outside the box test build that  we're going to do right now but I just wanted   to make sure as you're taking stuff out of the  retail boxes that you're grabbing all the stuff   you might need for our power supply we will need  the AC cable the one that actually plugs into the   wall and then if you have a modular power supply  it'll probably come with a bunch of modular cables   like this and these are primarily Molex SATA and  PCI Express power connectors because this is a   partially modular power supply so the connectors  that will always need the 24 pin and eight pin to   plug into the motherboard are hardwired finally we  have our graphics card because we need a graphics   card to get a video out signal if you're building  on an Intel platform that has an integrated GPU as   part of the CPU or if you're building on the am5  platform where most of the CPUs have integrated   Graphics as well you can actually get by without  the graphics card for the outside the box build   although if you do that then you wouldn't be  testing your graphics card to make sure it works   too also to complete our testing we will need some  of the other components for our full setup monitor   keyboard maybe a mouse if you want to grab it  right now and then when I come back for the part   4 setup video where we actually install Windows  and everything you will need another computer a   laptop or otherwise to get that done that's really  just an FYI for now but something you will want   to have on hand when we get to the setup phase  enough talking let's get this build underway I'm   going to start off with the CPU installation and  here is where I'm going to be showing you three   different ways because we have the am4 socket  right here then I will show you am5 and then   LGA 1700 for Intel so feel free to jump ahead to  the socket that you will be using yourself [Music]   I've started off by using a Phillips head  screwdriver and I cheated because it's a   powered one but you can use a manual one if  you want I'm just removing this top retention   bracket and incidentally am5 and am4 are going  to be really similar in this respect M5 and am4   actually have the same dimensions here for CPU  coolers and they're actually intercompatible   so if you have an am4 compatible CPU Cooler  it should work with am5 as well I recommend   putting these brackets in a plastic baggie and  saving them with your motherboard because some   aftermarket CPU coolers do use them we're  installing a stock heatsink fan and that   uses the pre-installed back plate that aimed  for and am5 motherboards have just note that   now that that bracket is gone that back plate is  no longer stuck to the board also note that your   stock heatsink fan will come with some thermal  paste pre-applied on the bottom you don't want   to touch that or smudge it or mess it around at  all for this beginner's guide I'm assuming that   you're going to be using the pre-applied  thermal paste there and in the follow-up   part 3 video where I do a more advanced build  I will cover stuff like removing thermal paste   that's already there or applying your own  we have our CPU here we're going to install   all to the CPU socket this is an am4 CPU which  means it has pins on the bottom these pins are   fairly delicate so do your best not to bend them  or mash them at all and in fact you can kind of   look down the side to double check and make sure  that you don't have any bent pins if you do have   bent pins out of the box they are not impossible  to bend back and repair but it might mean that   your CPU doesn't drop into the socket properly  now the orientation of the CPU and the socket is   very important it only goes in one way and while  there is a specific pin grid on the bottom that   you can sort of align with the pin grid on the  socket there is an easier way and that's to look   for the little gold triangle that's right on the  corner of the CPU it should be visible from the   bottom of the CPU as well as from the top I do not  know why they have made these little triangles so   very very tiny with the most recent generation  but this is fortunately Universal between AMD   and Intel CPUs a small gold triangle very small  in some instances at the corner to show you which   one lines up with the little triangle that's  on the actual socket once you've determined the   proper orientation for am4 you just gotta pull  out and lift up this little side arm here that   will release the socket and then the CPU should  drop straight in let me do that one more time   just to show you guys how easily it should drop  straight into the socket this is known as a zif   socket zero insertion Force I have zero insertion  Force t-shirts on my store if you're interested   but if it doesn't drop straight in don't push it  down and try to force it pull it out and double   check for bent pins then you just push this arm  down to lock it into place after that our cooler   installation is fairly simple again assuming you  have pre-installed thermal paste so I'm just going   to drop the cooler on top of the four mounting  points for the back plate and those four screws   should line up there is a bit of a protrusion on  one side of the AMD stock cooler and that can go   on either side but double check to make sure if  it's on this side that it's not blocking a ram   slot and you'll also want to make sure that the  fan plug which is probably going to be a standard   4-pin pwm fan plug can reach over to the CPU fan  header on your motherboard and you do want to   use a CPU fan header because your motherboard  will be monitoring that to make sure your CPU   is being cooled and if it doesn't detect a fan  running on the CPU fan header it can sometimes   throw an error I'm getting ahead of myself though  we should be mounting the CPU Cooler first so I'm   just going to do a few twists on each of these  screws just to get it threaded onto the back plate and because we want that thermal paste  to spread evenly and we don't want to   put too much pressure on one corner of  the CPU we're just going to go sort of   in a crosswise pattern and give each of  these screws a couple twists at a time and we'll keep going in that way  until they are all cinched down and there we have it our 5600 is installed  as well as our CPU Cooler but what if you're   building on am5 here's a quick rundown of  am5 CPU installation on an am5 motherboard   foreign once again we have two plastic brackets to  remove there are many similarities between am4 and   am5 for the CPU coolers but here you may note  there is a protective cover on the socket and   that's because am5 CPUs are LGA that is known  as land grid array so they just have pads or   contact points on the CPU itself and the pins are  actually on the motherboard side that makes the   motherboard much more delicate which is why they  put protective covers over those and I'm going to   recommend leaving that protective cover on for one  the protective cover also has a little triangle on   the corner just like our CPU and I'm glad that  with the am5 ryzen 7000 CPUs AMD has gone back   to a larger Golden Triangle in the corner and you  can see it there on the socket cover as well as   on the socket itself the retention mechanism is  a lever over here that you push down and move   out and then that will allow it to lift up that  releases a catch down at the bottom lets you lift   up this retention plate and the CPU is going to go  under that again super delicate pins here do not   touch or damage them at all if you can avoid it  so let's run through the installation the corner   is aligned unfortunately with these they also just  make the text face up which is cool we're going to   lift the lever we're going to lift the retention  bracket all the way up we're going to gently drop   the CPU down in the socket and here you can also  reality check because there are two notches in the   actual PCB of this CPU and those should align with  two notches on the socket itself and those are a   little bit off-center I'm just going to drop it  straight down into the socket and with LGA CPUs   I like to give it just the lightest jiggle to  make sure it's settled there we can then lower   the lid make sure the catch is catching there  and then if we pop this down the cover should   come right off and our CPU is installed and again  because of the similarities with am4 you can just   go ahead and install your CPU Cooler from there  following the same steps that I used with the am4   installation and here's our Intel CPU with an LGA  1700 socket which is what Intel is currently on   for their 12th and 13th gen CPUs physically there  is not really a difference between them but again   just like with am5 we're working with an LGA CPU  so we have contact pads on the CPU and pins on   the motherboard socket and again just like with  am5 the installation is fairly similar we have a   retention lever on the side that hooks onto a  catch right there we have a retention bracket   that lifts up from the top this time not from the  bottom and again delicate pins on the motherboard   that we want to be careful not to damage so  we'll leave the cover on again Intel CPUs have   a triangle on the corner very very small there's  also a triangle on the corner of the cover that   triangle should be etched into the bracket as  well and again we have some physical notches on   the CPU two on the top two on the bottom that you  can use to reality check that you're lining stuff   up correctly and so here's our installation we  will lift up the retention arm we will flip back   the protective cover we carefully and gently drop  the CPU into the socket aligning with the notches   on the top and the bottom give it a bit of a light  jiggle to make sure it's settled and then I would   like to close this side and do the same thing  that we did with am5 but it doesn't work quite as   well with LGA 1700 so I'm just going to pop this  bracket off myself and then close this so that the   retention arm can properly engage from here again  stick into Basics we can install our Intel stock   heatsink fan you might have gotten one that looks  kind of like this I do not have thermal paste on   this one so I'm just using it as a demonstration  but double check that you have thermal paste   pre-applied on the bottom of yours and it's going  to use four retention pins on the Four Corners   that can be a little bit finicky so just keep in  mind Lefty Loosey so you want to make sure these   are all twisted to the left that should disengage  them and then when you push down it's going to do   this and pop out those little prongs on the bottom  to catch the bottom of the motherboard and then if   you twist it to the right it should lock it in  place so it can't pop out twist it back to the   left that will allow it to pop off to disengage  if you ever need to remove this and of course we   again have a CPU fan plug that we're going to need  to plug into the CPU fan header on the motherboard   making sure all four of these pins are twisted  to the left and disengaged again in a real world   situation you would have thermal paste down there  and then we just line up to the four pins these   pins are either on or off so you can't really  ease it down by the four corner method like we   did before just make sure the bottom of the pin  is done through the motherboard then push and turn   and that should lock it into place now we'll do  the other four corners and if you did it right   the bottom of the motherboard all four of the pin  should look like that being gently pushed aside   by that center pin so they stay in place all right  and that's how you install CPU and stock heatsink   fan for the current three platforms on the market  let's move on with the setup of the rest of the   motherboard another nice thing about having the  CPU installed is that that's probably one of the   more complex Parts especially for beginners of  building a new pc next we're going to move on to   memory which is much simpler especially if you  already have the right kind of memory for your   motherboard so again ddr4 and ddr5 are the current  standards ddr4 is a little bit older ddr5 will   always be the memory you use for am5 and then it's  going to be up to the motherboard for LGA 1700 on   Intel's current platform do note that they are not  intercompatible and in fact the notch that's there   to help guide it into the socket and make sure  you don't install it improperly is not in the   same spot on ddr4 and ddr5 so that should be yet  another thing that prevents you from accidentally   installing it the wrong way but which slots should  you install your memory to some motherboards only   have two dim slots or dual inline memory module  slots and in that case just install your two   sticks to the two slots but many motherboards  like this one will have four slots which is nice   because you can add more memory in the future if  you want to fairly easily you do want to populate   the Right Slots though to make sure you're setting  up your memory in dual Channel mode and for most   motherboards out there it's going to be every  other slot for dual Channel mode and usually they   want you to start populating the two slots that  are further away from the CPU versus the two that   are closer this gigabyte motherboard actually  has it labeled right there on the board itself   which two slots to populate but you can also  double check your motherboard's manual to get   their guidance on which slots get memory first  and the installation is simple and satisfying   release the catches there's usually catches on at  least one side sometimes this side does not have   a catch and some motherboards have both make sure  you're aligning the notch on the memory with the   ridge that sticks up in the center or slightly off  center of the motherboard socket and apply firm   downward pressure to snap it into place you'll  also often find that the sticker with the stats   for your memory will face inside and that gives  sort of a nicer aesthetic look to the exterior of   your RAM but that is not Universal here's one more  and now our Ram is installed pops into place with   a satisfying click and lastly for the motherboard  setup we have our little m.2 SSD right here which   is kind of like a stick of gum I'm going to talk  a little bit more about m.2 ssds and the various   flavors they come in as well as the heatsink  options for them in the part 3 video and just like   memory you might have more than one place that you  can install one we have two m.2 slots here on the   motherboard one here and one here and those might  be connected in different ways some are wired   up directly to the CPU some are wired up so they  pass through the chipset first some might be PCI   Express Gen 4 some might be PCI Express Gen 5 and  again here's where your motherboard manual will   help elucidate some of that information and since  it's the am5 CPUs that have a bit more crossover   between Gen 4 and gen 5. I'll talk a little bit  more about it in that build video our motherboard   again has them labeled pretty clearly we have  m.2 CPU and m.2 SB which stands for Southbridge   which refers to the chipset so to get the best  performance out of our m.2 SSD we're going to   install to the top slot right here closest to  the CPU m.2 devices can actually be different   lengths so this is the slot where it connects  down here but there is a 2242 2260 and 2280   and 2280 retention mechanism the vast majority of  m.2 drives that you will experience in the present   day are going to be 2280 that's 22 millimeters  wide and 80 millimeters long which is why this   motherboard already has its standoff mounted right  here so we're just going to remove the teeny tiny   screw from that note that our m.2 drive is keyed  that should line up with the socket we push it   in like so drop it down screw the teeny tiny screw  back in and then it should be held fairly securely   some m.2 slots have heat sinks that mount on top  of them most m.2 drives don't get hot enough to   require that but again I'll cover that a little  bit more in the advanced part 3 video here's a   quick aside About Storage before we power on this  outside the box build m.2 nvme ssds like this one   are super nice and convenient but you might have  supplemental storage for your build as well such   as a 2.5 inch SSD like this one or a a 3.5 inch  mechanical spinning hard drive like this one while   an m.2 Drive mounts directly to the motherboard  and gets both power and data connectivity through   this connector on the end 2.5 inch ssds and 3.5  inch hard drives have a SATA connector slightly   older standard like this one and you might notice  that there are two plugs the shorter of those two   plugs is for your data connection and that has  a cable like this do note that these are keyed   as well they are L-shaped so for each SATA drive  that you want to connect to your system you would   need one SATA data cable like this and most  motherboards come with between two and six of   these and the other end for data would plug into  one of these SATA ports on your motherboard but   the drive also needs power and for that you will  need a plug that comes over from your power supply   these are SATA power plugs a power supply will  often have a daisy chain set of three or four   of these coming off of one connector and while  they are bigger again they are L-shaped so just   make sure that that is aligned and plug that  in as well so that your extra storage drives   will have both a data connection and power but  again you do not need to set up and plug in your   storage drives for this outside of the box build  but you can do that if you want to make sure that   they're recognized by your motherboard so to test  these components before we install them in the   case all you're going to need is that motherboard  assembly that we just put together power supply   and graphics card if you don't have integrated  Graphics in your seat view and if you're keeping   count that's actually six of the seven parts we  have motherboard CPU memory storage over here   power supply graphics card all that's left is  case but for this quick test we're going to use   the motherboard box set our motherboard on top  of that we're going to install our graphics card   it has a full length PCI Express slot here on  this side the parts with the gold contacts are   the actual connector that goes into the slot it  also has this extra bit that sticks off the end   that acts as a catch to hold it in place if you  line up that PCI Express slot these two prongs   will hang over the end and actually tuck behind  the motherboard and this will install a lot more   firmly when you actually are installing it into  a case it will be a little bit wobbly from right   now but there is a little latch here at the other  end of the PCI Express slot and that should engage   with a little bit of a click when it drops all  the way in from there we're going to connect up   our power supply so we have two cables that are  going to plug into the motherboard the longer 24   pin main motherboard power connector and the  supplemental CPU power connector and this is   typically an eight pin although it can be as few  as four for lower end boards that don't require   as much power or for higher end boards that have  overclocking support and higher end power delivery   you might have eight plus four or even eight plus  eight most discrete graphics card also require a   direct power connection from the power supply for  that we have these plugs called Peg or PCI Express   Graphics power connectors these are also eight pin  connectors and a block very similar to the CPU one   but do note that while the CPU block splits into  two blocks of four the peg or PCI Express Graphics   connector has a six pin and then a plus two pin  and again depending on the graphics card you're   using you might have just the six pin you might  have an eight pin you might have eight plus six   eight plus eight eight plus eight plus eight they  can get pretty power hungry there's also a new   power connector called 12vh power that we're not  going to talk about today but I will talk about in   the third video video where I build the higher end  system one final note is that the actual housing   for each pin is also keyed on these plugs so it  really does take a lot of work to plug it in the   wrong way I'm not saying it's impossible but that  should give you a little bit more peace of mind   while plugging these connectors in and you might  also note that they all have a latch on one side   and that's a good way to help you with orientation  because there's going to be a catch on one side   of each of these big connectors that you plug  in as well these can be a little bit stiff but   if you start getting it plugged in you should be  able to just wiggle it a little bit side to side   and you should hear that latch engage as well  one more with the PCI Express Graphics this one   is a daisy chain connector so if you do have an  eight plus eight you can use both of these it's   generally recommended to use one modular cable  per connector but you can use the daisy chain   if necessary and since the graphics card isn't  being supported by the case right now I would say   give it a bit of extra support with your other  hand while you plug this connector in too from   there we're just plugging a few more things in  we have a power cable here for our power supply   I've connected up the keyboard just so  we can control when we boot into the UEFI   and we've got an HDMI cable running over to  our monitor but now how do we turn it on some   motherboards come with a surface mounted power  button that you can just push to turn it on but   since this is more of a budget board it doesn't  have that feature we are going to do the same   thing that would be done if you push the power  button on your case which is simply Bridge a   connection for a split second that gives the  motherboard the signal to turn on for that   we're going to reference our front panel power  connectors over here we're going to find the   one that's labeled power in this case it has a  red background behind those two pins which makes   it a little bit easier to find and we're just  going to bridge those two pins for a second using   a flathead screwdriver after we turn our power  supply on of course so here we go and you should   have a light fan spin the system should turn on  it's always nice when it's really quiet right off   the bat it's probably going to take a minute we  have a splash on the screen with our gigabyte logo   depending on what brand motherboard you have you  might see gigabyte Asus MSI ASRock and now it's   saying hey we tried to boot into an operating  system like Windows and none was found because   we haven't installed an operating system onto our  storage device yet if you get to this point it's a   pretty fair bet that you have functional hardware  and you can move on with the rest of the build to   turn off you can just turn off the switch on the  power supply or bridge that power button again I'm   going to reset real quick and tap the delete  button as the system boots up to get into the   UEFI just so we can reality check that all our  Hardware is being recognized so by tapping the   delete button while the motherboard is booting  up we can access this this is officially the   UEFI it's also sometimes known as the BIOS or  basic input output system which is a legacy name   but it's still used frequently and again this is  something I'm going to go over in more detail in   the part 4 video where I go over system setup  you might also be looking at a very different   screen if you have a motherboard that's made by  a different manufacturer but here in Easy Mode   we can quickly reality check that all the hardware  is being recognized by the motherboard we can see   the motherboard name the current BIOS version our  CPU that was installed the ryzen 5 5600 both of   our 8 gigabyte ddr4 sticks and don't worry at the  speed that's shown there is not the speed that's   referenced on your sticks you need to set that up  again we'll go over that in part four we can also   see our nvme SSD that was installed and the single  fan for the CPU is currently spinning so now the   outside the box build is complete we verified  that the hardware is working we can install it   in the case and yes you could skip this step to  save some time and just install everything in   the case I've done that often myself the failure  rate for PC Hardware is generally quite low but   if you do happen to get a defective part finding  it out now versus installing everything in your   case first is going to save you some time and  help you get that replacement process underway   ASAP and with a brief transition we are now  continuing the build I've set aside the core   components the outside of the box build that we  put together so we can get the case out of its box here's all you need to know to be a  professional computer case unboxer let   me open the top flaps we flipped the entire  thing over do you know what the handle holes   right here we want to reach in there and  pull these out then we Slide the Box off   warning you're about to get a static  shock you should use your elbow and get shocked a computer case will almost always  shock you the first time you take it out of the   box but if you use your elbow it's a little bit  less intense than if you want to be dramatic oh the foot was cut that's fine  then if you want to be dramatic so computer cases can vary a lot in terms of  their layout their look the aesthetic how things   are installed but there are some Basics that are  fairly Universal across most models that's part   of the reason I chose this case is because it  has a fairly standard ATX layout and also some   nice ease of use features like captive thumb  screws if I just unscrewing this one we can   pop off the tempered glass side panel this will  let us take a look at the internals of the case   get a feel for the layout and if you have a  tempered glass panel like this or a Plexi one   for that matter it's probably going to come with  some protective plastic over the top I recommend   leaving that on until the build is complete to  protect it from fingerprints and stuff and you   can store this in the box that the case came in  just so you know where it is and you can find   it later by the way captive thumb screw t-shirts  available at pulsehardware.net this side has the   main chamber of the case where the motherboard  and most of the components will go then on the   opposite side we have two more thumb screws and  another panel that pops off this is where your   cable management will happen and this is also  where you install your power supply down at the   bottom but again generally speaking with most  cases you're going to have an intake area here   at the front with intake fans that pull air into  the case you may often also have intake down here   at the bottom there might be additional intake  fans or at the very least your power supply which   is going to sit at the bottom of this case will  also be pulling air in from the bottom and a nice   thing to look for in a case is going to be a dust  filter for wherever you have air intake coming in   it's a filter dust from getting into the rest of  your build and it makes a little bit easier to   pop off and clean and again when it can just pop  off as easily as this one on the NZXT h510 flow   it just makes all of our lives a little bit easier  likewise down here at the bottom in the back where   the power supply is going to be there is also  a removable dust filter so if you're shopping   for another case I recommend keeping an eye out  for dust filters but another thing that might be   installed for an intake or possibly is an exhaust  along the top although this case doesn't have much   support for radiators at the top does have support  for radiators at the front so if you're going for   an almond liquid cooler or if you're going to go  all out with a custom liquid cooling Loop which   we're not covering at all in this video but  I just wanted to mention it keep an app for   radiator support but again that is one of the  nice features about this case even though it's   a bit more on the budget side you can do two 120  millimeter fans here for a 240 millimeter setup   and radiator support there as well or two 140  millimeter fans the size it's just slightly larger   than the one here that it ships with which is why  you have these extra wider mounting holes here   but that will allow you to do a 280 millimeter  radiator up the front there too other than the   airflow where it's coming in where it's exhausting  going out that way and up through the top the main   motherboard area is right here there is a big gap  there so that you can access the back side of the   motherboard for installing aftermarket coolers  typically done in the power supply basement you   might have some extra trays for some 3.5 inch or  2.5 inch drives when the motherboard is installed   the i o for the motherboard the inputs and outputs  will face the back right there and then these are   expansion slots PCI expansion slots so when your  graphics card is installed that is where the video   outs will go and if you add on other cards like  video capture card or otherwise you have access to   more expansion panels there meanwhile here on the  other side of the case they have added a couple   more 2.5 inch Drive holders so for SATA drives  you can mount those right here they have some   cable routing channels here with some tie downs  again a nice feature to have not something that   will be included in all cases but something that  NZXT adds to make wiring up your cables a little   bit easier you'll almost always have an accessory  kit of some kind that's going to include these   screws you need to install everything into the  case there's another look at that 3.5 inch Drive   Bay at the bottom and then you're going to have  some pre-wired cables which in this particular   case are coming down from the top you because  that's where your i o is which includes a power   button USB a USBC and a mic headphone jack but  those need to be connected to your motherboard   so that's what these cables are coming down here  for and they've tied and wrapped them up just to   keep them protected until we do the installation  and then in that little accessory box we have a   manual that will walk you through installation  steps if there's anything I missed today and a   baggie with the remainder of the accessories and  again this can vary depending on the case that you   buy but another reason I like the NZXT cases is  because they individually bag all of your screws   and they even label them for you which is very  convenient you also get a handful of zip ties   which are great for cable management this is an  audio splitter cable since it's actually a combo   Jack there at the front for mic and headphone  use so you can split that out to a actual mic   and headphone jack if your headset doesn't have  this combo plug and then there's this for front   panel header connection and front panel headers  or big pain in the butt so I'll talk about this   a little bit more when we get to that part of  the installation we will now be installing our   motherboard or our full motherboard assembly  with the CPU heatsink fan the m.2 the memory   into our case over here so I've again put some  some mouse mats down just to protect the wood   underneath the case and the first thing that you  should always do when installing a motherboard   is actually something that I don't have to do  today and this is one of the big differences   between the last time I did a build tutorial and  now there are a lot more motherboards these days   even more budget models like our gaming xv2 that  have a fixed I O Shield the i o Shield is attached   to the motherboard but there are still some other  boards that use an i o Shield like this so really   quickly if your motherboard has one of these you  will want to install it first so make sure that   the orientation of the motherboard i o matches  the i o Shield usually you'll have these round   ones for the audio down towards the bottom so  this is the orientation we're going for but we   install it from the inside of the case this can  occasionally require some Brute Force but just   line it up from the back be careful if you have  one of these it has some bare metal edges because   those can be sharp it should pop into place with  a bit of pressure but if it's finicky or if it's   flexing back and forth just use the butt end  of your Screwdriver from the inside of the case and maybe just maybe ta-da we popped it in and  then when you install your motherboard the i o   will pop through these little slots however  again we have a fixed I O Shield so we don't   need that apart from the i o Shield you'll also  need to install standoffs to the case and you'll   notice that they've included one in a baggie here  labeled standoff this is the standoff right here   this is just so nothing include for tightening  the standoffs and the reason there's only one   here is because again with this case they come  pre-installed so generally speaking for an ATX   layout motherboard you will have nine standoffs  three at the top one two three three across the   middle four five and six and three more along  the bottom seven eight and nine note that even   though this is an ATX case you can install smaller  motherboards to it although it will look kind of   awkward because you'll have some open blank space  but that is also why these are labeled a for ATX   U for Micro ATX and I for ITX so that's how you  know for example that you do not need a standoff   in this u-mount here because that is for Micro  ATX boards but you do want one installed here   because that's a mounting point for both ATX Micro  ATX and mini it exports also note that the center   standoff here is actually a stud that sticks up  versus this standoff over here which is actually   a screw hole for screwing a screw into if you  determine based on your case's layout and based   on Reality Checking your motherboard itself where  again we should be able to count one two three   four five six seven eight nine mounting points  but if you need a standoff for your motherboard   somewhere where there is not one like sometimes  they'll add a Micro ATX mounting point right   here and you you don't have to use that but you  could but if you did need to mount an additional   standoff just choose the mounting point where  you need it you can hand thread it in and then   you can use the included nut to tighten that down  either by hand or with the aid of a screwdriver   and for installing standoffs I actually recommend  tightening these down pretty tight because you   don't want them to back out if you're uninstalling  a motherboard speaking of uninstalling I already   mentioned that we do not need a screw right here  so that is something else that you should be   double checking the reason we use standoffs is so  that the motherboard doesn't touch this conductive   metal that's beneath it so likewise if we have a  standoff mounted somewhere where there is not an   actual mounting point on the motherboard we would  want to remove that so we don't short the board   with the standoff situation sorted we're now ready  to install our motherboard into the case so we're   just going to drop it down angling the i o towards  the back of the case where the i o needs to go I haven't reach through there just to grab it  and sort of guide it into place and again the   nice thing about that Center stud Mount from the  standoffs is if you pop it onto that stud then the   rest of the standoff mounts should line up fairly  well now we need to secure the motherboard but   another one of the funny quirks about PC Building  is that there are two standards for the screws   that are typically used one is an imperial  standard which is UNC 632 and then there's a   metric standard which is M3 you might be able to  tell that the M3 screws have much finer threading   whereas the 632 screws are a bit rougher a bit  wider spaced for the threading it likely tells you   which of these you should use in the manual but  a really easy way to reality check that is just   to use the standoff that came also in the baggie  the unused one and just to thread one end and make   sure it threads in properly and incidentally  they want you to use the 632s for this and   not the M3s it is really really convenient to  have a magnetic tip Phillips head screwdriver   for this particular part you might need to shift  the motherboard over just a little bit to line up   the standoff and then this part should be as easy  as screwing in nine screws you want to get them   snug but again don't over tighten them because  you don't want to over tighten them to the point   where if you ever remove the screw it's going to  unscrew the standoff beneath it as well foreign screws are screwed in that's nine standoff points  with the stud in the middle and our motherboard is   secured in the case and since we did the outside  of the box build we actually only have a few more   things left to do we need to connect our two fans  up to the motherboard so the fans will spin up in   half power we need to install our power supply  of course and wire up the motherboard with power   I will install a SATA SSD just to show you guys  how that is done and then lastly we will install   our graphics card power supply installation is  next and I've already talked about this being   a partially modular power supply plugged in one  of the modular cables so that we can power the   graphics card when we did the outside of  the box build so here we're just going to   make sure that we have all the cables plugged  into the power supply that we're going to need   before we install the power supply in the case  and that includes the CPU 8 plus 8 Pin header   that we used in the outside the box build that  is hardwired to this power supply also the 24   pin main motherboard power connector the pcie  connector for the graphics card and then what   else might we need because fans will often plug  directly into the motherboard which is typically   the way I recommend going about it because then  you can use your mother other board software or   UEFI interface to set their speeds or a silent  profile for example some cases will have a   built-in Fan Hub so take a look and see if you  have any of these plugs this is a four pin plug   and this is typically called a Molex plug these  are becoming slightly less common this is one   of the older plugs in PC Building and it's a bit  more common these days to see a SATA power plug   Serial ATA for power and this is the one that I'm  pointing at right here you will need one Serial   ATA power plug like this one for each drive that  you add that is a 3.5 inch or 2.5 inch SATA drive   and then again there might be extra things in your  case like a fan controller or RGB controller and   those can sometimes have SATA power plugs too so  if you have a non-modular power supply then you'll   probably have a bunch of cables connected up here  and you can fish through those to see if you have   SATA power plugs Molex power plugs or whatever  you need funny thing about this build at least the   most budget level of it where you're just going  with a single storage Drive is you don't need any   of these and in fact we could get away with just  the power cables that we connected for our outside   of the box build but since lots of people will  still be using SATA drives like this one or 3.5   inch mechanical drives I'm going to be installing  one today so we're going to need one of these   modular cables which has a single proprietary  plug on the end that will plug into the power   supply and do note you should never try to use  these between different power supply models they   often change even from the same brand that is a  way that you can damage the parts in your computer   so only use the modular cables that come with your  power supply and then you'll often have maybe two   to four SATA power plugs on the other end or if  you do need a Molex plug or even this other one   on the end which is actually an old school floppy  power connector and these are actually very rare   but they often and still include them on the power  supply in case it's needed but this power supply   comes with one combo cable it has a SATA power  plug Molex power and that floppy drive so this   can be convenient if you need more than one type  of connector for this build I just need that one   SATA connector though so double check the labeling  here on the back these will often be keyed so you   can't accidentally plug one in the wrong way these  are all labeled HDD SATA so we'll plug that in   and now we can install our power Supply remember  the fans on a power supply you're almost always   going to be an intake so we want to face that  down so it will align with that dust filter we   will slide the PSU in from the side here turn our  case we can see the mounting points at the back   the bracket for most power supply mounts will  actually have eight mounting points because it's   made so you can flip the power supply over  and mount it either way if you want we are   again going to use the 632 screws but we have a  separate baggie here of these screws which are a   little bit beefier than the other ones we use for  the motherboard Mount and again it's very common   to find a set of these screws both included  with the case and also with the power supply all right now the power supply is installed  too and now we get to go about plugging stuff   in and there's several groups here I'm going  to try to do that a couple groups at a time   we're going to start with the main motherboard  power connectors that 24 pin and the eight pin   and we're also getting started with cable  management here now don't be afraid to have messy   cables especially if you're building for the first  time it is really not that big of a deal it really   does not affect your airflow all that much to  have a bit of a messy Cable Management situation and while some cases like this have  channels and velcro straps so you can   really get your cables positioned  exactly where you want them to that's not always going to be the case with  every single case that's out there and really   the main thing you want to make sure is done  is just that the cable itself is plugged in   so you're probably gonna have some pass-throughs  for those cables we have a line along this side   depending on your motherboard layout you  might want to pass the cables through in   different positions I'm just going to  feed the 24 pin through there foreign supplemental CPU power we typically have a  longer cable because that plug is usually   at this top corner of the motherboard looking  at the back side of the motherboard from this   angle so we're just going to feed the blocky  end of the plug through the top there and   then again Channel it down here as best we  can we've already plugged this plug in once   before so again just pay attention to where  the latch is where the catch is on the plug and we're going to bend this around some so it  will line up with the plug itself and we'll go   ahead and seat it in the plug-in we'll hear a  little snap when it latches into place same deal   for our supplemental CPU power although you might  have a bit of a tight space to work with here in   the corner just got all the pins lined up and then  we can go ahead and seat this one as well and this   if you have a fully modular power supply some  Builders will actually plug this side in first   before the motherboard's installed just because  again it can be a little bit tough to work with   up there in the corner now while we're working up  in this corner I'm actually going to plug in this   rear exhaust fan as well the two fans that ship  with this case have three pin fan header plugs   those work just as fine as the four pin one that  we showed you with the CPU heatsink fan and I can   show you the fan header that's up here on the  corner of the board but I know you're not going   to be able to see me plugging this in right now so  here I'm going to plug in the front intake fan to   this system fan three header note that it's a four  pin header there is a plastic tab behind three of   those pins and that is the side that you want to  plug in a three pin fan header two if you're not   using a four pin header the 4 foreign carries a  pwm signal so if you have a pwm enabled fan you'll   have a 4 pin header three pin fans work just fine  as well though but do note that you will have   an extra pin hanging out there that doesn't get  used since we plugged in our two case fans let's   finish off the rest of the case connectors these  are typically known as front panel connectors   because they are what enable the front panel plugs  like USB and power button let's start with these   two here which are USB connectors this is a USB  3.0 connector slightly older these are not the   favorite of a lot of PC Builders because they can  be a little bulky and the updated version of this   connector is this one here which comes with  the cover this is a USB 3.2 Gen 2 front panel   connector which can provide much higher bandwidths  5 to 10 gigabits per second and thankfully our   motherboard does have one of these ports available  so we can enable That Type C port on the front of   the case the other two connectors here are in a  block of 10 pins and they're both labeled one is   f panel for front panel connectors and one is HD  audio for enabling that Miken headphone jack on   top of the case now you may notice that the front  panel audio connector has one blocked pin that's   to keep you from accidentally plugging one of  these into the other's header on the motherboard   and honestly if you're going to skip one of these  connectors I'd say the HD audio is the one to skip   front panel audio can be not the greatest if  you do have a high quality headset or a pair   of headphones you should plug those into the  connector on the back of the motherboard rather   than using this front panel connectors on the  other hand are almost universally reviled amongst   PC Builders but NZXT has been using this single  block for front panel connection for quite some   time and you'll find this to be compatible  with the vast majority of motherboards on   the market it's going to make it a lot easier to  connect those up but if your motherboard does not   adhere to the same layout as these then you will  need to use this adapter and if you're building   in a different case you might not have this front  panel block and instead you might have individual   connectors for power LED positive and negative  power switch and hard drive LED you might also   sometimes have a two pin connector here that  is a reset switch different motherboards have   different layouts but most of the connectors for  for these are going to be along this Edge or along   the bottom edge of the motherboard oftentimes the  HD audio will be further down this side so check   where your motherboard's connectors are and then  once again feed these from the rear of the case up through to the front of the case and  do note that if some of your cables are   pre-managed you can undo that if you  need a little bit more cable length back here in the main chamber we are plugging  in our front panel connectors here's the USB   3.0 here's that USB 3.2 gen 2. you can double  check the manual to make sure where these are   they should be labeled though and they should  also be the right shape for these plugs do   note that these plugs are key there's a little  notch on the top of the USB 3.01 that should   align with a little Gap in the in the housing  of the plug connector on the motherboard itself and then for the 3.2 Gen 2 connector uh it's it's  a bit wider on one side you should hopefully be   able to tell but it's really difficult to plug  this in the wrong way it is difficult to plug   this in in a way that also shows it happening  on the camera though there we go okay plugged in   down here we have our HD audio connector which  again is labeled there inside the plug audio and also keyed with one blank pin so here I  will wrap this around completely blocking the   shot with my hand okay get that lined up and then  put the plug there we go and if there's a second   reason to not plug in your front panel HD audio  connector it's because of the garish colors on   the cable but we'll leave it in for now and now  our front panel connectors a lot of PC Builders   hate these because individual pin headers are kind  of difficult to plug in note that the power LED   here is labeled with a positive and a negative  same goes for the hard drive LED for the light   to work you gotta plug in the right positive and  negative points to the headers on the board and   while the pinouts are labeled with a little grid  down there underneath this plug if you can't read   those or just need to double check then look in  your motherboard manual where it should label all   of the pin outs and then on gigabyte boards they  also color code them which is convenient so we're   going to cheat by using the NZXT block connector  which is only going to use the pinouts over on the   left side here do note that there are a couple  of power LED connectors here there's one down   here in the bottom right and also in the top left  so our block connector should still work [Music] we're nearly finished with this build we're  going to quickly talk about installing extra   storage drives like 2.5 inch SATA drives or  3.5 inch mechanical drives 3.5 inch drives   have mounting points on the bottom they also  have mounting points along the side and there   are a variety of methods for installing those  into a case and keeping them secure I've even   seen rubber bands used at certain points a lot  of cases will have trays that you can remove   and then mount to the drive and then the drive  slides into a tray for this case you actually   have to remove the tray from the bottom with some  screws and then you can pull this tray out then   you can mount the drives to it and then reinstall  so again reference your cases manual for 3.5 inch   drive installation I'm going to focus on 2.5 inch  drives today because those are a bit more common   2.5 inch drives also have multiple ways to mount  them and set them up with a case has anyone been   able to tell that this is one of my ssds where  I have a steam Library anyway there are mounting   points on the side there are also mounting  points on the bottom and different cases might   have different trays or mounting methods for those  but this one mounts through those four screw holes   from the bottom and here's one of the places we'll  be using those M3 screws the ones are a little   bit finer threading and you can easily get away  with just a couple screws for an SSD there are no   moving parts inside so not a big deal for spinning  mechanical drives it's a bit more important to get   all your mounting points mounted with screws so  for the sake of being thorough we'll go ahead   and use all four for this one and then before we  reinstall it on the case we should plug it in and   make sure it's functional so for that once again  we need SATA power and for that we're going to use   the long SATA power plug that we already pre-wired  over from our power supply and then you will need   a SATA data cable and this should come with your  motherboard and both of these plug types are keyed   with an L shape so it's very very difficult to  plug them in the wrong way and occasionally your   plug will have a little catch that sometimes  catches effectively and sometimes doesn't like I said there are no moving Parts with ssds so  as long as it's plugged in it should stay plugged   in and these trays have five little points that  sort of snap into place and then we can secure it   at the top with one more screw oh yeah and don't  forget to plug the other end of your SATA data   cable into your motherboard and we'll grab it  through here for that this motherboard has four   connection points for SATA data cables two are up  here and tour down here that are angled 90 degrees   I'm going to go ahead and use these lower ones  because they're a little bit more low profile   you used to have to sort of double check which  SATA connector you were using because some were   slower than others but fortunately for more  recent generations of PC Hardware the SATA   ports have topped up at six gigabit per second  and all of them should conform to that standard   and we are now on to the final step in this  build the installation of the graphics card   and again we already tested the graphics card  so you know it works we're practically speaking   for installation we're just going to need  to line up this PCI Express Edge connector   with the slot on the motherboard and we need to  remove a couple of those expansion slot covers   because they're going to be replaced by this  back I O panel on the graphics card this is a   two slot card one bracket and two brackets and  there are some higher end cards that use three   sometimes even four with the RTX 40 series  so we actually won't be starting with this   top one we're going to start with the second  one down you can tell that by sort of visually   aligning with the bracket itself or by sort of  positioning the card kind of where it's going   to be but for this case to save a little space  the removal actually happens on the exterior first we loosen these two thumb screws and that  lets us pull this little slider back a little   bit that's slightly awkward but that's okay then  we can use our Phillips head to remove these two   screws sometimes the bracket just conveniently  falls out for you when you get the screw off here they are and you can store these in your  motherboard box in case you ever need them in   the future and now we can install the graphics  card align the i o on the back with those two   panels you just removed line up that edge  connector with the slot some firm pressure   it should snap into place and one  more time that catch at the end of   the motherboard's PCI Express bracket  should snap into place and secure the   card but we're going to secure it a bit  further by reinstalling these screws and then we can slide this bracket  cover back into place as well and   we'll tighten up this thumb screw to  make sure this doesn't slide around   and yes it's okay to use a screwdriver on a  thumb screw sometimes actually hold on this   case has an extra little pass-through  point right there I'm going to use that and we've done this before but one more  time we're using these six plus two pin   PCI Express Graphics power or Peg connector  latches on top catches on top do note that   some graphics cards flip those so  the catch is on the bottom [Music] I'm doing one really quick aesthetic  Touch by tying down the daisy chain   connector here with a zip tie just so it's  not hanging loose and now we plug this one in   snap and with that our graphics card is installed  and indeed our system is assembled so at this   point I and hopefully you as well have now  completed your first ever gaming PC build   well it's not my first ever I've done this once  or twice before but we can be fairly confident   since we did the outside the box build that this  system should power on I'm going to turn on the   power switch on the back I'm going to press  the power switch up here fans are spinning   maybe things that have lights on them are going  to light up and from here we can move on to the   next steps of installing the operating system and  getting the system set up appropriately to game on   or do lots of other tasks I have a couple existing  videos on that I will link those down in the video   description if you're watching this video close  to when I first publish it but in a week or two   I'm going to have a follow-up refresher to that  showing you how to get windows installed and do   all those setup things as well now we have the  final build fun things to do and if you're a   superstitious PC Builder you typically leave these  for last or at least until after you've verified   that the system has Baseline functionality  back in goes our tempered glass panel secure that with the thumb screw and now the peel foreign why don't they put this sticker  on the outside of the plastic okay but guys that's going to wrap it up for  this part two video in my how to build a PC   in 2023 series part three is going to be  coming soon where I will build a high-end   system with RGB lighting and fancy other things  in there that might take a little bit more work   to get installed and then in part four we'll be  going over system setup getting windows installed   and getting everything ready to go for gaming  streaming and doing a bit of testing to make   sure the hardware works as advertised speaking  of advertising if you enjoyed this video and   you want to help support my channel check out my  store at paulshardware.net where I have Shirts   Mugs pint glasses and all manner of memorabilia  with Paul's Hardware thumb screw logos attached   including this shirt that has all the parts of  the PC now that you know what they are wear a   shirt with them on it I will also include a ton  of links in the video subscription to the hardware   that I use today to other videos in my tutorial  series that will help you get everything up and   running just the way you like it and the playlist  for the entire beginner's guide to building a PC   series thank you guys so much again for watching  this video If you enjoyed it hit the thumbs up   button on your way out consider subscribing to  my channel as well because this is not the only   piece see Bill I have coming at you this month  no I have another one coming real soon that's   not even part of this build Series so stay tuned  for more and we'll see you all in the next video

Channel: Paul's Hardware

Views: 234,303

Keywords: computer, PC, PC gaming, personal computer, computer hardware, paulshardware, how to build a computer, how to build a pc, step by step, how to build a gaming computer, how to build a gaming pc, gaming pc build tutorial, parts of a pc, building a gaming pc in 2023, 2023, budget gaming, budget pc gaming, full pc gaming setup, monitor, bang for the buck gaming pc, am4, $1200 gaming pc, CPU, gpu, graphics card, motherboard, ssd, hard drive, storage, memory, ram, DDR4, DDR5, case, AM5, LGA 1700

Id: vUu7N8tq4RE

Length: 55min 17sec (3317 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 06 2023