Hi everyone, welcome to Hardware Tea Talk I'm your host Maicha This is our annual project: Full Animated 3D PC Build Guide We released a poorly filmed tutorial with some mediocre parts back on 11 Nov 2019. While the result was positive, it is not that well-crafted Back then there were just three guys in the studio and making videos is our hobby outside of school. With our growing, we're now working in a 400㎡ office and over 20 well-trained employee and our productions are getting better and better so, we decided to remaster that episode. Due to the fact that traditional cameras cannot bend beyond physics laws, and simply remastering that with 4K resolution seems non-necessary, we decided to maximize our advantage here A.K.A After Effects to bring you THE BEST PC Build tutorial with the power of 3D modeling and animation. So, without further ado, let's jump in. This is your gaming PC, and this is its spec sheet. The main parts of a home PC are as follows: CPU, Motherboard, Memory, GPU, SSD, HDD, Cooler, PSU, chassis To make sure that the newcomers can finish building without hassle, Let's start with a brief look at the various components of a computer For those of you who already knew how they work and what they look like, You can skip directly to this time to see the detailed installation tutorial CPU is the brain of the computer it is responsible for almost all data processing and calculation main brands in this field are Intel and AMD This is AMD's Ryzen 5000 Series CPU The back of the substrate is covered with dense pins This is AMD's Ryzen 7000 Series CPU The back of the substrate is densely packed with contacts This is Intel’s 11th generation Core CPU also full of contacts And this is Intel's 12th generation Core CPU While the shape has changed from a square to a rectangle the back is still full of contacts A motherboard is the working platform of the computer Hardware needs to install on a motherboard to work and a lot of devices are integrated with the motherboard. Also, it provides basic power for many of the devices installed on the motherboard An AMD CPU needs to be paired with an AMD motherboard to work For Ryzen 5000 series and previous Ryzen CPUs they should be paired with an AM4 socket motherboard and for Ryzen 7000 series CPU you need a newer AM5 socket motherboard Intel CPUs must also be paired with an Intel motherboard to work 10th an 11th gen CPUs need a motherboard with LGA 1200 socket and 12th/13th gen CPUs require LGA 1700 motherboards to work. For older CPUs and the motherboards they fit in, you can query that on Intel's official website. Memory(or RAM) acts like your computer's scratch paper it is responsible for all the codes and data that are in use right now. DDR4 memory is the mainstream now, the connector has a small gash in the middle with 288 contacts on both sides in total. The DIMM slot that the RAM goes in is usually at the upper right corner of the motherboard A GPU is the graphics generator of a computer Responsible for rendering and outputting images to the display and they use the PCIe slot that is horizontally placed on the motherboard Lower-end graphics cards can operate with the power from the PCIe slot thanks to their low power consumption Higher-end graphics cards often have external power ports The HDD (Hard Drive) stores all your files, from the OS itself to every game you're enjoying There are 4 mainstream hard drives out there: The first is Mechanical Hard Drive It comes in 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch form factor They operate slow but are also very cheap often operate through SATA port Connect that to your motherboard's SATA port, which is usually placed in the lower right corner, through a SATA cable and connect your PSU's SATA power cable to that power connector next to it and you're good to go. The second is a 2.5-inch SSD While it shares data and power connectors with a mechanical hard drive, they're blazing fast. The third type is PCIe SSD The fastest one you can buy The interface it uses is the same as your GPU, PCIe so you also need to install it in the PCIe slot on the motherboard The fourth is the M.2 SSD It's the most popular form factor for SSD right now. It uses the M.2 socket on your motherboard and usually are as fast as a PCIe SSD. While not every computer needs to have all these drives, you need to flexibly configure it based on your budget and use case. You can go purely mechanically for a large capacity of cheap storage or you can also go pure solid for extreme speed Using both a mechanical drive and an SSD for both speed and capacity is also a good choice. A computer only needs a hard drive to work properly so again, you don't have to install all types of drive we mentioned to use a computer CPU and GPUs generate heat while working and the cooler is required to deal with that. Most graphics cards come with a pre-installed air-based cooler, so they're plug in and play CPUs tend to require extra care to work properly There's a catch here: cooler and fan are not the same thing: A cooler is designed to pass the heat generated by the CPU out and dissipate that into the air while the fan is used to enhance the airflow of the cooler or the chassis They are not the same thing Common coolers are air coolers and AIO water coolers, the way they work can be found in our previous video. A PSU is required to complete the conversion from AC to DC which will be provided for various computer accessories Your wall mount socket here in China provides 220V AC and parts in your PC require +12V +5V and +3.3V DC And that's where the PSU comes in: For one it converts 220V AC to +12V +5V and +3.3V DC And it offers connectors to parts all over your PC. PSU comes in 3 different types. They are Non-module PSU, Semi-module PSU, and Full-module PSU You can watch our previous video for more on that topic. To put it short, a non-module PSU has all connectors out, so you have to deal with them all whether you're using them or not. For semi-module units, only the necessary cables are must have and all other cables are detachable As for Full-module one, it goes without saying that all cables can be freely installed or disassembled to your need so it is more friendly to manage your cable. Meanwhile, it allows you to use customized cables with different colors of different styles. To make sure you know where goes where while installation, let's take a look at these cables This is the 24pin ATX connector Usually comes with one of the pins missing. No need to worry, this is totally normal It is used to power the whole motherboard This is a CPU power connector, comes with 4+4pins It is, well, a cable to power your CPU. This is a 6+2pin PCIe power supply connector You'll need them when you're dealing with GPUs and other PCIe devices. This is a SATA Power cable, sometimes called Flat L for it looks like the letter L but flatter. It is required if you're dealing with SATA drives or some hub using this connector like some RGB connectors. The last one is the MOLEX 4Pin power supply Because the shape is similar to the letter D it is also called the big 4D power supply Its main role is to supply power to some peripheral devices like some light strap\fans or hubs. This connector is also called Universal Power Connector sometimes for it can be easily converted to other form factors. The last one is the chassis which is required to hold all these parts securely while providing front Power/Reset switches as well as USB and headphone connectors. Meanwhile, chassis can also help you craft airflow to benefit your cooling solution. That's basically everything in your PC All you need is a large screwdriver to complete the installation unless you're dealing with M.2 drives. If so, Then you might want to get a smaller screwdriver just for that little piece of storage. Next, we will explain in detail how these parts are installed and what to notice. First, let's install the CPU AMD CPU installation first: In the upper middle of the motherboard is our AM4 socket In the top left corner of the socket is a small triangle Under the socket is a horizontal metal handle Slightly press down on the metal handle and push it down Lift the metal handle to the top right You'll notice that the socket of the CPU has also moved slightly to the right grab your CPU at this point, A small golden triangle can be found in the upper left corner of the CPU substrate There is also a golden triangle on the back of the chip too We need to align the CPU's golden triangle with the small triangle on the AM4 socket while making sure all pins on your CPU and holes on your socket is one-by-one aligned Put the CPU firmly into the AM4 slot Then wiggle the CPU so you can make sure that all pins are inserted into the holes and fitted in place Then just snap the metal handle back on The AM4 socket-based CPU is now installed For AMD 7000s CPU, they use AM5 socket. and the installation will be quite different from AM4 Put the motherboard forward first In the upper middle of the motherboard here is the AM5 socket The slot has a plastic protective cover which protects CPU pins that are very fragile who lies behind that cover. So, it does not need to be removed before installation To the right of the AM5 socket You can see an upright metal bent hook handle Press down on the metal hook handle And then pull it to the right The metal handle can then be lifted up Then snap the bottom edge of the CPU buckle Lift up to open the CPU socket cover Now, the base of the CPU socket is shown, you can see two plastic bumps at the top and bottom edges of the socket Pick up the CPU and you'll notice two gashes on the top and bottom edges of the CPU Align the CPU gap with the plastic bulge on the base of the CPU socket snap the left and right sides of the CPU Put the CPU down vertically and smoothly to the bottom and wiggle your chip again to ensure that the CPU is properly installed Then snap back the CPU retainer Hold the motherboard with your left hand Press down firmly with your right hand on the metal handle you just opened Hook the handle back into place while this is going to take a little bit of force you should see the plastic protective cover fall off automatically Take away this plastic protective cover The AM5 socket-based AMD CPU is now installed Next is Intel CPUs. In the upper middle of the motherboard here is the LGA 1200 slot The slot has a black plastic cover The underside of the lid was also filled with fragile pins that connect your CPU. To protect these pins, do not remove the black plastic cover before installation. A hook-like metal handle can be seen on the right side of the socket Press down on the metal handle and pull it to the right Lift it up to open the CPU socket You can see two plastic protrusions in the lower left and right of the CPU socket Some older motherboard may have their protrusions on the top half so you may need to alter your operation This is when we pick up the CPU and make sure the text on the chip is forward You will find that there are two gaps sitting at the lower half of your CPU's left and right Pinch the top and bottom of the CPU with your fingers Align the two gaps with the gaps on the left and right sides of the CPU socket Place the CPU vertically into the slot wiggle your chip again to ensure that the CPU is properly installed Finally, lift the hook handle with your right hand Lower the buckle with your left hand Align the bottom gap and insert it under the screw post under the slot Press down firmly on the metal hook handle with your right hand Then hook it back to its original position This is going to take a little bit of force The black plastic protective cover will come off automatically after it is fastened Remove the black plastic cover At this point LGA 1200-based Intel CPUs are successfully installed. For the later 12th gen Intel Core chips, things are similar but a little bit different They use a newer socket, Socket LGA 1700 The shape of the socket was changed from a square to a rectangle but there is still an upright metal hook handle on the right side of the CPU socket Hold the motherboard with your left hand Press down on the metal hook handle with your right hand And then do the same thing by pulling it to the right then lift it up Use your left hand to pinch the small metal handle at the top left corner of the slot cover Now you can lift the CPU socket cover from the back You can see two plastic bumps on the top edge of the CPU socket base There are two similar bumps on the bottom side of the slot Pick up the CPU at this point Put the letters of the CPU in the forward direction You can see two small gashes on the top edge of the CPU substrate There are also two gaps like this on the lower edge Pinch the left and right sides of the CPU Align the top edge of the CPU with the two plastic bumps on the top edge of the CPU socket The two gaps and bumps on the lower edge are also well aligned Slide the CPU into the slot vertically and smoothly Then again, wiggle your chip gently to ensure that the CPU is properly installed Finally, refasten the CPU socket cover Different from the 11th-generation CPU installation the small metal handle at the top left corner of the top cover needs to be pressed down first and the black plastic protective cover will come off automatically Take away this black plastic cover and then the same thing as before Hold the motherboard with your left hand Press down firmly on the metal hook handle with your right hand Snap the handle back into place This is going to take a little bit of force Once it is fastened The 12th-generation Intel CPU with the LGA1700 socket is installed After installing the CPU, let's install the memory modules There are four vertical slots on the far right side of the motherboard This is the DIMM slot DIMM slots have a certain priority on the motherboard From Left to Right, slot 2 and 4 are slots with higher priority The first and third slots are secondary slots If you only have one memory module, install it in the second slot If you have two modules please install them in the second and fourth slots It is not recommended to install three memory modules due to the possibility of instability and failure to turn on If you have 4 modules just use them all Some low-end motherboards and ITX motherboards typically have only two DIMM slots A single module should be inserted into the first slot from left to right and for two modules, again just use them all For everything about why DIMM slots have priority and where does that order come from please check our previous video on that. There will be two plastic clasps over the DIMM slot You need to open these clasps first Some motherboards only have one clasp on the top for that, just open that clasp will work There is a plastic bulge in the middle of the DIMM slot Pick up the module and you'll find a gap in the middle of the connector Align this gap with the bulge in the middle of the DIMM slot Insert the module vertically into the DIMM slot Finally, press both ends of the module firmly Until you hear two clicks and the module is plugged in The fastening bucklets will automatically close Now you have memory installed For more than one module, repeat this move We need to emphasize that you should press both ends of the memory to install it properly It wouldn't offer you any advantage if you press only the middle part If your memory module is not installed properly, it is very likely that your computer simply cannot power up and nothing is displayed In addition, for every DDR Memory generation the position of the gap in the middle is different and the lengths of the connectors are also different Before installation, align the gap in the DIMM slot on the motherboard DO NOT do it backwards Anyway, if anything works fine your memory is installed Next, let's install the M.2 SSD Other types of the hard drive need to be installed after PSU is properly installed Before installing the M.2 SSD let's take a look at what the M.2 socket looks like If your motherboard is more basic, say the MSI H510 Bomber, you'll see the M.2 socket is directly exposed without a heat sink Now some of the high-end motherboards have pre-installed M.2 heat sink if so, the socket is below these heat sinks. So we need to unscrew the heat sink first Then take away the heat sink and you can then see the M.2 socket on the motherboard On the right side of the M.2 socket, you can see a small plastic bulge This is the M.2 M-key, the most common M.2 socket now Some of the M.2 sockets have gaps on the left which means that it's a slower B-key socket Now grab your M.2 SSD You'll notice a gap on the right side of the connector of the SSD which means that this is an M-Key SSD The M-Key SSD can only be plugged into the M-Key socket The B-Key SSD can only be plugged into the B-Key socket Some SSD is B&M-Key which means that the drive would be compatible with both sockets Here we use an M Key SSD as an example Align this gap with the bulge on the right side of the M.2 socket Make sure your SSD and the motherboard are at an angle of about 15 to 30 degrees then insert the M.2 SSD sideways into the M.2 socket Then press down on the M.2 SSD with one hand to prevent it from tipping up With the other hand, fasten the retainer screw to the rear of the M.2 hard drive Don't over-tighten the screw to prevent the corruption of your SSD's PCB Next, pick up the heat sink you just removed There is a thermal pad on the back of the heat sink What it does is it makes sure that the SSD is in full contact with the heat sink There is a plastic protective film over the thermal pad You'll need to remove this film before reinstalling your heat sink That sticker on your SSD with the information should not be removed Then reattach the heat sink to its original position tighten back the screw and call it a day. Please be sure to tighten the setting screws here so that your SSD can have full contact with the heat sink without any gap A few special considerations need to be mentioned The first is the screws that hold the M.2 hard drive Due to the fact that there are other components over the area where M.2 SSD stays, the M.2 socket on desktop motherboards is usually relatively higher which means that your SSDs are actually suspended over the motherboard So the side that holds the screw needs a screw post to prevent your computer from frying up due to the contact between SSD and motherboard Once installed, your SSD should be level with the motherboard If the SSD is tilted, you have not installed it correctly You need to secure the screw post before installing the SSD and then screw it up Pressing SSD directly with screw or doing so with a screw post is WRONG Some motherboards don't have screw posts pre-installed when they leave the factory if so then you need to find your own motherboard's accessories bag and install For those with screw post preinstalled, you'll need to check if the screw post meets the length of the SSD you're installing. If not, you need to adjust the position of the screws If there are extra screws, they need to be removed in advance Make sure there are no extra screws under the SSD If the M.2 socket below the heat sink that you remove is exactly 80mm long, there is only one screw post which shares the screw with the heat sink Then you don't have to fix the screw post separately All you need to do is remove the film install the SSD and reinstall the heat sink In addition, there are now some of the latest flagship motherboards for example, this MSI MPG Z690 Carbon have a tool-free quick snap latch on where it used to be an M.2 set screw position you can install your SSD without screws. All you need to do is to determine the length of the SSD in advance adjust the screw that holds the quick snap latch install the SSD with one hand on the SSD use your other hand to flip and rotate the snap and your SSD will be locked in place. For where you can install M.2 drives, There will be two, three, or even four or five M.2 sockets on some mid-to-high-end motherboards The speed of these sockets and the types of hard drives that they can identify are different If you want to get the best out of your drive then you'll need to place them in the right socket. Again, take this MSI MPG Z690 Carbon for example There are five M.2 sockets on the motherboard The first M.2 socket is a directly connected PCIe 4.0x4 connection from the CPU It has the lowest latency of the five M.2 sockets and is an independent connection It is recommended to install the drive with your OS here The remaining four M.2 sockets all came from the Southbridge chipset You can think of Southbridge as a hub So the four M.2s share the total bandwidth from the South bridge to the CPU(PCIe 4.0x8) The delay is also higher than that of a direct connection Of course, it is pretty impossible for people to perceive the delay difference between a directly connected drive and a drive through the Southbridge Only in some very extreme cases may there be a slight difference If you don't know what the Southbridge is and what its function and role of the Southbridge is still, we have a video for you. These four M.2 sockets are mounted below the Southbridge also have different speed and protocol rating. For example, you can connect a PCIe 4.0x4 SSD on M.2-2\3\5 the M.2-4 only supports PCIe 3.0x4 SSD and only M.2-4 and M.2-5 supports M.2 SATA SSD If you don't know what the hard drive protocol is you can also watch our previous video So the last thing I need to remind you of On some motherboards, there are M.2 socket that shares connection with the SATA port Like the MSI Z490 Tomahawk When you installed an M.2 SSD with PCIe connection, SATA ports 5 and 6 will be blocked Then if you want to connect SATA drives to your computer, SATA port 5 and 6 will not be available. For the M.2 socket specifications of the motherboard that you buy And whether some M.2 sockets may conflict with other interfaces You can find such information in manuals from either your motherboard case Or go to the motherboard's official website and download PDF Usually, these contents will be after the index with the specs of your motherboard Or mentioned in the section about PCIe and M.2 bifurcation That's all you need to know about how to install M.2 SSDs and where the problem might be. Now we install the air cooler In this video, we'll be using Thermalright TA120EX as an example to show how an air cooler is installed. For you watercool folks out there, you could jump into this part. your cooler will be installed after the motherboard is installed to the chassis. Due to differences between both platform and motherboard SKUs, cooler manufacturers need to offer multiple bucklets to work with different CPU platforms and motherboard designs. While there are many in the package, we'll only be using one for the platform we choose. It is normal to have many spare parts after installation Keep these accessories in the future when you upgrade Due to the fact that everyone may choose a different cooler, the installation process may also be quite different there is usually a paper instruction manual in the package with a detailed illustrated tutorial on how to install the cooler of your choice Just follow the instructions and that would be enough But it's important to note that manuals are written with different platforms and different bucklets in mind So first you need to do is to find the set of instructions that correspond to the CPU socket on your motherboard For example, for Intel's 11 generation and all previous MSDT chips you may want to view the part with LGA1150/1200/1151/1155/115x for installation for the latest 12th gen CPU you'll need to read the LGA1700 section For AMD, you can refer to the part of AM4 for installation If you don't know what type of CPU socket your motherboard use You can Google it or RTFM this information should be on the spec sheet This is how you install Thermalright TA120EX on the AMD platform: You see, the X570 motherboard is powered by an AM4 socket. Therefore, refer to the instruction in the manual for AM4 for installation Lay the motherboard horizontally on the table Front and back of the CPU socket are two plastic clasps lying horizontally This is the official clasp from AMD Some of the radiators will be installed directly with this clasp However, Thermalright TA120EX we used for this installation does not So just unscrew these four screws and remove them After removing the plastic clasp, we still need to continue to use the metal backplate on the back So don't remove it yet Then locate the four plastic cylinders inside the accessory bag Put them on the screw holes where you unscrewed the four screws Next, find the long metal buckle that fits the AMD motherboard Then find the long screw that holds the AMD buckle in the box Place the metal strip buckle on the plastic post Tighten the two long screws For this part, you don't need to tighten it too much as it is easy to break the motherboard PCB under the plastic column Once you're done with the left, do the same with the other side Next, you'll need to apply Thermal Interface Material(TMI) to the surface of the CPU The surface of the CPU seems flat but at the molecule level, it is pretty rough. so is the base of our cooler. If you press the cooler directly against the surface of the CPU There will be a lot of gaps between them which will make heat transfer less efficient So what the TMI does is it fills in this gap and gets rid of the air Some coolers are pre-coated with TMI directly on the base for that, you can skip manually applying If not, you need to apply some yourself Just apply with a small X in the center of the CPU The amount required is about three or four mung beans, a little bit more wouldn't hurt but don't be stingy on this one And you don't need to apply it evenly by yourself because after the cooler is installed it will automatically finish the job. Next is the cooler. Please make sure that the protection film is removed Please make sure that the protection film is REMOVED Please make sure that THE PROTECTION FILM IS REMOVED It's so important that it should be repeated three times. If you haven't, remove the protective film from the cooler before installation Otherwise, your CPU may be abnormally hot Next press the cooler against the surface of the CPU Then just tighten the screws left and right Because the screw itself has a spring you'll need to press the screwdriver down a little bit to get it on It takes a little effort Don't screw one side first and then the other It should be followed by two turns on the left and two turns on the right Go back and forth Make sure it is evenly installed on both sides to prevent the radiator from tilting After the cooler is installed, secure the fans The wind direction of the computer fan is opposite to that of the electric fan at home The fan side acts as the intake surface and the side with the motor and the fixed frame acts as the exhaust surface When installing, make sure the wind is intake from the memory side and exhaust from the IO panel with USB port Therefore, you need to determine the orientation of the fan Then find the wire buckle that holds the fan inside the package Thread the wire fastener through the holes in the corners of the fan Then put the fan in front of the cooler and fasten the two wire buckles on the cooler will do the trick If you have a second fan or the front fan is blocking the memory You can install the fan on the left side of the cooling tower But still, make sure to follow the rule of intake and exhaust surface to make sure the fan works as expected The way to mount is also the same. Finally, connect the fan to the fan connector near the DIMM slot Note that some motherboards have multiple fan connectors The fan speed strategies of these connectors may different There are also motherboards that will detect if the CPU cooling fan port is connected If not you may encounter errors relating to the CPU fan during booting Generally speaking, there will be identifiers near these ports on the motherboard CPU_FAN is the preferred port for the fan that we just installed CPU_OPT/CPU_FAN2 acts somewhat as the backup interface for the CPU cooling fan however, it is not appearing on our motherboard If you're dealing with multiple fans or water cooler pumps then this will come in handy The PUMP_FAN/AIO_PUMP port is designed only for pump as most manufacturers will set this port to maximum speed out of the box, which may need caution Finally, SYS_FAN is the port for the chassis fan If you know how to tweak fan speed in BIOS and the difference between PWM and DC control, all ports are essentially the same, you can do whatever you want since you can tweak them all manually But if you can't then do not connect them randomly Since we have two fans here, connect the front fan to CPU_FAN and the rear fan goes to SYS_FAN By default, PUMP_FAN is at full speed so don't connect your fan up here if you don't know how to tweak as it may be too loud Or you can use a bifurcation cable so you can connect all your fan to CPU_FAN This is the best way to connect them When connecting the fan, align the chute with the small 4-pin interface and insert it vertically After AMD, let's go through the installation method for the Intel platform. First, take out the backplane for the Intel platform from the package Align the holes in the backplane into the raised screws on the backplane of the CPU socket at the rear of the motherboard Align the four screws on the backboard with the four radiator buckle holes on the motherboard and pass through them Attach the backboard to the back of the motherboard place the motherboard on the table with the backboard And now grab four plastic cylinders from the package Attach it to the four screws from the backplate that passes through the motherboard Then find a metal strip designed for the Intel platform Position it vertically to align the holes with the screws Place the metal strip smoothly Then locate the set screws in the package and attach them to the four screw posts Here, too, you don't need to tighten it too much Otherwise, it may ruin your motherboard's PCB What comes next is similar to AMD: Apply TMI first Then tear off the protective film of the cooling tower base Then press the cooling tower on the CPU Next, tighten the screws alternately Finally, secure the fan Connect the fan cable and you're done Then we completed the installation of the TA120EX air cooler. One last word of caution Some of the twin tower air coolers are huge, to avoid conflicts with your PCIe slots, they may not be evenly distributed The cooling tower will shift sideways out of position so you must check the orientation in advance before installation The longer part should be closer to the top of the motherboard and the shorter side should be closer to the GPU slot If you find the cooling tower is conflicting with the PCIe slot then you must have installed them wrong There are some twin tower radiators, especially ones from Thermalright may have a 14cm fan in the middle It has both circular edges and flat edges During the installation, circular edges should be left and right and the flat edges should be up and down Otherwise, the fan may be too high, causing the chassis's side panel unable to close Next, we need to secure the motherboard into the chassis Before doing so we need to open the sides of the chassis first The way to open the side panels varies according to the chassis For details, read the manual for your chassis Some can be removed by simply removing four screws some needs to unscrew two screws at the end and then pull out there may also be models using a buckle which can be brutally removed there are even ones with a chute and you need to pull the panel up. In this video, we're using Phanteks Eclipse P600s as our chassis the side panel for this chassis is magnetically attached so it opens like a refrigerator door open it to an angle and lift it up will remove it We also removed the side panels on the back of the chassis for cable management later After removing the side panels on both sides of the chassis You can start finding the accessories box in the chassis Usually, they will fit in a hard drive tray at the back Take it out for screws and accessories that we need for the next installation will be in there Then you need to make sure if you need to install the IO shield in advance The IO shield is a metal protective plate on the USB port at the rear of the chassis On the one hand, it prevents dust from ingress on the other hand, it can ground your motherboard with chassis and PSU to prevent ESD when connecting USB devices or so Some high-end motherboards like this MSI MEG X570 ACE has pre-installed IO shield if so then you can skip this part. For everyone else, you need to do it yourself. You can find it in the accessories pack inside the motherboard box You will see that there are lots of raised dots around it after checking the IO shield These dots are designed to hold it in place You'll also notice that one side of the IO shield is smooth and the other side is full of little metal spines that stickup Leave the smaller one alone for the larger spine, you need to bend them toward the other side of the interface by pushing it over Then install the IO shield with the spines facing inside and smooth side facing outside Be careful not to get it backwards Clamp the IO shield here in the upper left corner of the chassis Press firmly on the edge of the IO panel from inside the chassis Let the little dots stick out When all dots are stuck out the IO shield is secured Next, we're going to put the motherboard in the chassis There's one more thing you need to do before you put it in which is to set the screw post The chassis itself is made of metal and the back of the motherboard is never short of solder joint spins If the motherboard is mounted directly to the chassis These joints and pins in the back of the motherboard will have contact with the chassis and short it out which will cause your motherboard's destruction The correct installation method is to have the motherboard fixed to the screw post Leave the screws dangling to hold the motherboard Prevent the rear of the motherboard from contacting the chassis So before you install it is necessary to determine where and how many screw posts you need For example, this MSI MEG X570 ACE has three screw posts for the upper, middle, and lower which is a total of 9 screw posts Now if we see inside the chassis you'll find that the manufacturer of the chassis has already pre-installed six for us but there are three missing on the right So, you need to fill these three screw posts You can find the screw posts in the accessories pack inside the chassis And a hex screw sleeve for securing the screw post Fix the sleeve to the screw post Then use a Phillips screwdriver to screw the screw posts to the corresponding positions If the accessories pack does not contain a screw sleeve You can use a vise instead You can tighten the posts a little bit when you put them on to make sure they're fixation in place I want to emphasize that you should ensure that the posts and motherboard screw holes correspond one by one If you install more than you need then it may cause shorting and if you install less than you need then the motherboard may not be stable enough causing your board to bend or break in future Here we have standard screw holes for ATX motherboards mATX motherboards and ITX motherboard if you need for reference Different motherboards may have different design that cause changes in the position of the screw holes so please refer to the actual product After fixing the screw posts, you can put the motherboard into the chassis Align the IO panel with the opening in the upper left corner of the chassis Place the motherboard into the chassis sideways Then align the IO panel and 9 screw holes From the accessories box you could find such round head screws with a small brim It is used to hold the motherboard and mechanical hard disk these screws with a brim but are hexagonal is for holding PSU and PCIe devices like your GPU Don't mix them up Be gentle here when fastening the screw stop when you can feel the slightest bit of resistance don't overkill Some motherboards may have traces around screw holes so if you twist it too hard it may cause damage to your motherboard Some screw holes may be hidden under the M.2 heat sink so removing the M.2 heat sink before installation is recommended fasten the screws and then reinstall the heat sink After you've fastened all nine screws the motherboard is installed on the chassis While the air cooler is installed outside the chassis since the motherboard is fixed you're ready to install the water cooler. If you are using an air cooler You can jump straight to this time node where we talk about SATA drives AIO water coolers have 3 parts: Water Block\Radiator and Fan The water block is fixed to the CPU which absorbs the heat generated by the CPU This heat is carried to the radiator by the circulating water of the pump Finally, the fan will expel the heat from the chassis In addition to the water cooler itself and the fan The box should also contain sets of buckles to install the water block and installation instructions Same as the air cooler In order to ensure that a water block can be adapted to different motherboards and CPUs cooler manufacturers will prepare a variety of buckles in the box Still, you'll only be using one set of buckles and it is normal to have many spare parts after installation Keep these accessories in the future for upgrading your PC First things first, you need to install fans on your radiator. Before doing so, determine where you want to install the radiator so that you can know the orientation of the fan The blade surface of a computer fan is the intake side and the side with the motor type and parameters is the exhaust side When you create an air channel, it follows the principle of front in back out; bottom in top out and the radiator is usually mounted on the top or front of the chassis If you want to install the radiator to the front then the blade should be facing the radiator and the motor faces inside the chassis so it will intake cold air from the front of the chassis If you're going to hang the radiator on the top your blades need to be facing the inside of the chassis and the motor faces the radiator to drain the heat from the chassis Different chassis may have different support for mounting the radiator front or top such details can be found on the product details page for your chassis. In this video, we'll mount our radiator on the top, which means that the fan should be mounted like this After the fan is set up you can find fan screws from the accessory pack in the water cooler box The screw should be long and thin Screw through four holes in the fan and mount them on screw holes of the radiator When you turn the screw here, follow the diagonal principle which prevents fans from warping At the same time, screw until there is a slight resistance don't tighten it too much Most fans have rubber pads at corners to mitigate vibration when the rubber pad is over-squeezed and deflated, this feature will not work well Next, remove the top cover of the chassis The way the Phanteks P600S removes the top cover is simple just loosen the two screws at the end and pull back the top panel Different chassis have different ways to remove the top panel please refer to the chassis manual or ask your seller directly for those chassis without a top panel then you can skip this part Next, you need to secure the radiator with fans to the top of the chassis There are two kinds of screws to hold the radiator One is the same as those who fix the motherboard screw with brim and round head The other is the same as those who fix PSU and GPU large screw with brim and hexagonal head If you're not sure which to use then try a smaller one first, if it wouldn't work then use a larger one Then attach the radiator to the top of the chassis place the water tunnel at the front of the chassis Hold the water cooler with your left hand and secure the screws from the top of the outer chassis with your right hand Here you can start with four corner screws then the radiator can hang on by itself after you let it go after that, you can continue to fix the other screws Screws here can be tightened with a little bit more force prevent the radiator from shaking After fixing the radiator and fan, the next step is to install the water block on the motherboard Different manufacturers of different models of water block fixing methods may be very different For the installation method, refer to the instructions in the water cooler packaging box For users with 11th gen Intel CPUs and earlier please refer to the chapter with LGA1150/1151/1155/1200 for installation Later 12th gen CPUs should be referring to the LGA1700 chapter AMD user needs to refer AM4 manual First, how to install Thermalright Frozen Magic 360 on AMD platform Before installing, it is recommended to lay the chassis down first for easier installation The motherboard we use here is based on the X570 chipset so the CPU socket is AM4 Thus, we followed the instructions chapter about AM4 First, find the clasp for the AMD platform from the package for our water cooler You can see an arrow mark on the clasp This mark is also on the back of the water block Once the two arrows are aligned Put the buckle over the water block and insert the buckle Then turn the buckle clockwise to clamp the buckle on the water block And then it's just like an air cooler We need to apply TMI to the surface of the CPU The surface of the CPU looks smooth to you but when you zoom in that surface is pretty rough at the molecule level And so is the base of the water block When two rough surface contacts there will be gaps which will hurt heat transfer performance And that's where TMI comes in to fill these gaps between the CPU and the cooler base and remove air to have a better heat transfer rate Some water cooler manufacturers will precoat the water block with TMI for that just install water block on your CPU If not pre-coated with TMI and there's a protective film, PLEASE remove the protective film PLEASE REMOVE the protective film PLEASE REMOVE THE PROTECTIVE FILM It's so important that it should be repeated three times. If you don't tear off the protective film the heat transfer rate will be sacrificed and the CPU will be in abnormally high temperature Then we found the TMI in the accessory bag apply a simple X shape to the surface of the CPU The total is about four or five mung beans Still, a little bit more wouldn't hurt but don't be too miserly on that You don't need to evenly distribute TMI by hand as it will automatically even after installing the water block Then loose the two screws on the buckle pushing the small piece of metal with a square opening under the spring screw with the square hole being outside Hook the square hole on one side to the original AMD clasp Then press down hard on the water block so you can hook the other square hole to the original AMD clasp You need a little bit of force here to do this After hooking up, tighten the screw And again, when you turn the screws here, you turn them alternately Don't screw one side before the other so you can prevent the water block from tilting Once the water block is fixed you'll need to connect the pump and fan to power next. You can find these small 4-pin connectors for powering the fan and pump near the top of the DIMM slot on the motherboard There's a catch here: most motherboards have more than one fan port their speed strategy and the default temperature source are different there are even boards that detect if you have CPU_FAN connected and working during boot If not then you may encounter CPU_FAN-related error So you can't just hook it up randomly Usually, you can see an identifier around each 4pin port CPU_FAN is the preferred port for your CPU cooler fan Although this board doesn't have a such port, CPU_FAN2 and CPU_OPT are auxiliary ports for CPU cooler fans and you can even connect your pump here. PUMP_FAN or AIO_PUMP are ports that are specially designed for connecting the pump so they are at full speed by default First, you can find these 3-to-1 bifurcation cable inside the box Once aligned with the chute connect three female ports with all three fan's 4pin cables on your radiator All fans then will share one port to power and adjust Then move the male port with the chute to the CPU_FAN port near the DIMM slot on the motherboard and insert it vertically Next, locate the 3Pin pump port from the water block Once the chutes are aligned Plug it vertically into the PUMP_FAN interface Since your motherboard has a 4pin connector but the pump has only a 3pin port When you plug it in there will be a pin empty, which is totally normal If your motherboard does not have PUMP_FAN or AIO_PUMP interface you can also connect your pump to CPU_OPT or CPU_FAN2 If neither of them exists just look for SYS_FAN somewhere else Some watercoolers may have RGB built into their water block this includes RGB light from the fan If your cooler of choice does contain these features, then you'll also need to hook the RGB power line RGB light comes with 12V 4pin or 5V 3pin connector The corresponding interface on the motherboard looks like this The 12V 4pin interface should be identified as JRGB The 5V 3pin interface should be JRAINBOW/JARGB While installing 5V 3pin connector, all you need to do is align the empty stitches and insert it vertically For the 12V 4pin connector, you'll need to align the +12V marking on the motherboard with an arrow on the connector Then you can insert it vertically RGB cable connected to the motherboard allows you to tweak their color and style with software But, if your motherboard does not provide these ports that we mentioned earlier You can find if there is an RGB Light control cable in your water cooler's box Connect one end to your RGB device and connect the other end to the power supply You can manually change the color and style through the center button Now, we have successfully installed Thermalright Frozen Magic 360 AIO Water Cooler on AMD-based platform Finally, put the top cover back on and re-tighten the two screws to finish the fight The way to hold the water block is similar to the air cooler for the Intel platform The first step is also to find the buckle for the Intel platform from the packaging Once it's aligned with the arrows Put it on a water block And then do the same clockwise rotation to fix it to the right position Next, find the cooling backplane suitable for the Intel platform align the screw holes on the backplane with the motherboard put four screws through the four holes to install a cooler on the motherboard Attach the backboard to the back of the motherboard Flip back to the side of the chassis and find the plastic post inside the package Press the backboard with one hand from the back use your other hand to hold the plastic post attach to the backboard screw and force it to the end What happened next is similar to the AMD platform: remove the protective film from the water block apply TMI on your CPU's surface align the holes at the corners of the buckle with the screw pole from the backplane place the water block on the surface of the CPU Then find 4 set screws from the accessories bag screw the screw to the screw post on the backboard The way to screw is also the same with the AMD Platform don't screw one down completely and work on other do it diagonally one by one Finally, the same as the AMD platform connect all fans to the cable and finally CPU_FAN Connect the pump to either AIO_PUMP or PUMP_FAN Finally, connect the RGB cable to the corresponding position on the motherboard Now, you have successfully installed Thermalright Frozen Magic 360 Water Cooler on the Intel platform After installing the motherboard and cooling, now is time to install drives using the SATA port Hard drives using SATA port comes with 3 factors: 3.5-inch HDD, 2.5-inch HDD and 2.5-inch SDD 3.5-inch HDD must be fixed in the HDD bay while both 2.5 inch HDD and SSD must be fixed in the SSD bay These bays may be in a different location based on your chassis's design so for the detail please consult manual Our chassis of choice, Phanteks P600S has four HDD bays in the lower left corner of the chassis so you can install up to 4 3.5 inch HDDs here Three 2.5-inch drives can be secured on the rear of the motherboard tray above the power compartment Let's start with a 3.5-inch hard drive There's a bright metal handle on the bottom right corner of the HDD bay Lift the handle slightly with your right hand and pull back with your left hand to remove the HDD bay Pick up the mechanical hard drive make sure to face both data and power connector to you and insert the drive into the HDD bay from the back Align four screw holes on your drive with shock absorbing rubber rings from the bay and find these screws with half-threaded and half unthreaded from your chassis's accessories pack or a slightly longer screw that is fully threaded put the screws through the rubber ring then tighten it into the screw hole of the hard disk Do the same for the other three screws Finally, align four reeds at the bottom of your HDD bay with four holes on top of the other HDD bay Push the HDD bay back with the drive installed The metal handle in the lower right corner snaps to inform you that the bay is installed and fixed now you have installed a 3.5-inch HDD All three other HDD bays are installed and secured in the same way. There are also chassis with drawer-like HDD bays for these chassis, you can remove the bay simply by pressing the buckle on both sides and pulling it out There are also chassis with screw-less HDD bays for these bays, all you need to do is to align the pre-installed screws on the hard disk rack with your drive and stuck the other side in Some chassis may hold the hard disk in a special way by using the screw that is half threaded and half unthreaded with a damping rubber trap. Four screws will be screwed into the bottom of the hard drive and align the screws with the large hole in the bottom of your chassis Then push forward or pull back and your drive is set in place TLDR, different chassis may have different ways to hold your drive so for more details please consult your chassis's manual The 2.5-inch hard disk is easier to fix Grab the left and right sides of the 2.5-inch hard disk tray Push up and back to remove the hard disk tray Then place the 2.5-inch hard disk on the tray find the screws that you use to fix the motherboard from the accessories pack screw with a brim and a round head Screw four screws on the side of the hard drive Then align large screws with shock-absorbing rubber rings on the chassis with four large holes on the back of your SSD tray After fitting pull down hard and you have a 2.5-inch drive installed After securing these hard drives, we need to connect the SATA cable these cables are usually available from your motherboard's chassis their port looks like L from the alphabet They come in straight or bent connectors both are usable and can use both ways The difference with connectors is simply for making the builder's life easier Align the L shape connector from the cable with the L shape header on the drive Insert it with force The other end of the cable needs to be connected to your motherboard's SATA connector It's usually in the lower right corner of the motherboard Most motherboards will have four or six SATA ports You can see the number of each SATA port on the motherboard Most of the time you can use whatever port you like But it's important to note that some M.2 sockets and SATA ports on the motherboard may share bus which means when you have an SSD installed on M.2 socket with that bus being occupied some SATA ports may not be available For example, on this MSI MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK if you install a SATA SSD on M.2_1 SATA port No.2 will be disabled And if you install a PCIe or SATA SSD on the M.2_2 port SATA ports 5 and 6 will be disabled For MSI MEG X570 ACE we're using as an example here, considering that neither the Specification section nor the SATA section of the manual mentioned anything about interface conflicts, it is almost certain that all ports on this board will be available at all times. However for YOUR motherboard of choice please refer to the manufacturer's manual and specification description Anyway, after connecting data, we need to power the drive up. Of course, since we don't have a PSU here yet You can start by memorizing the connection method Just plug it in after installing PSU Let's start with the power cable with connectors that are flat, wide ones like this the connector has the shape of the letter L Align the connector with the header on your drive Insert it vertically with force One SATA power cable may have multiple SATA power header they are available in no particular order We can power another 2.5-inch SATA SSD with this cable too Now SATA drives are installed we can start working with chassis fans There's a distinction to be made here The fan on the cooler is for pushing the hot air out of the cooling tower or blow heat away from the radiator but chassis fans are installed on the chassis and is used to draw cold air into the chassis while expelling hot air outside of the chassis They are not the same thing Most low-end chassis do not come with chassis fans which means that you, yes you John Smith, have to buy it yourself Many mid-to-high-end chassis may come with one or three fans They were pre-installed for you from the factory but there's nothing that prevents you from purchasing more fans However, it should be noted that the water cooler will occupy some of the fan spaces If your machine is equipped with Core i3/Ryzen R3 with 50-ish GPU or lower, there's simply no need for chassis fans I mean they're not that hot right? For users with Core i5/Ryzen R5 and 60-tier GPU one fan at the rear should do the trick front intake fan is a bonus but not required For rich players with Core i7/Ryzen R7 and 70-grade GPU all you guys need is four chassis fans: Two fans sucking air in, one fan at the top and one fan at the rear pulling hot air out For top dogs with Core i9/Ryzen R9 and top-tier GPUs we recommend you have three fans in the front, three fans on top and another one rear-mounted. Phanteks P600s comes with three 14cm fans pre-installed out of the box And you can mount another two 14cm fans or three 12cm fans on top with a 14cm or 12cm fan at the rear How many fans can your chassis install and where they can be installed may vary depending on your chassis so for details, refer to the chassis product details and chassis manual Anyway, before installing fans, we need to remove front panel and top panel of the chassis Phanteks P600S can have the top panel removed by unscrew the two screws at the end then pull back to remove the top panel The disassembly of the front panel is done by pulling the bottom of the front panel and pull it back hard The way to remove the top and front panels varies according to the chassis for example, some chassis have no top panel on the top cover so for details, refer to the chassis manual The wind direction of the fan in the computer is opposite to that of the floor fan in the home the front side, the fan side, is the inlet side while the back which is the side with the motor type and parameters is the exhaust side For most chassis chassis wind tunnels should follow rules of front in rear out and bottom in, top out So these three front-mounting fans should have blades that are facing the front of the chassis while the motor faces the inside of the chassis which means that it will draw in cold air from the front of the chassis For three top-mounting fans, their blades should be facing the inside of the chassis and the motor faces the top of the chassis so they can be used to expel hot air from the chassis The rear-mounting fan should have the blades facing inside the chassis and the motor faces the rear of the chassis for its purpose is also to expel hot air from the chassis After putting the fan in the corresponding position the next in line is to mount the fan There are three ways to mount a fan: first is to use these self-tapping screws which is shorter but thicker and with large spacing and sharp teeth screw them directly into the screw hole of the chassis from the outside of the chassis Generally, the corners of the chassis fan are equipped with shock-absorbing rubber pads so don't overdo it as it may squeeze the rubber pad and causes the shock absorption function to fail Screw the screws just enough to keep the fan from shaking and the rubber pad is squeezed very slightly Also never screw them one by one since if you do so then the fan will tilt up The proper way to mount them should be the same as the radiator screws Twist one point of each screw diagonally 1324 and work your way through The second method is to use an extra-long screw put them directly through the screw hole of the fan and then tighten the nut on the other side The nut should also be screwed with just enough force not to shake and the rubber pad is squeezed very slightly The last method is to use shock-absorbing rubber nails for fixing there are two kinds of shock-absorbing rubber nails one is the longer penetrate style the other is a shorter, cutless style The penetrate style rubber nails should be installed by put the shock-absorbing rubber nails through the screw hole of the fan and pull the guide section of the rubber nail through the fan Then use scissors to cut the guide section For cutless style shock-absorbing rubber nails, just push them through the screw hold of the fan then pull hard from the side of the fan You should do the same trick to other fans Once the fan is secured, you need to connect the cables For fans with smaller 3pin or 4pin connectors, they need to be connected with the SYS_FAN header on your motherboard Fans using MOLEX needs to be connected to your PSU directly And finally, for fans with proprietary connectors, you need to pair them with the manufacturer's controller or hub For those of you who don't understand this, please watch our previous video for more information. Now, you have chassis fans locked and loaded PSU is the next big thing for your PC as we mentioned earlier, PSU for a modern computer can be divided into three category Non-module PSU, Half-module PSU and Full-module PSU Since all cables are available on a non-module PSU so all you need to do is mount your PSU to your chassis For half-module and full-module PSUs, you need to connect the necessary cables before mounting them otherwise, it will be difficult to connect cables due to the narrow space in the PSU bay For this part, we'll go with "How to mount" first and more on wiring later Usually, your PSU is stored in the lower-left corner of the chassis Of course, there are some exceptions Take the Lian Li O11D series, for example, the PSU stands upright on the back of the chassis JONSBO U4 Plus has PSU mounted upright in the front Panteks P200A needs to top mount your PSU For where should you mount PSU in your chassis of choice, refer to the product details or instructions for the chassis or just ask customer service staff Here we take the most common lower left corner PSU bay for example First, determine the orientation of the power fan If there is no air inlet hole at the bottom of the chassis Then point the fan up which is inside the chassis If there is an air inlet hole at the bottom of the chassis Then point the power fan at the bottom of the chassis For most cases, you can simply smuggle your PSU in from the back Then go to the rear of the chassis, find these screws with brim and hexagonal head from accessories pack Fasten screws into the screw holes at all four corners of the PSU now your PSU is mounted There are, certainly chassises that can't directly plug PSU into the back of the chassis One example will be Phanteks P600s, our choice for this build guide since your PSU will be blocked by frames at bottom of your chassis For these chassis, we go to the rear of the chassis where the PSU screws are fastened there is a removable frame here with two screws on the left and right sides We need to loosen these two screws first and remove the frame Then do the same with the hexagonal screw with the brim mount your PSU on the frame And then finally push the PSU back like a drawer Finally, tighten two box screws Misalignment and movement may occur while you mount the frame back with PSU It is recommended that after pushing PSU into its bay, screws on the PSU can be loosened slightly so PSU can touch the bottom of your chassis to prevent the PSU from generating vibration and noise due to being suspended and tighten the screws up again now your PSU is mounted Full-module PSUs comes with cables separated from the PSU these cables should be attached before mounting to the PSU bay in your chassis Otherwise, it would be very inconvenient to wiring thanks to the narrow space in the PSU bay So let's talk about that what to notice when attaching cables for modular PSU What you need to make sure of first is how many cables and what cables you need For this PC we're demoing we'll need a 20+4pin ATX cable for the motherboard, CPU requires dual 4+4pin cable and the GPU we're installing later requires triple 6+2pin PCIe cable One SATA cable and no MOLEX requirement If you don't know which cables you need, you can jump to the section where we attach all these cables, after you have a base understanding of what cable goes where then you can go back here to watch how to prepare a modular PSU Anyway, once you have all cables required ready the next thing you need to do is plug them into the PSU Note that the pin layout on two ends of the cable is different you cannot connect the PSU port to your device and vice versa usually speaking, there will be human-readable marks on ports ports with PSU mark go to PSU and ports with marks like PCIe or CPU go to their connectors If there is no letter mark then the only way is to differentiate by visual appearance Here we take this modular PSU from Seasonic as an example the appearance of cable from other brands may be different your mileage may vary ATX cable for your motherboard has a 20+4pin connector in one end the other end has an 18+10pin connector the end with an 18+10pin connector goes to your PSU's port with an M/B mark on the port panel Some PSUs may mark this port with Motherboard or MB For the CPU cable, one end is 4+4pin and the other end is a full 8pin connector 8pin connector goes to CPU/PCIe area on your PSU's panel For ports on your PSU's panel, there is no such thing as a priority just pick up any one of them For the PCIe cable that powers GPU and other PCIe devices, one end has a 2+6pin port there are some SKUs that have bifurcation cable that has two 2+6pin ports on them but the other end is always a full 8pin port That 8pin port also goes on your PSU's panel into CPU/PCIe region Again, in no particular order just pick a place to connect it SATA cable comes with some flat L connectors that are used to connect devices like hard drive the other end is a 6pin port That 6pin port needs to connect with connectors on your PSU's IDE/SATA/Molex region Again, it's in no particular order For MOLEX cables, it is the same as your SATA cable One end is some Molex ports and the other end is a 6pin port The 6pin port is also connected to IDE/SATA/Molex region on your PSU's panel Again, in no particular order, just use a connector you like After attaching cables, it is the same as before: either screw your PSU to your chassis directly or attach it to a removable frame and then mount that frame back now your modular PSU is installed. For your safety on both body and wallet, remember that even PSUs from the same manufacturer may have different pin layout let alone PSUs from different manufacturers. NEVER ever mix cables from different PSU as it may cause your computer to be a large Molotov Also, when you upgrade your PSU, don't be lazy by leaving cables there If you don't want to re-cable everything then make sure your new PSU shares the same pin layout as the old one, this information can be obtained from PSU's customer service At this point, the installation of the PSU is completed. After the PSU is mounted Now comes the most difficult part of building a PC wire everything up Cables in a computer can be divided into power cables and data cables Let's connect the power cable first Generally speaking, there are only two kinds of cables that are required to connect to your motherboard One is the ATX cable for your motherboard located to the right of the DIMM slot One is the CPU cable located in the upper left corner of the motherboard Some motherboards may have CPU power connectors right above the CPU or the top right of the DIMM slot due to reasons like the motherboard's layout and other But most of them are on the top edge of the motherboard When we flip to the back of the chassis and focus on the PSU bay and find the largest cable from the cables This is 20+4pin ATX cable for your motherboard a combination of a 20pin and a 4pin creates a 24pin connector One thing to note is that the buckle should be positioned right in the middle of the joint for the 24pin version so this is not the right way to merge The other thing worth mentioning is that there is a pin missing in the ATX cable this is a normal phenomenon Put it through this wire hole in the middle of the back of the chassis Flip back to the side of the chassis Align the buckle on your cable with the bumps in the motherboard slots Vertically insert the cable into the end until the clasp hooks under the bump and your motherboard is now connected to your PSU This interface has high resistance to plugging and unplugging so if you need to pull it out, hold the clasp with your hand first then pull it out by wiggling it vertically up and down If it feels difficult to install it you can also install it by wiggling it up and down DO NOT brute force install or uninstall and never wiggle it horizontally as it may likely kill your motherboard's power connector Flip back to the PSU bay you can find 4+4pin cables like this from the pile This cable is for powering up your CPU every single 4pin connector can be used alone but you can also combine 4pin and 4pin to become an 8pin port The thing to note is that after the combination the clasp should be right in the middle of the two 4-pins so this is also the wrong way to merge There's another caveat two 4pin ports used here must from the same cable If mix ports from different cables up it would be wrong Take the combined cables stretch them through the upper right corner Flip back to the side of the chassis align the buckle on the port with the bulge on the CPU power connector and vertically insert the CPU power cable into the end After installation, the buckle automatically hooks the bulge of the power port on the motherboard Then the CPU power is connected Our motherboard has two CPU power connectors so we need to pull one more cable over Same as before, align the buckle and insert it vertically Now, all CPU power connectors are connected. Some motherboards may only have one 8pin connector for powering the CPU for that, you just need to insert one cable There are also motherboards with 8+4pin connectors for that, you'll need a full 8 pin combine with a 4pin connector the other half of your connector can be left hanging If your motherboard supports 8+4pin or dual 8pin CPU power connectors but the PSU only provides a single 8pin cable In this situation, you'll have to check marks near the power connector Generally speaking, there will be a PSU port numbered 1 and the other one is 2 If you can't find anything useful on the motherboard itself then you can search for them in manual If the manual comes with the motherboard still cannot provide useful information then just go to the website and find the digital version Usually, the manual will give you clear guidance on which is the first CPU power connector and all you need is to connect your cable to that connector and your computer will work just fine That second connector is for auxiliary, your computer can live without it Single 8pin CPU power cable provides 4 12V lanes while each connector can handle 6-8 Amps of current which means that a single 8pin connection can handle roughly 300W of power in theory This would be totality enough for powerful 16 Core chips like Intel Core i9 12900KS and AMD Ryzen R5 5950X to operate with no overclock let alone chips that are not as powerful as them But in a real-life scenario, your connection may not handle that much power due to various reasons like the pressure on cable is not enough, the installation is not in place or the temperature is too high and some manufacturers may even cut corners on cables So we suggest that you should connect all CPU power lanes if necessary Even if you're not an overclocker with multiple cables, the pressure on each cable is lower which means it would be cooler, safer, and more stable Of course, only one connection can work well without worrying You may also see a 6pin connector under the 24pin ATX connector on some high-end motherboards there are also motherboards with this connector but at bottom of the board On one hand, this connector can provide additional power to all PCIe slots Of course, this would not be necessary unless you have multiple PCIe devices connected like dual GPU It can also provide power that is required for high-power USB-PD charging for USB-C-based connections like Thunderbolt standard USB-C or USB-C headers for the front panel If you don't connect this up, these ports cannot offer fast charging but data transmission on these ports will not be affected So, let's go to the PSU bay at the back of the chassis and find 6+2pin PCIe cables like this This cable is for powering PCIe devices like your GPU and this is also for that connector we mentioned a few seconds ago Plug the 6-pin section into the motherboard the rest 2pin can be hung aside If you have a SATA hard drive they need to be connected to PSU too This flat L-shaped cable is for powering SATA devices Although we do have two SATA hard drives But a single SATA cable can connect multiple devices in parallel So you could power more than one devices assuming your cable is long enough Align the power connector with the power header on your hard drive Insert vertically to the bottom and do the same thing to other drives But a word of caution never power more than 4 HDDs from a single cable HDDs can draw lots of currents when they boot up which will stress the cable too much Some hubs or fans may need a MOLEX connector or SATA power connector to power up If you have these devices then you need to hook them up to power but if not, you don't need to After the power cable is connected Next, we'll connect the data cable The front panel of the chassis usually contains buttons for powering up and reset and indicator for hard disk and power as well as USB ports and headphone microphone ports All these cables and indicators need to be wired up to action Now we see the back of the chassis we need this stack of wires to connect the front panel to the motherboard The biggest connector is this blue one which is a USB3.0 connector We have two USB3.0 headers on this MSI MEG X570 Ace motherboard One of them is on the right side of the motherboard the other is in the middle of the bottom of the motherboard These two interfaces can be connected in any order We'll use the bottom one as an example Route the USB3.0 cable through the cable management hole at the bottom of the chassis and align the small bump on the cable connector with the gap in the motherboard port put it vertically at the end Flip back to the back of the chassis the cable with a mark like "Audio" or "HD Audio" is the cable for the headphone/microphone jack Most of the motherboards have their audio headers set to the bottom left corner of the motherboard It should look like this: The fourth pin in the first row is missing and the corresponding position on the interface also happens to be closed Route the cable through the cable management hole at the bottom of the chassis and align the missing needle in this position Plug the audio port vertically into the motherboard Continue flipping back to the back of the chassis The cable with the same appearance as the audio interface but marks it as "USB" is USB2.0 jumper Most motherboards have USB2.0 headers down the middle of the motherboard with the mark "JUSB" around the headers This MSI MEG X570 Ace has two USB2.0 headers USB2.0 connector features a missing pin in the lower right corner and the corresponding position on the cable is also closed So, all we're going to do is to route the cable through the cable management hole at the bottom of the chassis Align the closed position on the connector with the missed pin on the motherboard Vertically insert the USB port into the end Flip back to the back of the chassis there is an I-shaped cable with metal reinforcement This is the front USB3.1/3.2 Type-C connector Flip back to the motherboard, at the bottom of the motherboard, you can see a reinforced I-shaped interface with metal edge It is the front USB3.1/3.2 Type-C port There are also some motherboards that put this interface in around the 24pin ATX connector For details, see the actual motherboard and motherboard specifications Route the cable through the cable management hole at the bottom of the chassis Carefully observe the I-word interface on the cable connector you'll notice that one of the angles is thicker than the other three You'll find a similar thicker angle with the port on the motherboard: The gap in one corner is larger than the other three corners Align the thicker angle with the larger gap in the motherboard port and insert it vertically with force Please determine the direction before insert as if it's being inserted backward, the interface may be damaged Continue flipping back to the back of the chassis The last cable to be connected is as follows: Power On, Reset, Hard Drive Indicator, and Power-On Indicator They exist as these little separate cables There are only one or two wires on each head their names are marked on the connectors Flip back to the side of the chassis Most of the motherboards have their headers on the bottom right corner of the motherboard and they're usually marked as JFP-1 or F-PANEL around them on the motherboard There will be marks around to guide you which cable goes where and what polarity it is If you can't see it clearly you can also refer to the tags here or the manual for the motherboard Insert these connectors into the right pins The power button and restart button have two wires but not polarity so just plug them in whatever you like Hard disk indicator and power-on indicator are polarity You can't go wrong or it will not work The formula is positive left and negative right Many chassis may not have a restart button or hard drive indicator If you don't have these cables then you don't need to connect them just connect whatever is available Now we have installed all cables required except the ones for GPU so that's a victory Finally, let's install the GPU which is also the last piece of hardware that we need to throw in the chassis If you haven't purchased a discrete GPU and using intergraded GPUs with your CPU (Sometimes also called iGPU) then you can jump to this part to this time node and learn how to hook up your monitor Let's pick up the GPU first. There will be video ports on the rear of the GPU you'll find them all covered in dust plugs To prevent dust plugs after installation being blocked by bars between PCIe slots on your chassis resulting unusable We need to pull out the dust plugs from all video ports in advance If there are some video ports that you don't use you can insert the dust plug back after the installation is complete Set up the GPU at this point in the bottom left corner of the GPU You can see a long connector running horizontally it was wrapped in a black plastic protective case We need to remove this black plastic case first so you can see the PCIe connector of the graphics card A PCIe connector usually has one or more pins that are shorter than the others this is a normal phenomenon We need to connect the graphics card to the PCIe slot on the motherboard Now let's change to the motherboard This slot in the middle of the motherboard is a PCIe slot which is for installing all sorts of PCIe devices like our GPU Many motherboards have several PCIe slots but the speed of these slots is different Most motherboards' first connector is the one with the fastest direct connection with the CPU and has the lowest latency Just install the GPU here The second slot is usually half speed so do not install your GPU on it There are rare exceptions for example, this Z97 X Power from MSI has five full-length PCIe slots The top slot is a half-speed slot bifurcated from the PLX The second slot is the full-speed slot directly connected to the CPU so for this motherboard, you should connect your GPU to the second PCIe slot This is, of course, a very special exception More than 99% of motherboards use the top full-length slots as the full-speed connector you generally do not need to read manuals to know that Align the PCIe connector on the GPU horizontally with the PCIe slot on the motherboard but don’t insert the card yet Check position first Take a look at the PCIe baffles in the chassis that may conflict with the video port baffle from the GPU and note them down Then put the GPU aside Pick up the screwdriver Unscrew these baffles at the corresponding position and remove these baffles that may conflict with your GPU Some chassis may have PCIe baffles that are not held in place by the screw they are disposable, welded baffle These baffles need to be removed based on the metal fatigue principle Inward and outward and inward and outward after repeated bending several times, it breaks by itself Be careful not to scratch the capacitor on the motherboard when bending inward In some chassis, the PCIe screw position is provided with a baffle remember to loosen the screws to remove this baffle After the installation is complete, you can reinstall it Remove the PCIe baffle from the chassis and place the chassis on its back let the motherboard face the ceiling of the house to prevent the graphics card from crushing the PCIe slot due to gravity before being secured by screw Then press the plastic buckle at the end of the PCIe slot pick up the GPU again Point the GPU fan at the bottom of the chassis The video interface faces the location where the baffle was just removed Align the PCIe ports on the graphics card with the slots on the motherboard Insert the graphics card vertically into the PCIe slot Press firmly on the side of the GPU It is located directly above the middle of the PCIe slot Don't press the power port side You'll hear a click when you get to the bottom The black plastic buckle on the far right of the PCIe slot on the motherboard automatically closes The corner of the video interface baffle for the graphics card will also be attached to the PCIe screws in the chassis Now your GPU is installed in place At this time, find the Hexagonal large screw with the brim which you used to mount PSU from the accessories package Screw this on the corner of the video port baffle of the GPU You need two screws in total Start by twisting this one in the hole and then screw the top screw after tightening it These two screws can be tightened with a little force to prevent the graphics card from loosening Finally, you need to connect the GPU to the external PSU Generally speaking, the power connector of the graphics card It's on the right side of the graphics card We use MSI GeForce RTX 3090 SUPRIM X for this build so you can see that there are three 8pin external power connectors Let's go to the back of the chassis and within these cables we can find these 6+2pins for powering GPU up These 6pins can be used alone but it can also combine with extra 2pins to become 8pin One thing to note The buckle of the combined cable should be in the middle of the combined plug so this is the wrong way to merge In addition, if you need to use two 6+2pin cables at the same time ensure that the 6pin and 2pin are from the same cable during merging It is also not correct to cross-connect two cables You need to pull the GPU power cable out of the PSU bay before you connect it Because our graphics card has three 8pin ports so we need to pull three cables out Combine 6pins and 2pins to make 8pins Vertically insert it into the power connector of the graphics card After the cable is inserted into the bottom, the plastic buckle snaps automatically Do the same for the other two cables Now you have successfully connected the GPU power and your GPU is installed successfully Some low-end graphics cards may not have additional external power connection and for those, you don't need to worry about connecting them but if your card needs external power then you must connect whatever your GPU requires no connector can be left unconnected For example, if your GPU requires a 6pin connection, then connect a 6pin cable to it just hang the extra 2pin on the side 8pin GPU is connected with a 6+2pin cable 8+6pin is combined with a 6+2pin and a separate 6pin Dual 8pin requires dual 6+2pin cables For triple 8pin cards, you'll need to combine three 6+2pins No matter how many power ports there are please make sure they are fully plugged in If not, or if any connection is not fully connected you may see this error message on your display when you turn it on which means that you should power off your machine and recheck if all cables are connected well One more caveat here is that many power supplies offer this kind of bifurcation cable with two 6+2 pin ports on a single cable My personal recommendation is to always use only one port unless you have to use both just hang the other one Because there are only three 12V power links in every 6+2pin port with 6-8A current per lane That means in theory every port can carry 216-288W of power However, in a real-world use case, cable carrying capacity always decreases due to reasons like the pressure on the port is not enough installation is not in place or the temperature is too high and, some manufacturers cut corners on the cable may also be part of the problem We'd recommend never going beyond 200W on a single cable since it may easily trigger your PSU's Over Current Protection during gaming and the PSU will cut the power automatically there is even a risk of burnout in some extreme cases If your graphics card is some mid-range card like 3060 or a low-end one like 3050 with power consumption around 200W considering the PCIe connector itself can offer around 75W of power all you need from the external power connector is well below 200W If your GPU requires a dual 8pin connection, you may use these bifurcation cables to run your card with a single cable But if you have a high-end card like 3080Ti or 3090 with a power consumption of around 400W even count in wattages from PCIe connector the card still wants more than 300W from PSU so in this case, if your card only requires dual 8pin connections, using bifurcation cable means that this single cable needs to handle 300W of power which is likely to melt your cable So in this case, you must use two separate cables. There is another special case: If your GPU is a 3 8pin GPU and is power-hungry as hell but your PSU only provides two bifurcated cable then during wiring up follow the installation method shown on the screen the leftmost connector uses a single connection from the first cable while the rest two uses bifurcated ports from the second cable the inner port of the second cable is connected to the middle connector and the outer port to the last connector on the right The reason behind this is while working, the GPU core will suck power priority from the closest connection so the leftmost port has the heaviest duties which means that the second cable can handle less power For RTX 3090Ti or later 40 series GPU you may see power connectors like this It is the new 12+4pin connector, also known as the 16pin connector in the ATX 3.0 specification If only 12pins connected, it can provide up to 450W of power but a full 16pin connection provides up to 600W of power for your GPU Most recently launched high-end PSUs comes with 16pin modular cables out of the box but if you bought your PSU earlier you can request for this cable from the manufacturer or purchase a new 16pin mod cable Connect the 2 x 8pin port to the PCIe/CPU region on your PSU's panel then pull the 16pin plug out of the PSU bay Align the 16pin with the power connector on the GPU Be careful not to reverse the position of these 4 signal pins Insert the PSU connector into the bottom The plastic buckle will snap automatically after it is inserted into the bottom and you have successfully installed a 16pin power cable If you have a non-module PSU which cannot have cables replaced or you can't be bothered or even forget to apply for or buy a 16pin cable A 16pin to 3x8pin or 4x8pin conversion cable can also be found in the graphics card box attach one end to your GPU and now it is the good old multiple 6+2pin connections Pull the cable from the PSU and connect it and call it a day That's all for the GPU PSU connection After the GPU is installed all that lefts is to plug in the monitor and power keyboard and mouse and rock&roll If you don't have a discrete GPU installed and your machine uses the integrated GPU with your CPU then connect your monitor with video ports on your motherboard And if you install a discrete GPU please make sure to connect your monitor with your GPU's video port Never, ever, ever connect it to the motherboard Most motherboards will block iGPU's video output if it detects dGPU being installed so when you connect to iGPU's output there will be no signal at all This isosceles trapezoid port is HDMI and this right-angle trapezoid port is DisplayPort Some older graphics cards also have this white DVI port and the blue VGA port Most monitors use HDMI and DisplayPort nowadays If you find that your monitor and GPU do not have the same port you can buy some adapters online to convert them like VGA to HDMI or DVI to DisplayPort and so on But remember to follow the order of the male and female connector For example, HDMI to VGA and VGA to HDMI are two things they can not be used in reverse It would be better to ask for compatibility before you place your order HDMI and DisplayPort can both carry video and audio data As long as the bandwidth can handle what your monitor requires and the best refresh rate and color depth then for most people, there is practically no difference between them You can use either one But here's the caveat Different versions of HDMI and DisplayPort has different limits on resolution max refresh rate or color depth If you're using HDMI and you can't run your monitor at its best resolution or best refresh rate then you should try the DisplayPort connection and vice versa For more information about video connection bandwidth we have a previous video ready for you which contains a very detailed description Put one end of the video cable into the video port at the rear of the GPU The interfaces are in no sequential order just pick up any connection Plug the other end into the video port at the bottom of the monitor write down the number of the monitor's video interface before connecting We're hooked up to DP2 so you need to remember the sequence number of DP2 Once you've hooked up the video cable to your monitor We need to attach the monitor's power cord If it's plugged into a socket rather than plugged directly into a wall socket remember to check whether the plug switch is on and ensure that the socket is powered After connecting the monitor's power cable and video cable make sure you turned your monitor on before everything else Some graphics cards may not output video signal when they cannot detect a monitor during the first boot and your monitor will stay blank so turn your monitor on to avoid the hassle Then find the switch on the monitor Usually at the lower right corner of the monitor or the back of the lower right corner or right in the middle at the bottom Tap it to open it Usually, the status indicator will appear white and the monitor's backlight also lights up At this time The display will automatically search for the signal source in multiple video sources available Because our PC is not on yet so we can't find the source After some time the monitor will automatically go into standby mode The backlight will be turned off and the status indicator is usually yellow or off Finally from the PSU box you can find an IEC60320 C13/14 cable, with three pin plug Connect one end to your PSU and the other end to an outlet in your house If it is connected to the socket remember to check if your socket is powered on or not to avoid hassle ensure that the socket is powered Then press the power button from 0 to 1 to turn on the power switch Finally, press the power button If all the fans start turning and the lights from all kinds of equipment come on It means that the computer is powered on successfully Wait patiently a minute or not If your installation is all right and all these accessories are working normally without fault you should see the following screen on your monitor Either it went straight to the motherboard's BIOS or you can see some parameters of installed hardware displaying on your monitor Then, press F1 to init by default or press F2 to enter the BIOS The third possibility is it went straight to the hard drive but since there's no OS installed on the hard drive all you're gonna see is a boot error All these situations means that your computer hardware is not faulty and all you have done is correct The next thing you need to do is to install OS and you can finish the fight If you're not seeing previously mentioned images, rather is loads of error reports You can try to understand them and check what causes these problems then you can rule them out one by one If you encounter a black screen after boot then maybe you need to check if your monitor's video source is the same port you just connected to Let's say we're connected to DP2 then you can manually change it to DP2 first If there is still no signal you can find the debug light on the motherboard The corresponding lights indicates that the corresponding accessory is faulty Or the installation is not in place CPU light means that your CPU is not installed properly or your CPU may not be powered properly or even your CPU is DOA and requires ROA If the DRAM light is on then it means that the modules you installed may not compatible with your system or the memory is not installed properly with a bad connection or the memory itself is physically deflected If the VGA light is on, the graphics card is not properly installed the video cable may not be connected or the monitor may not be enabled or it could be that the graphics card itself has something wrong with it If the BOOT on indicates that your machine is working fine and well it's just you don't have any OS to boot with If so, your monitor should be showing these words: If the monitor is blank then maybe you should change your cable or the monitor didn't power up or the video signal source is not set correctly And if your PC never even responds after you press the power button The fan doesn't turn and the lights don't turn on That means there may be some problem with your installation Some cables are connected to the wrong places Or some accessories are not installed in place, resulting in short circuit Triggered the short circuit protection Or some hardware has a physical fault Check out the various methods on the Internet If there's time in future we'll also cover some daily troubleshooting topics with the video unfortunately, today's not the day OK so this tutorial is now completely finished. I believe that there will be no better tutorial in foreseeable future. This IS the best PC build tutorial that you could find online Anyway, this project is in production for almost two years, we invested lots and lots of manpower, material, and more overall we spent over 600 thousand RMB on this project Most of that is the salaries for our employee rent for our studio and electronic and so on What we want to do is present a PC build tutorial that is easy to understand and cover every corner while you build your PC We're not asking for donations but please please please like, subscribe and 一键三连 this is the most we want Of course, if you still don't want to build your own computer after watching this video, then we also have prebuilts ready for you they can work well out of the box If you want to purchase one go to Taobao and search 硬件茶谈 and then place your order. This is hardware tea Talk I'm your host Maicha I'll see you next time Bye bye
