Gadgetory

hey guys this is Austin and today I'm here with my 2014 gaming PC build guy ready to build yourself a computer this guide is based on my most recent $500 gaming PC build you guys can check that out in the description or I go over all the parts that are used in this build but for the most part this tutorial flies to basically any gaming computer you want to build sure you will find a few little differences here and there but for the most part this will show you how to build basically any gaming computer you want before we get started there are a couple things you need first of all find yourself a table to work on away from carpet or rugs anything that could help build up static the only tool we need for the build is a Phillips screwdriver although a pair of needlenose pliers can sometimes be helpful let's jump right in start by unscrewing the thumb screws on the back of the case so we can open up things to work on once you've got them free the side panel should slide right off just set it aside for now flip the case around and undo the thumb screws on this side as well then pop the panel off inside you'll find a few accessories for the case including cable ties PCIe brackets screws and other hardware along with the manual I like to start builds with installing the power supply so grab this first you'll see a ton of cables but we'll go over what to do with these a bit later for now slide the supply into the case either on bottom or top depending on which case you're using making sure the fan is free and clear and pointing downward included with the power supply should be four screws like this pick them out and let's get this installed a power supply has four screw holes on each corner which should line up with the corresponding holes in your case a good rule of thumb is to put the first screw in and then go across the opposite side and screw that next help make sure that nothing gets misaligned then put the other screws in and once you're done go back around once more to make sure everything is nice and tight while we're here let's remove the PCIe covers so we can install our graphics card a bit later for this build we're removing the top tube and usually these run screwed however with this case you need to bend them backward until they snap off now set the case aside and grab your motherboard box now the board is a bit fragile especially to static so when taking it out of the bag try to touch it only by the plastic bits and set it down on the box to work on before we start installing hardware into it let's take a quick look around with the motherboard is all about this gray bit in the center is your CPU socket which is where we'll be installing the processor over to the right of it are these long black dim sockets which is where your ddr3 RAM goes just past this is your 20+4 pin motherboard power connector which is where we plug in the power supply below this on the edge of the board are our six SATA ports these are what you use to connect drives and for this bill we'll be using just a single hard drive but you can also use these to hook up SSDs optical drives or more hard drives right behind all your ports you should see the four pin CPU power connector pretty self-explanatory but you'll plug a cable from your power supply into here towards the bottom of the card are your PCI Express connectors to drop in your graphics card generally you want to use the highest full-sized slot which in this case is the blue one however some things like sounding capture cards can also go into the smaller PCIe one connectors finally around back or all of your ports these will be sticking out the back of your case and are how you'll connect keyboards mice Ethernet etc alright time to get to the fun stuff starting with installing the CPU inside the box you'll find the processor itself wrapped in plastic along with the heatsink and fan with pre applied thermal paste when handling the CPU only touch it by the edges and be very careful with the pins on the back bend any of these badboys and you're in trouble come over to your motherboard and pull the retention arm back to open up the socket on the bottom of the CPU you'll see a small gold arrow on the corner line this up with the matching arrow on the board to make sure it's going in the right way gently rest the processor into the socket don't use any force as it should sit by itself now close the arm back down using a little pressure and that's it the CPU is installed now grab your cooler and set it down over the processor making sure the thermal paste makes a good solid seal AMD CPUs are a little fiddly when it comes to locking the stock cooler down but make sure the metal arms hook into the mounts on the motherboard and pull them down to tighten next let's plug in the CPU fan if it's a bit too long to reach the header on the motherboard just tie it in on itself to get rid of some of the slack you should see a four pin CPU fan header near the socket just plug the fan into here there are two notches on it so it only goes in one way now that that's out of the way let's install the RAM if you take a look at it you'll see a notch about two-thirds of the way down you want to align this with the matching notch on the motherboard pull the clips on either side back and slide the dim in and then press firmly on either side until it clicks into place at this point our motherboard is basically fully assembled with the CPU heatsink and fan along with memory next up let's install everything into the case flip the case on its side and make sure the cables are set out of the way the motherboard is mounted on brass standoffs and it's important to make sure it's secure on these otherwise it could ground out on the steel case this case has all the standoffs we need already installed but if not you'll need to take a look at the manual and install the standoffs you need for your motherboard grab the i/o shield that came with your board and pop it into the back of the case making sure you've got it flipped right-side up it's a pain to get in correctly so don't be afraid to use a little force to pop it in now lower your motherboard into place over the standoffs and make sure it's flush with the i/o shield and that the ports are sticking through grab your screws and start tightening the board down one by one again making sure that all the holes line up with the standoffs as well as all the ports are fully accessible on the back of the case now flip the case back up and while we've got easy access to them let's plug in the fans grab the lead from the rear fan and connect it to the fan header on the board right above the PCIe slot come to the front and do the same thing with the front fan connect it to the four pin header just behind your RAM next up let's install the graphics card which is super easy just line it up with the main PCIe connector and slide it in until it clicks into place make sure that all of the ports are clearly accessible from the back of the case and then screw it in to make sure it stays nice and secure there you go the graphics card is installed the last major thing we need to install is the hard drive every case does this a little differently but with the line in it's as simple as sliding it into a free drive cage making sure that the screw holes line up once it's all set screw the drive into place with four screws to facing forward and two in the back now that our hardware is installed time for the fun part wiring except this is not fun at all grab the bundle of wires from the front of the case and start with the big blue USB 3.0 connector plug this into the bottom of the motherboard there's a notch on the connector and cable so it only goes in one way but be careful the pins are a bit easy to bend next grab the smaller USB 2.0 connector and plug this in here there's a pin knocked out of it so again it only goes in one way to connect the front panel audio you should see two leads AC 97 and HD audio connect the HD audio connector into the bottom left of the board although this can be in different places depending on the motherboard there are several smaller front panel connectors now for these you'll need to check your motherboard manual to see what goes where the important thing to note is that the colored wires are positive so that shows you which way to plug everything in don't worry too much about getting something wrong here if it's not right just go back and double-check at this point your cable should look something like this we're almost there along with the hardware that came with your case you should see a small speaker this connects either with the front panel connectors or on this build right beside them come over to your motherboard box and find your SATA cables these are to connect your hard drive and have a clip and notch to make sure that they go in correctly first attach it to the back of the hard drive with the smaller data connector and then run the other end into a SATA port on your motherboard now we just need to hook the power supply up to everything start with grabbing the big 20+4 pin connector this goes in right behind the RAM and like basically every other cable only clips in one way now grab the four plus four pin CPU power cable depending on the supply you may have to snap these apart as for this bill we only need four of the pins hook it up on the top left of the motherboard and that's all for this one come back to your power supply leads and find a harness with these long thinner connectors these are four SATA and power your hard drive optical drive or SSD unlike the data cables these don't click into place so you'll have to use a little force to make sure it's inserted all the way last but not least grab a PCIe lead this is a 6 pin connector with an additional 2 on the side and are usually used for graphics cards just plug it into your GPU depending on your build some cards don't need any extra power but many need to 6 + 2 pin connectors now it's time for a test to see if everything is working flip the power switch on the back of the power supply and hook it up to a monitor and keyboard then hit the power button all the lights and fans should power up and you should see video on your screen this is a good time to go inside your BIOS to check that everything is showing up properly this MSI board has a helpful Explorer option that lets you check your processor power connections memory and all the rest of your hard to make sure it's installed properly if everything looks good unplug the PC and it's time to clean up some of our cables generally you want to route what you can behind the motherboard and use electrical ties to tidy up the rest but this case is tricky to get neat cable management with so just tuck unused cables out of the way and clean it out the best you can once you're done slide the side panels back on and we are done with the hardware at this point you can install any operating system you want so if you'd like to feel the steam of West round I have created a tutorial and in fact I use this build to do it so if you guys want to go that way I will have that linked in the description to check that out however more likely you're probably going to want to install windows so let's show you how to do that right now hop back into the BIOS and make sure the boot order is set to either your USB Drive or optical drive first depending on how you plan on installing windows hook up your installation media and the setup should begin it's pretty straightforward just hit next then install now and after a minute it will ask for your product key punch that in and it will ask what type of installation you want since this is a new PC pick custom select your hard drive and choose new hit apply and let windows create your partitions and then click Next now windows will begin installing this will take a while so sit back and let it work its magic after a couple restarts it will have you personalize and create your account do this and it will take you into Windows finally we're done except that now we have to install our drivers so we're actually not done if you can't connect to the internet out of the box you'll have to use the driver CD that came with your motherboard or use another computer to download the ethernet driver onto a USB Drive and then bring it over to your new PC once you're online first thing is to get your graphics card driver for Nvidia just search the name of your graphics card on their site and download and install the driver it's the same thing if you have AMD or Intel graphics just download the latest drivers available from their site most things should be working now but it's still a good idea to search the name of your motherboard and head to the driver section of the site to get the rest of what you need generally I don't bother with the utilities but things like chipset and audio drivers are very helpful from here feel free to install all the rest of the programs you need such as steam or origin another web browser etc now all that's left is to let windows update this will probably take a while and a few restarts but once that's done you're up and running congratulations on building yourself a gaming PC so like I said earlier I will have links to everything I talked about in the description of this video so you guys can check that out and if you enjoyed this video absolutely be sure to subscribe to the channel so you catch lots more videos like this going over all kinds of awesome gaming PC stuff anyway guys thank you so much for watching and I will catch you next time