Gadgetory

managing to build and cram a rather powerful yet affordable PC into a case not much larger than an Xbox one console is no simple task but not to worry we've done it for you here in the studio we've also included step-by-step instructions so if you're interested in building a PC exactly like this one or even slightly different you can follow along to the instructions in this video as well as the parts list that is in this video's description so with that out of the way let's go ahead and start building so here's everything from the case to the SSD with only one thing missing and that's our custom CPU cooler the cryo reg c7 and just didn't arrive on time and will be installed at a later date the total price of this build not including the operating system but including the c7 was just under eight hundred US dollars not bad for an ITX PC and if you're up for it swapping our nvidia gtx 1060 with a gtx 1070 will place you at the $1000 sweet spot so let's run through each part first up the Intel Core i5 6400 with four physical cores six megabytes of l3 cache and a frequency that will raise manually via the base clock method more on that here this CPU will be more than enough for modern gaming in order to base clock overclock we'll need to z170 motherboard and this one from gigabyte is also in the ITX form factor we need it's equipped with several peripheral ports a unique cooling system a sufficient number of MOSFETs and voltage regular modules and a plethora of rear i/o ports including a USB type-c port built in Wi-Fi 5.1 surround sound and a wired LAN port for RAM we've gone with eight gigabytes of kingston hyperx ddr4 boasting a frequency of 21 33 megahertz and a relatively low caste latency there kind of trade-offs these modules will run in dual channel next up is a very important piece of the puzzle the graphics card we've opted for an Asus GeForce GTX 1066 gigabyte variant with a blower style cooler since our case is fairly small this design should keep warm air out but at the expense of occasionally being louder and generally under clocked compared to open air cooler counterparts for storage a single 480 gigabyte PNY SSD does the trick for us if you need anything more than this consider a boot SSD and something like a one terabyte hard drive for general storage as for the case the fractal node 202 offers a sleek portable design and durability thanks to its metal chassis I'm not a fan of ITX cube cases and other slim offerings are typically made of plastic the note 202 follows the conventional home theater format and will easily blend in with your console and or DVD player if you're still sporting one of those and that's it got it here we go pull out your CPU being careful not to smear oils across the bottom or top prepare the motherboard by unhinging the lever to the side of the socket and swing it open don't touch these pins line up the Golden Arrow on the chip with the white arrow on the board and gently rest the CPU in then close the lid secure it under the standoff and return the lever to its original position this will take a bit of force don't worry you're not going to break anything as long as your CPU is properly installed the black cover should detach from the lid save this in case you ever need to RMA your motherboard pull back on the locks that hold your RAM modules in place align the notch on each with the indention in the slot and secure each by applying force like so until the lock re-engages on its own we'll be using the stock cooler for now as well as stock thermal paste I know I know it's kind of the bare minimum all you have to do here is push each standoff through each of the four holes surrounding the CPU socket ensure that the cooler is fastened properly before using it to move the motherboard around once this is secured locate the CPU fan header on the motherboard ours was white align the four pins on the fan cable with the header and connect it to the board grab your motherboards i/o shield that should be included in the box and literally shove this into the rectangular cutout at the rear of the case I say shove because well that's literally what you have to do before merging the motherboard move any impeding cables out of the way being that this is an ITX case cable space in particular is especially limited ensure as well that all four standoffs are exposed so that you can properly mount the board oh and make sure you insert its rear i/o side first you can use it as a guide to align the board with the standoffs grab your included accessory box and pull out the motherboard screws you can check thread designations in your manual or manually the graphics for our PCIe bridge should be installed next so start with a larger piece and insert it into the single large red slot on the motherboard pull back on the hinge if necessary install the shorter segment next we'll be plugging our graphics card directly into this extended slot remove the two white cover slots near the rear of the case save the screws and install the graphics card by aligning the array of pins with a shorter bridge you recently installed the entire card should click fully into the rear slots as well as the PCIe extension bridge use the screws from before to secure the graphics card back into place remove the SSD tray located in front of the power supply unit it should slide right out and mount the SSD to the inside of this bracket use for peripheral screws from the accessory bag to keep it in place theoretically you could just tape this somewhere inside of the case since there are no moving parts but this tray is a nice touch grab a SATA cable that should be included with your motherboard box and connect one end into the shorter lead on the SSD the other end connects into a port that looks like these right here if one is labeled OS drive install it into that SATA port grab the 24 pin lead from the power supply and plug it into the 24 pin header on the motherboard this is pretty much common sense this powers your motherboard and a few of its immediate peripherals grab a SATA power lead like this one right here and connect it to the larger port on the SSD it should be the only other vacant port on the drive we made a mistake here and forgot to route the PCIe cable beforehand so learn from us but if you're following this guide step-by-step while you're building no biggie just gently run the cable through the opening in the middle of the chassis and underneath the graphics card worst case just remove the card and then do it that way this one requires a single 6 pin connection find the 4+4 cpu power lead and connected to the eight pin header on the motherboard near the rear i/o ports don't worry we're almost finished here find the HD audio cable running from the case itself locate the only header on the motherboard with a 5th 10 missing unless it's marked obviously on the motherboard and you guessed it connect the thing I didn't film the USB 3.0 connection but do that as well it's typically a thicker black cable or two that runs into a unique header with a single notch in the middle you really can't miss it and now the final stretch this part sucks undoubtedly check the manual to properly evaluate where these small cable leads should go the only ones remaining in the case thankfully there were only three leads for this one a power switch power LED positive and power led negative it was a tight squeeze but we managed to make it work with that out of the way it's time for some final cable management there isn't much we can do here but we can pull a few of these cables away from the CPU fan and closer toward the PSU everything else is pretty much just improvised when you're confident you've cleaned up enough inside grab the top cover of the note 202 slide it back on and secure it from the bottom with the four K screws you removed earlier to get inside and guess what you've built a computer you so there you have it folks a very powerful affordable and portable gaming PC considerably smaller than the one behind me and not much larger than an Xbox one console the ps4 is it's kind of in its own in its own Lake if you liked this video be sure to give it a thumbs up give it a thumbs down if you look up a tapas atour have no idea what you're doing here be sure to subscribe if you haven't already to stay tuned for part four the CPU core series I keep taunting it because it's taking me a while but I finally almost finished compiling all the data into Excel this is science studio thanks for learning you