Hello, my friends, and welcome back to Micro Center for our most in-depth gaming PC tutorial yet. Grab yourself some popcorn, a beverage of your choice, because we're gonna go incredibly in-depth on everything you need to know about choosing components and putting together your very own gaming PC.

To start out with, I would recommend actually doing something a little bit different than our previous years, which is to start with a graphics card. If you're not familiar with what a graphics card is, it's the thing that makes the games go brrr! So, for this build, we are going with an MSI RTX 3060, but you can just as easily go with an AMD GPU as well. Red team has many options that are very much equivalent to NVIDIA, and the big thing to keep in mind is to pick a graphics card that is available, and that is inside your budget. I think this year, if I feel pretty safe to say it's going to be difficult to get our hands on graphics cards for the foreseeable future. So, if you find something, buy it.

The next decision you're gonna wanna make is to pick your CPU. Now, this is the processor, and ultimately, along with the graphics card, one of the most important components of your build. If chosen a mid-range graphics card, generally speaking, you should probably get yourself a mid-range CPU, something like a Core i5 or Core i3. And if you got yourself a high-end graphics card, you may want a Core i7 or Core i9, but that's very broadly speaking. Generally, if you are playing games specifically, then you don't necessarily need a Core i9 for example. You don't need a ton of cores because, instead, you can get away with something like maybe a Core i5 for that same kind of performance and save a whole lot of money. But on the other side, if you plan on using the system for a very long time, or maybe you're gonna be doing a lot of video editing or something, the extra cores and clock speed of a Core i7 or Core i9 could be very beneficial. On the flip side, if you just wanna do some little more basic gaming, something like a Core i3 could absolutely do the job.

Intel and AMD both make it pretty easy to understand the lower numbers are less powerful, the higher numbers are more powerful. Because we've got ourselves an RTX 3060, we're gonna go a little bit more high-end for the purposes of this tutorial, so we're gonna go with an i7-12700K. Now, if you look at the model numbers for all AMD and Intel CPUs, you'll see that there's a little bit of code to it.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Hello, my friends, andwelcome back to Micro Centerfor our most in-depthgaming PC tutorial yet.Grab yourself some popcorn,a beverage of your choice,because we're gonna go incredibly in-depthon everything you need toknow about choosing componentsand putting togetheryour very own gaming PC.To start out with,I would recommend actually doing somethinga little bit differentthan our previous years,which is to start with a graphics card.If you're not familiar withwhat a graphics card is,it's the thing thatmakes the games go brrr!So, for this build, we aregoing with an MSI RTX 3060,but you can just as easilygo with an AMD GPU as well.Red team have many optionsthat are very much equivalent to NVIDIA.And the big thing to keep inmind is to pick a graphics cardthat is available, andthat is inside your budget.I think this year, Ifeel pretty safe to sayit's going to bedifficult to get our handson graphics cards forthe foreseeable future.So, if you find something, buy it.The next decision you're gonna wanna makeis to pick your CPU.Now, this is the processor,and, ultimately, alongsidethe graphics card,one of the most importantcomponents of your build.Now, if chosen a mid-range graphics card,generally speaking, youshould probably get yourselfa mid-range CPU, somethinglike a Core i5 or Core i3.And if you got yourselfa high-end graphics card,you may want a Core i7 or Core i9,but that's very broadly speaking.Now, generally, if you areplaying games specifically,then you don't necessarilyneed a Core i9 for example.You don't need a ton of coresbecause, instead, you canget away with somethinglike maybe a Core i5 forthat same kind of performanceand save a whole lot of money.But on the other side,if you plan on using thesystem for a very long time,or maybe you're gonna be doinga lot of video editing or something,the extra cores and clockspeed of a Core i7 or Core i9could be very beneficial.On the flip side,if you just wanna do somelittle more basic gaming,something like a Core i3could absolutely do the job.Intel and AMD both make itpretty easy to understandthe lower numbers are less powerful,the higher numbers are more powerful.Because we've got ourselves an RTX 3060,we're gonna go a little bit more high-endfor the purposes of this tutorial,so we're gonna go with an i7-12700K.Now, if you look at the model numbersfor all AMD and Intel CPUs,you'll see that there's alittle bit of a code to it.So, "i7" means that this isone of the higher-end chips.So it goes, i3, i5, i7, i9.Just like Ryzen goes Ryzen3, Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7, Ryzen 9.The "12th Gen," as well as the "12" here,just indicates what generation it is.So, this is the latest and greatest."K" on the Intel side meansthat you can overclock.Now, I will say, we're notgonna get into overclocking.So, we're just gonna showyou how to build a PCand choose the components.But if you wanna be able to overclockand get the absolute most out of it,you're gonna want a Kseries Intel processor,and most AMD chips aregonna allow you to do that,regardless of which one you picked.Notice how this box is very small?It's because there's only a CPU inside.Now, for example, if Iwere to pick out a 12400,so this is an i5, this actuallyhas the cooler in the box.Generally speaking, when you'rebuying the higher-end chips,they just expect thatyou're gonna want to geta secondary cooler.And for our purposes, weactually are gonna do that.But a lot of other chipsdo come with at leasta decent stock cooler in the box.Though it's definitely somethingthat you wanna keep in mind.If you're gonna go all out,you're gonna have to buy an extra cooler,but if you're building a littlebit of a more basic system,what's in the box isactually totally fine.The next decision is tochoose your motherboard.Now, the motherboard is avery important component,pretty much all of the differentbits and bobs inside your systemare going to connect to the board,which is why we're gonna gowith this MSI PRO Z690-A.Now, there are a few thingsyou should pay attention towhen it is time tochoose your motherboard.First and foremost, does itwork with your processor?Now, all graphics cards,well, unless they're madein like 1997 or something,will work with prettymuch any motherboard.That's not a really huge concern.The big thing is tomake sure that your CPUand the socket is compatible.So, for our build, the easy way to lookis to go to this littlesticker on the top,"Supports 12th Gen Intel Core processors."Boom. We know that this willat the very bare minimum work.However, look closely at that sticker.You see this one right here?Look at this, oh, I don't know,the Z590 supports 11th Gen.The sticker's almost exactly the same,except it says "11th" instead of "12th."So, it is definitely worthdouble and triple-checkingto make sure that you have a motherboardwhich will support your processor.Now, other things to considerwhen you're choosing yourmotherboard are the sizes.So, the three main sizes for motherboards.There's ITX, which is the smallest,there's microATX, which is a middle,and then there's, ofcourse, full-size ATX,which is what we've got here.Most builds are probablygonna wanna do ATX,that's what the vastmajority of chassis are.If you're building like a regular mid-sizeor a full-size tower, this is the move,it's gonna give you the mostexpansion, blah, blah, blah.However, if you do wanna doa smaller form factor build or something,you may wanna go smaller.Most important is to make surethat the size of your motherboardis equivalent to the size of your case.One other very important thing to consideris what kind of RAM youare going to be using.So, for AMD this is not really a problem.And for pretty much all thelast few years of Intel,it's not a problem.However, for the latest12th Generation Intel chips,they actually support twodifferent kinds of RAM.You can use the DDR4, whichhas been around for many years.It's a little bit more cheap,but also it's much, mucheasier to get your hands on,or you can get the maximumperformance using DDR5.Now, there are pros and cons to both,DDR5 is faster, but more expensive,a little hard to get your hands on,but you need to make this decisionright now when youchoose your motherboard.Because even though you canget a DDR4 or DDR5 motherboard,it's only gonna be oneor the other, right?We're gonna be usingthis tutorial with DDR5because it is the latest technology.But honestly, feel free to go with DDR4.If you can find yourself a board,they're usually gonna be cheaper.The RAM is certainly gonna be cheaper.You're losing a little bit ofperformance, it's not crazy.But, for the purposes of this tutorial,we're gonna show you thepretty much cutting edge,most up-to-date system that we can,which means DDR5 and aDDR5-specific motherboard.Speaking of RAM,that is our next decisionthat we need to make.There are a few things to keep in mind,but it's actually not super complicated.So, of course, first andforemost, DDR4 versus DDR5,you gotta pick whichever one you want.Beyond that, you need to choose the speed,the RGB, the amount of RAM.There's a few other things involved.The first one is just pickinghow much RAM you want.Eight gigs is the absolutebare minimum you're gonna want.And realistically, in 2022,you should be aiming for16 gigs if at all possible.If you're getting DDR4,we're talking like 60bucks for some 16 gig kits.So, don't get too stressedon trying to save a few bucks on RAM,try to get at least 16 gigabytes.On top of that, the speed is important.Generally speaking,AMD systems are a littlebit more sensitiveto the RAM speed than Intel,so you may wanna go up to3200 or 3600 on the AMD side,but because we're choosing Inteland because we're choosing DDR5,it makes our lives a lot more simple.Now, for this, we're gonnabe going with 64 gigsof this Crucial DDR5.Now, the other thing you wannaconsider when choosing RAM,make sure to get at least dual channel.Now, that will make a difference,regardless of whetheryou're using Intel or AMD.So, basically, don't be temptedto just buy a single stick of RAM,because it's cheaper andyou can expand more later.You're gonna get more performanceif you buy a least two sticks of RAMthen you can run in dual channel mode.Next up, let's choose our case.This is the fun partbecause this really isthe most aesthetic part of your system.And as you can see, thereare hundreds and hundredsof different options for a case.Remember, there's the ATX, microATX,and ITX motherboard sizes.Make sure that you get a casewhich will equivalentlythose different sizes.So, for example, this fitsa full ATX motherboard,meaning that we can putany of those sizes insideand we will be A-okay.On top of that, make surethat you have enough roomfor whatever othercomponents you need inside.So, generally speaking,most cases will fit mostgraphics cards, but not always.Some graphics cards are really big,some cases are a little bit small,so you may wanna take a look at that.And think about your cooling.This is probably one of the big ones.If you are doing a mid-range system,you probably don't need a ton of fansand AIOs and all this kind of stuff.But, on the other hand, ifyou're building an RTX 3090and Core i9, and all this kind of stuff,you're probably gonnawant some space in the topor on the front for radiators and whatnot.So, think a little bit abouthow high-end your system is,and whether or not the cooling in the casecan either support itand/or if you wanna be ableto add additional radiatorsor fans to then help improvethe cooling of that system.So, for now, we're gonna go with the 205,which is right here.With this case, we had not only glass,but we also have room tomount a radiator up top.We have an exhaust fan, aswell as one fan on the front.So, you can obviously mix andmatch this however you want.Continuing on, it is time tochoose our storage device.Now, I say "storage device,"you should buy yourself at SSD.Now, if you have an oldhard drive laying aroundand you wanna use it, notas your actual boot device,but you just wanna have extrastorage, whatever, feel free.However, don't run your operating systemoff of a hard drive in 2022.SSDs are cheap, fast,and pretty much betterin every possible way.So, we're gonna actuallypick out two SSDs today.First off, we're goingto choose a 980 PRO.Now, this is an M.2 SSD.This is, for the vast majority of people,the kind of SSD that youshould be using in your system.They're not that much more expensive,they're far easier to install,and you are going toget the very best speedswith an M.2 SSD.Specifically, with the 980 PRO,this is one of the fastest SSDsyou can get, period, rightnow, highly recommended.However, you may alsowanna is a SATA drive.So, that is where the 870 QVO comes in.Now, this is an older school approach.So, the way to install a SATA SSDis the same as a SATA hard drive.And even the same if you'reinstalling a SATA optical drivefor like DVDs and Blu-rays and stuff.So, I'll show you how touse it for this tutorial.If you've got an old SSD laying aroundor an old hard drive laying around,feel free to install it.What we're gonna do, iswe're gonna install Windowson our fastest SSD,and we're gonna just use this for storage.But, generally speaking,you should probably be pickingyourself up an M.2 SSD.Next decision we need to make,you've gotta keep thatCPU of ours nice and cool.So, there are a number of different waysthat you can go about this.So, if you're going with alow to mid-range processor,you actually can use the stockcooler that comes in the box.You might not be able tooverclock or push it super hard,but, honestly, those stockcoolers are totally fine.For one-step up above that,is to do an air cooler.So, a cheapish air coolerwill still give you more performance,more cooling capabilitythrough your system,it'll look nicer, and won'treally break the bank.However, if you're gonna gowith a higher-end processor,especially when it comes to something likethe 11th and 12th Gen stuff,or like a Ryzen 9 or whatever,you're gonna be pumping some serious powerthrough that chip.And while an air cooler will work,oftentimes you're gonna wannaconsider doing one of these,a liquid cooler, alsotypically known as an AIO.Now, these come in alot of different sizes,a lot of differentvariations configurations.It gets a little bit complicated,but there are a couple things to consider.Now, because the newIntel 12th Gen processorsare fairly new, you wanna make surethat whatever cooler youpick will work for it.On top of that, think alittle bit about how powerfulof an AIO or whatnot that you need.So, they usually come ina couple different sizes.So, you can do a 120, youusually don't wanna do.A 240, which is gonna fit in most cases.Or you can go all the wayto something like a 360.It all depends on how many fansand how thick the radiator is.So, this is where yougonna definitely wannaconsult with the boxof the actual PC case that you've chosen,and then choose itcooler, which looks nice,that fits in your budget,and that will be able to coolyour processor accordingly.Usually speaking, though, 240 or 360is the sweet spot when it comes to AIOs,and we will be pickinga white Lian Li Galahadfor this particularbuild to match your case.Now it's time to power our beautifulbrand new gaming PC system.One of the most important thingsis just the amount ofwattage that you need.As you can see, there's a wide variety.You can go from 500, 650, 850, 1,250.The easy way to tellis actually usuallyusing your graphics card.So, the graphic card will always tell youthe minimum that it needs.And oftentimes forsomething like our build,we can probably get awaywith a 600 and 650 watt,something like that.I'm actually gonna go with a 750 watt,just to give ourselves alittle bit of headroom,because especially if you'regonna be reusing componentsand rebuilding your system over the years,it's always nice tohave a little bit extraon your power supply,so you know that you canreuse this for the next buildeven if you get an RTX 5080or something like that.Now, what you've chosen the power supplyor at least the wattage that you need,there are only a couple of other thingsyou need to keep in mind.See this little sticker here? "80 PLUS."You want to see that on your power supply.Now, there are different levelsof 80 PLUS certification.Usually, bronze is a good place to start.Even white is fine.But gold is sort of like agood sort of mid-range option.It generally means that you'regonna get a power supplywhich is high-quality, efficient,gonna last you quite a while.The last thing toconsider are your cables.So, again, when it comesto your graphics card,'cause the graphics card'susually the problem here,make sure that you have enoughleads from your power supplyto take care of your graphics card.This has four PCI 6+2 pins.That means that this is gonna workwith basically everygraphics card ever made.You may also wannaconsider picking up a copyof Microsoft 365 Family.Not only do you get all ofthe premium Office apps,but you're also going to getone terabyte of OneDrive cloud storageyou can share with up to six people.And now it's time to gobuild ourselves a gaming PC.Friends, it's time!And thanks to our very kindsponsors, Micro Center,they are running a promotion right now.The next time you're in-store,you can pick yourself upa free 240 gigabyte SSD.Just check out the linkin the description,and all you need to do is, well, sign up.And so, the very first thing you should dois to acquire your tools.I forgot mine this morning,so I found the screwdriver in my bag.You, however, should be more preparedand have a screwdriverthat isn't terrible.- Well, first of all, Jeremy,you have an iFixit literally right there.- Those are not my tools.Those are not my tools.- You're not Jeremy?- I'm not Jeremy.I'm not gonna steal tools!- What are you doing here?What are you doing here?- Little pro-tip, when itcomes to opening case boxes,flip it upside down, don't be a hero.Thankfully, this isnot a super heavy case,so it's actually very easy to open up.So, I always like to start with the case.The first thing is just tostart stripping it down.I'll tell you one of the worstthings about building a PC,losing a little tiny screw in your carpetand you'll never find it again.So, don't build on carpet.Also, don't shock yourcomponents with static.And most importantly,don't lose your screws,'cause you'll never find them again.- You'll find them in10 years when you accidentallystep on them.- When you step on it?Yeah.(all laughing)So, here we've got our sort of main areawhere we're gonna beputting our motherboard,graphics card and everything,but we'll also wanna flip it aroundand take off the other side.This is where we're gonna runpretty much all of our cables.So, just open up the case withthe front and this back paneland you should be fine.Now we have access to pretty muchall of our various different components.And you'll also see wehave some extra goodies.So, here we have our manual,which may or may not be useful,but it's always nice tokind of keep that around.And importantly, you'llalso have your hardware.Keep these handy. We willcome back for these later.With our case ready, thefirst thing I like to dois prepare the power supply.We open up our power supply.You'll find a few things in here.Usually, don't really need the manual.So, because this is a semi-modular supply,what we'll see is that someof the cables we can attach,but we only need to use some of theseand I'll explain them later.And then we have the power supply itself.So, you can see that some...I just Linused that, didn't I?So, with the semi-modular supply,these are the cablesthat we are pretty muchgoing to need regardless.So, these are already attached.And you can see that you canconnect additional cables,if you need them, right over here.Now, on top of that, beforeyou toss your power supply box,take a look for the screws.These are always includedin the power supply.And quite honestly,they're very easy to miss.Sometimes they get underneaththe foam or whatever.So, when you're pulling everything out,make sure to grab the four little screwsthat come in the baggy along with them.So, before you install your power supply,you do need to decide whatorientation it goes in.So, you see that there'sa large fan on one side.Now, usually, the powersupply will installeither facing up or down.But you just wanna think about this fanas in terms of it needs some airflow.So, every case is slightly different.Now, for I would say themajority of cases these days,you're gonna put it on the bottom,and you can see there's alittle sort of mesh panel here,which means that thatwill perfectly give ussome airflow from the bottom.You just wanna make surethat wherever your fan is,it can get access to air.So, you know, if it'shere, it can breathe here.Or if you have a meshpanel, whatever the case is,just make sure that thisis not going straightagainst the bottom metal component there.Although, I would hopethat you'd look at thatand you'd realize that that's not right,unless you're "ScrapyardWarsing" it. (laughs)So, once you've decided what orientationthe actual power supply needs to go in,it's time to screw it in,except if you have a modularor semi-modular supply.So, you can see with this supply,we have a couple of cables thatare already attached, right?So, these are cables thatyou always need regardless.However, all the rest are optional.So, you wanna take a quick lookat the components thatyou have for your systemand which ones you actually need to use.So, for example, if Igrab my graphics card.You need an eight-pin aswell as a six-pin, right?So, we wanna make sure that we have thoseon a power supply before we install it,which is simple enough.They've thankfully color-coded it.So, you can see here, wehave a PCIe power connector.This is what you need for a graphics card.So, figure out however many pinsyou need for your graphics cardand grab those cablesand install them now.So, we're gonna line it up and go, boom.Look at that. Now we'replaying with power.This SATA power.So, this is what you will usefor generally speaking hard drives, SSDs,as well as optical drives."Hard drive, SATA, floppy."It kind of has it all right here.So, we just line it up, click it in.And then that actually should beall of the different cables we need.So, to install our powersupply, it is very simple.And for this case, what we're gonna dois we're gonna slide it in.Now, you'll see that with these cables,it's gonna get slightly in the way,so just make sure they're slightly tuckedso that you're notcompletely fighting them.And you see, we can slideit in from the side.Now, I will say that some casesare gonna be slightly different.So, some cases actually havea little bracket in the backthat you wanna screw into the power supplyand then you slide it in.So, just check your case manualif something doesn't look right,but with this one, it's verystandard, very straightforward.What we're gonna do is whenwe come around to the back,you just wanna make surethis is aligned correctly.So, there's a littlepanel I can remove here,but, honestly, most cases don't have that.So, I'm gonna leave it therejust to make my life more difficult,and to making a morerepresentative tutorialon how to line this up.There are four screwsthat will attach yourpower supply to the case.And there should be ifyou look right here,there's a hole on thetop left top, top right,bottom right, bottom left.Very simple.At this point, grab thatlittle baggy of screwsthat came with your powersupply, grab your screw,and start screwing it in, in one corner.Doesn't matter which one you start with.However, this is where you should usethe cross pattern method.So, as you can see here,as we screw one in,it starts to pull that tightto the top of the case.However, you don't wanna actually do thisjust going around in a circle.And this actually goes fora lot of things in life,but specifically when itcomes to PC components,and really when it comesto CPU coolers and stuff,you should always gofrom opposite corners.That way you're gonna beapplying even pressureto your actual system.For power supply doesn't actually matter,but this is just good habits to get into.So, with that, we have ourpower supply installed.So, you can see here,we've got our IEC lead.This is what you'regonna plug into the wall.We have our switch.Just a little heads up,leave that switch on.Just leave it on.You're gonna forget it later. Turn it on.Don't plug it in yet,but leave the switch on.So, with our case out of the way,now it is time to grab our motherboard.So, we're gonna putthe next few componentsall inside the board itself.And actually, what I like to dois, I actually like to usethe box of the motherboardto use as sort of my test bench.So, one thing you should keep in mind,computer components and static electricitydon't necessarily mix well.So, generally speaking,when you're touching thingslike the motherboard,you should try to grab it by the more likemetal components and whatnot.Don't be super scared,it's not crazy fragileor anything like that.What we will need isthe instruction manual,which is helpful, or atleast keep this handy.We also wanna grab the I/O shield.So, this is what goeson the back of our caseso that all your ports will come through.Let's just toss it off to the side.And then there's gonna bea bunch of other stuff.So, you'll see some little screws.Just grab all of this andput it off to the side.Aren't you ready to improveyour life with the gaming PC?Well, find this useful,make sure you subscribeand ring-a-ling that ding-a-ling buttonfor other fine tutorialslike how not to build a gaming PC in 2022.With the motherboard, youcan start building now.However, if you'venever built a PC before,let me walk you througha few of the thingsthat you should pay attention to.Now, if you look at this,it's pretty complicated.There's a lot of stuff going on here,but most of it isn'treally relevant for you.And once you're building avery simple system like this,there's only a few main thingsthat you need to pay attention to.First and foremost, the CPU.So, this is where yourprocessor is installed.Now, AMD and Intel are slightlydifferent in this respect,of if you look at this one here.So, I'm gonna pull the little arm back,so you can see it's justsort of spring-loaded.Now, you look here, there area bunch of little pins here.You see that? These pins, youdo not want to touch or bend.That will cause a big problem.However, if you're building an AMD system,there are the pinsactually on the CPU insteadof the socket, right?So, in that case,you don't wanna touchthe bottom of that CPU.Regardless, all of this stuff,just don't touch it in general.But just keep in mind that if you knock itor cause a problem or whatever,those pins look misaligned for any reason,you're probably gonnahave a big, big issue.Other things to pay attentionto is your RAM slots.Different boards willhave different amounts.So, four is the most common.The main thing you wannapay attention to hereis what order you wantto install your RAM in.Now, some like this, ifyou look very closely here,you'll see it says, "First."So, it says, "A2 and B2 first,"which would be the second and fourth slot.That's pretty common for modern boards.If you have a little sticker like that,a little graphic on it,it will tell you in whatorder you wanna do it.You pay attention to that.If you have any doubt,check the manual for your motherboard.Working our way downis where you install your graphics cards.So, these are the PCI slots.So, you'll see, we actuallyhave a number of them.You pretty much alwayswanna use the top one.And you can see this one'sactually made out of metalversus the plastic ones here.This is what you are going toinstall your graphics card in.But these additional ones can be usedfor wifi cards orcapture cards or whatnot.But for this build, we'reonly going to be installinga graphics card right here.And on top of that,there are a number of different M.2 slots.So, you can see that wehave a couple of themthat are exposed, so there'sone right here, one right here,and one right here.You could always spot thembecause not only do youhave all these little pins,but also you have theselittle screws, right?So, the SSD would go right here,it'd go right here, or go right here.Most motherboards will have a little coverover at least one of the M.2 slots,which is you'll wanna use,mostly because it's got a littlethermal pad on the bottom,just to use as a littlebit of a heat sink.But you can see, it looksexactly the same on the bottom.Continuing on, there area few power connectorsyou should pay attention to.So, I'll go over these againwhen we actually need to plug things in,but just so you know, up top left,you'll generally find your PCI powerspecifically for your CPU.So, different boards willhave different configurations.Some have four pins,some have an eight-pin,and some of the higher-endboards will have dual eight-pin.Coming around to this sideis the most important powerconnector on your board,which is the 20+4 pin.This is the main powerfor the motherboard.So, while these workspecifically for your CPU,this is what powersbasically all the rest of it.So, just keep in mind thatthat is always 100% of the timegoing to need to be plugged in.Now, from there,those are the most importantthings on the board,but because we've got it out here,let me show you some of the other thingsthat we will be using later.So, you go over to the top right,you'll see a bunch of fan headers.So, you'll see that they all are labeled.So, there's a little CPUfan here, a pump fan,system fan one, two, three,et cetera, et cetera.This board actually hasa lot of fan headers.Lower-end boardsgenerally only have a few.The thing is, this iswhere you will install fansfor not only your CPU, for maybe your AIO.Maybe you'll wanna plugit in for case fans.You can kind of configureit however you want,but pay attention to whereyour fan headers are.So, for example, we have a bunchon the top right of the board.We have some on the bottom,we also have one over here.Usually, you'll wannaplug in the fan headersthat are closest to the case.So, for example, this one up here is greatbecause you'll have a fanright here for your exhaust,you can just plug that in.The best thing about theseconnectors, they're very simple.Because you see this little notch herethat covers the first threepins, it can only go in one way.And you can use a three-pinor a four-pin fan in these headers.Now, over to the right side,we also have a couple of USB connectors.Pay attention to where theUSB headers are on your board.So, there are threedifferent kinds of headers.So, this long sort of blackone, this is a USB 3.0 header.So, these are for USB-A ports.Beside it, we have thislittle silver connector,which is for USB-C.Not all boards have USB-C,and also, not all cases have USB-C.So, obviously, whateverconfiguration your boardand your case have is what you wanna do,but just keep in mind where those are.And then, if you come to thebottom, you'll see USB 2.0,which has the little USB thingthankfully kind of printed on the bottom.So, this is a 5+4 pin.So, you can see there's one little pinthat's been knocked out.And as I will show you later,the USB 3.0 header is bad.I don't like it. It is very easy to break.I've broken many of these before.So, pay attention for now where they areand I'll show you how to not break itor potentially break it later.Other things you wanna pay attention tois the audio connector.So, this one is just the labeled "JAUD1."That is where you're gonna plugin the audio for your case.So, if you look on the front of the case,you'll see that you'regonna have a headphoneand a microphone jack,that's where that plugs in.So, if you ever haveany problems with that,you just wanna check to makesure that it's fully seated.And like most of these cables,they only go in one way,so you can't put them in incorrectly.Because we are taking advantageof a SATA SSD as well,we're gonna be takingadvantage of these SATA ports.So, this board has six.So, there's two here andthere are four on this side.So, this is what you wouldplug in an SSD, a hard drive,an optical drive, that kind of stuff here.SATA's definitely a little bitof an older school connector.And honestly, I wagermost builds these daysdon't even need SATA,but if you do need toconnect any of those things,that's where those ports are right here.Before you put yourmotherboard in the case,just make a mental note ofwhere these various differentthings are on the motherboard.- 'Cause once it's allin, it's hard to put 'em alland figure it out, right?- It's hard to see.Even with the light,you're looking around.I mean, look at this.There are a lot of little tiny thingsall over the place.So, it just makes sense tospend a little bit of timebefore you actually reallykind of throw the board in,to learn where each componentis, where each cable is,all of that kind of fun stuff.Let's install ourselvesa processor, shall we?This part seems intimidating.And I mean, to be fair,if you do it wrong,you could ruin yourentire build and be sad.But if you do it right,you're fine. So, no pressure.Here is our 12700K.Now, if you look in the back,you can see that, because thisis Intel, there are no pins.So, there are a bunch of padsbecause the pins are on the motherboard.But keep in mind that ifyou're building with AMD,it's the reverse.So there are a lot of pins here,which you do not want to touch,and there are no pins on the board.Before we install that,we're gonna go ahead andpull our arm back here,open up our socket.Now, you see this littleplastic protector?Leave that there.That'll actually pop offautomatically once we're ready.So, we'll just pull this backand you see that our pins are exposed.So, now we wanna open upour CPU, little plastic.Don't grab it by thebottom, grab it by the side.There's always a little notch.So, it's kind of hard to see,it's actually very, very small,but you see this littlearrow on the bottom left?That is gonna correspondwith a little arrowon the bottom left of the socket.Now, the thing with installing a CPU,you don't force it.You set it down gently. Okay?So, we're gonna go aheadand grab it from the side.We're gonna line it up here.And then just be verygentle and slow, line it up,and then you just let it go.Now we are gonna close the bracket. Okay?So, we're gonna close it up.Now, to be fair, this one hinges this way.The older Intel and AMDwill hinge the other way.It doesn't matter, just close it up.And you'll see that onceyou grab it like that,you see it's gonna pullthat little arm down?We're gonna start pushing this. Okay?So, this is gonna require force.This is okay to push.Honestly, you're not gonna break anything.Push it all the way downuntil it hooks underneaththis little clip here.Then you can remove thelittle plastic piece.Congratulations, your CPU is installedand not going anywhere.Pat yourself stuff on the back.Have a celebratorybeverage of your choosing.And then let's put therest of the stuff in'cause there's a lot more westill need to do, like RAM!RAM is, I would say,one of the easiest things to do in a PC,whether you're upgrading an existing PCor building yourself a brand new oneif I can open this package.Along your RAM, regardless ofwhat kind of DDR you're using,you'll see that there'sgonna be a little notchthat's a little bitpast the halfway point,this is to ensure thatyou can't install itthe wrong direction.So, if I demonstratethat it is gonna begoing in the wrong way,it doesn't line up.So, I can push all Iwant, it will not line up.So, I wanna flip it aroundto make sure that it actually does work.And you can see, lines up perfectly there.Now, before you install your RAM,again, just double-checkthat you're putting itin the correct slot.So, either use that littlegraphic on the RAM slot itselfor check your motherboardmanual to figure outif you need to be using like A1, A1, A4,whatever the case is.It'll always tell you, "Hey,use these slots first."Now, once you've figuredthat out, it is super simple.Take your thumb on either side, right?And make sure that you've opened upthe little retentionbrackets if you've got them.So, ready, set. And there we go.That's it. You just push it in place.It'll usually make a little click sound.- Like that?- Yes.I did it right. I did it right?No, I did it right.If you have any problems later on,oftentimes the RAM is the issue,whether it's not seated orright or whatever the case is.So, this is a great time,if you have any issues laterin the build, double check.That looking right?Also, once you actually post the system,make sure that all of your RAMis actually showing up too.But, with that, we have not only our CPUbut, also, our RAM installed.Let's get onto our SSD.Watch how easy this is.This is a M.2 PCI drive.So, if you have a SATA SSD,you actually find that there'sa second little not there,which is really the only wayto visually see the difference.But for these purposes,I'm just telling you abouta PCI M.2 SSD, which is thevast majority of the onesthat you're gonna find out right now.So, it's really, really simple.Remember we took off thislittle heat sink earlier?You see right here?You almost always wanna usethe topmost drive sloton your motherboard.So, what we'll do is we'll line it up,and you see that little notch correspondsto a little notch on the actual thing.So, it's very simple.I always like to putit in slightly higher,so kinda like tiltingit up, then push it in.It should slide in a little bit.And then you'll push it down.And then you'll either screw itor, if you see actually right here,a little retention thing.So, I'm actually gonna use that.So, you see that itkind of just sits thereand then this littleplastic piece just rotates.That's it. No cables, no mess, nothing.This is definitely the way I recommendinstalling SSDs in your system.That took what? 10 seconds?Don't forget, once you're done,put this little thing back on.So, you'll see that thishas some plastic on it,remove the plastic beforeyou put the heat sink on.This is a little sticky.This is a thermal pad.We'll just line it up here.And then grab those two screwsthat we took off earlierand put that back into place.Look at that.SSD installed!Easy.If you wanna use a SATASSD or SATA hard drive,this is something we'regoing to be installing later.So, put this off to the side.But, for now, we're actuallyin really good shape.We have our CPU installed,we have our ran installed,and we have our SSD installed.Now, the next step is going to dependon what kind of cooler youare using for your CPU.So if you're using, like I said,a more low to mid-range system,you may wanna use a stock cooler.And we're gonna show you how to do that.But if you're using somethingthat's a little bit more advanced,a little bit more power-hungry,then you're probablygoing to want to installa third-party cooler.So, we're actually gonna showyou how to do both right now.But we're gonna start with the easy one,which is the stock cooler thatcomes with your processor,depending on if it actually comes with it.So, a stock cooler isvery simple to install.So, this is the latestIntel version.- Ooh! That looks nice!- It's much heavier than the old ones.And you'll see that it uses four pins.So, this is super simple.Now, before you install a stock cooler,pay attention to thethermal paste on the bottom,don't touch that.But it's already applied for you,so you don't have to do anything.One thing before youdrop it all the way down.Once that thermal paste touches the CPU,you don't really wanna wiggleit or pick it up again.So, before you drop it all the way down,just make sure that you're lined up.It should be pretty straightforward.And this is the easy part. Ready?Grab this side, grab the opposite side,and push until it does(CPU cooler clicks)that.- Cross pattern.- Cross pattern. And there we go.So, with that, we have a cooler installed.Now, you do have to hook up the fan,which is gonna have a little leadthat's sort of wrapped around.So, remember when I was talkingabout all the fan headersthat are all over the place?So, this is what an actualfan connector looks like.So, you can see that thereare four pins on thiswith the little notches.Although again, some fans have three.It's very simple to install.Now, technically, you can put thisinto any of the fanheaders on the motherboard.However, there's always going to be onethat is specifically meant for the CPU.Just use that. It's whatyou're supposed to do.I don't know, it technicallymakes a difference.- It's labeled.- It is labeled.So, you'll see "CPU_FAN1," aswell as we have "PUMP_FAN1."We're just gonna use CPU_FAN1.It is super simple to install.So, you see those little notches?You just line it up and put it down.If you try to put it in upside down...Actually, I've never tried that before,but it doesn't line up,so it doesn't matter.If you're using a stock cooler,that took no time and was very simple.However, I'm gonna wager that a lot of youare going to use a third-party cooler.Now, before we get into it,let me just say that everycooler installs differently,unfortunately.So, you're gonna wanna look at the manualfor your specific cooler.But we are going to show you broadlyhow to install AIO in this video.Whoo!Actually didn't realizeit was white and silver.That looks pretty nice.So, we've got, obviously...So, this is the radiator.That's where the hot comes out.- Jesus Christ.(Austin laughs)Did they really pay you for this?"It's where the hot comes out."- The heat is dissipatedusing the aluminum fins of the radiator,if you want Mr. Smart Speak.And on top of that,you've got your pumpand block combination.But we'll get into that in just a second.There are some other thingsthat you will wanna pay attention to.So, first and foremost, fans.So, this uses two because it'sa 240-millimeter radiator.So, one 120 + 120 = 240.We also have an adabsolute pile of hardware.And this is the real differentiatorbetween different kinds of AIOs.There's AMD hardware,there's Intel hardware.There's a bunch of differentways you can install this.I would highly recommend tofind your instruction manual.This is 100% what you shouldfollow when installing an AIO.Just sort out Intel versus AMDin which socket type you're using.The backplates always just line up here.So, I've got the 1700.So, you can see righthere, it says, "LGA 1700."If this is not included,or some kind of 1700 bracketisn't included in your package,if the instructions don'tsay anything about 1700and you're building 12th Gen Intel,maybe hit up the manufacturer,usually, they'll sendyou a plate or bracketor whatever you need free of charge.So, we line it up and just push it in,and you'll see that we haveall four screws coming backwards.So, if you look on the backside,what you see is this backplateis just gonna help supportand give our actual AIOsomething to screw into.The big thing at this point,before you do really anything,besides put that backplate on,find all of the hardware youneed and get rid of the rest,because you'll be very confusedwhen you start using this onewhen you needed this one,or whatever the case is.Regardless of whether ornot you're using an AIO,the next step is to startputting your motherboardinside of your case.So, this is where thewhite case comes in handy,because look how bright it is.Look how easy it is to seeand not lose black screwsin the black dark abyss.So, we're gonna lay this flat.You'll see that there are some fansthat are alreadyinstalled inside the case.So, I'm gonna go aheadand just pull these cables out of the way,'cause you don't wantthis to accidentally getpinned underneath or something.Just wrap that off to the sideand same thing for the front one.From here, different casesare gonna do things slightly differently.So, thankfully, Lian Li has already donea lot of our work for us.So, if you take a look, thereare a bunch of standoffs.So, you see there's one,two, three, four, five, six,seven, eight, nine, already pre-installed.Now, what this meansis that theoretically,we can just take our motherboard,line it up, and screw it in.So, I'm gonna actually just make surethat those are correctlyaligned, which they should be.Don't actually install it yet,but you can just use thisas a little test fit.So, all of our standoffsare already installed.Now, this is not alwaysgoing to be the case.Some cases don't havethe standoffs installedand some cases have them indifferent configurations.Because this is an ATX board,that's pretty standard.But if we're using amicroATX board, for example,we would need to move these standoffs.So, that's fairly simple.The case will come with hardwarethat will give you a little toolto be able to unscrew themwith your screwdriver.The big thing is these are brassand they're gonna go inbetween your motherboardand the actual steel of the case.The only thing we wanna dobefore installing our actual motherboardis to pull that I/O shield out.Now, to be fair,some other boards actuallyhave this pre-installed.So, what you'll see is, right here,these are all of ourports that are gonna besticking out the back of the case.You'll see that, obviously,there's a bunch of gaps,so that will line up something like that.If there's already an I/O shield on that,you can skip this step,but it is very simple.Just line it up to make sure,'cause, obviously, it willgo in in either directionand you don't wanna install it backwards.So, we'll see that wewant to put it like that.Then all you need to do is walk over hereand install it here.This is one of those thingswhere you just push ituntil it clicks into place.So, one, two.(panel clicking)Two.There we go.There we go. All right.Also, I'm bleeding. I'mnot sure how I did that.- Oh, my God! (laughing)- I have blood on the motherboard now.Pro-tip, don't bleedon your PC components.Hello, friends.Now that I have stopped the bleeding,let us continue building a gaming PC.So, when it comes to lining up the ports,the main thing is to make surethat everything is aligned correctlyand none of the little the metal pinsare actually in the way.I've had it happen in the past,where you get it all done,your system's ready to go,then you go to plug in your ethernetand you realize that there'sa little piece of metalthat is blocking youractual cable from going in.Just visually double-checkevery single the port,maybe do it twice just to make surethat everything iscompletely free and clearbefore you actuallyscrew the motherboard in.So, with your motherboard lined up,go into the bag of hardwarethat came with your case,that you carefully put offto the side and didn't lose.And you're gonna look for somescrews to actually mount it.It's really hard to do thiswithout my index finger.So, what you'll see inside the case screwsthat come with your case,there are a bunch ofdifferent types of screws.If I can open it up,I'll show you which one you'reactually supposed to use!I caught it.I caught it. I caught it.We're fine. We're fine.So, you wanna grab a few of these screws,in this case, we want, I believe nine,and then you just wanna screwyour motherboard into place.So, just like I was showing you earlier,you wanna do this insort of a cross pattern.So, I always like tostart with the top right,mostly because that's theone that's easiest to reach.Screw it in pretty tight,not like all the way,because sometimes you need tomake some slight adjustmentsand then we will grab another screw.Go down to the bottom left.Usually, once you get youor two screws into place,the board's not going anywhere,but before you tighteneverything else down,do one last double check.Are all of your fans from your cables,from your fans, your ports,everything should still be free and clear.If anything is penned, ifanything doesn't look right,now's the time to fix it.'Cause trust me, once weinstall everything else,you're not gonna wanna pull all apartwhen you forgot you pinched a cableor you covered up a port or something.So, from here, we justwanna just get screwing.So, with our motherboard installed,this is the point in which the tutorialis going to diverge, my friends.So, if you are not installing an AIO,please fast forward thevideo to this point.Or unless you care abouthow to install an AIO.If not, stick around.So, there are a few different thingsthat are gonna change from here on out.So, by removing thetop little dust filter,there is one screw on the verytop that we're going to undo.Now, this is going to openup a little bracket for uswhere we can install the AIOwithout having to, well, reach around.Now, you can see herethat we're gonna justslide this back and drop it.This is what we're gonnainstall our radiator too.So, you can see it's gonnamount something like that.Now, this makes it a lot easierbecause that way, we canactually put this on,install our fans, basically do everything,and then we slide this intothe case at the last second.So, to install the AIO,the concept is simple.So, this is our radiator,it doesn't matter what size.Then, if you look to the bottom here,we have our combination of our pump,as well as our CPU block.So, this is the part thatactually touches the CPU.And then it pumps theliquid through the radiator.Most of the time you willmount the CPU like thisand you'll put the actual radiatorin the top part of the case.And every case will tell youwhat the configurationthat it supports is.Obviously, that's upside down,but you can alsotheoretically do somethinglike this as well.There's no right or wrong way to do this.It does depend on your case,and again, where you have fans,and ultimately, kind ofwhat you think looks best.The first place I like tostart is by installing my fans.Now, again, there's no wrongway of installing fans, really.You wanna make sure they're uniform,so you don't wanna have one facing one wayand one facing the other way.That's a bad idea.But the airflow direction is dependenton how you wanna setup your configuration.But the other thing is mostfans these days are RGB,which means that youmight wanna prioritizethe fancy RGB showingversus maybe sandwiching them on the top.There's a lot of ways you can set this up.We're gonna do the simple,straightforward waythat most people should do it,which is gonna be a fan,radiator, exhaust on the top.Keep it simple.One thing you wanna keepin mind when mounting fans,cables are a little bit longand you wanna make surethat it's nice and neat.So, if we're installingour radiator like this,take the fans and make surethey're running out the back.And what you'll see isthere are cable channelsbuilt in pretty muchall cases on this side.So, you can easily run thecables through the back,and then in the back of the case,you can connect everything as needed.But for now, we're justgonna line these up.Go into the hardwarethat comes with your AIOand you wanna pick out some screws.So, there are a couple ofdifferent types of screws.So, there's a long one,and I'll pull out a short one as well.The long one is to mount itfrom the bottom side, right?So, this screw goes all the way through.- Think about ithas to go through the fan-- Exactly.- And onto the radiator.- Yes. Like before, you justwanna use a cross pattern.So, just get your first two started.You don't have to get themsuper, super tight or anything,but just get it inthere to start out with.With the second fan, exact same thing.You grab four more of these screws.And if you're using a 360 or something,you just keep adding fans untilyou fill up your radiator.All right! Next!Let's install our radiator into our case,or more specifically in our case,the little plate thatgoes inside our case.So, this part, very simple.So, you'll see that there are screw holes.There's basically eight on the top.So, there's basically four per side.Just like the way that weinstalled the fans on this side,we wanna install the plate here.Because we have this plate,this is very simple to do on the outside.If you are directlyattaching this to the case,you still wanna do this next,but basically, you have to support this'cause otherwise, it's justgonna be dangling everywhere.It's doable. It's fine.It's just kind of annoying'cause you're on one hand,holding and screwing,and then you've got thisthing that's in the way.It's much, much nicer if youhave something like this,that you can do it outside the case for.Oh, my God. I just cut myself.Oh, I almost cut myself.- You need to see a therapist.- Before we screw the whole thing down,let's just make sure that it nicely fits.So, I'll just slide this in like so.If you look under here,what you'll see is thatwe have space, right?So, there's a little bit ofa gap on the top of the boardwhere the fan is not getting in the way.That's not always the case though.Sometimes radiators mightbe a little too thickor there's very little room to run cables.So, I'll immediately say forour eight pins for our CPU,that's gonna be kind of hard to reach.So, this will be a time whereif you see any cable up here,they're gonna be reallydifficult to reach,you may actually wanna run them now.I'm not gonna do thatfor the purposes of this,just to make sure this tutorial is cleanand easy to understand.However, for you, who don'thave to make a very detailed57 minute tutorial on YouTube,think about running anykind of cables on the topbefore you mount thisbecause it will just be much,much easier to do it now,instead of later,when I'm gonna be cursingmyself at reaching my fingerat an eight-millimeter gap to run a cable.So, with our AIO properly installed,with the tubing coming out the waythat it is gonna make our lives easiest,something you shoulddefinitely think aboutbefore you install 16 screwsto mount this all in position,next step, it is time to actually put thisdirectly to our CPU.So, the nice thing about the Lian Liis that it actually has likea rotating little bezel.And also, it comes withthis little magnetic piece,if you don't want the Lian Li logo,but we're just gonna leave that out.Now, the thing to consider hereis, first of all, the mounting hardwareis gonna be different, right?So, we're using some ofthese little black screwsand the little springy things,definitely check the instruction manual,every socket and every cooleris gonna do this slightly differently.So, for us, it's pretty simple.There's just, I mean, really four screwsand four little like springythings to hold it in.- Sometimes it's like latches.- Yeah, there's latches,all kinds of crazy.Before we do this, there's avery important thing to do.If you look at the back here,some coolers havepre-applied thermal paste,usually, it's fine.Like the stock cooler, for example.However, most high-endcoolers and AIOs do not.You have to apply it yourself.So, first step, remove the plastic.I like to do this at the very end,right before about to install the cooler,but remove the plastic.You wanna make sure thatthe copper is touchingand not the plastic in between.Not that I've ever forgotten to do that.Also, just let it dangle there.Don't actually let it touch anythingsince you don't want it to get all dirty.I'm gonna lay this case down,just to get a little bitbetter, sort of, view of it.So, basically, all coolers are gonna comewith some thermal paste.It's usually not like thegreatest paste in the world.It's totally fine for us.You don't wanna use aton of thermal paste.Now, generally speaking,more is not gonna be a huge problem,but you don't need tomake a giant bit of goop.So, the old way was to do justa little bit in the middle.However, these newer processorshave gotten big enoughthat, actually, there'sother ways to do it.I've actually starteddoing the dot approach.So, basically, do four little dots.One, two. A little too big.Three, four, and one in the middle.Last thing before we put this on,just like with the other stock cooler,once you like touch that thermalpaste with the copper here,once you start to apply pressure,you wanna make sure thatthat pressure stays.So, don't put it on untilyou're really ready.Grab our screws.And so these are the onesthat go for these small ones.So, we're gonna get ourbackplate fully ready.So, mount that like so.Again, follow theinstructions in the manual.This is a very easy installationon the Galahad, I willsay, compared to most AIOs.Our hardware is ready.Now, it's actually pretty simple.We're gonna take our block.We're gonna line it up,again, making sure that all of our cablesand tubing are in theorientation that we want.Make sure that this fan cable,which decided to hop across the room,didn't actually get in our way.We're gonna go ahead and line this upand press it all the way down.Once we do that, I'm gonnause a hand to hold this downand start screwing withour little springy bits.One, two, three, four.And I'm gonna push itall the way down. Okay?Now, at this point, thishand is not gonna move,and I'm gonna start using my other handto screw it in place.We definitely recommend putting your PCon its side for this, it'sgonna make it a lot easier.No, with these, don't getthem super tight, right?So, I'm just gonna getthat somewhat tight there.And I'm gonna switch over.And I'm again, I'm gonna dothis in a cross path pattern.I've said cross patterna lot for this tutorial.I'll tell you, the CPUis the most important place to do this.You want to make surethere's even pressureon that thermal pasteto make sure that itspreads out nice and evenly.That's about on there as tightas I wanna do with finger tight.So, now, I'm gonna grab the screwdriverand tighten them downagain in a cross pattern.And there we go! Congratulations.You've got yourself an AIO installed,short of the cables, whichwe're gonna deal with later.Now, it is time toinstall the 2.5-inch SSD.Now, this is optional.You may or may actually haveany 2.5 or 3.5-inch SSDs,hard drives, opticaldrives, what have you.But while they're not assimple as that M.2 drive,they're very simple to install.So, the 2.5-inch form factoris typically what you find in SSD.A hard drive is usuallygonna be like a 3.5.It's just bigger and thicker.But the most important thingsare to look at the connectors on the end.So, they're two here.One is data. That is the smaller one.That is what connects fromhere to the motherboardfor the actual data.The larger one is the power.That goes to your power supply,which you can see is right here.The main things to keep in mind here,if you can see, especially on this side,they're both kind of notched,so they both have this littledownward bit on the end.That means that it only goes in one way,again, like most cables whenit comes to building a PC.So, we're gonna rotatethis around to the back.You'll see here if I get allthese cables outta the way,we have a couple of 2.5-inchdrive caddies, right?So, this is the easiest way to do it.Now, if I was gonna install a hard drive,if you look down here,I would put it into one ofthese 3.5-inch drive caddies.It's really a little bit more downto where you want to install drives,where you wanna run cables and stuff,but this, nice and simple,it'll be hidden on the back.And we'll give ourselvesthat additional two terabytesof still very fast, SSD storage.These typically just attachonce you take the screw off.(caddie clunks)You just pull them up.Now, here, one thing youwanna pay attention tois the orientation.So, you wanna make surethat you have easy accessto the SATA power and data.So, I'm gonna look at this for a second.I think it'll make senseto do it facing down,and then we'll run our cables like this.and then right up to the bottom.Now, to install this,you're gonna use the screwsthat come with your case.So, you'll see that we have a coupleof these very small ones.And it's very simple.Like always, we just wannaline up each of our holesand connect it.Just make sure this is firmly attached,regardless of it's an SSDor a hard drive or whatever.Hard drives, just usually, area little bit more importantbecause they're moving components.So, if they're not mounted correctly,you may get vibrations and whatnot,but SSDs are very straightforward.The easy way to do it is to justline this right back upwith where we found it.Should kind of slot in.There we go! All right!So, now I will take thescrew and mount that back up.And we've got our SSD installed,but, of course, we needto run our cables for it.So, this is the pointwhere it's gonna be easiest to do that.So, the first thing I'm gonnado is install the power cable.So, locate one of the SATA power cablesfrom your power supply.I've picked this one becauseit's probably gonna bea little bit easier tofold that cable over.And then we're gonna installthat on the larger connector.So, it only goes in one way.And unlike the data whichclicks, the power doesn't click.So, you just kind of push it inuntil it feels like it's flush.And there we go. We've got power.The next step is to grabone of these SATA cablesthat came with our motherboard,and we're gonna run that as well.And then you'll hear it(cable clicks)click into place.Now, the last thing we needto do to install this SSDis to run this end of theSATA cable to our motherboard.We'll run that vaguelywhere it needs to be.It's easy enough to unplugone of these cables laterif we realize it's not the cleanest run.Come around to the front sideand you see our SATA cable is right here.All right, now we just wanna connect thisto one of the SATA portson our motherboard.They are actually usually numbered,so you wanna plug it into onethen two then three then four,et cetera, et cetera.But, I'll be real,I don't think it makesmuch of a difference.So, you can see, there wego. We have our SATA cable.And importantly, it's niceand neat from the front,so it doesn't look like it's super messy.And there you go, you've got it yourself,an SSD or a hard drive installed.You probably don't need to do this.You could probably justget away with an M.2 SSD,which takes all of fiveseconds to install.But if you ever do wannainstall a hard driveor a regular SSD, that is how you do it.From here, it is time to, well,really start gettingeverything buttoned up.You might notice that there's onevery large componentmissing, the graphics card.It's very tempting to installthe graphics card right now.Don't fall for the trap.I mean, you can technically do it,but we have all the space,all this room for activities.Let's start running some cables,because, if we don't do it right now,we're gonna have to reacharound our graphics cardand it's super annoying.Pro-tip.First thing I alwayslike to stay art with,if you come around to theback to your power supply,is the big guy, the 20+4 pin.So, you can see, it is thelargest longest connector here.Because it's got the clip,it is only going to install one way.This is where I always like to startbecause as you can see,it's just a thick cable.I like to put this in firstand then run the othersmaller cables around it.If you try to do otherstuff, and then this later,sometimes it just gets in the way,but because this is our first one,we can run it underneathpretty much everything.Now, this always plugs intothe right side of the board.So, if you look at it from the side here,we wanna run it to right this point.So, what I'm gonna do is I'mgonna thread this through,rotate it around, andwe can and plug it in.So, the clip is gonna bealways on the outside.So, just keep that in mind.It's a little dark, I'm sure,but push it until it clicks.There we go.Now, at this point, wecan deal with this later,but you usually can just kind of tucksome of the excess cable outta the way.But we won't worry about that.That is the most important cable,because that is what powers all the stuff.But we also need to plug in our CPU power,which also comes from our motherboard.So, it is a 4+4 pin.Depending on your motherboardand your power supply,you may have a four-pin,you may have a 4+4,or you may even have two 4+4s.Depends on the setup.You don't really need morethan the 4+4, usually.So, we're going to run thisto the top left of the board.So, again, this is oneof the thicker cables,so I'm gonna run this underneath.This case actually gives usa pretty generous amount of room.So, we're just gonna tuckthat here, run it up here.Now, I have an AIO in this system.If I was doing this in a waythat was best for my own sanity,I would've run this cablebefore installing the AIO,but I'm gonna show you how to do it.'Cause, generally speaking,if you don't do the AIO,this is the point where you would do it.It's kind of tight back here,but you can see our 4+4 is in.What we're gonna do iswe're gonna plug thatinto one of these on the board.Typically it doesn't matterif you only have one set ofcables from your power supplyand two on your motherboard.You may wanna check themanual to make sure,but typically speaking, youcan plug it into either one.And because these havelittle clips on the sideit is only going to go in one way.So, I'm gonna rotate it around,and wish that I would'vedone this 20 minutes agowhen I was installing the AIO.Next up, I like to install our fans,or specifically, plug them in.So, the nice thing about this board,it has a lot of fan headers.So, traditionally, when you havethree, four, five fans in acase, you'll need to use hubs.And a lot of times theyactually come with hubs.But if you can plug everythingdirectly into the motherboard,it makes controlling it easierand there's just less extracables and nonsense to plug in.So, for our case fans, it's very simple,plug them into whicheverheaders are closest.So, if you're installing anair cooler, it's really simple.You just plug that in directly to CPU_FAN.However, if you're using an AIO,you're probably gonna have one of these.It's a three-pin that'scoming directly off the pump.And that is gonna go tousually it's called PUMP_FAN,or sometimes it's called CPU_OPT,but you just wanna plug that into here.So, we have two differentfans coming off of our AIO.Now, you can plug these inindependently, but you shouldn't.Instead, it comes withthis little adapter.So, basically, we willplug the two into one.And just like all other fan headers,there's a little notchthat goes in one way.And then this will go into theCPU slot on the motherboard,which means that themotherboard can controlwhen the fans need to beramped up or ramped down.Unfortunately, the blackand the white cableslook a little bit strange,but all of this is gonnabe hidden in the backso it doesn't matter.And again, it's a little hard to reach,but it's not too bad.And there you go.All four fans inside thesystem are now connected.We'll cable manage later,but the most important thing for now,is to make sure that everything works.So, at this point, it might be temptingto start getting your zip tiesout and cleaning things up.Do not do that.Not only is that unlucky,but also you still mayneed to make some changes.We don't know this all works.Leave your cables mostly kindof everywhere for the moment.Make sure the system actually works.And then, at that point,we will start going throughand actually zip-tying things.Trust me when I say don't get too eager.You might feel confident,you might feel great.There's always a chancethat you forgot something,you need to run somethingelse, something's not working.Let's just leave it as is for now.Working our way down,let's pick up some of thefront panel connectors.So, on this case, it'sactually very simple.So, we have our USB 3.0for the couple USB ports on the top,and we have our audio,as well as our power LEDand our power switch.I'm gonna start out with the big one,which is the USB 3.0 header.This connector is bad. I don't like it.Not only is it chunky,you have a little notch soit will only go in one way.But make sure that you've gotthis in the correct location.I have broken a numberof these in the pastbecause when you go to pull them out,I'm not gonna show you 'causeI don't wanna break it,it's just really easy to break pinsor just pull the entireplastic sleeve out.It's a bad design. The USB-C is better.USB 2.0 is better. It's just this guy.But, yeah, it is what it is.Now, this board actuallygives us two options,which is pretty unusual.We actually can plug this inon one of two different areas.But if you see right here,we've got one of our headers on this side,which is nice and neat.So, make sure, again, thatyou've got it correctly located'cause you don't ever wannaunplug this if you can avoid it.Lot of little pins, very easy to break,but once we line it up correctly...There we go.Now we have our USB up and running.Next, let's grab ourfront panel connectorsand our audio jack.If they're all side by side,this would be really easy,but we actually need toseparate these ourselves.Which is fine, but you wannamake sure you do that first.So, I'm gonna grab ouraudio. This is the HD audio.This is what you're gonnahave run your microphone,your headphones.And what you'll see about thisis that it looks verysimilar to the USB 2.0,except it has the pin knockedout in a different way.But it'll always say, "HD audio."I'm gonna run this throughthis little hole in the caseall the way on the bottom left.And you'll see that you usually the audiois all the way to thebottom left of the board.So, if you wanna see right here,it is the far left connector.So, it's fairly easy to spotand it should slide right into place.If it's not sliding in right to placewith any of these connectors,definitely double-checkthat they are in the correct locations.It's easy to be like,"Oh! It's not working!"You might just have it upside down.Next step, you need to installyour front panel connectors.Now, this is the fiddliestpart of the whole build.Now, sometimes, there'll be alittle diagram on the board,but usually, you'll haveto dive into the manual.Just essentially line upeach of the individual pinsfrom the case to yourfront panel connectors,keeping in mind that ifyou look on the back,there's a little arrowthat denotes the positive.So, if ever a question,you can flip it around.Don't worry if you get something wrong,you could just rotate it around.But, if say you plugged yourpower button in upside down,your system won't turnon, you might freak out,and you forgot to flip a pin.Very simple. Just have patienceand double-check your work.We're looking pretty good now.The last thing we need to dobefore installing our graphicscard is to hook up our RGB.Now, this is gonna varybased on every single system,so I'm not gonna go into depth on it.Check your instruction manualfor whatever fine OEM decides to give youa giant pile of cables/hubsor whatever to make it work.Thankfully, though, forthis, we can just hook it upwith one single connector,and then we will connectit to the motherboardusing this guy.Now comes the fun part!Installing our graphics card.You'll see a bunch ofdisplay-outs here. Use these.I can't tell you how manytimes people have messaged mesaying that their graphics cardor their system isrunning bad or whatever,because they plugged into the HDMIor the DisplayPort onthe motherboard instead.Don't do that. That'snot the way to do it.Plug into your graphics card,which will be down here.So, I've taken the liberty ofremoving our PCI slot covers.And so, for this, what you'll want to do,is if you come around,look for that top PCI slot.So, you'll see here thatit's actually our second slotbecause the first one is wherewe installed our SSD, right?So, instead of removing that top slot,we're gonna remove slotnumber two and three.Usually, that's whatyou'll find on most boards,but just make surewhen you start to line up yourgraphics card in the slot,it will actually line upin the correct orientation.Now, most cases will letyou slide it directly in,however, some cases,including this Lian Li,mean that you have to do alittle bit of extra work,mostly by removing this plate right here.So, this plate is what holdsyour PCI slot covers in place.So, all we need to do isjust unscrew this real quick,slide it out the wayso that when we go toinstall a graphics card,it has some space.Look at that.Installing a graphics card is dead simple.So, you'll see that there are a bunchof gold connectors here, forpower as well as for data,they will line up only one way.So, once you line them up correctly,just give it some nice sort of forceuntil it clicks into place.(graphics card clicks)Boom! Look at that!Now, we'll come back around to this side.We will grab our screws fromour case, which are right here.Then you wanna screw yourgraphics card into place.Okay. That's in there nice and firmly.We'll tighten up this little plateto make sure that everythingdoesn't slide anywhere.And next, we just need toplug our graphics card in.I promise you, onceyou've gotten this part,we are pretty much home free.This is the very, veryeasy part of this build.So, we'll come around back.We'll grab our PCIe connectors.These are red, which is veryhelpful to be able to spot,but all we need do is route these throughthe back of the case.So, this graphics card needsan eight, plus a six-pin.So, these are 6+2,so you can either put themtogether for the eightor put them apart for this six.So, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna dothe outside one as our eight.And then we just line themup, click them into place.And then I will take the second one,ignoring that extra pin,it doesn't really mattersince we don't need itfor this particular build,line up like this, and connect it.Unfortunately, that maymean that it might not bethe best-looking cablesolution in the world,but, yeah, it works.No, my friends, is the best part.It's time to see if the build worksor if you need to go backand check all your cables and connections.So, just before we start,make sure that your powersupply is plugged in,make sure that it is turned on,and make sure you haveat least a keyboard,ideally, a mouse, as wellas a monitor, all connected.And plug it into yourgraphics card for the HDMIor the DisplayPort, not the motherboard.Once you've done that,we should be good topress the power buttonand cross our fingers,that are not bleeding.(button clicks)Excellent. Okay.So, first thing to do,check all of your fans that are spinning.So, we have one, two,three, four spinning.The graphics card fanswill sometimes spin,although if they don'tspin that's actually okay.A lot of graphics cards,especially the modern ones,don't have their graphicscard's fans spinning 24/7.So, next up, be patient.Give it about a minute or so.And ideally, on this display,it will fire up with something.If not, then we start troubleshooting.But we'll just...I'm sure we got it.Oh, there we go.And the monitor's coming up. Perfect.So, we'll hit F1.There we go. Excellent!All right! That isexactly what we wanna see.So, this is the BIOS,which means that everythingis showing up correctly.We have our 12th Gen Core i7 12700K.We have 65.5 gigs of RAM. That's fine.We have our XMP. Everythingis showing up correctly.I'll hop into storage real quick and see.We have not only SSD, our 980 PRO,but, also, our 870 as well.Congratulations, friends.If you see this,you have successfullybuilt yourself a gaming PC.But, unlike our normaltutorials, it's not done yetbecause we still have afew more things to go over.While we're in the BIOS, letme show you a couple of thingsthat are gonna be very importantas you use your PC and tweak it.First and foremost, youmight wanna update your BIOS.So, you see, for us, ourBIOS date is the E7D25IMS,which is from September of 2021.That's old! So, we'llprobably want to update that.Now, every motherboardhas a slightly differentway of doing this.For us, we would use M-FLASH,which I'm not gonna do at the moment.But usually, you'll just goon the manufacturer's website,download the update file,put it on a correctly formattedSSD or USB or whatever,plug it in, and then you'llbe able to update the BIOSfrom inside the BIOS.Very important.Usually, especially withthese 12th Gen boards,you'll want to updatethe BIOS pretty quickly.Outside of that, there area couple of other thingsyou'll probably wanna pay attention to,XMP being one of them.XMP is essentiallya pre-overclocked profile for your memory.So, for us, it's actuallyalready set to 4,800 MHz,but, generally speaking,you'll want to switchbetween one of the XMP profiles.For the exact details,you can check it out inthe motherboard manualor anything like that,but you'll usually wanna turn on XMP,or DOCP if you'rerunning an AMD processor.We don't have an operatingsystem installed,which is where you're gonnawant a copy of Windows.Whether it be Windows 10, Windows 11,or, of course, youcould run Linux as well.But, regardless, you needto get it on here somehow.Now, if you buy a copyof Windows like this,which has a USB key inside,you just plug it in and youcan install it that way.Also, you can, if youhave the digital codeor you have a DVD,there's a tool onlinethat Microsoft provide,that allow you to create a USB,which is what I always like to dobecause it's always up to date,a Windows USB flash drive.You plug it in. I brought it.Don't you...Jared.I was prepared today.I have a fully up-to-dateWindows flash drive here.And this is fully legalbecause what you really needis the actual key that comes with this.Plug this into our system.And then you'll wanna make surethat the boot priority is set correctly.So, right now, it's gonna tryto boot off of one of our SSDs,but there's no operating system.Usually, when that's the case,it'll work its way downto the USB hard disk,but I'm gonna manually justmove that up from here.So, there, hit F10.We're gonna hit "Enable."And theoretically it will nowboot off of our Windows USB install,and then we can actually geteverything prepped and ready.Easy! Congratulations.You're a PC wizard, Harry.So, after you go throughthe very straightforward Windows promptsand select the correct drive to installWindows 10 or Windows 11 on,you will land on the desktop.Now, the first thing you should dois to download the regularMicrosoft Windows updates.It'll pull a lot of the stuff you need.I would also highly recommend heading overto your motherboardmanufacturer's website.So, in this case, wewould go to MSI's siteand download the specificdrivers for your motherboard.Things like your ethernetdrivers, your chipsets drivers,that kind of stuff.- You're doing RGB,it'll also have those as well.- Absolutely.You wanna grab most ofthe stuff from the site,all the utilities, and whatnotthat you actually need.Maybe not some of the ones that you don't.On top of that, you definitely wannadownload your graphics drivers.So, whether it's AMD or NVIDIA,download the latest driver for your cardand then get it installed here.On top of that, if you're at yourfriendly local Micro Center,you may also wanna pick up one of these,a Microsoft 365 license,which'll you give you tons of stuff,including Office, Word, aterabyte of cloud storage,that kind of stuff.You can get all that stuff activatedalongside your Windows license.Speaking of Windows licenses,I recommend if you are runninga 12th Gen Intel processor,to use Windows 11.You can buy a Windows 10license and update it,It's totally fine.In fact, it's easier to findWindows 10 keys than Windows 11,but they work the same way regardless.The reason for that is that Windows 11has additional features built-inspecifically for these12th Gen Intel CPUs,that include better thread directingfor the efficiency andthe performance cores.It'll totally work on Windows 10, 100%But, for me, I recommendgoing with Windows 11to get the absolute most of the efficiencyand specifically the responsivenessout of your 12th generationIntel Core processor.But with that, my friends,you've successfully builtyourself a gaming PC.Spent some time tweaking your RGB,doing your cable management,getting the whole system buttoned-up,let it finish downloading all the updates.But from here, congratulations.If you found this tutorial helpful,definitely be sure tosubscribe to the channel.And of course, if you'd like to check outany of the components we used,as well as all the variousdifferent things you can findat your very convenientlyplaced Micro Centersthat are hopefully veryclose to your house,the links will all be inthe description below.Thank you very much for watching,and I will see you again for the next one.And I'll see you again nextyear for our 2023 PC tutorial,where we're going to bebuilding inside of a tank.