Building Your Own Desktop PC with NZXT's Build Kit: A Comprehensive Guide

When it comes to building your own desktop PC, many people are intimidated by the complexity of the process. However, with the right guidance and tools, anyone can build a powerful machine that meets their needs. In this article, we'll take a closer look at NZXT's build kit, which has made building a PC more accessible than ever.

The Build Kit: A Comprehensive Guide to Building Your Own Desktop PC

NZXT's build kit is designed to make the process of building your own desktop PC as painless as possible. The kit includes everything you need to get started, from the motherboard and RAM to the graphics card and cooling system. The instructions are clear and concise, making it easy for beginners to follow along.

However, there are some limitations to the build kit. For example, the booklet that comes with the kit can be a bit oversimplified, and generalizations may trip up new builders. Additionally, the labeling on certain components may not match the examples listed in the book, requiring users to consult additional resources to ensure they're building correctly.

Fortunately, NZXT's customer support is top-notch. When I encountered an issue with my build kit, I was able to reach out to their phone support team for help. The technician I spoke with was knowledgeable and patient, providing clear instructions and guidance to get me back on track.

The Build Kit: A Game-Changer for Beginners

One of the biggest advantages of NZXT's build kit is its phone support system. With a dedicated number for build kits, users can speak directly to a real person who can help them troubleshoot any issues they're having. This level of support is game-changing for beginners who may be hesitant to take on building their own PC.

In fact, I wouldn't have been able to get back on track if it weren't for the phone support team. They were able to pull up my order and identify the specific issue I was having, providing clear instructions using the label that was printed on my motherboard in front of me. The use of the trunk van connection, which is located on the top right side of the case, was also a huge help.

The Cable Management Diagram: A Confusing but Solvable Issue

One issue that new builders may encounter is the cable management diagram included with the build kit. While the colors used in the diagram may not match what you see in real life, there are some workarounds to make it easier to manage your cables.

For example, all of those cables can be tucked away at the back of the PC without any downgrade in performance, and it's purely an aesthetic choice. The build kit also comes with a set of instructional videos that work in tandem with the booklet, providing close-ups of small details that may have been missed by the illustrations.

The Videos: A Valuable Resource for New Builders

One of the best things about NZXT's build kit is its inclusion of instructional videos. Each chapter has a QR code linking to a video that provides step-by-step instructions on how to complete that specific task. The videos are well-produced, with close-ups of small details that may be missed by the illustrations.

However, there is one issue with the videos: they use some acronyms and language that only seasoned PC builders would know. This means that new builders will need to watch the videos multiple times in order to fully understand the instructions.

The Advanced Software Side of Building Your Own Desktop PC

While NZXT's build kit provides a solid foundation for building your own desktop PC, it could benefit from more guidance on the advanced software side of things. For example, Windows 10 comes pre-loaded with the NVMe drive, but users may need to enable TPM 2.0 in order to take full advantage of the machine.

Fortunately, NZXT has acknowledged this issue and is working to improve their build kits for future revisions. In the meantime, users can refer to a blog post that provides guidance on how to download and install the latest GPU and motherboard drivers.

The Price: Worth It for the Peace of Mind

One thing that's worth noting about NZXT's build kit is its price. While it may be slightly higher than buying parts separately, I found an almost identical build that was similarly specced at a big box store that was way more expensive by several hundred dollars.

However, with the build kit, you're not just getting a functioning PC - you're also gaining confidence and the ability to upgrade the machine later on. Adding more RAM or upgrading the GPU won't feel as daunting, and you'll be able to take full advantage of your machine's capabilities without having to consult online forums or tutorials.

In Conclusion

Building your own desktop PC with NZXT's build kit is a satisfying experience that makes the process mostly painless. With clear instructions, knowledgeable customer support, and a comprehensive guide to building your PC, anyone can create a powerful machine that meets their needs. While there are some limitations to the kit, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. If you're thinking of building your own PC, I highly recommend giving NZXT's build kit a try.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ena lot of people think that building a pc is too complicated or that it's something for only serious enthusiasts but nzxt wants to change all of that with their new build kits an all-in-one box that has everything that you need to build your very own pc even if you've never done it before pcs are often seen as powerful devices made up of expensive and delicate electronics that's intimidating for a lot of people but it's not as hard to build a pc as you might think what i find most intimidating is picking the right part there are literally an infinite number of configurations and components available which is why pc building is so popular it gives everyone a chance to build something unique when nzxt reached out to me with their build kit i jumped at the opportunity to try it out you see i've been a proponent of simplifying pc building to all my friends family and co-workers for a long time and there are just so many positives to building your own pc long term including value for money build kit is the mesh between product and service now nzxt doesn't call it that but i feel that it's just more than computer hardware being sold there are two hardware configurations or kits you can get their starter pro kit for 13.99 which includes an intel i5 11400f 16 gigs of ram and an rtx 3060 ti the other system that i have here with me is the streaming plus kit for 15.99 this build is similar to the starter pro but it has an amd ryzen 5 5600x and a liquid cooler so here we are i have the nzxt build kit box this is how it arrived at my doorstep this isn't actually much bigger than what you would get when you order a pre-assembled uh pc um so why don't we get this open i'm gonna slide it up this way and okay oh wow so this is interesting okay we have this nice little placemat kind of looking thing that has all of our components labeled our motherboards a nvme drive is d our gpu is j so that's really nice uh a checklist use this checklist to track your progress throughout the build that's nice it has levels one two three all the way up to 12. and then this was actually what i was most excited about nzxt had said that each build kit will come with an illustrated booklet so just looking at this oh this is really detailed you have some really nice illustrations sort of just telling you how to assemble your pc so level one installing the memory let's see what this looks like and they even labeled ram slots two and four so you have the most optimal location for the ram it's a pretty dense book too this is like a lot of reading material this is nice what else do we have in here so it looks like our motherboard did not come in the original manufacturer's box but instead nzxt has put it in its own box and they have each item clearly labeled so this is a and again it's got a little qr code in there our graphics card our gigabyte rtx 3060 ti is definitely in the original box they just seem to have added a sticker it could have been opened i don't see a security sticker it smells new we have our nzxt kit so this is everything that we need to build the pc and then bag contains parts b c d and i so we'll see what's in there aio or the all-in-one cooler that nzxt makes and we have a sea sonic power supply and 80 plus bronze s12 3650 watt power supply okay and then finally we have our case let me get all this packaging out the way and this is the h510 case from nzxt again labeled with the letter g the cpu seems to be in this box electro sensitive device do not open or handle except with the static free workstation so maybe i'll hold off on doing that actually now and so in here we have our wi-fi card we have our amd cpu we have our ram and last but not least we have our nvme ssd drive so i think we have everything that we need to start building i do want to jump in here it wasn't until later that i realized that i was missing my rear i o shield for my motherboard and my motherboard's manual so there are some quality control issues i did reach out to customer service via online chat and they were able to ship me my missing component overnight i asked nzxt about this and they said we will always do our best to make sure that the issue is corrected as quickly as possible i'm not going to go over each step of the process and i'll just speak generally about my experience following the instructions closely what really caught my attention is the quality of the book to elevate it above a simple set of a to z instructions there's a quest throughout the book you are navigating through a temple finding various pc components leading you to the treasure chamber let me just read you this gpu passage you've come into a large chamber with an ancient gpu hanging above the pathway you will need to solve the ancient puzzle and properly seat the gpu if you want to proceed to the next room but be very careful the gpu appears to be very rare and valuable treasure i mean come on that's really cute you can't really knock down anything come on but it's not without its faults there are some oversimplification and generalizations that can trip up new builders the booklet does need to cater to different models and manufacturers of components so i get it but in one instance the printed label on my motherboard's cooling pump header didn't match the examples listed in the book the labeling was different enough that i felt that i needed help to be sure that i would get it right the first time that's where nzxt's phone support came in with the dedicated number for build kit and you get to speak to a real person no phone tree no automated systems just another human after a short wait the technician was able to pull up my order and using the information he was able to identify my specific motherboard information once he knew where i was stuck he gave me clear instructions using the label that was printed on the board in front of me you can use the trunk van connection which is located on the top right side of facebook having this kind of help a phone call away is super clutch it really is a game changer for those who might be hesitant to take on something this complex alone if i hadn't built a pc before i would have had to call back for this cable management diagram it's downright confusing and intimidating i think the problem is the color coordinated labels for the cables it just doesn't match what you're seeing in real life when you're looking at an open pc you just see an octopus of black cables rather than these bright colors in the booklet luckily you can just shove all those cables in the back of the pc with no downgrade in performance and it's purely an aesthetic choice but beginners might not know that the build kit also has a set of instructional videos that work in tandem with the booklet at the beginning of each chapter there is a qr code that links to a video for that specific step there are also conveniently placed qr codes on each component's box at the time of filming only about half of the instructional videos were available they are well produced with close-ups of small details that the book illustrations might have missed the videos do use some acronyms and language that only a seasoned pc builder would know so i expect that first time builders are going to need to watch these videos two or three times one issue that i see arising is the lack of instructions or hand-holding after powering on the machine nzxt doesn't provide any guidance on bio settings including xmp without xmp enabled it is likely that your ram will operate at a lower speed than advertised and that was the case with my build kit the ram in the system operated at 2400 megahertz instead of the advertised 3200 megahertz i spoke with nzxt about this and they said it's something it's looking into addressing in future revisions we'll see how quickly nzxt is able to implement this but it's good that it's aware of the issue buildkit has already enabled nzxt's customers to build their own pcs i feel that they should be also shown a bit of the advanced software side of the building experience as well windows 10 does come pre-loaded with the nvme drive and nzxt says that windows 11 build kits will arrive at a later date i did check my pc and it is compatible with windows 11 and i can upgrade it now if i wanted to it did take some work on enabling tpm 2.0 on it again nzxt some bios introductions would be great for first-timers the good thing is is that the booklet does link to a blog post where users are guided on how to download and install the latest gpu and motherboard drivers so that's a plus building your own desktop pc is a satisfying experience and ntxt's build kit makes the process mostly painless the price is a bit higher than buying parts separately but i did find an almost identical build that is similarly spec at a big box store that was way more expensive than the build kit by a few hundred dollars i do expect prices to fluctuate as retailers struggle with supply chain issues what you're getting is not just a functioning pc but also the confidence and ability to upgrade the machine later on adding more ram or upgrading the gpu won't feel as daunting i think that the build kit instructions are well put together the illustrations keep the process fun for all ages and getting from a to b takes about two hours give or take and it's just as entertaining as doing a jigsaw puzzle or assembling a lego kit but at the end of it you have a fully functioning pc for school work or let's be honest gaming if you're interested in checking out a build kit for yourself i've left a link in the description below thank you so much for watching don't forget to like comment and subscribe to cnet for more pc gaming videos see yaa lot of people think that building a pc is too complicated or that it's something for only serious enthusiasts but nzxt wants to change all of that with their new build kits an all-in-one box that has everything that you need to build your very own pc even if you've never done it before pcs are often seen as powerful devices made up of expensive and delicate electronics that's intimidating for a lot of people but it's not as hard to build a pc as you might think what i find most intimidating is picking the right part there are literally an infinite number of configurations and components available which is why pc building is so popular it gives everyone a chance to build something unique when nzxt reached out to me with their build kit i jumped at the opportunity to try it out you see i've been a proponent of simplifying pc building to all my friends family and co-workers for a long time and there are just so many positives to building your own pc long term including value for money build kit is the mesh between product and service now nzxt doesn't call it that but i feel that it's just more than computer hardware being sold there are two hardware configurations or kits you can get their starter pro kit for 13.99 which includes an intel i5 11400f 16 gigs of ram and an rtx 3060 ti the other system that i have here with me is the streaming plus kit for 15.99 this build is similar to the starter pro but it has an amd ryzen 5 5600x and a liquid cooler so here we are i have the nzxt build kit box this is how it arrived at my doorstep this isn't actually much bigger than what you would get when you order a pre-assembled uh pc um so why don't we get this open i'm gonna slide it up this way and okay oh wow so this is interesting okay we have this nice little placemat kind of looking thing that has all of our components labeled our motherboards a nvme drive is d our gpu is j so that's really nice uh a checklist use this checklist to track your progress throughout the build that's nice it has levels one two three all the way up to 12. and then this was actually what i was most excited about nzxt had said that each build kit will come with an illustrated booklet so just looking at this oh this is really detailed you have some really nice illustrations sort of just telling you how to assemble your pc so level one installing the memory let's see what this looks like and they even labeled ram slots two and four so you have the most optimal location for the ram it's a pretty dense book too this is like a lot of reading material this is nice what else do we have in here so it looks like our motherboard did not come in the original manufacturer's box but instead nzxt has put it in its own box and they have each item clearly labeled so this is a and again it's got a little qr code in there our graphics card our gigabyte rtx 3060 ti is definitely in the original box they just seem to have added a sticker it could have been opened i don't see a security sticker it smells new we have our nzxt kit so this is everything that we need to build the pc and then bag contains parts b c d and i so we'll see what's in there aio or the all-in-one cooler that nzxt makes and we have a sea sonic power supply and 80 plus bronze s12 3650 watt power supply okay and then finally we have our case let me get all this packaging out the way and this is the h510 case from nzxt again labeled with the letter g the cpu seems to be in this box electro sensitive device do not open or handle except with the static free workstation so maybe i'll hold off on doing that actually now and so in here we have our wi-fi card we have our amd cpu we have our ram and last but not least we have our nvme ssd drive so i think we have everything that we need to start building i do want to jump in here it wasn't until later that i realized that i was missing my rear i o shield for my motherboard and my motherboard's manual so there are some quality control issues i did reach out to customer service via online chat and they were able to ship me my missing component overnight i asked nzxt about this and they said we will always do our best to make sure that the issue is corrected as quickly as possible i'm not going to go over each step of the process and i'll just speak generally about my experience following the instructions closely what really caught my attention is the quality of the book to elevate it above a simple set of a to z instructions there's a quest throughout the book you are navigating through a temple finding various pc components leading you to the treasure chamber let me just read you this gpu passage you've come into a large chamber with an ancient gpu hanging above the pathway you will need to solve the ancient puzzle and properly seat the gpu if you want to proceed to the next room but be very careful the gpu appears to be very rare and valuable treasure i mean come on that's really cute you can't really knock down anything come on but it's not without its faults there are some oversimplification and generalizations that can trip up new builders the booklet does need to cater to different models and manufacturers of components so i get it but in one instance the printed label on my motherboard's cooling pump header didn't match the examples listed in the book the labeling was different enough that i felt that i needed help to be sure that i would get it right the first time that's where nzxt's phone support came in with the dedicated number for build kit and you get to speak to a real person no phone tree no automated systems just another human after a short wait the technician was able to pull up my order and using the information he was able to identify my specific motherboard information once he knew where i was stuck he gave me clear instructions using the label that was printed on the board in front of me you can use the trunk van connection which is located on the top right side of facebook having this kind of help a phone call away is super clutch it really is a game changer for those who might be hesitant to take on something this complex alone if i hadn't built a pc before i would have had to call back for this cable management diagram it's downright confusing and intimidating i think the problem is the color coordinated labels for the cables it just doesn't match what you're seeing in real life when you're looking at an open pc you just see an octopus of black cables rather than these bright colors in the booklet luckily you can just shove all those cables in the back of the pc with no downgrade in performance and it's purely an aesthetic choice but beginners might not know that the build kit also has a set of instructional videos that work in tandem with the booklet at the beginning of each chapter there is a qr code that links to a video for that specific step there are also conveniently placed qr codes on each component's box at the time of filming only about half of the instructional videos were available they are well produced with close-ups of small details that the book illustrations might have missed the videos do use some acronyms and language that only a seasoned pc builder would know so i expect that first time builders are going to need to watch these videos two or three times one issue that i see arising is the lack of instructions or hand-holding after powering on the machine nzxt doesn't provide any guidance on bio settings including xmp without xmp enabled it is likely that your ram will operate at a lower speed than advertised and that was the case with my build kit the ram in the system operated at 2400 megahertz instead of the advertised 3200 megahertz i spoke with nzxt about this and they said it's something it's looking into addressing in future revisions we'll see how quickly nzxt is able to implement this but it's good that it's aware of the issue buildkit has already enabled nzxt's customers to build their own pcs i feel that they should be also shown a bit of the advanced software side of the building experience as well windows 10 does come pre-loaded with the nvme drive and nzxt says that windows 11 build kits will arrive at a later date i did check my pc and it is compatible with windows 11 and i can upgrade it now if i wanted to it did take some work on enabling tpm 2.0 on it again nzxt some bios introductions would be great for first-timers the good thing is is that the booklet does link to a blog post where users are guided on how to download and install the latest gpu and motherboard drivers so that's a plus building your own desktop pc is a satisfying experience and ntxt's build kit makes the process mostly painless the price is a bit higher than buying parts separately but i did find an almost identical build that is similarly spec at a big box store that was way more expensive than the build kit by a few hundred dollars i do expect prices to fluctuate as retailers struggle with supply chain issues what you're getting is not just a functioning pc but also the confidence and ability to upgrade the machine later on adding more ram or upgrading the gpu won't feel as daunting i think that the build kit instructions are well put together the illustrations keep the process fun for all ages and getting from a to b takes about two hours give or take and it's just as entertaining as doing a jigsaw puzzle or assembling a lego kit but at the end of it you have a fully functioning pc for school work or let's be honest gaming if you're interested in checking out a build kit for yourself i've left a link in the description below thank you so much for watching don't forget to like comment and subscribe to cnet for more pc gaming videos see ya\n"