Last time I talked about the different components I bought for my custom PC - now I’m going to discuss how I assembled it.
I completed it in 6 stages:
As I mentioned last time, TechSource's How to Build a PC video on YouTube was essential in providing both the knowledge and the confidence to build a PC from scratch.
These are the essential tools that I needed:
Here we go!
There are warnings in the motherboard manual about the dangers of static electricity and the need to use anti-static wristbands and other grounding measures. I discharged static by touching the case and, as you’ll see in the pictures, I worked with the motherboard by placing it on its cardboard box.
When I put together my list of components on PC Part Picker it warned me that my Gigabyte A520 2H motherboard might need a BIOS update to support my processor, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G. The Gigabyte website reveals that you need BIOS version F13 (released 13/07/2021) or later. Apparently, some motherboards ship with a sticker that tells you the version of the BIOS installed. Mine did not.
I did not want to assemble the CPU, cooler and other components only to find that the system did not boot. Fortunately, Gigabyte boards allow you to flash the BIOS with just the power connected. So that what I did. There are instructions online on how to do this - but in short, I downloaded the newer version of the BIOS to a USB drive, connected the power supply to the board and held down the Q-Flash button. Then, after an LED finished blinking, the new BIOS was installed.
I could now start the main assembly.
AMD chips are pretty straightforward to install. I lifted the lever, dropped in the chip, then closed the lever. As the most expensive and fragile component in the system this was a little nerve wracking but actually it was straightforward and no pins were bent.
DIMMs are pretty easy to install - I’ve done this many times. I opened the catches, pushed the RAM in firmly and the catches locked it in place.
I’d never seen one of these drives before and wow, they are small! I pushed it directly into the motherboard at a 45-degree angle and held it in place with a small screw. I didn’t need to attach any data or power cables.
The last part of motherboard prep was to install the CPU cooler. I used the Wraith Stealth cooler that came in the box with the AMD chip.
First, I removed the brackets either side of the CPU socket on the motherboard - these are for legacy heatsinks. Then, using the same screw holes I carefully screwed the cooler into place. There was no need to apply or spread thermal paste, this cooler comes with it already applied.
The screws for the cooler are sprung - so I needed a bit of force to screw them in and they sounded crunchy as they went!
With this done my motherboard was ready to go into the case.
Tech For Techs’ Value ARG case video was useful at showing me the layout, features and cables for my case, the MSI Mag Forge 100R.
Standoffs are the hexagonal metal pegs that keep your motherboard from touching the case.
My motherboard is a micro ATX (mATX). My MSI case can accommodate it, but by default only had standoffs installed for full-size ATX boards.
I checked how many holes the motherboard has and where they aligned to the case. I was able to use the top 2 and middle 2 standoffs already installed in the case, but needed to add 2 lower standoffs.
The holes in the case for the standoffs were tight and this is where the socket wrench came in. I needed a really small socket - I used the 3/16 inch.
Some motherboards come with the IO shield attached - but mine is a budget board, so it is separate and also rather flimsy.
The IO shield pressed into the large hole in the rear of the case. Until the motherboard was installed, there wasn’t much to hold it in place, so I just rested it in place for the time being.
The last step in this section was to attach the motherboard to the case. I found that I had to press it firmly against the IO black plate in order to align the screw holes with the standoffs. The IO backplate was quite springy, so it took a bit of force.
My magnetic screwdriver came in handy when reaching down vertically to screw in the tiny screws.
Before I started attaching cables I turned the case upside down to unscrew and remove the 3.5” hard drive bay. This was in the bottom compartment next to where the PSU would go. I didn’t have any 3.5” drives to install (the M2 SSD will do for now) and my PSU is non-modular - meaning that all the power cables are attached and non-removeable.
Removing the hard drive cage gave me space to store and route power and data cables.
There are 3 fan headers on my motherboard, one of them specifically for the CPU cooler. I connected this one first and tucked the cable in to keep it tidy.
Next I attached the rear fan cable to the fan header nearest to the IO shield.
Beside the CPU fan, my motherboard only has headers for 2 case fans - whereas my case has a rear fan and 2 front RGB fans. To power the front fans I attached a 1 to 2 fan splitter.
Next I attached the front USB 3 cable and the front audio cable. This case’s audio cable exposes the individual wire colours - to make this more aesthetically pleasing I covered them with black electrical tape.
The last front panel connectors were the set for the power button, reset button, HDD light and power light. These were a little fiddly, but I took my time to ensure that that they were all in the correct position
With the hard drive cage removed from the bottom compartment, installing the power supply unit was simple.
Next, I connected up the necessary power cables. These were: the main 24 pin connection to the motherboard, the 8 pin CPU power and the SATA power connection to the RGB hub.
None of the other power cables were needed, so I tucked them away in the bottom compartment.
Booting up and installing software
I completed it in 6 stages:
- Preparing the motherboard
- Installing the motherboard into the case
- Attaching cables
- Installing the power supply
- Booting up and installing software
- RGB set up
As I mentioned last time, TechSource's How to Build a PC video on YouTube was essential in providing both the knowledge and the confidence to build a PC from scratch.
These are the essential tools that I needed:
- Phillips (cross-head) screwdriver - magnetic to avoid losing any of the tiny screws
- Torch - to make it easier to see inside the case
- Socket wrench - with a 3/16 socket. Why? We’ll get to that…
Here we go!
Preparing the motherboard
There are warnings in the motherboard manual about the dangers of static electricity and the need to use anti-static wristbands and other grounding measures. I discharged static by touching the case and, as you’ll see in the pictures, I worked with the motherboard by placing it on its cardboard box.
Flashing the BIOS
When I put together my list of components on PC Part Picker it warned me that my Gigabyte A520 2H motherboard might need a BIOS update to support my processor, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G. The Gigabyte website reveals that you need BIOS version F13 (released 13/07/2021) or later. Apparently, some motherboards ship with a sticker that tells you the version of the BIOS installed. Mine did not.
I did not want to assemble the CPU, cooler and other components only to find that the system did not boot. Fortunately, Gigabyte boards allow you to flash the BIOS with just the power connected. So that what I did. There are instructions online on how to do this - but in short, I downloaded the newer version of the BIOS to a USB drive, connected the power supply to the board and held down the Q-Flash button. Then, after an LED finished blinking, the new BIOS was installed.
Installing the CPU
AMD chips are pretty straightforward to install. I lifted the lever, dropped in the chip, then closed the lever. As the most expensive and fragile component in the system this was a little nerve wracking but actually it was straightforward and no pins were bent.
Installing the RAM
DIMMs are pretty easy to install - I’ve done this many times. I opened the catches, pushed the RAM in firmly and the catches locked it in place.
Installing the M2 SSD
I’d never seen one of these drives before and wow, they are small! I pushed it directly into the motherboard at a 45-degree angle and held it in place with a small screw. I didn’t need to attach any data or power cables.
Installing the CPU cooler
The last part of motherboard prep was to install the CPU cooler. I used the Wraith Stealth cooler that came in the box with the AMD chip.
First, I removed the brackets either side of the CPU socket on the motherboard - these are for legacy heatsinks. Then, using the same screw holes I carefully screwed the cooler into place. There was no need to apply or spread thermal paste, this cooler comes with it already applied.
The screws for the cooler are sprung - so I needed a bit of force to screw them in and they sounded crunchy as they went!
Installing the motherboard into the case
Tech For Techs’ Value ARG case video was useful at showing me the layout, features and cables for my case, the MSI Mag Forge 100R.
Installing standoffs
Standoffs are the hexagonal metal pegs that keep your motherboard from touching the case.
My motherboard is a micro ATX (mATX). My MSI case can accommodate it, but by default only had standoffs installed for full-size ATX boards.
I checked how many holes the motherboard has and where they aligned to the case. I was able to use the top 2 and middle 2 standoffs already installed in the case, but needed to add 2 lower standoffs.
The holes in the case for the standoffs were tight and this is where the socket wrench came in. I needed a really small socket - I used the 3/16 inch.
Fitting the motherboard IO shield
Some motherboards come with the IO shield attached - but mine is a budget board, so it is separate and also rather flimsy.
Installing the motherboard
The last step in this section was to attach the motherboard to the case. I found that I had to press it firmly against the IO black plate in order to align the screw holes with the standoffs. The IO backplate was quite springy, so it took a bit of force.
My magnetic screwdriver came in handy when reaching down vertically to screw in the tiny screws.
Attaching cables
Before I started attaching cables I turned the case upside down to unscrew and remove the 3.5” hard drive bay. This was in the bottom compartment next to where the PSU would go. I didn’t have any 3.5” drives to install (the M2 SSD will do for now) and my PSU is non-modular - meaning that all the power cables are attached and non-removeable.
Removing the hard drive cage gave me space to store and route power and data cables.
Attaching the CPU cooler fan
There are 3 fan headers on my motherboard, one of them specifically for the CPU cooler. I connected this one first and tucked the cable in to keep it tidy.
Case fans
Next I attached the rear fan cable to the fan header nearest to the IO shield.
Front panel cables
Next I attached the front USB 3 cable and the front audio cable. This case’s audio cable exposes the individual wire colours - to make this more aesthetically pleasing I covered them with black electrical tape.
The last front panel connectors were the set for the power button, reset button, HDD light and power light. These were a little fiddly, but I took my time to ensure that that they were all in the correct position
Installing the power supply
With the hard drive cage removed from the bottom compartment, installing the power supply unit was simple.
Booting up and installing software
First boot
At this point I was ready to see if all my work would pay off. I connected a keyboard and mouse, plugged in a monitor and hit the power switch. The RGB fans lit up and… nothing appeared on screen. Oh no! What had I done? What had I missed? I expected to see something, even if it was an error message. How could I diagnose what was wrong?
The first thing I tried was to see if I could bring up the BIOS. I restarted and held down Delete to see if that would bring it up… and it did. Phew!
It turns out I hadn’t done anything wrong after all, but I needed to confirm the BIOS changes I had made when flashing it earlier. I could see that the CPU, RAM and SSD had all been recognised, so I hit Save and Exit. The screen then displayed a message saying that no operating system could be found - exactly what I’d hoped for. Success!
Installing Windows
I had downloaded Windows 10 onto a USB drive earlier using Microsoft’s media creation tool. I inserted the USB, rebooted and then performed the fastest Windows installation ever.
Installing drivers
I had also downloaded drivers from the Gigabyte website earlier and put them onto a USB drive, so that I could then install drivers for the:
- Chipset
- APU
- Network
- Audio
With the network driver working I could then download and install the Radeon drivers from AMD.
Enabling XMP
With Windows successfully installed I rebooted and went into the BIOS again to enable XMP Profile 1. This allows the RAM to run at the correct speed (3200 MHz) and I confirmed it in Windows with Task Manager > Performance > Memory.
RGB set up
Before closing up the case it was time to set up the RGB.
I unravelled the Viper ARGB LED strip and flattened it for a while. Then I attached it to the bottom of the case via its magnets.
I plugged the 3-pin socket into the case’s RGB hub.
This allowed me to control the 2 fans and the strip via the button on the case. Pressing the LED button on the front cycles through various colours and effects.
My motherboard also has an ARGB header allowing me to control lights via Gigabyte’s RGB Fusion 2.0 software. It took me a little while to figure out, but for my set up I had to choose between hardware or software control.
I had a go at software control - disconnecting the LED strip and fans from the RGB hub and daisy chaining them from the motherboard. But I felt that the colours and effects were better from the MSI hub than from the Gigabyte Fusion software, so I reverted to that.
Cable management
The final task was cable management, hiding as many from view as possible and making them look tidy with cable ties behind the scenes.
And that’s pretty much it. I still have a bit of software set up to do: installing Office, games, printer drivers, etc. But the fun part is done. I have a fully functioning, powerful gaming PC for a really good price.
And my daughter is going to love it!
First boot
At this point I was ready to see if all my work would pay off. I connected a keyboard and mouse, plugged in a monitor and hit the power switch. The RGB fans lit up and… nothing appeared on screen. Oh no! What had I done? What had I missed? I expected to see something, even if it was an error message. How could I diagnose what was wrong?
The first thing I tried was to see if I could bring up the BIOS. I restarted and held down Delete to see if that would bring it up… and it did. Phew!
It turns out I hadn’t done anything wrong after all, but I needed to confirm the BIOS changes I had made when flashing it earlier. I could see that the CPU, RAM and SSD had all been recognised, so I hit Save and Exit. The screen then displayed a message saying that no operating system could be found - exactly what I’d hoped for. Success!
Installing Windows
I had downloaded Windows 10 onto a USB drive earlier using Microsoft’s media creation tool. I inserted the USB, rebooted and then performed the fastest Windows installation ever.
Installing drivers
I had also downloaded drivers from the Gigabyte website earlier and put them onto a USB drive, so that I could then install drivers for the:- Chipset
- APU
- Network
- Audio
With the network driver working I could then download and install the Radeon drivers from AMD.
Enabling XMP
With Windows successfully installed I rebooted and went into the BIOS again to enable XMP Profile 1. This allows the RAM to run at the correct speed (3200 MHz) and I confirmed it in Windows with Task Manager > Performance > Memory.
RGB set up
Before closing up the case it was time to set up the RGB.
I unravelled the Viper ARGB LED strip and flattened it for a while. Then I attached it to the bottom of the case via its magnets.
My motherboard also has an ARGB header allowing me to control lights via Gigabyte’s RGB Fusion 2.0 software. It took me a little while to figure out, but for my set up I had to choose between hardware or software control.
I had a go at software control - disconnecting the LED strip and fans from the RGB hub and daisy chaining them from the motherboard. But I felt that the colours and effects were better from the MSI hub than from the Gigabyte Fusion software, so I reverted to that.
Cable management
The final task was cable management, hiding as many from view as possible and making them look tidy with cable ties behind the scenes.
And that’s pretty much it. I still have a bit of software set up to do: installing Office, games, printer drivers, etc. But the fun part is done. I have a fully functioning, powerful gaming PC for a really good price.
And my daughter is going to love it!
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