--This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of commission on any purchases through links on my site. Which will totally be blown on upgrading my gaming PC!!--
How to Build Your Own Gaming PC? There is never an easy step by step guide to building your computer. It can be hard to know where to start and what you should do first, so I am writing this to try to make it easier for you to take the first step. I know how difficult and confusing it can be to start with, so here we go!
By this point you should have all of your components together, and ready to start. You want to make sure that you get a big enough table to work with, you don’t want to be sat on a bed or a carpet at this would create static which can potentially damage the electrical components that you are working with. It is also advised that you should make sure you wear an anti-static band that attaches to the case to make sure you are grounded and won’t damage any of the components. You don’t have to use this though as long as your skin is on the case as this would stop static building up.
When building a computer you need very few tools to complete it. All you will need would be an anti-static band to make sure you don’t damage any components, a couple of different sized screwdrivers, and some cable ties to keep it looking nice and tidy. I have done a comparison of a couple of different tool kits here that will be just right for building computers.
CPU Installation on Motherboard
What I didn’t know when I build my gaming computer is the easiest way to put it together.
In my opinion, you want to put the CPU into the socket on the motherboard, make sure it is seated correctly and lock it down with the little metal bar. To make sure it seats correctly you want to match the triangle in the corner of the CPU to the triangle that is on the socket of the motherboard, if these don’t align and you forge it you will damage the pins on the CPU which will stop it working. All you need to do is slot it on top, it shouldn’t take any force at all to sit properly, if it is seated correctly you should be able to lock the bar down with minimal pressure.
Fitting CPU Cooler and RAM
The mistake I made the first time is fitting the motherboard straight into the case which gives you very little room to work with.
At this stage, you can also install the ram modules into the motherboard. You will need to make sure
Fitting the Motherboard into the Case
Installing Case Fans
Now your computer is starting to come together! The next step for you is to start installing the case fans into the positions that you want. The most common way to fit the fans is to have the ones at the front sucking in cool air, then on top and rear would be the exhaust for the hot air, if you have the space you can have one on the bottom of the case also sucking in cool air however it will also take in a lot of dust. Most ATX cases would accept 2-3 fans in the front 2-3 fans on top with one on the rear. When fitting the fans into the case you will want to make sure you can fit them around the right way, on the edge of the fan in the plastic it should have an arrow showing you what way is the top and what way the air will flow through it, light the image here. If you haven’t installed the radiator for your AIO you will want to screw the fans to the radiator and put it into the position you want, just make sure that you don’t kink the hose as this will stop it from pumping the water around as required.
Installing a Graphics Card
Step number five would be installing your graphics card. This is another one of the easiest tasks, similar
Fitting Power Supply
Fitting Hard Drives/SSD’s
One of the final steps for building your build is fitting the hard drives or SSD’s depending on what you plan on using.
Connect up Wiring
Finally, it is time to connect it all up, this is probably the hardest part especially if you have a tempered glass side panel as you will want it to look clean and tidy so you are going to need to think about the wiring placement. Again if you have a fully modular PSU this is easier as you won’t have as many excess wires to hide. When it comes to connecting everything you will want to connect all of the relevant wirings to your PSU.
First, off you will want to make sure you connect the 24 pins to the motherboard, and the 4 or 8 pins to the top of the motherboard, this is the main power supplies.
Next is you want to connect up your graphics card wiring, the plug will vary depending on how powerful your GPU is.
You will need to make sure you link the front panel header cables that have the power button,
Then you will want to plug in the USB header from the front panel as well to make the front USB ports work.
Next would be the hard drives and SSD’s, you need to plug the power SATA cables in to make sure they all power up at the same time.
Now it is just the fans, you will need to connect your case fans to the fan hubs on the motherboard, you may find that you haven’t got enough ports on the motherboard which won’t be a problem as your fans should come with a splitter cable, you connect this to the motherboard then the fans connect to the splitter.
If you have fitted an AIO cooler you will need to plug the AIO into the motherboard CPU Pump header to make sure that the water pump powers up otherwise it won’t work at all.
You have built your own computer! At this stage, you should be ready to plug it in and power it on!
This guide is only aimed at your air-cooled or AIO cooled computer builds, I will create one for water-cooled computers as well to try and make it a little less daunting. If you have any questions or problems please leave a comment below and I will come back to you
8 Responses
Hi!
I have to be honest! I have always wanted to build my own pc! I usually play video games online and sometimes I just want a better pc with better graphics than the one I have right now and I also want more RAM memory! However, I’m afraid it won’t work… Anyway, thanks to you I might give it a try so that i can build my dream pc.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you for taking the time to read through. I’g glad that this can help, I was exactly the same I would play the small online games and on console but after a while I bought a standard desktop and built up from there. It is a lot easier than you think. I hope you do build the pc you want.
Thank you again
The information you gave in your article How to Build Your Own Gaming PC was spot on. I have never assembled a computer on my own but after reading your step-by-step directions it would be easy. My oldest son has always done this for me. I could never keep up with what he was doing but after following the path you took I would be able to do it. You gave great information on the process in terms that are easily understood.
Jerry
Thank you for reading this article. I am glad it can help, I must admit I have always been into my tech but it seems like a big task when it comes to building or taking a part a computer but it isn’t that bad. I am glad it helped!
Thank you
Hello there! this is an amazing review you have got here. I believe this honest post will help other readers who come across it as it has helped me at the moment. I have already saved this post so I can share with my son who has flare for computer science. Thanks for sharing this with me.
Thank you very much. I certainly hope it does help, it was one thing I struggled with building my first one, I didn’t know what to do first and there must be loads of people in the same situation so I hope this reaches them
Thank you
Hello there, I know it would be of great help to the public as it has been of help to me… I have always wanted to build my own pc, One of the issue with building your own pc especially gaming pc is the cooling system that why one of the latest type of cooling system is the hydro cooling system although its quiet expensive but i think its worth it.
Thank you very much that is great to hear. when I built my first cooling system I have a small All In One cooling system for the cpu and just fans. My aim is to eventually do a water loop but it does look a bit of a task but I’m sure it is the same again of just trying it out, but yes the hydro cooling is very impressive but as you said it will be very expensive and it would offer cooling like nothing else.