How to Build a Gaming PC (2019) #Helpful Post

Hey guys, this is Austin.

And today, it is time for our 2019 gaming PC build tutorial

with a very special guest, Mr. Jon Rettinger.

The OG of Tech YouTube.

But I wouldn't say that likely,

- I'm like, I'm team crusty.

And at this point, we're doing it for,

I've been doing it for so long.

So I have a confession, this is embarrassing,

not only have I never built a gaming PC, I have

actually never built a computer ever.

- You gotta give yourself some credit,

like you've done some RAM upgrades

and that kind of stuff.

- I've done that kind of stuff and I know

the components, but I have never actually, like

physically put them all together myself.

- So we pretty much every year, when we do our PC

Build Tutorial, we try to pick like a different

variety of parts so this one's a very standard build,

so there's a full-sized chassis.

We have like the hard drive.

We have like the SSD.

A little bit of everything that you would typically do.

But the most important thing here

is that we actually have to put it together.

So when it comes to building a game PC, you need exactly

one tool, a screwdriver.

So, I will bestow this upon you.

- I know what this is.

- Yes.

- I prepared for this part of the build.

- Okay, you've unboxed a thing or two in your day.

I'm not worried about that.

- There we go, look at that.

- That's pretty good, actually.

So this is the Fractal Design Focus G,

and when it comes to building a PC,

the actual case itself doesn't make a huge difference

so the main thing is to look for the size

so, let's turn this over.

- So is this computer gonna find a home after

I destroy it?

- Ah, we'll see about that.

We'll see, we have to build the system first.

We'll see, if it could actually survives.

- I meant to do that.

- It's okay.

- For five minutes, I've already broken something, alright.

- So most of the time when you're buying a case,

a lot of hardware comes with it.

You'll see a couple of other screws come

like for example the power supply

but just make sure you don't lose this.

We would need this a little bit later.

Besides that, there's really not a whole lot to do

besides install the power supply.

So, something like this is a 600-watt EVGA unit.

It costs somewhere in the neighborhood like $50 or so.

You can get cheaper 600-watt units

but they will catch on fire.

I'm not even kidding, like some of the really cheap units

will straight up last like 3 months

and legitimately can catch on fire, ruin your components.

This is not an area to save a lot of money.

Get something that's decent 80+

and make sure it has enough power for your components.

Right, so what we're running here,

600 watts would be just fine.

- How do you make sure it has enough power?

- So there's PCPartPicker has a great calculators

that you can plug in all your parts right.

So generally speaking, it's your CPU

and your graphics and card.

Those are like the main components

and if you wanna do any over-clocking

you always wanna have some headroom,

but that would generally give you a good sort of ball park

of is it gonna pull 300 watts or 500 watts,

or whatever the case is.

Usually, just get something that's a little bit over

what you need or a fair bit over

because it doesn't hurt

and you'll never know if you want to do any upgrades.

- Do I have to induce myself before I mount it?

- No.

- Or just go ahead and do it?

It's a PG Channel.

- So for a case like this, if you take a look,

we actually have a grate on the bottom,

so we can put the power supply face down.

But some power supplies will need to be faced up.

For example, this on the top of the case.

Just make sure that when you see this fan,

it has access to at least some airflow.

- [Jon] Is it pulling it in or pushing it up?

- It's pulling it in and it's pushing up

the back.

And so one good tip

when you're installing any kind of hardware,

this is not even like a PC specific thing, do the corners.

So start with this corner, then do this one,

this one and this one.

That way, you're always applying even pressure.

That's something that's nice for computers

but like legit, like if you're putting

like tires on your car or anything like that,

doing sort of a cross pattern is always a good idea.

- So the initial idea on why I want to build a PC.

My mom just retired.

She's been running my Dad's office for years

and their PC at home is like running Windows 7

and it's ancient.

And she's like, shall I just get a new computer?

And I was like, alright, like, at some point

I gotta man up and be like, "I can build a computer",

like I, it's almost embarrassing that I'd never done it

so, I'm gonna take this knowledge,

- And you're gonna get hooked up.

- And I'm gonna build a computer for my mom.

- So this is Step one.

Installing the power supply.

We can actually set this off to the side now,

and start putting together the motherboard.

So with this system, I opted to go for Ryzen.

As far as I'm concerned,

especially in the sort of like, middle budget area,

Ryzen is basically the way to go.

So we are using Ryzen 5 20600X.

I actually usually recommend the 2600

'cause this guy is a little bit more expensive

and it's not totally within the price but I had one, so.

So you're probably aware, but it's usually a motherboard

is kind of what everything touches, right?

So we have that processor in here, our RAM, graphics card,

SSDs, everything pretty much attaches to the motherboard

in some way.

So, the first step is to work on our CPU.

- Okay.

- So this is the built-in stock cooler

that comes with the processor,

so if you look at this bit right here,

that's thermal paste, don't touch that.

Basically, that's going to be what makes a nice,

solid connection with our CPU.

Now this is the part of a build

that I think most people get really anxious about.

- True.

- So the CPU you can see,

it's got all these like little pins and stuff

and you have to be very careful with it, but realistically,

probably the easiest component to install.

It's literally like it's gonna take you 5 seconds.

- It might take you 5 seconds.

- Let's see. - Okay.

- I have faith. - Okay.

- So this area in the middle of the motherboard

is where our CPU socket goes.

All you do is just pull that on back

and pull it all the way up to that.

- [Jon] This look the same

on pretty much any motherboard right?

- [Austin] It's slightly different between INdI and

Intel, very similar though.

- [Jon] It's like I'm bringing the T-1000 to life here.

- [Austin] Well, you kinda are.

- So just gently - Just like that?

- Ah, you're a little off now.

There you go, okay.

So, all you do now is just push this on down,

- [Austin] We're installed.

- Got it. - As simple as that.

- Now it's time to put it in our CPU cooler.

I might need a bigger screwdriver.

Yeah, I'm gonna grab a bigger screwdriver, hang on a second.

- I'm gonna go ahead and take this opportunity

to say I was actually nervous just putting in the processor.

Hopefully it didn't show.

I RAM have done, but never a processor, I'm nervous.

Alright, Austin's coming back, I gotta be quiet now.

Don't tell him I'm nervous, okay?

I was totally cool putting in that processor.

- I'll be totally honest,

I told you to do it the wrong way at first.

It was to the side and I realized when I looked over at it

%that actually goes that way so that was my bad.

- Not on me.

- Cut that part out of the video.

So with our backplate, fully in the right zone,

we're good to put this in.

So all you do is line up so as you can see the screws.

They have little springs on them so they're tensioned.

Before you sit it down, just keep in mind

that you have thermal paste together.

The thermal paste, once it's applied,

you just think about like this,

you wanna have even pressure as you push it down.

So basically, you set it down,

try not to move it too much right?

So try to like line up and then put some pressure

to kinda make sure that this is making a very solid seal

with our processor.

- Does it need a lot of pressure?

- It doesn't need a lot,

but you don't want it to wiggling around,

cause then the thermal paste starts to slide,

and kind of get uneven, you can get air bubbles.

So after a bit of tightening to make sure the screws

are very evenly placed, not your fault,

something super easy to happen.

- Austin's to nice to say it's not my fault.

- No, no, no, it's totally, totally easy to happen.

It was particularly finicky

but the main thing is the actual cooler is on.

Next, we need to plug in the actual fan.

So it's the CPU fan header right here.

You see these two notches?

- [Austin] So it only goes in one way, so literally, just

plug it in.

- [Jon] I can handle it.

- [Austin] I believe in you.

- [Jon] Hey, nailed it.

- Alright, nice.

Next up is the fun part, installing RAM.

- I've done RAM before.

- Okay, I will let you have at it.

- So with Austin Evans, and his attention to detail.

Look at that, the RAM.

- I was hoping it's the right size,

- It matches the case.

Like, when you open it up should match and look beautiful,

to Steve Jobs.

- Dude, I always do like the worst color coordinating.

- Look at that. - That's pretty good.

- So we have 16G of DDR4.

So one of the things you should keep in mind

specifically when you're building Ryzen systems

is that the speed of the memory is important.

Not even for just like intergraphics or something

which this does not have.

But it just speeds up the entire Ryzen system

and gets a little more out of that CPU.

So usually, I would like to budget

a little bit more money towards some fast RAM here.

So 3000 Megahertz is pretty quick for DDR4,

but importantly, it's also blue.

So this uses dual channel memory,

or this is can utilize dual channel memory.

So you wanna set it in channel one

and channel three typically.

So, you can check the motherboard again to be sure.

And if there's only two of them slots,

it's super straight forward.

But for this, we're gonna put it in one and three

so I'm gonna hinge you this.

- [Jon] I can do that.

- [Austin] So as soon as you can open up the little

retention pens so it's pretty straight forward.

And then, I think you, is that the right way?

I think you need to flip it.

There you go.

- Boom, I've rammed.

- Rammed, rammed up.

Next up is our SSD.

So we're doing a couple of things here.

So we are using a standard hard drive,

but you always wanna use an SSD pretty much for any build.

Like, I don't really recommend any Windows PC

or any computer in general right now

without some kind of SSD.

- Okay.

- Especially considering the SSDs have gotten cheap.

This is a 500GB M2 Drive and so proper fast,

and it costs like 80 bucks.

So there's two tiny little screws.

So the bigger guy, you can just literally hand tighten

into that hole.

- Okay.

- [Austin] And the other screw will hold the drive

into place.

- [Austin] So now, we need to install the actual M2 drive.

So if you take it, you'll see the gold connector.

It only goes in one way because there's a little notch.

So the label is facing up in this case, so just like,

basically just rested in.

So when it's in, you could actually see like

there's a little bit of tension.

So the screw is what's gonna hold that down.

That's what you pretty much always do with this.

Now we can actually install it into the case.

- Let's do it.

- Before we do that, we do wanna install our I/O shield.

So this is essentially, if you imagine, the port right here,

this kinda goes on top of the ports, like this.

You wanna put this in beforehand, cause otherwise,

- it doesn't fit. - Makes sense.

- And believe me when I say,

I've installed quite a few motherboards,

got it all screwed in, and then realized,

I forgot this part.

So, do this first.

So next step is to install our stand offs.

Try to get them as tight as you can.

It doesn't make a huge difference right now,

but if you ever need to pull out the motherboard,

and you don't get your stand offs all the way in,

the stand offs will like pull out with the board

and it's a huge hassle, you have to use pliers.

Alright, so now that the stand offs are in place,

we can put the motherboard in.

So this part, it's a little bit annoying.

Mostly because is there really anything

that you need to worry about.

I mean, don't like scrape it on inside the case,

but you got to get it lined up just right

and sometimes, it doesn't.

And it is, by the way, totally okay,

as long as you have your CPU cooler in correctly,

to hold it by this.

It's actually, it's fine.

- It does make me anxious, I'm glad you said that.

- And then, you see all the ports right here?

We wanna make sure that we're lining up with these ports.

So we don't have to get it perfectly first try,

but we wanna get it in the ball park.

- So you want to make sure that all of your ports

are lined up in the back

and that no tabs or anything are there.

You also wanna take a visual look to make sure that all

of your screws are lined up

so when you have that center post, typically speaking,

you're gonna be pretty close to being ready.

So with this one, we look pretty much good to go.

So now, we can actually start screwing it into place.

Look at Mr. Rettinger, building a PC over here man.

Look at that!

[Jon] So this is like, this is a bucket list.

- So that, we can pick it up right,

and assuming it doesn't come crashing down.

- Falls down immediately.

- So you can definitely see

the beginnings of the build right?

I mean, we've got our power supply, we got a motherboard

with almost all of all components involved.

There's still a ball of cabling and stuff

we need to work on, but at this point,

you can kinda take a breath, go, hey look,

- Nailed it.

- That's something that's starting to resemble a PC.

Now, this is our RX590, this is actually a card

that I would be completely honest, I mostly picked,

because it's a decent card, but it's blue.

And it matches the rest of the system.

- Look at the detail that you get from Austin Evans.

Look at that.

I want bumper stickers made that say, "Austin cares."

- So if you guys are not familiar with the 590,

this is essentially a 580 that has been heavily overclocked.

And that is way bigger than I thought.

Look at the size of the heat pipes!

For a card, which is realistically,

not an insanely powerful card, that's a lot of cooling.

This is actually really simple, before we install it,

all we need to do is to take out the PCI covers,

so it's literally just as simple as unscrewing these two

and it should slide right in.

So you know of course in the end, we have to name it right?

- Start thinking about names in your head.

- I've already been thinking.

This is gonna be like my third kid.

- Whoa, man!

A little too much pressure.

So, we're actually almost done

installing components in the case.

So we still need to do cable management,

but before we do that, we have to install our hard drive.

Now that it's actually strictly not necessary,

what we have here right now with the SSD,

this is an optional thing,

but I think a lot of people enjoy installing hard drives

just to get the extra capacity

or if you don't want to use an SSD, although you should,

you can run the OS off the hard drive.

So all you do is, because it's a tool-less drive,

you see it's got these little like notches,

so you just wanna make sure that the actual connectors,

the SEGA connectors are facing in the back

so we can plug it in.

So I'll let you do it, but literally,

it just lines up with the metal holes

and it just holds it in.

Now, it's time to actually start cabling things up.

- Okay.

- It seems intimidating. - Yes.

- It seems scary.

Not gonna be that bad.

So we have little bit of space back here,

so usually you wanna route as many cables behind

and then bring them back, right?

So, if we look over here,

we're gonna take these two cables

and just run them through the hole.

- [Jon] So does this one plug in to the top

where it goes kinda like this?

- [Austin] It matches one connector.

- [Jon] Okay, got it.

- So two 20 full plus four, but you always use it together.

Next up, we have our CPU power,

so shall I say, four plus four.

Now this is something that should be plugging in right,

where is it, right up here.

So I'm going to run it directly up

and pass it through to you.

Next, let's work this on these other cables.

This is called SATA.

so we actually have two which look identical.

Right, yeah.

So this is what we need to run to our hard drive.

If we weren't using a hard drive or an SSD,

there was like in this bay,

we wouldn't need this but we do need this.

So do you want to unwrap that guy?

So actually, if you look to the side here, you'll

see that SATA1, SATA2, peripheral, and VGA.

- Okay.

- I'll plug it in to SATA2.

Mostly so it kinda we can get a little bit

of a cleaner cable run.

So you can see, there's this one with has a long connector,

but it's got a little notch on the end,

so that corresponds to your hard drive right here.

All you need to do, is literally just line it up,

press it in, it doesn't click

but just make sure it's seated all the way.

The next thing in, arguably really the more important thing

is we need to make sure that we have plenty of power

for our graphics card.

So actually, this is a good point to kinda mention,

do you see this is starting to get a little tangled?

- [Jon] Yeah.

- You wanna do your best to kind of flatten these cables now

because it will make your life easier later

and especially if you see them like start to like

stack on top of each other,

try to make sure there's a little bit of space

'cause the side panel won't go on

if you have like three cables on top.

So what we need to do is we need to use almost all

except for this one.

So, you put it together,

- [Jon] That's one connector?

- Yeah, so when you do it, just make sure you pinch it.

It's kind of annoying, but it's basically the same thing,

just plug in the 8-pin here.

So power-wise, we're actually looking pretty good.

Now, it's time to start cabling all the little finicky

things which are gonna take a while.

- So this case only has two fans.

So there's a pair of fans up front.

Now we need to run these cables.

So there are multiple points on the motherboard,

those fan headers we were talking about earlier?

So, our fans are now powered.

Let's actually work our way down.

So we have bunch of panels that are up top here.

So you just wanna make sure USB works,

our audio, all that kinda stuff.

- [Jon] So how could you tell what's what?

- It's all labeled.

So you see this little connector right here?

It says HD audio?

So pretty much everything will say what it is.

So when you're doing these sort of

smaller connectors on the board,

I like working from left to right,

cause basically, if you do more stuff in the right,

it's kinda harder to run.

So with that, it should just be a simple

as plugging into the AAFP port right here.

So you see how it's like it's a 10-port,

10-pins but with one knocked out.

- You can't put it in the wrong way.

So just make sure that that one row with the 4, is on top.

So one thing to note, as you do all this cable management,

it's very easy to have something that's either not correct

or maybe not all the way in.

So once we test and like turn on the system,

if you see like your USB's port is not working,

or your audio port is not working, or whatever.

Just go back and double check the cable.

Nine times out of ten it's not something broken.

It's just like a little bit loose or something.

Next step is our USB3 header.

Now, I will say one thing about this,

it looks bigger and easier, and it is easier,

but I have broken so many of these connectors,

specifically when you pull it out,

like this is just not a well-designed thing,

so there is a notch at the bottom.

So you'll see that it corresponds with this guy right here,

so you wanna put the notch on top.

- [Jon] And before I plug it in,

shout one out with the blue.

- Oh yeah!

USB3, here comes the most fiddly part of any PC build.

These guys.

- What are those things?

- These are all of our front panel connectors.

So we have the power switch, reset switch,

our hard drive LED, and our power LED.

So if you take a look at the cables,

you'll see that if you've put it over

that there's a little arrow.

The arrows denote positive.

So on this panel, you will see the positive and negative.

Anytime you see the positive,

you know that it's the little arrow that is going to denote.

So just use that as your frame of reference.

- There is a SATA cable left and I think that's gonna be it.

So you can see it's a smaller guy?

And it has a notch.

Now this actually just click in,

so if you look on the side here,

you'll see all our SATA ports.

- [Jon] Yeah.

- So plug it in to SATA1.

So you wanna plug this guy in here.

- [Jon] Okay, got it.

- And then you'll see on the back side of the hard drive,

this goes in right here.

- [Jon] So there you go, and there we go!

- And, that my friend, is what should be

a completed PC build.

Now of course, we need to do a lot of cable

management, but don't do any of that until you

actually test to see if it works.

Cause if it doesn't, this thing is coming back apart.

- Right, it's the moment of truth?

- Alright, three, two, one.

Hey!

- [Jon] I saw the light.

- Excellent sign.

So our CPU fan is spinning.

Only one of our fans is spinning.

We'll have to fix that.

The port of intergraphics card, oh look how good it looks.

- [Jon] Look at that.

Blue lights, we did it!

- So now, comes the hard part

which is waiting to roughly 10 to 18 minutes

it takes for it to post.

It's not actually 18 minutes.

It should take like 30 seconds but it feels like 18 minutes.

Oh, there it is!

Immediate, immediate!

- So if my three-year old ever gets excited

he always yells, "Me did it!"

See, he can't even get the words out,

so I feel like "Me did it!"

- Oh Dude, there we go, we got our Ryzen 5 2600X.

We have 16 Gigs showing up.

Two keyboards and mice.

I'm not sure why it shows two, but it's fine.

We've built ourselves a game PC.

- High-five man. - We did it!

- So, the best part is, we didn't build this

just for no reason.

This is yours to take home to your parents.

- What? - Yes.

- This is for Mom?

- This is for Mom.

Mom has a dope gaming PC now.

- Mom's getting a...

That's unnecessary but very, very appreciated.

She's gonna appreciate the blue.

I'm gonna get a footage of me giving it to her

and replacing her Windows 7 computer.

- Oh, that's great, okay, cool.

If you guys enjoyed this video,

definitely be sure to subscribe.

Not only here but also to Jon Rettinger's super shiny,

rebranded new channel, been a lot of changes over there.

And as always if you guys wanna know anymore

about any of the parts we used,

the links will be in the description.

All the links to a couple of other tutorials,

if you wanna check out more information,

but if you wanna learn how to build a PC,

hopefully, this has been helpful.

Jon, play us out please.

- And if I can do it, you can do it too.

- [Austin] That is some motivational words right there.

- I mean it.