Need help for assembly of new rig!

Put on your hand surgical gloves and you don't need any antistatic things. I didn't used any antistatic when i assembled my PC and works great from the first boot.
You need to be a little gentle when you are assembling the parts.

1. Just use common sense and don't handle your parts like a gorilla, you should be fine.

2. Try not to touch any of the components, the traces on the PCB or connecters, most things have places you can hold on to them without touching any of the electronics. you have to be a little careful with static electricity but again just use common sense, don't rub your socks on the carpet and grab your CPU.
You could install your PS in your case, have it turned off and plug it in the wall, that will gound your case, touch your case and that will ground all the static charge out of you, then your fine to handle your parts.

If you have videos that's a good start.

I typically build on a kitchen table, high up enough not to kill my back, and usually has better lighting. A workbench would be fine as well.

Read the motherboard's manual at least once so you know where all the stuff is and what all the slots do.

It's a good idea once the board is in to plan out your cable routes for SATA drives, as well as any USB ports that the case has on it, no need to plug them all in right away but, it's good to have an idea ahead of time because I've built some systems where I didn't do this and had to reconfigure some paths after the fact because cables were too short or I didn't pay attention to where the ports were on the board. Not a huge deal but it's a pain in the ass.

Seeing that it's your first time, having some thermal paste on hand in case you have to reseat the heatsink on the cpu wouldn't be a bad idea. And oh yeah, don't touch the pins in the socket or on the CPU. I've accidentally touched them myself in the past and didn't suffer from it but it's a good idea to stay away.

As far as static goes, don't build in a carpet or a staticky surface, and keep your hands clean. I wouldn't stress a whole lot about wearing a static band and such but, you do want to limit it as much as possible.

The MOST important advice for your first build is to be PATIENT!

Good luck and have fun!

if it winter time and or a dry location...what you dont want to do is walk across carpet or pet your pets then pick up computer parts. if your floor is wood or tile your better off. take your socks off and any fuzzy slippers. try not to walk around the table. if your mom has a lazy susan or something you can put the case on and turn it it help you in your build.
the ram is keyed one way only takes some force to lock it in. with intel cpu before you put it into the cpu slot. check for bent pins with a flashlight. if there none line up the cpu and drop it in. it takes some force to close the newer intel latches.
the hard part is pushing the mb against the foam of the io shield asus shield are over padded. it take two people to install the mb. one to push and one to install the screws to lock the mb down on top of the standoffs. to help you out put the cpu and cpu cooler and ram outside the case. then do a first post outside the case to make sure the mb/cpu are posting. just go into the bios...sit at the bios temp screen for 10 min make sure the cpu cooler on right..temp should be 30-45c.
with the first boot working fine..turn the power supply off and install the mb into the case. with new motherboard do not install or remove any parts with the power cable plugged into the wall. newer mb hold voltage and you can fry your mb.
always make sure the motherboards power good led is out before you start pulling parts.

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Yes, that's the idea and you should be fine. Just try not to finger the edge connecters or the PCB itself and you should be fine. Handle your graphics card by the edge, the CPU by the edge and also memory. Just be careful, you know what not to touch and what is OK to grab onto. You will be fine, enjoy our build

If the cooler you bought requires a backing plate it should have come with it, they usually do.

As for overclocking, that's a whole new topic on its own!

I unfortunately don't have the time right now so I'll leave that to others, or for another day. Cheers!

I use to swear by anti-static wristbands... but it is largely overblown. So long as you are not shuffling your feet on carpet the whole time, and as long as you touch the case on occasion then you will be at the same ground level as the computer parts and it isn't an issue. However, if there is thick carpet under foot then a wrist strap is not a bad idea... just potentially overly cautious.

The part about not touching the bottom of the CPU is actually quite valid, but it is due to residue rather than static. Your hands, even when freshly washed, have oil on them. Plain and simple, humans are gross. End of story. It is just best not to touch any of the contact points between components because there is a chance (however slight) that something of your grubby hands will rub off and cause a mild short between pins which can cause issues.

That said, with the several computers I have built over the years my hands have slipped onto the back side on more than one occasion with no repercussions. But then again my hands were not covered in nutella either (I prefer peanut butter!).


As for building the PC, force is almost entirely uncalled for. If you feel that you are having to musscle something into place then chances are that you need to take a step back and see what you are doing wrong. Screws should go in easily unless you have them mis-threaded or have the wrong type of screw for the job. ATX standards are very precise, so unless you bought some $5 bargain case then all holes and mountings should fit perfectly with no need for wiggle room to get things to latch properly. Cables should always have a fair amount of slack, and if you have to make them taught in order to reach then it is time to go pick up an extension.

The only exceptions to this is the CPU socket and some CPU coolers which can require a little bit of force to make a good solid connection. Just make sure that the CPU is oriented properly before bringing down the LGA bracket and your CPU should be fine for the LGA installation. I have an EVO cooler as well and it does require a little bit of force to get the 2nd screw onto the tension rod that holds the cooler to the CPU. Mind you, it should not take all of your strength or weight... but it may be on the verge of worrisome, especially your first time when the bar is fresh.

One last note on your build:
When planning out your cooling, keep a few things in mind. One big thing is that the CPU die under that heat shield is a single long piece. If you orient your CPU cooler to blow front-to-back like normal then the length of the CPU die will line up with the center 2 heat pipes of the EVO cooler, making the outer pipes essentially useless. If you mount the cooler to move air bottom-to-top then the heat pipes will be perpendicular to the CPU die and all of your pipes will be used properly. This can make a decent difference in the cooling capability of your EVO cooler, and in my system I found a 5*c drop at idle, and a 10*c drop on load simply by changing the orientation. This is much more important on newer chips as their heat density is so much higher and it is harder to disperse that to the heat sink.

Also with the EVO, the fan kinda sucks, which may become an issue during the hotter times of the year. Thankfully the stock fan on it is easy to replace, and it comes with mounting brackets to put a 2nd fan on the other side for a push-pull configuration. I got 2 nice low RPM Corsair 120mm fans for it and now it is dead silent while offering much more cooling performance. This is not really a huge deal, but something to think about down the road.

Another thing to note is that you will want to upgrade your SSD to something larger down the road. I have a 120GB SSD in my wife's computer and just with Windows, Office, a few small applicaitons, and her music and documents the drive is essentially full. That leaves no room for things like games, scratch discs, and other things that are greatly affected by the performance of an SSD. On my own rig I have ~40 games (not all of them large), plus adobe and office software and I am using ~300GB of space on my 480GB system drive. I then shoved all of my music, backups, videos and other bulk files to the HDDs. Especially games like Skyrim which have monumental area loading times it can bring your wait time between areas from ~30 sec down to ~5 sec, and trust me it gets really old late in the game when you are constantly fast traveling from area to area, and are going in and out of buildings for missions. 120GB is fine for now, but once you can afford a 500GB-1TB SSD then jump on it. I think the prices are going to drop dramatically next year, so it may not be as expensive to do as you think.

Wifi kinda sucks. I know that there are times when there is simply no way around it, but if at all possible then move to a wired connection. If you cannot get a wired connection then get a proper wirless card and some external antennas. Those USB wifi adapters are fine if you are just browsing the web in a small apartment, but if you are in a medium to large house, with lots of other devices or wifi networks in the area, then it can become an issue.

Other than that, it should be a good rig! I hope everything works well for you!

The EVO comes with a backplate. Install the backplate BEFORE putting the motherboard in the case. Depending on your working conditions you may be forced to install the cooler before putting the mobo in place as well, but preferably this should be done afterwards.

I think you have the idea now and should do just fine and end up with a great build, it's a lot of fun and you will enjoy putting everything together.

Get you rig running smooth and stable before you mess around with OCing. Take notes of what the temps and performance are when it is stock, that way you have something to compare your OC to.

CaedenV says:
"""
One last note on your build:
When planning out your cooling, keep a few things in mind. One big thing is that the CPU die under that heat shield is a single long piece. If you orient your CPU cooler to blow front-to-back like normal then the length of the CPU die will line up with the center 2 heat pipes of the EVO cooler, making the outer pipes essentially useless. If you mount the cooler to move air bottom-to-top then the heat pipes will be perpendicular to the CPU die and all of your pipes will be used properly. This can make a decent difference in the cooling capability of your EVO cooler, and in my system I found a 5*c drop at idle, and a 10*c drop on load simply by changing the orientation. This is much more important on newer chips as their heat density is so much higher and it is harder to disperse that to the heat sink.
"""

Cool info

If you are in the same room as your wifi router then the USB adapter is probably fine... but then again a 50' Ethernet cable is what... $3 online? Why not go wired if you are that close in the first place? Wireless is only good for devices that move all the time. If your rig is not moving every few weeks then just get the right length of wire to make it work.

As for cooling, it is just as much about noise as it is about cooling. There is no reason for modern high end computers to sound like vacuum cleaners anymore. Even with air cooling you should still be able to keep your rig cool while keeping the noise produced nearly nonexistent, or at least well below the ambient noise in the home. But then again that may just be my age showing. I suppose when I was younger the noise coming from my system never bothered me one bit lol

They're a good idea but not necessary.

I never used to use them until my latest build, the case just happened to come with them. I've had this build for over 2 years now and I've never had to blow it out once, it's always clean in there, whereas before, without the filters it was dusty all the time.

Oh yeah, my case is in the same room as a wood stove as well, and it STILL doesn't get dirty in there.

I've never shopped for them but I imagine they aren't too hard to find.

Here's a link similar to your question:

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1743283/phantom-410-psu-dust-filter.html

apparently silvertek sells magnetic filters that attach on the outside of the case.

That's what I have on my case, magnetic filters that you can remove and vacuum off.