Introduction: How to Build a Desktop Gaming PC: New Builder's Guide

Building your own Desktop PC has many benefits, giving users the opportunity to select the specific parts and brands that they desire, as well as the ability to upgrade their system at a later date. This guide for building a desktop gaming PC is intended for first-time PC builders of a semi-technical background, including additional information and safety tips that new builders should be aware of to avoid damaging their system. With this in mind, my guide is recommended for consumers that are over 18 years of age, due to working with exposed electronics that could be dangerous if not handled with the appropriate precautions. Prior experience constructing computer electronics on any level is helpful to users by providing knowledge on how electronics should connect together on a basic level.

The current state of the GPU market is still plagued with inflation due to a shortage of chips and an increased level of demand from consumers. Keep this in mind when deciding whether to buy the parts for a PC now or hold out till prices finally drop.

Supplies

This is the PC part list I chose to base my Desktop Gaming PC on. This build was featured as the standard mid-tier build guide in February of 2022 and has been built by many users successfully including me.

Step 1: Set Up Workspace, Identify Needed Cables

  • Space: Large area needed for all components to be laid out nicely
  • Lighting: Avoid dimly-lit workstations
  • Workbench quality needs:
  1. Flat surface
  2. Level top so screws don't roll off.
  3. Not on the ground
  • Find and put aside: Necessary Cables for connecting system (Labeled in Power Supply Box)
  • 2x SATA (6Gb/s) Connectors
  • 1x Asus Wi-Fi 6 Antenna
  • Helpful to have when installing the operating system later on.
  • Heat Sync for M.2 NVMe Drive
  • 1x ATX 24-pin Cable (Motherboard)
  • 1x EPS/ATX 12 volt 8(4x4)-pin (CPU)
  • 1x PCI-E(6+2)-Pin x2 (VGA (GPU))
  • 1x SATA 5-pin x3 (Corsair LightingNode, SSD connections)


  • Remove the Motherboard, and place it on top of the box it came in for the first steps while resting on the conveniently sized non-static bagging material.
  • Safety:
  • Discharge static electricity by touching a large metal object such as the computer case.
  • When handling the Motherboard, try to handle the board on its sides, or near the large I/O port area. This is to avoid both pins becoming damaged as well as oil from your hands contacting the surface, which could cause a short circuit.

Step 2: Installation Start

  • CPU Installation:
  • Safety Tips:
  • Only touch sides of the CPU chip, avoid pins underneath at all costs!!
  1. Unlatch: CPU enclosure, removing the placeholder
  2. Align: small triangle on motherboard socket, with the triangle, found on the processor
  3. Allow CPU to gently fall into place. Don't force the chip, or you may risk bending connector pins!
  4. If the CPU falls into place correctly, you may close the CPU latch which secures the processor in place.
  • RAM Installation
  1. Recommended Positions for 2 RAM sticks are in slots A2/B2
  2. Unlatch locking mechanism found on the lower side of the slot
  3. Line up slot in RAM stick with the notch in the connector
  4. Press firmly down to install, the latch will then lock into place


Step 3: CPU Fan Cooler Installation

  • Safety Warnings!!
  • Thermal Paste: A little goes a long way when applying CPU thermal paste to the processor chip. Place a small dot of paste in the middle of the contact area between the CPU chip and CPU cooling fan. When mounting the cooler on top, the paste will spread out to cover the area. Too much thermal paste may allow for excess amounts to leak out the sides during installation, which could seep down into both your CPU and Motherboard.
  • Cooler Fan Mounting directions:
  1. Begin by removing both fans on either side of the central heat sync. This will allow more accurate positioning of the cooler, as well as open up more access to the screws needed to mount the base.
  2. Attach cooler backplate to the reverse side of the motherboard using dedicated backplate nuts.
  3. Attach the mounting bracket to the Cooler for install
  4. Apply a small amount of thermal paste on the center top-side of the CPU Chip
  5. Attach CPU Cooler on top of the installed CPU, using the mounting points defined for our CPU, which is for the 1200 series chipset
  • Fan Mounting Orientation:
  1. Be sure to note what direction your fans are facing in relation to your system.
  2. Our current case has three chassis fans located on the front that pulls in air. Due to this, our CPU cooler fans must be positioned so that they push air towards the rear of the PC case. In an ideally planned PC build, the internal space of your CPU case should have a neutral pressure. This is only obtained by having an equal number of intake and exhaust fans.
  3. Taking this into account, reattach both fans via the clips on each side of the central radiator.
  4. The ASUS TUF B560M-Pro WIFI is a motherboard with only 4 available fan header connectors. With 5 fans in our system, it is necessary to connect either one of the fan cables to the split Y-cable on the other. After that, you may use the remaining cable on the connected fan to attach to the CPU_FAN header. This process links both of the fans, allowing for the commonly occupied CPU_OPT (CPU Optional) port to be used for the top fan in your front cooling.
  • The CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT cables are easiest to install at this point while your graphics card is out of the way and the motherboard is out of the case. This will give you more room to connect the cables and securely tuck away any extra cabling hidden underneath the CPU cooler.

Step 4: Motherboard Installation

  • Begin by looking at both your motherboard and the "offset" screws preinstalled in the desktop PC case. In my case, the screws were set in ATX board format. For space-saving reasons, our build only requires a slightly smaller mATX build, so we will need to rearrange the layout of the lower three screws and reset them a few inches higher in the case. Keep in mind, every screw hole must be used in order the keep your motherboard secure in the case and prolong its lifespan by avoiding damage. Luckily, the case is well designed, and you will find appropriate holes in the chassis that line up with your smaller hardware.
  • In the supplies that came with your case, you will find a number of labeled motherboard screws to use. These will screw in through the motherboard, and into the offset screws mounted on the case chassis. This is so the motherboard can sit a few millimeters off from the metal side, which both helps with airflow and avoids damage from scraping the rear side of our board connectors.
  • While doing this process, be sure to avoid building on the carpet. We are all familiar with static electricity buildup, but this can actually be detrimental to electronic parts that weren't expecting a random electrical charge. To reinforce the concept, it wouldn't be the craziest thing to make sure you are still grounded by touching a piece of metal.

Step 5: Power Supply Unit (PSU) Install:

  • The next logical step would be to install the Power Supply Unit in the lower cage of the case. We aren't quite ready to plug in any power cables yet. You will have time later to organize the cables after you have all the parts in your chassis and know where is the best place to string connections. Having a modular power supply means we only need to include the cables we are using for the build. This should greatly reduce the amount of clutter in the case and will give you more room for upgrades down the road. However, if you still feel like you will run out of space, you also have the opportunity to remove the lower Hard Drive cage since we used a faster M.2 SATA drive for our storage.
  • Note: Make sure this power supply has its fans in the downward direction. As we all know, heat rises, so you will want to avoid pushing heat back into the system at all costs. In the same mindset, if you choose to install a fan in the future at the top of the case, the airflow should go upwards in order to expel heat from the inner system.

Step 6: SSD Install

For our build, we went with an SSD that is PCIe Generation 4. This is the fastest technology on the market, but this was chosen due to the design of the motherboard itself. On the ASUS TUF B560M-Plus Wifi, users are required to use the faster format or be stuck with only a single M.2 Storage device due to hardware restrictions.

 

  • To install the 4th Gen M.2 NVME Storage device, we use the top socket connector. Since this is a faster form of storage, these devices generate more heat. This means we need to use the M.2 heat sync to help pull the heat away from the memory module.
  • This board also uses an interesting type of screw in the M.2 connection location, which can be confusing at first.
  • Normally, you would need a small, M.2 SSD screw to firmly secure your storage on the motherboard. In this design, the board features a rotating plastic nob that secures the drive on the opposite side of the connector.
  • First, Angle the drive at a slight upward angle into the M.2 socket. After the drive is inserted, it will still bend upwards, but that's normal for this connector!
  • With a gentle amount of force, press the raised end down towards the motherboard until it is horizontal. Then, use the rotating plastic "Q-Latch" to position it over the end edge of the drive.
  • The added benefit of this is that it makes it much easier to place and install the included heat sync on top.
  • With the heat sync, first, take off the sticker from its underside.
  • Then, place the heat sync directly over the drive, making sure to line it up with the screw holes on each side.
  • Now, we have a fully Protected and incredibly fast boot drive!

Step 7: GPU Installation

Now that we're onto installing the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), this part of the build will be most easily done by setting the case gently on its side with the tempered glass side panel also put somewhere safe.

  • Begin by removing the top-most backplate from the rear of the case.
  • The long connector we use for our GPU is found at PCIEx16_1, and this will allow the GPU to sit snug right under the CPU cooler and RAM sticks.
  • To insert the GPU into the connector, make sure to first unlatch a locking clip located in between the cooler and RAM. This is a similar concept as we have done previously while installing the two ram sticks.
  • The easiest way to have this lock in place the first time is to first line up the rear input/output side of the GPU. This is the end where you will reuse the screws found in the previous backplate.
  • After lining up the device to the Motherboard, gently use force to push it down into place. If successful on your first try, the locking clip should have retracted down and the far end of the GPU should be lined up with the top screw holes on the back of the chassis.
  • This process would be much more of a balancing act if the case wasn't resting on its side.

Step 8: Installing the Power/Connection Cables

Next, we will finally be installing the cables we set aside earlier. Keep in mind that even though we are plugging cables into the Power Supply (PSU), the PSU SHOULD NOT be plugged into any source of power while working close to exposed connections. This could be a harm to both yourself, as well as your system you just worked so hard to finish. Below, is a diagram of the needed connection ports for your PC to be almost fully installed.

4. = Fan Headers

  • The Fan headers allow you to connect fast to cool the system. The lower header connections in this build will serve as the power cables for your lower two front-facing RGB fans.
  • We have already connected both of the fan cables into a single splitter on the dedicated CPU_FAN header, so that trick allows us to connect the top chassis fan into the CPU_OPT header connection directly below. Now, we have 5 full fans cooling our system

5. = Power Connectors

  • For the large Motherboard connection on the right, you will use the 24-pin ATX cable that connects to ATX_PWR. This cable is so large because it has the job of powering the whole motherboard.
  • The included 8-pin Power cable is even labeled, with CPU written on the side. This is the cable that will give consistent power directly to your CPU.

GPU Power cables (Unpictured)

The Zotac Gaming RTX 3060 AMP edition GPU has the ability to accept two 8-pin VGA cables. I strongly suggest that you use multiple cables instead of a splitter, or your GPU may experience an unreliable

  • To put it in perspective, using only a single cable to cause your GPU to have multiple Performance Cap (PerfCap) reasons:
  • vRel = Reliability, indicating that total performance is limited by the voltage reliability
  • Pwr = Power, indicating that performance is lowered from your total power limit

Step 9: Connecting the Corsair Case Cables to the ASUS Motherboard

Next, we will need to connect a few cables from the case to the Motherboard. This is because of the fact that you have input/output ports and power buttons on the exterior that need a way to connect, as well as 2 more front fans that need a source of power.

  • The chassis fans each use two cables per fan that both serve a different function:
  • One cable travels to the Lighting Node Core hidden in the back of the case. This device controls the lighting sequences and creates beautiful colors.
  • The other 2 fan cables are 4-pin fan power cables. These serve the alternate purpose of delivering power and controlling speed. 
  • These LEDs in the fans get consistent power through a SATA cable that can be connected near the front chassis fans.
  • Two USB 3.0 ports make use of a single USB 3.0 cable that is attached on the immediate left side of the main Motherboard power cable. 
  • To enable the front-side audio port, a 9-pin HD Audio cable must be snaked underneath the case to get to its header port located at the back lower corner of the Motherboard.
  • The last 4 connections come in the form of pins cables. These are needed to power the build-in LED visual status indicators on the motherboard, as well as connections for the power and reset buttons on the front panel.
  1. POWER SW
  2. RESET SW
  3. POWER LED +
  4. POWER LED -

Step 10: Build Completion

After connecting the final cables to your new system, the Desktop Gaming PC Build should be completed. As a first time builder, cable management might be more difficult to organize, but this is to be expected! with experience, builders will learn more tips and tricks to sort out how to run each cable to its connection. As a novice, your main priority should be making sure no cables are near fans that could contact and potentially cause damage to the system.

As I stated before, the current price for GPUs is still inflated. That makes this the most expensive item on the parts list for a PC build. However, the price is rumored to drop in the summer of 2022, as the market for mining bitcoin slows down, there will be less demand for buying new graphics cards. Additionally, miners will be selling off their used GPUs at a discounted rate, giving an alternate source to find cheap parts that have been expensive in the past.