This would be a good time to start connecting all of the case cables. First and foremost, this is the ideal time to connect the front panel cables. The two/three pin cables are clearly named on most cases (LED, HD LED, PWR SW, etc.) so it’s a matter of matching a cable to the right pins (this is where the motherboard manual comes in handy). Be careful not to break the pins in the process, as you’ll be unable to turn on your PC if you do. Also, you should make sure all the connectors are facing in downwards (the text should be turned towards the bottom of the case) else the front LEDs won’t work.

If your PC case has front side USB ports you’ll want to connect the case USB cable to one of the USB connectors.

As you can see the front audio connector looks remarkably similar to the USB connector. Luckily they have different pins blocked, so you can’t mix them up. You have to be careful because the firewire and USB connectors look exactly the same though and inserting a firewire cable to a USB connector will damage the motherboard.

Connecting the SATA drives to the motherboard is a trivial task, so we’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Just like the SATA variants, IDE drives don’t require much thinking. We recommend that you connect your optical devices to one channel (use a single cable for both) and your hard drives to the other channel. Connecting the floppy drive is just as easy, even more so because the cable is not the same as the IDE one, so you can’t mix things up. Again, the pictures tell it all.

You have probably installed a graphics card before, but if you haven’t, know that it is not a hard thing to do. The case should be lying down. Most retaining systems allow you to push the card into place by pushing it straight down. Once the card is inserted you have to use a screw at the back of the case to fix it into place. The same technique is used for PCI cards (sound cards, TV tuners, etc.) as well.

Installing the PSU

We’ve left the heart of a PC for last. We could have installed it earlier, but because of all the cables a PSU has (we used the standard non-modular kind) setting up the rest of the hardware would have been a pain.

Regardless of the PSU and the case you should be able to use four screws to hold the PSU in place. The general idea is leave all the screws lose until all of them are in place (the wiggle room will be beneficial for the 2nd and 3rd screw). After they are all screwed them tight at the end however, as you don’t want the PSU to make noise because of vibrations.

Take a good look at the first picture. Can you see a potential problem? If not, take a closer look at the cables. Still nothing? Notice how long they are? And how many of them there are? This is the part where computer assembly becomes an art form. Especially in mini tower cases (such as the one we are using in this guide) the cables will get in the way, there is no avoiding it. Cable ties help ease some of the problems, but you might want to connect all of the power cables first, so you know which of the cables you can tie together. Here we only connected the molex power cables so that they would not mix with the rest. We did the remainder of the binding after the cables were all connected.

The 20/24 pin power connector is the main source of power for the motherboard. As not all boards use a 24 pin connector most PSU’s come with a 20+4 connector, as shown in the picture. Depending on the PSU you might have to assemble the 24 pin connector prior to inserting it.