Motherboard, CPU and memory

Motherboard prep

You can combine PC parts in many different orders, but if you want the least amount of trouble doing so, you'll want to begin by assembling the components that reside on the motherboard. Pull out your motherboard and — here's a handy trick — instead of setting it on a hard flat surface like a table, lay it on top of the ESD bag and foam or cardboard that came with it. You're going to need to push some components down onto the board, but you don't want to damage the soldered pins on the underside.

CPU















See that metal trapdoor in the center of the board? That's a CPU bracket, and you're going to want to pull the little lever on the side (down, out, and up) to open it and remove the plastic placeholder. Inside is the LGA 1155 socket, and you can probably guess what goes in there. Pull out your processor (you're grounded, right?) and gently set it down on the springboard of tiny little pins. There's only one right way to do it, so don't force it down, just line up the little golden triangle at one corner and the notches on either side, and ease it into the socket. Then close the metal bracket again, slide it underneath the retaining pin, and cinch it down with the lever. It should resist you, but if you lined things up right it shouldn't take too much force to lock it back into place.

Cooler



















Your boxed CPU should have come with a heatsink and fan combo, and installing it might be the trickiest part of the whole build, because Intel's stock cooler is a little finicky to put on. Here's how it works: there are four spring-loaded quick-release pins that hold the cooler down, a patch of thermal grease on the bottom, and a set of tiny wires to give the fan power. First, make sure all four pins have their arrows facing away from the heatsink, then line up the pins with the four matching holes on the motherboard surrounding the CPU, such that the power cord for the fan can reach a matching socket on the motherboard too. Press down lightly on the center of the cooler to gently squish the thermal grease against the top of the CPU. Next, simultaneously push down on two of the pins on opposite sides of the CPU until they click and are firmly secured into place, then push down on the other two pins until they click as well. To check your work, flip over the motherboard and make sure both prongs of each pin are sticking through the other side. Finally, plug in the fan power cord.

Memory



















Now that the hard part's over, let's socket some memory! RAM is one of the most sensitive components in your computer — so take care to ground yourself — but actually installing memory sticks is the easiest thing you'll do. Just be sure you're putting the memory into the right slots; look for the ones with standing clips on either end. Generally, the first memory module goes into the socket closest to the CPU, and the second one skips a slot, but the easy way to tell is just to make sure both slots are the same color. (Don't worry, you can't break anything even if you get it wrong; your computer may just perform slower than it should.) To insert, just pull open the clips on either end of a memory bank (this Asus board actually only has one moving clip per slot), line up the stick with the grooves, and gently slide it into place. Then, firmly press down until those clips click closed, and repeat for the other stick. DDR3 RAM has a groove about two-thirds of the way across the stick, so be sure your memory is facing the right direction before you apply force!