Intel budget build
THE ALL-INTEL BUDGET MACHINE
LENGTH OF TIME: 1-2 HOURS
LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: EASY
1 BACK TO BASICS
WE ALWAYS HAVE TO BEGIN our builds by focusing on what matters most: the chassis. In this instance, that’s the Corsair 275R Airflow. To get to the nitty-gritty, we need to remove the panels, and for this case that’s quick and easy. For the front panel, simply pull from the bottom to unclip it and then again from the top to pop it off. For the tempered glass side panel there are four thumb screws that are keeping it in place—just loosen these and keep them somewhere safe. Whenever taking the glass panel off a case, rest it on its back to avoid the glass panel slipping off—yes you guessed it, we’ve made that mistake before. Lastly, the back panel is held on with two captive thumbscrews, and when they’re loosened, it slides off. With all the panels removed, we can start cracking on with this build.
2HIGH-FIVE I5
WITH THE CASE PUT TO THE SIDE for a moment, we bring our ASRock motherboard to the table, as well as our Intel Core i5- 13400F. As this motherboard has been used before, it’s important to make sure that the socket and the area around the socket are clean. Even more vital is that all the pins are straight and none have been bent. Luckily, there was no issue with this board, so we could crack on with installing the CPU. First off, lift the retention bar to the right of the socket to open it up. Then, on the socket, there should be an arrow—align this with the arrow on the chip and gently rest it down into the socket. Make sure you only hold it by the sides and never touch the bottom of the CPU. Once the chip has been inserted, lift up the retention arm once more and hook it back into place to lock it in.
3 SWEET MEMORIES
WITH ONLY TWO SLOTS to play with, we didn’t have to refer back to the motherboard manual to choose the correct DIMM slots to use with our two sticks of RAM. The only thing we had to do was align the notch in the slot with the notch on the sticks, unclip the slot, and then press the RAM into the slot. When you hear a loud and satisfying click, you’ll know that the RAM has been seated correctly. We have to say, with the RAM in place, this motherboard is starting to look like a scaled-down dystopian model city, or maybe we’re just going crazy! Now that our RAM is in place, we can move on to the SSD.