SHOULD YOU GAME ON ENTRY-LEVEL 2023 GEAR?

LENGTH OF TIME: 1-2

HOURS LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: EASY

1 THE CAGE

TO UNDERSTAND OUR BUILD FULLY, we begin by looking at the core of our case. It allows us to see exactly what we’re working with, and should prevent any further panels/ covers from being removed later down the line. Then, towards the end, we’ll put all the panels back on to avoid going back and forth throughout the building process.

To remove the front glass panel, there’s one black thumbscrew at the top that you loosen, then pull the metal tab next to it towards you to remove the glass panel from the case. We always keep this somewhere safe until we need it later, like the original box. As for the back panel, this has two black thumbscrews: one at the top and one at the bottom. Un-tighten these and slide to remove this panel. Last but not least, we need to lift off the magnetic mesh panel at the top and the front grille. This simply pulls off from either side—be careful to avoid snapping any clips.

2 EXTRA COOL(ING)

AS WE AREN’T USING a fully fledged AIO cooler in this build and our case has no lighting, we thought we’d use some RGB fans to combat both of these issues. To fill the space fully, we went along with two 140mm fans from NZXT. We’ll be installing these both in the front grille of the case. We placed the case on its back to make this process easier—the fans sat on the mounting rack facing outwards—and secured them on from inside the case.

The faces of the fans point outwards, as these will be used as an intake. When it comes to fans, faces suck, and we needed the airflow to run through the case across the components. We kept the original NZXT H5 Flow fan at the back as an exhaust fan. This case also has a hidden fan that sits at the bottom of the case, and it angles upwards towards the motherboard that also acts as an intake.

3 CONTROL THE FANS

RIGHT, OUR FANS ARE IN, but without a fan controller, they won’t perform how they should. This RGB fan controller comes included with the NZXT F140 RGB Duo kit, and can be used with up to three RGB fans. Each fan comes with a standard fan cable that will connect to the motherboard and an RGB cable that connects to the controller. It’s as simple as clipping the cables in and sticking the box wherever seems appropriate on the case.