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NOW WE’VE GOT a nice easy step: GPU installation.
Remove two of the blanking plates covering the rear
I/O, setting the screws aside for later (we recommend
keeping the plates in the GPU box), then make sure the
clasp on the PCIe slot is open, and push the GPU down
into it until it locks in place. With the card in position, take
the two screws and return them to their original position
to secure the GPU. There’s not much else to be done
here, so pour yourself a nice refreshing drink, and take a
short break to slap a Band-Aid on your thumb. Speaking
of thumbs, we advise you to keep your digits well clear of
the reflective central plate on this 2070 Super, because
it’s a positive magnet for grubby fingerprints that’ll ruin
the glorious pure aesthetic of the card.NEARLY DONE. Unscrew the rectangular plate from
the rear of the case and unpack your PSU, keeping the
power block and cables separate for now. Use four of
the screws included with the case to affix the plate to the
power block, then sort through your cables. You need
five: a 24-pin ATX mobo power cable, a split-end GPU
cable (this should have two split eight-pin connectors on
one end), a SATA cable for the hard drive, and two eight-
pin CPU power cables. The system will run fine with just
a single eight-pin cable, but the second one adds power
for overclocking. Feed the cables through the hole in
the rear of the case, then slide the PSU into place, and
secure it with the thumbscrews on either side. Take this
opportunity to plug in the SATA cable for the HDD, too.GRAPHICAL GOODNESS PSU POSITIONING
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ON TO THE POWER CABLES. Untie the front I/O cables, as
they can get in the way of threading cables into the main
case cavity. Do them in size order, starting with the large
ATX mobo power cable. Fitting the CPU power cables can
be a squeeze up in the top corner of the case, so listen
for the click of the connectors locking into place. The
accessory cable is likely to have a lot of slack, so bundle
it with any other excess cable lengths, between the PSU
and the drive cage. Now move on to the front I/O cables,
tucking any slack back into the Velcro strips in the case.
The tiny power and LED cables are the trickiest. Find the
closest hole in the frame to each connector, then thread
through your cables, and secure them to the rear of the
motherboard plate with cable ties or Velcro strips.UNTIE THE BUNDLED fan cables. Feed through and plug
in the power cables to the four-pin connectors closest
to each one, then separate the RGB cables and daisy-
chain them to each other. Each cable has a male and
female connector, so you should have one of each type of
connector left. Leave the male one unconnected, and plug
the female one into the three-pin RGB connector on the
mobo. Double-check that the cooler fans are connected
to the same RGB cable via the two tiny connectors that
run through the heatsink, then plug the RGB cable on to
the four-pin header on the mobo. Secure any remaining
slack cables, and return all the panels to the case.CABLE CAPERS FAN FITTING
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32 MAXIMUMPC MAR 2020 maximumpc.com