9 COOLING TIME
WITH THE CPU cooler bracket and mobo securely in place,
it’s time to install our radiator and fans. As we moved the
stock case fans earlier, we could fit the three Corsair RGB
fans at the front of the case that came with our H170i ELITE
CAPELLIX AIO. Holding the radiator in place, we attach our
first top fan making sure the fan cables feed to the back of
the case. We also make sure that the radiator pipes come out
of the topside of the radiator for better circulation. It can be
fiddly to get the first few screws in place as they feed through
the front of the fans, the frame on the case, and then into
the radiator but, after this, everything should align nicely. To
keep the airflow pulling in from the front, we have the faces
facing outwards—as we mentioned earlier, ‘faces suck’.10 CPU HEADER
AFTER THE FANS and the radiator are sorted, it’s time
to add the rest of our AIO into the build, the CPU header.
This also needs the correct Intel bracket on it to fit, which
it already did, thankfully. The first thing to do though is to
add a pea-sized drop of thermal paste onto the center of
our Intel i9-12900K CPU. To fit properly, it has to be in the
correct orientation with the radiator pipes coming out of the
right-hand side. Once oriented and thermal paste applied,
we carefully align the CPU header onto the CPU and secure
it down with the supplied thumbscrews. Slightly tightening
diagonally to get even pressure across the CPU. Once happy,
we use a screwdriver to tighten some more, then connect
the CPU fan cable straight to the motherboard.13 CONNECTING THE DOTS
SO AT THIS POINT, we have every component in place but
it’s no good without connecting up the veins of the PC.
Start by connecting up the front panel cables—check the
motherboard’s manual to locate where these go. This stage
can be fiddly, but there is plenty of room in this case and
it is a quicker process than normal. After this, we attach
the PSU cables to the motherboard first, then route them
through the back and to the PSU. This includes PCIe cables
for the GPU, the 24-pin motherboard cable, two CPU cables,
and one SATA. We connect the SATA to the commander core
fan controller and then the fan and RGB cables up to the
controller. Nothing was too much of a squeeze to fit in, just
awkward and precise, but when isn’t it?14 TIDYING UP
TECHNICALLY THAT’S IT for our build. It was pretty
successful on the whole, hardware-wise anyway. Before we
head over to the software side of things, we need to do a bit
of cable management and get this PC paneled up. We don’t
often recommend cable managing to a permanent level until
the end and until we know everything is powering on at least.
So, we flick the switch, and thankfully, our build begins to
spark into life.
Throughout the build, we recommend keeping cable
management in mind by routing cables to the best place
possible. At this stage, we just need to tuck things out
the way or use the cable ties. Thankfully, this case has
some good cable
management
routing solutions,
which we follow,
and in areas where
we create our own
paths, we use
the cable ties to
neaten things up.
After this, we
pop on the panels
once again, give
it a quick wipe
to get rid of any
fingerprints, and
our PC is built.FEB 2022 MAXIMU MPC 25
BUILD IT