Building my first desktop computer, part 2: First build in an In Win 904PLUS

Find Part 1 of the series here.

Now that I had chosen the parts, it was time to put it together. One thing about ordering parts from different sources is that they rarely arrive at the same time, and so there is an excruciating wait while your hopes are up. They all came in eventually, so it worked out in the end.

I was quite surprised with the size of case's carton. It was much bigger than the actual case, probably because of the generous protection for the tempered glass inside. The salesman even commented on its size, despite the case only being a mid-tower!

Opening that box, I found the case inside a cloth bag; nice! I will definitely be keeping that. After removing both side panels, I proceeded to install the power supply:

It is much easier to push the power cables through the cable management hole before sliding the unit in place, just so you don't need to reach through that narrow space in the basement. Screwing it in, I found out that the bottom left screw (looking at the back from the back) would not reach the screw hole! I probably ended up stripping off some of the thread from it. I guess manufacturing tolerances aren't everything...

There is a cover over the PSU which you need to unscrew before sliding the PSU in. Since I am keen to display the PSU through the glass side panel, I chose to leave it off.

Next is the optical drive. Reviews cautioned about the hassle of both slotting it in and plugging in the SATA data and power cables, which I can confirm. It took some time, but I managed to do it by sliding it in first, beyond the screw holes, then using the plugs to feel around for the right connection (thanks, SATA standard!). Positioning yourself at the motherboard side of the case, it helps to have a trusted second pair of eyes around the cable management side guiding you, and a satisfying click should let you know when the connection is made. Yes, I have tried doing it from the cable management side, but you can't possibly fit both hands through, nor reach around the other side with your right arm, as the hole is closer to the cable management side. And also, a warning: if your thumb is around 22 mm thick on the major axis, do not try to insert it through the cable hole, or it might just get stuck! It also doesn't help that the edges are sharp enough to expose wires through their insulation...

It seemed logical to screw in the case fans next. Not much to note here; I will probably replace the screws with rubber mounts later on, to help with noise reduction. For both fans, there was a good excess of cable length, which I was able to manage by wrapping it around the circumference of the fan then screwing the fans in. The rear 92mm fan screws directly onto the case, while the bottom-intake 140mm fan screws onto a detachable fan mount which then is secured on with a hook and thumbscrew.

For the bottom-intake fan in particular, I noted that the side panel cables ran between the dust filter and the fan mount. I was sure to move them out of the way before inserting the fan mount, not only for airflow but also to spare them from dust buildup.

Next up is the motherboard. Following good Internet advice, I placed it on top of the box it came in to work on it. Slotting in the memory modules, CPU and M.2 SSD was simple enough. This was actually my first time mounting a CPU onto the socket, but I managed to avoid bending the socket's pins and coped pretty well with the resistance of the retention arm (it was a lot less than I was fearing, and I didn't hear any circuitboard creaking sounds).

I got a little confused with mounting the CPU cooler, in particular with the plastic ring mount that the cooler hooks onto. You are supposed to fix the ring onto the mounting holes using barbed plastic plugs. The first barb presented some resistance, which is deceiving; you need to push through it to the second barb, then it can be considered fully secured. As for actually hooking the cooler onto the ring, I used an amount of pressure I thought would crush the CPU in its socket, but it came out just fine.

I was not so sure about the amount of thermal paste the guides say I should use. Many guides recommended "a pea-sized amount", and considering that Australians are used to fresh peas easily exceeding 8mm in diameter, I decided to take that advice with a grain of salt. I did note the very rough grinding job on the bottom of the cooler, as well as the small gaps between the direct-touch heat pipes and the aluminium heatsink, so I used more than either "pea-sized" or "grain-of-rice-sized" amounts, and made sure by taking the cooler off and noting the spread. For Arctic Cooling MX-4, I found that a line of thermal paste 2-3mm in diameter and 2/3 the width of the top of the CPU heat spreader positioned at the centre and aligned across the heat pipes covered at least 90% of the heat spreader contact area with a little bleed.

Now for screwing the motherboard into the case. The reviews warned that an ATX motherboard would cover the cable routing hole next to the 24-pin connector, such that the 24-pin power cable can't fit through. I can confirm that, at least with the ASUS PRIME Z270-AR, the cable will fit through, but just barely:

And here is the view from the back:

Here is how the 8-pin EPS cable fits through the hole. You can see it is a rather tight fit as well:

In Win did provide an extension for the 24-pin cable, which people in the reviews used to route it via the hole next to the SATA ports. Since it has a flat design, and considering the clearance the motherboard standoffs provide, I believe In Win intended it to guarantee being able to route the cable via the intended hole. I also found some extra, longer standoffs among the included screws; I assumed they were for elevating the right-hand edge further.

I mentioned a few caveats in the previous blog post. As far as the I/O shield is concerned, I did not need to omit it completely, nor leave it dangling on the protruding ports. There are vertical but not horizontal protrusions which it can snap onto. In the first few attempts attaching the I/O shield, I could not fix it on, but after some fiddling, it was able to snap it on; not wanting to risk ending up with a loose I/O shield, I did not investigate it further. As for connecting the power cable to the 2.5" drives, I do not have any, so I cannot provide any feedback on this matter at this time.

The rest of the installations, such as of the video card and hard drive, were pretty much uneventful. The video card simply slots into the topmost PCIe x16 slot and its bracket is screwed onto the back of the case. As for the hard drive, it mounts onto a caddy with rubber grommets, and is the slid into place on the drive bay and locked when the bottom of the lever handle hooks into it.

Now for the moment of truth: the first POST! I connected a display (to the integrated graphics for now), mouse and keyboard, plugged it into the mains power and turned it on:

It turned on! at least I knew the PSU was still working. As for the display messages, I got this:

From the guides I had read, I was expecting a message mentioning something more like loading boot media. Did I assemble it right? I may never know. I power cycled the system and got this one:

Was this something more like it? I was not sure myself. I tried to boot from the Windows installation disk (flash drive?), and...

Windows was installing properly, so I just assumed I assembled the computer right. Looks like I successfully built my first computer!

In the final article of the series, I will document my finishing touches (namely cable management and LED lighting) to the build. See you there!