First time I assemble a PC right from step One, even mounting the motherboard, I thought that sharing this experience may be useful in case someone hesitates.

If you are not absolutely irrelevant, terrified even at the simple thought of configuring a machine, go on, it is fun and it develops a hand-made sense, adding to the joy of having a computer that is not identical with any other, a unique combination covering your specific needs and expressing your personal taste.

I needed 5 hours — counting also the time to browse manuals and watch YouTube videos; considering this, it’s not a lot of time. Add also lunch and brakes… It was 2 pm when UPS delivered the components, and I pressed the power button for the first boot at 9 pm.

First thing was to browse for a while the manual of the (Asrock Z77 Extreme 4-M) motherboard; then I opened the (Fractal Design Define Mini) tower, 3 pm already.

Not being sure how to place the motherboard, I watched a YouTube video. It proved extremely easy!

Then I connected the (Intel i5 3570k) CPU to the motherboard, which is easy, but not obvious. You will find a lot of videos on YouTube.

By 4.30 I had the cables of the motherboard and the tower (front USB, audio, power, etc) connected, along with the fan controller that comes with the Fractal Design.

By 7 o’clock, after a nap, the (CoolerMaster Silent Pro 620) PSU and the CPU fan were connected, hard disks removed from the old PC, some cable management (Fractal lets you pass the cables to the side back of the motherboard in order to have a cleaner interior), and connection of the DVD RW.

Note that CPU fan placement is also easy but not obvious; again, three minutes on YouTube were enough.

Time for lunch.

In an hour, from 8 to 9 o’clock all my hard disks were connected, the (Corsair Vengeance) RAM and the (ATI Radeon Fanless) Graphics card; the tower was closed and the PC ready to rock!

As you may have noticed, it is important to be connected online, if it is the first time you build a PC; you will need to consult two or three videos.

For this job I used my Windows Laptop, since the old PC could do nothing more than wait for its components to be transferred to the new PC.

This time (3 years since the previous upgrade) I upgraded the motherboard, CPU and tower, keeping my Dell UltraSharp 2711 monitor [now changed with Dell U2713H], the Logitech G700 (now changed with a Logitech G602) mouse and my Wireless Bamboo keyboard [now replaced with a mechanical keyboard], the Graphics card, the PSU, the hard disks, the DVD drive and an additional NoiseBlocker Silent Fan which I added to the front side of the tower, below the one already provided by Fractal.

Although the tower hosts 5 fans — two at the front, one at the back, one at the bottom (the PSU fan) and one inside (the CPU fan) along with 4 hard disks (7 TB) — Fractal Define does a great job with noise, you have to be near the tower at night (in absolute silence) to hear a mild stream-in-spring sound, which is a great advantage along with the nice looks, ergonomic interior and a strong quality construction.

You may also like to know that this change of the core hardware elements, CPU and motherboard, caused no problem at all with my installation of Windows, existing on a drive that I transferred from the old PC (now changed with an SSD drive).

On first boot Windows needed a couple of minutes to understand and install everything. I didn’t even use the software that came with the motherboard. Windows activation was also not damaged.