BUILDING ON A BUDGET

A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO PUTTING THE PERFECT $535 BUDGET PC TOGETHER LENGTH OF TIME: 1-2 HOURS LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: EASY

1 CASE UNBOXING

SO HERE WE HAVE IT, our Phanteks Eclipse P300. What Phanteks has achieved here is impressive. We reviewed it back in 2018, and it’s still one of the better budget cases out there. At the time of writing Newegg is even running a $10 rebate on this. For that, you get support for up to a 280mm AIO cooler in the front, a tempered-glass panel, full-size PSU cover, ample cable management, a fleck of RGB, and fairly good airflow too. It’s not perfect, but at this price, it kind of is.

Where does it fall down? Well some of the materials used on the inside are prone to fingerprints, it can be a bit tight to work in, and of course it only comes with a single 120mm fan as standard—but then again, it’s $63.

2 CHASSIS STRIPDOWN

THIS IS A PIECE of advice we continually tout when it comes to building PCs, and with good reason, as it makes things so much easier. Strip down your case—the first thing you should always do is remove as much of the chassis as possible so you end up with a hollow skeleton. Not only does it mean you won’t damage the panels, but it’s also far easier to get your hands into all those tight nooks and crannies.

It’s also a good opportunity to shave weight and improve airflow by removing things such as the hard drive cages and caddies, and unnecessary disk bays and things like that. Just remember where you put them if you do decide you need a 3.5-inch drive later down the line.

3 MOTHERBOARD INSTALL