THE 1440P BUILD STEPS
01 Case Open
Well, would you look at that: it’s another case stripdown! As with the NZXT case, you can kick off this build by removing the two side panels (again, secured at the rear with thumbscrews) and also taking out the excess drive mounts and HDD cage. Inside that cage, you’ll find a handy box of case accessories that contains the screws and standoffs you’ll need for installing the motherboard, so put that to one side. You don’t need to remove any fans from the case for this build either; the front panel of the Corsair 4000D is also removable with simple push-pins, but we’d actually advise leaving it in place to protect the case fans.
02 Socket Rocket
Intel CPUs are a little more fiddly to install than AMD ones, but it’s still a mercifully tool-less process. All you have to do is free the spring-loaded retention arm from beneath its bracket, lift the entire bracket on its hinge, and drop the chip into place. You’ll know it’s aligned correctly if it sits snugly in the socket with no corners lifting up. Then you can lower the bracket back over the processor and return the retention arm to its original position; if you bought a new board, it comes with a black plastic cover that should snap off automatically when you lower the retention arm again.
03 Driving Force
Unlike the ADATA Legend SSD, our Samsung 980 Pro comes with a beefy heat sink already attached to the drive. We’ll be using this rather than any motherboard-integrated thermal solution, so all you need to do is fit the drive to the M.2 slot and gently push it down until the other end lines up with the M.2 standoff (you may need to move this to the right screw hole if it’s already installed). Secure it with a dinky M.2 screw, then it’s on to the memory. Same as last time, just open the DIMM clasps and push down each stick until it clicks into place, using slots A2 and B2.
04 Mexican Standoff
Unlike our other two builds, there’s an extra step required for installing this B660 motherboard. Before it can be properly mounted, you will need to take two of the spare standoffs from the 4000D’s accessory box and install them in the marked holes inside the case for mATX format motherboards. We strongly recommend using just your fingers to screw these in rather than pliers or another tool, since it’s easy to scuff the screw holes with excessive force and that could lead to wonky standoffs, which nobody wants. With your additional standoffs in place, lower the motherboard into the case and line it up with the rear I/O slot before screwing it down. Be mindful not to trap the cable of the rear case fan under the board. You don’t have to remove the unused ATX standoffs unless they offend your aesthetic sensibilities.
05 Noctua Animals
The patented SecuFirm mountings that come with
Noctua coolers are pretty great, albeit sometimes tricky to install. Since the NHU12S Redux can be mounted on just about any modern CPU, you’ll need to make sure you have the right parts for an LGA-1700 socket. Follow the included instructions closely; you’ll need to use position two for the bolts on the backplate and mounting bracket, and the blue plastic spacers. The fan may come pre-attached to the cooler tower, but you’ll need to remove it for installation. Once the bracket is in place (don’t over-tighten those screws) you can screw on the cooler tower and attach the fan using the metal hooks provided. Again, thermal paste should come preapplied to the heat plate. Ensure that the fan is facing the front of the case for optimal airflow.
06 Card Captor
Wow, these two Zotac GPUs are chunky boys. The 3070 Ti and 3090 we’re using in this feature actually share the same integrated cooler and casing, making them nearindistinguishable. After checking we had the right card, we removed the blanking plates from the rear of the case and fitted the GPU into the PCIe slot closest to the motherboard, making sure the clasp on the slot was open. The GPU should click into place; apply a little pressure on the top until it does, but don’t be too heavy-handed. Secure the GPU using the same screws that held the blanking plates in place. You can leave the Zotac GPU support bracket in the box; there’s nowhere to install it in this case.
07 Modular Makes It
It’s time to fit our PSU. This Be Quiet! power supply is fully modular, which means we’ll need to manually fit all the power cables we need. It’s not a particularly unusual selection; obviously, you’ll need the motherboard ATX and CPU cables, along with two PCIe cables for that big old graphics card and, finally an accessory cable for the RGB fan hub included in the 4000D case. Connect all of these, then situate the PSU fan down inside the case underneath the metal shroud, so it sits on the foam sounddampening pads. Secure it using four of the 6-32 hexagonal screws you can find in the case accessory box.
08 Header Hoopla
As we mentioned earlier, the B660 mobo in this build wasn’t actually our first choice. One of the reasons for that will become apparent when you try to plug in all your cables; there aren’t enough fan headers on the motherboard to support all the fans in this case. With that in mind, we skipped the bottom front case fan since this would have the least impact on our overall cooling (although we did still hook up the RGB header for that sweet rainbow action). The rest of the cables from the PSU and case I/O shouldn’t be too much trouble to install; there are plenty of cutouts for you to secure them with cable ties for a neat cabling job. When you’re done, slap those case panels back on and you’re good to go!