For the longest time the trickiest part was the LEDs and power buttons
Still a pain. I feel like we could surely do a better connector and layout for those by now
the knee bone’s connected to the… something
the something’s connected to the… red thing
the red thing’s connected to my… wristwatch
You forgot the part where you have to dig into the motherboard’s software to enable Windows 11.
I love building PCs but it’s simple until it’s not.
My last build involved nearly losing everything on my RAID5 array.
The discs were set up without partitions, which isn’t recommended, but some guides STILL show it that way, and the new motherboard was like, “Eh, I’ll fix that for you…here’s a new partition table!” Fortunately I was able to recover it, and I rebuilt the array to use disc partitions. But for a few days there, I was nearly in a panic.
That was almost two years ago now, still using it! And making sure my backups are working.
And then navigating BIOS as a 13 year old just to play some kernel-level anticheat game
Try that while mixing modular PSU cables for some extra fireworks. This is like the old adage of the professional who pushes a button and justifies his pay because it isn’t about how hard it is to push the button, it is knowing which button to push. Connecting cables is simple, but you have to know which ones you need to connect, which ones you need to skip, and which ones are likely to be having a problem.
she is trying to flirt with you fool
Programming: designing squary holes and squary cables
My coworkers think I like building computers because I tinker with so much stuff, but no that doesn’t seem super exciting to me anymore. I have mini PC with a laptop CPU and GPU in it. I like it quiet, small and power efficient. It is feeling long in the tooth these days but I haven’t seen something with enough of an upgrade to be worth it.
Recently picked up a used office PC to throw a GPU into. Mostly because ram is so expensive and it cost less than buying ram itself but also because I’m lazy and don’t really care about PC building.
Quiet and mini PC seems an oxymoron to me. Those annoying laptop fans are anything but quiet.
I’ve hacked at mine and Jerry rigged a big fan on the case in the laptop fan’s place. Now that’s a quiet mini PC
There’s a balance.
If you have a “big” PC with tons of case fans and no ducting (so all the hot air just circulates around inside), it’s going to be noisy, no matter how fancy your case fans are GPU are. There are just too many fans, and most of them are trying to get the inside of the case reasonably close to ambient temps.
If you have a mini PC with a laptop fan, it’s just too small, so it has to spin very fast.
The “sweet spot” is SFF builds that duct everything, and throttle the parts. If you have 1 heatsink fan and your GPU sucking in ambient air, and you undervolt them, they’re near silent.
meanwhile GPUs deciding to not work even tho u used the right cable in the right spot
I remember before all cables were keyed to go in one way and you could reverse the plug accidentally and risk destroying a peripheral. Fun times!
The Verge’s $2000 PC Build Reaction Supercut
This isn’t building a PC, this is plugging one in.
And to the average person, there’s no difference regardless of how right you are.
This is the fastest part after the careful compatibility checks, purchases, opening of packages, attaching heat sink with thermal paste, and screwing in components.
The round peg goes in the…that’s right! It goes in the square hole
Yes!
https://youtu.be/baY3SaIhfl0
One of my favourite videos.You mean the ethernet shaped hole?
USB-C cable has entered the chat.
In theory, this is how it should work, but is often not the case.
If you just buy interoperable components without taking into consideration if they’re compatible, you’re running a risk of things not fitting.
What immediately comes to mind is GPU clearance to the case, as well as to the CPU cooling solution. The CPU cooler may not also fit the MOBO you want to use, protrude too much in the case, or have clearance problems with RAM. RAM could fit, but may need to be low profile accommodate the CPU cooler. Power supplies nowadays aren’t as straight forward in compatibility as they used to, since some GPUs may require a special plug(s).
Once that’s sorted, you can assemble like a Lego set, until something doesn’t work. You’re your own support person, so you need to know how to troubleshoot correctly. Did you switch the power supply on? Are the components seated properly? What do the debug LEDs say?
I’m no beginner PC builder, but my current build (first AM5 system) was a nightmare. Everything worked beautifully until I seated the GPU, which was the last item to arrive. MOBO debug LED said VGA issue and no output. Long story short, and two AM5 builds instead of one, it turned out to be a faulty CPU (9800X3D).
Had I gone with what the Internet forums suggested, and with no other AM5 system available to verify, I would have sent the GPU back and still have the issue. Luckily AMD RMA process is pretty straight forward (don’t throw away your boxes until some time after you’re done with the build!) The new CPU worked as expected, but that was the first time I’ve ever had an issue with a CPU. It worked fine via on-board HDMI, but no GPU in any possible configuration with the faulty CPU using two PCs worth of components would provide output. Everything is good now, and a family member made out with a decent 7800X3D system as a present :)
There was a glorious time in the 90s when PC building had enough stuff going on and not yet enough safeguards that I could actually put things in wrong and start a small fire.
Those were exciting days. And sometimes expensive.
In early 2000s I had a power supply fail spectacularly, sudden arcing, lit up my whole apartment… To be fair, it was a case & power supply from the 80s…
Magic smooooke
Those are the gases that made the computer engine run. You let them out and the engine dies.
Any machine can be a smoke machine if you use it wrong enough.
One time it worked to quickly turn off and pull out the smoking chip (cpu cache extender) flip it 180 degrees and try again. No apparent permanent damage.
wait, have they finally fixed the “i can plug in my psu wrong” problem? the stress of that at my job was bad enough i don’t want to do it on my home computers now i can’t afford to replace parts if i bork em
If it was possible I surely would have for my last two computers. At least mine came with nubs and corners that enforced one orientation.
If you mix cables, between power supplies, definitely still possible
