Common PC mistakes to avoid!

[@dylswerb7492]

I know I already built my computer almost last year at this point, but I always watch these videos regardless because I'm super paranoid that I messed something up

[@stevenb891]

Cant hurt to get a refresher, especially with all the changes lately

[@whatif8741]

Same 😆

[@grumpyratt2163]

Dude ive built 6 computer this yeah. and yet i made a rookie error last week when upgrading my daughter's aio. Yes i forgot to take the protective peel off the pump block.

[@Jason_Bover9000]

Same

[@stevenhenson4956]

Forgot to take the film off my gpu and i messed up the first time mounting my cpu cooler was my screw ups first time builder too

[@zejjnt]

Top 1 tip: don't let the damn M.2 screw out of your sight

[@demoniktusk758]

i lost mine before i knew what an M.2 was

[@JohnLuisOroña]

Or any screw..I was reapplying thermal paste on a company computer of a CAD operator,I removed the CPU fan back panel,when Im about to put it back together, 1 screw was missing, and while I was looking for that screw another screw went missing, I spent a half hour looking for it because the black screw landed on a black pattern of the carpet 3ft away

[@jimmyshelton8954]

@@JohnLuisOroña pro tip for screw finding get down to ground level turn head and check surface for raises and bumps as those will be the screws on the black carpet lol

[@JohnLuisOroña]

@@jimmyshelton8954 yeah,i did that,what i didn't consider that it bounced ~3ft far from me then probably rolled sideways behind something,I saw the screw when I lifted everything off the floor

[@joshstanton267]

Make sure you hear and feel a proper click.. sometimes you think you seated it properly but actually didn't quite 😂

[@DeepCovere]

After building my first PC this past summer, the best advise I have for beginners is to TAKE YOUR TIME. I know it's exciting to see all your parts sprawled out on the table, and you can't wait to play those AAA titles at Ultra settings. However, going slow and doing it right the first time will save a lot of headaches down the road if you need to troubleshoot. If you get stuck, watch youtube vids, read the manuals, ask a friend that's built a PC before, and if you're still frustrated, take a break and come back. My first build took me 8 hours. Nothing worse than rushing through the build and potentially messing up components and ruining your day. The build is the fun part, enjoy it!

[@alen7492]

Yes man! PC building demands patience. You just need to remind yourself how you will enjoying it for years after. Painfully slow but worthwhile.

[@Robonord427]

100% yes! And don't forget that when you've finishing building and manage to get it to boot, you've only just got started. Testing is required.

[@FilthyCasual268]

I built my current system back in 2020, which was my first, and it took me around 8 hours as well. Since then, I've completely disassembled, deep cleaned, and reassembled it twice, but it only took me around 3 hours each time. You for sure wanna take your time the first time around (and all the time honestly), but it's definitely an empowering feeling working on PCs when you start to feel confident in what you're doing! :D

[@bocahdongo7769]

That's also the reason people don't like to build PC. Yeah, it sounds easy as just "big man lego", but the amount of unwritten rule that never on the manual book is actually that many. And some of them are make-or-break. And if that happen, those many PC Master Race would call you bollocky idiot for not knowing those unwritten rule, and doesn't help the situation. Not all people have time or need to learn every single one of them anyway. For those of them, I'll suggest you guys consult to any of trusted people. And when you start to build it, leave it to better person also (and don't forget to give them enough money, since you basically saved much from prebuild)

[@FreshPrince4911]

Very sound advice 👌🏿

[@DrakZhull]

I remember when I was building my first PC, it took me about two hours to figure out where everything was supposed to go. Then it didn't run and I spent a whole night figuring out what was wrong with it. Furious, tilted, almost ready to ship it to some professional builder. Started at around 2PM, PC started working at 6AM. That was 13 years ago and it is still one of the best memories I have. To anyone on the fence about whether or not to build your PC by yourself or not. Yes, do it. You might feel lost and on the verge of madness at some point, but you will look back at those memories with fondness.

[@OhSoCheesy]

I've been building computers since there was such a thing. We didn't have the help there is now. It's great that you can either Google your issue and almost always someone else has had the issue or check out KZbin and , again, almost always you can find an answer to your question. Of course that's true of almost everything and not just computers. I love the technology age. Well, except for when the AI takes over. 🤣

[@spellcrafter23]

First step. Visual inspection before you even start the build. This allows you to spot any glaring defects and or damage from shipping before you even start building. Also to reiterate the importance of the brass standoffs. Don't just use the ones on the corners. Boards will flex if there's not enough support. Components (ie heavy GPU card) can cause the board to flex and possibly short out on the case. If there's a hole in the motherboard, and corresponding spot on the backplate in the case, use it!!

[@ahernandez4695]

My motherboard has stand off holes is that bad ?

[@spellcrafter23]

@@ahernandez4695 depends. Is there a spot in the case to secure it? If so, yes. That's a mounting point you could use the better secure the motherboard in the case. Think of it as mounting a TV on the wall. You're not going to just use 2 screws and call it good enough, are you?

[@blobfish86]

Uhm, I think that's exactly the kind of problem that ruined my last pc, I had a pretty heavy graphic card and after a few months my mother board started failing, now that you mentioned it, I guess maybe the weight of the gpu bent the mobo and broke something

[@qiddas]

thats what she said.

[@SergeyVolkov]

@@blobfish86 there are cheap solutions to support the GPU weight, they are called "Graphics Card Support" or something like that. Even 3d printed plastic support will do :D

[@dandmwg]

A friend of mine asked me to look at his PC as he was getting idle temps of around 60c which even for a Ryzen 9 5950x is hot. I took the CPU cooler off and he'd forgotten to take the plastic cover off the cooler. I laughed, called him a noob in my head, cleaned the thermal paste, put the cooler back on and booted up the system. 62c idle... wtf... Done the same again to see what the problem was. I'd forgotten to take the plastic cover off the cooler. I never told him but it happens to the best of us

[@mekko9312]

How do you forget to take it off even after you clean the thermal paste and apply a new layer? I'm looking forward to building my first PC and I'm sure it's not THAT easy to forget to remove it, is it?

[@YonjiBajonji]

😂🤣😂

[@FallenstarPR-f1w]

Lmao no way.!!

[@rixenoshivaz]

@@mekko9312 theres alot going through ur head especially on ur first build so its easy to forget if ur moving too fast

[@bloocheez3]

Two years ago it was videos like this that allowed me to build my first system. I honest to god went from not even knowing what the current parts were called to having two full builds under my belt. I'm grateful for Jay and a few other tech-tubers for being so good at putting together videos like this that teach so well.

[@fragehardt]

One beginner mistake I've seen made at times is that sometimes people will assume if a power supply is modular that they can simply mix and match cables from any PSU, and this can easily lead to fried components and a really really bad day. Always *ensure* that the cables you're using are for 100% sure compatible with your specific PSU (not even just the manufacturer, I mean the specific model).

[@annieworroll4373]

The old days of AT power supplies letting you plug the motherboard in wrong. Keyed to get them oriented correctly, but not placed correctly on the header. There were multiple ways you could do that wrong and blow up your motherboard.

[@QuackZack]

You can use modular PSU cables from other manufacturers but generally shouldn't unless you're 100% confident the pinouts are the same. Even if the cable fits on the PSU end, doesn't mean it's compatible. I used EVGA cables on a Corsair supply but I triple checked if the pinouts were the same.

[@genericscottishchannel1603]

very cringe

[@XRaiderV1]

bitwit's fixed/done a few psu's like this...including one that literally saw him jump three feet in the air(psu let go with a gunshot like noise)

[@markg2051]

@@annieworroll4373 LOL I have been there and done that once.

[@VeggyZ]

SSDs and HDDs both have their place. HDDs for the storage size - so long as they're internal and they're powered up occasionally to avoid bit rot, old style HDDs are great. NOT good for a windows drive - anyone using an HDD for windows at this point NEEDS to try it on even a standard SS, because they don't know what they's missing.

[@jeezuschryst]

I'm building a new computer for the first time in 14 years and am FINALLY switching to SSDs.. haven't used one yet. I got myself a 4TB WD sn850x nvme. I'm sure I'll be blown away at the change!

[@Aracore]

don't forget to cover the importance of stand-outs. Very first build i ever did, years ago onw. I had no idea what those little brass posty things were for, and nothing explained them to me, so... I left them off, which meant that as soon as I powered up, I shorted out the ENTIRE motherboard (much blue smoke) in one easy lesson. DEM LITTLE BRASS THINGIES ARE IMPORTANT!!!

[@charmzee8749]

I almost did the same thing with my current build in 2018, luckily i was like "Why not? There's a reason everyone uses those" Glad i did cuz shortly after i saw a video about this issue and i was like "glad i added those".

[@xaenon]

When I ran a shop in SE Indiana, a novice 'DIY' fellow hauled in the PC he had just built himself. No signs of life at all. He'd reseated all components. He'd swapped the RAM modules. He'd double checked all connections. He'd made sure the switch on the PSU was set for the proper line voltage. Nothing. Fortunately for him, it was a slow day at the shop and I could crack it open and take a look at it right away. I spotted the problem in like four seconds. His brand spankin' new motherboard had come packed with that pink protective foam rubber. Which he thought was an insulator and had installed between the motherboard and mobo plate. The pink protective foam rubber pad that was made specifically to protect the motherboard from ESD damage, and was actually conductive. His whole computer was a giant short circuit. He was quite fortunate, however - though a bit embarrassed. It was not a dead short. All we had to do is pull it apart, remove the pad, and reinstall everything. Took about 10, 15 minutes, maybe. He hit the switch and it whirred to life. We were all new at this once. Remember that.

[@adamhearts9195]

what is a stand out,, I've never even heard of it. 😢 just finished my first computer build

[@johnhpalmer6098]

@@adamhearts9195 Unless you are joking, I'll explain, those little brass screws with threads on the top, those are the standoffs, and they are designed to hold the MB OFF the MB plate in your case, or you will likely short out the MB.

[@PapagenoX09]

Isn't the normal term for them "stand-offs"? They're the tall narrow hex-nut thingies that you screw onto your case's backplate, then line up the motherboard holes with them and screw it into place.

[@Balrog132]

Hot tip: If you are using an air cooler, in most cases it is better to fully assemble the mainboard with the cooler outside of the case. This is especially important with double tower coolers, where you put a fan in the middle and have those stupid wires to mound the fan to the finstack. Bonus: If you have a modular power supply, also connect the CPU power cable(s) before finally putting the board in. Thank me later.

[@daviniarobbins9298]

Speaking of air coolers(those big ones) always measure your case just to make sure it will fit inside. Nothing worse than having fitted an air cooler in your case only to realise you can't fit your side panel back on. I haven't personally made that mistake but I bet quite a few watching these videos have.

[@andrelisboa7193]

thnks

[@NikitaDarkstar]

I did not have a good time when my AIO on my old system died and I decided to switch to a Noctua DH-15. When it came time to replace that whole system that beast when on the m,obo before anything went in the case. Still lost some blood to it.

[@BaieDesBaies]

I did that the first time and my air cooler is so big i could not mount anything after it was in, so i just installed it just before the GPU.

[@mixification]

For the beginner builders out there make sure you put your IO shield in before the motherboard. It's not so much of a problem nowadays since some motherboards have it preinstalled but the budget motherboards won't and there's nothing worse than finishing your build to realise you've forgotten the IO shield. Also check your case measurements with your component measurements so you don't run into an AIO radiator not fitting or GPU not fitting because the case doesn't support certain clearances and then having to delay your build waiting for different components or case.

[@Chriss4123]

If you forget to install your IO panel it’s no big deal. It was meant to block out EMI but nowadays with all these acrylic side panels blocking off that tiny space is gonna do nothing in the grand scheme of things.

[@zdspider6778]

Ha, I just commented about this. Glad I'm not the only one who messed it up at least once. @@Chriss4123 Dust. Insects. If it's next to a window, maybe even pollen or floating dandelion puffs, leaves. You don't know. It offers at least a little bit of protection. And blocks off 0.001% of the sound. I think it's still better to have it installed than not.

[@i_am_macgyver84]

I built my first PC in 1997 at 13. I've only ever bought one "custom" built desktop which was a dell dimension 8200 in 2002. Besides that I've put together all my desktops. My latest gaming computer was the first with the case that had the hidden area for the PSU and side panel for the wiring. The cutout wasn't large enough to route the 8pin cpu connector through with the board screwed down. Also I couldn't get the AIO radiator in after the MOBO was in place. Other than that, with have 2 NVME slots on the mobo. it was the cleanest build I ever did.

[@Chriss4123]

@@zdspider6778 you didn’t forget about the 1 if not 2 if not 3 fans at the front pulling in more air per second than an open IO shield will in a day? When your consider how many intake fans there are on the average PC the IO shield becomes pretty much negligent. Sure it may contribute to a minuscule amount of particulates but overall in the grand scheme of things it contributes to basically nothing. What I’m saying is if you forgot to put it in don’t take out your whole motherboard to put it in. I only use IO shield for the looks and nothing else because it gives nothing else. Sorry if this comment came off condescending or rude, I did not want it to be looked at that way.

[@zdspider6778]

@@Chriss4123 I have zero fans on the front of my PC case. Come to think of it, I have negative pressure inside it, so I should probably mount one. It came with a broken connector so I never installed it. It's been running fine for 6 years. I clean it once a year or so. The dust filters become clogged up pretty badly, but inside is not that bad.

[@Rippedyanu1]

Honorable mention is make sure your case has room to work in if you're a beginner. Not having some cable slots in certain spots or the inner area being too cramped can be a bastard to deal with. Also wire up your fans LAST. Fans should almost always be the last thing you put into your computer so that you can easily access the EPS cable port on the motherboard for your CPU as well as managing the unholy amount of cables you have with fans, especially if they're the non-direct daisy chain RGB fans.

[@thundercat_pumyra]

I made that mistake with my first computer build. Even now that I know what I'm doing, I will never work on a case that's cramped because of that. I will always check every bit of info available just to see what the cable management is like because I've bought cases that were large, but had absolutely no cable management/storage spots. Like an inch between HDDs to route cables, and that was it. Trying to route a 24 pin motherboard cable *and* 3 PCIe cables for the graphics card? Not going to happen. Getting just one PCIe cable through there was a bitch. Had to route cables through the stupidest places leaving a tangled mess in the front of the case with a nice window to see it all.

[@robertbenoit5374]

Actually installation of the fan depends on several things. Are you building a tower with plenty of space or a desktop with very little space. my last build was a Desktop. I haven't built one in several years so it was a bit Challenging to say the least and me personally I prefer towers due to the fact that my hands are huge. However, with the lack of space I was required to install everything and then slide it very carefully into the desktop case and then very carefully hook up the wires to the front panel and the power supply. It turned on and booted with no problem. The system has been running for a business since August 2022 with no issues so I would say I did an excellent job.

[@georgeerhard1949]

I will mount the fans, but route all of the cables to the back of the case, and then velcro them together. Same with aRGB cables and the like. It also helps to assemble the motherboard as much as you can out of the case (NVMe's especially) and then slide it all in. Another tip Jay's pointed out with modular power supplies: run the cables from the board/components to the P/S, not the other way around. That way you can get the cable management done as you're putting things in, not trying to stuff cables through holes and try to plug them in with no working room. Another thing you can do, if you're actually not using drive bays for older style drives, is remove the brackets for them. A drive bay with no brackets becomes a great place to stuff cable slack (like that 4-connector SATA cable you only needed 1 SATA tap off of). Smaller SATA brackets can be used as cable guides, if you don't outright remove them to get more room.

[@iElite6809]

I used to watch your videos around 2015 when I was building my first gaming computer, before I went to study at university, when the debate was around the GTX 970 vs R9 390. That computer lasted me 7 years until a month ago. I have long since graduated/started working now, and I don't play games any more, but I still come back and watch your videos just because your content is great to keep up to date with the latest in tech hardware. Thanks for your content!

[@edengaming5021]

Just curious, what do you do, now that you arent into games? Ive never grown out of them, and am an old man. But, I wonder just what other people do to occupy thier time out of work?

[@user-gz4ve8mw9l]

@@edengaming5021 Some people move on due to them being so time and money consuming. One person I know learns new skills each year instead. While writing poetry learning a new musical instrument every 4-5 years. Alongside investing the difference and spending more time reading for recreation. I for one have no plans to move on personally. However I have reduced the amount of time I spend gaming. As well as limiting new games to 1-5 a year. Which will be reduced to 1-2 games every 2-3 years soon. I'll only be upgrading my desktop twice more. Only getting a new laptop 2 more times in my life at most.

[@rknine7998]

I remember the GTX 970 from 2014!

[@alexwu8077]

Man I feel old, I had a pair of HD5850s and an X6 Phenom II at 4ghz back in the day. That rig was installed in an Antec One Hundred. I was so proud of it back then, and tbf it lasted over a decade with no upgrades. Now I’ve moved onto a 5800x3d + 3070 combo cooled by a distro plate hard tube loop. How things change. I’m never giving up this hobby, I love it. I may be too old for it at 26 but I love it anyway.

[@LANCELOTtino]

Same. I had that debate around that time. I went with the R9 390 and it lasted me until 2023. That was a great run. Now moving onto a team green build with a 3080.

[@Echo3_]

I been building pcs since 1997 and I will say never get to cocky I watch videos like this to this day to keep my brain sharp. You always have more to learn.

[@murrys5444]

My top tip is don't use zip ties. Instead use Hook and Loop strips (aka, Velcro). They can be a lot easier to remove if needed. You can't go "too tight", which can damage cables. Plus they are a lot easier to remove rather than having to cut them out, which has the risk of accidentally cutting the cable within. I've seen more cases now have cable management channels with slots intended for Velcro strips rather than zip ties. The case I have even came with some Velcro strips pre-installed.

[@razvann6907]

I prefer using zip ties, however, until I am absolutely sure I'm done and about to close the case, I leave the zip ties so loose that I can pass an 8 pin PCIe power cable through them and, when I finally tighten them up, I always leave a bit of slack so, in the future, if I need to pull on one of the cables that pass through them, I can do that easily.

[@iPlayOnSpica]

I just keep and collect every single twist tie from all the components and electronics I've bought over the years with cables tied with them.

[@Jcreek201]

@@iPlayOnSpica That's some jank Great Depression shit. Zip ties are like 99c for a thousand.

[@envyhysteria]

@@Jcreek201 Sometimes , those are easier and better to use. Chill out

[@gmailcgs]

​@@Jcreek201 bullkrap, price is $12 for a 1000. Stop Lying about 99 cents for a 1000 pack.

[@erichagen3617]

I have done 3 builds since august, one for my father in law, one for my 16 year old, and one for me. I still watch Jay’s videos because I love his content.

[@Fossillarson]

I've built two in past year lol. Yes J keeps us up to date and fresh news :)

[@opiumextract2934]

Does your father in law play games or anything? My father in law is 70 and he hopped on my PC a while back and played American truck simulator with the wheel and pedals and shifter. Dude legitimately had a huge smile on his face.

[@erichagen3617]

@@opiumextract2934 mine is like 60. He plays world of Warcraft. I got him from 15 FPS and crashing to about 165 FPS at 1440p with a G-synch 144hz monitor. Intel 12600k, lian li cool mesh 2, Corsair 240mm aio, 32 GB’s of 3200 DDR4 Corsair dominator, RTX 3070, 2TB SSD crucial P3 plus. It was heart warming to give an old guy joy again. It warms my heart that you got to do that for your father in law.

[@Manusia.satu1]

@@erichagen3617 Good man

[@mastersarge5488]

I just built my 4th machine in roughly the past 6 months. My buddy wanted a full AM5 build (7900x, 670e Taichi, Fury Beast 5600 RAM, etc). It runs like a dream and I couldn't have done this without you and Christopher Flannigan. Keep up the excellent work. You are helping us noobies crawl kicking and screaming into the computer building world (with a minimum of mistakes).

[@alexmentink8567]

One major building mistake to make is ram clearance with a cpu cooler. I recently built a computer for a coworker and the radiator barely allows the clearance for the memory modules. We got lucky that things could be built easy enough but there were only a couple millimeters of clearance after everything was installed. Make sure to check the heights of ram clearance when you're looking for a cpu cooler, especially for air coolers and top mounted radiators.

[@RedVRCC]

Good point, I almost had this issue myself with a huge chonker of a cooler I got. The RAM barely was able to squeeze in there.

[@MarkJacksonGaming]

-- TIP: ALWAYS CHECK THE LOCATION/COUNT OF YOUR MOTHERBOARD RISERS. Make sure those risers (for the screws that mount your motherboard to the case) are in the CORRECT position, and they're the correct number of them. You risk grounding your motherboard if just one is out of place, or you have, example: a board that needs 9 risers, but there's 10 installed on the case. That 10th one doesn't belong, and could ground the board. Do a test install of the board only, don't hook anything up. Make sure you have all and only the risers lining up with the mobo holes perfectly. This happened to me with an old PIII rig decades ago. Ended up shipping the mobo back to Thompsons Computer Warehouse in FLA twice before I realized it the mobo tray had one extra riser installed.

[@variablenine]

I'm new to this and still in the process of researching parts, in this situation would you just file down the extra riser or is that a bad idea

[@CompressorMango]

Back when I was a wee-lad I told a friend they could build their own pc, it was easy. After putting it all together it wouldn’t turn on. Turns out he did not install any standoffs. Your comment brought that memory to the forefront of my mind. 😂

[@chrissyboy7047]

​@@variablenineits probably too late now anyway but you would just unscrew the riser from the motherboard tray. No need for filing

[@georgeerhard1949]

@@variablenine Most times the "riser" is just a divot to mount a standoff post (a hexagonal part with a threaded screw on one end and a hole for a screw on the other.) I would NOT mount a motherboard to the case directly, that's what standoffs are for!

[@doctajuice]

I'm about 20 years into my pc building journey and still learn new things with every build. One of the reasons I still love this hobby and also why I still watch basic build guides even though I have years of experience and like 25 builds done

[@Mr3ppozz]

I love these videos... I've been building my own pcs for 30+ years and I still feel it's good practice to make sure you crossed all your X-es and dotted all your i's

[@drawingablank01]

crossed x's hmm

[@nddbulldog1]

Def crossed some x's

[@Dark_Reaper_86]

It's cross your t's and dot your i's, but whatever

[@Mr3ppozz]

I knew it was cross something xD Thanks for the correct saying :)

[@vidiot5533]

@@Mr3ppozz can you show me an e\ample of when anyone ever forgot to cross their Xs? lol

[@Karn0010]

Always keep your motherboard manual handy. It will be a life line your first few times building.

[@joeyderrico8134]

Its a lifeline even for experienced builders sometimes just because there is always that 1 thing different about the board that you didn't realize

[@razvann6907]

@@joeyderrico8134 like on an older motherboard I encountered, where you needed to install the ram in adjacent slots if you wanted to use them in dual channel. You never know when a manufacturer decides to be that special snowflake that does things different from the rest and he only does it for that one specific motherboard.

[@hydrod12345]

Like you I've been repairing and building computers for around 35 years. I've come to the conclusion that every time I think I know what I'm doing everything gets changed. It does keep my mind going.

[@ScrambledAndBenedict]

A friend of mine in IT once said, "nobody has more than 3 years experience doing anything with computers"

[@theflyinggrip]

Use all the bread ties that came with your hardware to cable manage inside the case. It's super easy to anchor the ties to different areas, and it gives you a great quick release cable tie while reusing what would have ended up in a landfill.

[@BurgerMan87]

Already threw them away 😂

[@kyleanderson4280]

Mine didn't come with any

[@patrickhudson9236]

Watching you and Paul and Kyle gave me the confidence to build my first computer in 2017 and now I’ve built 5 systems.

[@BETEP-gw7qp]

I've built my own computers for about 20 years, but I still love watching these videos from Jay

[@aquel9367]

Same

[@MikeCarusoGPlus]

Me too

[@reinoaalto9941]

+1

[@Hawke677]

Well, Luke Skywalker turns to Yoda in times of need, we turn to Jay, perfectly natural.

[@mtw31993]

Recently built my first pc. This channel was a huge help in figuring out what I was doing. There are certainly things I wish I'd done (and bought) differently, but it's running great and building was a ton of fun.

[@Anankin12]

Yeah, I'm regretting getting an A520 series Mobo for like 30€ less than a B450, which would have been better in everything, because I feared it wouldn't be able to run 5000 series CPU. Also the case won't support coolers taller than 15 cm, which is bad as most decent coolers are 15.5.

[@imma5761]

@@Anankin12 just save money for b550 and switch it eventually

[@vectionnoitcev2836]

I started building PC's in the mid 80's after buying an IBM PC (now what do we do? I don't know, it's a DOS environment!) and another no name system at a computer show. I don't miss the guesswork of having to set DIP switches to get it to run at all. I made the mistake of not researching compatibility issues once in all the years since starting to build them. I've either been lucky or I've got a talent for building them. PC Part Picker is my friend now.

[@Hypershell]

My tip: Make sure your RAM is seated all the way in. The thing that surprised me most on my first build was the HUGE difference in seating RAM versus seating a CPU. Feather touch with a CPU, while with RAM you're afraid you're going to break something and it's not even in. This goes along with "line it up right" since even if lined up correctly you still have to be pretty firm. Also thanks, Jay, for the AM5 backplate reminder, that one is REAL easy to forget. I still have an AM4 system and need to remember that if/when I upgrade, I can't trust AMD's word that AM4 coolers are compatible. One more thing: To go along with the 4 RAM slot compatibility thing, if you're doing your first RAM upgrade, not your first build (meaning you have 2 occupied slots and 2 open slots, so you go out to buy 2 more sticks), I seriously recommend getting a higher capacity than your original kit. That way, if they don't play nice together, you can replace the old kit and it's still an upgrade, just not as big of one.

[@Fleet-Admiral-Harrison]

I've seen this on some builds, on some marketplaces, that the GPU is in the bottom PCIe slot, which is usually like x4, or x8 (at best). Normally, beginners do this, thinking that any full length PCIe slot, will do, but, the top slot is marked (sometimes), or has some sort of reinforcement, for heavier GPU's, which will help keep the GPU, from damaging the slot. But, those PC's, on the marketplaces, I've looked at, had some relatively modern cards, in them, and they looked like they were recently built, so I questioned, if maybe the top PCIe slot was either dead, or damaged (which is possible), or possibly, something is wrong, with the MoBo, or CPU. If you're building a new PC, just make sure that you use the top, full length PCIe slot, cause that runs at the full x16 speeds, so you're not running into bottlenecks, from that. TLDR: If you don't know which slot your GPU goes in, either consult your manual, or just look for the top most, full length PCIe slot, cause that runs at the full speeds, of the controller.

[@GregoryShtevensh]

Yeah great advice! Push with confidence

[@Isaiiahii]

A lot of AM4 coolers will work with AM5. The only coolers that won't work on AM5 are those that need the backplate replaced. I have an AIO cooler that sells as only being compatible with AM4, but it also works on AM5. As long as the cooler mounting holes aligns with the screw holes that mount the plastic clips for air coolers, then any AM4 cooler will work on AM5.

[@Hypershell]

@@Isaiiahii Jay was quite clear in the video about the backplate issue, my point is AMD never specified that caveat. My cooler did require its own backplate, so it will not move to AM5.

[@TheOnlyKontrol]

Once you realize how much effort it takes to remove the 18pin plug from some boards you realize that pushing down on the ram isn’t going to do anything lol

[@DayDream-RR]

Just finished my second PC build. Went with a Z790, 4080 and 13900k. Wouldn't have ever built a computer if I hadn't found your channel all those years ago. Thanks for giving us the confidence to do it ourselves. :) I dropped my screw driver on my motherboard and bent the pins first time around lmao

[@QUITZ_]

How did you even get out of that situation

[@Nayr7928]

Sounds like a rich person problem while reading.

[@SDChargers93]

@@Nayr7928 you sound salty

[@SDChargers93]

Lmao same happened to me bro. I bent my 3900x and just bought another one lmao

[@beszt95]

@@Nayr7928 it's okay, let them waste their money lol

[@AcM.5233]

Back to the basics. I dig it. With everyone working at home and the new interest in PC's it's good to see someone going back to the basic building tips. I spend hours a day helping others with their first PC. This may not be the video for everyone, but it's the video everyone needs

[@xflyinglizardx]

disconnecting all drives before you install windows is actually a really good advice because even if you know which drive is which and you install windows onto your fastest nvme or whatever, the BOOTLOADER could still be installed on a DIFFERENT drive REGARDLESS of what you picked in the installer.

[@dustysparks]

I've had this happen twice now. I went to upgrade a drive, and poof! System wouldn't boot anymore no matter what I did.

[@clinten3131]

Why would Windows do that?

[@CURTSNIPER]

plus if you want to do a reinstall and you have some drives with only games on it, steam will discover them on there already when you try to download to that drive

[@subcon959]

@@clinten3131 I've thought that many times about Windows in general

[@TheGreatTave]

@@clinten3131 Hey, Microsoft is a multi-billion dollar corporation, how could they ever pay any engineers to prevent something like this from happening?

[@BlazingDiancie]

Not exactly building my PC, but something I did recently while cloning my OS to a new SSD. I got a bit impatient and somehow deleted the EFI Boot Files after the clone, and because I didnt have another PC in the house, I couldnt make a bootable USB to fix it and had to get my local repair shop to do it for me. And all the while, I was on the edge of a breakdown out of worry that it somehow wouldnt work. When moving your windows install, NEVER EVER get impatient or skip steps. IT WILL END BADLY. Thankfully, all it took was getting into the System Repair command line, temporarily assigning a drive letter to what should have been the EFI System Partition and reinstalling the boot files with literally just one command.

[@andrewt.5567]

Jay right, only put in the OS drive during the install if you can. Makes it simple. Fans can go whatever way you want, just balance them and make sure nothing is blocked. Heat rises and all, but as soon as a fan is involved natural heat rise becomes negligible and the fan is king. Just need air coming in, a way out, and the path along things you want to cool. Semi modular power supplies are a great thing. You need the big cable regardless so it doesnt hurt if it is attached. You may or may not need a lot of the other stuff. So not being forced to have a bird nest of unused cables is very nice all around. Makes building easier and safer for compnents. Looks better. Better air flow. And if the cable is not in there it wont end up shorting something magically or shifting into a fan.

[@privacyvalued4134]

My biggest tip is to install RAM before installing the CPU cooler. Trying to do it the other way around is usually possible but you'll end up working in a tighter space to try to seat at least one of the sticks. It requires a little muscle to seat RAM properly because tolerances for RAM slots are tight so that the electrical connection is solid. It's easy to not fully seat RAM and the computer won't POST when that happens. Installing the CPU cooler before the RAM just makes it more likely that the RAM stick closest to the CPU won't be fully seated.

[@scotthaggard]

I think it would be helpful to remind again on the potentially lengthy initial boot time for a new AMD build. I ran into this for the first time a couple years ago, ended up doing an RMA on the motherboard, which was tested and returned, and at no point in the process did they (Asus, I believe) mention how long the initial boot might take, even though I explained the reason for the RMA. It was almost by luck that after getting it back and trying again, exasperated I just let it sit, and eventually it proceeded to boot, to my surprise. I never understood why until a couple years later I heard Jay mention it... mind blown. Yeah, good stuff. Always something new to learn.

[@edmorris4103]

Thanks Scott! Can you elaborate on this a bit, please? I'm researching a new build to happen in the next month or so, and I'm planning an AMD CPU with an ASUS board, just like you mention. How long did the initial boot take? Were there status lights lit? Anything specific to look for?

[@Robonord427]

@@edmorris4103 I'll jump in here if you don't mind, as I've just completed an AMD build, with ASUS MB, so I think I can answer your question: The initial boot takes about 30-45 seconds and equally as long when you enable XMP. This is down to the system running memory training on boot, so the more memory you have, the longer it will take. You can enable "Context Restore" which skips the memory training if it does not detect any changes. This reduces the boot time to a couple of seconds (seriously, it's super quick). However, if you have any problems (BSOD) and Context Restore is enabled, you may not be able to boot at all, so you have to boot to Bios, turn it off and let the memory training take place. Personally, I've left it off as 30 seconds boot time is not a huge problem for me. With regards lights, you have four Q-LED lights on the MB that light up in order as the boot goes through it's stages (DRAM, CPU, VGA, BOOT). If any of these stays on or starts flashing, you at least know where to start troubleshooting. Hope that helps and happy building!

[@edmorris4103]

@@Robonord427 Thanks!! Yes, that helps a ton!

[@nickwilkerson6694]

You have helped me so much in the last year. Between you Linus and Greg salazar I have went from a person who always thought building a PC was something that was just out of the realm of possibility for me to someone that fixes other ppls PCs weekly. I love having the knowledge and ability to help others. I live in a rural area of ky and it's not easy or cheap for PC repair around here. Your channel has not only helped me but a lot of hard working ppl around me that simply couldn't afford to have something repaired by a professional. So thank you for your knowledge

[@LyraniaLothar]

Bit late but you actually saved me some money! I WAS going to get rid of my water cooling since my previous mother board is an LGA 1151 and my current upgrade has the new LGA 1700 so I figured the water cooling unit was obsolete. Thanks! You saved me $80 which isn't a lot but it is one less component in saving money on!

[@Gimpy17]

I never use zipties anymore, I only use rubber-coated/silicone twist ties just because semi-permanence is much more user-friendly when having to undo cables when an unforeseen circumstance arises during building/maintenance.

[@chrisguli2865]

More tips - 1. Apply right amount of (and good quality) thermal paste - too little and too much are bad. 2. If using an AIO cooler make sure there is enough space for the radiator and that the cooler head is compatible with the socket AM4/5/LGA intel. (I made this mistake went out and bought an AIO cooler and then realized the radiator was too big and butt up against the motherboard VRM heatsinks which are honking these days.) 3. If using a modular PSU make sure to use only the cables that came with the PSU so you don't fry your motherboard. When installing an LGA type processor be careful not to drop anything or the processor onto the socket. When installing the processor hold it carefully close to the motherboard and off to the side.

[@denvera1g1]

16:49 If you're upgrading from one drive to another, pull the old drive out when installing windows, yes the old drive is going to be extremely easy to see because it has partitions, but the windows installer also sees those partitions, and one of those partitions is the UEFI bootloader, the windows installer is going to see that bootloader and add the entry to the new install to that bootloader on the old drive, so if you format or remove that drive in the future neither drive will be bootable. Edit, this may make bitlocker on your old drive require the use of a recovery key if for some reason your BIOS clears the old key.

[@chaoticxie1425]

I've had this happen before, it's a headache for sure.

[@ryangarcia1359]

I recently built my pc and had an used External SSD and Hard drive. I believe I have done this because windows will no longer boot. Do I need to clear both of them now? Or can I save some of the data on the hard drive and only clear the ssd?

[@Crynomical]

If you delete the drives so there are no partitions it’s way less likely that windows will do that also I found out on Google if you have multi drives when your setting up windows in custom mode you can use cmd commands to tell you what drive is what (:

[@Crynomical]

Found it (: Press Shift+F10 in the installer, a command prompt window will open. In this window type diskpart and press enter. Once the diskpart utility loads, type list disk. This will show you a list of all installed drives, the two drives in question should be disk 0 and disk 1. These identifiers should also line up with what the installer identifies the drives as. Now enter sel disk . Enter detail disk. This will display fairly detailed drive information. In this case the drive manufacturer will likely be the most useful information for you to determine which drive is which. Repeat steps 4 and 5 as needed to get information on other drives. Enter exit twice to exit the diskpart utility and close the command prompt window.

[@denvera1g1]

@@Crynomical Alot of people want to keep their old drive in case they forgot to back something up, also because most of the time people are installing to all blank drives, most people dont know that windows just adds to an existing bootloader, There may be a way to get the installer to create a different boot drive, but its not something that is obvious during install, and may require you to carefully wipe the bootloader from your old drive, which might make your data inaccessable if you dont have a bitlocker recovery key

[@KEYBEATZ]

I've only been building computers for 16 years, I have not had a system fail on me yet however, I still watch videos like these because you learn something new every time

[@jonard7037]

CPU Fan and Water Pump Headers.... I just did a hardware upgrade and wasn't aware that CPU Fan Headers 1 and 2 are usually dedicated for heat sink coolers and 3 amp water pumps. CPU fan header 2 was designated for 3 amp water pumps which made troubleshooting why my AIO water pump and fans were cutting off and causing my CPU to overheat and crash my system, an all day headache. Once I routed everything to other headers and configured it all right in bios, everything worked great. But it was a pain in the rear end. I love watching your content because I find it very informative. I always learn something new from you every time I watch your videos. I find Jay is also very entertaining when he slips in some of his opinionated stuff. Its great and makes me laugh. Even if im not building a pc anytime soon, just the hardware porn alone featured in your contend gets my geek rocks off in a very satisfactory manner. Maybe you should try some HW porn shorts showing off some of that sexy expensive HW you get to play with from time to time. lol. But yeah, your channel is awesome... I love it.

[@Blinknone]

Can't say I really learned anything watching this, but tons of great, useful information for most folks.

[@TheTrueOSSS]

Hands down most humiliating mistake I've made is springing for ram without double checking the QVL. I had to down clock and boot train until I could afford the time and money to fix it. Always check if your parts will match, especially if you are on a budget!

[@malphador]

Jay, great video sir. I also have been assembling for close to 30 years now. One process that took a long time to get right, is affixing a AiO water cooler for the cpu "Flush". The mechanic process of cross-tightening does not really hit the mark I have found. If you have time for a future video showing mounting processes and verification. I have found pressing down with 1 hand gently and tightening with one hand while keeping contact with the other. Any occasion where I tightened down in a cross pattern you just do not keep torque even. You hit the nail with your ram section, you can get the best Strix board, and 4 sticks of name brand top of the line, and the CPU will boot loop a few times, disable XMP for you and leave you clutching the edge of the desk every time you turn the thing on LoL.

[@freakfir]

Always check your clearance, especially if you're planning on an SFF build. 1mm can be the factor for not being able to install your cooler/GPUs inside your case.

[@benjaminsteigerwalt1820]

My first building was a pentium 4 I damaged my processor. Make sure your pins line up with the socket before installing your processor and to lift up the socket lever before installing your processor. Make sure the golden color arrow on the processor is matching up with socket arrow on the motherboard.

[@SilberTape]

While case-modding a metal made chassis - Do not control with your finger whether or not your drill-bit is exiting at the expected spot while operating the drill...... Probably should've needed some stitches back then, but my fingerprint now looks kinda cool.

[@ratty39]

Lots of good suggestions in the comments here. Here's mine: Before you build, take pictures of the labels on all your components, (CPU, RAM, PSU, SSD's, etc...) - After the build, put them in a folder with the motherboard manual (that you should download from the manufacture, by the way), because at some point you will need to look up something and be glad you did,

[@samppawest]

My tip: if your memory resembles fishnet stocking as mine does, just do a step-by-step checklist before starting the actual building or fixing. Using five to thirty minutes to ’plan the attack’ will save you at least the time you put in the planning and more often save you a lot of time since redoing stuff drops to a minimum.

[@samppawest]

I just broke that tip and in the end forgot to connect main front and back fans. 😅 I have secondary fan in the front and on the back roof of the case which are connected to the case’s fan controller. It was my first time building in a case with actual cable management capability in the back so of course I forgot something since there were some cables that weren’t going to be plugged anyway. Wouldn’t have happened with a checklist.

[@freeyourmind112358]

I thought u were talking about ram lol

[@jacobcarrier8373]

If a connector does not go in on the first try, or you feel like it's going in sideways and going to break, STOP and take a look at the connector. Most likely you are improperly lining them up. I bent the USB 3 connector on my board when upgrading my system. Thankfully after waking away and sleeping on it I was able to fix the pins and carry on. Take your time and think about what should be connected first to make your life easier in a smaller case.

[@icecreamtruckog3667]

I've used 4 memory sticks all differnt and all worked but they all worked at the slowest speed. Using a higher watt power supply is always better, it just runs cooler and uses less power. The watt rating on the box is the maximum power the supply is rated for not what it runs on standard. A 1000W can run on 150W if you are not using it to the max.

[@TheSunflowerGalaxy]

Check the BIOS versions on everything. NVIDIA released vBIOS updates for the 4090 and 4080 to fix a no video issue. Some video cards will only allow boot in legacy mode (or have quick boot disabled) unless they are updated.

[@fhracing5614]

When jay posts, it makes everyone's day better

[@cnvdh3514]

💯

[@Mr-fn3yb]

I concur.

[@neondemon5137]

Starving children in Africa: bruh

[@michaelcartwright306]

except for guys with man-buns.

[@jaredsmith7065]

Make sure your case is sizable. The case that I bought for my PC fits everything, but the motherboard was a pain in the ass to get in, and I nearly dropped it because there was no room for my fingers to hold it. I'm planning on oversizing the case next time

[@fdimichele]

I learned the hard way that putting a standoff in the wrong position can cause electrical mayhem. Honestly, why did they ever even have standoffs that you must install yourself. The patter doesn't change. You can use all the different formats. Maybe server boards are odd, but consumer boards are basically the same mounting pattern. I had one case with removable motherboard tray. It was awesome.

[@BRBTechTalk]

25:25 Absolutely, I just bought a 1150 socket Asus board from e-bay that was only $50 and condition unknown. I test on a glass desk and this thing boots and runs but every time I shut down the date goes back to 2009/01/01 and does not retain the settings. I am glad I did not put it in a case and get all the cables managed to find out it has a fault. If you ask why I am still using gen 4 Intel processors, I worked in a computer shop and have lots of processors and DDR3 RAM to build computers that do general computing. I am not a gamer I make videos and write scripts, they do what I need them to do.

[@IJm3]

I recently bought a pc from a hobby builder, had loads of issues with it crashing bsod, thought it was the fact that the ram was an unknown cheapo set. So I bought some new ram. Turns out they were in slot a1 +b1 installed new ram in correct slots and now works perfectly.

[@eduardosanchez7827]

This is the kind of video we should all see randomly at least once every few years. Great content, you just showed me a few things easy to forget for my next build

[@djhaleux]

This video just saved me from 2 major mistakes I would have made on my first PC that I'm in the process of building! Thank you for all of your insanely valuable videos!!

[@Cwra1smith]

Make sure you use copper nails instead of iron.

[@siristar8339]

The biggest and most annoying thing I did as I was building my first gaming pc was not making absolute sure my motherboard was compatible with my CPU cooler. I've seen many builds using the ASUS ROG Strix z690-e motherboard paired with a Noctua NH-D15 cooler. So I thought I was okay getting it. Apparently, as I was installing it, I noticed the cooler wasn't sitting evenly on the CPU and was extremely difficult to screw in. I looked it up later specifically looking up issues in terms of the VRM heatsink size. To my surprise, I found out ASUS made all the z690 and z790 motherboards to have this issue and therefore incompatible with most air coolers. I guess to have more people buy AIO water coolers? The cooler can't rest evenly on the CPU with the VRM heatsink in the way. The only way those builds I saw prior to my purchase could possibly make it work was if they modified the VRM plastic cover or orientated the cooler sideways for bottom/top airflow instead of the more typical front to back orientation. That wasn't ideal for me nor did I want to risk voiding warranty by cutting the plastic cover off so I ended up swapping motherboards for MSI. Its been a nightmare trying to build my first PC. I really wish it was more clear that some motherboards just aren't compatible with certain coolers. Noctua's website has a chart for compatibility but because I saw many other builds on PCPartPicker have this pair I thought it was going to be okay. I noticed other CPU cooler companies don't always have a compatibility chart and if they do, its not very easily found on their site. I've ended up returning and swapping about half my original build idea. Because I thought it was just the cooler's fault, I swapped that first. Then realized it was the motherboard itself so I swapped motherboards. I kept the second cooler since its on par with the noctua one for a better price and had enough returns to worry about. I swapped for faster Ram for only $15 more than what I originally paid for because it was on sale. And then I swapped GPU. I got the ASUS ROG Strix OC 3070 ti but then saw for just $50 more I could get the MSI Ventus 3x OC 4070ti. I'll finally get to put it all together this weekend so wish me luck. I hope I wont come across any more issues or return anything else.

[@-8_8-]

I am building a PC soon, and I'm going to be doing it in front of others who want to learn. So this video has been helpful as it covers some topics that may or may not have come up otherwise.

[@zer0tzer0]

It's not the Build that worries me. As long as I have the right parts, I can put it together. It's getting it up and running. Blessing the Drives and setting up the BIOS and the OS.

[@proxima8498]

The most painful experience for me was the fact that, for XMP profile to work and in case you are using double RAM sticks, you have to put your 2 RAM modules in the 2nd of each slots from left to right. In my imagination it was logical to put them in A1 and B1 and I spent hours of trial and error to find out that it must be A2 and B2. Painful learning but it even says so in the motherboard manual but that’s what you get for not reading :D

[@razvann6907]

I encountered an older motherboard where, in order to get dual channel, you had to install the ram in adjacent slots, always read the manual.

[@David-rx5eo]

My manual clearly suggest A2 and B2 if you only have two sticks of memory.

[@fdimichele]

It is pretty much standard practice these days to install ram as far away from cpu and space them apart because it just makes cooling sense if anything. In the past, you had color coding of ram slots because it varied. You should see server boards with like 16 slots. The patterns you have to follow get even more involved.

[@Just_Call_Me_Tim]

Here's one for you: If you've been taken by the SFF bug, do your best to add even just one small/thin case fan in the event you go for liquid cooling on your CPU. There are passively cooled components (RAM, M.2 covers...) that may not get nearly enough airflow otherwise. I'm having to replace my boot drive (as it became my only drive and became overworked for the cooling I had available), and now I'm without a PC for a week waiting on the parts to come in. Don't neglect your passively cooled components / don't expect your radiator fans to draw in enough from the side panels, etc to help with the passively cooled things.

[@BakaDani]

One mistake that I've been making recently are with SATA cables. Be careful with SATA cables. They're more fragile than you think. I've broken 3 SATA cable connectors within the past year. They are at least pretty cheap and motherboards come with quite a few of them (some SSDs too). If you're wondering how I managed to break 3 of them within a year, it was from unplugging them in tight spaces, putting pressure on one side. Also be careful with the USB 3.0 header. The cable is often pretty thick, making a pain to plug in on some motherboards. Super easy to bend the pins if the connector is not aligned.

[@justjoe5373]

For USB 3 you need to be gentle like a butterfly drinking a drop of dew early in the morning of a hot June day, while simultaneously applying 400 newtons of force

[@PenPineappleApplePen007]

Ty, I placed the ram sticks next to each other. Going to fix that today. I learned something new from this video.

[@TroxelSportsStreams]

Twist ties are lifesavers this way instead of clipping a zip tie where you run the risk of clipping a wire twist ties take that element out the equation. Plus they are cheaper then zip ties. I’ve even used this method running cables to and from my 4 monitor setup my mixer and other components as well that way less wires shows the cleaner the setup looks.

[@MaycroftCholmsky]

It would be interesting to hear about the common mistakes users do AFTER building their first PC. For example, I've plugged my intake fans in Pump slot of the motherboard because it was labled "pump/fan 1" and sat there wondering why they have started spinning on maximum speed the moment I've turned my system on. Got it figured in a couple of hours, but still. Also I'm still looking into the whole "fan curve" thing and didn't find any definitive answers how the fans should be properly configured to not put unnesessary strain on them and not to de-sync cpu, gpu and case fans creating all kinds of air turbulence inside the case. Pretty sure almost every first time builder has some stories like that one.

[@logrolesdownstairs]

I just did my first build and found twist ties to be super useful. I tend to hoard heavier duty twist ties from product packaging and used those for my cable management. That was nice because I slowly replaced the factory case fans and could easily change how I was routing cables.

[@fdimichele]

I use zip ties as they are a bit safer to use because they don't have metal in them or those cheap velcro loops.

[@VikingKong.]

It's all about the velcro loops

[@TheEmirhaka]

One thing that is always overlooked and not talked about enough in tutorial of how to build a PC is the motherboard standoffs. I made the mistake when building my first pc to remove the 2 that where preinstalled(the others where not) and screw the motherboard directly to the case but i was lucky that my motherboard had protection and i didn't damage any component. That is the mistake i will aleays remember. The cases in which i built PC-s afterwards all had their standoffs preinstalled.

[@quickhakker]

some things i would say to anyone build a pc, first time or 100th time 1. Unless you are able to verify that a thing is working DO NOT buy second hand, (as a point out my last system was compatable with fx8350 bought over the cource of its life 3 8350s from CEX none of them worked, bought one from ebay worked a treat, this also is a dont buy from CEX point as well) 2. if you want to check compatability for parts (ram cpu mobo) use pc part picker (this can also work with mobo and case size, although it doesnt work for cooler size) 3. RTFM 4. dont freak out if your system doesnt power on first time, check to see if you powered on the PSU 5. do a out of case test boot, most problems with builds can be solved by simply unplugging and plugging back in components (especially ram) and most the time its easier outside the case, ESPECIALLY if you are doing a HTPC style build where you are really confined in the case 6. Check the components for what they can and cant do, as example all AM4 cpus with a G at the end have on board graphics so you can get a board that has HDMI out and it will be fine, but if you don't have that G then its pointless having HDMI on the mobo, same thing but inverse for the F chips from intel 7 get a larger PSU than what you think you need, if your GPU of choice says you need 500w psu go 750w, this way you have OC headroom and stability if you dont OC (cause CPU now do a boost which might draw more power)

[@anti-roxas850]

2:41 ALMOST made this mistake myself.😅 Building my own PC atm. Proud of myself. But almost got motherboard that supports ddr5 instead of ddr4. Then I have to look up if they were just different and name or were they completely different sockets. And indeed they were.

[@johnbogle6475]

Good bit about cable management. In non-computer, traditional electronics, leaving a little bit of slack is sometimes known as a "Service Loop". I got this mostly from wiring up rack systems for Audio, Video & of course Networking. An aside (probably wouldn't relate to your watchers), in an outdoor installation, exposed wires should be installed with a "Drip Loop" which gives water a path other than your installed gear. Look up at power poles and youwill see :). Great video. Cheers

[@tfeinstein]

Jay, first off, thank you for all the advice. I've only built 3 PCs over the years and sat on each of them for 6-9 years, so its kind of like coming at it again for the fist time each time. Last July I decided to start getting back into it and came across yours and Steve's channels which I have been watching ever since. Really helpful and entertaining. My one piece of advice for those new to building a PC (or more like a re-emphasis of what was stated within the video) is to over-index on your PSU wattage and rating for a few additional reasons: a - Transient power spikes are a real thing. It truly sucks when your PC shuts down as things get exciting during a game... but only as an infrequent and unexpected surprise. b - From what I've read, and think I understand (we'll see if anyone comes at me from the top rope :^), PSUs generally run more efficiently when they are drawing around half of their max wattage. Higher efficiency equals less heat, which equals less noise. - FYI, I finally hit the button on all the parts. Looking forward to next weekend's entertainment. :^) - Thanks again.

[@john9801]

Good quality PSU can have a 90+% efficiency even when at 80% power draw. Compared with 92% efficiency at 50% power draw the difference isn't that big. Also with very low loads during idle, the efficiency can drop below 80% which is not too much of a problem though as at those low wattages it doesn't matter as much. But because of that I'd try to not get too big of a power supply.

[@evlkenevl2721]

I over-spec my psu for both of these reasons, and to enable upgrading as well. Also being able to tell a good psu from a shady one has gotten more difficult. This is mostly due to lax 80+ rating enforcement and "customer" reviews being total BS now. Seriously, canned reviews (and the inclusion of reviews for totally different items) should have been a legal issue by now.

[@john9801]

@@evlkenevl2721 that's why I use the PSU tier list combined with in depth reviews. Mostly toms hardware and techpowerup.

[@tfeinstein]

@John thanks for the added info. I do remember the callout of being less efficient at lower power usages. I guess there's nothing perfect for every situation. I went with an 850 Titanium from Seasonic to power my new rig with a 4070 Ti paired with an i5 13600K. Max power draw should be about ~450 with transients popping an additional ~110. But that's while gaming or running some AI projects. Browsing around, I won't be efficient at all.

[@john9801]

Would love to see a series for all the components and what you should watch out for. Basically this video split into multiple ones and getting into more details

[@raven4k998]

aww shit

[@m3lfbreezy]

you want MORE details? are you kidding me... my brains fried.

[@bradentribble6374]

Always a good idea to review the basics. Just today, I was installing my new AIO cooler for my CPU, and I forgot to take the plastic film off of the cold plate.

[@bathomas1994]

Such a great video! I’ve helped my brother build his PC and I’m currently in the process of upgrading mine. The best advice I can give is to wait to completely cable manage until you’ve actually booted up the PC. Nothing like cable managing everything and figuring out that it doesn’t turn on and you have up unclip a million zip ties lol

[@belial8608]

Love these videos, built my first system last year. Luckily I did a lot of research first and only mistake i made was putting the RAM beside each other which obviously was easy to fix. It's an MSI, Corsair, WD build and it booted up first try so I'm proud of myself but STILL, I do enjoy watching these to learn anything I could have possibly missed.

[@nal_er]

Love your work! Speaking if beginner mistakes. A lot of creators are struggling with the fact that the new 13900k is unstable at 128 gigs of DDR5 ram which high end pro's that work in the film industry need. And they are going out and building these unstable systems for studios = lots of $$$$ wasted. The ProArt Z790-CREATOR WIFI board might solve this issue. Will you please do an in-depth review on the ProArt Z790-CREATOR WIFI board for professionals? Does this board's new ram control tech solve this issue? Can we get stability on 128 gigs of ram if we lower the speed and turn off some of the silly over clock marketing ram features that make 0.0000001% speed difference in real world professional usage? Thank you! YOU SIR, ROCK!

[@nepnep6894]

If you need 128GB of ram get HEDT. No consumer platform does 128GB of ram stable with decent performance.

[@mikeford963]

Memory controllers are on the CPU now, not on the board. Sounds like that's either an Intel oversight, or maybe a BIOS issue?

[@nepnep6894]

@@mikeford963pcb traces on the board still have a huge effect

[@mikeford963]

@@nepnep6894 True, but the comment is about the memory controller being on that particular mobo, which is no longer the case. Ever since they took the north bridge off the motherboards, memory controllers have been in the CPU die itself. That's part of the reason they got larger.

[@juhanapajari7471]

Interesting what you said about ram speeds. I turned into a first time builder a few months ago and paired 7700x with corsair vengeance 5600 38cl sticks, asus tuf b650 board, and I could not get windows to finish installing without really random crashing. I had the feeling it was memory related, enabled expo thinking maybe it'll like those timings better and it's worked flawlessly since. Just left feeling a bit uneasy about not understanding why the default timings had it vomiting.

[@Djuntas]

Asus b650 tuf gaming plus? I hear a lot of memory issues on this mobo. Its why im going with AMD expo ram that clearly states that...In my case some Kingston 5600 mhz ram, through was gonna buy 6000 mhz corsair vengeance black.

[@stevenlee4985]

from experience....was so eager to just upgrade i didnt check to see if the parts i got (GPU and motherboard) FIT INSIDE MY CASE....needless to say had to make a few more trips to microcenter LOL

[@eric_has_no_idea]

Mixing up extension fan cables and quiet cables.

[@DJTabor_95]

I watched countless hours of your content before I ever thought of building my first PC. I have an entire playlist of your build guides and videos like this so I didnt make these mistakes. Luckily I had no hiccups building it lol.

[@ashleyjohansson230]

People need to stop telling others to only get a power supply just good enough for their system or else its overkill because graphics cards are becoming more and more power hungry. Otherwise everyone will have to replace their power supply everytime they upgrade graphics cards and it would create more waste.

[@grumpyratt2163]

that's good advice i always go at least 100W above recommended psu wattage

[@onemorescout]

Besides, you need to account for power spikes anyways unless you’re a blue screen addict

[@ethenjordan2010]

I just built my 4090 Rig. Biggest thing i think new builders need to know is that you ( or for me ) HAD to update UEFI/BIOS, before it would let me install windows. Also, showing them where to get this bios update/ windows and how to put it onto a USB Drive. I think if you can build the PC just fine and you’re all excited, this can easily be the most frustrating part for most new people after the anxiety of hoping it post. Lol

[@chillnspace777]

What case did you get to house that shoebox 😆

[@stevewatson6839]

This can't be stressed enough; same goes for the VBIOS on your graphics card.

[@mikeford963]

Also, keeping up on mobo drivers and utilities. As well as updates on BIOS etc...

[@stevewatson6839]

@@mikeford963 AND be prepped to roll any or all these updates back when the update rather than fixing stuff; breaks other things. As appears to have happened with the early December 6900XT/XTX driver update. Note: NOT the die-breaking that happened to a single source of used mining cards in Germany that had been stored improperly.

[@mikeford963]

@@stevewatson6839 Oh, agreed. I was referring more to things like Audio updates, USB drivers, LAN drivers, etc...

[@jithel7948]

My biggest mistake: assuming that my ability to build my own pc 8 years ago has much bearing on my ability to do so now. Last year I upgraded a video card and had all kinds of problems, some of them of my own making by rushing to fix. I didn't notice the new card required a separate power. None of my old cards did. This caused issues which I made worse in my rush to assume other things were the problem. I did eventually resolve everything, but not before a profoundly borked reinstall of Windows and some very complicated problems with proprietary software not being usable on the new letter drive. Don't assume past knowledge gets you off the hook of reading the manual. :D

[@roger-2620]

Thanks for all this info!!! I'll prob build my pc soon, it's gonna be kind of high end so I'm a bit scared of mistakes but this helps a lot!!! 😁

[@qiangdalong3982]

Don’t mistake 5v headers with 12v headers for your RGB is something I learned lol

[@toushif.hossain.1]

Why this mistake haopens? And What happens if you do that?

[@qiangdalong3982]

@@toushif.hossain.1 In short, certain rgb strips are rated for certain voltages, so I had a 5v header and a 12v header on my motherboard (asus x570 prime-p I think), but the strip I had was only rated for 5v. So when I plugged it into the 12v, it blew out

[@ReelPodcasts]

Can't say it enough NEVER skimp on a PSU. This was the first and last mistake I ever made building my very first rig. Went for esthetics over practicality and bought from a lesser known maker to save a buck. First one was bad and wouldn't power on and the second also didn't so I then asked for a full refund and bought a better one for an extra $10.

[@chillnspace777]

This

[@onemorescout]

PSUcultist list is the best for this kind of thing, always do your research

[@tinklegaming2298]

Great content Jay! Love you and your teams work 💚

[@silence_94]

Thank you for extra advices. My mistake that someone can lern form is that i tight my cpu cooling too much in my intel bild and bend a lot pins on the socket.

[@TybJim]

Thanks for the comments on memory. I put some new DDR4 3200Mhz capable RAM at 2400Mhz in an old X99 motherboard. Your comment about how enabling XMP or increasing its speed is essentially overlocking and pushing the memory controller on the CPU was helpful. I don't think its worth pushing my older i7 6950X to run RAM as speeds a lot faster than it needs.

[@millanferende6723]

Jay does not need a proper outro, because he knows he is one of the best sources on KZbin and nobody is going to be leaving him! xD

[@Luca48882]

No it's because you get so bored and pissed at how long it takes for him to say the simplest stuff or maintain coherence or actually explain instead of milking the timer and joking about accidents or past people that you start sorting throughout the comments in hope of funding something useful and before you know it you're already watching another video

[@extrememojo8387]

High speed ram sticks must be matched. That is, come in the same kit. You will not be able to get 2 sets of two sticks of the same brand and SKU and expect them to run higher than base speeds. Which effectively means if you want to keep the speed you can not add 2 more. You have to buy a set of 4 and get rid of the 2 old ones… or just get 2 more and run them slower anyway

[@randeeharrison275]

watching these videos has aided my understanding that i dont know enough to build my own pc, or to even upgrade the parts in the one i have. D: Im so overwhelmed. I need my pc for making video games/mods, playing graphically intensive games, and streaming to twitch. Sometimes, I want to do ALL of these things at the same time. Where do i start?? i ordered more RAM sticks a week ago but after watching this im planning on returning my 4 sticks of 8 gb for 2 sticks of 16 gb.

[@JJFlores197]

I strongly suggest reading up how computers work. You don't need to be an expert to build your own PC, but it greatly helps to do some research before jumping straight in. Start off with what a CPU is and how it works and work your way till you get a general idea of pc parts. Then you can move onto looking for PC builds based on your budget. After that, you can look at assembly guides that show you how to put the computer together. Remember, none of us were born magically knowing how to do any of this stuff. A lot of us learned through trial and error and curiosity, perseverance, and research.

[@ernestg.harveyjr7087]

omg! jay my very 1st build lol. i didn't know that the plastic snap in spacers were to get it away from the mounting plate thankfully i noticed b4 i powered on or even plugged it in lol otherwise it would've been a star trek display lmao meaning like when the ship got hit by phasers or a torpedo and sparks fly out of the tactical station lol and of course lotsa smoke in short "A VERY EXPENSIVE MISTAKE"

[@JamieKitchens6]

I left my HDD media storage drives connected while duel installing Windows and Linux and it screwed up the bootloader placement. I eventually had to disconnect all but the SSD to install the OS's on and all went well. A tough lesson learned.