10 Mistakes Beginners Make When Building a Gaming PC

the world of building a PC is fun exciting and sometimes daring but don't worry Hey look it's not as scary as it seems we're here to help and the best way to learn is really from the mistakes of others we've taken personal experience here and what other builders are saying online to bring you 10 things you shouldn't do when building a PC now just a quick disclaimer we picked 10 no nodes but there are always more issues out there so make sure to do all of your research check your static electricity at the door and let's get started off with number 10 we're going for the obvious first but it needs to be known from the very start of your build think long and hard about proper cable management you don't want your PC to be a mess of tangled wires now do you look it's not just for aesthetic purposes either this is practical stuff I personally learned the hard way during one of my first builds I had cables everywhere that not only acted as dust magnets but when it came time for me to replace or upgrade a component the mess I had left behind was the equivalent of me shooting myself in the foot to change something I basically had to unplug and rewire and connect a bunch of things with zip ties tubes and just well-designed cases there's a lot of things you can do with 2018 to hide almost all of your cables in a PC bill don't leave your cables everywhere and screw yourself over later that was 17 year old man don't be like me now next at number 9 we got to acknowledge heat sinks and how they can be crooked sometimes look sometimes things just don't line up I mean sure if you got a closed system liquid cooler from the likes a Corsair or NZXT or if you're brave enough to build your own getting a nice and perfectly aligned cooler is easy you just bolt it on air cooling setups tend to be a bit more finicky though as you'll inevitably need to bracket it down to the board while it's sitting on the CPU with some thermal paste this leaves room for it to budge and shift slightly while tightening it down and if you're unlucky enough like me sometimes you get a tower cool or that it's just a few degrees off from being perfectly aligned well I know this may not be a thing to bother most people I know it bugs the crap out of us here and I'm sure there are others are out there who are striving for like you know the the perfect PC build that feel the same way and we're really just trying to make a bigger point here in terms of screwing things down and lining things up make sure you do it right with certain components and certain attachments if you don't like the way it looks it is worth taking the time to go back redoing it and getting it just right of course also needs to be said that by going back and redoing things you need to be extra careful go easy on screws you don't want to strip them and basically you just don't want to rush any aspect of the build and I think a crooked heatsink is the perfect way to point out that example now down to number eight let's talk about case mistakes spending money on a giant case when you don't really need it is something I see happen often it and it really bothers me sure look you do you you have the freedom to get whatever case you want and having one that's too big doesn't really hurt anything technically but just think you might have spent an extra 150 on that bigger awesome case yet you don't even have plans to ever add a water cool system or extra drives or anything instead you could have gotten a more reasonable sized case and put that extra cash maybe that extra 100 or 150 bucks or something to something more useful you know some will even argue you just shouldn't spend much money on a case at all we see that man a lot of build threads buying for looks doesn't necessarily mean much when you could especially be putting it towards more computer power which is the bottom line on the flip side though some people get different cases for different needs like size portability work VR etc so it's really up to you and your needs but just know that cases are where your budget can see the most a band flow so don't forget that during the process now next at number seven in our research we saw a lot of people making this a mistake don't screw up the installation of the motherboard stand ups or even more accurate don't just skip them altogether or forget them for the safety of your build the motherboard needs to be raised off of the surface of your case and to do that you just typically install the little riser screws anywhere usually from like four to twelve of them into a case so you can place the motherboard on top just like so forgetting them or thinking you can skip them is a first-time build rookie mistake along with that just install them right make sure they're compatible with your case and screw in properly don't strip any screws and definitely make sure they line up with the notches in your board you don't want a crooked or weird motherboard that could cause problems down the line next at number six this is more of a matter of taste but a lot of people feel passionate about this stuff be careful with LEDs choose carefully and do it right so you don't have a build that looks like a child's toy some folks on here and other places will argue to not bother with LEDs at all but like I've been saying with this whole list you do you you want to line it up go ahead we're not going to tell you what to do but if are looking for advice I always think LED fans look kind of funny I don't want to say cheap but sorta take the time to understand the ins and outs of your specific case and do hidden LED strips or subtle lighting instead because that stuff can make your case look cool and fancier again this point is really just personal taste just don't worry about LEDs it's not gonna matter much when you're playing The Witcher 3 on Ultra anyway don't sweat the small stuff now next at number 5 it wouldn't be a PC video if we didn't talk about thermal paste applying this stuff is an integral part of the PC building process and we know it can be a real source of anxiety for a lot of newcomers apply way too little and your PC will just overheat and shut off or your CPU can burn out depending on what the bill is on the flipside if you apply too much paste it can seep out from under the cooler onto the motherboard itself and not only look gross it can potentially cause shorts in the system and just mess up your whole situation this can be made more complicated by choosing an unfamiliar compound that is too liquidy and just gets all over the place and you clamp down your cooler or a thicker compound that you aren't quite sure how well it'll spread out it's a small thing that can make things get bad real fast and everyone will tell you slightly different things so it's a matter of both doing your research and also just being comfortable with the process I always say the best knowledge you can have going in to supplying thermal paste and stuff like that is just confidence next at number four alright look airflow is super important now we're not gonna get into the minutiae of different types of airflow strategies and pressure systems and all that that's for a whole nother video but we will reiterate that for God's sakes just make sure you know the push-pull configuration on your fans and install them properly the first time there are a few things worse than installing your fans backwards and keeping all that hot air inside the case and overheating all your fresh new components so definitely read the back of the box make sure the cable is plugged in right and make sure it's installed in the right direction and while we're on the subject of component temperatures check your temperatures after you finish your build and make sure everything is optimal it's best to know if you need more fans or to reapply thermal paste as a start then when you're in the middle of a gaming binge of weeks later and things get too hot it could still happen but we just see a lot of people make the mistake of not actually giving their PC a proper checkup once it's built now at number three one might sound obvious but well if you've done it you probably get it it's not pushing your power cables all the way in we get it you just spent a ton of money on all components for your new PC and you're trying to be gentle and not break anything after all electronics tend to be fragile a lot of times PC building isn't really a place for those sentiments though you got to make sure everything is pushed into place until it clicks in securely and power cables are no exception and a lot of people are missing the landing on that one these things require a lot of pressure at times so don't get nervous sure it can sometimes feel like you're about to bend or break the damn motherboard without hard you need to press to get the connectors to click into place but not securing such important connections will just lead to a headache down the line this also goes for power connections on hard drives and video cards as well even though the main power cable is the hardest one you just got to make sure all that stuff is in there until it usually clicks this is one of the main issues when a new builder fires up their PC for the first time and nothing happens check your connections maybe you were playing it too safe just keep it in mind now down in number two this is the thing a lot of first-time builders really get nervous about you do get used to it but I still hold my breath while doing it it's the placement of the CPU to the motherboard the whole build getting that sucker directly on the socket requires one slow straight and not shaky placement downwards it's got to be deliberate do not push hard on it or reshift it after it's in place remember with most CPUs to follow that little corner triangle to show which way you are placing it whether it's AMD or Intel the pins on the CPU are sensitive little boys and you can bend them and screw them up really easily so just be slow and careful and like I said deliberate on this part some folks can fix bent pins after a mistake but if you're not a handy experienced person it might be harder now this might not sound like a big deal to some you need to be mindful of all this because the CPU is obviously one of the more expensive parts to the build and you don't want to screw it up after one little mistake with your awkward dumb hands and down to number one one of the biggest mistakes that first-time PC builders can make is when it comes to shopping it's not uncommon to try and get the most for your money you know when you're shopping for parts compromising on brands and tiers of products is a fact of life for most PC builders however you need to know when and where to do it a lot of people spend way too much money on more low-impact parts and then skimp on something like the CPU or the graphics card if you're building a high-end PC maybe consider spending more than $40.00 on a power supply it really is a you know you get what you pay for type of situation for a lot of components not all but most a case is a case drive some amaze your manufacturers are more or less on par with each other these days for most people's gaming needs but think do you really need that $700 rog rampage 6 extreme motherboard are you going to use all of the capabilities offered to you by it or would you be better served with a more reasonable motherboard and upping that core i5 to an i7 and adding some life to your rig with a little more computing power ultimately look we're not your dad and it's your money to spend how you see fit but maybe spend a bit more on the super important parts that will be more noticeable in your day to day PC usage we talked about it earlier with LEDs we talked about it with the size of a case really the aspect of buying the right parts and all the shopping and that is the most research and the biggest hurdle to get over as a first time PC builder so make sure you take your time and do it alright but those are 10 things we think you shouldn't do when building a PC for the first time now there are many more things out there so we definitely want to hear from you guys down in the comments whether you're a newcomer who just learned a new mistake or if you're someone more experienced coming here to yell at us or just add more to the conversation we want to hear from you people have used comment sections like this for valuable resources for PC buildings so let's try and keep that going here but if you enjoyed this video clicking like does help us so we can do more PC videos and if you're new consider subscribing because we put out stuff like this every single day but as always thanks for watching and we'll see you guys next time

Channel: gameranx

Views: 4,208,815

Rating: 4.7531643 out of 5

Keywords: gaming pc, building a pc, thermal mistake, pc building tips, pc building don'ts, pc building cons, how to build gaming pc, pc building mistakes, gameranx, falcon, pc gaming

Id: GOszDHC7fC4

Length: 10min 23sec (623 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 05 2018