If you could warn all new PC users of something, what would it be?

[Hunched]

Whether it's something that caused you a headache as a newbie or something that you believe isn't as common knowledge as it should be, what would you warn all new or soon to be PC owners of?

 

 

Personally I had a hell of a time figuring out why my GTX 970 was rock solid in benchmarks and demanding games, but frequently crashed while playing less demanding titles.

I did all the research, read all the guides and watched all the videos, none of which mentioned my issue. Somehow I stumbled upon a plethora of complaints about GPU Boost, and at last fixed my issue, which wasn't even my fault.

Unfortunately it's only solvable by using a custom BIOS or enabling K-Boost in EVGA Precision X. Nvidia 900 Series has MAJOR issues with overclocking, see here: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/784294/geforce-900-series/boost-feature-causes-gtx-970-980-instability-in-low-utilisation-situations/1/

Who would have thought a company bragging about how overclockable their new cards are would implement a technology that seemingly does nothing but cause issues in doing so, and make it difficult to disable?

 

Also, Mouse Acceleration which is enabled by default in Windows

I disabled it instantly, but not everyone knows what it is.

It would suck to play games for months and think you aren't good or your mouse is garbage because you don't know about acceleration.

Far Cry 4 had it permanently enabled for a while there and I had to play it with a controller for the time being...

 

What warning/advice would you give to a rookie PC owner?

[KRImSIN]

I would warn them of console peasants creating a rebellion.

[Antibull]

I would say: Don't cheap out on your case.  

[asker509]

I would say: Don't cheap out on your case.

Yep also motherboard if you might even have a itch to upgrade

[ShadowCaptain]

I would warn them to hide their wallets when the steam sales start, to avoid humble bundle, and to leave gog alone

 

Unless of course they want to own 1000 games they never play

 

 

like me

[Hunched]

I would warn them to hide their wallets when the steam sales start, to avoid humble bundle, and to leave gog alone

 

Unless of course they want to own 1000 games they never play

 

 

like me

Brace yourself, tomorrow the Holiday Sale begins

[ShadowCaptain]

Brace yourself, tomorrow the Holiday Sale begins

 

Oh I am braced dont you worry

 

I only need 20 games to break 500!

 

https://steamdb.info/calculator/?player=shadowcaptain&currency=us

[shadowblitz3]

use anti-static wrist straps

[cesrai]

Don't believe marketing BS especially CPU and GPU marketing bullshit.

[cesrai]

use anti-static wrist straps

Nope I wont, using my case/PSU as anti-static and grounding my self before building.

[Infernalz]

As someone in the process of making my first build, this thread is already providing some great things to look out for, and I am surely going to keep an eye on this.

[KayTees]

I built my current rig nakeeeeeeeeed. Well.. with boxers on... 

[the pokemon kid]

Buy dust filters! OMG they are so needed!

[MoDtEc]

Uhhm? Dont trust ads on russian sites and dont klick "yes" when you didnt start the download by yourself? (malware etc)

 

oh and everything els is or will be mentioned already

 

if possible put your cpu cooler in after youve connected the I/O and stuff. sharp edges

[CGurrell]

If you're talking about tips for someone new to building a PC, then I would say never cheap out on the Power Supply, or more generally I guess, do your research on parts before buying.

 

For new owners who maybe bought a pre-built system, I would say clean it regularly and keep an eye on temperatures

[Hunched]

- Don't choose a PSU based off of brand, always find the OEM.

- Some air coolers outperform water coolers, I was heavily under the impression water cooling was superior in early research.

- Don't buy a case that has no dust filters, don't you do it!

- Positive pressure > negative pressure for less dust.

- Magnetic tipped screwdriver, trust me

- You can suspend a hard drive quite easily if vibration is driving you insane.

- Most people with poor to average overclocking CPU/GPU's don't seem to post their results, making you believe you've done something wrong or that you're way more unlucky than you actually are.

- I had a rare issue where my monitor wasn't receiving Full RGB despite using DisplayPort, somehow it thought it was a TV using DisplayPort... That was annoying to fix, some might not even notice that their blacks should look blacker.

- RTFM

 

Thinking of everything and anything no matter how trivial from my personal experience. The first post and this might be everything.

I don't know if HDD vibration and bad case fans are common, or if I'm just unlucky or picky, but those are things I'd suggest to keep an eye out for as I've experienced both. 

HDD can be suspended, fans require money to fix with entirely new fans.

[FluffiestPond]

1 word: Apple...

[KayTees]

Didn't really give a shit about the case. Using the Corsair Spec 01 atm, it's not that bad of a case but the NZXT H440 in white... The regrets... But yeh, DON'T CHEAP OUT ON A CASE. Why? If you have friends who come over and not know a think about PCs, just by looking at the case, they make think it's high performance 

[MLG Doge]

Those "Doctors hate her!" Ads do not work.

[Hunched]

Those "Doctors hate her!" Ads do not work.

I'll take this as a stealth suggestion for AdBlock

[Diederik_Gr]

Don't cheap out on a case, because proper dust filters are really nice to have. Also be careful with tower heatsinks when taking them out, i damaged my GPU's backplate quite badly with one.

[KemoKa]

I would warn newcomers to the GloriousPCMasterrace to beware the deadly sin of brand loyalty/fanboyism/hatred. Just because one dude had one bad experience with one product line of a company does not automatically make the entire company bad. All companies have defective units amongst otherwise perfectly functional ones. Bow to the law of Really Big Numbers and just RMA it if something breaks. It's not the company's fault most of the time. People criticize ASRock for questionable quality, but both my gaming rigs are built on ASRock boards from both extremes of quality tiers and they are brilliant platforms.

[Guest]

That getting a closed loop watercooler is not going to make your room and PC cooler for Summer.

[vlkn´]

Don´t buy cpu coolers, bigger than your case.

 

They told me it´s 160mm tall >:-O THESE LIARS

But performing very good for the price, so I decided to keep it.

[Iankiller99]

Don't use the wrong screws when putting together your pc, also don't freak out if your motherboard doesn't come with all the proper screws for components, check your case. 

 

If its an H440 then the screws and cables are between the drive bays.