What do you wish you knew before delving into the PC world, that may have even made you feel stupid for not knowing?

[ChetwoodJ96]

I'm curious to see how alike, or how differently we all think about these kinds of things. Misconceptions that you wish were cleared up, or things that you found out on your own through good fortune or trial and error.

The biggest one I can think of for myself definitely has to do with power cords. I currently have 2 6+2 pin connectors into my 1080ti, and it took me about 30 minutes to figure out that was actually what I was supposed to do. I had thought that there were always going to be connectors made specifically for each connection setup, and I spent the majority of those 30 minutes looking in my PSU box looking for two solid 8 pin connectors. Also something I learned recently was that the extra cable coming out of said 6+2 pin, can be plugged into the second port and I don't even need the 2nd cable.

 

This makes me feel extremely stupid but it's been a few months, so I'm ready to talk about it and find out what made other people feel stupid.

[LienusLateTips]

gpus are more important than cpus for gaming

[hconverse02]

Watch something online, don't rush things, get 3000mhz ram for ryzen and don't buy the i3 7350k

[knightslugger]

that frequency alone does not a computer make.

[germgoatz]

you actually have to look at a case's airflow abilities before buying because it looks good. fuck my tt view 21s front panel

[Theguywhobea]

When I was probably 13 (so 11 years ago) I had a pretty shit laptop and I really wanted to be able to play Counter Strike Source, so I bought what I think was an 8400GT from circuit city. I asked my Dad to put it in my laptop as I couldn't figure it out, so he brought it to the IT guy at his work who had to explain to him, and me, that you cannot put a desktop GPU into a laptop haha.

[ChetwoodJ96]

Just now, hconverse02 said:

Watch something online, don't rush things, get 3000mhz ram for ryzen and don't buy the i3 7350k

I got 3200mhz for my Ryzen 7 and it got stuck in a boot look for two months. Literally the worst and most annoying experience of my life, because AMD would tell me one thing and G.Skill would tell me another and nothing I tried worked. I took it to a repair shop and they said "We don't know what we did but it works now"

The most stressful $120 I've ever spent

[NinJake]

Don't flick the switch on PSU's to 230v if you're in the US.

[germgoatz]

dont put your mobo on the ground where people walk.

[ChetwoodJ96]

On 2/22/2018 at 9:46 AM, RandomGuy13 said:

How fragile connectors are in a PC. I recently broke one of my SSD's power connectors by pulling a cable, the plastic around the SATA power on the SSD side got sheared off leaving bent pins. Nothing a bit of epoxy did not fix, but i'm still scared to unplug that drive. Shame because it was an 512Gb 850 PRO drive.

I have also broke a few ATX power cable clips that clip the cable into the motherboard 24 pin connector.

 

It makes sense that a lot of the connectors inside a PC aren't realy designed to be unplugged and inserted again too frequently, Its not something you have to worry about with USB or similar because they are designed for many thousands of insertions. But I guess you learn the hard way and I'm never breaking another SSD again the same way.

I have an M.2 SSD on my board, the first board I had (Gigabyte AX370-Gaming K5), it slid in like a champ. For whatever reason, on the K7, the little bastard has so much resistance and I always feel like I'm ruining the contacts when I have to reinstall it.

 

On 2/22/2018 at 9:46 AM, germgoatz said:

dont put your mobo on the ground where people walk.

I need more information.

[Jurrunio]

Not checking cable lengths of the PSU.

 

Leads to a terrible cable mess, a LOT of dust in the PC and PSU not even inside the PC:

[NinJake]

2 minutes ago, RandomGuy13 said:

RIP this one is a BAD one, I guess you never made that same mistake again.

Learned it the hard way back when I was about 12 lol. And you are right. Never Again.

[germgoatz]

Just now, ChetwoodJ96 said:

I need more information.

I was building my current PC and I was tired and figured I would do more cable management in the morning, and stupid me put the mobo on the box right by where my ladder that goes up to my bed is. usually i jump down from bed and uh yeah i flipped it over by landing on the side of it and somehow it still works in my PC.

[Soujiro89]

7 minutes ago, NinJake said:

Don't flick the switch on PSU's to 230v if you're in the US.

Came here to say this, but in the opposite. Non-US put it in 110v. Sparkles were nice though.

[SupaKomputa]

You don't need a case to run a computer.

[This kid builds pc]

Don't waste my money as I could've been happier with way lower end hardware. This hobby is addicting.

[ChetwoodJ96]

Just now, This kid builds pc said:

Don't waste my money as I could've been happier with way lower end hardware. This hobby is addicting.

I don't think I can honestly say I agree with this. I went out of my way to save up for a 1080ti, and luckily I managed to do so before the price hike, and I don't even know if I'm happy with the performance that I get out of it now. Currently sitting at about $1,100, I got mine for under $700 in October.

[hconverse02]

12 hours ago, NinJake said:

Don't flick the switch on PSU's to 230v if you're in the US.

Ah I remember doing this thinking my system needed more wattage so it needed more voltage but little did I know, w=/v

[This kid builds pc]

Just now, ChetwoodJ96 said:

I don't think I can honestly say I agree with this. I went out of my way to save up for a 1080ti, and luckily I managed to do so before the price hike, and I don't even know if I'm happy with the performance that I get out of it now. Currently sitting at about $1,100, I got mine for under $700 in October.

I bought two 1070s at one point and found emptiness of how much I didn't need them. No one needs that much power. I then sold them.

[Murasaki]

Partition your damn drives.

[SupaKomputa]

Buy the largest PSU, when your system only need 300watt.

[ChetwoodJ96]

On 2/22/2018 at 10:01 AM, This kid builds pc said:

I bought two 1070s at one point and found emptiness of how much I didn't need them. No one needs that much power. I then sold them.

No one NEEDS power, but I want all of it. I want more of it, but I can't afford another 1080ti and I don't think my Ryzen 7 can handle 64GB of RAM without shitting itself like it already tried to with 16GB.

 

On 2/22/2018 at 10:04 AM, SupaKomputa said:

Buy the largest PSU, when your system only need 300watt.

I think the PSU is the one thing that I, personally at least, could comfortably skimp on. Leave enough room for upgrades if you're wanting to do that down the road, but I don't think more would be better. That also depends on the budget though.

[This kid builds pc]

Just now, ChetwoodJ96 said:

No one NEEDS power, but I want all of it. I want more of it, but I can't afford another 1080ti and I don't think my Ryzen 7 can handle 64GB of RAM without shitting itself like it already tried to with 16GB.

Ah yes, the addictive-ness of wanting the best that is to offer. RESIST IT. I don't really have that problem anymore. My real problem is that I'm addicted to the process of building PCs. It's just so therapeutic. 

[Domrockt]

Dont use normal water as a coolant... go out and buy yourself some destilled water.. always use papertowels when refilling your watercooled rig. 

 

Iam glad that i aquired a wife whom is in need of all that.

[Paddi01]

Why is it that resolution does affect your VRAM but not your System RAM?

What´s a simple explanation for that fact?