Every PC builder was once a noob. What is your noob story ?

[Void Master]

in 2010. I assembled my first pc it was a core 2 duo e7500 with a 9600gt 1gb and an old 320gb wd hdd and I remember that I used an old psu (I used some old used parts cause I was on a tight budget) . however there was not thermal paste on the stock cooler (used) . then I installed windows 7 64bit.

so, after some time in windows the pc tured off suddenly it happened to me several times .

then I opened the case and then I checked everything including the cpu which burned my finger .

it was soooooo hot an the heat sink was cold then I googled it ,so I found that I need to apply thermal paste on the cpu

then I bought some thermal paste from a computer store and applied it properly (as the internet says).

then after that the thermal paste became the priority when I build a pc .

and the pc still lives till today. (nothing changed just updated to win 10 64bit)

I had so many good moments with this pc playing bfbc2

It was soo worth it for 450$ those times. 

I did not want to get an i3 with an igpu

 

 

 

[Lurick]

First computer I built was in 2008 and I spent a good 30 minutes trying to figure out why it wouldn't turn on and wondering if I broke something. I started getting really frustrated and was about to give up when I saw that the 4-pin CPU connector wasn't plugged in so I unplugged the PSU from the wall and flipped it off, plugged in the 4-pin, reconnected it and boom! Of course then I made the mistake of looking for things to upgrade and spent more than I should have buying new parts to upgrade it for a while.

[jiyeon]

I built my first PC this year in June. My noob story was using the Cooler Master Hyper 212 and proceeding to spend 40 minutes figuring out how to get the damn thing on.

[PlayStation 2]

Choosing to cool a Core i7 2600 with a Cryorig C7.

Yeah, dunno why I did either.

[Void Master]

Not so bad, still better than the intel stock cooler

[Lilninjsways]

50 minutes ago, seoz said:

I built my first PC this year in June. My noob story was using the Cooler Master Hyper 212 and proceeding to spend 40 minutes figuring out how to get the damn thing on.

I did this on my second build haha first time using a non stock cooler 

[jiyeon]

1 minute ago, Lilninjsways said:

I did this on my second build haha first time using a non stock cooler 

First time and also the last, am I right? Horrible mounting for sub-par performance and disgusting aesthetics.

[Lilninjsways]

My First noob experience was 1... picking a super small form factor cause the case was on sale and cheap... 2. not seeing the Cpu connector and only plugging in the 24 Pin connector

[Lilninjsways]

Just now, seoz said:

First time and also the last, am I right? Horrible mounting for sub-par performance and disgusting aesthetics.

haha exactly!

[BLLDoesTech]

Yeah my noob mistake still hasn't been fixed. When I built my PC I never bought a cooler for the CPU, so I'm still using the stock cooler. ?

I also stepped on the side panel and it bent, so I have no side panel so this is my PC all the time

[Drak3]

Taking to forums trying to see if there was a method for GPU affinity in Windows beyond switching main display.

[dcgreen2k]

Being super afraid of messing with my old Dell PC because I thought I'd break something. A couple months later I realized that it's kind of hard to mess anything up...

[alicskysareblue]

my first build went pretty well, I had done my research before hand so I knew what I was doing. I was really nervious about static electricty though

[Enstage 2]

Only happened recently, accidentally tightened an m.2. heatsink screw, burred the screw so badly trying to get it undone I had to drill through my brand new mobo to get to off...

[Guest]

I thought all i7 were equal. Even i7u in laptops were “the same thing” to desktop i7. 

CPU is 90% of gaming performance. 

You need an i7 or your computer will suck. 

“8GB of DDR4 ram is $30 US.. that’s cheap. It’ll likely only go down in price. No point in buying it.” 

[GoldenLag]

I have an Asus B350 PRIME board.........

 

Aaaaaand an r5 1500x

[GDRRiley]

my biggest mistake was a i5 6600K that I payed 300$ for I should have just grabed a i7 6700K for the extra 50$ or so.

It was fall 2015, NightHawk is almost 3 years old.  

[dgsddfgdfhgs]

Worst experience ever is letting your parents buy you a PC.

PC guy: what do you want a pc for?

Parent: "ok so my son nows plays CS1.6 on pc, please build a "gaming" pc that can run it"

[Ergroilnin]

I was just last week changing my PC case and thus rebuilding the PC for the very first time myself. 

 

I started it up and it booted up, I was like yaaaaaay, then it went to BIOS to tell me it cannot be booted and I was horrified, spent good 20 minutes trying to see what I did wrong...

 

Turns out I did not connect the SATA cables to the SSDs themselves. Facepalm.

[Anghammarad]

You call that PC building? In my time in Bumbelch Nebrahoma (TM The Oatmeal)... hehehe

 

well it was in the 1990s... I think... I wanted to move my Amiga 1200 form the keyboard case into a bigtower. Well there were specific Kits to buy, but me being around 17 or so... didn't have the money to pay for those kits... So I got a normal bigtower case and went to town on it... then bought a wooden plate to mount the motherboard to, then soldered the wiring to let all the connectors needed to the outside... well I didn't think about the external floppy having its own power, so I wired it up, and connected the floppy in line with the old one... then I turned the machine on...

 

My friend who was helping me asked if I was having a cigrarette, I said no, not right now... then he asked if one had fallen into the computer, which I denied as well... then he sad, then your motherboard is smoking... 

 

Well it was a little supernova... the burnt through resistor fell off after touching it, and the mass on the pcb was burnt through. I fixed that all with my trusty soldering gun and the machine is still up and runnig... 

 

Ah those days where you had to put jumpers on the PATA drive for slave or master, then connect the master to the end of the cable, and the slave in the middle,,, (those were how to connect pata) .. then SCSI drives where you needed to jumper in the ID... remember a Fast SCSI II could chain up 15 devices...

[Jovidah]

Installing Windows Millenium Edition. I wasn't even a noob back then anymore, but still by far my biggest mistake.

[Sfekke]

9 minutes ago, Jovidah said:

Installing Windows Millenium Edition. I wasn't even a noob back then anymore, but still by far my biggest mistake.

I feel you

Used to own a Hewlett Packerd OmniBook XE2 back when they didn't say HP

Ran Windows 98 until my 2007 7Y/o self decided to try Windows Me as an upgrade

Quickly learned the hard way it wasn't good, eventually got the damn thing to XP without any memory upgrades.

Officially my first banger machine, it isn't with me anymore and finding one proves to be hard.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

>be me, 13

>go to grandpa's house

>playing Kerbal Space Program on crappy Dell Latitude

>tooslow.jpg

>think "i need a faster PC"

>looks at gaming desktops

>all of them are too expensive

>IT technician uncle tells me you can build pcs

>whatsthis.jpg

>google>how to build pc

>find ltt forum

>sign up

>post topics

>wait

>christmas or something

>ask for pc parts

>rich grandpa buys me 1080 Ti (I asked for 1070)

>oohshiny.jpg

>rest of parts are kinda meh otherwise (1600, STRIX B350, stock cooler)

>go to micro center

>buy liquid cooler

>buy S340 Elite

>buy 850W G2 to replace new Seasonic Focus+ 650 cuz noob

>$$$

>grandpa

>build pc

>oohshiny.jpg

>use it for like a month

>realize my monitor is shit

>grandpa gets me Predator X34

>wtf

>thanks

>realize CPU is slow

>8700K

>presentday.jpg

>post greentext in "what is your noob story" thread

[Lathlaer]

Assembled a PC and it wouldn't turn on. Turns out I had a non-modular PSU and plugged the EPS cable to my GPU (had the right amount of pins, what's the difference right?).

 

Realized that by complete accident when I swapped the GPU for an older one and was forced to use another cable.

 

Fortunately everything survived ;-)

 

That experience actually motivated me to consume all the knowledge about PC building I could. This is how I discovered LTT and other techtubers.

[LunaP0n3]

Forgot to install the standoffs on my first one. Fried mainboard anyone?

Went back the shop and got a better board, making sure to install the standoffs the second time around.

Never. Making. That. Mistake. Again.