Lessons I Learned From Building a PC
I’ve been a computer junkie ever since I was a toddler. When I saw the startup screen for Windows 2000, my eyes would light up. My mind was filled with wonder. What was this magical box? Why was it SO COOL? Throughout my childhood, the home PC and my GameBoy Advanced SP were my go-to gadgets.
Fast forward to the last couple years. As I started taking a more serious interest in web development, I always wanted a rig to call my own. I wanted an amazing keyboard, a sick display, tons of storage and no worries of frame-rate drops when I turned on graphically intense games.
After around a year and a half of deliberation (and money saving), I decided to take the plunge and build my first PC.
This is SUBOT — Saalik’s Ultimate Baby of Technology. Name credits to my good friend, who, like my other suite-mates, knows me all too well and knew that a name as silly as SUBOT is totally something I would fall for.
This thing is amazing, especially for being less than $700 (including a monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse). Try finding a commercial PC with the same specs for that little. Want to see what’s inside? I’m putting up a page that shows all of my devices on my website soon, so check back later once that’s finished.
Through the entire process and now reflecting on it about two months later, I’ve found that putting together my Personal Computer was a little bit more involved than throwing some hardware and wires together.
Lesson 1: Researching Can Be Addicting If You Love Your Topic.
Building a PC is just as it sounds, difficult. Well, not exceptionally so, but learning what part did what and what part fit where was a research project in itself. Don’t know what a Gigabyte AMD FM2+ socket MicroATX Motherboard is? That’s okay, neither did I when I started this adventure. Researching how to build a computer was a quite a feat. Which brings us to lesson number 1: Researching Can Be Addicting If You Love Your Topic. As I discovered the best, most cost effective way to build what would eventually become SUBOT, I went on a month long rampage of research.
Anytime I was free, I would look up the best prices for the best parts and how they worked together. Researching wasn’t a chore like it was for some other projects. It was this amazing exercise where I could feel my brain growing with information every time I went online and found another article about computer parts. I learned about mechanical keyboards and how their switches differ from the membrane sheet keyboards most people use. Yes, I’m using a mechanical keyboard, and yes, it’s awesome.
I was hooked on researching computer parts and all my friends thought that I had gone mad. That’s where I learned a little more about myself. When I get on a roll with something (in this case, researching computer parts and their functions), I won’t stop thinking about it until it’s resolved.
Lesson 2: Video is Incredibly Powerful.
This is one of those things that I knew before, but didn’t actually experience until I built my computer. I always knew that video was a medium that could show things which could not be read, but I didn’t actually acknowledge its importance until Lifehacker, one of my favorite blogs, came along and gave me the greatest guide ever to PC building. If you’re looking to build a PC yourself, there’s nothing better to show you how than this article right here. While plowing through the guide as I built my computer, I learned was that reading the guide was not enough. As well described as it was, I needed the video when assembling my PC to see what looked like what and where it went. As soon as I started the video, I had a series of “Aha!” moments about what to do next.
Hats off to you, Lifehacker, I couldn’t have done it without you. You showed me how to build a computer and you showed me the power of video tutorials.
Lesson 3: Persistence is Key.
After I first built SUBOT, I was so amped. This was something I had waited years and years for: an incredibly powerful machine of my own, where I could code, write, play games, and create an environment completely under my control (unlike my school computer). And as I started it up for the first time, it ran smooth as butter. Twenty minutes later, while I started setting up my Windows 10 start screen (which I was equally excited about and will most likely rave about in the future), SUBOT crashed. And when I say crashed, I mean everything powered down. The lights were off and the mouse and keyboard that were once lit up now were sad and empty.
I won’t torture you with the gory details, but over the next three weeks, I had to make a number of changes that resulted in me rebuilding the computer three more times. Was it frustrating? YES. Especially when I had install a single screw, a teeny tiny screw, to the bottom of my case, and I needed to rebuild the computer from ground zero. Shoutout here to my roommate who helped me infinitely as my spirits dampened when I realized I couldn’t play Shadow of Mordor as quickly as I wanted to.
I could have easily returned the parts after it failed one or two times. Re-boxing everything would have been easier than rebuilding the darn thing while hoping and praying that the problem I identified and supposedly solved was actually a problem that needed fixing. But I kept going at it, and I learned something about myself along the way. I realized that if I wanted something, I would get it, as long as I kept after it. My dad has always bugged me about being persistent, never being a quitter and never letting failure dampen my drive. His words rang through my head so clearly as I took apart PC parts after night classes, when I spent hours troubleshooting while I could have been relaxing, and as I drove to Home Depot at 7:30AM (deep sleeping time for a college student) for a pair of pliers.
Lesson 4: Everything you Do Helps you Grow, as Long as you DO.
Action is the best way to find yourself and learn something. I learned so much just by building a computer. Imagine what we could all do if we got up and decided to learn something new. What are you waiting for? Go out there and do something ridiculously cool. And when you’re done, send me a tweet or an email about your awesomeness.
Till Next Time,
Saalik.
@saaliklok
