NZXT PODCAST - #148 - Debunking Misconceptions about Building PCs

Episode Date: March 3, 2023

On this week's episode of the NZXT Podcast, we debunk common misconceptions about building PCs! From the ACTUAL difficulty of building one to what you SHOULD be buying, we talk about it all and reveal the truth! Tune in live every Friday at 10AM PT on twitch.tv/nzxt and send your questions to: [e-mail]

welcome to episode 148 of the nzzyc podcast the official podcast of the ncc community this podcast recorded live every friday at 10 a at pacific standard time on the official nzc twitch is available to stream on demand on apple podcast google podcast spotify and sound cloud my name is mike and today is a very special episode as we're live on our first time on ticot uh so with me as always is my co-host ivan ivan how are you doing today i'm doing good and i already have to correct you at the very start of this episode because you said we do this every Friday on Twitch and we're not. Oh yes. That's my that's the usual. Yeah. Yeah, we uh like you said we decided to see what it happens when we go live on TikTok. So some of you might have tuned in yesterday when Mike was doing the test. I think,

I think we're good to go. So we'll find out. So what we're going to do today, we've got to got two things going on. The first thing we got going on, which is probably the thing that most people are going to be excited for, to be honest, is we're doing a giveaway. So if you're watching live on TikTok right now, go to our profile and click the link in our profile. And you'll be taken to a giveaway page. We're giving away NZXT hoodie, NZXT T-shirt, NZXT Lanyard, Lanyard, or Lanyard. I never know how to say that super word. And sticker pack.

So good luck to everyone who enters. And for those of you who are also tuning in live, if you stick around to the very end of this episode, of this stream, we will give you a secret word that will give you 500 bonus entries into the giveaway. So I don't know if links work in the chat, but I'm going to try dropping a link here, like it's 140 it's um if that link doesn't work just copy paste it um and then the other thing we're

going to do is we are going to be debunking common misconceptions about building computers so a couple days ago we made a tweet where we asked people to um to let us know what common misconceptions are or what common misconceptions they know or have about building computers. And we've got a bunch of replies. So we're literally just going to open up that tweet, scroll through the feed, and read off the replies and talk a little bit about them. And if anyone in the chat who's tuned in live has questions about anything,

feel free to ask. We're looking at the chat. A little different than Twitch, but I'm sure we'll survive. We'll get through it. Yeah, so let's go ahead. get to the first one so what's a common misconception about building a PC since i know a lot of people here may not have actually built one yet since the tic-tok audience has to be a little

little younger it may not have the ability to build one so let's see uh if there's any misconceptions i do you want to start the first one sure uh i'm gonna have to squeeze my eyeballs real quick because i don't have my glasses on but it says this is from voisterick I guess when you're told it's hard to build one. It's not that hard. You're following the guide and take your time. In case of doubt, ask questions to people who built some already. None is too silly to receive an answer and can avoid costly mistakes.

So I think hands down, this was the number one misconception people were posting or replying with was that a lot of people say that it's really hard to build a computer. And to be completely honest with you, it's not hard to build a PC. It's actually very simple. What's hard, in my opinion, at least, is everything that goes on leading up to it. So if it's your very first PC, you're going to have to do a little bit of research. You're going to have to figure out what parts work together, what parts you should get for what you're trying to do. you know, things like that basically. You just have to figure out what it is that you need to get.

But once you actually have the parts, it's not that complicated. You know, there's tons of guides on YouTube, on the internet, even on nz-dh-xie.com that will just walk you step by step, you know, like step one, put the RAM on the motherboard, step two, put the CPU here, yada, yada, yada. So it's not that complicated, to be honest. It's just intimidating, I think. especially if you've never done it before right so what do you think like yeah i mean i agree it's it's tough doing it at first but i think pretty much once you learn how to do the once you do it once you do it it's actually relatively easy after that because it's uh you just kind of have that knowledge in the

back of your pocket at all times and once you do it should be a little easier but yes please take your time there's no rush you can literally if you want to you can literally just like leave it on your, like, you can leave it on your little workstation and just get back to it the next day. Like, there's no rush or anything like that. But, you know, just getting it done as soon as possible is not bad. And yeah, kind of going along with the next one from Genco 90. That's really, that the misconception is that it's really hard or really difficult. We actually have a whole thing about that.

Let me go to our website. Not that. nc60.com we actually have a specific thing just for that in our BLD kits we actually have a little guidebook here and basically this guidebook pretty much shows off how to build one so there's like different pages in it step-by-step instructions but in rowdy all you really need is the instructions and then watch a couple of YouTube videos. My favorite video that I've ever watched was Linus doing a,

he literally attaches a GoPro to his head and does it that way. Because a lot of times it's a lot difficult to look at a video and then them screwing something in, but when you're doing yourself, it's a little weird. It's like tying a tie, right? Like you can do it one way, but if you're looking at someone doing it, it's a lot more difficult. But Linus has a video where he actually does it like a POV version of it

And that really, really helped me when I started learning how to make PCs. Just don't drop it like Linus. Don't drop it like Linus, yes. Yeah, I just thought of something too. Like, I think depending on the type of computer you're building, it might be hard, to be honest. Like, for example, if you're doing a custom water cooling loop, let's say, that's definitely a lot harder than just doing a regular build, with like an air cooler or the stock cooler or like even an AIO you know it's just uh it depends on the build but for the most part you're right it's not that complicated it's just

doing your research and figuring out what it is you got to do exactly all right next uh comment here is from is it Shifty the Shifty German think so their common misconception is that you will break the processor if you even so much as look at it the pins are delicate but you just got to line it up and drop it in to secure it if there's resistance then stop and take a look it was the only part i was paranoid about installing when i started yeah um i think the CPU is probably the most delicate part of the entire computer and that's because of those little pesky pins right so if one of those pins bends you basically just destroyed an entire processor sometimes you can bend

them back although I would not recommend you doing that like if you do for whatever reason bend the pin I would try to you don't get that repaired at a shop by professional rather than then getting some pliers or tweezers out and trying to do it yourself or I would even try to return it maybe if possible, but to debunk this common misconception, I will say that, you know, you're not going to, you're not going to damage the CPU if you're gentle with it. And the best way to be gentle with it is to hold it by the sides. You never want to touch the pins no matter what.

And they also, uh, the Shifty German also gives a good tip where they say, you know, you want to like make sure you, you, you drop it in and it's secure. in the motherboard and whatnot. And that's true. You want to make sure everything is lined up correctly. Every CPU has a little arrow on one side. And if you look closely on the motherboard, it will also have a little arrow so you know exactly where to line it up. And I think for me, at least, the hardest or the scariest part

of this entire CPU process is not necessarily dropping the CPU into the socket. but it's lowering that little lever that locked it into place because depending on the motherboard, sometimes when you, when you latch that little lever, you'll hear a snap and it'll actually break off a little piece of plastic that's there to protect the motherboard. Don't be scared you didn't break anything. It's intended to do that.

But it is a little scary and intimidating. I'm going to say if you've never experienced that before. but say you might yeah um i'm drop it in just making sure that everyone knows dropping it in does not mean like physically dropping it it's literally just lining up and then just kind of letting it fall into it yes and then yeah whatever you're crazy honestly the two like scariest things when you're making a when you're doing a pc is doing the CPU because you got to pull that lever down and then like put it in that's terrifying and also putting the ramp sticks because it sounds like it's crunchy.

Like, it literally acts like it's like crunching. Oh, God. And basically it's a, it literally gives you a heart attack every single time. But it's supposed to do that. And it's a little scary, but once you do it once, you kind of understand. That coffee you're sounding a little crunchy right now, too.

I know, right? Yeah, I'm good. Yeah, I'm good. All right, you got the next one here. What is it? From Patsha, ITA. that it should be aesthetically eye-catching. This one, yes.

This one, yes, you know, for people, well, the thing though is that, yes, and we are reading chat. The thing, though, is that for a common misconception about building PCs is that it has to look good, and no, it does not have to look good. However, there are people that do actually prefer aesthetics over performance.

So, really? I'm going to have. I'm going to have toot our own horn a little bit here because I feel like NZT cases do a really good job at hiding a lot of the messiness that goes into a computer. Like, you know, like a lot of times you look at the front of a PC and, you know, it's like, you know, it looks very organized, right? and then you take off the back panel and it's just like chaos. Yes. There's just wires, cables everywhere, nothing's trapped down, nothing's organized, et cetera. And that's completely fine, you know.

You don't have to cable manage like to perfection. And to your point, Mike, like, you know, what you said, you know, it doesn't have to like be aesthetically pleasing or whatever. But I will say that. If you take the time to cable manage, it's going to do two things. Number one, it will actually give you a little bit better performance because, believe it or not, the airflow will travel a little bit better through the case if there's not a bunch of tangled mess everywhere, right? Like a whole rat's nest, the air has to travel through. And then the other thing it'll do is in the future, whenever you're upgrading or swapping out parts or fixing something, you know, if you have it organized in the first place, it's just going to be a lot easier to work with.

So it doesn't have to be aesthetically pleasing, but I think having it nice and tidy is more than just aesthetics. It's actually very practical in my opinion, right? Yep, I agree Basically You don't need to But it helps in the long run And honestly that Just being clean

Being thorough is always better than just kind of just leaving it by And just putting it up GMH tech I already sent your email over to our partnership's team So we don't really handle all that So it's up to them for that So sorry if you're having gone You haven't heard anything back

No, we are relatively busy right now Yes, it makes upgrading much, much better down the line. Yes, I agree. UK now do you, like, the, basically having, we actually did a PC tips thing last week about, like, some tips that people can do. And someone actually made a brilliant idea, which is you should cable, you should color code your cable ties. So you know which cable goes to which one. So if you have a red, that means that's your cooler. And you have a black one.

means it's for your PSU. If you have a green one, that's for your CPU. You know, something like that. And each one is labeled correctly. I'm like, that's genius. And that will save so much time if you need to swap parts out or anything like that. Instead of having to like, this cable leads to this. You just look at the cables go, okay, this one says unplug, move in.

The next one here is from Lady Wolf 82. And they say that builds need stuff like a 13-gen Intel, Risen 9, 795x3D, RTX4090, RX7, 7900 XTX with Z790X. Jesus Christ. All of which are needed for a starter build. So, yes, that is true. Like, you don't need the most expensive. You don't need the most newest.

You don't need the most top of the line parts for your computer. It all depends on what you're using your computer. for and also, you know, your budget and things like that. But for the most part, you know, you're, you don't need to have the, the most new of everything so you can enjoy your PC. Like, it really does depend what you're using for. Me personally, the types of video games that I play, they're not resource intensive at all. You know, they literally run up on a potato. So I don't need a 4090. Like, I'm not, I'm not playing, um, you know, call of duty in 4K or anything like that, right?

So I, my personal computer, it's really old and outdated. Like a lot of people are kind of shocked when they know that I work at NZXT and I'm still rocking a GTX 960 with the I5-4460, which is really like seven, eight years old. But it works fine exactly for what I needed to do. and I'm fine with it, you know? Like, I don't need to have a $3,000 graphics card because I'm, quite frankly, I'm not going to use it.

Like, if I'm not playing a game on my PC, I'm just literally just browsing Twitter or whatever, right? Like, I'm just on social media on my laptop, on my computer. So I don't need, like, this massive thing. What do you think, Mike? Yep, I agree. Basically, it just depends on what you're running, what you need, you know? And, you know, if it ends up being, you know, if you just play like Starter Valley,

Minecraft or indie games, you don't need anything crazy. But if you do, like, heavy video editing, you're playing, like, Microsoft Flight simulator. like you're going to need a little bit of a of a heftier PC. Yeah. And I pretty much, yeah, I pretty much agree. You don't really need all this just to play games. You really don't. I ran a 2070 for like four years straight.

And I ran everything at Mac settings. And I still can. I'll say, though, if you are going to be doing certain things on your PC, you might need beefier hardware. Like if you're rendering videos, you know, you might need like a beefier CPU, for example. Or if you really want to play in 4K because you have like a sim racing setup or something like that and you just want to like, you know, have like the best resolution, you're probably going to need a better graphics card than mine. right um if you uh you know if you're a wedding photographer maybe you need like a bunch of hard drives you know it really depends on your build but for the most part you uh you know you'll be

fine with with older hardware nothing nothing bad's gonna happen uh actually want to take a question from chat sis hooray also future proof your build if possible do you believe in future proofing ivan future proofing is another uh misconception it's you can't feature proof really okay go ahead i don't think so because um you don't know what the future holds right like for all we know like we make you know tomorrow like your hard work can be out of day tomorrow depending on what it will use your pc for right like there could be a windows update tomorrow for all we know that just makes it so whatever hardware you have on your pc is just not going to do it cut it anymore so i i really

really don't think future proofing is possible. You can probably future prepare to a certain extent. But eventually, you know, you will have to upgrade eventually, whether it's, you know, five years, 10 years, 15 years, whatever, like eventually you're going to have to change something because nothing's going to last forever. Yes, I agree.

Because futureproofing, like, I get it, is spending a little extra so you don't have to upgrade out of a road. Yes. but with how fast technology has evolved i mean god what a couple years ago the 2000 series came out right like the 2080 and a 2080 and everyone's like well this is it this is the only graphics card you'll need and now we're at the 40s like it that was only a couple years ago uh and you know the 2070s like my 2070 now it it it has a little bit hard time like chugging uh certain games like if if I put Witcher on ultra settings, it's going to have a little bit of hard time.

And, you know, that's, that PC's only like four years old. So technology advances a lot. So you can do your best, but it's not proofing it. It's more like, we're delaying it for another year or two before you have to upgrade at that point. Technology is moving so fast that I bet you not many people even realize that we are both made by artificial intelligence. Have you seen those videos about the AI voices and stuff and AI? Yeah. Oh my gosh. The video games of like Obama and like Biden and Trump and stuff like that or like the ones where they put like a Shaq's voice playing like FIFA is hilarious.

Yeah, that's funny, man. What's the next one, Mike? Oh, let's see. Gamerers don't need a lot of RAMs. 16 gigabytes is usually enough, but 32 gigabytes will cover any game you throw at it. uh 64 gigabytes is uh are and up are good for ready multiple horrors i want stream productivity etc yes yeah back then and this is again another thing about future proofing back then remember eight gigabytes was more than enough now 16 gigabytes is more than enough probably down the road maybe 32 will probably take over maybe in a couple a couple years maybe uh but yeah 16 gigabytes at a certain speed will be more enough like uh my old PC had 16 gigabytes at like 3,000 megahertz perfectly fine perfectly fine but yeah if you need to like right now I'm streaming

recording you know sometimes we'll have a gameplay in the background or something like that I'm gonna need a little bit of heftier PC for that that was by CJ Cowart right yeah that's a that is a pretty good misconception to bring up because like I said a little while ago it like the hardware you have on your PC it's gonna depend on what you're using it for like even eight gigabytes of RAM to be honest like if you're playing let's say dardue valley on your PC like it's pretty much or even like league of legends and those are the only games you play like you just play games that are not resource intensive you'll be fine with eight gigabytes to ram you know you're not you're not going to need even 16

32 in my opinion is definitely overkill 64 you know i saw um corsair recently I think they came out with like a 200 and something digger set of RAM which is I mean that's definitely like goes beyond gaming you know that's like for people that are doing maybe you know audio production or who knows what you know multitasking to the max but yeah you don't need to have that much RAM unless you're using Chrome then you're probably going to need like 100 gigs right right yeah exactly that's just a

Chrome is actually not that resource intensive anymore. It's still pretty bad for mine right now. Like, let me see how much is mine doing. My might's doing some pretty hefty stuff right now. It's taking 2.4% of my CPU or 11% Yeah, 2.4% of my CPU and then a hefty amount for my memory, for my RAM. Still pretty hefty and I have a lot of RAM. RAM.

I have a... Yeah, I have like 64 gigabytes of RAM. And it's pretty hefty. You should download more RAM, like... Download more RAM. Got you. Download more RAM.com. All right, the next, uh, the next misconception here is actually from a celebrity, from the real drunk Kev from PowerGPU.

Shout out to drunk Kev and PowerGGPU. Cool people over there making some cool computers. But I think they wrote a joke, but they wrote that too much thermal pace is bad. That's not a misconception. There is such a thing as too much thermal pace. You don't need that much thermal paste. I know there's a lot of different methods for applying thermal pace. Some people put a tiny little speck.

Some people do an X. Some people do a vertical line, some do a horizontal line, some people do their initials in there, whatever. You know, there's a million different ways you can apply thermal paste, but you only need a little P-size amount. Also like the size, it's also like the size of your pinky nail. That's really all the thermal paste you need. And if you put it in the middle of the CPU, once you apply your cooler, whether it's a all-in-one liquid cooler or an air cooler, that is going to make that paste spread evenly across the entire CPU. Some thermal paste comes with like an applicator. It looks like a little butter knife that allows you to spread it across the CPU

to make sure it's even. Some coolers like NZC Crackens, for example, come with thermal paste already pre-applied on the pump. So you don't need to even apply thermal paste on there. So I guess the misconception that drunk Kev brought up is, even though he was joking, you know, there is a lot of misconceptions about how much thermal paste you need, how you should apply it. But you don't need that much.

It's just a little drop. Exactly. All right. One. You put you put one drop on the CPU and one drop on your tongue to make sure that it's the right flavor. Just to make sure. you know it's like you know when you taste the pen to write it down yeah you want to double check it's the right flavor oh austa's asked actually has a question austa festa i was about to ask how many times should you change your

thermal pace uh i don't think there's an actual like time limits on thermal pace but if you notice that your temps are getting a lot warmer like if you're usually like let's say like looking at my stuff i'm running around like a 37 34 degrees Celsius. If I'm noticing my temperature is now going to like, you know, 50, 60 on idle, you may need a double check on your pumps to make sure, one, your pumps are running correctly, but two, if the thorough pace is dried up. And the easiest thing to do is literally just reapplys a thorough pace, you know, wipe it off with isopropyl alcohol, reapplys a thorough pace,

and see if that helps out. If the temperature is still high, you may need to check on your pump. depending on which cooler you have, contact the customer support, see if you can fix it up or anything like that. Every once in a while on Reddit, you'll see people post a picture of saying something like, oh, my CPU was overheating, so I took off my cooler, and then there's like a little, like the plastic wrapping is still on there.

Oh, my God. That literally frustrates. Yeah, it happens. You know, it happens. you know, it happens. It's a common mistake, to be honest. But yeah, there's no, like, set time limit on thermal pace. But like Mike said, if you notice your CPU temps are spiking,

you know, you definitely want to take a look. That could be a reason. It's because maybe, you know, maybe you're going to apply thermal pace correctly, you know, the first time. So, yeah. And I see a few questions in the chat asking about the giveaway. So if you guys are interested in interesting, in the giveaway, click the link in our bio right now if you're tuned in live.

And if you wait to the end of the stream, we'll give you a secret word, which gives you a bunch of bonus entries into the giveaway. So click the link in the bio. What's the next one, Mike? All right, from Caloria, uh, calorie Alejandro, I think, yeah. That, unless you're planning on buying a 4K or a 1440P barter, you don't really be a 4090 and I said yes a hundred percent yes that's also something that I think people kind of underestimate is you know buying like super expensive parts but to cheaping out on some other

parts if you have a monitor that only runs 1080p you're not going to be able to run like crazy intense games at like 4k resolution because your monitor physically can't so you guys guys have to make sure that your parts and specs are compatible with each other and you're not not necessarily bottlenecky but you know it's you know what part isn't being utilized as much yeah and um i think the what alexandro here said is uh you know unless you're planning to to to play in 4k or 1440p you don't need like a beefy GPU or CPU which you know it's it's true like if if you're gaming at 1080p you know you don't need to have like a giant 4090 in there and like even some there's even some games like for example c s go like there's still people that

play on like 4 3 resolution yeah 20 pixels or whatever and it's uh you know it all it all really depends on on what you're using your pc for but um that's a might give a good a good tip where you just said make sure that everything's compatible. You don't want anything bottlenecking. You want to make sure that everything is doing what you need it to do. Next question here is from I'm Zau. Sorry if I am not pronouncing that correctly, but they say that it's hard when all you need to do is read the motherboard manual and not push things in where they don't belong. It's very easy. So we already talked about the hard part, but I do want to talk a little bit about the motherboard manual part because I do think that's very important.

You know, a lot of people, I myself am very guilty of this. Whenever I buy like any sort of electronic, I don't even look at the manual. I'll just, I think I'm smarter than the electronic. Like, you know, if I buy any TV, like I don't, I don't make it a point to read the manual. Like, it's not that complicated, right? You just turn, you plug it in and turn it on, easy. But when it comes to building the computer the motherboard manual is basically your Bible because it is going to tell you exactly what it is you need to do in certain situations right like for example where to install the RAM you know which slots they go in things like that or what the different codes you know some other boards have codes and then someone something goes wrong so yeah it's

not hard but if you keep that motherboard manual on hand it will be very, very helpful. You don't need to know everything about the motherboard manual. You really don't need to know anything, but just know where to plug everything in. That's basically it. If there is an actual specific thing that has an issue, you can, you know, you can take a look into it. Like if you get like an error code, like some motherboards will give you an error code if something's wrong. Then you can look it up yourself, but most of the time, just figure out where everything plugs in.

Lauren, Laurent, just says Ivan with a different background. I'm actually in my daughter's bedroom this morning. I didn't go to the office today because I was telling Mike this morning. Like I legit got zero hours of sleep last night. Very rare that that happens. I don't know. I just cannot fall asleep last night. So this morning, I just, the only way I could do this podcast is by not leaving the house.

So yeah, I'm in my daughter's room right now. That's why my background's blurry. I don't want to show you how messy it is in here. From Arcane Gone. That it's always cheaper than pre-built PCs. Got to do the research to save the money. It's always cheaper than... Oh, building a PC versus pre-built PCs.

Yes. So my advice for building a PC, most of the time, I just say if you can build, build. but obviously you make some people pay to have to knowledge the time the confidence um in time to do to research time to do the actual build process time to look at videos and how to build and everything like that people just may not have time to do it and remember time is essentially money so if you don't have three to four hours or more especially for your first time building to build a PC You know, it may be worse just getting a pre-pro PC than having to spend the hours looking into research, figure out which parts are good, buying the parts away in front of the ship, then also getting all the parts and then, you know, getting all of them together and building it and also doing the research on how to build it and make sure everything's compatible and stuff like that.

Honestly, sometimes, if you just want a game, look up a pre-built PC. There's tons of options out there. We have a ton of options as well. we have our starter streamings and creator PCs that you can buy out or you can custom build it with our configurator and that's like custom building but around it you just click buttons to figure out what price point and what parts you want and um i think my pre-built computers much more than you know PC DIY there's a lot of misconceptions about pre-builds um you know like i see it all the time on Reddit like people get flamed left and right because they'll post a picture of their

pre-built PC and then sure enough, you know, like the first comment is like, you know, you could get it cheaper or just build your own or you don't know how to build your stupid, things like that. And dude, it's like, I want to like jump through the monitor

and tell them like, no, like there's nothing wrong with getting a pre-build PC. Like the same way nothing wrong with building a PC. It just it comes down to a lot of different things, you know, like how much money you want to spend or can spend, how much time you have to build or not build,

what parts you want, you know, how accessible those parts are, things like that. You know, and it depends. Like sometimes it could be cheaper to build it yourself. It is very possible.

Other times it could be cheaper to have someone like NZXT or whoever build it for you. So there is a lot of, a misconception around that, you know, and it ultimately comes down to what they just said is do the research, right? Like if, you know, like people years ago, I remember when this whole like cryptocurrency mining craze was taking off, it was pretty impossible to get graphics cards if you were building a PC. And if you could get a graphics card, you know, it was really expensive. and a lot of times, you know, it was much more economically feasible and also just easier to just get a pre-built

with the graphics card you want because that's, that was like honestly like the easiest and fastest and only way at some times that you can get it. So, yeah, a lot of misconceptions are up pre-bills. Read. All right, next one here is from I-Dizzy. say just putting the parts together oh the screen went there we go just putting the parts together and it'll work i watch countless tutorials and only one guy mentioned installing windows i had zero pc

experience and was going to attempt to build one then i found nzxte and that was the best bet well thank you dizzy that's very nice um yeah like you know what it's funny like a lot of people forget about windows And we actually made a stupid meme the other day about Windows where the joke was, you know, it was like a PC build budget. And the joke was, you know, people are spending thousands of dollars on the computer parts. And they're just forgetting about Windows. You know, they'll spend 99 cents on Windows key from some shady website, right? And I do think it's because people, when they're building their first PC, or even not even the first, maybe just in general, they don't think about the operating system, think about it last,

you know, because it's to them, it's like, it's not part of the, quote unquote, part of the computer. But yeah, it is. It actually is a part of the process. You do have to install the operating system. It's not complicated, but it's just like an extra thing you have to do, right? And it's not just Windows. You know, you might want to install Linux or or Mac OS or whatever, like there's different operating systems you can install on a computer. So if you're building definitely, you can have to do research not only on how to get parts, how to connect the parts, but also research on how to install the operating systems. So you can, you know, use your PC.

Great. From Storm Hollow, finding the case is the easy part, but the fact, when you're waiting on the H9 to come back in stock to buy all your other parts. Yes, they will be. I see a lot of people in the chat also ask about stock. It's coming soon. We have some supply chain issues. I mean, every PC company is being shot with these supply chain issues.

But keep an eye out. The easiest thing to do is if you go to our website and you go to the thing, there should be a little button. Oh, here, let me do this instead as you can see it. If you see right here, notify me. Go ahead and do that notify button. And basically from there, you should be able to, you'll basically be able to get an ebo notification, whatever to come back in stock.

The other thing you can do is not buy it from our website. Currently, I think there's still some available right now on Amazon. and if you go to nzdxt.com slash retailers you can get a link of stores that sell our products and you know stuff's out there like i see questions in the chat about motherboards and power supplies and whatnot that have been announced and not available on our website but people have them you know people are already building with them and it's because they're buying them on amazon or other retailers so it's you know our store is not the only place you can buy our product so check check nzxc.com slash retailers, check Amazon, check new egg, check microcenter.

Like our products are a lot of different places. But yeah, too, what you were saying, it's, um, you know, if something is out of stock, like you said, Mike, sign up for those email alerts and eventually, you know, when it comes back in stock, you guys will get notified if you want to, if you do absolutely want to buy it from our, our website. I'll just say letting TMA check know that like we don't handle any of the like the giveaways or like partnership deals or anything like that we have to let our partnership teams handle it so let them know and then you know we'll see what happens

we're just we're just the Twitter guys I like we're just the Twitter guys let's see just like FPS yeah just like FPS let's see let's see that just like FPS let's see that it's actually expensive with new parts being made and inventory keeping up is actually relatively cheap to build a decent PC these days yeah what do you think is on average the cost of a PC Ivan like a good like a decent one decent one I mean I think you can build a really a really good like when I say really good I mean something's going to play every game and last you several years anywhere from like 1500 to 2000 I think is like the baseline obviously you can go cheaper you can probably build a computer for you know I've seen computers for like 750 dollars right now like they have they're not the best you know they're not the best hardware but they do they do play games you know I've also seen builds that are like four thousand five thousand dollars so yeah it's you don't need a you don't need to spend that much.

But I would say $1,500 to $2,000 right now. Maybe even up to $2,500 is the sweet spot. I'd say you're out $1,500 and $2,000. We have a special guest in the chat, Mike. We have Talley Fisher. Oh, hi, Dali. How are you doing? That's our boss, guys.

I want everyone be on your best behavior. Please. Yeah. Don't get us in trouble. Hey, try to convince her to give us bigger salaries and raises. but yeah i say 15002,000 is pretty good though yeah i think so too all right the next misconception here is from stuns emerald

they say the standoffs come with the motherboard they come with the case sometimes already installed so oh i like that one that's a good misconception yes because not okay well first of all let me back up for those i don't know a motherboard standoff is this little screw that goes between the computer case and the motherboard. And this little screw, or it's not even just one screw, it's a set of screws. The whole purpose of these screws is so you can line up the motherboard correctly on the case and also to make sure that it's grounded correctly on the case, right?

So, and this all depends on what case you're getting. Some cases do not have the standoff installed. they come in a little box or whatever and you have to install them yourself and you have to line them up according to how your motherboard has the bolt pattern um right for the for the standoffs. Other cases like for example n zxd cases they already come with the with the motherboard standoffs pre-installed so you don't need to install them you don't need to take them off you don't need to worry about like which ones you're using they're already on the case. all you have to do is like line up the motherboard and it's very important to do this because if you don't use standoffs a couple of things can go wrong the first being you're not going to install the motherboard correctly can you know not be positioned right so then the i.o on the back is crooked or something or maybe it even falls off the everything that can happen is it's not grounded correctly so it could cause you know damage to your soft to your hardware

and potentially even destroy something. So motherboard standoffs, very important. What's the next one, Mike? Let's see. Commerce suggestion. Where to put the power cords from the power... I don't understand that one. What misconception is the put power cords?

Where to put the power cords from the power supply? Oh, I guess maybe there's probably... I don't know what they mean be that either, but I guess when it comes to that, comes to power supplies and power cores the best advice I can give on that is you definitely don't want to mix them if you have a power supply it's going to come with its own cables always use the cables that are included with your power supply don't mix and match cables from other power supplies yes um the other thing too is the power cable you know the cable that you use to connect into the wall

socket right you don't want to just use um the old one you had from your other PC or grab it from like, you know, on old TV set that you have that, you know, have the same cable that fits or whatever, use the one that comes with the power supply. Yes. Also, like if, I've seen cases of this, of this too, where, you know, sometimes someone will buy a power supply

and they live in a part of the world where the outlet's a little bit different and they didn't get the correct plug. So they'll just, you know, get a random plug that works. And next thing you know, like, their power supplies on fire. So, yeah, if you ever need cables for your power supply and you don't have them, the best thing you can possibly do is contact the power supply manufacturer.

You know, don't want to, you don't want to take the chance, basically. Yes. I'm not sure that's what they were saying, but that's the tip we can give. No, I like, I like that spin on it because, yes, I have had so many friends that do that. they're like oh i have this extra power cord from my 500 i can use it for my 600 destroys it this absolutely destroys parts in it so please whatever parts you have use the parts for that that's the main one um we kind of already went through the 64 gigabytes one i was going to go to this next one we have another special guest in the chat shout out to p nw tech hey pnw tech thank you for the rose

shout out to pnw amazing before you read this one Yes, follow P&W Tech to see an amazing, amazing, I had an amazing setup and videos and great content. Real quick, Mike, before you read this next tip, I do want to remind the people that are tuned in live on TikTok that there is a giveaway going on. Click the link in our bio. And if you stick around to the end of this episode,

which will be in around 15 minutes, You will get a secret word for bonus entries into the giveaway and you'll get, you'll get better odds at winning some prizes. So we're giving away a hoodie, a t-shirt, a lanyard, and a sticker pack today. Wow, there you go. That's P&W. TextSuite. Yeah, showing off. Six setup.

I look at a setup. Incredible. It's only like one of the best setups I've ever seen for sure. It's just clean. It's just clean. And I just fed up too, but also just build-wise, like a build is immaculate. Agreed. From faux hammer, that's super hard.

Once you get the parts and read the instructions, not so bad. Shout to S-16 for helping with my first ever gaming desktop. Just the upgrade at this point. Kind of already went through that already. How not received. Congrats on getting that PC from us and supporting us. But, you know, like I said, it's not. not hard. It just takes time. It just takes time. That's the hard part. It takes time.

The same thing with this next one. Pretty easy. Want to see what Opera GX wrote? Yeah, what did Opera GX say? Offer GX. That you need a lot of money. You actually need a ton of money. Then voice mod, can I have money? I mean, that is, well, honestly, that is a misconception, because, because you don't need a lot or a ton of money to get a computer. I mean, well, that means different things for different people, right? Like, comparatively speaking, you know, like, let's say you're comparing it to a Nintendo Switch, right?

How much is a Nintendo Switch? $300. $300. Yeah. So if you're comparing a computer to a Nintendo Switch, yeah, like you can, you can buy, what, like, four or five Nintendo Switches for the price of your PC, right? So it's not necessarily cheap, but a computer does a lot more than a Nintendo Switch. You're not just getting a video game machine.

You're getting a machine that does more than play video games. And relatively speaking, you don't necessarily need a ton of money to build a PC. like we said earlier, like the sweet spot right now is around 1500 to, you know, $2,500, which, you know, might sound expensive. And I'm not going to lie, it is expensive. Like, you know, if someone told me they wanted $2,500 right now, you know, I'd probably, you know, smack him or something. It's a lot of money.

I'm not saying it's not a lot of money. But what I am saying is, like, you don't need to spend that much. But you could build a computer for much cheaper. You don't have to get the latest and greatest hardware. So it's all relatively speaking, I guess. Agreed. Shout out to Opera GX, by the way. Yeah, shot at Opera GX.

Again, another, that's hard, but it's really not. I built two dice ones on my own now and use of stuff like that in general. Again, another one. Hey, if you guys want to start building, honestly, just do some research. There's some amazing videos out there. just go to YouTube type how to build a PC you'll find amazing amazing amazing uh content creators uh jes two cents uh grex salazar linus like you have so many people out there to have amazing like knowledge on what it is to do and it'll give you like a real like you know a real

opinion versus like someone that is trying to sell you something they will give you the straightforward opinions on like this is what you need you don't need this is what you need don't get this. I always thought his name is J2 pennies. J2 pennies. Jay two cents. What's the next one here? From Ayo Zora mouse.

They say that it's possible to have all parts ready and everything compatible when we start to build. Hmm. What do you think they mean by that? Yeah, I think people have a misconception of everything will work together. No matter what. We actually had a, uh, someone tweet or someone on a Reddit, I think happened. Uh, someone bought one of our cases and then they bought like a 4080 or 4090.

It didn't fit. They were really excited for this graphics hard, but it just physically would not fit. Things may not be compatible. Honestly, the hardest, the hardest thing about compatibility is size because how big these graphics are, I have a 4090 in my thing right now. It's about this big. It's literally a, like a literal size brick is in my PC right now. So, yes, compatibility, please just make sure everything will work.

PC part picker, I think TMH text also said it, is that PC part picker can help you figure out if it's compatible or not. It's the best website to go to whenever you're building a new computer, whether it's your first PC build or your 100. it, PCpartpicker.com, you know, you just plug in all the different parts you want to use, and it will tell you right away if it's compatible or not. But even with that, you also, I think, want to double check the specs of the hardware on the manufacturer website to confirm, primarily the case, to be honest, because I do see a lot of questions that we get on social media, Mike, about people that'll say something like, you know, like you guys say on the product page of the H5 flow that you can fit a GPU that's this size and then they get that GPU

and it doesn't fit, but it doesn't fit because they also have a radiator in the front with fans. But we also list that clearance as well on that same product page. We'll tell you, you know, here's the clearance you'll get when you put the radiator and the fans on there. And you just want to double, triple, triple check to make sure that everything fits. Not just a graphics card, but there's, you know, other parts that you might want to double check. And if you always have questions, you know, I don't want to speak for other hardware companies out there. But at least if you message NZT on social, we will see your questions about that stuff and help you help you out. Yeah, for other brands that, you know, you can also try messaging on social or contact their customer service team to double check and make sure everything's working correctly.

What's the next one, Mike? From Revers, that you have enough USB 2.0 headers on your motherboard. Yes, that's absolutely. I actually am getting to that point as well that I'm sorry to run out of USB headers. But honestly, yeah. that depending on what type of setup you have if you're just going to use you know a keyboard a mouse maybe a mic and then maybe a headset you're fine but for someone like me that has a stream deck a key like camera um mic keyboard mice um speakers everything like that you may run out of uh you may

run out of USB headers and i'm actually getting to the point where i think i already have one left on my thing so yeah how many here's a here's a pop quiz for you mike how many USB ports are on nzxte motherboards I have one right now so one two three four five six uh not including the case ones right not including the ones that are inside just in the i.o there's an i. oh okay um are eight to nine Yeah, there's a lot. Yeah, it's like eight or nine or so. There's a, there's a bunch.

I can actually look up how much better to turn it. Because I have the, I have the Z790. Let me just double check. Yes, sorry, N7 Z690. I just C's 690. And then let me see how many there are on this thing. And I've used up basically everything on this one. Components, motherboards, G690.

Let me see how many mother, let me see how many headers there are in this thing. Oh, here it is. There are, I'll pull up the picture.

Ooh, I'll pull up the picture a quick. We got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,

seven with a USBC, which is eight. Yeah, thank Lauren. Nice PC. Yeah, thanks, thanks for getting all this.

Lauren actually helped build my PC, and I am currently using it. And, oh my gosh, um, During one of the streams, I was saying from Marvel Spider-Man, I was running, I was trying to show off the game. And with the stream, with everything going on, I could barely run the game at like 720P.

It was really bad. And then I was like, you know what? I made any help with this. So Laurent helped me make this beautiful PC that is running a 490, 9-13-900K of 64 giga plus gram. Is that his name is pronounced? Laurent? Yeah, I always heard of Laurent bring back to Spidey suit.

Sounds so sophisticated. Is it Laurent or Laurent? I always said Laurent. To be honest, I have no idea. Because when I usually when I see him, I just say, What's up, man? Maybe I should ask him 100 pronounce his name. He says either works.

I think, honestly, I think the way I say it is Laurent. But I guess Laurent. is uh is probably Ivan or Yvonne In Spanish it's Yvonne in English it's Ivan so both depends on language or speak Yeah Oh did I know that I guess for the last one should you just go over some of the questions in chat

Mike my son was Spidey And then bring back before you do that One more giveaway reminder we are doing a giveaway if you're tuned in live click the link in our bio for a chance to win and stick around a few minutes for the secret word to get bonus entries. Yes. All right. Chat questions you said, right? Yeah, I see one.

Hello. What keyboard do you recommend for my new setup? Well, it depends on what size keyboard you want. If you want full size, me TKL, stuff like that. We do have some keyboards available. Let me show this off. We do have some keyboards available. We have a full function right here

Bill and white and black Actually, white's sold out We have 10 key list We got some mini TKLs Or you can even customize yours If you really want to You can also customize yours I actually

Laurent also helped me with mine Let me see I can show this off This right here is mine I have the full function I had the full because I wanted a number pad And I have the brown switches and then I have the cool little yellow accent keys on it, because yellow is my favorite color.

Say with my mouse. I have a yellow. I have a yellow. There. You're a yellow guy, huh? Yeah. Yellow is literally my favorite color. I think most gamers nowadays,

at least from what I see online, like when people post pictures of their setups and things like that. I always see, it's usually a mini TK. or smaller like people have like these tiny keyboards now I'm I'm still using the number pad believe or not like I I don't know I get I I never really use it and I never really think about the number pad until I use it and then I'm like you know happy that the number pad is there whenever I'm on I also have a mini TKL and whenever I'm on that keyboard and you use a number pad it kind of kind of drives me a little crazy

because you know I want that pad so I don't know I like the number pad gamers love TKL from Cisco right gamers love TKL as a professional you need the number pad yes I agree like for me I type a lot of numbers

so I need the number pad but for like gaming I understand like when you're like using like you're doing a full arm you know movement if you have a TKL or like an actual key full size, you can actually hit the keyboard,

which actually has happened to be once. I just kind of make sure that your keyboard is sideways, right? All right, I'm just looking through some other stuff right now. I'm looking through other questions. I think that's pretty much out of the questions. Do you have any misconceptions about building PC that you haven't answered yet?

I think for me, me personally, think it's kind of related to what dark here is asking you know are our are our fans better than leon lees or are n dxte cases better than corsair cases or is invidia better than amd or is you know intel GPU better than whatever GPU and i always tell people whenever people ask me this question in real life, I always make this analogy that, in my opinion, you know, computer parts are like pizza toppings. You know, they're all good. It just depends on what flavors you like, right? And, you know, if you like ham and pineapple on your pizza, that's still a pizza is delicious and, you know,

you should just eat it. So I always tell people, you know, computer parts are like pizza toppings, just eat what you like and let others enjoy their slice of pizza because not everyone likes the same pizza. I like that one. Ooh, I like that a lot. For me, my misconception about building PC is because if you have a better set up than someone else's, it does not give you the right to berate them for theirs, you know?

Sure, it does. What are you talking about? I see it out all the time on Reddit, you know, you'll see someone be like, I just built my first ever PC and then guaranteed someone in the comments. Someone in the comments will be like, you know what, you shouldn't have done that. You should have gotten this instead. Or why did you build that case? You should have gotten this case.

Ugh, it's, yes, I get Cisco, yeah, build shaming. It is, it frustrates me because for us, I feel like we should be, like, I understand criticism. but there's a difference between criticism and just being outright rude. My mistake about building PC is that if you are proud of it, there may be other people out there that may not be so kind, but the building community is actually a wonderful community. You just look at the bad eggs every once in a while. For the most part, it is.

Yeah. I really hate it when I see someone super excited to show up their new build and then I see that, you know, they might have installed the fans backwards or the GPU in the wrong slot. Because I know if I looked at the comments, I'm going to see people flaming them. You know, like saying, like, turn your fans around moron. You know, people people really do do talk like that online. And it's just like, man, like this person is just sharing their first build. And it's their first build.

Like they're telling you it's their first build. And rather than helping them, you're flaming them. And it's not cool, you know. so yeah definitely help each other you know like uh we're all in the same same community here so we should all be helping each other exactly um i think that's it for the questions for now so thank you guys for joining us i guess we'll go ahead to do one announcement and we'll do the secret code word actually two announcements oh the first announcement is i want to wish shady is cool a very happy early birthday from NXT.

Hey, yeah, happy birthday and two days. So happy birthday. Congrats. I hope you have a fun time. I think your birthday is on Sunday? Sunday. So hopefully you guys get some good food, get some good presents,

and have a good time, but, man. Happy birthday. Good day for a birthday. All right. I'll go ahead and do our one announcement real quick. We have a bunch of new, products, y'all.

We have cases, coolers, fans, monitors, power supplies, thermal pace. We got thermal base, too. If you guys want to, check them at n6.com. I saw a couple questions here that we're saying about things out of stock.

Yes, we know that they're out of stock, but they will be coming back in stock soon. Go ahead and sign it for the email list or the newsletter. You get an email notification when the thing's back in stock. Highly recommend it. And then if you guys are being patient, thank you for being patient. And please, please, please, please, please wait.

There are coming soon. As for the code, so for those that I don't know, we do have a giveaway happening right now at zxte.co slash 148 dash giveaway, where you can check the link in our bio. Go ahead and click that link, sign up for a chance to win a hoodie, a shirt, or stickers and lanyard pack. And for those that have stayed all the way to the end, there's a code that will get you guys 500 extra entries into the giveaway. And most of the time, whenever we pull these,

the winner tends to be the one that sticks around. This is our thank you for joining us live on our first TikTok podcast stream. So thank you guys for joining us. The code is, that was easy. That was easy. Like the Staples, that was easy button. literally these first two things about

how hard is the building one is difficult we saw it all the time the code is that was easy guys if you type that into the gleam you guys have got 500 extra entries and it should be good oh hey there's a anime officer and Parker Burton how are you guys doing wow the

the enemy police is here run hey how you guys doing but the code is for our giveaway. If you guys click the link in our bio, we are doing a giveaway for three different things for a hoodie, a shirt, and then a sickerous and lanheards. Go ahead and do that. This is our thank you for joining us for the podcast. Don't run. What's up? How are you doing, my man? But please thank you guys for joining us. And if you guys want to listen to these, you guys don't listen to our thing. I'll actually go straight to the out show real quick. Thank you guys for joining us.

Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Before we get into the action, I don't. Before we get into the action, I outro we should probably explain a little bit about what the heck we do with podcast so this is the first time we've ever done this on tic-tok we usually do it on twitch um every friday at 10 a n pacific standard time however today we just thought you know we should just try out this uh ticot live thing and just see how it goes because we've never done uh podcast on ticot and we were you know want to do a little little experiment But yeah, if you guys like this episode, or even if you hated this episode, you know, check out the NZACC podcast on your favorite podcast catcher. We don't just talk about like PC building stuff.

We also do some interviews, sometimes we do some fun stuff. Sometimes we do just talk about like new products and we do different types of episodes. So if you guys didn't know, NZCC does have a podcast. And you guys can check it out on your favorite podcast catcher. Yep. All righty guys. Thank you guys for joining us. We're tuning live every Friday at Pacific Standard Time.

Maybe on Twitch, maybe on TikTok, we don't know. You can take a look at our socials, especially on Twitter to see which platform we're streaming on. But don't forget to listen to previous episodes on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, and SoundCloud. And like I've said, please leave us a pause review. If you like what you hear, or even if you're just, you'd like what you hear, or even if you you didn't. Got any questions for us? Send the email to podcast at nzc.com

or tag at nCC on social media. Enemy officer, DME. We'll get some info off you. But as for everyone, have a good day, everyone. Bye. Hi.