NZXT PODCAST - #177 - Tips for First-Time PC Owners

Episode Date: February 9, 2024

On this week's episode of the NZXT Podcast... We go over some tips and tricks first-time PC owners should do before and after building a PC! Catch the replay at twitch.tv/NZXT!

Here we go. Hello, everyone. And welcome to episode 177 of the NCC podcast, the official podcast of the NCC community. This podcast is parted live every Friday at 10, or every other Friday, actually, at 10 a.m. Pacific Sanders time on the official NCC Twitch is available to stream on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and SoundCloud. My name is Mike. It was me, as always, as Ivan. How are you doing, Abby? I'm doing fantastic, Michael. I'm ready for the big game, not the, um, um, So you can't say on social media apparently or else you get sued by the NFL. Wait, really?

I don't know. There's a lot of these rules around saying that. But yeah, stoked to start the weekend, watch some football. I'm a Swifty, so I will be looking for her in the stands. Hopefully she's there. Sure you're not a man. I'm also excited for today's podcast. is going to be a good one.

We're going to be giving PC builder tips, especially for first-time PC users. And I say PC users, because we're not specifically talking about people who are building. We're not specifically talking about, you know, people who are buying pre-builds or anything like that. It's literally just like if you're using a PC for the first time and you don't know what to do, like these tips are for you. We're also giving away a free Poochie plush to anyone, not to anyone, to someone who is tuned in live right now. Just type exclamation mark in the giveaway, type exclamation mark giveaway in the Twitch chat

to get a link to the glean form and stick around to the end of the show. You would get a secret word that will give you a bunch of bonus entries to win the little plushy. And if you don't know what Poochie looks like, right there, right behind me. and this is Puccina, his home girl right here. All right, Mike, without further ado,

let's get into it. I think, I think, I think Zelda already. All right, let's get to it. Laurent, do I qualify to enter?

Yes, you're always, you're always. Oh, MSI. I, MSI. How are you doing? Yeah, we should do a little question.

I tell you. Yeah. All righty. So here we're going to do, so I split it up at three different categories. I did like a pre-PC building stage, like actually building it and then like aftercare. So we kind of split up at three different sections to make it a little easier for everyone. So this was obviously the, obviously the first thing that, you know, we posted on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Just to kind of get engaged.

And I pulled answers from both Twitter, Facebook. and Instagram, mainly Twitter, Instagram, because Facebook was mainly about just aftercare, and I already had a couple things of it. So let's go into planning stage. So the first one, and I think I wanted to start this off, like to kind of set the stage. From Kid Umi, Please for the love God, do not ever spend. And from Alyssa, that the GPU crowd is excessively toxic. And don't try to keep up with the latest and greatest.

If you do, you will go break through. Yeah. So on the first point, you know, please, Kid Umi here says, please, for the love of God, do not overspend. That's actually a really good tip because I think a lot of people that don't have PCs, right? Like people that just play on consoles like Switch and podcast, or Switch and PlayStation and Xbox and whatnot. They have this. I'm not saying everyone. But I say some, not even a lot, just some, I guess. Maybe it is a lot, I don't know. But they have this idea in their head that, like, in order to get into PC gaming,

you're going to have to basically drain your bank account. Because it's so expensive, which I'm not going to lie. Yes, a computer is more expensive than a console. However, you don't have to spend every single last penny you have. You definitely do need to do some planning and figure out, like, what you need. because if you're only playing Stardue Valley on your Switch and you want to get a PC to do that, there's no reason in the world you should spend $3,000 on a graphics card. You know, it's just a waste of money, basically.

And what Alyssa D here says, you know, the GPU crowd is excessively toxic and don't try to keep up with the latest and greatest if you do you go bankrupt. I don't necessarily think the GPU crowd is toxic. per se, but there is definitely a group of PC gamers out there that like to shame other PC gamers out there for not having

better parts, especially the graphics card, because the graphics card is the component that drives high FPS and better resolution and all that stuff. And, you know, I've seen this like so many times and it's actually really sad. Like people would be really excited. You know, they'll post their NZX TPC on social media and they'll have like a, you know,

not the latest and greatest GPU. Maybe it's a small GPU or something. And then there's always someone commenting like, bro, like that GPU sucks or you need a, you need a bigger GPU or like that little GPU looks so weird in that case. But in reality, these people have no idea what this person is doing with this computer. And that GPU could be more than enough for them. So Yeah, both good tips. I like them. Yeah. I, uh, didn't we have,

that issue? There was like someone to post it on NCC subreddit of their PC and like, oh, yeah. There was like hundreds of comments people baggy. And this was, it was a kid, wasn't it?

It was someone posted, it wasn't even an NZXT PC. It was, um, a Leanne Lee PC with a crack in, right? And, And they had all this anime stuff on their setup, like, you know, like an anime, like a monitor inside the PC, anime on the crackin, anime on the case, anime on their desk, anime on the walls, basically anime all over the entire setup.

And 99% of the comments on this post were just saying how dumb this person was because of the anime. And, you know, we felt really bad because it was on our subreddit. And it wasn't even NZXPC, so we decided to share that on social media and make a post and tell people like, you know, it's not cool to make fun of people's computers. It doesn't have to be anime. It's just a computer. It's not that serious, you know. And this person actually, they wanted to delete their posts and they think this after, you know, thanks for sticking up for us. It was a cool moment in NZT social media history.

I remember that. I was there and I was just like, guys, like, relax. And, you know, it's always the people. And I think Pauline said it, right? It's that, you know, there's elitist in every group. But, you know, take it with a grain of salt. Because as long as you're gaming, that's the most important. That actually leads into, actually have a second slide to really emphasize this.

that FOMO or fear of missing out and marketing have made PC gaming a nightmare everyone thinks that they need a 4090 Top of line CPU or they're going to get bottlenecked or have the worst gaming experience ever and then for Ian for land that even lower components can run great optimized property you don't need top here

to really drive into the thing of like you don't need like an I-9 or a 4090 you can work with what you got I had an I-5, an I-7, I think I was an I-5 in a 20-70 for years. Like, that was the first PC I had from NZXT when I interned here at 2019. My sister's boyfriend still uses it to this day to play like Cod and everything like that. So it still works. You don't need the news, ladies and greatest.

Just stick to what you got. Yeah, and it all really boils down to what you're using the PC for. You know, like here at the office on this podcast machine I'm using, it's an I-9 with the 4090 and 64 gigs of RAM. Definitely overkill. I don't need all this stuff, but the reason I even have this PC is because we accidentally built two of them. One of them was for...

So thanks Laurent for that. You know, we were supposed to give Mike one, because Mike needed this beefy PC because Mike is the one doing all the production work for the podcast and also doing all the video editing that you see on social media so he actually needs like this beefy PC but at home you know my personal PC I still have a I5-4-460 CPU

and a GTX 970 GPU and the reason for that is because the types of games that I play on my PC don't require like anything more than that you know and if they did I would upgrade but I don't need to upgrade like I'm perfectly fine having my

personal PC to be that low spec it's not that big of a deal you know it's um it really all boils down to what you're going to use it for and um uh Todd Eckerd here you know he he actually makes one good point on here that I want to point out is uh something that I saw on Discord this

morning, actually our moderator, Aiden, he brought up a good point. He said that the word bottlenecked gets thrown around a lot when people talk about computers and it's kind of like blown out of proportion. And I agree. Like, you know, like this comment says, everyone thinks they need a 4090 and top of the line CPU or they're going to be bottlenecked and just have the worst game experience ever. There's like so many people that get confused with this because they think if they don't have, you know, top of the line CPU or top of the line GPU that their PC is going to explode, basically,

when they're trying to run Fortnite, which is not the case. So some games require, or not necessarily require, but some games are more dependent on a CPU than a GPU, and some games are more dependent on a GPU than a CPU. For example, Counter-Strike, you know, CS or Counter-Strike 2, whatever it's called nowadays, That game, it's going to run better if you have a beefy CPU. It's not going to run better if you have a beefy graphics card.

Other games, like, let's say Call of Duty, like the latest Call of Duty, that game's going to run better if you have a beefy graphics card, not a CPU. So you can have a better one or the other without bottlenecking. It just really just depends on what you're doing. with the PC. True. I think, yeah,

I mean, I think that's actually a pretty good point. Is bottlenecking? Like, is that, like, an overuse tournament? I think it kind of is now

because, like, people think, like, oh, you're, you lose, like,

10 frames, you're bottlenecking yourself. It's like, bro, it's fine. Like, I understand if you have, like,

an I-5 and then have, like, a 40-90, yeah, you're probably bottlenecking yourself a little bit, but,

that's probably, that's probably going to do something. Yeah, but, Like, people are like, oh, my God, you don't have, you have an I-7 or I-9-3-900K, not a 14-900-K, your bottleneck of yourself, you're like, all right, all right. But, yeah. And actually, the next one is actually a fun one, because we talk about, you know,

you don't need super expensive stuff. However, there's one thing that I think universally, everyone says do not cheap out on. And there's... RGB. RGV was one, but three separate from every single platform all said, do not... do not go easy on your power supply. Do not cheap out on it. Because that's what tends to be you.

You got a CPU and then the GPU. And you're like, wow, that used up a lot of my budget. Oh, you know, I'd rather get more RAM than a power supply. Let's go ahead and do like a 650 watt power supply and do everything else. That right there is that could literally not just be like you cheaping out on $80 to $100. you could end up actually end up working your PC and having to replace the whole thing.

Yeah. And we recently did a Twitter poll and I slacked it to you, Mike, if you want to pull it up. But I asked how many watts is your PSU and 5% of people said they have less than

499 watts. Wow. Yeah, which is, I thought that would, I didn't think anyone would have less than 499 watts, but, you know, 5%, but most people here have between 750 and 99 watts. That's good. Which, yeah, and I feel like I'm not like, I don't have the official, you know, the official statistics on this. So take this with a grain of salt.

I feel like most hardware configurations are going to be perfectly fine with 700. 150 watt power supply. I don't think that many people require anything more unless you're, you really have like top of the line and components and just like everything specked out like maximum. You're any more than a thousand basically. But I think for the average user, you know, like the average PC, a 750 watt power supply is more than enough. And I would even say, like, you could probably get by with the 500 a lot, to be honest.

But I would say 750 just to play it safe. Yeah. I think, I think before 550, 650, we're fine. Like, that was, like, the peak. Ever since the graphics cards, especially, like, the 3,000 series, you kind of need at least a 750 to handle them, especially if you start to go into, like, the 3080s or the 3080s or 39s. But I think if you can spare the extra, how much is, it's not that much, right, going from, a 750 watt to a thousand

watt. It's not a good way to play it safe. Yeah, I think it's getting that. Because once you buy that, you basically don't have to upgrade it for a long time, long, long time. And you can upgrade your graphics card without having to do it. So it's like the idea of like, you have a 750 watts power supply and then a good graphics card. Then you go, oh, I want to upgrade the graphics card later.

Oh, well, now I have to do the power supply. Why don't you just do the power supply now, graphics card? And then you save money in the end because now all you have to do is just upgrade the graphics card. We don't have to do the power supply as well. And Cripp and Sage here in the chat says that they have a 650 watt power supply, and they have a NZXT cracking, cracking 64 gigabytes of RAM, a Rogue Strix, 2060, 5900 CPU, and like eight fans, and it's fine.

But I'm sure, like, if you had a, you know, 40, 90 and a 99 with a 500 watt power supply, you're asking for trouble. So yeah, don't don't skimp out on the power supply if you need it. Like if you need a really beefy power supply, you just have, that's like you just have to do it. There's no other way around it. But if you don't need it, you know, don't get like a 200-watt power supply if you have a, you know,

a normal, normal build. All righty, the next one, I had a little bit, I read this one, and I'm like, oh, I got to find that picture. Account for GPU space so that you can keep using the case of the picture. And this guy literally sawed his PC to put in this new graphics card. Yes. I think we actually, there's a post about that, right? Someone saw it like an H5 or an H7.

Yeah, this is a good tip, especially nowadays, because I don't think anyone expected graphics cards to be the size that they are right now. And I remember when the 4090 first came out, like the number one question we were getting on social media, was like, was this going to fit in my NZXC case? Because they're literally

bricks. They're massive. And I don't think, I honestly don't think anyone thought a graphics card would get to this size, especially the case manufacturers like NZXT because a lot of these GPUs nowadays,

like they honestly are pushing the limit. Like I've seen like, just recently on our subreddit, someone built a new PC and I think the title of the post was I should have

checked the clearance before I ordered my parts. Thankfully, it's still fit. And they got a H5 flow with a 4090. But it's like, like the 4090 is literally like touching the, like it goes from like end to end basically.

I forgot what card it was exactly. And it fit, but yeah, like they could have done their homework and gotten a bigger case or a smaller GPU basically. Or just get a, or if it was H5, the shit of,

or H5 flow, he probably could have just top mounted their radiator, but they probably have like, yeah, too big of a radiator or something like that. Yeah. And, yeah,

That means a good tip. It's safe to assume graphics cards are going to keep getting bigger. So, you know, if you think you're going to get a bigger graphics card in a couple years, maybe you should get a bigger case right now. So you don't have to worry about it later. I mean, here, I'm going to show, like, the iPhones when it first came out. Like, here I'll show this. Look at the size difference from the iPhone back then to, like, now it's, it gets bigger,

no matter what, because, you know, people are trying to fit stuff. cameras are getting better, stuff like that. So you just have to assume if your case barely fits your graphics card now and down the road you want to install a mask card, you probably need to upgrade your case to.

Yeah. Like the supernator in the chat says, I've replaced my PC case twice, both times largely due to GPS becoming larger than the old case could fit, but at least it's hard to imagine them getting even larger than they already are. I would hope, I mean, I can't imagine,

I imagine I'm getting bigger, but I mean the trend is it just getting bigger and bigger. And TTC Beppo says the trend continues, then the 5090 or 6090 might be liquid cooled. So if you're going to have a case for five years, your next GPU might need a 360 radiator. Yeah, that's a good point. Do you imagine like what the 6090 is going to look like? How big that thing could be? Yeah, I can't even imagine the 59. right now because like the 3090

those there's that post was like 3090 versus 4090 size and it was just like the person like holding one versus the other yeah like look at this size comparison from the RTF 3090 to the 40 that's ridiculous

yeah getting bigger it was getting bigger and bigger every single year and I'm sure like I feel like I'm gonna predict the future right now I think when Grand Theft Auto 6 comes out for PC 5090s should be a thing by then

Yeah, I feel like a lot of people are going to be buying them to play that game And it's going to, you know, be part two, I guess, with like the 4090s, people are going to be wondering, is this going to fit in my case? Yeah, you're going to need a bigger case, so might as well get one now. God, look at this, look at this picture, though, like the Gigabyte 3090 literally goes from like this to this like that's crazy that's absolutely crazy and I assume I assume down the road

probably GP support GPU support like brackets are going to be like no longer like a oh you should get one it should be like you have to get one you need one already start including them because yeah that's ridiculous I have a I have a 4090

it looks like in the age 5 each 5 it's yeah it works It fits, but it's like, I don't know they can fit a bigger card in there. Yeah. Yeah, I'm glad you're able to top-mounted, or Mara actually was able to top-mount our cooler switch. If you try front-mounting, there's no way that's going to fit.

There's no way that will fit. Yeah, it's like, it's a, this is as close as I want to get to the fan base. Exactly. Let's go into the next one. I think I've seen this a lot, actually, and I think this was a, a really, really good. You can see how many likes. A lot of people like this one. Please for the love of God, or sorry, please for the love of all that is sacred. Make sure your motherboard CPU and RAM are compatible.

I have so many issues when I have friends that are like, oh, I want to get this CPU, this cooler, and this, uh, motherboard. And I'm like, that won't work. And like, what do you mean? It's like, well, you have a, or especially like the motherboard in case you know you they want like a small four factor case or mini ITX and their motherboard that they want because they want to fit like a hundred twenty eight bucks around which they don't end up getting their motherboard is ATX

and I'm like well there you go it's incompatible it literally won't fit yeah this is why I love PCpartpicker.com because you can plug in all the parts you want and it'll tell you there's any incompatibility issues. It's

it's literally like the best website for a PC builder right here. Not even a PC builder. Even if you're buying you know, parts for someone to build it for you or even if you're buying a pre-built

and you want to just double check everything works. Just plug the parts in here and it'll tell you. Here you go. Look at this. I put a I put a Z790 and a 13700. It's a warning.

These parts may have issues like incompatibility. you know and then they'll say like you know does not have a stock CPU cooler so you need to add a thing it'll tell you it'll tell you like if it doesn't work or hey heads up you're probably not doing it i know one if you do like GPU and then you put like a like a 650 watt power supply it'll tell you like hey you you need to increase this or you're literally going to kill your graphics card or just one more on so this one piecey part picker one of our favorite places to go to uh you can also do a PC building simulator as well to kind of test yourself out.

That also helps out a lot in kind of learning how to install everything and making sure everything will fit. Oh my God, I had a friend that did, that got an Intel CPU and a AMD motherboard. And he goes, there's differences. I'm like,

oh, that was those heart, that was the most heartbreaking thing because we spent like, we saved, I like booked like a Saturday. We're like, let's build this. He was like, oh, I bought all stuff. I'm ready to go. I'm like, all right, we'll book it. And then we go, and he has the wrong motherboard. And I go, okay, well, let's go back to my driver.

That's when you get the screwdriver and you tell them, don't worry. I know how to convert the CPU to Intel and you start scraping the pins. Oh, the gold. Oh, no. This one was a meme, but I do want to go a little bit into, so Swam Swobo, better gaming chair, better frames. You don't need a gaming chair, but you should invest in a nice urban, not like no office chairs if you're going to sit in your PC for like hours on it yeah i agree a thousand percent and this is coming from someone who personally does not like the look of gaming

chairs including the nzxte when i'm sitting on i i think i think gaming chairs look like baby car seats yeah i don't like i don't like how they look but i use them because they are actually very good for your back and they help with your posture. And I sit at my desk, you know, at least eight hours a day, if not more. So if I was sitting in a regular chair, I probably have back pain right now. Oh, yeah. I don't have that because I sit in a chair that's designed to be sad for a long period of time. And like I said, I'm not a huge fan of gaming chairs.

I use them just because they work. But there, you know, there's tons of other ergonomic chairs out there that. or not quote unquote gaming that we're fine you know i think like i think you're probably sitting in the chair mike that's not a gaming chair right full ergonomic chair you won't be able to see it but there's like a little lump bar support right here this adjusts can you can just uh hide of it as well yeah you can change it up ergonomic chairs are you need it like you you you guys really really I have pillows on my head, pillow on my lower back. My body is perfectly aligned.

My chakras are working. Yeah, just invest. You know, it's sad that it is a little bit especially because people are expecting to spend like, you know, 20, 30 bucks on a chair. They're going to have a bit of expensive. You're going to spend, like, 100 to 200, maybe even more on it.

But if you are spending a lot of time in your chair, buy it. Your back will be happy about it. Your body will thank you. Just get an ergonometer. Please, for the longer. And the final. Or a standing desk.

Or a standing desk, yes. I don't have the ability to do standing desk because I got the IKEA desk. But yes, a standing desk also is a way to counter it as well. Because then you can fully like stretch out your back, let it go through. everyone should pretty much be doing you know sitting up after like an hour or two just like moving around a little bit stretching out your back yeah yes I can sleep better now I can get out of bed easier and I feel better can you imagine having lower back pain for the rest of your life because you just didn't want to spend an extra hundred dollars on a chair screw that man

back pain is really it's awful like yeah one of the worst things to go through I'm still young but you know I I hurt my back when I was squatting once and I literally couldn't get out bed and I'm like oh my god my dad's like this because he was an army he had he had lower back pain for so long and I like never understood it because you know as a kid but after everyone's I hurt my back I'm like this is probably one of the most important things in your life do not do not get to that point yeah I mean you're back basically supporting your entire body all right for the last PC tip for pre you know prebuilding it from the gal Galvin...

Galaventing. Galaventing scrutinizer. There you go. You don't need 300 FPS or 4K to have a good experience. Unless you are opening CSGO boxes. Oh, then you need all the... Definitely. Yes.

You got to see those knives in 4K. But you don't need 300 FPS. Honestly, people think you need like 500, 6... There are so many kids that will like DM the N60 socials. and be like, hey, I want to get 800 frames on Fortnite. How do I do that? If I go, you don't need that.

You literally don't need that. And I'll be like, all you need is like 100, 200 FPS, a decent monitor. You're fine, especially for Fortnite, Valerant, League. Cs. Go or sorry, CS2, it's easy. You don't need crazy, crazy stuff. And you also don't need to go to like 1440P or 4K. like 1080P worked for me for so long and I'm gonna be honest here

I don't see the difference between 1440p and 1080p I really don't see the difference I have a 1080p monitor to my right and I have a 1440P monitor as my main one I really don't see the difference yeah I think it depends on the game

it's one of the things that depends on the game too like um you know some games I could tell the difference you know I remember when I've That was really to CSGO and I made the switch from a 60 Hertz monitor to a 144, 144 Hertz monitor. And it was like a whole new game. That is something great for, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, it's one of those things. I feel like it depends on the game. You know, like, I always like to use the Starry Valley example just because it's a great game that a lot of people play it. And going from 60 FPS to 300 FPS in a game like that, it's not going to make a difference. Or even going 1080p to 4K is not going to make a difference. But if you're like a competitive Valerent player with 2020 Vision,

you actually might notice a huge difference if you're, you know, getting more FPS or better resolution or whatnot. So it all depends. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, Starter Valley, Minecraft, any indie games really are really easy to run. You don't need anything crazy. You don't.

Yeah, people focus far too much of resolution. Going up to 4K, make specialize to the difference compared to higher graphical settings or primaries. And I think the biggest one there, I think Ivan said it, was your monitor refresh rate. Going from 60 to 144 hertz is crazy. Like that, it's life-changing. there is a tip later but I'll say it right now

just so to people know make sure that your monitors are at your current refresh. So you have 144 Hertz, 165, 240 make sure it is at that. There's a video about that. I think it was Valkyreary. One of our old sponsors, she had her monitor set at like 60 FPS and someone came by like, why does your monitor look weird? Don't you have like a really good 4K monitor? She goes, what do you mean? That she said, she was, what do you mean? that she like, that they like changed it.

And she's, she's been gaming like that. She's had this monitor for like three years and never changed. And I'm like, bro, that's like, that's like having a card that could go past 80 miles an hour. You've been running like 40.

Like that's not. And then to top it off, the monitor is plugged into the motherboard and not even got to the bird. Actually, I actually have a thing about that. You know, I'll go to that. So we'll go,

we'll go to the PC building side because, you actually brought that up or which one was it. Oh, here it is. I mean, it's very self-explanatory. When I worked customer service here at NXC for a little bit, this, God,

was such an issue. And, you know, people assume, like, oh, you know, everyone knows this rule. No. People do not. It's a common mistake, and it's very confusing. I can understand why it's so confusing

if you're a first-time PC owner. because the ports are literally identical and there's no distinction telling you like, you know, this one does that, what one does the other. So I can understand this mistake. Just a couple of weeks ago, actually, on our subreddit, a dad posted a picture of their son's new NZXTPC

and he said, I don't know anything about computers, but shouldn't this thing be plugged into the graphics card? The son had plugged in the cable, the monster. monitor cable into the motherboard. And everyone was like, yeah, tell you're selling and plug it. And then, you know, the other one,

you're right. I think it's just because, like, people are plugging all their USBs into here. So then they soon, once they see that, where is it? Where is it here? Oh, right here.

So, you know, you're playing all your USBs into here. Then they see this. They're like, oh, I must plug it into here as well, right? If I'm plugging all this here. But then they don't look, like, you know,

a couple inches down to see this. Mr. Mr. C. Lemons makes a great point, though. they say unless you have integrated graphics, which is true, but in that case, you probably won't have a graphics card. It won't be confusing.

It won't be confusing. But you're right. If you have integrated graphics on your CPU, you could plug it in there, it'll be fine. Yeah. We live in a day and age of YouTube videos on Google so hard to make this make

unless the computers aren't entirely alien to you. Yes. If you've never built it, understandable. As someone that did this, I built three PCs and I still did this one. once I had no excuse.

That was like 100% my fault. That was just on. But yes, this one is a super common one that most people will go through. But one of the first ones that I wanted to make sure for people that are first building their PCs, congratulations, by the way.

It's very fun, very rewarding, and it's also awesome. Like, it feels so good once you do it. Take your time. If it don't fit, don't force it. I think that is... I think that's a huge...

huge thing that some people do where they have like their ram in the wrong way and they're like, it's not fitting. And I'm like oh no, no, no, no, no. Get the hammer. The hammer. Oh God, no. No, no, no, no. If every

PC building is Legos. It's like Legos. It's adult Legos. Every place. Except it's cheaper. Except it's cheaper. And every place, everything fits in a certain way. Take your time. please, please.

Okay. This happens also a lot. It is from a dark yola, or dark yola, I don't know, take off all plastic covers. I couldn't find an NCC cracking one with the plastic thing, but I just found a cooler.

Imagine if this is an NCC crackin, or one of our T-120 coolers. Please, please take this off before putting it on. We've had so, I think we had one on a Reddit a little bit while ago, didn't we? Yeah, this happens often.

It's a common mistake, and I can understand why this happens a lot, and I think it's because these plastic covers, you can't even tell they're on half the time, because most of the time they're just transparent,

and they're the exact same dimension of the block so unless you know it's there you're not going to know to take it off and if you're building a PC for the first time you know you don't know that it's like the first time you're building a PC so it's a common thing

and it does cause issues you know people notice right away like they'll they'll be like why is my PC overheating and they don't know and it's just like yeah it's because there's no thermal pace making contact with the cooler

it's just yeah it's it's pretty dangerous to be honest you could do some hardware damage here yeah Ian Ian I actually just forgot yeah the NZC also has that Coursera and NXC AIOs will have a

hard plastic on it because they have like thermal paste already applied to it it's pretty hard to miss so most people take that off but before once it went in the old days where it was just like a small little plastic thing oof that that was an issue the supidator when my brother built his last PC

he left the plastic on one of his SSD coolers on his motherboard and when I pointed out to him he took the entire thermal pad off oh oh that's that's painful that's painful I'll send you the tracking info after you

we had a very popular meme pop out recently actually I'll see if I can pull up the meme it got it got stolen by the PCMR stolen it's okay. It's not a meme unless it's stolen. Yep. There it is.

This right here. The front panel headers, the bade of all existence for all PC builders. They're really annoying. I feel like it's the most annoying part of building a PC for sure. It's so tiny. Yeah. Yeah.

There's an easy way. There's an easy way to do. do it though. As boring as this sounds, look at the motherboard manual and figure out where to plug these in. And then

I actually think you can also plug these in before you plug in everything else. Like this could be like the first thing you do so just to get it out of the way and it's really annoying. And Zinci actually had that thing

for people that out there we actually had this kind of salt we kind of combined all these into one it caused issues because some people wanted

like the LED power button but he couldn't remove it but like I think that's such a hard thing to I think that's one little thing compared to this huge thing it's so much better

just to have this whole cable connection right here yeah what does it even do because my PC works fine without it. I'm pretty sure.

There's things like there's audio or blinking lights, the reset button. So it's like all the little extras that your case does basically. Exactly. If you don't plug that in, there's some stuff in the case that's not going to work. If you if it doesn't, if you didn't plug it in and it works,

then you're fine. But for some, you need to reset the switch, make sure you're hard drive. are working that's a that's a big one that LED for people um you know turning it on so as long as if your PC works you don't need it that's fine but uh for a lot of people you you definitely need it let's see uh you even need a manual most most boards have a layout printed on the board itself some do uh but it's always good to have that in your idea and in your brain to if you don't know check the manual

because... For me, it's just easier to look this up in the manual than the board. That's why I say the manual. Yeah, well, I don't case manufacturers make this like adapter in the H1V2. I don't know. I think mainly because, one, it's been such a common thing that, you know, we have so many of these cables. So people are just like, we'll just keep it. I think so that people can like, you know, customize it to your liking because some people hate having the flashing,

light on the power LED, but when it's combined, like, this, you can't do it. But at the same time, it's like, is it really that big of a deal? A lot of people I hate those flashing lights. Yeah, but, like, to have to do all this for that, I think it's fine. Yeah. Remember to use dual channel sockets when you install your memory. That one, that one, I think, is a huge thing. Because there's four dim slots, you have to alternate them.

And most of the time, most of the time, it's in the second or I'm going to have to mirror it, second and fourth one. I think I'm doing it correctly. Yeah, usually the second to fourth one, the last one and then the second one. Yeah. Usually. Yeah. This is a great reason why you should look at the motherboard manual before it's installing the RAM and to make sure you're installing the RAM in the correct sockets. And like Michael said, it's most of the time, it's, if it's a,

you know, if there's four slots on your motherboard is going to go in slots two and four. Yep. I don't know why that is. That's just the rule. But, yes, this is one of those times where having the manual and relying on a manual and having that as a backup to make sure you're like,

hey, I don't remember where it is. Let's check the manual. Have that in the back of your memory to do. Yeah. But we already did this one. Final, final one of building it. Windows and apps live on the C-Draft. Anything you hold dear should be on a separate drive entirely in case your iOS drive becomes unrecovered.

This one, I agree, but I wanted to make a distinction of what the difference is between having, let me show my thing. You should show Jules drives. Oh my God, all his drives. Yeah. But here, I want to show you, so I have three different drives. I luckily have the ability to separate my stuff, but if you don't have the ability to, try to keep your C drive as clear as possible

because that makes booting up and having your PC run a lot better. When this fills up, it's slower it gets. Having a separate one specific for like other things. Like I have, this one's literally just my Steam one. Literally everything for my Steam is in this one. And in all my like pictures and like random things I download or in this random air by hard drive. Don't accidentally open the NMA folder, Mike.

Oh, oh, no, no. That's buried deep in the Z drive. You won't be able to find that. It's under homework. Okay. Has anyone brought up using the manual to confirm where plug in SSDs? Yes, that is also another reason for using the manual.

That's a great, great, great, great point. C-Lumans, great point. C-Drive for most basic apps, separate drive for games only. and possible another drive for other apps and photos you want safely. Yep, exactly. That's exactly what I do. I have C drive for all my apps and like, you know, Windows, D drive for Steam and an E drive for like all my random memes and stuff I wanted down there.

Now for some aftercare because once you build a PC, you have to take care of it. You can't just be like, I'm done. No, you have to take care of it. Well, I guess you could if you wanted to. You could, but you don't recommend it. We don't. We really don't recommend.

about that. From EG Canadian Silent Bob. If issues found, if having issues first round of solution is to reboot. My God, yes. Yes. It's funny because

I visit my parents, you know, like every other weekend and every time I go over, they always have an issue with their PC, well, they have a laptop. They always have an issue with their laptop and their phone. Always. And I always just restart it and it always

works again. You know, that's a good idea. I'm going to restart my phone. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know why that is, but yeah, like whenever you're having trouble with your PC or your laptop or your phone, anything electronic like that,

just restart it and see if it fixes it. Yep. Yep. This is the first step that everyone should do. I mean, not just PCs, but everything, your phone, Your Wi-Fi router, if your Wi-Fi router, you know, doesn't work. Go ahead.

Yeah. If restart, but if it doesn't work, then you can start to panic. Yes, that's when you start to panic. If only we can restart our lives. I know, right. I know, right? Just panic. Oh, restart.

Would it fix us? I don't know. I don't know. Okay, so this is the controversial topic that I also want to ask those in the chat right now about, about antivirus because you know there's what norton mackafee a windows defender

and stuff like that a one so there's a there's a Reddit post about this recently about how like antivirus is basically useless now especially for ones that you pay for like Norton and McAfee

and that majority of time you don't even need it because as long as you're not downloading anything sketchy you're fine. Do you have an opinion on that, Ivan? I do, and I agree with Gato here where they say Windows Defender plus common sense is the best

antivirus combo you can get. And not to, you know, call people dumb or anything like that. They don't have common sense. But yeah, it's like, I'll use my dad as an example. Every time I go over to his house and he's like, I have problems in my laptop. I open it up and this guy has downloaded

as I don't know what, that he has like a bunch of ads popping up into the door. You know, it's like, everything's super slow and I'm like, dad, like, what are you clicking on? Good Lord. And I'll like, re-install like his OS and everything. And it's because, you know, yeah,

he does not have a lot of common sense when it comes to that stuff because, you know, he's older. He's like, you know, not used to this modern technology nowadays where he does things like that and I feel like if you're just careful that where you're like I'm not going to do anything illegal first of all my PC

you know I'm not going to download random files from some bit torrent website or anything like that or I'm not going to visit some shady website that you know streams free anime like a lot of people do that stuff and they're fine but a lot of people do that stuff and they're not fine so the best thing you can do is like just avoid that stuff altogether

like don't even take the chance because yes there are malicious things out there that can do damage to your PC and Windows Defender it does a great job like anytime that I've ever had an issue where you know I have clicked on something I shouldn't have clicked on for some reason or another Windows Defender has caught it

and I don't I don't pay for antivirus I don't you know do that but I also don't have I guess anything against people that pay for antivirus if you want to be extra safe you know I'm sure it doesn't hurt

but Windows Defender in common sense I do agree with Gato here that is probably the best antivirus there is yeah I see some people in the chat right now Windows built in Defenders all I use Chrome. Yeah, Chrome or OperaGX also does that too

of like the, if you download something, but like, are you sure you want to download this? Are you sure you want to keep the file? Yeah, that's always a big one. Yeah, you know what? Dark Epic, I kind of agree. If someone wanted to hack your PC, you know, a standard Norton or McAfee probably won't stop them.

If they really wanted it. Let's find out, Mike. Give it everyone your IP address. All right, here we go. What is my IP.com? Yeah, there's no way to achieve complete security. There are always devices of software that can put energy at your time. Yeah, exactly. I mean, yeah, just be smart.

Yeah, be village. Yeah, tripping sage. It's all about being vigilant and aware of potential risks. Common sense. You know, be smart. You know, don't download things if you can't, if you don't have to. don't think that you're gonna you know don't download uh you know you're you're our one millionth winner here's download here to click your prize like don't don't do that also emails if you get an

email and someone's forcing you to download something it's immediately like be wary because that's that's that's not how you keep an eye out y'all i think someone in chat brought us up and we brought it up before but i'll do it one more time please everyone make sure that your uh your thing is on its correct thing. Actually, I'll go ahead and show it. So display settings. Go ahead and where was it? Okay.

It advanced. Make sure that your thing is set to its highest point. Just making sure. Like right now, I can, okay, I'm going to force myself to do this. Oh, it's going to be so bad. Oh. Oh, God. I can like, oh, it's like motion.

blur on my, oh, that actually hurts my eyes a little bit. Let's revert back. Oh, my gosh. Do you need three monitors? I do. Actually need a fourth one, Lauren. I actually need a fourth one. That could be arranged.

I just don't have room for it. I just don't have room for it. Oh, that actually kind of hurt my eyes a little bit. I'm not going to lie. That actually kind of hurt. It's like basically since having motion blur. Oh,

oh, that hurt. But yes, please update your refresh rate. You know, you don't, you don't want to, you don't want to be at 60

hertz when you have ability to go 144. It will change your life. Yeah, once you try 120 hertz or higher, 60 feels nausea. Yeah, I actually,

I actually hurt. Like, I'm not trying to, like, exaggerate that physically, like, I literally felt like I was getting sick. Like,

it's like you don't want to get flashbanged in like CS and you have that like this art and that's what it felt like Mike this should be a TikTok video where you change your resolution 60 hertz and then you're like something happens

you know like your head explodes honestly yeah sometimes windows reset your refresh rate so please check it out often that is also very true oh my I don't even think I even had a 30 hertz monitor in that long but yes, please, please make sure that.

I mean, I want to know that 30 Hertz monitor on Netflix. But yes, Lauren, I need three monitors. Actually, I need a fourth one because I have, I've literally each of my modders is split into, I literally have six things going on at once. I have like Discord Slack, my two document things, and if I have to do something else, then I have my Trello board, and then I have like the music.

So I got six things going on to three monitors. Honestly, I wish I had more. but I don't know where to put the fourth one. I had to hang it up there, which would be annoying. I think this is also a controversial one, but I think it is something worth everyone doing a webcam cover.

Because there's a video that I watched and this guy was like, he basically paid this guy like a hacker to hack into his life. He's like, for the next like week, I want you to like hack and try to get as much things off of me. And the guy comes up and he's literally like, here's your

passwords, here's, you know, everything you do throughout the day. And literally he showed a picture of like, this is you eating dinner on Thursday. From his, like, from his, uh, I think it was his TV Alexa or something like that. So,

it's a simple thing. It's not expensive. Just. Yeah, the unfortunate reality is that we live in a time where there really is no privacy anymore. Not just the webcams, but

just in general. Like if you have a phone in your pocket, you know, there's not a conspiracy theory because it's been proven. Like, they know where you're driving, where you're, what restaurants you're eating at,

you know, where you're spending money. Sometimes even what you're saying, apparently, they say. So yeah, like, I'm not one of those people that's like paranoid about about that stuff. Not necessarily because I'm not gonna say like, oh, I have nothing to hide or whatever,

but it's, you know, there has been instances where, yeah, like people find out, like what the heck, like someone was watching me in my webcam. And I think even Mark Zuckerberg, there's this like famous picture of him with his laptop, like at a conference or something. And he himself had like a, like duct tape over his webcam on his laptop because you know he thinks someone could possibly tap in and see what he's doing

It's it's a I don't know if it's necessarily a tip Per se that everyone should do but I think it's It's something people should look into you know I realize that yeah like Just people out there that are trying to to find out what you're doing. Yeah, exactly it's it's you can't live your life in fear but it doesn't hurt to be like you know let's just put a little bit the weird thing is

for me not the webcam it's like this other stuff like me and my wife we both have Google pixel phones and we have Google whatever it's like the Alexa version for Google whatever it's called I think the nest

I forgot what it's called but it's like we notice ourselves like whenever we're talking about stuff like Let's say we're talking about, you know, we gotta get a new car seat for the baby or, you know, we gotta get like this brand of diapers or, you know, we should go to this museum or whatever. Like, we notice that the more we talk about it,

like it's so weird, like we'll open up Google and we'll get ads for those things or might be on Facebook and she'll be like, why am I getting ads for this thing we're just talking about? And I'm not, like I said, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it is weird. So it's a little weird. I mean, there was that thing. I mean, it's not exactly your phone, but there was a proven thing of like basically

a dad went to Target angry because he was getting ads for things about pregnancy. And he was like, my daughter is 16. She's not pregnant. Why are you giving me ads? And Target was like super mad. or not super sad, but they're like, oh, I'm so sorry. That shouldn't happen. You know, blah, blah, blah.

Then, like, the next day, he goes in, he's like, I'm sorry. Apparently my daughter was pregnant because the daughter was looking up, like, things for, like, you know, like baby things, you know, like diapers, non-scented lotion, vitamins to take when you're pregnant and stuff. Like, the Target knew, the data knew. Not a person. Data knew about the daughter being pregnant before the father. And that right there is scary. And it's, it's,

it's growing every day, you know. I mean, I, I am a firm believer that your phone is always listening to you. I'm not like a conspiracy. I think it happens. I'm not going to,

you know, be sad or whatever, you know, but I, there was a time where I think I was talking to you, Ivan, about something. But let's say we're talking about like grilling or something like that.

literally like 30 minutes later on Instagram, I can't add about grills. And I never looked up them online. Like I was just like, oh yeah, we talked about grilling and blah, blah, and on my,

literally Instagram will pop up like, you know, get these grills at lows near me. And I'm like, I've never typed grilling into Google on my phone or on my computer ever. Why is it telling you that? That's when I was like,

okay, I'm suspicious now. The tradeoff for all of this is convenience, you know, because everyone, and everyone wants to use these devices, you know, to make their life easier, you know. So like, what, are you going to turn off your location, the location on your phone? Then if you do that, then you're never going to have Google Maps or Apple Maps, right?

So you're trading convenience for it. It is scary. Yeah. Tripp and St. Josh, you brought it up. It is what it is how it is. It is what it is. You know, no need to trip over it. Cause issues.

We can't do anything, but take. some steps and to try to protect it exactly it's you can't do anything it is what it is I'm not gonna be living in with my tinful hat in my cave it is what it is just gonna live with it but you know just keep it keep an eye out for that so yeah you know actually that is one I won't go too much on a tangent because we're coming up on time but one of the things is that a lot of companies like Amazon Amazon makes a lot of money but the thing that makes them valuable is not because of the products they sell is because how much data they know.

They know what you want, what you like, when you want it, and that's what makes them valuable. So data is important, but again, I'm not going to trip. You shouldn't be tripping over it because it's just like, man.

Exactly. These next three are super easy. Always update your drivers and always update Windows. Just, you know, if you have a video card, go to G-Force experience. what's AMD's radion something what's what AMD's the name of it AMD software but whatever the software is always just go ahead and check it

actually probably should check it because I haven't checked in like a week always always always always update your drivers super simple yeah this goes along with the with the restart thing the first thing I do is restart the second thing I do is update everything and the third thing I do is restart everything again that's a good that's honestly that's actually kind of smart actually Yeah, resart, update, restart again. That's not really smart. Bios updates.

That's also a big one. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ceylon. I almost forgot about it. Bios updates also. When playing games with decent slash high graphics, your PC is meant to get hot. It's normal.

I think especially now with the CPS and GPs becoming more, better performing, everything like that. People get scared when they see, like, their things. Like right now, I'm running, you know, I'm not running too much, but I'm at 40, 30. And, you know, people are like, Oh, that must be so hot, but, like, I'm also running a lot of programs. I'm also in a place that doesn't have windows, no ventilation.

It happens. I mean, what is 40 Celsius to Fahrenheit? That's 100. On idle, it's 104 degrees. Yeah. On idle. It's probably scary. So if, like, you're running at 70 Celsius, you're running 158 in Fahrenheit.

That sounds like, it sounds like, no, they're used to it. Once you hit 80, 90, didn't yet be a little wary. but like 60, 70, you're fine. That's nothing. Nothing. And the final one, as always, clean your rig at least once a month. Canvaeer can be a difference between your Kobo's lasting one year or five to ten years.

I don't know if that's exactly true. Does cleaning, like, actually increase the lifespan of it? I don't know there's any, like, data out there to support this, but I would imagine so because I've seen some really horrific computers out there where someone has never cleaned their PC and there's like no way there's air going in there because the fans are clogged with dust. There's even like mold. I've seen mushrooms growing inside things, grass.

Some people have really disgusting computers. And I feel like that is definitely not increasing the lifespan. So, yeah, like, cleaning your PC every so often, not even it's often, just regularly, you know, it's like, I'm not going to say there's an exact, you know, time frame you should clean it because it depends on a lot of like what room it's in, how it's positioned in the room and all that stuff. Because if you're in a really sterile environment and your PC is not on the ground and getting sufficient airflow in there. and you don't have pets. It's not by a window. There's like so many different factors that play into this. You could get by maybe cleaning it once a year.

It's fine. But if you have a cat, a dog, no AC, you keep your PC on the rug next to a window that you leave open and you live on a busy street and there's cars driving by every day, it's like, sure enough, I guarantee you that there's going to be a lot more. dust in there than

the first example I gave. A lot of it depends on how your PC is positioned and all that stuff. Yeah, I 100% agree. If you are in a good place, once a month's minimum is fine. But...

Trippin brings up a good point. They say that they vape in the room. And sometimes it causes the glass to fog up and stain. I've seen some people share their computers online after like vaping or smoking in their room for periods of time and that stuff definitely gets in the PC and it's going like all over the hardware and I mean I don't

know like I said I'm not a scientist I don't have data on this but I can't imagine those chemicals are good for electronic components you know I just said Integrics also says on the other note when using blowers or air cans please let your please don't let your fans spin at super high RPM it produces voltage that I agree with also just a quick answer for some

or quick question for a chat I think I read this correctly you should be using physical air canisters like the hard plastic air canisters because if you use like the electronic reusable air ones it can actually cause damage to your PC I don't know exactly if that's true

That's why I kind of want to ask the chat. But I'm pretty sure you can't, you shouldn't be using those like rechargeable, reusable ones because it could cause issues to it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I'm not 100% sure, but that's that. I'm throwing it out there just to keep an eye out. The old standard air cancer will last you a long time. But if rechargeable is fine, you know, help save an environment and, you know, you can, you don't have to read buy it.

It's not bad. Yeah. Don't do what I do with the leaf blower. I'm not joking. Remember when I said I did that on the podcast a couple of months ago and people were livid that that was horrible advice. But that is literally what I've done too much to be easy. And nothing bad happened, but maybe I got lucky.

Yes, I mean the air compressor, sorry, air compressor, air can, you know, same thing. Yeah, for air cans, you can't hold down either. It caused humidity frost to build up. You have to burst fire. Yep, exactly. Exactly. Yep. Never spray Yacht Skid directly because, yes, it is cold.

All righty. And for the final one, the final question, enjoy what you have and don't listen to people online saying you should have this or that instead. So honestly, you may not even have to listen to us. Who cares? But as long as your PC's working, you're gaming, you're having fun with it. Take care of the PC.

That's all you need. And I'm going to kick it up a notch, Mike. I think this is just great advice for life. Be thankful for what you got and, you know, just realize that some people are not as fortunate as you. No matter what your situation is, you know, you can have, you know, the best PC, the biggest house and still not be happy, right? So it's a really good advice. I love this tip because, you know, there is like going back to what someone said earlier, about, you know, there's like toxic people in the gaming community.

And there definitely is, unfortunately. It's one of the reasons why I really love the NZXT community. You know, shout out to the NZXT fans out there. Like, we do try to maintain an environment where everyone is welcome. Everyone belongs. And, you know, everyone can be a gamer, basically. and that's not the case for a lot of people. A lot of people out there are like, you know,

shaming others for not having, you know, this type of PC or this type of graphics card or this CPU or whatever, yada, yada, yada. And at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. Everyone should just be happy and thankful for what they got because some people may not, you know, have what you got. Yep. I actually didn't even think about that or,

for life, but I agree. I agree. So that's... Yeah, Mike, so stop complaining to be, Mike. Hey, Ivan, I need eight monitors, please. I need to complain. Okay, everyone, let's go ahead and go to

announcements that I'll give you guys the code. So first, a while ago, I think it was a couple months ago. Harrow Connect's actually recently named our newest case to H6Flow, the best case of the year, which is awesome. So check out the H6 Flow by going to nzc.com. or type exclamation point 86 flow in the chat.

I have the 86 flow and it's awesome. Legit, like, I'm literally, I think on load with my 4090. I used to be at like 65 and my H5, which is fine. I mean, that's nothing. But now I'm at like 58. And I'm like, bang, that's nice. So A6 flow is awesome. We have a bunch of new products coming out.

You know, like we have a new, cases, new crackens, keyboards, mice, fans, monitors, power supplies, motherboards. We got everything. So go ahead and go to nzxy.com to take a look at all of our new stuff and take a look at, you know, nccc.com or go check out N6C on all social media platforms because we will be having some fun and outsetsets coming up soon. So also join a Discord.

Discord.org.com. if you guys want to participate in these giveaways. We do giveaways every week. So if you guys want Apucci as well, not just from the podcast, take a look at our Discord. And then for the final one,

Ivan, do you have anything before I give the code out? Oh, okay. I'll take that, take that. Ooh. So the code, for those that don't know, we're doing a Pucci giveaway for the Gleam, there's a code for 500 extra entries. Our way is saying,

you guys for joining us live on the podcast. The code is antistatic bracelet. Antistatic bracelet is the only the anti-static bracelet is the only thing you need, only tip you need in the rest of your life. That is the only thing you'll ever. Basically, that's the only tip you need. That's it. Antistatic bracelet. Make sure to grab yourself. Okay. I know I do. I know I do. But I think that's the, That's it. Having anything else before I go to the outro. No,

just want to thank everyone who tuned in live and thank everyone who tuned in after this was uploaded. We appreciate all of y'all. And like Mike said, please join the Discord server. We're trying to do more fun stuff on there. Not just giveaways, but even playing video games and having some game nights and whatnot on there. And yeah,

we'll see you there. Yeah. So thank you guys for joining us. And remember tune in live every other Friday at 10 a. Pacific standard time on the official NCC switch. And don't forget to listen to previous episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. Please leave us a positive review if you like what you hear

or if you didn't. Got any questions for us. Send an email to podcast at nzc.com or tag at NXC on all social media platforms. Join our Discord at discord.g.g. slash NZXT. See you guys next time. And I'll go ahead and announce the winner

in our Discord server later today. So thank you guys. Thank you guys so much. Use your anti-static bracelets and have a good weekend. And hey, have a fun super bowl as well. 09ers. Let's go out, everyone.