The Best PC Build Teacher for Noobs

[Hardliner]

Carey Holzman is THE BEST teacher (a virtual 'Rosetta Stone') for people just beginning to get into building their own rigs. He does not do water cooling builds, but that is okay for noobs because they need to learn the nuts and bolts of the operation first anyway. In his videos, Carey takes learners though each step in great detail with wonderful closeups--when learning from Carey, there are no misunderstandings.

Also, if you are a veteran builder, you probably will like watching this guy build like master chefs still like to watch cooking shows:

[YogiBear]

Picking out x99/Z97, a CPU, GPUs, SSDs, etc... was relatively quick and easy for me. The MB was a little cloudy. However, since this was my first 100% from scratch build and my first custom water cooling loop, I spent quite a bit of time watching videos and reading forums. I took everything I heard for what it is, an opinion. The case reviews came in handy, but I'll get a case labs next build (next spring 🙂 ). Sure, if I build a new PC right now, it would go pretty quick.

Nothing wrong with taking your time.

[Hardliner]

EXACTLY, Yogi, thank you. I know quite a bit about PC builds, now (even things that some vets seem never to have learned), mainly because I have combed through many vids and forums. So much so that it has become a sort of habit for me, but it is a constructive one that I enjoy doing. (Right now, I am having to deal with working which obscure fittings I will need in order to make my loop work right between my radiators. . ..)

About the CaseLabs case, I agree. Though it is generally the most expensive case to buy, it is definitely among the best cases out there, mainly because you can customize it to the extreme, which is why it is probably not a good 'first-build case.'

When I build again, I too will use CaseLabs, for I now know exactly what I want in a case and will order it to suit. (I really like being able to remove the whole MOBO tray from a CaseLabs case with the MOBO and its CPU, GPU's, and RAM still attached. This makes the MOBO tray a veritable test bench in itself.)

[Hardliner]

The below vid is a continuation of the "The beginner's guide to shopping for water cooling parts!" video. It has great info if you are noobish at water cooling. (I was pleasantly surprised to see my DDC dual-pump mentioned, and fortunate to find out that it needs good ventilation to keep from burning up.)

[Hardliner]

Carey proves his teaching skills yet again by explaining in depth how to install video cards in SLI, even showing closeups and such:

[InfernoStorm]

I like how you use different colors for your replies 😄

[Hardliner]

Me too, but I only do so if I initiated the thread, and I use ROY G BIV.

[Hardliner]

The Truth About Watercooling - Myth Busting:

[Korth]

Hardliner wrote:
The Truth About Watercooling - Myth Busting:

Hmphf. Distilled water is good. Non-conductive coolants are often toxic.

I wouldn't know such things. My loops always circulate transformer fluids like Midel 7131 - non-conductive (heavy-duty dielectric, lol), non-magnetic (EMI/RFI shielding, confuses the physicists), non-toxic (fully biodegradable and complies with every inane environmental regulation in the world, though algea and fungi refuse to grow in it), non-staining (better optical clarity than pure water and leaves absolutely no residue at all), plus it's a superior coolant with very high thermal density, water soluble and miscible with water soluble pigments, some nutjobs even claim that it's a powerful antioxidant everybody should be drinking. It gets used for complete-immersion builds a lot (you can drown every powered component in your computer in Midel 7131 except for barometrically-sealed mechanical HDDs and wireless radio antennae). $6/liter, sure, but probably a lot cheaper than most PC-marketed coolant products.

[Hardliner]

Up until now, I have been thinking that one of the hardest parts of my build was going to be having to figure out what kind of obscure rigid compression fittings I would need to make my one big water cooling loop work. Thankfully, though, I have the below pic (and the subsequent video that it comes from) as a guide, and my build will even be a simpler and take up less space since I will be dealing with just one loop, because of my dual-pumps being together in the same loop, instead of having two separate ones: