The ecstasy and downfall of building my pc and the aftermath of it.

[PCPartPicker part list](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RYPQQZ) / [Price breakdown by merchant](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RYPQQZ/by_merchant/)

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Type|Item|Price

:----|:----|:----

**CPU** | [AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz 8-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/bddxFT/amd-ryzen-7-2700x-37ghz-8-core-processor-yd270xbgafbox) | $308.99 @ Amazon

**Motherboard** | [Gigabyte - X470 AORUS ULTRA GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/TWzkcf/gigabyte-x470-aorus-ultra-gaming-atx-am4-motherboard-x470-aorus-ultra-gaming) | $119.89 @ OutletPC

**Memory** | [Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/p6RFf7/corsair-memory-cmk16gx4m2b3200c16) | $124.99 @ Newegg Business

**Storage** | [Crucial - MX500 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ft8j4D/crucial-mx500-500gb-25-solid-state-drive-ct500mx500ssd1) | $67.85 @ OutletPC

**Storage** | [Toshiba - 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/fpCwrH/toshiba-internal-hard-drive-dt01aca200) | $79.89 @ OutletPC

**Video Card** | [Sapphire - Radeon RX 590 8 GB NITRO+ SE Video Card](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/nLNv6h/sapphire-radeon-rx-590-8-gb-nitro-video-card-11289-01-20g) | $259.99 @ Newegg

**Case** | [Phanteks - Eclipse P300 Tempered Glass (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/FCs8TW/phanteks-eclipse-p300-tempered-glass-atx-mid-tower-case-ph-ec300ptgbk) | $59.99 @ Amazon

**Power Supply** | [Corsair - TXM Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/PVzZxr/corsair-txm-gold-650w-80-gold-certified-semi-modular-atx-power-supply-cp-9020132-na) | $59.98 @ Newegg

**Operating System** | [Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/wtgPxr/microsoft-os-kw900140) | $98.89 @ OutletPC

**Monitor** | [Acer - KG251Q bmiix 24.5" 1920x1080 75 Hz Monitor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/FRhKHx/acer-kg251q-bmiix-245-1920x1080-75hz-monitor-kg251q-bmiix) | $129.99 @ Amazon

**Keyboard** | [Logitech - G413 Carbon Wired Gaming Keyboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/CqGj4D/logitech-g413-carbon-wired-gaming-keyboard-920-008300) | $73.00 @ Walmart

| *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* |

| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1433.45

| Mail-in rebates | -$50.00

| **Total** | **$1383.45**

| Generated by [PCPartPicker](https://pcpartpicker.com) 2019-02-11 12:07 EST-0500 |

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It has been two weeks since I've finished building my pc.

All the parts arrived in the same morning as I woke myself earlier like a child in X-mas waiting for his presents. I was nervous, anxious and had drunk three coffees just in case I couldn't keep my eyes open while reading the manuals of all the components.

Cleaned my small desk and moved every other piece of furniture out of the way because I did not fathom how big the boxes with all the components were. Opening them with scissors was a bad idea but I had no other tool near me that could do the job better. Counted every single box to see if all of them had really arrived or something might have gone missing in the delivery, after all, living in an island and importing from mainland is not risk free. The delivery company didn't screw it up. Hooray! One hour off checking three large boxes with smaller boxes inside. What a delight.

Putting my laptop aside in a chair with the video of Bitwit "how to build a pc (or something)" and opening the box with the motherboard inside. Let's begin. A diminute plastic bad with 4 screws? It's allright.

Saying my desk is small is not even close to the reality I was denying when I got the case on it. Where should I put it? On the floor? No, it just arrived and I didn't want it full of cat fur. I should point that I normally let my cat sleep in my bed but that day I kicked him out of the room as he meowed me asking what was more important, all those newly arrived thingies or him. Closed the door with him staring at me. Just for the moment, the case stays on the desk.

The motherboard is heavy and looks fragile. Guessing where to grab it took me 10 minutes googling "how to hande motherboards correctly". All those slots and pins meant nothing and I had no clue what every symbol meant until I started reading the manual -and I still don't know what most of those slots and pins are for, but I'll let them be- and slided that incredibly beautiful cpu into the socket. That was easy and, now, the cpu cooler.

Thermal paste or not? No, the cooler had some applied beforehand so it should be safe to connect it to the motherboard. What am I doing wrong? How much pressure should I be pushing? A quarter of an hour went away as I fiddled with it before I was able to mount it to the mb.

Line the mb with the case and lock it with screws in the right holes. Nice and easy but, where are the rest of the screws? It needed 6 to the very least and I managed to find one? I panicked. Checked all over the mb box to see if I'd missed any other plastic bag. It was not there. Reddit, help!

Someone commented that the screws come with the case, usually where the hdd slots were. Did it? Yes it did! Thank you, mate! I was worried I had to go out to buy screws for it. Time to secure it with my crappy screwdriver.

It was crap. I couldn't line a single one to the mb even using my phone as a torch. How much does one phillip head screwdriver cost? Almost €3. Ok, I should have bought one before my comps. Regretting that decision but secured the mb to the case. Job done. Three hours had passed.

Securing the psu to its place and connecting all the cables was a pain in the arse. The cables were all over the place. Rerouting every cable to the shorter hole in the case added another hour to my misery and wait to the moment I realised I connected the case cables to the wrong pins. Damn and blast! Where is the damn mb manual? What does it all have to be so complicated? Why didn't I buy a bigger desk? Why did I put all the boxes in my bed? What does -insert random cable name here- do? LED? Hellfire!

HDD and SSD connected. This case I got only allows the ssd in the back panel so the cables were entangled one to another with the case ones. Didn't properly check what case I was getting into. That was a terribe mistake. The cheapest one is not the one I should get but I wasn't even sure that it would fit in my desk when I ordered it. Hopefully, it will be large enough for its comps not to overheat inside.

GPU time! Sapphire Nitro + Radeon RX 590 8GB GDRR5 UEFI. No clue what it meant, but be sure that it can handle the games I want to play. Done. Pcpartpicker wasn't sure that this GPU would fit in my case. So glad it did.

Now, to connect the monitor with the gpu and boot it up! Plastic cheap monitor will do. VGA cable into the monitor and into the gpu. Or not. Gpu doesn't have a vga port! What? How did I missed that? And the hdmi cable? Good grief, I didn't check the cables that came with the monitor. Bloody hellfire! Not yet. Maybe my father had some cables stored somewhere in around the place. Six hours have gone by and I haven't eaten anything yet. This building had taken all my body and mind into it.

All the cables I was able to find were vga to vga. No time to curse. Grabbed my wallet and into the tool store where I purchased my wonderful screwdriver. They sell toolboxes, garden tools, spades and even a tractor but none of the cables I needed. Can't blame them. Ok, next store.

The same. Another tool store. Fish tank in display, chainsaw for murderous purposes and lottery, because it is a legal lottery vending point. Nothing again. The store clerk pointed me to an electronic consumers store close in a nearby city.

Twas' six o' clock PM when I reached that store in a van with a sky ready to pour all over my anxious misery. Just one guy working in a small store. That is fine.

Got hdmi cable? Yes. Got any vga to dvi cable? I asked. No. Let's torch the place. But we got a vga adapter to dvi, if you need it. Not sure if it'll work with your gpu. Let's try it. Paid and got the bill. Drove like a madman back to my room and tested if the adapter fitted in the gpu port. It did! Hoorah! Bless Harlaus and his useless servants for their incompetence! All the planets have aligned! Am I that egocentric? YES! But wait, I haven't started the pc yet. What if something had failed? What if I made a mistake? Plug both the cables into the wall socket. It's time to press the power button.

It starts! It boots! Heavens below! Nothing was damaged, all worked as it should! Now, the drivers. Didn't even bother to order an optical drive as I got a win10 usb stick. Both the mb and the gpu comes with drivers in CD's. Great. Another stab in my kidney. But wait, my father has one and I borrowed it from him. Install everything and forwards to setting win10 up. New profile, blah blah blah and done. Task manager says everything's fine. Feeling ecstatic. Onwards!

It was close to 8PM when I finished building it. Every box and bad was left either in my bed or on the floor, which I didn't bother to clean and pack until I finished my dinner.

Tasteless. Careless. Gaming. Gaming. Gaming. Which game should I install first? Best to choose something demanding to push the gpu. AOE2 HD! It works just fine. Wrong choice. The Witcher 3! That's the answer. After a lengthy process of installation, play game. Everything in Ultra, Freesync on, FHD. No lag, no stutter. It's amazing!

And I built it! Time to sleep. It was my last day of a 2 weeks holiday. Next morning, back to work.

The overwhelming joy I felt vanished as soon as I woke up. Spend two hours wondering if I made the right choice, if I waited long enough to get the parts in sale, if all I spent was necessary. Couldn't shake the feeling off my head.

The sun rises. The cat scratches my door. Haven't slept for more than four hours. A quick glance towards my newly built pc makes me feel nothing. Bathroom, breakfast and ready to waste myself back at work.

It seems I can no longer feel some sort of amusement or joy with all those high specs requirements games. Playing in my old laptop with all the lag and stutter and screen shatter in hd res games made me feel better than playing the witcher 3 in ultra fhd. What is wrong with me? Were my expectations for those games too high? Is it because of the hype? I'm sad.

At the very least, I can now get over 1000 units in AOE2 HD without lag. That is great. Spanish peasants are the best siegers. Over 800 troop units in Mount and Blade. Got headshot before I spearthrusted any enemy. That felt great. It seems like I'm ranting about recent games that I couldn't enjoy and celebrating old glories. Maybe I am. Maybe this post is utterly pointless, as most unhelpfully posts are.

Mount and Blade Bannerlord, Cyberpunk 2077. Come out, wherever you are. Gimme the feeling I got back when I first played Oblivion and Dragon's Dogma. My life is boring. The games are not the problem. That sudden realisation made me feel like a druggie waiting for the next hit. I'm too obsessive. Selfish. I have grown into that.

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To sum it up, took me 8 hours to built a pc. Failed to notice the tools and knowledge needed. Finished without incidents. Felt great, then felt nothing. Awaiting for new games that might give me a feeling of enjoyment.

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Thanks to r/buildapc and r/buildapcforme as well for the help I needed. Hope you are enjoying more than I'm doing. If you actually readed all of that mess, congratulations, your patience skill has increased! Somewhere there are hats made of human leather. Thank you for letting me vent. Building a pc is a lot easier than you might think, if you had never ever built one. Just take some confidence and a clear space to do it and a search engine like Google whenever you don't know what are you doing.