Building my first PC
I built my first PC!
Not too long ago, I built my first PC. The Acer Predator 17 served me well for five years, but I had enough of the awful crackling coming from the left speaker—apparently a motherboard issue.
| Category | Part |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i7-12700 |
| Motherboard | Asus TUF B660M-PLUS |
| Memory | Vulcan Z 2x16GB DDR4-3200 CL16 |
| Video Card | PowerColor 6800 XT Red Devil |
| PSU | Corsair RMx 850 |
| CPU cooler | Dark Rock Pro 4 |
| Storage | WD Blue SN570 2 TB M.2 NVME |
| Case Fan | ARCTIC P14 PST 72.8 CFM 140 mm |
| Case Fan | ARCTIC P14 PST 72.8 CFM 140 mm |
| Case Fan | ARCTIC P12 PST 56.3 CFM 120 mm |
| Case | Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact |
| Monitor | LG 27" IPS 27GP750 |
| UPS | CyberPower 1500VA |
| Keyboard | Ducky One 3 TKL Fuji |
Struggles #
For the most part, putting the parts together wasn't too difficult. There were a few very frustrating bits, though.
The Dark Rock Pro 4 is a chunky cooler, and requires installation of fan clips and screwing into a mounting plate using a long screwdriver. I spent a long time trying to fit the fan clips on, and I only had a mini screwdriver kit, so I spent even longer holding it in place with one hand and spinning the screwdriver with the other. If only I had realised sooner that the cooler comes with a long screwdriver packed into the foam...
Getting the power cables routed was a smaller ordeal, but still plenty painful. The motherboard supports both 8-pin and 4-pin connectors for CPU power. I plugged both in before learning that I really only needed the 8-pin connector. All of the power cables are so thick and unyielding.
I also mounted the rear case fan three times to figure (and re-confirm) how best to route the cable to the motherboard. I had to route it in front of the GPU, which doesn't feel lovely, but I tied it to part of the case further away from the GPU, so it shouldn't move any closer.
Keyboard #
I fell into the world of mechanical keyboards and spent a number of hours reading and watching videos about switches (linear, tactile, clicky, Franken-) and keycaps (ABS, PBT, profiles, double-shot, dye-sub).
Needing to have a keyboard somewhat quickly and not wanting to have to deal with soldering, I went with a Ducky One 3 TKL Fuji with Cherry red switches. I'm really happy with it!
I don't think I'll be buying or building a second keyboard anytime soon, but it's a lot of fun to look at them, like this very cute 75% keyboard with mostly KBDfans Macaron keycaps (and a few NP Ice Cream keycaps thrown in) posted on Reddit (www.reddit.com). However, if I ever get around to learning to solder, putting a keyboard together would provide a lot of practice...
