Gamer PC

A family of makers

When my grandfather went to university, he was the first person in his family to go and he wanted to study computer engineering. However, this career was not offered in Colombia in the 70’s, so he had to settle for electrical engineering. 

Experienced

This is not my first experience in building computers.

In 2017 I had received a Kano laptop kit as a gift for Christmas, and I had built it by myself with some help from my mom. It was very easy with all the components mostly put together but it had aspects of cable management and basic screws.

Kano computer

Inspired by my previous DT Experience

The process of building a computer

Ever since I had a computer, I had been very fascinated by them and I had become interested in building PCs.

Inspiration

Pre-building process

Have an idea

There are many functions for your PC, and many factors to consider in the process of selecting & building. These can vary from;

price – a PC that fits a budget but still has the performance you want

performance – a PC that is just raw performance, usually the most pricey option with some compromises

noise – a PC that is quieter than your surroundings, usually because of other people, a microphone or being able to hear sounds from your PC clearly

size – a PC that fits how big or small you want it. Small pcs can be used if you travel a lot, and come with some compromises for all the other aspects

newgrounds screenshot

Pre-building process

Select the parts

This step involves researching the parts you need for the PC you are building, with your chosen parameters. This is a very daunting task without knowledge of pc components, so there are many guides online, such as this one on pc part picker. it is very well made so that you can select the list you need and change certain parts.

The list in the image above is this list that i had selected for someone with a budget of 2000 dollars. This build highlights two of my core aspects, being price and performance.

 

A Balanced Game

Pre-building process

Buying

Buying is a very important part in the process of building a pc, as it is very easy to buy something from the wrong place. I would recommend buying your components from a clean-looking website such as amazon, or buying from the manufacturer if that is an option (the image shows someone about to buy a stick of ram from the manufacturer)

A Balanced Game

Building

Building the motherboard

The motherboard connects everything together, and there are 4 components that get put directly onto the motherboard.

You start by unhooking the latch from the cpu socket, then inserting the cpu, making sure the “arrow” in the bottom left corner of the cpu aligns with the arrow on the cpu mount. Then put the lever back on.

Next you put in the storage by unscrewing the motherboard’s storage heatsink, remove the adhesive on the thermal pad and put the heatsink back on.

Then you slot the memory in by applying equal pressure on the ram slots.

On the back of the motherboard, you can then mount your cooler using the 4 screws it came with

Building

Graphics card, case and psu

The next thing to do is to connect the graphics card to the motherboard by aligning the PCIE slot with the motherboard, and applying even pressure across the two furthest points in the slot. You then need to mount the motherboard to the case using the screws that came with the case. Then, you need to mount the power supply to the case, and connect all the necessary power connectors. After this, you’ll be done with your pc, and all you have to do is install the operating system!

PC building

The finished product

 

The team

Grandfather

Research & Development

I had always been interested in PCs, and I had spent weeks researching the parts to use for my PC, trying to ensure that everything would fit together and be cost-effective within my build

More Design Process Focused

Case Studies 

Drawstring Bag

Drawstring Bag

Pop Art on the goThis bag was made as a textiles project in my school. We had a simple design process and some people were finished in three lessons. I had thought of this design because I had drawn a circle on a page, and I remembered a drawing I had made once, and...

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