Laptop Nerd Builds Her First Computer

I’ve never had my own personal desktop, which may be surprising for those who know me as a tech nerd.

If you’ve read my previous blog post about Chairs, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and my acute obsession with ergonomics, You probably noticed the fact that, despite being a tech nerd, I’ve never had a full tower PC. You can see this as a continuation of that previous blogpost, as a whole load of stuff has changed since then. Honestly I don’t know where to start… So I guess we start where we last left off, with the Desk and what I’ve done with it.

Audio

Since the last time I’ve posted I’ve completely overhauled my audio setup. You may not have been able to tell, but in the original setup, I had a Behringer U-Phoria UM2 audio interface that started to get really static-y in the XLR port, almost to the point where the microphone became unusable.

After believing that its the microphone (and breaking it, I guess that’s a project for a later date. If that sounds like fun, please subscribe to the RSS feed), I had to replace my mic (that I bought Used) with a brand new AT2020, and a BluCoil 48 V Portable USB Audio Interface

Part of my reasoning for choosing this audio interface was the fact that I wanted something that worked, but also had knobs on the front (My autistic brain absolutely loves physical dials and analog audio controls. Also they look really cool.)

The headphones I daily drive are the Audio Technica ATH-M50xBT2, costing around 170 dollars on sale. I can highly recommend these headphones for a multitude of reasons, with the battery being an easy sell and the mobile app being a change of pace compared to similar high end devices that makes you feel like you need it to get the least out of your devices.

The entire purpose of this build was Flexibility. I never, at any point, wanted to feel like I was held back by my hardware choices. If I, say, wanted to make Youtube Videos, I’m totally capable of doing that with this audio setup. If I wanted to make music, I have my Midi Keyboard, I have my myriad of musical instruments, and you’d better believe I’ll be busting some tunes.

The Actual Computer

You probably didn’t click on this blog post for audio nerd shit. You clicked on this blog for some old fashioned computer nerd shit. Well, I’m proud to announce that I’ll be able satisfy that need.

The Noir

Using a Zalman Iceberg computer case, it ensures that this AMD-based system gets plenty of air, creating the best possible environment for my Linux system to operate, and for a cheap price too. I built her over the span of 3 months, with the best end-of-the-line AM4 hardware possible.

She can run basically any software I toss at it. With 32 gigs of ram she’s an absolute beast that only the highest end of AAA games with absolutely abysmal optimizations could dream of filling, all while running at a low 40C and only going to high 50Cs under heavy loads.

My first time building a computer was definitely… Interesting. It wasn’t until I basically had the entire thing built that I had to use my background in tech support to deduce that I got a faulty motherboard (I went all-in on the fact that the computer booted ONCE with no stability issues, even under heavy CPU, GPU, and RAM loads. If anything crashed while it was booted I knew that it was something else.), so I had to get a replacement. While I was swapping all of the components, I accidentally bent one of the pins on my CPU. Just my luck. Luckily I have small steady hands so I was able to bend the pins back with relative ease. I was too busy focusing on fixing shit that I didn’t even think to document it. Building a computer was definitely a unique experience, multiple points did i lose motivation and almost give up, but I knew that it would all be worth it.

Porting the original blogpost to the new blog, I’ve been using this desktop for over 4 months, and its been going really smooth. I haven’t had any real trouble with it and its given me a lot of freedom to do stuff I’ve always wanted to do. Honestly, I’d heavily recommend building a computer for anybody who is interested in it.