Top PC Myths DEBUNKED...

The scariest part of pc building is the pricing these days! 👎

The original PC myth: "640k should be enough for anybody."

Built my first custom PC in 2024 and have used you to fix problems along the way, especially BIOS stuff lol. May God bless you and your family with long healthy life bro.

4:11 I rubbed a black cat with a Perspex rod while installing my GPU. I will say that my ankle monitor notified my parole officer, but the card came out fine. XD

It's sad when you know that the design of the DRAM slot hasn't changed much since the creation of the SDRAM slot in 1995, and people still manage to break the slots or the modules.

I knew a lot of this already, but motherboards in the dishwasher blew my mind. 😮

3:33 this is also why it’s important to use all your motherboards mounting screws in your setup. Those small metal dots around the holes aren’t just cool looking those ground the mobo to the case

My view on ESD: While the chances may be extremely low that I’ll fry a component, if I’m spending thousands of dollars on my build, especially in a market where things are getting harder and harder to get, I’ll take a few minor precautions like not wearing socks on a carpet, and using an anti-static strap.

Liquid metal is a thermal interface material you need to be very careful with still.

I did unfortunately short out a Gigabyte board on carpet back in 2005.

I still use a static mat and a wrist band. Why take a chance with the high prices of hardware? Being careful is cheap insurance.

Thanks for all the great videos! I kinda want to jump in... capacitors aren't really something to be used for ESD protection. There are components that are often used to protect external ports like USB ports or whatever that can be used. Like TVS diodes and other things like that. Also there are things that can be done when designing IC's so that their pins are somewhat protected from transient static discharges. But it depends - like WiFi uses high frequency signals which make it MUCH MUCH harder to design them to protect against these kinds of static discharges. The designs that usually are good for ESD protection are usually bad for anything high frequency. Now don't get me wrong - modern designs are much better overall than they were in the 70's and 80's. I repair vintage computers and I can tell you that the CIA chips in a Commodore 64 are often broken because people accidentally touch the joystick ports they are connected to and dump their static zapping discharge into the machine and blow the chips. But even by the time the Super Nintendo came out it's controllers had TVS diodes in them to protect the console from the long controller cables that would be all over the carpet while playing. Anyway things are better now yest. But... you should be wearing ESD straps when building a machine. ESPECIALLY when installing RAM. I used to have a business building and selling modern PC's - and I'm telling you, for both vintage computers AND modern computers - it's easy to FUCK YOUR RAM HARD with static. I don't know what it is about RAM but it's like the number one thing, in my actual experience, that fails from the 80's till today. The other problem with ESD is that the damage isn't binary. It's not all or nothing. If there is ESD protection built into modern designs and modern components all that means is that it can take some damage before entering a failure mode. But there IS damage even if it is still working. For example you can search online and find die shots under the microscope where you can see a large area of the chip where static has damaged the area but not ALL of the area and so the chip still works. But it's lifetime is now shorter because an area of the chip that's all uniform now has a big burn mark in it. So yes, it is totally possible that someone could build PC's - even as a business - while completely ignoring ESD. But it's a few months or years later when the damage can accumulate and catch up with the device. I also build electronics in my store - both for vintage computers but also guitar pedal effects etc... - and there's a BIG difference between parts that come from Amazon or AliExpress and parts that come from real electronics suppliers like DigiKey, Mouser, or Newark (etc...) and the obvious difference is in the packaging. When you get an AliExpress part it can be in a regular plastic baggie shoved into a regular white piece of styrofoam. But I recently got some components from Mouser and the chips were in their own silver ESD and humidity controlled sealed bag with extra oxygen and moisture absorbing packets inside. It even has a best before date on it. The reason is if you're building a new device you want it to last for you customers and when a component comes packaged like that I know that whenever I build something that part is going to be brand new. Not corroded, nor tarnished, nor rusty, and not with an IC that's full of static discharge blasted all over the die. Even Woz takes ESD seriously. There's a video online with 80's Woz talking about it. ESD is real. Strap in.

Myth: you need that RTX5080 Truth: 99% of the time you do not.

19:27 I just use a tissue paper and rip it to the size I need. If it gets sucked towards the case, it's negative pressure. If it gets blown away, it's positive pressure

Even as someone that's been in computers and building them for about 26 years now. . . You do a damned good job of explaining this stuff and making the industry/hobby welcoming.

Great video as usual. Personally the only time I’ve ever used a static strap was in the early 2Ks because I took a A+ class and the teacher forced the issue. It was a fun and super easy filler class for my degree. I worked in computer stores and have been building computers since the 90s. Static discharge was definitely a thing in the 90s when I began and learned that all you had to do was touch the metal case before picking anything up to avoid it. A store I worked at the owner actually killed a SIMM and he’s who told me to just discharge before touching anything.

I worked in a server manufacturing plant. I've seen components ($5,000 ram modules, before the rampocalypse) die from static. It's not common but it's def something you should be wary of.

I'm a senior electronics engineer (military and commercial) of the old and current school. Ignore ESD controls whilst building your rig at your peril. Not all manufacturers are the same so risk varies. No point to be risky. Use ESD grounding when building or handling electronic components. It's no hardship to be safe. Try to argue a case with a supplier when you want to return a component or device, when they ask if you took ESD precautions. It's nothing to be afraid of, it's good assembly practice.

2:07 Please do not deter people from basic grounding knowledge. Just because you have never used it and it was fine by you until now, doesn´t mean, people should be discouraged to have a knowledge of how static electricity works....

Building a PC today is mostly plug n play and the operating system is easy to install. My first PC I built in the early 90s involved a motherboard with jumpers where you had place them in the correct positions for the correct voltages and clock speeds for different cpus, gpus and even for the memory. The operating system involved using DOS, floppy discs and putting in the proper lines code to get the operating system to run correctly. Even the floppy disc PC games involved dos programming and putting in lines of code. It was extremely rewarding building a PC and getting my first PC game to run which was 1992 Microsoft Flight Simulator.