How to Upgrade Your PC with Your New Black Friday Purchases

This is one of the best times of the year if you are planning to upgrade your PC. Chances are good that you can get some great deals on components from Black Friday to Cyber ​​Monday (although you will never get that flagship Nvidia or AMD graphics card in your vacation stocking). Wwhether it’s your first upgrade or your fiftieth, there are a few things you’ll want to do before tear up your gear and anchor you.

Did you receive the correct equipment?

Disorders are occurring as retailers are currently doing a lot of shopping. Before you tear up anything you bought – a new processor, new RAM, new motherboard, etc. – breathe deeply. Look at the box. Look at the specs. Make sure what you received is exactly what you ordered from the retailer (or intended to order). And even when you carefully open your purchases (don’t tear up), take a look at the equipment itself. Has the correct item been placed in the correct packaging? Did you actually have DDR4-3000 memory when you wanted to get DDR4-3600?

It sounds pedantic, I know, but it’s much better to catch an error sooner than after you’ve already put said components into your desktop system.

Make sure your purchases are not fake

I admit that I’ve never experienced this in my years of building a PC, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. It is possible that you will receive a bogus or fake product – something that a previous buyer has ordered, exchanged for a cheaper or cheaper component and returned. Like Redditor altimax98 Explain:

I bought an i9-10850KA (yeah, probably the last Intel on the market saying it still happens) and when I got it it just didn’t feel right. The box was messed up, but IDC if the processor is fine. But it was really broken, and the security tape wasn’t clear, it had some quirks in it – so I started taking pictures. I looked at the processor and since I haven’t upgraded in about 4 years it didn’t seem strange to me. I opened the box and grabbed the processor and that’s when I noticed there appeared to be a sticker on the top and a little flaw in the way it was applied. At this point I was 99.9% sure it was a fake so I started looking online for 10850k / 10900k processors and that’s when I saw 1: dummy processors have this shape and 2: the real processor in the socket is all you should be looking for, and that’s when I noticed mine was a fake.

What could it have done if I had placed it on my $ 400 motherboard, who knows, but it absolutely would have made my return / refund process more difficult.

I was lucky my experience saved my ass but I know a lot of people posting here are brand new so before you bend the pins or potentially short a motherboard …

Again, there’s a good chance most people reading this will never have a problem with bogus components. But that’s why I always warn that it’s worth being careful up front and taking your time to really inspect what you’ve ordered. before you take your PC apart to install it (or use it in a new version of desktop PC).

Make sure all the equipment you bought works well together

Now that you are looking at a big bunch of (legitimate) things for upgrading or building a desktop PC, take a moment to rate yourself. Are you reasonably sure that everything you have purchased is compatible with each other? Does your motherboard support your CPU socket? Did you buy the right memory for your motherboard? Does your motherboard PCI Express chipset match the fastest supported by your graphics card? Is your power supply large enough to handle your upgraded system? Can your graphics card (or integrated graphics card) handle your high resolution monitor? Does your motherboard have enough SATA ports for all of your drives?

If this all sounds like technobabble, or if you’ve already researched everything (or had a little help) but now you are starting to doubt yourself, don’t worry – there are many forums you can go to to ask someone more informed than you to verify your purchases before you open everything up and realize there is a problem. I’ve always been a big fan of geeks from buildapc subreddit, who always seem willing and eager to help the less experienced with their builds.

Measure, measure, measure

The last thing you want to take care of is how the hell you’re going to get it [critical part] in your PC if, or when, space becomes tight. And if you’re lucky enough to have one of the latest graphics cards from Nvidia or AMD, you’ll want to make sure your desktop PC case has enough room for these monstrosities before you start your build.

For example, you might need to remove part of the case, like some drive bays, to free up enough space for your graphics card beast and its cables. And it can be something much easier to do before you install your motherboard, power supply, hard drives, case fans, or whatever else you work with.

You have several ways to do this. You can write down any critical measurements of the parts you purchase to make sure you have enough space in your case before you order them. Once they have arrived, I recommend that you put them all down and run a dry test – only install the basics, like your motherboard and graphics card, before you worry about things like your processor, drives, cables, etc. You just do a fit test, along with an idea of ​​the order you might need to install everything. Once you’re confident, you can start screwing everything in, connecting the cables, and setting up all your other gear.

Make sure you understand the nuances of PC building

Building a PC is simple, but I’m saying as a person who built system after system after system for places like Maximum PC: There are certainly nuances that are second nature to seasoned PC builders, but it could be things you didn’t even know existed if you’re relatively new to PC building (or upgrading). . For example, did you use the correct PCI Express slot for your graphics card? Have you put your memory in the right places? Have you made sure to enable XMP (or its equivalent) to keep your memory running at its correct speed? Did you apply your thermal paste the right way? Have you remembered adjusting the refresh rate of your gaming monitor to 120Hz in Windows, so that it doesn’t just run at 60Hz by default? Have you really connected all cables? Are you building your PC on a carpet floor? (Do not do that.)

If you’re not sure what you’re doing or want to make sure you’ve covered all the basics when building a new PC, there are plenty of resources out there that will help guide you through the process. process. I’m still a fan of Austin’s tutorial videos because he’s so upbeat:

YouTuber Robeytech also does a great job with this updated tutorial:

When in doubt: stop and ask for help

If you reach a point in your PC’s build where something’s wrong – your parts won’t fit, you don’t know what to connect to, or you think you’re done and your system won’t turn on. everything – do not panic. It’s time to call a friend.

Chances are, you know a geek or gamer who can help you troubleshoot the process over the phone, video chat, or (safely) in person. And if you really don’t have friends who have already, it’s possible that you know at least a player or two, and they might have a friend who could help you out. Damn, I’m happy to help, as well.

I’ve taken this route before and it can lead to a wave of frantic Google searches and frustration when something doesn’t quite work with the PC you just built. Save yourself the anxiety and wasted afternoons. Do a little troubleshooting, but if you don’t find the answer to you, it might be worth taking a second look to check. Chances are they will be able to identify the “duh” error – like, for example, forgetting to press the power switch on the back of your power supply – that the experts tend to remember and newbies could easily forget.