building your own pc is a rite of passage sort of like forging your own sword before going off to
battle but you gotta have the right tools for the job when you start building to make it go
smoothly in these boxes right here i have all the essential tools for building pcs like a pro
so i've been building pcs for many years now and over time i've come up with a list of
the best tools to make the job super easy and super quick i'm going to start by showing you
the first thing on the list which i think is actually the most important thing to have
all right so the big reveal this is a magnetized screwdriver set
and the reason why this is so important is that this basically puts a lot of different tools
in your hands without taking a lot of space you can build a pc with just two basically
screwdrivers a phillips number two and a phillips number one but it's really nice to have these
extra bits on hand because um sometimes you're going to be working with motherboard standoffs
sometimes you're going to be working with smaller screws or even specialty screws and it's important
they're magnetized because oftentimes when you're working in these tight spaces the screws can just
fall off the tip of your screwdriver and then it goes rolling around in your system
and it's a pain in the butt to retrieve it i don't recommend a specific brand or type
of kit in particular because i think everyone's going to have a slightly different preference
for what exactly they get in the mix but this one is a ratcheting head and so that's
useful because you don't have to use as much hand movement to get the screws in and out i
would say that if you're going to be working in smaller builds though it's nice to also
have one with a telescoping head because then that way you can get into those tight spaces
without sacrificing the grip that you get on this you know bigger body but other than that
it's pretty straightforward you can get these pretty inexpensively and they're just really
easy to store and have around uh in a pinch with that said let's move on to the next bit of stuff
all right so next up are hemostats also known as um locking pliers and i have the straight
nose variety here i usually get them in sets they're a little bit cheaper that way you're
going to be mostly using the smaller sizes but sometimes you use the larger one as well
and primarily these are for situations where you need to really get a good grip on something either
to hold it in place or to pull something through so i'll use this large one as an example so at the
base here there's these like teeth that basically click together and hold and they're really useful
for say for example you're working with what i think they're called like rubber screws for fans
and you sometimes you'll use those instead of metal screws because you want to reduce
noise i can't always get a good grip on those with just my hands to pull them through to mount
properly so sometimes what i'll do is i'll get the tip of it locked into the top of the hemostat and
then just use that to pull on through and i don't have to worry about it slipping out of my grass or
so on and so forth and then for these smaller sizes i like to use these for a motherboard
standoff sometimes when let's say they go loose underneath the motherboard and i still need to
unscrew the motherboard from the standoff so i'll get in there i'll hold the stand off
i'll clamp down so that it can't slip in my grasp and then i'll get the motherboard free
so i actually have a couple more things in here to show you so let's move on
this one is an adjustable wrench and it's a special kind so if you're going to get one
don't get just any adjustable wrench you're going to want something either the exact same model that
i'm showing you here or a very similar variety where you have a thinner head right here and the
reason for this is that because you're using it for similar function as the hemostat where
let's say you have a loose standoff under your motherboard you don't have that much space under
your motherboard so you need to be able to get this into that limited amount of room i personally
don't recommend getting only this instead of the hemostat i like to do both which is why they're
both here in these boxes i think that having both of them on hand is really useful because sometimes
depending on where you're trying to get at in your case like say this is a motherboard depending on
what spot that is this might fit better or you know your hemostat might fit better and the more
options you have the easier life is going to be all right so we've got more let's keep going
this is a head lamp and i recommend in general that you have either a flashlight or a headlamp
on hand but a headlamp is a little bit more advantageous to have because sometimes you've
got both hands full and let's say you're working in a black case with a dark motherboard and you're
having a hard time seeing what's going on this way you can just actually strap this to your forehead
and then you still have both hands free to deal with screws or holding components down or whatever
it is you're doing it's not expensive to buy one of these either this one is about twenty
dollars you can get them a little bit cheaper but i like this one because you have different
settings for the brightness and the intensity so you can actually choose how much light you have
sometimes there is a glare factor so you know having on a lower setting maybe
actually more useful than you know going all the way to maximum and now we come
to the final item and what i feel rounds out a good pc building tool kit let's open it up
this is a magnetized screw tray i don't really need a large one personally when i'm building
you can get these in all different sizes though so you can go much larger if you need in general when
you're building you should actually have something to hold your screws while you're working so even
if that's what i don't know an empty sour cream container a lid from something just to hold it
in place that's useful but the nice thing about having a magnetized screw tray is that when you're
working and let's say you're like me and you're clumsy and you accidentally knock things around on
the table or uh also like me you have a cat that likes to do things like this where you have it on
the table a cat comes up and it's like oh what's that doing there and it goes off the table well
you should be a little bit more safe from having to go chasing all of those screws around on the
floor because the cat made them disappear all right so that completes the whole set of essential
pc building tools that i like to give people who are going to be putting together their own systems
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