- I'm not really the kind of person
who piles on when somebody is
already having a bad time,
but here's the situation.
Twitch streamer xQc reached out to me
a number of weeks back
asking for help with a new gaming PC.
I pointed out that
I'm sure anyone and their dog
would be happy to send him
a free gaming PC in exchange
for a tweet, given his popularity.
But I did offer my help
if he really needed it.
And then I promptly
never heard anything about it, ever again,
until I was streaming today.
And you guys wouldn't stop talking
about how apparently horrible his build was.
So given that I did offer to help,
I will, with no guilt whatsoever,
be critiquing xQc's PC build.
I've never done a reaction video before,
so, wish me luck.
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(upbeat, techno music)
- We're revealing this bad boy
that's going to be able to run
Minecraft, unlimited FPS, uh-
- Is that my face?
That's my face.
Why is my face on his stream?
- Kay, first things first.
Yeah, I want to unbox everything, but
- First things first,
I'm gonna set myself up on the carpet.
Now we did show recently
in our collab with electroBOOM,
that the risk of actually damaging your components
with electrostatic discharge is pretty low,
but I probably still wouldn't go
out of my way to sit on a low pile carpet
and unbox computer hardware.
- So the motherboard goes first.
I got a Rog Crosshair VIII formula, dude.
This is a very overpaid computer, okay.
Some of these parts were really
way more expensive than they should have been,
but it's COVID and whatnot.
So it is what it is, man.
- Is he actually gonna water cool?
Cause that motherboard has like, integrated chips
that water cooling.
- First we'll open the actual (unintelligible) itself.
This is usually like 900 bucks,
but this was like at 1.7K because of scalpers,
feels weird, man.
- He paid seven hundred dollars?
- But there's no real alternative.
So this is the piece that is worth
all the money, right here.
Little metal bracket. Up.
- Oh my God.
This must be how people feel
watching me handle stuff,
like seemingly not carefully.
I assure you guys,
I know what I'm doing,
but I'm not actually convinced
that Felix knows what he's doing.
- Ooh, I'm confused.
Oh, got it.
- You gotta pull out from the thing.
- Okay.
- Okay, put the arm the other way.
- Also, most important here,
the most important part of all this,
is the bragging rights.
So whenever you build a PC,
you gotta keep all those stickers.
And whenever you buy these boxes-
- Okay, he's joking about this.
But I actually have like a whole sticker book
with like a shiny kitty on the front.
Of like old case badges
from like way back,
like ten, fifteen years ago.
- 128 gigs of RAM juicers.
So these sticks are-
- Sorry.
This word 'juicers'.
He's now used the word juicers twice.
He's got 128 gigs of RAM in a gaming PC
and he's calling them juicers.
I'm really not sure I'm following so far.
- I want to try one PC set up
with a really good computer.
And if it doesn't work as well as I thought it would,
well, I'm going to kind of like
break it in two,
and make two PCs with my old PC
and the new parts, and split in half.
And we're gonna get two PCs set up.
- Okay. I kind of understand
what he's talking about here.
So, if this single computer
gaming and streaming setup doesn't work,
then he can take 64 gigs
of this 128 gigs of RAM,
which is a lot for a gaming and streaming machine.
And put it into a separate machine. Okay.
- Okay, let me do a little bit
of explaining, boys.
I know some of you guys already know this, okay,
and you're like a tech genius.
So this is-
I don't know why this computer doesn't have it
but normally, you're gonna have two colors.
These are your channels.
- Eh, sometimes.
- Something called dual channel, I think,
or something like that.
- Okay. That's very close.
The memory slots are color coded.
So you will correctly install your dual channel memory,
but they're not color coded according to the channels.
It's actually the other way around.
They're color coded so that your monkey brain
will put two sticks in the same colors
and get dual channel operation.
But, it's actually the two separate channels
that are the same color.
Dual channel.
Now you know.
- Open at the back.
One, two, three, four.
Now we're going to wedge the RAM
inside the computer.
It's backwards.
- Okay.
- This is normal, don't worry about it.
Everybody makes that mistake.
- Oh, I'm so tense right now.
- I usually put this on the side
that doesn't have the lever on first.
- Now on the one hand he says, "I usually..."
Okay. And that's not even wrong,
to put it in the side
that doesn't have the latch first.
But he usually, but then-
- This is actually hard and scanning your thing
in Among Us, man, I'm telling you dude.
Okay, am I doing this wrong?
- (woman off-camera) Do you
have the lever open?
- Yeah.
- I love the coaching from the background.
Do you have the lever open?
- Fortunately, it's so poorly put in that-
It's gonna break.
I'm going to lose it.
- Why does my face keep showing up?
Is this like a Twitch feature?
- Stick number two.
- Twitch chats already like call Linus.
- It's backwards again.
Dude!
Okay. Next is going to be the M2 drives.
Okay, what are cool technological
advancements, boys, we don't have to have these-
See, this is like the old SSDs-
- It's been nine minutes
and he has installed the CPU and memory.
Take your time.
- They're very Pog.
- They're very Pog?
- Those are a little bit better.
And they're faster.
They're less of a hassle to put in.
And thankfully, boys,
we got two of them!
- He is in for a real nightmare
if he wants to configure NVMe RAID on-
well really, any platform,
but I've done AMD's recently and it's not fun.
- I ended with a company called Rockets
and they make those
in like crazy storage, like-
- Okay.
Sabrent, they have the Rocket lineup,
up to eight terabytes.
- I think that the M2 drives
are hidden under here,
I have to de-bolt it.
- Can I just say for a moment
that I love the Quebec law of English-ing?
"De-bolt it".
Unscrew, de-bolt, who cares.
Same thing.
Just gonna de-bolt it.
- De-boltable attachments,
transformer-looking things like that.
Oh, it's just a strip.
(gasps)
- I've seen worse drops.
- These are like support bolts or whatever.
- Standoffs.
- And we're going to go
set it up.
- Are those SpongeBob socks?
Cause I definitely approve.
That really is not all the way in.
Good thing Twitch chat is babysitting.
Ugh, he's- no, it's still not in.
- Isn't that in?
I'm stupid.
- Overall, I've seen far worse.
I've seen far worse.
- Now for the second one.
- Wait, is he going to screw it in?
- Uh-oh!
It's a dual bolt collider, dude!
The X back- the X back plate.
- What.
- Guys, I had to screw in the X back plate
before the motherboard.
- No, it's fine.
- Oh, the back is open.
- Okay.
- I got the Kraken 773,
it's what chat recommended.
- I really don't know
that I would buy a computer
based on Twitch chats recommendations.
- Pre-applied thermal paste.
People say it's bad.
I don't necessarily agree.
I kind of like it.
- People say it's bad?
Nobody says pre-applied thermal paste is bad.
- Self applied paste.
Not because I'm lazy.
Actually, it's just because I'm lazy.
- And that's a triple radiator.
Wait, why is he trying to put it in the top?
- Dude, it actually doesn't fit.
- I can see his Twitch chat
right here
telling him to call me.
- No sh-- it goes inside,
what the f- you guys talking about, man?
- Up until this point of the video,
I kind of thought he was just playing a character.
Cause he would be like,
"Oh yeah, it's kind of called this, I don't know"
And then proceed to completely correctly
explain what it is.
Pretty much.
But now I'm just really not so sure.
- Remove the case, I have to remove-
- Does he not know
that you can remove side panels?
- Dude? It can't mount, it's too big.
Yeah, this just doesn't fit.
It just doesn't-
- He's gotta be just pretending.
Like I think you guys are just suckers.
I'm pretty sure Felix knows
how to build a computer just fine.
- Guys, removing the case fans is a hassle.
- So he a hundred percent knew
that he can put the radiator in the front.
He just didn't want to remove twelve screws.
I'm going to read
the message I sent him.
"It's possible we could get you hooked up
with a system, and we'd love to collab,
but surely you'd have at least half a dozen
system integrators on speed dial
who could get you anything you want.
If you're not in a hurry,
it'd be a fun project,
but we're still undergoing renovations
and not in a position to tackle anything big
like the Creeper PC
we built for pewds at the moment.
If you're in a hurry,
it may be faster to just get hooked up
with a PC builder.
Just let me know.
Email is best for me
since this is a shared inbox
with many other staff here."
If he wasn't willing to remove 12 screws,
why build a computer?
- Already pre-installed and pre-wired
and already pre-settled.
It's going to be terrible to remove them.
- No, it's going to be 12 screws to remove.
- I can't do anything.
- What?
Oh, he doesn't know how to remove the front.
You just gotta, you gotta pop it.
- Just de-bolt the whole thing.
- Yes. I think we need to de-bolt the whole thing.
- Oh wow, that's gonna be a lot of fun.
Guys, they're welded to the mesh, dude.
- Oh my God. No they're-
- Oh, I bolt this thing over here!
So I bolt this in at the top.
- The speed with which he switches
between Eureka moments and having no idea
what's going on again.
It's remarkable.
- Okay, well this is gonna be really tough.
Chat, this is literally solded together.
- Nooooo.
- And I'll re-screw our thing
manually at the top,
so we can put the CPU fan intake
from the side
and then we make it pull.
And the top is going to push or some sh--,
I don't know.
- Again, he's demonstrating fairly deep knowledge.
He knows that we're going to have
pull fans at the front,
and we're going to have push fans at the back
for balanced air flow.
But then he thinks this case is welded together.
I don't-
- Wait a minute.
It doesn't fit.
- Of course.
All you have to do is you just had to
leave the fans exactly where they were
and just put the screws that came with your radiator
through them.
We need to go way back to basics
and do a for-beginners build.
Like really for beginners.
We need to bring in a committee
of qualified beginners
to ask their questions as we go
and make sure that we answer
every single one of them.
- Dude, there's not enough space
for three of them.
- Why is he trying to put three fans there?
Is he faking it?
- Wait, no.
It doesn't go like this, does it?
- Okay he turned it around.
Now it's an intake.
- What the fuck.
It's going through the plastic.
I spun this thing
the both ways.
And you guys said - wrong side of both.
- (man off-camera) What are you
yelling about dude?
- The radiator should fit in here.
Yes it does.
- All right.
We got the radiator in.
- Okay.
Why would you have the tubes down?
Aren't they going to work against gravity, dude?
- Fun fact, in a closed loop,
gravity kind of is like canceled out.
You could think of it that way
because gravity might pull some of the water down,
but then that equal force will push
the other water up
like it doesn't really matter.
- Somebody said tubes down, won't fit
with the GPU
longer lifespan of the product.
Got it.
- I actually don't know
if that's going to reach
with the tubes on the bottom.
I know it's like more optimal
for the pump to last longer,
but it actually just might not reach.
- Oh. And then you install the thing
on the bracket and then you bracket it in.
- There we go.
- Ahhh, no, it's not the same size dude.
- No, no, it's fine.
You got the other holes.
It's okay.
- It doesn't fit, dude.
- It does.
It's fine.
- Well, we're going to be using those then.
Yeah, we have to use those then.
- People are going to tell him
to flip it around, right?
Oh no, no, no, no, no. No no.
- The paste is gone.
- Oh my God.
That stuff is impossible to clean.
- This one.
- No, no it doesn't go on that side of that.
- Now how do we do it?
What?
- Wait, is he gonna put one
course air fan and then like-
- Dude the fan's on the wrong side, man.
Guys, the wire's on the other side.
- Fans can go on any side of the radiator you want.
It doesn't matter.
If they're on this side, then they blow.
And if they're on this side,
then they suck.
It's fine.
- The wire goes inside the computer.
- Yes.
- This goes on the outside.
- Good.
- This is going to hang the whole thing together.
- Yes.
- The fans then need to go inside the fucking bracket.
- Not really, it doesn't matter.
- So like this, then.
- That's fine.
- The bracket goes at the back,
and then the bracket goes inside at the back.
Logo, outside.
Pumps, inside.
- Okay.
- I had it right the whole time, dude.
I literally, from the start-
- Hmm, I don't know if you had it right the whole time,
but yes,
fundamentally what you're saying is sound.
So the logo of the sticker, on the hub,
okay, that points towards the direction
the air goes.
This is, this is fine.
- It needs to say NZXT on the way upwards.
- Wait.
- Over the radiator.
- This is like-
- So radiator facing outside the case
- It is completely installed just fine.
I mean the fans,
the cables are coming off in a way that
the cable management is going to suck.
But it's mostly fine.
- It only fits this way, I think.
- No, he does have the tubes at the top.
So yes, the fans are sticking right up next to the window.
Okay.
I mean that's not going to affect
the functionality of the machine.
- Rogs Strix gaming graphics card
geforce RTX 3090 nvidia Asus aura
OC, o'clock, 2.40 GPU juicer.
There it is.
- I don't think that's going to fit.
That thing - It's an enormous card.
If it wasn't COVID,
I would just fly out there and build it for him.
- I can't screw it.
It's actually not lined up.
- Oh, that, no, that's fine.
You just gotta,
you just gotta kinda, you know,
get the screw in there and kind of, nyeah.
- Dude, I'm pushing right now.
- I can see how that would be
really confusing for people.
- I think this case is just trash.
I mean look, and even then.
Even then, the GPU slot
doesn't line up, dude.
Unless you're meant to use the squares part,
but I don't think so.
- No, please don't do that.
No, that's not necessary.
- You just don't get there, dude.
Look at the holes, look at em!
- So much anger.
- You're not going to fit this in there.
- I mean.
- Yeah, no.
I just thought about this.
This is fucking dumb.
- It's not like he has
a completely invalid point.
The manufacturing tolerances
of computer cases and the way that PCI backplates
sometimes don't quite
have the mounting holes line up
can be extremely frustrating.
Especially for a new builder.
And I can see how, if you've spent,
you know, two grand on a graphics card
you don't want to be like
pushing and pulling on it.
But the reality of it is,
a lot of the time when I'm manhandling stuff,
and I seem really careless,
I am actually just kind of
doing what you need to do.
You gotta have,
you gotta put some force on it sometimes.
You've got to understand
the kinds of costs that PC case manufacturers
are targeting.
It's just, it kind of comes with the territory.
- Okay. I'm going to rebox some of that stuff.
I can't shove it in, need a new case.
- There you go, Crosshair.
Honest consumer review: your case, a disaster.
The good news is I don't think any of this stuff is broken.
Okay. Now I feel worse because
at the beginning it was pretty clear
that he was just pretty much knew what he was doing
but was kind of like playing a character.
Then by the end, it's obvious
that he was ready to chuck the GPU at the wall.
So Felix, if you're watching this,
my offer still stands.
I DM'ed you.
I would be happy to walk you through this.
We can make that case work.
You can, you can destroy that case.
Get rid of it,
do whatever you need to do.
Donate it, get a different one.
But, just let me know.
Cause I'm here for you,
my fellow Canadian.
Just like I'm here for my audience
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