I Pulled My Hair Out Build

Building my first (and last) computer turned out to be an interesting experience, but not for the reasons I originally conceived. In doing research on how to build my computer, I saw many articles with detailed photographic documentation of the process. Some of these articles were quite interesting. I figured I would do the same kind of photographic documentation and then write my own article about the process of building my computer. This turned out to be a disaster.

The first problem I ran into was the simple act of taking photos of each step. It turns out that taking a photo of each step is extremely tedious. I kept wanting to just plow ahead and build my computer, but each time I had to check myself and remember, oh yeah, I need to take a photo of this step.� This is like wanting to decimate a nice, large slice of chocolate cake, but forcing yourself to brush your teeth between each bite. Basically it's a form of self-torture.

The second problem I ran into was applying the Artic Silver compound onto the top of the CPU, right where the heat sink sits. According to the packaging, the purpose of Artic Silver is provide a thermally conductive layer between the CPU and the heat sink, allowing heat to easily pass from the CPU to the heat sink. In reality, the purpose of Artic Silver is to coat every possible surface in your local environ with a nice, greasy, silvery coating that is near-impossible to clean up. Any attempts to clean it up merely result in a doubling of its surface area on whatever it is coating. And to add insult to injury, I had to force myself to take photos of this ridiculous process.

Suffice to say, the people who make these well-documented computer construction articles have now been relegated in my mind to the status of Martha Stewart, who can make the most complex crafts project look as simple as folding paper in half.