The famous tech youtuber JayzTwoCents recently (as of writing this) posted a video where he gives really good advice to people building their own PC:s
"It's very important to bench-test your stuff, trust me. As somebody who has only had a handful of times in my entire, not just youtube career but ever, like, building computers, like thirty years experience building computers now, I had probably one or two ever be bad out of the box, but I tell you right now: It's the ones you don't test that are guaranteed to give you the most trouble."
Exactly. Very good. The problem? He never himself follows his own advice. It's a huge case of "don't do what I do, do what I say".
For example, in this video he builds a PC with his daughter all the way to full completion, up to the last screw and zip-tie, all cable management, everything... before trying to turn it on for the first time. And what do you know, it doesn't boot. In a followup video he explains that the motherboard needed a BIOS upgrade to support that particular CPU, he tried to do the upgrade, it failed, and it completely bricked the motherboard, so he had to dismantle the PC, replace the motherboard with another one, and build the PC again.
The real kicker? He knew in advance that this exact thing could happen. Why? Because it had happened to him before! That's right: This exact thing had happened to him before, he was fully aware of it when he chose the motherboard and CPU and started building the PC... yet he still decided to not bench-test it before starting the build (ie. test with a minimal setup on the table).
"Ok", you might say, "he made a mistake that one time. But surely he learned from that, and that's why he gave that advice in his latest video?" Except that he has never bench-tested a single PC afterwards either. (In fact, ironically, he originally didn't even bench-test the PC that's the subject of this latest video. He only did it now because he changed the CPU retaining bracket and had been told that if it's too tight it may make the CPU not work.)
Linus Tech Tips published some time ago a comprehensive PC building tutorial. In that video they (thankfully) strongly recommend bench-testing with a minimal setup before proceeding to the actual building phase.
And, once again, it's also a massive "don't do what I do, do what I say" because I have never, ever, in a single video seen him or any of his team follow that very advice.
By far the best and most egregious example is this one. In that video they spend a whopping five days building a PC with a really intricate custom water cooling system. And you guessed it: They only tried turning it on for the very first time when it was fully built, up to the last screw and zip-tie. The waterloop was filled, the PC completely cable-managed, everything in place up to the last tidbit... before they try to turn it on for the first time.
And what do you know, it doesn't boot.
And yes, the reason for it not booting would have been immediately caught and fixed in a quick five-minute bench-test at the very beginning of the build (it needed some simple change in settings in BIOS for the hardware to be compatible, something they couldn't do in the final build because of no picture). So they had to completely drain the water loop and dismantle the PC in order to connect a graphics card with which to change the BIOS settings.
They could have saved themselves a huge amount of trouble by just doing a quick test with a minimal setup on the table. But no. Of course not. They are professionals. They know what they are doing. Bench-testing is for noobs.
I dare you to try to find a single PC-building video by a major tech youtuber where he bench-tests with a minimal setup before starting the build. I won't be holding my breath.
(I have actually seen one example of this, so it's not like it's a completely non-existent thing. I remember a video by Dawid Does Tech Stuff, but for the life of me I can't find that video anymore. I have searched and searched, and I can't find it. I have no idea which video it was. What a shame. The only good example of a tech youtuber actually following the advice, and I can't find it.)
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