The Verge's $2000 PC Build Reaction Supercut

TIPSTER: There is a video that a lot of people been sharing in my Discord. CHRISTOPHERYEE: I kept getting getting notifications over and over and over to review this thing before it gets taken down. eTEKNIX: On September the 13th of this year, "The Verge" published a video on YouTube WILTSHIRE: This is a notoriously bad video, apparently I haven't watched it yet. TIPSTER: Apparently it was like a total fucking shit show. LYLE: "How we build two thousand dorrar gaming PC" WILTSHIRE: But I've been

told it is extremely bad, and it's full of things you just shouldn't do when building a gaming PC. eTEKNIX: At first, I admit, I thought it was satire. "So, a few years ago, TC, our managing editor" WILTSHIRE: Hi Stefan! You probably shouldn't have included your Twitter handle here cause I imagine you're just gonna get absolutely flamed from the Internet. "You can build a gaming desktop for around $1000... WILTSHIRE: Which is true. CHRISTOPHERYEE: Uh, yeah, You can build a gaming desktop for ar

ound $1000. Or $350 Or $250 Or $200 Or $175 Or $150 *inhales* or sometimes even $100 But yeah, sure, $1000 "I wanna go all out, so I spent around two thousand." WILTSHIRE: Two thousand's a decent chunk of change for a gaming PC. "So, what do you need to build a desktop? Well, of course, first you need a table." "Preferably not metal..." WILTSHIRE: Hold on, time out. Ti, time out. *laughs* "So, what do you need to build a desktop? Well, of course, first you need a table." TOM5TOM: *laughs* "...fi

rst you need a table." LYLE: Oh, you need a table to build a PC? I though you could build it in mid-air! TACOFIST: You cannot build this on the floor! So step one, you need a table! Step two, you better have two hands! And they better have ten digits! WILTSHIRE: Like, that's just common sense that you're going to need'a set a working surface area to build a computer, that's just... Why even say that? "...have an antistatic working surface layered on top of it..." "...a thermal paste applicator..

." TOM5TOM: What? A thermal paste applicator? What the heck is that? ALEXEI RIVERA: Does anybody ever actually use a thermal paste applicator? "...an Allen wrench..." WILTSHIRE: Why is he recommending an Allen wrench? CHRISTOPHERYEE: I have never used an Allen wrench to build a computer ever. And I've built about 30 computers now? TACOFIST: Unless he used that Allen wrench to put together the table. "...some tweezers to tidy up the wires" WILTSHIRE: Hold on. Did he just say "tweezers"? Those are

zip ties. LYLE: How in God's name is my Engrish better than his? WILTSHIRE: Ooooo....this... ...this is not turning out good already! *chuckles* "...a Swiss Army knife which hopefully has a Phillips head screwdriver in it" WILTSHIRE: A Swiss Army knife that hopefully - "hopefully" - has a Phillips head screwdriver in it. *sigh* NO. TIPSTER: Wouldn't you make sure that you have the tools necessary before you start the build? TOM5TOM: This is a sponsored video. RIVERA: Why does your office with s

o many dozen PCs and so many dozen "tech employees" Not. Have. One. Of. THESE?! *brandishes screwdriver* "...aaaand last but not least, an antistatic bracelet, which is to protect you" WILTSHIRE: Okay, that's true. "...and the parts. These are the parts you're gonna need, but more importantly, before we get..." WILTSHIRE: Hold on. That's not an antistatic bracelet at all. There's no ground wire coming off of it, he's not connected to anything. That looks like the bracelet I'm wearing. LYLE: What

? It's not a wireress wristband, that's a Livestrong braceret! He not fighting static. He fighting cancer! WILTSHIRE: That's not gonna work at all! *chuckles* Don't - don't listen to this person! This is really bad so far. "We have a lot of boxes and a lot of PC parts, so it's best that you unbox them, isolate the parts that you really need..." TACOFIST: Wha? Why did he destroy the box? Dude, you have a knife right there, man! eTEKNIX: That wasn't so hard, was it? "...and screw in with confidenc

e, but also don't screw in too hard, otherwise-" LYLE: "Screw in with confidence", I rike his style. TACOFIST: At least he put the posts [motherboard standoffs] in! He didn't tell - it's a tutorial, they didn't tell you to put the posts in, but luckily he already did it and you just have to figure it out on your own. "...I chose Asus's Z-370-" TOM5TOM: AY-sus-ZEE? AYsusZEE? a-SEUSS? AY-suss? "...for two main reasons. One, it has built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, and also it has..." TOM5TOM: *inhales,

sighs* Don't buy a motherboard just because it has built-in WiFi and Bluetooth. "...and also, it has support for NVMe SSDs, meaning you can get really..." eTEKNIX: Okay! I wanna stop it there because why is he installing the motherboard straight into the chassis? I'd install as much as I physically could onto the motherboard first. So you're talkin' the processor, thermal paste, cooler if it will allow it. Obviously if you're using an AIO it's a different story, or custom loop But if it's an ai

r cooler you can bolt that on there. Um, M.2 drive, so that could be SATA or NVMe Um, and memory as well. So, basically try and build as much as you can onto the motherboard so when you do transfer it to the case it's just generally easier. "[Pay close] attention to the brace that goes at the-" "The brace" [Tom5Tom repeats this clip] "u u u u u u u u" "...the brace that goes at the back." TOM5TOM: The "BRACE"? CHRISTOPHERYEE: Oh my God! *laughs* eTEKNIX: Did he seriously just called [sic] an I/O

shield plate a "brace"? "You always have to make sure that you really hammer it in, because there's no screws" eTEKNIX: DO NOT hammer it in! Please do not hammer it - why did he say "Hammer it in"? "Secondly, uh, it's pretty fast RAM. It's 2666 megahertz." TOM5TOM: *laughs* WILTSHIRE: That's not that fast for DDR4 memory. That is very, very slow. 2666 [megahertz] is not that fast. LYLE: I can run at 3200 megahertz. WILTSHIRE: That would be classified as "Really Fast" on DDR3, but for DDR4 not s

o much. TACOFIST: Okay, I don't know why he's opening all four DIMM slots. He only has two sticks of RAM. He's putting this in wrong. Already. There's the little notch right there, and there is the hole. You can tell right now this is not lined up. He's already putting it in upside down, he's not gonna be able to snap this in. "...and just lining that up with the logo." TACOFIST: Oh, they cut away. They cut away! Because he was putting it in wrong. "So once you hear that solid clasp and you don'

t see-" TOM5TOM: You mean click? It's not a clasp. TACOFIST: Now he's in Slot 4. Who edited this? TOM5TOM: I mean, I tell you I'm- I'm definitely editing my video down so I don't sound stupid... "Step three, we're going to install-" WILTSHIRE: Hold on. What is that? TIPSTER: Hold up! WILTSHIRE: What is this right here? TIPSTER: What do you guys see wrong? LYLE: He install the memory incorrect! WILTSHIRE: Oh no! He installed the memory wrong! LYLE: It - they side by side, they shourd be spaced ou

t for the motherboard! I rook at the manuar, that's the wrong way! WILTSHIRE: So, RIP dual-channel support on his motherboard if he's going to run his RAM like that. TACOFIST: That's only going to read 8 gigs. That's not gonna read 16, because one of them's installed incorrectly. LYLE: Speaking of the memory, I wish I could erase this one. "...but you can always upgrade this [M.2 drive] and swap it out, and it's only held down by one screw and a latch." "So, it's really simple." eTEKNIX: Okay, s

o he mentions it's only held down by a screw and a latch, but then looking at it? He hasn't actually put the standoff, and it looks like he's screwing the NVMe drive directly onto the motherboard. So, generally, you get these with your motherboard, which is a tiny little standoff, and a little screw that just kind of brings up the M.2 drive so that it's in line. He's screwing it down onto the motherboard like...ugh. *deep breath* Is his computer even gonna work? "Now, which [PCI-E] lane you choo

se depends entirely on what other parts you're gonna put in the system." "I'm just gonna pick the top one be-" RIVERA: ABSOLUTELY WRONG! He's absolutely wrong there. Obviously you pick the top one because that one has the most bandwidth. "I'm just gonna pick the top one because the SSD is at the bottom and I don't wanna cover it. I just think it looks nice." eTEKNIX: *sigh* "Make sure that you align it [the PSU] with these little insulating pads so the-" eTEKNIX: They're not insulating pads, the

y're anti-vibration pads! What are you insulating against? "...so the power supply doesn't short circuit and come into contact with the rest of the system." LYLE: WHAT?!?!?! CHRISTOPHERYEE: Whoa! Hold the (fucking) phone! TACOFIST: That is so dumb. CHRISTOPHERYEE: You are actually an idiot! eTEKNIX: (offscreen) I'm going! I've had enough! *door closing* TOM5TOM: So we have a 120 volt outlet And then we have our power supply... Oh no! 120 volts? I'm touching the case! There's 120 volts going thro

ugh my body right now! But what happens if we take that nice little thing [multimeter]? Nothing, because if we go into continuity... *meter beeps* It's grounded! It's almost as if the people developing electrical standards knew what the heck they were doing! TACOFIST: It's a good thing he has What-Would-Jesus-Do bracelet on, or he'd be really screwed. "so just take it in, slide it in nice and easy" TIPSTER: WHAT?!?!?! "...and then shift it towards the back" TIPSTER: WHAT?!?!?! TIPSTER: What's wr

ong here?! WILTSHIRE: Oh my God, he's putting the fan towards the back of the case! He's gonna suffocate airflow on it! Oh no! TIPSTER: If you want this PC to actually last, and not burn itself the fuck up? RIVERA: This is potentially a fire hazard. WILTSHIRE: You should never do that! Never ever, like, block the fan. RIVERA: What the case is designed for is that the power supply should be facing outward or, the fan should be facing outward so it can pull air in. TIPSTER: This guy's gonna be rep

lacing the power supply in a few months! And he's gonna be like, "Holy crap, why is this thing dead already?" [The subtitler refuses to transcribe any more of The Verge unless the specific statement is commented on.] LYLE: Hold on. TACOFIST: I can see through this. WILTSHIRE: I can see the table through the fins of the radiator. He does not have fans on that. TIPSTER: Why are there no fans on the radiator? So he's just going to fry his CPU too! TACOFIST: He also doesn't have the plastic cover on

this [water block]. That has thermal paste on it. If that thing happens to tilt or anything else, he's just gonna smear thermal paste everywhere. Possibly get it dirty. "There's nothing special about this screwing-in process." "They're just really long screws because they go through the entire frame of the cooler. Aaaand they take forever." WILTSHIRE: You know why they're really long screws? It's because you're supposed to put the fans on and then screw the fans on with those screws. That's why

they're long! RIVERA: Because the fans are this thick, and the screws go through the fans into the radiator to mount them to the radiator. LYLE: He should use the small one. He going to drill holes into the heat sink of the radiator. WILTSHIRE: And that fluid's going to go everywhere. eTEKNIX: Okay, he's probably broken his all-in-one now. TIPSTER: I- I doubt this PC's gonna last very long. LYLE: My famiry in China who made this product cringing so hard right now. "Every power supply is gonna c

ome with a big bag of Velcro™ cables" eTEKNIX: Okay, "Every power supply's gonna come with a big bag of cables"? It's not gonna- Not every power supply, because not every power supply is modular. You have modular power supplies, semi-modular, and then just normal, stray cables. So, that's a bit of a misleading statement. [Subtitler note: That was more than a bit of understatement.] LYLE: Typicrry you want to put the cables in the power suppry first. Some cases, very difficult to put it in after

the fact. WILTSHIRE: Oh dear. Considering you (fucked) up everything so far, I have no faith in you putting the CPU properly in its socket. eTEKNIX: Why the hell is the CPU not installed at this point? "A Core i7 hexa-core CPU. Yeah. We've got one, and it's an eighth-generation chip" LYLE: Yeah. We got one. Super excrusive. You can onry buy it on every major retairer in the world. "And it supports overclocking." TACOFIST: I swear to God you better not overclock this. [waffle waffle] "...and just

toss that [motherboard socket cover] out of here..." (Yeets motherboard socket) WILTSHIRE: No, don't do that! No, no, you need that! RIVERA: What the HECK did he just do? He goes like, Last Jedi level! WILTSHIRE: Motherboard manufacturers actually require you to have that metal... ...not metal... but plastic cover for the socket, the CPU socket, if you plan on RMAing that motherboard if there's a problem with it and you plan on sending it back to the manufacturer to get fixed. They NEED that pl

astic cover. They will not accept an RMA process or request if you don't have that cover so don't throw that away. Always keep that. RIVERA: And also, you do not just pull it out of the socket. It pops out after you put your CPU in, which you would KNOW if you would have already put your CPU in before all of this garbage that you did on your case. "...and we're gonna use the CPU applicator." WILTSHIRE: [What the] (fuck) is that? I have never seen that! I have never seen that in my life. TIPSTER:

What the fuck is a CPU applicator? WILTSHIRE: I have never seen a bracket for the CPU to be held on so you could install it properly. [waffles about the CPU installer] TIPSTER: You don't need that. [more Goddamn waffling about the CPU installer] TIPSTER: Yeah, you don't need that. You - you don't - you don't need that. [more waffling about it] TACOFIST: The holder's right here. CHRISTOPHERYEE: You took the tool off and you threw it to the side! TIPSTER: Why did he spend all that time talking to

us about that CPU holder thingie if he didn't even use it? CHRISTOPHERYEE: He knows he didn't need it! And now he can't delete everything he said cause the editor is someone else other than him! "So, we're about to apply thermal paste to the CPU." eTEKNIX: Why are we about to apply thermal paste to the CPU? I'm looking and the AIO, like, typically AIOs come with, like a thermal, a small amount of thermal paste already preapplied "Every CPU cooler actually comes with a bit of thermal paste alrea

dy neatly applied" TOM5TOM: Not every CPU cooler. "It's good essentially PC building practice to have a little bit extra LYLE: No. Oh no! TIPSTER: No!! No, no, no, no! LYLE: What he do? It's a CPU! You not icing a cake! eTEKNIX: *laughing off-screen* WILTSHIRE: By the looks of it, where I've paused, he looks like he's adding more thermal paste to the CPU and then he's gonna put what's already on the cooler on top? Which, that's a big no-no, don't do that, that's awful. What you should do is use

a pea-sized drop of thermal paste in the middle of the IHS which is that, like, metal square on the CPU. Integrated Heat Spreader as it's called. That's more than enough, is a pea-sized blob of thermal paste in the middle. Once you make the contact with the CPU cooler, that will actually spread out when you go to put pressure from the cooler on top of the CPU. So, *sigh* Don't do this! TIPSTER: If they left this PC as is? It would probably be dead in a week. WILTSHIRE: Oh my God, what is that? W

hat is this application process? What is that? RIVERA: Oh my God! [more waffling] CHRISTOPHERYEE: *vomits* It's like someone threw up thermal paste onto his processor! eTEKNIX: It literally looks like a bird has shit all over the processor. TACOFIST: Imagine a ketchup packet slowly being ran over. RIVERA: He went all bukkake up in that thermal paste! WILTSHIRE: You had a thermal paste spreader. Use the (fucking) thing! What is that? CHRISTOPHERYEE: Dude, I can't even make fun of this guy anymore

. He's actually, like, messed up, like, almost everything. WILTSHIRE: Ah, if this-this - if this computer POSTs it'll be a...frickin' miracle. TOM5TOM: No? They're not brackets. [Visible Disgust] [yet more waffling] TOM5TOM: *laughs* They're gonna keep the cooler off the processor. But it's gonna be close enough to make physical contact. [even more waffling! Just shut up, Verge.] TOM5TOM: Whoo! The Verge, I dislike your editing style so much. He said "Do it like this". And it's a wide shot. I ca

n't even see what he's doing. "So, now that the internals are done [no they're not, dipshit], we're gonna put the panels back on. "Which is the top glass, side glass, front glass, and of course, the back panel where-" LYLE: Oh thank God it's done. WILTSHIRE: What is this? What - what is all of this? eTEKNIX: *laughs* So, that cable management tho. WILTSHIRE: When you're building a computer, always take the time to cable manage properly. Make sure everything looks neat, you know, it, your cables

aren't gonna reflect your airflow inside your case. RIVERA: And he actually used his quote-unquote "tweezers", slash what we know as zip ties. But he didn't do a very good job of actually cleaning up. And holy crap, look! There's a missing screw on his all-in-one water cooler pump. What, you just had three and there's an extra one and you just threw it away just like your socket cover? And look at this! The tubing that goes into his all-in-one water cooler pump contacts the 1080 graphics card th

at he has! That's bad practice! That thing contains liquids that could potentially short out the system if it gets damaged by the heat generated by the graphics card! Now it looks like he managed to find the right screw for the fans! Oh good! *laughs* WILTSHIRE: That's just...awful. "And we got to the POST screen." TACOFIST: No way! "And we got to the POST screen." WILTSHIRE: They got to the POST screen, holy (shit) it's a miracle. TIPSTER: I'm honestly surprised he got it to POST at all. LYLE:

That's amazing. That's the biggest suprise of all, he got to the POST screen. Radies and gentremen, round of apprause. "And we got to the POST screen." eTEKNIX: *slow clap* WILTSHIRE: You know what he totally skipped, too? He totally forgot to mention how to plug in the power switch, reset switch, uh, front USBs... ...uh, front headphone jack and microphone jack, totally skipped over the front panel I/O. TACOFIST: I really want him to open up Computer Manager [sic] and see if it's pulling, and i

f it's reading all 16 gigs because he still never fixed the memory. "And it's running pretty smoothly. I'm averaging 70 and 80 FPS" TACOFIST: You're averaging 70 and 80 FPS because you're in a plane flying around. The game really only needs to detail render your plane. Everything else is like, half rendered because you're going so fast, so that's how they hide it with motion blur and all that stuff. "So right now I'm playing League of Legends. It's one of my favorite games" TIPSTER: A bad benchm

ark game. CHRISTOPHERYEE: The minimum requirement for League of Legends is literally a single core processor. TACOFIST: League of Legends could run on the shittiest of laptops. It was designed that way. "I'm averaging 120 FPS, and that's only because I've actually locked the game to that frame rate." RIVERA: He's locked the game at 120 FPS why? Aren't we supposed to be benchmarking something? Why even bother? CHRISTOPHERYEE: The reason you have it capped at 120 frames per second is because you p

robably are not using a monitor that is 144 hertz, so anytime you get super high frame rates, you're probably experiencing ghosting, and Yasuo's showing up all over the place because your panel can't keep up with your system. "And, of course, now we also have a computer to test and benchmark games here at The Verge." RIVERA: Nononononononono. You do not get the right to benchmark games or test PC components if you build PCs like that, bro. You put your PSU the wrong way, you oversaturated in the

rmal paste, you mixed two thermal pastes together you made a rat's nest for cable management, you even missed one screw on your all-in-one water cooler. Your radiator hoses contact the 1080 graphics card. Ain't nobody gonna respect your benchmarks after this, bro! *slow clap* 2.1 million subscribers, ain't got a freaking screwdriver. Doesn't know what the heck tweezers are versus a zip tie. Doesn't know how to mount an all in one water cooler. Doesn't know how to put a power supply into the case

, thinks a power supply can short circuit by contacting the metal case! WILTSHIRE: Alright, so long story short, this video sucks. TACOFIST: "Presented by Capital One." TIPSTER: Capital One, you got the raw end of the deal. CHRISTOPHERYEE: Oh, you gotta get your logo scraped off this thing. Holy moly... WILTSHIRE: I don't know why you guys sponsored this video because, um, it's terrible, it's full of misinformation. TIPSTER: This is easily the worst PC build I have ever seen. WILTSHIRE: A lot of

people are going to screw their computer up. LYLE: Very scary! Someone who build a PC for the first time, might think this is a good video to forrow, and their PC exprode! They don't know the video bad because they disabre the rike and disrike and the comments So much censorship! Feer rike I'm back in China! [repeating the power supply short circuit bullshit] [From The Verge's intro video] "We're a big team of 'tech reporters' with a deep 'understanding' of tech... ...and how it affects the wor

ld we live in."