My first gaming PC, part 3: installing Windows and a first impression
15-year-old Max wants to assemble his first gaming PC all by himself. He’s installed all the components, screwed them in tight and connected everything else. Now the computer just needs to boot up so we can install Windows and its gamer time!
Max is fulfilling his dream of owning a computer. But he certainly isn’t taking the easy road: Max, my son, doesn’t want to buy a ready-made model, instead choosing to assemble the gaming PC himself. It’s my first home-built game station as well. Good I’m just an onlooker/reporter in this miniseries, then.
The button of truth
After a long afternoon, Max had finally done it. All components were installed in the PC. Now it’s the moment of truth. Did he plug in and connect everything correctly? Will the PC boot up?
Without hesitation, Max presses the power button on his PC case – and it boots up on the first try. I was both proud and relieved that it works on the first try. Many components could’ve been vulnerable to a beginner’s mistakes.
Installing Windows
Unsurprisingly, only the graphical user interface for the motherboard firmware (UEFI) appeared on-screen. No wonder: there isn’t even an operating system. Unsurprisingly for a gaming PC, Windows 10 was chosen. Max can upgrade to Windows 11 at any time free of charge.
Nowadays, installation is very simple. Max used Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool. It automatically downloads Windows and creates a bootable USB installation media with just a few clicks. Then he inserted his USB stick into the new PC. In theory, the computer should recognise it when booting up and start the installation. But it didn’t seem to work for Max. Once the stick was attached to the PC, the Windows logo appeared on-screen, but nothing more happened. The computer was frozen.
Time to start troubleshooting. Max found help on Reddit – first, the USB stick came under suspicion. But even after switching to other sticks, installing Windows failed in the same way. The evening was slowly coming to an end. A tired Max has one last idea and updated the motherboard’s UEFI. And hey presto: following the update, booting from a stick worked – the Windows installation went as easily as hoped. Max entered his activation code and turned to the games.
From Minecraft to Apex to Discord
After spending a lot of money on his PC, Max has to be frugal when it comes to games. But there are enough free titles, some of which he has played before on other devices. So for now, titles such as «Apex», «Valorant», «Minecraft», «Halo Infinite», «CoD: Warzone», «League of Legends», «Bloons TD 6» and «Fortnite» will be populating his station. Supplemented by tools such as Steam, Discord and Spotify. Since he’ll have to do homework every so often too, even LibreOffice found its way to the PC.
Max hasn’t run any benchmarks yet. However, he’s quite pleased with the performance. Almost all games hit the FPS limit of the monitor. Only Halo didn’t manage the 144 hertz maximum. But again, neither the graphics quality nor the FPS were too low whatsoever.
Side note: when the computer gets hot while in use, its fans become audibly noticeable. They can clearly be heard in Max’s room, although still quieter than a flushing toilet. We can carry a good conversation while the computer is running. Max prefers gaming to chatting with me anyway. «I can’t hear the fans at all through my headset.»
Max’s plans moving forward
Max is satisfied with his PC for the moment. When it comes to accessories, however, he’s already envisaging changes. He’s wanted a second monitor from the beginning – Discord should be visible parallel to any game.
He’s already finding faults with the mouse. «Whenever I press the sides in, the left mouse button wobbles,» Max claims, no longer as convinced by the workmanship of the Model D from Glorious PC Gaming Race as he was initially. The G Pro X Superlight from Logitech has subsequently been added to the wish list.
And then there’s the dream of a very own custom keyboard. For that, I referred Max to the contributions of our friend Kevin. He can read those while saving up his money and waiting for Christmas.
When I was but a young student, I'd sit in my friend's living room with all my classmates and play on his SuperNES. Since then I've had the opportunity to test out all the newest technology for you. I've done reviews at Curved, Computer Bild and Netzwelt, and have now arrived at Galaxus.de.
