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|Tools for Building the Perfect Computer
This blog post is part of a series on my experience building my perfect computer. As part of my job at Member.buzz, I needed a high-performance computer for programming, graphic design, and video rendering. I also wanted it to look the part; looking as beautiful on the outside as it is in the inside.
Through the process of building customizations for my computer, I was introduced to a variety of new tools, many of which I had not used before. This page is my reference to all of the most important tools that I used.
This heat gun allows you to set a specific temperature. This is critically important when creating your water-cooling system (assuming you are using PETG or Acrylic tubes) and for using heatshrink to create custom wires, and for using solderless heat shrink connectors. | ||||
| This is an absolute must for drilling holes in metal. It allows you to mark exactly where you want a hole to be before drilling. Without it, your drill bit will tend to slip around – making it difficult to drill precisely. | ||||
| These are useful for removing O-Rings (especially for water-cooling fittings) and getting into tight spaces. | ||||
This is used to create threads on your drilled holes, which was very useful when I added castors to the bottom of my case. Make sure to check what size of a hole to drill before you start – many are not standard. | ||||
| These are perfect for cleaning delicate electrical components, e.g., removing thermal paste from a CPU. Since they are lint-free, they will not leave behind any bits like a paper towel would. | ||||
This helps to drill holes into metal, lubricating your drill bit. It is also an absolute necessity when using a Tap or Die. This was used whenever I had to drill a hole into my metal case. | ||||
This is useful for removing any remaining bits when finishing the edges of a rigid water-cooling tube (assuming you are using PETG or Acrylic). | ||||
| Oil pencils allow you to make a non-permanent mark on a piece of plastic, glass, metal, or other matieral that is highly visible. This is very useful for marking where | ||||
| Used to create custom cables for fans or RGB lights and more. | ||||
| This will remove any remaining thermal paste from your CPU to make it like new. This should be used in conjunction with Lint Free Swabs or Lint Free Paper Towels. | ||||
Using these to clean any delicate computer components will allow you to avoid leaving any residue. For smaller components, use Lint Free Swabs instead. | ||||
| This tool gives you a reliable way to test your water-cooling system for leaks before you put any water into it. This helps to drastically reduce the chances of an accident that could ruin components inside of your computer. | ||||
This is a set of metal files that is very useful in smoothening any rough edges when drilling holes into your case or when making a custom water-cooling system. | ||||
Hot glue is an excellent way to attach things together in a non-permanent way. Unfortunately, most hot glue guns are very cheap. ShureBonder makes quality glue guns and offers a wide variety of accompanying glue choices. This was especially useful when I was putting together my custom lighting system and while managing all of my cables. | ||||
Although it is more permanent than hot glue, super glue is very well suited for binding hard, non-porous materials like metal and plastic. Use a brush on application allows you to more precisely apply the glue to small areas without using too much, as well as to help seal the glue container betweeen uses. | ||||
| This is an absolutely critical component to wire management. I would suggest buying 3:1 heatshrink wherever possible and having both adhesive and non-adhesive heatshrink available. | ||||
While it seems silly, having a little funnel makes it much easier to fill the coolant in your custom water cooling system, especially since this funnnel has a G1/4" threading, which means you can attach it directly to your fill port. | ||||
This is a great all-in-one soldering solution. However, I ended up opting to use solderless connectors wherever possible. | ||||
| These are little pieces of heatshrink with a small piece of solder inside. In many cases, using these will allow you to avoid having to use a solder gun. | ||||
| This can be useful for ensuring that your o-rings don't get snagged on their housing during the installation of components like | ||||
When buying tons of little components, it is very important to have a place to store and organize everything. These stackable plastic cases let you do just that. | ||||
| This is my favorite precision screwdriver set. Not only does it come in a nice little case, it also includes a variety of hex and torx bits. | ||||
| This is a great tool for cutting lengths of soft tubing. | ||||
| This is a nice thing to have when filling coolant into your custom water cooling system. | ||||
This often overlooked device allows you to easily turn on your power supply without booting your computer. This allows you to turn on your water cooling pump to test for leaks and to remove as much of the remaining air as possible without worrying about overheating your components in the process. | ||||
| Helps to measure the width of small parts. | ||||
Similar to the above excecpt it allows you to measure much more precisely. | ||||
About
As you may have realized, this series of articles has very little to do with the products provided by Member.buzz. However, we thought some of the research we did while building this computer would be useful to others.
Fuzzylogic.io is our company blog, which is powered by the Member.buzz platform. If you are interested in creating your own blog, you can create one today.
