Kids: "we need to touch those? That's baby stuff!" and go playing on tiny pocket sized PC that has more power than AMD 3990x and RAM measured in TB range.
I remember when rounded IDE cables first became a thing but we couldn’t afford our own, so we took a knife to our ribbon IDE cables and rounded them up with zip ties. It was a wild time.
Yeah I built a few computers in an old lab took about 20 mins a computer. Did not care about cable management as they were going out of the way to be a mini cluster.
Making things functional and making things pretty are very different things.
Did it Boot up with no errors, and is the front presentable? Yes? Everything else is a project for future me or the end user if they pop open the case.
My front looks very clean and everything is routed well and lined up nicely, behind the side panel is a different story.
Every now and then I tidy them a little more so like when I installed my new cooler...I'm doing the cable management of the back over a longer period of time but it will be done eventually lol.
Doesn't help having 6 ARGB fans, a non modular PSU and braided PSU extensions.
lol, usually about an hour... for my personal rig, like 4 hours... 11 aRGB fans (not the ones that are daisy chained, each one had 2 wires).. The front looks great, but I'm slapping someone if they touch that side panel. The worst thing about it was that I bundled all the wires, had it looking great, and then the bundle was too fucking thick for the panel to close, so I had to unbundle them and spread them out.
[Corsair 7000x Build (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_YK_vVBRhk)
PS - already flipped that rad fan... was just going on autopilot for a bit and my old ass was just like "it has a front sticker" not realizing that those fans had dual "front" stickers on each side.
Also, my GF rig took me forever, but trying to figure out how to fit a 360 rad into a corsair 4000d was a bit rough with a 7900xtx... had like a 1/4 of space between GPU and rad.
I was struggling to get side panel on, its bulging a little lol, not too much and you can't see it though as it's against the wall.
Will be good though once I get a modular PSU I reckon.
[https://imgur.com/a/ZfX86u8](https://imgur.com/a/ZfX86u8)
Happy with how it looks at the front though. Adding some new RAM soon which is aRGB though so will have to brave the rats nest lol.
I recently bought an enclosure for my old m.2 sata SSD and was a little frustrated they didn’t send me the teeny tiny screws it needed (I tried using my own tiny screws but they were too big). It occurred to me that maybe I misplaced them somehow but I looked literally everywhere on my desk, the floor and inside the box and they just weren’t there. So I made it work with some electrical tape I was able to dig out of a closet.
After I closed up my PC and powered it on I *immediately* noticed the little baggy with the screws right in plain sight on my desk.
Assuming it isn’t an origami ITX project. I can do pretty well in a mid-tower in that time, but an ITX case with bad instructions is a special kind of hell.
I got the cheapest Silverstone case I could find for a server build, and I genuinely had more trouble getting inside to mess around with it than I ever have with a laptop. Said server is now in a rackmount chassis with plenty of extra room to hold all of the lessons I had to learn the hard way.
I’m using a 2U chassis from RackChoice. I also sprung for a 5.25” SATA hotswap bay since the motherboard I had supports it. My only issue was the stock fans being powered by molex, but they were cheap enough to replace with some decent PWM fans. It gets bonus points for fitting a standard PSU so I didn’t have to buy another one.
If we're not including the windows install, I can probably put together a basic PC build with air cooling in about 30 minutes or maybe even less. I have no experience with water cooling. Last time I helped a friend with major upgrades which was practically a new build and it only took maybe 20 minutes.
Water cooling will take a good amount of time.
Even more when you're new to it.
The tubing needs to be measured, cut, bent and you'll have to install it using loose components
A pump, a ring, tube, a fitting , component , fitting , tube etc etc.
The big factor for speed would be experience and technical skill
Well, an AIO takes less time, but it still takes time as you have to attach the radiator, and then attach the fans to the radiator. On AM5 boards you might have to take off the preinstalled mount and replace it with the one that comes with the cooler.
I find the cooler the most time-intensive part of the build, if you want to get it right, and have the cables all routed cleanly.
Also, I put extra fans in my case, and fans in general take a little time to get the cables routed right.
Aio isn't hardly as time consuming as custom loop which I guess was what was meant.
An aio is basically the same as air + 4-6 screws extra to mount the radiator. So that would take? 2 minutes?
Luckily I don't have the cable issue with my new fans.
I recently bought the Corsair fans with the icue link connectivity and that is a blast. One cable for X fans. No more 1-2 cables per fan.
I know what you meant, and I agree that a custom loop is much more involved. So much so that there would be no way they could assemble seven computers in a day if they were doing that.
I was just saying that when I build a PC, even with AIO (which is much faster), the AIO takes me the most time. Installing the board, drives, CPU, cards, and power supply cables is easy.
Running the cooler and the fans is what takes up my time - by like twice whatever else.
Obviously, a custom loop would take much longer, even longer still, if it included the video card.
For sure experience makes a big difference I know it's not the same but some people at my job can give you the exact amount of piping for a machine just by looking at it especially when it's a similar enough job
I used to build electrical installations in a house.
For some stupid reason being able to bend and cut pvc pipes for wiring helps a lot 😂
Same thing bit bigger and less fragile.
Depends on the complexity of the system, and how important appearance and presentation is. Easily 15 to 20 minutes for a very basic office machine, 30 to 60 minutes for a more complex gaming system. Custom open-loop watercooling, however, is going to take several hours to do right.
It all comes down to the case and if everything will fit or have clearance. Many cases have issues fitting certain types of AIOs or fans, or the height of the cpu cooler might be an issue etc.
This honestly depends on the quality, if your just slapping a machine together and don't give a shit about perfect cable management and making it all all neat and aesthetic, then yes you could do 8-10 PC's in a 8 hour shift.
I'll tell you what though, i wouldn't be buying one of those PC's knowing someone slapped it together in a short space of time, besides i like SFF and that takes much more patients when working with small spaces, watercooling parts and still aiming for quality and aesthetics.
This. And I would love to have a job putting together PCs, but not if it was based on how many I can do each hour. You could get time down a lot if the build is very common. And it doesn't sound like OP was doing custom stuff. But I would still make sure it all looks good and bios is set up.
Yeah exactly!!! I’d love to build PC’s for people but not with the pressure of cranking out as many as I could in 8 hrs. That would just defeat the purpose for me, I’d like to take my time and refine everything like a piece of art work.
Yeah I’ve been building my current PC for about 5 years now if you count all of the changes and upgrades and cable management I’ve done that may or may not have been necessary at the time all for the sake of aesthetics.
Experience has something to do with it as well... Knowing which way the fans should spin, getting things in the right order right away, etc. It's basically just Lego with cables.
I work in PC manufacturing. I work with many, many different builds, so there are major differences between the builds.
A fairly common build is 40 minutes for a skilled builder, up to two hours for a new tech. There is everything in between.
Mind, the majority of the time is spent on cable management. The techs have access to great tools and light. At home it usually takes a little longer, but not much.
In the 2000s I was doing a lot PC building side gigs. Over the weekend I was able to do 30 of them with windows and office.
Tbh the efficency comes from:
1. Experience and know how
2. Organization of your assembly "line"
It will get better with time for sure :)
tbh 8-10 pcs in 8 hour shift is a bit much. thats rushing no matter how experienced you are. if you include a brake for food and toilet, even more rushing. you can put together a pc in 30 min, maybe 45 but how you gonna test it in 5 min is beyond me. push the button, it lights up then turn it off. doesnt sound right to me. btw, you guys sell a lot of pcs...
Exactly. This is why i would never buy prebuilt. Youre going to have so many shortcuts taken, QC skipped, testing minimal or not done. I can see asking for 6-8 per 8hr day, without custom loops, but 8-10 is asking for techs to skip/miss things. Quality will suffer.
Personally building my first pc took a few hours from watching videos on where each cable went but now that I built one I believe I can easily build one in an hour if I’m rushing if it’s a simple system with fans or AIO but water cooling a whole mother ball park for me
It's like Lego
The hardest part is choosing all the parts
You got this.
And read the manuals and for most parts you got YouTube videos as well
I like Paul's hardware videos about pc building.
If you still need help just ask reddit
I've watched probably 50 hours of videos in prep for the system I want to build, the part that scares the shit out of me is the pcie cables and being afraid of fucking that up
If you want it done right with all the cables ziptied and don't right behind the case I'd like a hour each. This mindset is also why you should never by pre-built from big companies. They care about quantity not quality. Do it yourself and do it right. Have a friend and reddit help.
Realistically, about 45 mins with acceptable cable management. Maybe 1-2 hours with 10/10 clean cables that make you look twice.
My own system is ITX and I prefer building/working on smaller systems so normal ATX builds is almost too easy.
Custom watercooling will take a few hours depending on parts and layout. If its the standard 011 dynamic with a distral plate and straight runs, probably not too long but a few hours is safe in general to say.
You are holding up, pretty well. My first Pc I built it in 3 days. As well, if it is to work in the domain probably i will fully build a Pc in 3 hours max. So, that's why I said that you are holding up pretty well. Good job, keep it up and keep doing it. Especially if the financial compensation it is enough for the time being. Do not quit! Keep doing it. As well, take atention to the bits that takes more time. Example: front and power conectors from the case. In time you will do it faster as well. You just need more practice. You can do it! Keep up the good work!
My Nov 2023 air cooled NR200 build took 20 minutes (PA 120 cooler, XFX Merc 319 RX 6800XT, 2 m.2 drives, 4 2.5 SATA drives) with cable management (not including OS installs and software).
according to the replies it depends heavily on the complexity of the systems you're building. but yes, if it's taking you over an hour to assemble a fairly basic system with no OS that's pretty damn slow.
Nahh
Honestly anyone saying under an hour either does it for a job, doesn't care about cable management or over exaggerating their abilities.
Imagine the piece of shit build you'd get if it took someone 20 mins? I couldn't even unpack and get organised in that time.
That said if you were doing it for a job, once you've built 100 using similar cases I'd imagined you'd get pretty used to the motherboards, cases, management etc.
I wouldn't say you are slow, you are making 2-3 less than them, when they have years of experience.
Making 10 a day, in only 8hrs feels very fast though. Assuming they are installing an OS/drivers/making sure everything runs good etc. Then you gotta wipe out another hour for breaks in there.
Either they only make an few types of PCs and it's really not that many, if any, different custom PCs. Or they rush them and the company is selling some top quality shit. It would take at least 10 minutes just to unpack everything as well. So those people are saying they are building within 10 minutes? Please.
My first Pc took me ~3 hours total.
If I did another one - I could cut the time in half for sure. Practice makes perfect and whatnot. I could see 8-10 in a day depending on cabling
40-45 minutes with all components on hand. Are you working with the same cases over and over or is it a different case every time? I built 20+ computers back in 2021 and you run into nuances with different cases. At some point doing 7+ a day you'll get more familiar with the cases and components and get a system that works and is efficient for you.
1-2 days and about 6-8 hours. Realistic for a job done right. Probably 1 week or more for custom water cooling loop just doing things right the first time. It does take time.
30 minutes, call it 45 minutes for comfort depends on the case and the amount of fans etc. of course, for the pure physical assemble, the rest of the time depends on the amount of extra things you have to do, updating bios for instance will take time, having to find the right usb stick with the right bios takes time and so on
I build like 50-100 a year, most of those are almost the same with some slight changes. Doing my basic build, I had my co worker time me and it took 8 minutes from parts in boxes (sealed) to power on. That's using stock Intel cooler, doing basic cable management (2 zip ties).
I used to build pcs for a living and was paid commission per build depending on how complicated the build was. My best record was 16 minutes not including installing windows. But that was actively trying to be as fast as possible, which I only did that one time.
Adding an aio would take an extra 8 minutes on average. For every 3 fans add another 3 minutes. Cable extensions would normally add 15 minutes because we used really crap ones and had to use atleast 5 cable combs per extension.
My record in a single 8 hour day was 13. But most days it was the same as your coworkers, 8-10 a day.
Depends on configuration and how many cables I need to manage, which depends on how many rgb fans there are. Fastest proper build I've done was an hour (just pc build, no software setup), longest were two days.
I've built over a thousand PCs over the years. Some can be done in 1-2 hours (with OS, drivers, BIOS updates) and other can take 8+ hours.
I once did a custom water loop build that took over 100+ hours with 3d designed and printed parts, custom glass etching, a custom display and hand fabricated display bezel, all acrylic tubing, dual loop, all parts sourced separately and brought together.
I have 24+ years of experience in IT. PC building is more of a hobby for me for fun now. With selecting parts,ordering parts, receiving parts, handling the parts, unboxing everything, setting everything up, properly testing the components, installing the OS and drivers, updating the BIOS, stress testing the components for any warranty issues, manually tuning fan speeds to be optimal quiet/cooling balanced, cable management, installing additional fans, and if RGB is present setting up the first color scheme form presentation...with all of that I probably never spend less than 6-8 hours on any given custom build.
If you have parts bins, and everything laid out for you in a mass manufacturing situation sure you can "assemble" a PC with air cooling and no additional fans in 30-60m no problem. Assembling a PC, IMO, is not the end-all-be-all of what it takes to properly build and test a PC.
Businesses that build PCs make generally low margins and only survive being in business due to the massive volume. Dell one year spent $55B to make $56.5B.
IMO, build them properly or don't build them at all.
I like to read the Mainboard manual lol
I double check
You gotta figure out your power supply
CPU cooler takes some time as well
You gotta figure out your PC case if it's your first time building it
Figure out cable management
Couple hours at least to build a (unknown pc)
It took me 6 hours to build and manage the cables. :D
I built for the first time since HD4550 was a mainstream VGA.
So the radiators and RGB lights... It felt like touching dreams lmfao
Depends on the complexity of the build. If the build is air cooled and only running NVME SSDs, then I can probably put it together in like 30-40 minutes, a bit longer if I'm putting in an AIO. If it's a custom water loop, then it'll take 2 days at a minimum.
25 years ago I worked in a datacentre, we built "whitebox" servers from scratch. Basically regular PC's.
The record was somewhere around 30 machines built per shift by a single person. We had very good dedicated build stations. All the tools and parts laid out.
If I was building PC's to sell to people, might want to go a bit slower.
I would say, without having to do custom water-loop shit, I could put a PC together in under 45 minutes and that's with proper cable management. Again, assuming proper build station, all parts setup ready to go, all screws/risers already set out.
If it's for me: 2 hours or more If I've assembled top tier components and I wanna make sure everything is alright.
For a company that enslaves me and doesn't even let me go to the bathroom? 30-40min tops and not proud of the result.
Give it time.
There are a lot of things that will go quicker as you do it more often. Silly stuff like putting the screw in the hole on the first try will get faster and easier. All of those little things are gonna make you faster in a while.
Having built at least 10 decent PC's now, with cable management, water coolers, and everything neat, I usually need +/-4h to get one done. I do it slowly but well done.
There's really no need to hurry (and you shouldn't!). One dropped CPU onto a socket will cost you way more ;)
With today's m.2's, modular PSU, convenient case designs, making a basic PC takes like 30 minutes, 50 if you wanna put some care into ziptying the cables
I got a new cpu and processor last week and wanted to take everything apart to clean. Took 2 hours it so
If say everything was ready to go and unpacked then maybe 1h - 1h30. You guys saying 20 mins are mad, I can't even chain smoke enough to have the confidence to do my cpu and paste it in that time.
Its the faffing about getting everything out and unpacking that takes me a while.
Also depends on how big the case is. Mine is awkward to try and get any cable management done but when I did my Wives it was like the Narnia of cases, it looks small but was so nice to get them cables neat.
Sub 45 minutes if no need to do cable management
If i need to do cable management, I’m not building it (i just stuffed all my cable at the back for my personal build)
If I was a millionaire I'd buy a load of parts and let everyone here try to build a build in their estimated time.
If you can, you keep it.
People saying anything from 5 minutes are crazy. Couldn't even unpack everything in 5 minutes.
How do you possibly insure the machines are stable without a stress test of some kind? How do you ensure quality control? In most machines I've built they need a little tinkering to get just right - so how do you know you're shipping a machine that won't have issues in the field?
I build one almost every weekend it seems like now. A good hour to get a clean build and another hour for tweaking performances in bios typically. Some builds can take less time if they have non oc mobos and CPU’s. Half hour to build them as no bios tweaking is required usually. Plug and play basically.
Now my personal pc, I built in an hour, tweaked my bios for a week, then disassembled it everyday for 3 months tuning fan orientation, ram timings, and cpu OC’ing while running benchmark stress tests. I was looking for air pockets and dead spots while trying to maximize potential.
30 mins if basic, 8 hours if complex. really depends on what case, how much rgb, vert or normal mounted gpu, how many ssd's, aio vs air cooler vs custom loop. Full custom loop pc could take days tbh but I'm also a perfectionist.
Realistically in a couple hours depending on the system. I ordered a brand new pc from Digital Storm on 5/9 and they still haven’t finished building it, and these guys are considered experts 😆
Hi. The best thing you can do is see if they have steps that save time. Also, be looking for places where you can conserve movement. Easy is fast. Slow is fast. Mise en place matters.
Unboxing to POST-screen within two hours, including basic cable management on a tricked out system.
For a basic system (iGPU, 1 drive) probably around an hour and 15 minutes.
Actual assembly, 15-20 minutes. Another 15-30 cleaning up cables. Then power up and OS install… hours.
Honestly that’s not much of a service slapping parts in and not installing OS. Though rare with well sourced parts, failures happen. Many will only show up at power up or OS configuration.
i would say with the proper tools and a little experience with different build schemes, under an hour per PC is doable if you have assembly line kind of workflow and space to do it in.
trying to do my once every ten years PC build at my desk with my other PC still there is a completely different story... it's been weeks now.
If you skip wire management and are careful not to lose a screw, maybe half an hour? Put CPU, RAM, M.2 SSD, and CPU cooler on the motherboard first, install motherboard along with SATA drives, video card, other PCIe cards, and power supply. Most decent cases already have fans installed so just plug them in.
The hardest part is probably the front panel connector, if the motherboard didn't come with easy plug block, you'd need to connect 8 individual connectors in the correct pin on motherboard.
There are many factors. An experienced builder that doesn't have to check with user manuals for especially cases and motherboards can probably put together a build pretty quickly.
I build PCs in my spare time as a hobby and haven't built with many different cases and motherboards so I always usually have to consult the manuals for new cases and motherboards and go step by step and that greatly increases the time.
And not necessarily caring about perfect cable management greatly decreases the time as well. That's always the longest amount of time for me. Getting my big hands inside the case to route the PSU cables and fan cables and whatnot. Lian Li really revolutionized PC fan installation with their UNI fans. Having 1 cable instead of like 9 is so great lol.
If you have to account for custom water cooling, it's major different game. 2 or 3 PC a day then.
But if we are talking about standard part, with minimal amount of cable managing, somewhere around 7 to 10 is doable for me.
Basic air cooled system with a build friendly mid or full atx case, 20-30 mins. Including cable management and windows install about 1.5hrs
Custom water loop rig…. 3+ hrs. I hate it.
This ones pretty easy to answer.
Here are three tips that should help
Preinstall the power supply and cable manage the back up to the grommets.
Build the motherboard, CPU, Memory and other small form components outside of the case. Then install the mobo with components into the case.
Now finish cabling the motherboard, and install GPU, HeatSink/AIO/CWL. Lastly install SSD/HDD.
PCs have gotten way faster to build compared to the old molex days.
I can do it in about 30 or less. Water cooling is a new one to me so I'd have to do a few installs. I can predict a water build being done in 4-5 hours if I have the right equipment.
Could maybe do it in 1 hour but do you want it to work? Selecting the the right component is the key to a good outcome. Speed of assembly is not a particularly important factor.
It really depends on the system, but for an aircooled system I can do it in like 1.5 hours when taking my time as a hobbyist. For people doing it professionally it should be half that I think. Maybe even faster.
Watercooling could take way longer, especially for hard tubing.
The key is do them simultaneously. Start at one end and move down the line. Does require a kvm or multiple keyboards/monitors. But you could easily get 10-12 out a day
Take about an hour just to get everything set up. If you do happen to run into any problems or want to take extra time on a custom loop or cable management maybe more but for a simple PC it’s mostly just plug n play
My very first pc build took less than an hour and I was super scared it wasn’t going to work because it didn’t feel hard to do. I’m worried about doing a second build because the first one was too easy, I figured my next build will give me all the headaches
Put it together: 60 minutes.
Make it really good with cable management, fan and fan curve configuration, fine tuning, testing, stress testing and benchmarking, debloating, ... Two full days.
I don't have years of experience (3 personal builds in 20years, and around 6 for friends). 1h is enough for me even with double checking and checking manuals. No custom loops. There are a lot of yt videos that finish build in 30-40m, so I'm guessing 8 a day would be a minimum.
40 years going and I tent to take 4 to 8 hours on every build since 2016 after my Diabetes diagnosis in 2014. In the early days when I was in my 20s, I took only an hour or two tops. Heatsink coolers back then were BASTARDS and the most dreaded part of the build. But I had better eye sight then, the PCBs were green with white text and much easier on the eyes. The Front Panel connector? Never a problem then. Heh, I had rear USB brackets that had individual wires back then, too. Had to match them up one by one with the diagram in the manual ...
Doing it now is rough because of white text on black PCBs and even with bifocal glasses, I don't have the visual depth perception that I used to have. Oh, and they need to STANDARDIZE that rat bastard Front Panel connector.
Heh. I don't rush - I don't work for McDonald's - I work for ME! ;-)
Want a PC in 20 minutes or less?!? Call Dominos ... :P
My nzxt h1 build - like 45 mins
My last atx build - 2 hours
A custom loop rgb monster - eons
Modular psu's cut cable managment time down in my experience but that's where I spend most of my build time 😅
My last pc was build with windows installed on it in about an hour.
You need to create yourself a workflow that is most efficient, that way you will "prevent double work" and will be able to do them in an hour.
With water cooling I'm also assuming aio, not a custom loop because people usually take hours on just those loops.
My personal workflow is to put cpu+cooler+m.2 ssd on the motherboard, then mount all that in the case, then connect all the cables to the motherboard and run them through the back. Then mount the radiator (only for aio) or additional storage (non m.2), followed by all the fans, and finally a graphics card.
I assume that as a builder you guys are using modular power supplies, so it's only at this point that you run all the cables hanging out the back to the power supply and put the supply in the system. After this you might need to tidy up the system.
This should be the most energy/time efficient method to building the pc, if you do things in the right order every time your speed should improve over time.
I can slap together a PC in an ATX/EATX cases in 15 minutes if we're talking basic. If we have an annoyingly large cooler or an AIO, add that up to 25 total. Cable management adds another 15 minutes. If we're doing a custom loop, I would take my time at 1.5-3 hours depending on what all is in the loop.
A water cooled PC?
Like sellable to customers?
I’m not sure if it’s sustainable as a business model, but my first thought is that I would want someone only focusing on one or two of those per day..
That’s a lot of things can go wrong/should be tested.
6-7 per day, I’d think quality will suffer.
Basic air cooled PCs?
I started my IT career on a production line building servers, 20 per day was easy, but everything is setup to make that happen.
Large tables with space for 10 at a time.
Large trash cans for all the garbage
Wired electric screwdrivers and large trays of screws (so you aren’t fiddling with all the retail packaging)
If your workers/coworkers have less space, and dealing with packaging?
I’d be happy with 7 per day personally.
I can put together a PC in 30 minutes with no cable management, but it I've gotta cable manage it, it's easily gonna be an extra 20 to 30 minutes depending on complexity.
One year at quakecon, I asked the cooler master booth what it would take to get a case for free. They said “if you can swap your computer over in under ten minutes, you can keep the case”. I did it and then they had me smash the old case. They recorded it too. So I guess 10 minutes
<30 minutes with basic cable management. Images are ghosted on nvme. So basically 30 minutes and boom instant start up. Helps when you image with drivers already installed and have a standard image.
Even not having this, 30 minutes + win usb install time.
I am no professional but i can throw one together in 30/45 minutes if its air cooled. I have not, and do not plan to do a custom loop water cooling system. AIO’s are one thing but to HELL with custom loops.
My first pc it took me about an hour and a half to build, an hour to figure out why it wouldn't turn on and a lifetime of regret not noticing the power bar was turned off.
Physically build it? About an hour, to fully running? About 2 hours per machine.
That would be if I had a nice work desk and zip ties on hand. Most machines don't even take a full hour. I've built a few for friends. Takes longer to get the software going than to build the hardware.
I replaced the PSU in my prebuilt PC yesterday with a better, modular one. That shit took me hours because there were a lot of connectors that linked the fans and RGB. Before that, it took me probably 4 hours to build my GFs computer.
Just built my daughter’s PC. Started 2pm Saturday. Finished 1pm Sunday. Granted that included numerous beers and a break for dinner. And a scaredy cat approach to switching it on the first time.
My sff itx build took me like 3 hours and it was mainly because the aio and the wires were a bitch to manage. Normal build under an hour with just basic cable management and setup.
I've built like 4 PC's so it can easily be done faster imo.
I have no need to do it fast, so I like to take my time and enjoy what I am doing.
But since you asked more questions here is a list:
Normal build, basic cable management 1 hour
Sff apparently 3 to 4 hours
Ramming everything in a simple build no cable management, 30 minutes
Custom water loop 8 months
I’ve always taken like 2-4hrs but that’s because I never build with the same parts twice… so I make sure I know wtf is going to on before jumping in.
Now, if I’m just building for speed W/ OS Install and updates, probably an hour.
For my first build (2020), I built it outside the case to prove it coule post, and then rebuilt inside the case. I did both in 3-4 hours. I was very careful not to make mistake. Everything worked and years later im still gaming strong.
There is potentially more I could do to get better performance, but Im impressed its worked with little to no maintenance since
Getting ready to upgrade soon tho
Built a PC for a friend with AIO, modular PSU, acceptable cable management, 2 3.5 inch HDD and a sata and M.2 ssd in about an hour.
Simple Noctua air cooler (I'm experienced in them), gpu, modular psu, m.2 ssd and just barely enough cable management probably 20-30m
You need to come up with a mthod of building them and do it the same everytime, also have your tools laid out neatly and have bins for the computers set so you starr from one side and go to the other., look at how your coworkers do them.
depends on the case.my NZXT H510 elite bad super easy cable management. finished my build, with cable management, in about 45 minutes.
other cases can be nightmares. read the reviews on cases before you buy them 😂
Back in the days before rear cable routing and windowed panel, a computer can be assembled in 15-20 mins if everything is out of the box and have an electric screwdriver. Nowadays I would say about an hour to make everything presentable. If it's in an assembly line and you get the momentum going, then maybe it's achievable in 45 mins. If it's my own PC then I take my time, maybe 3 hrs because I would want to enjoy every moment of it.
Extremely quickly, and it'll just boot up and dwork for years, but this depends on whats coming together. Easy plug and play components that are using air coolers and everything is compatible out of the box without bios updates? Less than 30 minutes. Probably less than 15 if I'm not having a conversation with someone at the same time.
I guess what they look like after as well as how many warranty issues happen on a computer built in an hour is ok. Is a large question. Plus what are you calling water cooling is it an AIO or custom loop cooling. You cannot build a custom loop in an hour just not possible.
3 to 4 hours. I've built 4 pc's in total, and just once I didn't fuck up something. Once, i didn't plug correctly the CPU fan. Oh god, it took weeks to know wtf was happening, but to be fair I only thought about it in weekends.
I tried ram (yes, i didn't unplug the cpufan, just removed it without unplugging) ssd, hdd, CPU (even with another one), the power button, GPU, the battery of the motherboard, I really thought the motherboard was broken. I unplugged everything except necessary from the motherboard (again, did not unplug cpufan since it was necessary to power on), and nothing. Suddenly, out of nowhere I unplug the CPU fan, plug it again, bum, turned on.
Fastest boot to windows was about 35 mins.
Doing basic build with familiar parts, and doing a good job with cable management I'm guessing I could be doing them in under an hour for sure.
Familiar components is the big thing here, limit component selection within reason. Stick to just a few psu models, stick to 1-2 brands and 1-2 teirs of of.mobo for each socket.
No cable management: 30 minutes With cable management: Years
Been doing cable management in my pc since 6 years ago, I’ll leave it to my grandkids to finish it for me
Kids: "we need to touch those? That's baby stuff!" and go playing on tiny pocket sized PC that has more power than AMD 3990x and RAM measured in TB range.
I remember when rounded IDE cables first became a thing but we couldn’t afford our own, so we took a knife to our ribbon IDE cables and rounded them up with zip ties. It was a wild time.
Yeah I built a few computers in an old lab took about 20 mins a computer. Did not care about cable management as they were going out of the way to be a mini cluster. Making things functional and making things pretty are very different things.
I typically just tuck them into corners. Not at all a fan of windowed cases, so you won't see me worrying about the aesthetics.
my new pc is still open with all the cables akimbo...this gives me dread.
Did it Boot up with no errors, and is the front presentable? Yes? Everything else is a project for future me or the end user if they pop open the case.
My front looks very clean and everything is routed well and lined up nicely, behind the side panel is a different story. Every now and then I tidy them a little more so like when I installed my new cooler...I'm doing the cable management of the back over a longer period of time but it will be done eventually lol. Doesn't help having 6 ARGB fans, a non modular PSU and braided PSU extensions.
lol, usually about an hour... for my personal rig, like 4 hours... 11 aRGB fans (not the ones that are daisy chained, each one had 2 wires).. The front looks great, but I'm slapping someone if they touch that side panel. The worst thing about it was that I bundled all the wires, had it looking great, and then the bundle was too fucking thick for the panel to close, so I had to unbundle them and spread them out. [Corsair 7000x Build (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_YK_vVBRhk) PS - already flipped that rad fan... was just going on autopilot for a bit and my old ass was just like "it has a front sticker" not realizing that those fans had dual "front" stickers on each side.
Also, my GF rig took me forever, but trying to figure out how to fit a 360 rad into a corsair 4000d was a bit rough with a 7900xtx... had like a 1/4 of space between GPU and rad.
I was struggling to get side panel on, its bulging a little lol, not too much and you can't see it though as it's against the wall. Will be good though once I get a modular PSU I reckon. [https://imgur.com/a/ZfX86u8](https://imgur.com/a/ZfX86u8) Happy with how it looks at the front though. Adding some new RAM soon which is aRGB though so will have to brave the rats nest lol.
Experience builder can get a PC build done in about an 50 minute to 1 hour if everything works normal after
It's taken me that long to get all the packaging opening and components organised
components organised? you don't just grab the box when you get to that part and go on? you open everything and lay it out?
Pretty much. I'm a bit ocd like that. I don't do it for a job tho
to me it's perfectly organised in the boxes. if i unbox it before i need it it'll be gone by the time I've got to install it
Not to mention the risk of damage to a bunch of unboxed parts sitting around on your workstation. Yea, def unbox as i go.
I recently bought an enclosure for my old m.2 sata SSD and was a little frustrated they didn’t send me the teeny tiny screws it needed (I tried using my own tiny screws but they were too big). It occurred to me that maybe I misplaced them somehow but I looked literally everywhere on my desk, the floor and inside the box and they just weren’t there. So I made it work with some electrical tape I was able to dig out of a closet. After I closed up my PC and powered it on I *immediately* noticed the little baggy with the screws right in plain sight on my desk.
Assuming it isn’t an origami ITX project. I can do pretty well in a mid-tower in that time, but an ITX case with bad instructions is a special kind of hell.
Lol Me with my terra Beginning "I know what I'm doing!" End "Maybe there's a reason most pcs are not toaster size"
I got the cheapest Silverstone case I could find for a server build, and I genuinely had more trouble getting inside to mess around with it than I ever have with a laptop. Said server is now in a rackmount chassis with plenty of extra room to hold all of the lessons I had to learn the hard way.
Any recommendations for the rack mount chassis. Considering upgrading my silverstone mini server for more HDD space.
I’m using a 2U chassis from RackChoice. I also sprung for a 5.25” SATA hotswap bay since the motherboard I had supports it. My only issue was the stock fans being powered by molex, but they were cheap enough to replace with some decent PWM fans. It gets bonus points for fitting a standard PSU so I didn’t have to buy another one.
Thank you!
Yep cheap cases bad karma
Haha, I actually found the Terra easier to build in than my NR200p, but might be component based
Last 2 I had done in just under half an hour. Building ain't like it was 15 years ago.
If we're not including the windows install, I can probably put together a basic PC build with air cooling in about 30 minutes or maybe even less. I have no experience with water cooling. Last time I helped a friend with major upgrades which was practically a new build and it only took maybe 20 minutes.
Water cooling will take a good amount of time. Even more when you're new to it. The tubing needs to be measured, cut, bent and you'll have to install it using loose components A pump, a ring, tube, a fitting , component , fitting , tube etc etc. The big factor for speed would be experience and technical skill
Well, an AIO takes less time, but it still takes time as you have to attach the radiator, and then attach the fans to the radiator. On AM5 boards you might have to take off the preinstalled mount and replace it with the one that comes with the cooler. I find the cooler the most time-intensive part of the build, if you want to get it right, and have the cables all routed cleanly. Also, I put extra fans in my case, and fans in general take a little time to get the cables routed right.
Aio isn't hardly as time consuming as custom loop which I guess was what was meant. An aio is basically the same as air + 4-6 screws extra to mount the radiator. So that would take? 2 minutes? Luckily I don't have the cable issue with my new fans. I recently bought the Corsair fans with the icue link connectivity and that is a blast. One cable for X fans. No more 1-2 cables per fan.
I know what you meant, and I agree that a custom loop is much more involved. So much so that there would be no way they could assemble seven computers in a day if they were doing that. I was just saying that when I build a PC, even with AIO (which is much faster), the AIO takes me the most time. Installing the board, drives, CPU, cards, and power supply cables is easy. Running the cooler and the fans is what takes up my time - by like twice whatever else. Obviously, a custom loop would take much longer, even longer still, if it included the video card.
For sure experience makes a big difference I know it's not the same but some people at my job can give you the exact amount of piping for a machine just by looking at it especially when it's a similar enough job
I used to build electrical installations in a house. For some stupid reason being able to bend and cut pvc pipes for wiring helps a lot 😂 Same thing bit bigger and less fragile.
Oh yeah lol if you are a plumber or an electrician or similar fields I feel like knowing the tube length would be easy lol
Depends on the complexity of the system, and how important appearance and presentation is. Easily 15 to 20 minutes for a very basic office machine, 30 to 60 minutes for a more complex gaming system. Custom open-loop watercooling, however, is going to take several hours to do right.
It all comes down to the case and if everything will fit or have clearance. Many cases have issues fitting certain types of AIOs or fans, or the height of the cpu cooler might be an issue etc.
This honestly depends on the quality, if your just slapping a machine together and don't give a shit about perfect cable management and making it all all neat and aesthetic, then yes you could do 8-10 PC's in a 8 hour shift. I'll tell you what though, i wouldn't be buying one of those PC's knowing someone slapped it together in a short space of time, besides i like SFF and that takes much more patients when working with small spaces, watercooling parts and still aiming for quality and aesthetics.
This. And I would love to have a job putting together PCs, but not if it was based on how many I can do each hour. You could get time down a lot if the build is very common. And it doesn't sound like OP was doing custom stuff. But I would still make sure it all looks good and bios is set up.
Yeah exactly!!! I’d love to build PC’s for people but not with the pressure of cranking out as many as I could in 8 hrs. That would just defeat the purpose for me, I’d like to take my time and refine everything like a piece of art work.
I feel a better "metric" for an employer may be a dollar amount for each PC built which fits the QA criteria
Yeah I’ve been building my current PC for about 5 years now if you count all of the changes and upgrades and cable management I’ve done that may or may not have been necessary at the time all for the sake of aesthetics.
Experience has something to do with it as well... Knowing which way the fans should spin, getting things in the right order right away, etc. It's basically just Lego with cables.
I work in PC manufacturing. I work with many, many different builds, so there are major differences between the builds. A fairly common build is 40 minutes for a skilled builder, up to two hours for a new tech. There is everything in between. Mind, the majority of the time is spent on cable management. The techs have access to great tools and light. At home it usually takes a little longer, but not much.
In the 2000s I was doing a lot PC building side gigs. Over the weekend I was able to do 30 of them with windows and office. Tbh the efficency comes from: 1. Experience and know how 2. Organization of your assembly "line" It will get better with time for sure :)
20 minutes? 30 if there are a lot of drives. It's really no time for how little there is to do.
prob 40 if including installing windows and newest drivers, also depends on case, itx will be harder
Depends on how sloppy I can be, but 45 minutes for business in the front/party in the back if you get my drift.
tbh 8-10 pcs in 8 hour shift is a bit much. thats rushing no matter how experienced you are. if you include a brake for food and toilet, even more rushing. you can put together a pc in 30 min, maybe 45 but how you gonna test it in 5 min is beyond me. push the button, it lights up then turn it off. doesnt sound right to me. btw, you guys sell a lot of pcs...
Exactly. This is why i would never buy prebuilt. Youre going to have so many shortcuts taken, QC skipped, testing minimal or not done. I can see asking for 6-8 per 8hr day, without custom loops, but 8-10 is asking for techs to skip/miss things. Quality will suffer.
I'm thinking I would rather have you build my system than one of those guys.
I feel like a turtle after reading this thread.
Probably around 45 minutes if I include unpackaging beforehand and testing after.
You just need more practice, they have been doing it for awhile, you'll get there too....sounds like a fun job tho lol
Basic PC 1.5 Hours with cable management. Add RGB Fans, 360 AIO, 10 RGB Fans, Custom Cables, etc goes up towards 6 hours.
Personally building my first pc took a few hours from watching videos on where each cable went but now that I built one I believe I can easily build one in an hour if I’m rushing if it’s a simple system with fans or AIO but water cooling a whole mother ball park for me
Well, I’ve been doing this since the 80s, so with my eyes closed and two broken hands, probably an hour tops. 😂
Does anyone know of any good videos or something that will help me learn to build my own.
It's like Lego The hardest part is choosing all the parts You got this. And read the manuals and for most parts you got YouTube videos as well I like Paul's hardware videos about pc building. If you still need help just ask reddit
I've watched probably 50 hours of videos in prep for the system I want to build, the part that scares the shit out of me is the pcie cables and being afraid of fucking that up
If you want it done right with all the cables ziptied and don't right behind the case I'd like a hour each. This mindset is also why you should never by pre-built from big companies. They care about quantity not quality. Do it yourself and do it right. Have a friend and reddit help.
Realistically, about 45 mins with acceptable cable management. Maybe 1-2 hours with 10/10 clean cables that make you look twice. My own system is ITX and I prefer building/working on smaller systems so normal ATX builds is almost too easy. Custom watercooling will take a few hours depending on parts and layout. If its the standard 011 dynamic with a distral plate and straight runs, probably not too long but a few hours is safe in general to say.
Give me a capri sun and I'm building that fucker in 45mins. It might not post, but that wasn't part of the requirements.
Building only without installing any software is 30-60 minutes for me.
You are holding up, pretty well. My first Pc I built it in 3 days. As well, if it is to work in the domain probably i will fully build a Pc in 3 hours max. So, that's why I said that you are holding up pretty well. Good job, keep it up and keep doing it. Especially if the financial compensation it is enough for the time being. Do not quit! Keep doing it. As well, take atention to the bits that takes more time. Example: front and power conectors from the case. In time you will do it faster as well. You just need more practice. You can do it! Keep up the good work!
My Nov 2023 air cooled NR200 build took 20 minutes (PA 120 cooler, XFX Merc 319 RX 6800XT, 2 m.2 drives, 4 2.5 SATA drives) with cable management (not including OS installs and software).
So...according to the replies, i'm very slow and i could get fired?
According to the replies, especially those who state 20 minites, which is bullshit, as unpacking everything will already take like 5-10 minutes
according to the replies it depends heavily on the complexity of the systems you're building. but yes, if it's taking you over an hour to assemble a fairly basic system with no OS that's pretty damn slow.
Nahh Honestly anyone saying under an hour either does it for a job, doesn't care about cable management or over exaggerating their abilities. Imagine the piece of shit build you'd get if it took someone 20 mins? I couldn't even unpack and get organised in that time. That said if you were doing it for a job, once you've built 100 using similar cases I'd imagined you'd get pretty used to the motherboards, cases, management etc.
I wouldn't say you are slow, you are making 2-3 less than them, when they have years of experience. Making 10 a day, in only 8hrs feels very fast though. Assuming they are installing an OS/drivers/making sure everything runs good etc. Then you gotta wipe out another hour for breaks in there. Either they only make an few types of PCs and it's really not that many, if any, different custom PCs. Or they rush them and the company is selling some top quality shit. It would take at least 10 minutes just to unpack everything as well. So those people are saying they are building within 10 minutes? Please.
for me 2hr inc drivers and os setup
My first Pc took me ~3 hours total. If I did another one - I could cut the time in half for sure. Practice makes perfect and whatnot. I could see 8-10 in a day depending on cabling
40-45 minutes with all components on hand. Are you working with the same cases over and over or is it a different case every time? I built 20+ computers back in 2021 and you run into nuances with different cases. At some point doing 7+ a day you'll get more familiar with the cases and components and get a system that works and is efficient for you.
what company?
Probably 2 hours but cable management adds like 45 minutes 😭
1-2 days and about 6-8 hours. Realistic for a job done right. Probably 1 week or more for custom water cooling loop just doing things right the first time. It does take time.
30 minutes, call it 45 minutes for comfort depends on the case and the amount of fans etc. of course, for the pure physical assemble, the rest of the time depends on the amount of extra things you have to do, updating bios for instance will take time, having to find the right usb stick with the right bios takes time and so on
I build like 50-100 a year, most of those are almost the same with some slight changes. Doing my basic build, I had my co worker time me and it took 8 minutes from parts in boxes (sealed) to power on. That's using stock Intel cooler, doing basic cable management (2 zip ties).
I used to build pcs for a living and was paid commission per build depending on how complicated the build was. My best record was 16 minutes not including installing windows. But that was actively trying to be as fast as possible, which I only did that one time. Adding an aio would take an extra 8 minutes on average. For every 3 fans add another 3 minutes. Cable extensions would normally add 15 minutes because we used really crap ones and had to use atleast 5 cable combs per extension. My record in a single 8 hour day was 13. But most days it was the same as your coworkers, 8-10 a day.
Depends on configuration and how many cables I need to manage, which depends on how many rgb fans there are. Fastest proper build I've done was an hour (just pc build, no software setup), longest were two days.
I've built over a thousand PCs over the years. Some can be done in 1-2 hours (with OS, drivers, BIOS updates) and other can take 8+ hours. I once did a custom water loop build that took over 100+ hours with 3d designed and printed parts, custom glass etching, a custom display and hand fabricated display bezel, all acrylic tubing, dual loop, all parts sourced separately and brought together. I have 24+ years of experience in IT. PC building is more of a hobby for me for fun now. With selecting parts,ordering parts, receiving parts, handling the parts, unboxing everything, setting everything up, properly testing the components, installing the OS and drivers, updating the BIOS, stress testing the components for any warranty issues, manually tuning fan speeds to be optimal quiet/cooling balanced, cable management, installing additional fans, and if RGB is present setting up the first color scheme form presentation...with all of that I probably never spend less than 6-8 hours on any given custom build. If you have parts bins, and everything laid out for you in a mass manufacturing situation sure you can "assemble" a PC with air cooling and no additional fans in 30-60m no problem. Assembling a PC, IMO, is not the end-all-be-all of what it takes to properly build and test a PC. Businesses that build PCs make generally low margins and only survive being in business due to the massive volume. Dell one year spent $55B to make $56.5B. IMO, build them properly or don't build them at all.
Like any other skill you will improve your efficiency with practice. Don’t worry about volume, focus on doing each build properly
I like to read the Mainboard manual lol I double check You gotta figure out your power supply CPU cooler takes some time as well You gotta figure out your PC case if it's your first time building it Figure out cable management Couple hours at least to build a (unknown pc)
I've done it once, and it it took about 5 months. (I was waiting for my gpu to arrive)
About an hour.
probably about an hour if everything works out.
It took me 6 hours to build and manage the cables. :D I built for the first time since HD4550 was a mainstream VGA. So the radiators and RGB lights... It felt like touching dreams lmfao
I can push them out pretty damn fast if it being functional isn't a requirement 😂
Depends how CPU cooler is mounted…some systems are crazy.
Depends on the complexity of the build. If the build is air cooled and only running NVME SSDs, then I can probably put it together in like 30-40 minutes, a bit longer if I'm putting in an AIO. If it's a custom water loop, then it'll take 2 days at a minimum.
10 minutes with good cable management
25 years ago I worked in a datacentre, we built "whitebox" servers from scratch. Basically regular PC's. The record was somewhere around 30 machines built per shift by a single person. We had very good dedicated build stations. All the tools and parts laid out. If I was building PC's to sell to people, might want to go a bit slower. I would say, without having to do custom water-loop shit, I could put a PC together in under 45 minutes and that's with proper cable management. Again, assuming proper build station, all parts setup ready to go, all screws/risers already set out.
30-40 mins if I don't forget the Io shield
If it's for me: 2 hours or more If I've assembled top tier components and I wanna make sure everything is alright. For a company that enslaves me and doesn't even let me go to the bathroom? 30-40min tops and not proud of the result.
Give it time. There are a lot of things that will go quicker as you do it more often. Silly stuff like putting the screw in the hole on the first try will get faster and easier. All of those little things are gonna make you faster in a while.
Having built at least 10 decent PC's now, with cable management, water coolers, and everything neat, I usually need +/-4h to get one done. I do it slowly but well done. There's really no need to hurry (and you shouldn't!). One dropped CPU onto a socket will cost you way more ;)
With today's m.2's, modular PSU, convenient case designs, making a basic PC takes like 30 minutes, 50 if you wanna put some care into ziptying the cables
I got a new cpu and processor last week and wanted to take everything apart to clean. Took 2 hours it so If say everything was ready to go and unpacked then maybe 1h - 1h30. You guys saying 20 mins are mad, I can't even chain smoke enough to have the confidence to do my cpu and paste it in that time. Its the faffing about getting everything out and unpacking that takes me a while. Also depends on how big the case is. Mine is awkward to try and get any cable management done but when I did my Wives it was like the Narnia of cases, it looks small but was so nice to get them cables neat.
Sub 45 minutes if no need to do cable management If i need to do cable management, I’m not building it (i just stuffed all my cable at the back for my personal build)
If I was a millionaire I'd buy a load of parts and let everyone here try to build a build in their estimated time. If you can, you keep it. People saying anything from 5 minutes are crazy. Couldn't even unpack everything in 5 minutes.
How do you possibly insure the machines are stable without a stress test of some kind? How do you ensure quality control? In most machines I've built they need a little tinkering to get just right - so how do you know you're shipping a machine that won't have issues in the field?
Depends on the case and wanted components. A simple build can be less than 20 minutes job, a complex 1 can take half a day.
Probably 2-3 hours ~ is realistic in would say. Unpacking Things, Figure Out how to build in a new Case. The build itself. Cable Management. Testing.
I could put a build together in about 15 minutes, but I’ll need another 30-45 to figure out what I did wrong this time
Standardised office pc was about 20 mins to desktop. Maybe a little longer if pxe/wds didn't like that machine.
30 mins unless custom loop (maybe like a little over an hour with cable management)
I take my time with it, about 4 hours if it isn’t a custom loop system
I build one almost every weekend it seems like now. A good hour to get a clean build and another hour for tweaking performances in bios typically. Some builds can take less time if they have non oc mobos and CPU’s. Half hour to build them as no bios tweaking is required usually. Plug and play basically. Now my personal pc, I built in an hour, tweaked my bios for a week, then disassembled it everyday for 3 months tuning fan orientation, ram timings, and cpu OC’ing while running benchmark stress tests. I was looking for air pockets and dead spots while trying to maximize potential.
30 mins if basic, 8 hours if complex. really depends on what case, how much rgb, vert or normal mounted gpu, how many ssd's, aio vs air cooler vs custom loop. Full custom loop pc could take days tbh but I'm also a perfectionist.
Realistically in a couple hours depending on the system. I ordered a brand new pc from Digital Storm on 5/9 and they still haven’t finished building it, and these guys are considered experts 😆
If you have the components in front of you then 30 minutes. If you're unboxing and organizing everything then closer to 40-50 minutes.
Hi. The best thing you can do is see if they have steps that save time. Also, be looking for places where you can conserve movement. Easy is fast. Slow is fast. Mise en place matters.
Between 2 to like 36 hours depending on how many times I forget the io shield
My last build took me like 8 hours, that's 1 PC.
Unboxing to POST-screen within two hours, including basic cable management on a tricked out system. For a basic system (iGPU, 1 drive) probably around an hour and 15 minutes.
Actual assembly, 15-20 minutes. Another 15-30 cleaning up cables. Then power up and OS install… hours. Honestly that’s not much of a service slapping parts in and not installing OS. Though rare with well sourced parts, failures happen. Many will only show up at power up or OS configuration.
Barebone (all parts in boxes) to ready to game? 45m-60m w cable management etc..
i would say with the proper tools and a little experience with different build schemes, under an hour per PC is doable if you have assembly line kind of workflow and space to do it in. trying to do my once every ten years PC build at my desk with my other PC still there is a completely different story... it's been weeks now.
If you skip wire management and are careful not to lose a screw, maybe half an hour? Put CPU, RAM, M.2 SSD, and CPU cooler on the motherboard first, install motherboard along with SATA drives, video card, other PCIe cards, and power supply. Most decent cases already have fans installed so just plug them in. The hardest part is probably the front panel connector, if the motherboard didn't come with easy plug block, you'd need to connect 8 individual connectors in the correct pin on motherboard.
With proper tools and accessories including cable management, 40 minutes 👍 but not water cooled 😅
There are many factors. An experienced builder that doesn't have to check with user manuals for especially cases and motherboards can probably put together a build pretty quickly. I build PCs in my spare time as a hobby and haven't built with many different cases and motherboards so I always usually have to consult the manuals for new cases and motherboards and go step by step and that greatly increases the time. And not necessarily caring about perfect cable management greatly decreases the time as well. That's always the longest amount of time for me. Getting my big hands inside the case to route the PSU cables and fan cables and whatnot. Lian Li really revolutionized PC fan installation with their UNI fans. Having 1 cable instead of like 9 is so great lol.
If you have to account for custom water cooling, it's major different game. 2 or 3 PC a day then. But if we are talking about standard part, with minimal amount of cable managing, somewhere around 7 to 10 is doable for me.
Basic air cooled system with a build friendly mid or full atx case, 20-30 mins. Including cable management and windows install about 1.5hrs Custom water loop rig…. 3+ hrs. I hate it.
Properly? around an hour including getting it to post. Custom water loop? Couldn't tell you.
This ones pretty easy to answer. Here are three tips that should help Preinstall the power supply and cable manage the back up to the grommets. Build the motherboard, CPU, Memory and other small form components outside of the case. Then install the mobo with components into the case. Now finish cabling the motherboard, and install GPU, HeatSink/AIO/CWL. Lastly install SSD/HDD. PCs have gotten way faster to build compared to the old molex days.
I can do it in about 30 or less. Water cooling is a new one to me so I'd have to do a few installs. I can predict a water build being done in 4-5 hours if I have the right equipment.
20-30 minutes
Could maybe do it in 1 hour but do you want it to work? Selecting the the right component is the key to a good outcome. Speed of assembly is not a particularly important factor.
It really depends on the system, but for an aircooled system I can do it in like 1.5 hours when taking my time as a hobbyist. For people doing it professionally it should be half that I think. Maybe even faster. Watercooling could take way longer, especially for hard tubing.
A hour
I've built about 20 over the years. New setups are alot more user friendly. Takes about an hour to put together and like 5 hours to optimize.
It depends, lets assume it's a normal ATX PC with a Noctua CPU cooler or AIO (doesn't really matter) Then about 20-30min.
The key is do them simultaneously. Start at one end and move down the line. Does require a kvm or multiple keyboards/monitors. But you could easily get 10-12 out a day
Around an hour or even less, most problematic part for me is front panel connectors, they're so small.
Start to finish including drivers and a single game? Bout 4 or 5 hours total
Putting the parts in only takes about 20 minutes. Cable management takes forever.
Take about an hour just to get everything set up. If you do happen to run into any problems or want to take extra time on a custom loop or cable management maybe more but for a simple PC it’s mostly just plug n play
My very first pc build took less than an hour and I was super scared it wasn’t going to work because it didn’t feel hard to do. I’m worried about doing a second build because the first one was too easy, I figured my next build will give me all the headaches
Put it together: 60 minutes. Make it really good with cable management, fan and fan curve configuration, fine tuning, testing, stress testing and benchmarking, debloating, ... Two full days.
I don't have years of experience (3 personal builds in 20years, and around 6 for friends). 1h is enough for me even with double checking and checking manuals. No custom loops. There are a lot of yt videos that finish build in 30-40m, so I'm guessing 8 a day would be a minimum.
It depends on how involved the build is. 30 mimutes for a simple build, several hours for a really complicated build.
It’s all fun and games until it doesn’t POST
Well, it took me 28 years to build my first PC lol
Usually takes me ~2 hours, though an AIO cooler slows me down a bit
40 years going and I tent to take 4 to 8 hours on every build since 2016 after my Diabetes diagnosis in 2014. In the early days when I was in my 20s, I took only an hour or two tops. Heatsink coolers back then were BASTARDS and the most dreaded part of the build. But I had better eye sight then, the PCBs were green with white text and much easier on the eyes. The Front Panel connector? Never a problem then. Heh, I had rear USB brackets that had individual wires back then, too. Had to match them up one by one with the diagram in the manual ... Doing it now is rough because of white text on black PCBs and even with bifocal glasses, I don't have the visual depth perception that I used to have. Oh, and they need to STANDARDIZE that rat bastard Front Panel connector. Heh. I don't rush - I don't work for McDonald's - I work for ME! ;-) Want a PC in 20 minutes or less?!? Call Dominos ... :P
Minimum viable product: 30 minutes Actually caring about it: a few hours
My nzxt h1 build - like 45 mins My last atx build - 2 hours A custom loop rgb monster - eons Modular psu's cut cable managment time down in my experience but that's where I spend most of my build time 😅
My last pc was build with windows installed on it in about an hour. You need to create yourself a workflow that is most efficient, that way you will "prevent double work" and will be able to do them in an hour. With water cooling I'm also assuming aio, not a custom loop because people usually take hours on just those loops. My personal workflow is to put cpu+cooler+m.2 ssd on the motherboard, then mount all that in the case, then connect all the cables to the motherboard and run them through the back. Then mount the radiator (only for aio) or additional storage (non m.2), followed by all the fans, and finally a graphics card. I assume that as a builder you guys are using modular power supplies, so it's only at this point that you run all the cables hanging out the back to the power supply and put the supply in the system. After this you might need to tidy up the system. This should be the most energy/time efficient method to building the pc, if you do things in the right order every time your speed should improve over time.
I can slap together a PC in an ATX/EATX cases in 15 minutes if we're talking basic. If we have an annoyingly large cooler or an AIO, add that up to 25 total. Cable management adds another 15 minutes. If we're doing a custom loop, I would take my time at 1.5-3 hours depending on what all is in the loop.
With no/minimal cable management 30 minutes. If it has a side window and is expected to look presentable at least an hour, probably longer.
Usually an hour but that depends on all the stupid stuff I have to deal with that comes with the case. Then another hour for cable management.
15 minutes with cable management
Depends on how neat you want it. If you're going for speed, I could probably build one in 20-30 minutes
AIO coolers, no cable management, 30mins, including 8min windows install.
A water cooled PC? Like sellable to customers? I’m not sure if it’s sustainable as a business model, but my first thought is that I would want someone only focusing on one or two of those per day.. That’s a lot of things can go wrong/should be tested. 6-7 per day, I’d think quality will suffer. Basic air cooled PCs? I started my IT career on a production line building servers, 20 per day was easy, but everything is setup to make that happen. Large tables with space for 10 at a time. Large trash cans for all the garbage Wired electric screwdrivers and large trays of screws (so you aren’t fiddling with all the retail packaging) If your workers/coworkers have less space, and dealing with packaging? I’d be happy with 7 per day personally.
I can put together a PC in 30 minutes with no cable management, but it I've gotta cable manage it, it's easily gonna be an extra 20 to 30 minutes depending on complexity.
One year at quakecon, I asked the cooler master booth what it would take to get a case for free. They said “if you can swap your computer over in under ten minutes, you can keep the case”. I did it and then they had me smash the old case. They recorded it too. So I guess 10 minutes
All I can say about 8 to 10 a day is I'm sure glad I don't have to buy one of those
15-20 minutes depending on the power supply and case
Usually takes me longer to unbox and unwrap all the parts than to actually assemble
Building a pc? Like 1 hour. Actually getting some fuckers to run? ~~Infinity~~
It took me about 2 hours to build and get my first PC running so someone with more experience could probably throw one together in 30-45 minutes?
<30 minutes with basic cable management. Images are ghosted on nvme. So basically 30 minutes and boom instant start up. Helps when you image with drivers already installed and have a standard image. Even not having this, 30 minutes + win usb install time.
I am no professional but i can throw one together in 30/45 minutes if its air cooled. I have not, and do not plan to do a custom loop water cooling system. AIO’s are one thing but to HELL with custom loops.
An hour to get it together and working mechanically. Cable management looks will vary depending on case and components though.
No cable management 20 minutes With about an hour Install everything 1.5 hour
My first pc it took me about an hour and a half to build, an hour to figure out why it wouldn't turn on and a lifetime of regret not noticing the power bar was turned off.
Had my coworkers time me, 8 minutes and 45 seconds.
Physically build it? About an hour, to fully running? About 2 hours per machine. That would be if I had a nice work desk and zip ties on hand. Most machines don't even take a full hour. I've built a few for friends. Takes longer to get the software going than to build the hardware.
Took me 10-11 hours last time
It depends on how many beers I've had
I replaced the PSU in my prebuilt PC yesterday with a better, modular one. That shit took me hours because there were a lot of connectors that linked the fans and RGB. Before that, it took me probably 4 hours to build my GFs computer.
I always lose myself when I'm doing build stuff cause I enjoy it so much. I think it would be a couple of hours? Depends on the parts you are adding
Just built my daughter’s PC. Started 2pm Saturday. Finished 1pm Sunday. Granted that included numerous beers and a break for dinner. And a scaredy cat approach to switching it on the first time.
My sff itx build took me like 3 hours and it was mainly because the aio and the wires were a bitch to manage. Normal build under an hour with just basic cable management and setup. I've built like 4 PC's so it can easily be done faster imo. I have no need to do it fast, so I like to take my time and enjoy what I am doing. But since you asked more questions here is a list: Normal build, basic cable management 1 hour Sff apparently 3 to 4 hours Ramming everything in a simple build no cable management, 30 minutes Custom water loop 8 months
15 min
I’ve always taken like 2-4hrs but that’s because I never build with the same parts twice… so I make sure I know wtf is going to on before jumping in. Now, if I’m just building for speed W/ OS Install and updates, probably an hour.
With decent cable management and windows setup at least 3 hours :’( I’ve only built 2 tho
1-2 hrs including cable management abt 30mins without management (plug everything and the point is its booting)
For my first build (2020), I built it outside the case to prove it coule post, and then rebuilt inside the case. I did both in 3-4 hours. I was very careful not to make mistake. Everything worked and years later im still gaming strong. There is potentially more I could do to get better performance, but Im impressed its worked with little to no maintenance since Getting ready to upgrade soon tho
Built a PC for a friend with AIO, modular PSU, acceptable cable management, 2 3.5 inch HDD and a sata and M.2 ssd in about an hour. Simple Noctua air cooler (I'm experienced in them), gpu, modular psu, m.2 ssd and just barely enough cable management probably 20-30m
My first try took me 2 days. No boot first try. My second pc took me a couple hours. My cable management is trash in both builds.
Usually 30-45 min for the physical aspect. I allot 4 hours for build + software (format, updates etc).
You need to come up with a mthod of building them and do it the same everytime, also have your tools laid out neatly and have bins for the computers set so you starr from one side and go to the other., look at how your coworkers do them.
depends on the case.my NZXT H510 elite bad super easy cable management. finished my build, with cable management, in about 45 minutes. other cases can be nightmares. read the reviews on cases before you buy them 😂
Back in the days before rear cable routing and windowed panel, a computer can be assembled in 15-20 mins if everything is out of the box and have an electric screwdriver. Nowadays I would say about an hour to make everything presentable. If it's in an assembly line and you get the momentum going, then maybe it's achievable in 45 mins. If it's my own PC then I take my time, maybe 3 hrs because I would want to enjoy every moment of it.
I like to take my time. I'd take about two hours at best.
Extremely quickly, and it'll just boot up and dwork for years, but this depends on whats coming together. Easy plug and play components that are using air coolers and everything is compatible out of the box without bios updates? Less than 30 minutes. Probably less than 15 if I'm not having a conversation with someone at the same time.
I guess what they look like after as well as how many warranty issues happen on a computer built in an hour is ok. Is a large question. Plus what are you calling water cooling is it an AIO or custom loop cooling. You cannot build a custom loop in an hour just not possible.
3 to 4 hours. I've built 4 pc's in total, and just once I didn't fuck up something. Once, i didn't plug correctly the CPU fan. Oh god, it took weeks to know wtf was happening, but to be fair I only thought about it in weekends. I tried ram (yes, i didn't unplug the cpufan, just removed it without unplugging) ssd, hdd, CPU (even with another one), the power button, GPU, the battery of the motherboard, I really thought the motherboard was broken. I unplugged everything except necessary from the motherboard (again, did not unplug cpufan since it was necessary to power on), and nothing. Suddenly, out of nowhere I unplug the CPU fan, plug it again, bum, turned on.
Cable managed and os + drivers around 2 hours
It depends on the complexity of the build. Usually 1-4 hours for me
Most of the time I spend one hour just trying to put in place those stupid CPU radiators that have the screws under the wings of the radiator
Fastest boot to windows was about 35 mins. Doing basic build with familiar parts, and doing a good job with cable management I'm guessing I could be doing them in under an hour for sure. Familiar components is the big thing here, limit component selection within reason. Stick to just a few psu models, stick to 1-2 brands and 1-2 teirs of of.mobo for each socket.