Ultimate Christmas PC Build Battle - Tech Showdown Ep1
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
4,000 words · ~20 min read
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so this is something new it's called Tech Showdown and if you don't like it
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TS get it thank you for that so the
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challenge is simple two contestants build computers around a particular
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theme with some help from Cooler Master the sponsors providing the master case
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Pro as well as some other stuff Intel gskill and ASUS also provided some of
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the hardware and the judges determined who has best captured the theme of the
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episode which this time is Christmas yes just in time for well not the
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holiday but the CHR well the Christmas holiday all right let's get
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going oh I'm building my computer here so I don't need to go
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anywhere I hear this guy opening boxes but uh I actually have other
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plans okay yep just working over
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here what the [ __ ]
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hold
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on this is my actual
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plan I can reveal it to the camera but Luke can't know the Brilliance of my
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plan this will be the
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happiest computer that ever exist existed have to be very careful with
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this thing cuz it does stuff that I really don't want him to know it does so
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that's going to stay there and I need these
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guys okay so this my friends is the key the
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secret
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ingredient yes that is over 3 lb of
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glitter 3 lb 3 lb of
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glitter okay garbage
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can tidiness is
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key I didn't know it did that okay well that's fine so like any
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Master fle constructed build it starts with the
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motherboard and I do have some very
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interesting plans for the motherboard we really don't have a lot
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of time for some of the stuff that I have planned actually so this module I don't really
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think I'm actually going to be able to use this will all be used as snow so all
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can go right in there or wherever else I do decide to place it so basically I'm
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just harvesting these things I guess I
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guess this doesn't need to be a super secret anymore so let's see
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yes I don't even know if that sound can end up in the video probably not it's
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Tech Showdown not make the most obnoxious computer
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Showdown this is going to be like you know that that thing that goes on a
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front of a ship a lot of times it's like a lady or a horse or whatever this will
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be my version of that so it's going to go right up here I'll see if I can show
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you guys I don't know how I'm exactly going to fix it there yet but it's going
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to go right there I think that looks classy as hell so we'll figure that out
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later uh maybe a little bit more classy than three l pounds of glitter but I
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don't know we'll see glitter is as classy as it
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gets I am really not sure how quickly
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I'm going to be able to put all this together okay what this looks like a
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prime candidate for some gussying up if you know what I mean bright orange paint
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bright green paint everything we do is primer or fluorescent orange pink yellow
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or green yeah what did I
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do well I'm kind of at a
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stop good I I have no idea where the screws
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from my case are I'm going to waste my whole 3 hours just trying to find these
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screws did I even do anything with them the threads for the spare screws that I
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had do not match I have literally no
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idea at all where the screws for my case are so
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I don't really know what to do really going to help
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me so I just found the accessories box for another case it's supposed to be
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rail mounted in here because it has rail
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mount things on here it did not come with
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mine so I'm still trying to find motherboard standoffs and stuff and
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can't even start
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see it's supposed to be in the drive rail right
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here the key to any successful paint job
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is masking so this will be our experiment
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this is where we're going to find out if this is going to work at all go around
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that side uh sure just avert your eyes oh
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man how does this work okay so it goes
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on kind of a little something like that sure I guess you just kind of go
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ham I'm getting it on my hands that's hopefully fine immediately sprinkle on
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the decorations and allow it to dry oh what the
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crap it's closed oh
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no okay I'm sure all the uh crafty people
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in our audience are telling me how much better I could be doing this right
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now okay I think I'm getting the hang of this this you just you put the thing on
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and then you put the okay there we go I'm liking
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that oh I did it the wrong color now we're doing these guys this is
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why I want to put the power supply in because we have special cables from
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cable mod and these oh they do look
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awesome check this out yes those are
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great
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hey we are in business
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here so I'm trying to tape his hat to that
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cable hoping that uh I can make him actually stay there
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that's more like it we're focusing our Sparkle power and
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the last thing I want is for any of this to not look
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tasteful yep I think we've got our technique
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down cable management is crap but they
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shouldn't be able to see this so I don't really care I'm a little bit worried cuz
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I think mine is going to come out more refined looking and his is
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going to come out more balls to the wall looking and I think that really might
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come down to what the judges decide and that scares me so this one we're going
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for the red it is very very fortunate
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that I'm a genius and thought to set up
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this uh canopy here because my project
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relies very heavily on the tasteful
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application of glitter if anyone's ever poking around behind the warehouse
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they're going to wonder why all the Rocks Sparkle all right so we're going
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right away right away with the red with the tasteful red I should put this on my
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Plenty of Fish profile I know my way around a glitter bottle wait why do you
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have a Plenty of Fish profile don't worry about it I had to meet my wife
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somehow so why were you thinking of updating well you never know I might
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need to meet a new wife somehow no way to do tasteful glitter my
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ass how does that look I'm thinking
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about putting maybe the one that's on the left here and the one that's on the
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right here as left and right along these side columns I think that could look
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pretty cool so I'm going to got to do
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that so Brandon pointed out that of
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course there is a grid on the back of
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the wrapping paper so just like the bomb
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when I had to draw or cut something out I have no idea what I'm doing those
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edges are way more straight now which is
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good it's much more clean is it seriously too short it's too
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short what a waste of time
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okay this is starting to come along it's
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still not perfect for sure but it is starting to come along I need to fold
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this thing over and then cut it the ne side will go a lot faster than this
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because now I kind of get how to do
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it if this seems like a very
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weird oh man I might have to ditch the
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this idea I don't think it's going to work
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again I think I'm just going to move on the front is fine it's not great but
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it's fine so I'm going to move on to something else just to make sure that I
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can get everything done so if glitter were to get into the slots on the
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motherboard which it won't because I'm a professional that would potentially be
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an issue yes this is the professional way to remove the excess glitter from
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your hands now I have a shiny butt so I'm going to do my patented work on a
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motherboard from the underside with a counterweight technique this time I will
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not be using Titan X's as my counterweight I think that would be
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allowed if you want to go get them I have taken enough Flack for using
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Titan X's as counterweights in my
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time wow look at that if you're not
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having the experience of how awesome that is maybe you need it from my angle
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oh you're getting fli everywhere uh we all knew that was going to happen I
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thought you said it was supposed to be precise it's very precise calm down it's
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very precisely every very precisely everywhere I intend it to be oh where
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did that screw go okay so I just
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realized we've used a third of our time
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already I might do a full thing across the whole panel what if we just give it
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a wreath
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now looks like that um I'm getting
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rather close actually to this being
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ready to go ahuh I think that's all right that
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worked better than I thought it would okay nice I think I like that more than
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the other one actually don't have a plan for the pipe cleaners I was just walking
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through the store and I kind of saw them and I was like oh wow those are amazing
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I must have them if I could get sort of a candy cane effect I think that would
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be quite tasteful so I have an idea for
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how I would do that I'm really not sure if it's going to work
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though wait I had not considered how to mask off okay hold on hold on just just
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wait just wait okay okay hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on everyone
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just wait just wait okay actually freaking out a little bit right now what
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am I what am I going to use for this I just need something to I need something
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to cover that side while I'm spraying a
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divider so wish me luck oh oh I oh I
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contaminated my oh crap I'm supposed to
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do the oh I'm supposed to do the silver over here this may yet
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work holy CRA it's no guarantees but this may yet work
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oh my goodness this is the stupidest thing I've
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done it's actually not bad
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now it's beginning to look a lot like he
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doesn't know what he's doing but he's going to fake it all the
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way I don't think there's any getting around this I think the whole thing has
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to come apart so I better move
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fast yeah making green for the body red
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for the back plate silver horses or Christmasy he's trying
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to distract me but I'm not going to let him do it unlike some people I have an
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awesome build to complete yeah exactly pretty awesome
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that's not what I said I didn't need a qualifier with
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mine so I secured it the back and the
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front now I'm just trying to like hide the method that I use for securing it
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because it looks really
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ghetto man these are going to
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shine oh no okay oh oh super
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balls come
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on okay that is not a good
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approach a spectacular trying to get some of the
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glitter off my damn hands Ah that's cold man that's cold okay that's cold I feel
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like if I can finish I have a shot at
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this
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okay so we're going to go green around the borders and red for the spinning fan
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in the middle silver this this is kind of the centerpiece of the build and
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Silver's is kind of the you know the tertiary Christmas color so to get right
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around The Fan Hub there that's
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important actually oh that looks great kind of the snowy like not quite covered
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effect on the top I'm liking
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that so this is a glitter spray instant
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Sparkle finish quick drying flower safe that is H wow that is that
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is a very subtle glitter
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effect
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okay yeah
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well see I'm going Fran Al as well but I
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actually cared about the Aesthetics of
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mine might allow them to appreciate it a little bit
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better you're just so boring this whole
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side's just black hey we're walking this way no
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we're not that door is blocked that's how you he's he's not allowed to look
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now that he moved right close your eyes yeah go go go go you got to look over I
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got I didn't see nothing I didn't see
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nothing oh my God this is so shiny look
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at this I like the Snoopy you look is
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that Snoopy that I I can't tell if
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that's actually Snoopy or just a knockoff I like this one okay is is it
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possible for the fan to even work with all the that's my question how how well
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is that kind of ooh how well is that stuff
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is that a snoop not it's not this glitter is the herpes of the craft world
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it's going to be all over the place red and green is that some sparkle on the
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top are we judging oh it is oh I hope
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they appreciate the attention to detail of doing component of my of my graphics
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card the striping on the oh my God this needs to shut up the striping on the
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graphics card is insane uh you mean the power supply yeah sorry s yeah so that
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candy cane effect took way too like there's a few things I did that took way
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too long thing that pull this way but it would
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they would still the parts would still I'm assuming these systems actually work
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yeah but snoop's pretty cool oh look they both used so they both used cable
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mod for uh red and green yeah I really like that that's a nice touch on both
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they both they probably both did that independently you know I mean I really I
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got to say I like this one a lot better because this one I mean they both used a
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cable mod this one is just glitter it is all glitter all the time even the power
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supply is glittery you know
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not all that Glitter gold say smash M
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okay so three would it be so wrong for me to plug this in and turn it on and
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get glitter all over the place no it would not be be visually interesting you
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know what we should use that as part of our judgment this RAM and stuff going to
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get so hot and like melt okay I'm going to go find I that's an interesting point
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that's a pretty interesting point keep going on
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Burl I thought this was going to go the other way I thought John was going to go
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for mine and Burl was going to go for yours Well mine's also not as tacky as
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you assumed it would be that's true that's very true if I had done the
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entire outside I really want oh I really wanted to do the outside I don't even
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know if they've noticed the subtle like glitter frosting that's on my fan girls
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fire up okay yall ready for
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this oh my god oh
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no bring the camera he is going
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everywhere I I is this going to destroy the hardware it should be okay I should
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Hope Oh there's even glitter on the fans on this GPU oh my God this is oh they
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stopped spinning that's fine they stopped spinning not they're not
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supposed to be spin is that one spinning good see thank goodness John's there
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he's like oh they're not supposed to be spinning everywhere oh that's Fancy
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Fancy Fancy glitter means good hey burk's coming around to me yeah
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that fan looks ridiculous wow it does yeah like you're
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the chip is it possible to outter
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glitter I did each component of the motherboard separately that's why the
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motherboard took so long too yeah yeah well it does seem to work okay it does
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seem to work it's more that it just makes a mess which so practical I wonder
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if someone checked if it was exhausting glitter out of the back probably okay uh
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what what do we like about the glitter One graphics card
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dang graphics card D I like the nice
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justos of different
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colors I like the justos of the different colors layer like where the io
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panel is is silver and then it's the same thing on GP you have righted here green here and silver on the fans you
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know what I think this is luses because what what like guy in his 20s who
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doesn't have a wife or kids knows how to use glitter properly I think this is a
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Luke you think so I think this is a line well I mean is this is this properly
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like I don't know that looks pretty properly
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catastrophically there's noots that are skipped it well it's more that the whole
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effect strikes me as a little bit messy you know yes yes but they supposed to be
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coming up with things they like right now I think the execution on applying
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the glitter itself could have been better I would not have put it on the fans that's what I don't like they
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should not be on the fans I like more I want more glitter okay okay the negative
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from tan is glitter all over the place what your negative glitter was all over
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the place till he turned it on uh the outside lack of oh yeah it's like the
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outside was outside yeah yeah okay what do we like about it okay yeah ter um the
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glitter I like the glitter I just don't like that it's going to get all over the
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place I would have gone way toned down and I would have actually done a lot
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more you're turning this into what you don't like what do you like about
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it I don't know it's kind of funny cuz
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even though like I said the overall effects a little bit messy there's clearly there's clearly some time and
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thought that went into this with how whoever this is we think L this is but
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whoever this is put the colors together so I do like that thanks John this one
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item number two what do we like about it
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um I I mean I don't know I I I like that
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it's more of a more of this doesn't sound great so far uh it's pretty tacky
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but at the same time it's Christmas with a little tackiness yeah I like the
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tackiness I like the snow yeah I like
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that it might light on fire if it has to ex
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sometimes you got to take actually fire hazard does seem more likely with this
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one fire hazard is more fitting with Christmas cuz how many houses go up from
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you have that cotton right next to the power supply I ran it like the whole
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time what the hell wooden dry but the power supply fan
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is facing down it goes out here it still makes me nervous it makes me a little
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nervous too but it's not as bad as it could be imagine if they put the cotton up here that would be a lot worse I
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think okay maybe there's some thought into it well for me it's the to detail
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here you look at this case compared to the first one almost every part of the
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case and of the build ties into the theme somehow you have wrapping on both
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sides this is very well because to put
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this side as the one you're going to look at you have green here you have
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green here it's a very nice effect even inside the case you look at the choices
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of components even beyond the obviously Christmasy stuff you have like red heat
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spreaders on the RAM it goes with the rest of it that's really interesting
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just figured it out Taran figured it out he's like they both have the same compon
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I'm I'm thinking my negative would be there's like three different Hues of
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green on here you know they could have put a little more detail into that but
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then again that is kind of tacky and that does make it kind of fun uh would
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have like to see a little more glitter oh you just got points deducted
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for not enough glitter
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what wow that is ridiculous that is
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fantastic litter isn't even a Christmasy thing oh it when it's red green and
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silver it is I mean the colors were right but like here here's a Christmas
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bow yeah that doesn't yeah glitter oh
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fine okay well is it time for us to reveal our glitter build glitter build
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score reveal time now all right okay so
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on the count of three we reveal our cards okay 1 2
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3 okay there's that we have six five and was a
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little so 19 out of 30 for the glitter build okay okay and now the next
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one present
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build show
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them
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so the Luke's was the present
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one all right yes Yes mine was the present build glitter build is me so the
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present build by two points is guess we guessed the glitter was you yeah I heard
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Burl say I don't know what guy in his 20s who know how to use glitter I was
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like oh man all right just saying I don't I learned a lot as I I still chose
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the glitter as the winner I like that Glitter so let us know guys in the
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comments below do you want to see more Tech showdowns want to suggest some
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themes perhaps drop a like on this video if you thought mine was the best it's
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funny cuz a lot of people won't watch to this point and they'll just like it cuz they liked it oh rude uh and as always
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don't forget to subscribe to L Tech tips for more reviews Tech showdowns crap
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yard Wars all the other great stuff that we do yeah see you next time