Kris Butterill gives us his personal take on how to get star ted PC modding.

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PC MODDING IS at the absolute top of our custom computing hobby. It sits among the giants that make this community so great and continues to push through advancements and product tweaks into the industry itself. Vertical GPU mounts? Modders did that first. ITX liquid-cooled cases? Modders did it. Liquid-cooling in General? Modders did it (with household plumbing parts, would you believe?).

But there’s more to it than that. It’s an intricate art form, a way of showing off your personality and building something unique to you. The hardware might be obsolete in a few years from now, but ask any of those modders what build they’re most proud of, and it’ll bring back a flood of memories from yesteryear, now outdated by the superior chips of today.

For the extreme enthusiast, a PC is akin to a custom car. Unique, special, filled with memories of good times and more. Since its conception, the modding scene has grown into a behemoth compared to what it once was, filled with competitions and extreme professionals, and all sorts of amateur enthusiasts. It pits the best ideas against one another, with a ton of free hardware on the side, sponsorship, travel, and more.

So then, you want to start modding, going to events, showing off your latest builds on global social media channels, and work with the best hardware manufacturers in the world? Well, so did I back in 2019, and I didn’t have a clue where to start.

My interest in building computers was with me way before I even thought about pursuing it in a more formal fashion. I mean, there’s no training course you can enroll in and no books to guide you. It’s been a different journey for every single person who has ever become a relatively well-known modder. It takes a lot of hard work and, at some point, luck may step in and help you along the way as well.

Today though, let’s start with the basics, go over how to get started and hopefully, by the end of reading this, you might have a clearer idea of how you can get involved in the modding scene too.

GETTING TO KNOW YOURSELF

My life is average; I’m married and have two children, a mortgage, and all the responsibilities that come with everyday life. There are bills to pay every month, activities and days out to go on with the family, and the small matter of working 48 hours a week. I’ve always been handy, capable, inquisitive and functional, in terms of having a hands-on approach to learning. It’s how I do things, take something apart, put it back together, rinse and repeat. It’s why I started out as a mechanic for Volvo, moving on to Audi, and Buick before following in the family footsteps and joining the Fire Service at 23.

What I am getting at here is there’s already a lot of commitment in life, commitments that come first, before even starting to look at taking on a modding career. The first thing you need to know is that modding takes three things; time, commitment, and perseverance.

Once you are prepared to give all those three things in equal measure, it’s time to have a chat with yourself and be honest. Are you competent in building a standard DIY PC? I’m talking about simply fitting components to a case, adding an AIO and the mother of all tasks, the number one, and most asked question I ever see, where do these wires go? It’s fine wanting to become a modder, and we all have to start somewhere, but if at this first step you are unsure, this is where you need to start reading, following tutorials, and getting hands-on, even with the most basic projects to learn the trade.

It’s all about building from a foundation, being comfortable and competent. At this stage, some might even find that it’s more involved than they first expected, the time commitment can’t be met, and so on. It’s better to know now that it’s not for you, rather than six months down the line when you could potentially have invested both precious time and finances into the field. If this isn’t for you, then that’s fine, but if the above doesn’t faze you then read on.