I've got a ton of free time, and basically just want to use it learning something useful from home, and computer building / tech in general are definitely major interests of mine. I did take one single college course on computer building a long time ago, as well as some programming classes, and while I believe I got A's in them, I'd be lying if I said I feel competent at any of it right now, especially years later.

So basically, I'm just curious how you tech savy folks managed to get where you are today in terms of your general knowledge on these subjects, if it was a matter of college classes, lurking forums, or was it just natural for you and you somehow absorbed everything you ever heard or saw about tech like some sort of prodigy? XD

If I wanted to "self teach" myself online, do you guys have any advice on ways to start, sites to look into, or even a rough "outline" of things I should try to learn first to build a foundation for the rest?

Anyway, if anyone has some advice on how I should go about learning all the things important concerning building PC's, I'd be grateful.

This post was edited by shinigami on Jul 27 2016 10:04am

1. Google topic
2. then read.
repeat step 1/2 indefinitely.

Fair enough, I completely expected this exact response lol. I guess I was hoping for an idea of what you guys did yourselves exactly, and how you kept your learning "structured" in a sense, since pure google searching can seem a bit aimless and random if you're starting from square one. Maybe you guys found specific sites particularly useful or something like that, but yeah, Google, read, repeat is absolutely expected and legit advice.

This post was edited by shinigami on Jul 27 2016 11:43am

Youtube videos on how stuff works.
Linustechtips
Jayztwocents

Both are good places to start learning new things.

My first computer was built from the trash.
I literally grabbed old pc's that people through out on the curb and keep tinkering till one worked.

After that it was just straight research on various topics and if I had the parts I kept putting it into practice.
IE: Raid Arrays, ftp servers, installing various os's, writing scripts and small projects with rasp pi's and so forth.

Did u find 2x 690s and 500gb intel pro ssd?

Found 1080s this time.

nah, was this in reference to that kid in computer build section a while back talking about how he found new tech in the bins.

this and paul's hardware is also a good one , i just finished my first built with my son and these 3 were very useful

Overclock.net
Pcworld
Techspot
Techpowerup
Anandtech

Beware of biased reviewers and sites