Operation: Knightwatch

So this post is merely more about a project I plan to finally bring into fruition. For those who know me, you'll know I classify myself as a gamer. And if you know me more than that, it's that I play most of my games on PC ever since I switched over back in high school, if not sooner than that. And if you know me even further than that, you'll know that at one point in my life I was decently successful on YouTube, making 4 digits, in which after YouTube had slowed down I explored a bit on Twitch. I would eventually get to Twitch Affiliate status, which I probably lost by now because I haven't streamed in a long time which is the one requirement to maintaining the status.

So naturally either recording "Let's Plays" or streaming gameplay takes a huge toll on the computer. Especially if you're already trying to run a graphic intense game. Most computers ready to use don't have enough power in their gpu (graphic processing unit) nor enough RAM (random access memory) to survive both tasks efficiently. So that leaves me with one option: build my own PC

Now this is an expensive project I am undertaking and I have 0 experience with building computers. It seems pretty straightforward and I've heard it's not that hard, just time consuming to put it together.

Introducing Operation: Knightwatch. This is the project title I've created. The computer, when finished, will be named Knightwatch. Knight because Batman, and watch because kinda like how the Green Arrow has Overwatch. Sure I could've tried to wordshop Oracle into it to make it 100% Batman themed, but I like the sound of Knightwatch. It's almost a play on words too because Batman is the watchful protector.... at night.

The parts list can be found here: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/DragonPupps/saved/yTwYgs

For those who don't want to click on the link and are still curious as to the parts list, here it is:

Intel Core i9-9900K 3.6Ghz 8 core processor

Corsair H100i RGB PLATINUM 75 CFM Liquid CPU cooler

ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-E GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard

Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory

Seagate Desktop HDD 4 TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive

Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive

MSI GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB GAMING X TRIO Video Card

Corsair Obsidian 500D SE ATX Mid Tower Case

Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold 

Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit

All in all, with current pricing as of writing this post, the build will cost me $2,322.50

So it's not exactly cheap. On the bright side, at least I have the monitors, cables for monitors, and my peripherals already, so it's just buying the computer parts and constructing the rig.

If I did my math correctly, taking home approximately $8.80/hr after an assumed 20% tax, it would take me 264 hours of work to get this build done. These hours would get me enough money to build the PC and theoretically be a no net gain nor loss in cash. Given the way my paycheck is, it would be 8 weeks worth of work since it's a 2 week paycheck. If I were to base the schedule off of this week's planned 36 hours of work, it would be a total of 288 work hours. So I should have enough to be net gain after all is said and done. I also have 54.5 hours in my first paycheck on Wednesday, assuming they counted all the hours for grand opening and all of last week.

The earliest I can get the cash is 6 weeks from now. The latest would be 8 weeks from now. Between April 8th and April 22nd.

It's going to be a long grind, but I intend to finally bring this dream project to life. I also have to clean off my desk and clean my room to have a place to put Knightwatch.

Oh random side note, I do realize that Knightwatch has a lot of RGB and that's not exactly stealthy for Batman, but it's whatever lol.

I don't know why I wrote a whole post about this. Maybe because I am excited for this and maybe I want to use this as a way to maybe help keep me on track to building it finally. I always have planned it, planned the hours I would work, but then never work those hours and always end up spending my money on other things, further delaying the build. Especially since I was in school and didn't work a job. But now that I'm only working and not doing as school, why not?

Expect update posts about this.

One strategy I had originally thought of was to buy some parts as I go, that way I feel like I have to finish the project since I bought some pieces. I don't know if I will do that, but it's an idea for sure.