Over the course of two days, we spent about four hours, just the two of us, working on her first PC build.

The CPU cooler was the lungs, and the GPU was the eyes. It made the most sense to my daughter for her to act as if she were doing surgery, referring to the various components as body parts. It didn’t take long after we started for me to realize the build was going to be a little different. And when we’d run into issues, I’d show her my usual PC build troubleshooting steps. My plan for this build was to guide my daughter through everything, explaining what each part or component was, and does, as we went. Here’s everything my daughter and I used:

Over the course of a week, mystery boxes showed up with different parts and components sent to me by AMD to complete the gaming PC build. So when AMD reached out to me a few weeks ago and asked if I’d be interested in building a gaming PC with my kids, I jumped at the chance.īut this time, my daughter would be by my side - connecting wires, installing components and doing everything else one does while putting a PC together. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I felt a tinge of guilt about leaving my daughter out of the building project.

At the end of the experience, once the PC booted to Windows, my oldest son remarked, “I started this project as a boy, and now I’m leaving as a man.” They both learned a lot about what makes a computer, well, a computer, and we got to spend some quality time with one another - something that’s becoming rare as they get older. We used NZXT’s BLD Kit that walked them through every step with a playful book. Last fall, I had the chance to build a gaming PC with my boys. They play a myriad of games daily, and when they’re not gaming, they’re watching streamers or YouTube videos to learn the latest “hacks.” My daughter has dabbled in video games, but she’d rather binge a random series on Netflix or Hulu. I’ve been fortunate enough to watch them grow up, and form their own interests and beliefs. I have three kids - two boys (10 and 12) and a daughter (14). Your CNN account Log in to your CNN accountīeing a parent is an experience I’ll never take for granted.

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