Building Loy's PC

Today's main highlight was me going out with Loy to Gilmore so we could build his PC. I woke up relatively early, at my usual wake-up time and I mostly chilled for the morning. Loy told me that he would eventually arrive at my house around noon and I got ready by 10 a.m. I just passed the time by waiting and scrolling through IG Reels. Then 12 p.m. came, then 1 p.m. came, which was off. I didn't expect him to arrive late and he didn't really give me an update. Frustrated, I didn't want to waste this day when I still had a medical examination pending. I decided to get my drug test done so that my pre-employment medical exams were complete. I booked a ride to Ayala North Exchange and got there eventually.

Loy eventually messages me and says that he'll get to my house at 3 p.m. or so, which is weird. I told him that I'd get my medical exam done first at Ayala North Exchange and he could pick me up from there instead. He agreed and I eventually got my medical exam done, which was honestly a frictionless process. One staff member went up to me to ask for my ID and I had to pull out my Cinnamoroll wallet to give her my ID. She chuckled when I pulled my wallet out and saw Cinnamoroll, and she said that it was cute. I felt happy from that and I eventually got my medical exam done. Just as I was completing it, Loy rang my phone over and over again while I was in the final stages and it was a bit embarrassing. I was able to complete my medical exam and then head downstairs to meet up with Loy. I got in the car and we drove to Gilmore.

While on the way there, we talked about a few things, but he mostly talked about his relationship experience and the stories between him and his girlfriend. I just listen attentively and share snippets of the lessons I've learned from my past relationships. I liked looking at the road while on the way there, though, so it was nice to just talk and see so many things pass by. We eventually arrive at Gilmore and I tell him to park at Robinsons Manila because that's where Jaze and I parked back in 2021. We got off and we headed straight to PCHub to get the parts.

When we got to PCHub, it was exactly in the same state as it was when we last visited 6 years ago. We ordered the list of parts that we wanted and, in the end, the total was actually lower than what Loy had budgeted for. So we decided to upgrade a few things, mainly the NVMe SSD that he has from 1TB to 2TB and his RAM from 16GB to 32GB, and the rest was good. He withdrew money from an ATM nearby and it actually couldn't dispense more money for him, so Loy went back and asked me to follow him in withdrawing more money. But after that, we went back and the guy said that our order was "for releasing" which would take 30 minutes. Loy and I thought about whether or not we would stay here and wait for the items or we would go back to Robinsons Magnolia to eat first. Since we had nothing to do and we didn't want the hassle of going back and forth from Robinsons Magnolia, we just stayed at PCHub to wait for the order to be released.

And was it a goddamn long wait. We waited for more than 30 minutes and they sure took their time. We passed by just standing and talking amongst ourselves, but eventually, the PC parts were shipped out. It was actually annoying because the old guy prioritized the guy that came after us and he did a whole suite of bootup tests. Meanwhile, our PC parts were just sitting and they didn't have any testing. It frustrated us but we just went with it and I carried the PC parts back to Robinson's Magnolia where we ate for a bit.

We couldn't decide on what to get so I chose for us and decided on Bonchon. Loy also got some dumplings from a store nearby and he remarked that the old guy looked like a stereotypical old guy who would sell dumplings, which made me laugh a bit. Loy then carried the PC parts as we went back to his car and we got lost in the parking space for a bit. It looked a bit eerie and liminal, but I couldn't take a picture because we had to go back to Loy's place to assemble it. We eventually found his car and we talked about random stuff on the way to his house.

When we got to his house, we brought all of the PC parts upstairs and I got started on building his PC from scratch.

It was fairly simple and straightforward, I had set up the CPU into the motherboard socket and then applied the cooler shortly afterward. It kind of surprised me that the cooler already had thermal paste pre-installed, to my surprise. I spent the next few hours trying to consult the motherboard documentation, wiring up everything, and making sure the connections were snug. I didn't need a video and I only read manuals sparingly because I already knew what I was doing. Loy offered some help by plugging in a few screws here and there and helping me hold the parts, but after that, he had to call his girlfriend and I had to take it from there.

Building the PC was actually grueling and I had apparently cut myself on the back of my finger somehow. I don't know how or why, but it was only a small cut. During building, I found out that I had instructed Loy to buy the wrong fan size for the case. I directed him to 140mm case fans when the case ideally supports 120mm case fans. I could only fit 2 fans at the top for exhaust, but the rest of the case fans were left unused. Loy also got fussy that we didn't have a fan hub so some fan cables were strewn behind the CPU cooler, which he didn't like.

The night went on for a lot longer because we didn't have an install USB for Windows 11. The other laptops in the house were unusable as Ate Mae's laptop was severely locked down and Dea didn't have a USB C to A adapter, so we were all out of options. I had to call my sister to have my USB drive delivered via Grab. And after that, we took a break.

Eventually, my USB drive was delivered and we were able to go upstairs to try the install. I realized that the USB drive contained Arch Linux, not Windows, and I just shook my head. But I just figured out a way to download the ISO and burn it to the drive. My night went on for longer because of this annoying and grueling process.