Asus put the spotlight on the PC building community last December with its first-ever Asus PC DIY Day, with the goal of creating a diverse and inclusive PC DIY community for builders of all backgrounds and experience levels, while celebrating all things PC-building with insightful panels, contests, giveaways, and more than a few livestreams. With an ongoing slate PC DIY-focused community events, Asus is highlighting the unique experiences of builders to show that anyone can get started with building their own PC: “Representation and awareness are key in welcoming newcomers to join into this diverse community of gaming, STEM and esports enthusiasts,” said Yen Hoang, Sr. Manager of Brand Marketing at Asus North America. “It’s our goal at Asus to create a safe space for builders, new and experienced, to learn, build and share their love for PC DIY.”
During the event, Deb from Andie the Lab led a great discussion with Twitch streamers ARUUU and NoisyButters for the Women Who Build Panel to share their own unique experiences as women within the PC DIY and greater PC gaming community. Together, they explored their influences in PC gaming and building, shared their past PC builds and those they plan to make in the future, and discussed their experience working with Asus.
The Women Who Build Panel made a point to highlight female voices in an industry in need of further diversity and representation - despite the fact that about 41% of US gamers are women, according to the ESA, only 22% of the gaming industry workforce is comprised of women. With PC DIY serving as a gateway for aspiring STEM and computer science students, the Women Who Build Panel provided both inspiration and insights into each builder’s path to becoming a tech enthusiast and streamer within the gaming space.
Tech and PC gaming content creator NoisyButters is no stranger to the PC building space. While her hobbies as a teen were focused in sports, she eventually found work as an IT service technician, so she knows her way around motherboards, graphics cards, and everything in between. And, when it comes to her start in content creation, she found her inspiration in Ashley "MiDNiTE" Glassel, a Call of Duty esports player and fellow creator. To NoisyButters, PC DIY is more than just a way to play the latest PC games, and during the Panel she explains how it’s “a form of pride too. I love to look at the PCs that I’ve built, and I’m like, man, I did that, I designed you!”
Deb, the producer, videographer and editor of the "Lab Tested" series with her dog Andie, has built up a reputation of trying to visually bring an automotive review to life with a focus on cinematography. More recently, in partnership with companies like Asus, EK Waterblocks and Corsair, Deb has turned her gaze towards tech, specifically PC building and sim racing in Assetto Corsa Competizione: "I was completely blown away by how much similarity some vehicles felt in-game and in real life."
Intrigued by what other correlations she might discover in tech and auto, Deb's first build was actually a fully custom water-looped Threadripper and dual Titan RTX build dating back about half a year ago. A fun fact about that build, there is a whopping 44TB of NVME storage in that build; although she admits that may have to change to avoid bottlenecks to PCI-E lane shares. Moreover, Deb likes to point out that, just like her video skills, all of her "build knowledge" was acquired through watching fellow YouTubers like Linus Tech Tips, Gamer Nexus and as she affectionately loves to allude to, the famous build video by The Verge. Since then, her latest build this past February marks her fourth custom build, which happened to also be a Team Red all AMD build with a red theme for 4K-ready gaming and sim racing, featuring an Asus ROG Strix X570-I mini-ITX motherboard, a ROG RYUJIN 360 liquid CPU cooler and the ROG Swift PG65UQ gaming monitor. She already has three more builds planned, and has even taken a sabbatical from real-life auto reviews to focus on builds and hardcore sim racing training.
For ARUUU, her interest in PC gaming and building developed over her time as a gamer and streamer, with her journey as a content creator starting as a way to connect with other gamers. Inspired by other female creators like NoisyButters, ARUUU has her eye on building a new PC rig to experience unique gaming features like ray tracing and shaders, discussing in the Panel how much she’s learned about PC DIY over the years and as a participant during Asus PC DIY Day: “...Having a gaming rig now is sort of unbelievable, and I realize now how much I’ve been missing out on. And I’ve learned how to hook up monitors and put them on stands, I’ve learned how to install a graphics card, things I never imagined I would be able to do or have.”
Tune in below to listen to Women Who Build and hear from some of the influential female voices in the PC building space. The Panel is just one of many ways Asus is highlighting female voices in the tech and gaming space in order to create a positive and inclusive PC DIY community for builders of all backgrounds and experience levels. This February, Asus PC DIY will be hosting new giveaways, videos from your favorite builders, and even more educational content to help you learn, connect and share new PC building knowledge and experiences with your loved ones. Asus PC DIY will also be hosting a special Rocket League live stream tournament on February 26 on the Asus Republic of Gamers Twitch channel (https://www.twitch.tv/Asusrog).
Check out the Asus PC DIY Hub for more details on upcoming Asus PC DIY giveaways, guides and content arriving this February (with much more to come!). And, to revisit the first-ever Asus PC DIY Day, you can also check out the recap of the entire PC DIY Day livestream on Twitch
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