The Death of ‘Hawkins Lab’

And the problem with modern software

Cue nerdy ramble…

As some of you may have seen in my brief Instagram story, my precious custom-built gaming setup—affectionately named Hawkins Lab—has been decommissioned. I had it for barely over a year. I loved that computer and really enjoyed the process of building it, but at the same time, I’m happy to see it go.

The first custom-built PC I ever made was probably around 15 years ago. Technology was a lot different back then. I Frankensteined a machine together using spare parts from old computers my dad had stored in a room, and I bought a new case. At that time, if you wanted a water-cooled system, the water-cooling unit was external to the PC case. The case I had purchased supported this, but I was hesitant—water and computers didn’t sound like a good mix. But I got it all working, and it ran beautifully for several years. I rarely had to update anything, aside from the occasional graphics driver. It never gave me any problems.

Eventually, that setup became obsolete. I didn’t want to lug it around anymore, especially after moving to a new apartment. So, I disassembled it and stuck with my laptop. And I’ve stuck to laptops ever since. (I’m a sucker for ASUS).

Last spring, after receiving a big bonus from my previous day job with MBition, I decided to build a new gaming computer. It was time.

My current laptop is great, but it can’t handle all of my games, and part of me really missed World of Warcraft. I wanted to try and get back into that game, but my laptop simply couldn’t handle it. I constantly had to uninstall and reinstall games as it was just to be able to fit the game I wanted to play that day in the system. This was a pain. So I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try another custom build.

The problem is that technology has changed drastically in the past 13 to 15 years. In some ways, this was great; in others, not so much. I decided to build a hardline water-cooled system—this time, the water cooling was internal. It had all the RGB lights. It was flashy and powerful, and it became my pride and joy for about six months.

Then, last October, Nvidia released a new graphics driver, and everything went downhill.

I’d always been loyal to Nvidia and Intel. They had served me well in the past, so I saw no reason to switch. However, my laptop runs on AMD, and I’ve now seen firsthand just how solid AMD is for both graphics and processing in comparison to Nvidia and Intel.

With Hawkins Lab, that Nvidia driver update triggered constant screen errors, blackouts, and game crashes. I wasn’t alone—people on Nvidia forums were having the same problems. But with a custom build, it’s hard to pinpoint the issue because there are so many variables. I tried everything. I’ll list most of my ‘fix-it’ tasks here, but it’s not all. To put it simply, I exhausted every troubleshooting avenue.

Some of the things I tried (skip this if you aren’t into computer jargon)

Blog resumes here for the non-nerdy who still care, but a warning: there is still some tech jargon…

It was exhausting. I lost weeks of productivity, not to mention peace of mind and a bit of money, trying to fix it. And it wasn’t just Nvidia. Intel’s 13th-gen processors had a known issue with ASUS motherboards—specifically, voltage regulation problems. The motherboards weren’t limiting voltage correctly, and over time, this fried the CPU and my RAM.

Intel eventually issued a recall and extended warranties, and thankfully, I had purchased extra warranties through Amazon. I was able to return the processor, motherboard, and damaged RAM (even though it previously tested okay), and opted to switch to an AMD processor and motherboard to avoid further issues.

With the new AMD setup, I didn’t want to redo the entire hardline water loop. Bending those tubes by hand was a pain, and doing it again wasn’t appealing. The size difference between the new AMD motherboard and CPU vs. the old ASUS/Intel combo meant the pipes didn’t align perfectly, but they were close enough.

Still, the Nvidia issues persisted. Driver updates came monthly—sometimes improving things, sometimes making them worse. Eventually, everything pointed to the graphics card itself.

Some people asked, “Why not just replace the graphics card?” Well, I’d already installed a custom water block, meaning I had disassembled the card and voided the warranty. Replacing it would’ve meant redoing the hardline loop—again. That meant draining and refilling the coolant, which also isn’t cheap. Despite having spent about €2,700 on the system—including parts, cables, and warranties—I kept going with it for a while. But it became too much.

Beyond the hardware issues, the BIOS on the motherboard needed updating multiple times a year. It became a constant guessing game: Is it the BIOS? The GPU? What needs to be updated or rolled back this time? Have I mentioned how exhausting this was? Oh, and the RGB lighting? That was controlled by two separate programs—Corsair iCUE and ASUS Armoury Crate—which don’t play nicely together. Sometimes they even interfered with games.

A few weeks ago, when the PC refused to POST (Power-On Self Test) and just gave me a black screen, I was done.

I’d wasted too much time troubleshooting, and most of the issues were out of my control. There were too many moving parts, and getting them to work in harmony was a nightmare. I realized I’d lost so much time—time I could have spent writing, recording audiobooks, or even just relaxing. The decision to finally let go of Hawkins Lab came quickly, but it had been building for some time.

Back to the Minimalist Mindset

When I lived in the U.S., I embraced minimalism starting around 2015 or 2016. Just before I moved to Germany, I became an extreme minimalist—I had to get rid of almost everything anyway. And I loved that freedom. It made moving across the world less stressful. Minimalism gave me peace of mind, helped me get out of debt, and taught me to value space and simplicity. It also helped reshape my relationship with money, especially after growing up around poor financial habits.

After moving to Germany, minimalism faded from my life. I had to explore new skincare and haircare products, and my closet expanded to accommodate all four seasons. Germans spend a lot of time outdoors year-round, and without A/C, I needed a real seasonal wardrobe. My custom PC was another way minimalism slipped away. And honestly, I missed the simplicity.

When I thought about clutter in my office, the first thing that always came to mind was Hawkins Lab. It was stressful, not just because it took up space, but also because of how much I worried about it when considering future moves. I’d have to drain the coolant, pack it carefully, and hope nothing broke.

It became a source of anxiety.

Even when I rearranged my office, I hated how much desk space it took. I didn’t want to put it on the floor either, since it wouldn’t have proper airflow. And then there were all the spare parts, cables, “just in case” adapters, and boxes I’d saved in case I needed to return something. Our storage chamber was full of empty boxes.

So, the decision became clear: Hawkins Lab had to go.

I contacted Amazon, told them the machine wasn’t working, and thanks to the warranties I had on almost every component, I was able to return it all. Because I still had the boxes and manuals, packing and shipping them back was surprisingly easy. I walked to the post office and returned everything, one item at a time. In the end, I got over €2,000 back.

Sure, I couldn’t return every tiny cable or spare part, but getting that much back was huge. I can now use the money for marketing or writing—or, if I really want, I could get a high-powered laptop with double the hard drive and RAM for under €500. No more worrying about compatibility issues, conflicting drivers, or draining water loops.

So now, I’m happy to say there are no more computer boxes in our storage, no more spare parts cluttering the cabinets, and no bulky tower on my desk.

All of my writing was backed up—on USBs, hard drives, and multiple cloud servers. I’ve heard too many horror stories to risk losing everything. Sure, sometimes I forget where the latest version of a file is, but at least I know it’s saved somewhere, whether in my email, on a cloud service, or on an external drive.

And that’s the story of the death of Hawkins Lab—my beloved second custom build. I won’t be returning to that life anytime soon.

Thank you for reading.
-Eliza

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