Nvidia joins hordes of hobbyists at Maker Faire

Nvidia joined the masses of do-it-yourselfers and creative types at Maker Faire 2013 on May 18 and 19.

Nestled next to Asus and Autodesk in the "Make: Electronics" section of the San Mateo Expo Hall, Nvidia engineers gave tech enthusiasts a taste of the PC modding world at the eighth annual Maker Faire in San Mateo, Calif.

Along with handing out free lime-green collapsible water bottles to draw the crowd, GeForce displays like a PC equipped with three NVIDIA GTX Titan graphics cards were on hand to attract a steady stream of visitors.

Throughout the day, a sign up list was made available for workshops called Building Your Own PC, Optimizing Your System and Customizing Your PC: Case-Modding 101.

Nvidia teaching one steampunk at a time

A lead Nvidia engineer gave hurried instructions while various other engineers assisted participants in installing CPUs, memory sticks, graphics cards and other parts into their PC cases during the Building Your Own PC workshop.

Other Nvidia team members stood on the perimeter of the booth mingling with the crowd and answering questions.

A session on PC Troubleshooting & Tips and a Case Modder Q & A rounded out the event covering topics like accessing and using BIOS, and PC maintenance.

Newfound knowledge aside, participants also received a customized toolkit and were entered to win an Nvidia GeForce-powered PC.

Also attracting fan boys was Brian Carter, owner of custom PC case shop Bods Mods. In a corner of the Nvidia booth, Carter hand assembled a Maker robot-shaped PC case while fielding questions from passersby.

Is building your own PC hard?

"We want to show people that building your own GeForce gaming PC is fun and cost efficient," said GeForce Social Media Content Specialist Jeff Wycoff.

"Through our workshops, we hope that everyone, from beginner adult modders to potential kid modders, can see that it's actually really simple to put together your own PC."

The engineers definitely made it look easy, as well as fun - with a quick snap here and a turn of a screwdriver there, people were creating their own PCs in the middle of the Maker Faire like it was nothing.

Couldn't make it to the Faire? Nvidia has provided an online list of instructions from their workshops here so you can carry on the spirit of DIY.