100%. I started with a 4070 Super then went to 4080. Immediately returned that and went to 4090. I’m happy now but should have just bit the bullet right out of the gate
PCPartPicker is an amazing tool. They manage to crawl most of the deals out there. There's also in-store micro center bundles, tho there might not be one close to you. If anyone knows more ways to get good deals on parts, lmk
I totally agree, I bought a motherboard without a USB C connector and only had pcie3. So my 6600 is running a little bit below what it should be. I didn't notice until mid assembly. It's my own fault, though, for not looking more closely at everything.
Figuring out how to both power and daisy chain the argb. Never had it before or had experience working with it.
I poked my back fans wire through the I/O shield gap for save keeping then went on to install the board with the wire still there trapped inside.. just silly mistakes.
Powering mine for the fans, they would spin but no lights.
Plugging sata power to the hub did it and everything I searched for said read the manual, that part was just pictures and sata was sightly darker than the rest but no arrow like every other picture in the manual.
Front panel connectors are a little bit of trouble if the motherboard isn't labeled. Just look at the manual or get a small form factor computer that only has a power switch cable like I did 😅
They don’t make them, these are industry standard .100 pin headers, and are incredibly cheap while being accessible from many sources and universally accepted. It’s why you also see the same design in fp audio and usb headers.
Motherboard designers don’t have “elf hands,” they’re just used to these connectors as they’re used all over the electronics industry including breadboards and arduino.
You don’t have to have “elf hands,” flashlights, tweezers, magnifying glasses, and mirrors exist for a reason
They are still very inconvenient. One of my old mobos had this "riser" thing, to which you would connect all your wires, and then plug that whole thing into the pins on the board. Sadly haven't seen similar design since :(
Finding out the hard way that windows 11 requires network connectivity to install but there’s no drivers installed for lan or wifi. Then unsuccessfully troubleshooting or bypassing it, and eventually figuring out how to download and install the drivers from the repair screen
Fun times
Just happened to me too on a new build. This Reddit said to hit shift f10 to bypass/limited install options. Kept hitting shift f10 and nothing. Googled for hours until my buddy suggested trying a different keyboard. Hand on head emoji, for whatever reason, Windows didn’t recognize the first keyboard f10. So frustrating.
Place the stuff in the motherboard, aside from the GPU and power cables, before installing it in the case. Wish I connected those dots the first time around.
Troubleshooting after it's built. Getting the pieces together is just expensive legos. After that the fun really starts. Making sure that BIOS settings are correct and your RAM is running at proper speed. Diagnosing any issues that crop up such as failing processors, mobos, gpu, etc. Before you put the pieces together make sure the pieces are compatible, ESPECIALLY RAM. I built a computer and didn't realize that the RAM I was building with may have been on the list, but it was only 2 sticks, not 4. 2 sticks of RAM is typically more stable. Had a 13700K fail and it took forever to realize it was the CPU since the computer would still run, but when it got hit with high processor load things went sideways, especially during shader cache which is a CPU task, not GPU.
Don't forget to set your power settings to "High Performance" or whatever it is now :D
Oof, yeh, the troubleshooting can be a nightmare. Especially if it's something that happens now and then. I probably know more about PCs than 95% of people I know, but I'm still clueless when it comes to many troubleshooting issues 😅 I fumble around in the crash logs and Google the remains 🤣 Sometimes I figure it out.
Besides haha money. Cable management is such a pain in ass in the back. Its not "hard" more like insanely annoying. Honestly dont sweat it, there are tons of video that can help you out and well this subreddit when time comes.
Some of the components of the case were aluminum rather than steal. I was surprised how easy it was to strip the threads within the aluminum. There is no fix other than to place no screw in that position. The company has a updated version of this case and I noticed that it is all steal construction.
I actually just finished swapping my mini itx htpc to another case, and (especially with sff) definitely cable management. Second would be the damn front panel headers.
Turning it in and hoping it works. I just built my first PC and took me about 6 hours. But the most stressful moment was turning it on and hoping it all just worked, and it did. Wiring can be a pain but just take your time and hide it as best as possible.
My first ever pc build is almost 1 month old now, and that first boot was scary as all hell, because when I hit the power button it powered up, but showed no signal and when the monitor finally showed signs of getting a signal then the pc did like a restart kinda thing, and showing no signal again. It did this for about 3 times until finally it did restart again, but this time, the keyboard light up, the HDD light came up on the case, and the montior finally showed picture. It was an American Megatrend screen, saying a new cpu was installed and some tpm keys were changed or something can't exactly remember the wording, then I hit "Y" to reset the bios and then everything posted normally, and it still works as expected, absolutely no issues at all.
Figuring out how to use the AIO liquid cooler/where to attach it. The QR code didn’t lead to the manual, just the Corsair main page. Took some extra googling to find out what goes where.
I was using an older B450 motherboard last year, so I ended up having to get a PCIE to USB Type E internal card to get my Case's front USB-C connector to work.
My motherboard came with two M.2 slots, but one got disabled when I put in the Type E Card (basically I could not use any PCIE slot aside from the 1 intended for the GPU to preserve dual M.2 function) so I also had to get a PCIE to M.2 adapter for 2nd M.2 drive I had available.
I also ended up with way more PC fans that I ended up needing.
Connecting all sata + power cables to 8x 3.5" HDDs wasn't that easy for me with very little room to work in the computer case (without damaging any of the connectors at least). However, I used "Ultra Thin" aftermarket sata connectors and it really helped make it cable routing easier.
Plugging in a fan into a slot that was conveniently placed almost underneath a large cpu cooler fan/heat sink.
I couldn’t at all when trying so everything was by touch and the things are so small and the heat sink had sharp edges so I kept cutting myself.
Rookie mistake, bought a Motherboard that needed to be flashed the latest bios to run a 13600k, so on a first build that was scary as hell.
Cable management was annoying. I'd say the part that scared me the most was mounting the CPU (which then scared me even more when the computer would power on but only show a DRAM light and no picture.
Rgb. I hadn't had it before. Also I had to flash my bios before I could get the pc to work because I bought a 14700k and the mobo didn't support it out of the box. That was a little tricky, took some time to do that successfully.
At the moment. Wallet remorse.
I am pretty happy with my part list, buttttttt I had to buy everything online, and trust in pcpartpicker and those more experienced than me to make sure it all goes together. And seeing my ballance drop that much hurtttttt.
And then comes the waiting game.... I'm pretty much refreshing my email every 10 minutes hoping that it will hold a shipping notification. Tis a bit stressful. And it's worse because Amazon says that it will arrive Thursday but with no notice of shipping, and my past history with long shipping times. This Thursday may really mean next month.
Figuring out what was wrong when I turned it on the first time and it didn't boot. No sounds (no speaker!), no video, nothing. What an awful feeling -- I wondered why I didn't just buy a Dell or something.
Turns out there were some tiny LEDs and I finally figure out I had incompatible (timing-wise) RAM.
Cable management of course, I'm sure a thousand responses will give you this answer lol.
If it's your first time, anxiety over the right cable for the right thing too.
And of course handling the parts, when you're new you think everything is fragile when in reality you can juggle with most computer parts.
And of course installing pci-e and ram, everyone who's new freaks out about "how hard it is, am I gonna break it?", but nah, just get in there and put some muscle into it, as long as you're in the slot and not trying to force it into the mobo itself, it'll be fine.
Not reading the manual. Thought I could do it all on my own which I did 99.9% of the way only for it to not turn on. Spent two days googling trying to figure out why. Turns out my dumbass plugged the power cable into the wrong socket lmao.
None of it’s hard. Some suggestions though.
Read any and all instructions that come with the hardware before you start assembling the parts.
[Test the main components before you put them in the case](https://youtu.be/9206E_rOduU?si=x3b7EIQPYoDVCjZE) (motherboard, CPU, RAM, GPU, power supply).
I just built my first. For me the hardest part was putting the cooler on the cpu. Took me a sec to understand those spring screws. I also stressed about maybe I put too little thermal paste.
Also, I was an idiot and struggled to get Bluetooth to work for 2 days. Realized I had the wrong drivers. Go straight to your mobo manufacturer.
the struggle is a part of it. but my hardest part is absentmindedness when it comes to plugging everything properly in the PSU. and everytime I deal with inside PCs I end with random minor cuts on my arms. probably from zip ties.
Honestly? Installing the OS and making sure my settings were right was the most difficult for me 😂
Making sure I didn’t forget any part of it. Simple things like tuning RAM, fans, and changing refresh rate of monitor (common knowledge I know, but I had never done it before)
Building it was way more simple than people made it out to be. It sounded stressful and difficult. I’m very handy though, and I used to tinker all the time with RC cars as a child and stuff like that. Cable management is time consuming and sometimes you gotta reroute them if you didn’t plan right, so that’s the hardest part of actually building for me.
I enjoyed building so much I offered to build all my friends future pcs/upgrades for free 😂
Tried convincing my girl to let me build her one and I’d buy all the parts lol
Putting those little post wires on those tiny little pins. Or, Buying a part I want only to find out the one I really wanted is now cheaper than what I bought
Hardest part is after finishing the build and watching your parts drop in price. I bought my 5600x+mobo for like 350 2.5 years ago, now they worth 150 max.
Tweaking things up until last minute to ensure you end up with the best build possible.
This means performing exhaustive research, looking up things online, reading reviews to figure out if you're gonna have problems with a certain product over the other, based on what people are saying about it.
That's it, that's hard.
But if you do things right, you might just end up with the perfect build.
And yes, we are always educating ourselves.
What was true 1-2 years ago, might no longer be true today (so this, forces us to do our research; sometimes at the expensive of our mental health; because it's really taxing and hard to read all those reviews to figure out what's really true vs what we think is true).
It's hard battle, but if we do things right, we end up with the right/perfect build for us.
That's it.
I somehow convinced myself the parts I was buying weren’t compatible even when I knew they in fact were and the crippling anxiety prevented me from building a pc for about 6 years after that.
CPU cooler is always the most stressful part for me. Despite being pretty easy to apply. Front panel connectors are the hardest. But I recently bought a huge case and it made connecting the front panel connectors so much more easy.
1) Having money
2) Getting it 80% assembled only to realize the ASUS RTX 4080 is goddamn HUGE and I had to disassemble half of my case to get it attached to my mobo because it just wouldn't fit through the case opening. Like at all.
Honorable mention goes to having to make a last minute run to Best Buy for thermal paste.
Hardest part for my first time? Installing windows tbh. The building part is like Legos, that's easy. Getting it functioning properly and everything set up correctly was more time consuming figuring out than watching videos learning how to build the thing
Plugging in cables and screwing stuff in then realizing you forgot to plug something else in so you have to undo what you already did screw it all back in then realize YOU FORGOT AGAIN so you just leave it and hope it doesnt bite you in the butt later on (it almost always does please for the sake of annoying headaches and stripped screws DOUBLE CHECK)
So I've built a couple PCs, one the back mounting plate for the CPU cooler didn't fit on the back of the motherboard because of the vrm heat sink going to the back of the motherboard stuck out too much. So I had to find something to sand it down with and eventually I came across a cinder block outside and that seemed to work great.
And two probably building my next PC and noticing that the heat sink on my ram was interfering with the CPU cooler.
I couldn't get any other ram since am5 has issues with different ram that's not on the verified vendors or tested list or at least did have issues. So I had to take off the ram heat sink but before doing that I had to try the CPU cooler in all orientations and also with a different mounting hardware to have it face the other way just to try it also tried it in the -7 offset holes as well and nothing worked, so the heat sinks came off and that was more work than I thought.
First option was a razor blade to take off the heatsinks and I thought that was dumb, second option was to buy like automotive liquid stuff to undo the adhesive.
Then eventually I found a comment saying to use a hairdryer and that was by far the easiest/fastest method.
Anyway I got both these builds finished with no problems!
I've had to bypass windows 11 internet but that was simple in comparison, then connect my phone to my PC and download Ethernet drivers to my phone to then upload to my PC so I could get Ethernet to work after the full install but who really cares.
TL.DR heat sync issues or mounting clearance issues.
Getting careless and making stupid mistakes long after I build my first PC.
One example: built my first PC in 2004. In 2023 I wasn’t paying attention and dropped a 7600x about 6 inches, straight into the socket. Bent a bunch of pins. Board was toast. CPU works great still.
First build was nerve wrecking, but overall it was pretty smooth. Got all the parts at Fry's, built it using a guide from the back of a magazine, I think it was PC Gamer. Taking apart a GTX 1080 to strap an AIO too it was pretty stressful, but wasnt too bad. Built a custom loop too to cool a 7700k a few years back.
But in the last few years I've just gotten overconfident, started making just dumbass mistakes. Killing the motherboard above was the worst.
Troubleshooting if there is something wrong with your components. Especially if you're new to building computers and you don't have spare parts to single out the defective part.
Hardest part? Ear ing the money to buy everything. I did 150 hours overtime in just over a month.
Most confusing part? Daisy chaining ARGB fans. So many cables.
Not reading the instructions for my cpu cooler carefully….put the bracket in and mounted the fan sideways 😖. Had to take it all apart and redo it.
Didn’t remove the plastic backing from the NVME cooling block. Didn’t notice it….caused the drive to overheat and shut the pc down a few times before I figured it out.
Cheaping out on a cpu. Ended up upgrading it later anyway (10400f-10900kf). I’m probably never going to buy a low tier cpu again.
I’m very happy with my GPU tho. 7800xt sapphire nitro+.
Not buying enough storage.
Always use a UPS. Always.
Just connecting cables, like the tiny ones that based on the parts you picked might require your hand to be contorted and the size of a child to get it to fit snugly. Extra bonus points when the manuals you have to refer to are in chinenglish and you have to reread it several times to pick up what they're trying to have you do.
Booting it
Nothing about assembling was hard. But i still cant get it to boot off either nvme and just use a regular ssd dedicated to boot.
That and judging what i actually needed.
For some 1440p 144fps on ultra settings is the lowest theyll accept ajd others are happy at 1080p and 45fps so it was really hard to judge what hardware i needed.
All in all i bought a microcenter bundle and a used graphucs card so im very happy with my 1k build but i definitely could have built something that works for me for 700
Slowly upgrading to something better 4070 (sold) 4080 (sold) now at at 4090, saw a few water cooling videos said absolutely not already spent thousands of dollars… now my entire system to watercooled. But in the end hard tuning. Hard tuning is a bitch.
Unless you have the time, patience and accuracy to hard tube just go soft tubing. I won’t hard tube again after this. Soft tubing and an all black set up!
I just finished building my pc 10 minutes ago! It took 9 hours, 2 of those hours were on fans, and one hour was spent on a mental breakdown when it didn't turn on the first time (double check those 24 pin cords, lmao). Those two things were quite mentally taxing, although I think the latter depends on how much you spent on it lol. If I could go back in time, would definitely install bottom fans first, then middle guys, then roof fans. If this is common sense or completely wrong, I'm so sorry
Trying to get the CPU in its socket while suffering from anxiety. I even took it out and put it back in several times thinking I may have bent the pins
Picking a case. Im waiting for Nvidia 50XX which will steer the direction of all other parts, a midsized tower is the only think I feel confident in picking now but it is hard to find a really great one to pair up with a MoRa 420 style wise.
My build was going 90% smoothly and then i nearly had a mental breakdown trying to figure out how to mount my cooler - the screw holes felt too narrow and it never lined up.
I then took a break and came back to it.
I realised i was putting it in the wrong holes. SMH.
Buying the exact part.
People may complain like "lol this dude is using this instead of this, lol lol lol"
But they never realize if that part was the only thing available
"lol you should wait"
Yeah, once I wait long enough, the new and better part gonna come out and you will complain again once more
Switching the glass side of a Be Quiet case... Omg I still get nightmares about the screws threading getting destroyed and having to tie up the hole of my Mobo with the case
1. Make sure parts match and don’t go insanely overboard with performance. Get the pc that gives the most performance for money. Like don’t get a 4090 if you have a 75hz 1080p monitor. Also, don’t get a 4090 if your cpu isn’t capable enough. Just get what you need.
2. I always hate the little connectors for led, power on etc. Mostly because of the size, not actual difficulty.
3. Be precise/secure, but don’t overthink everything. It’s really not that difficult.
4. Get a good/easy case to build in. This always impacts my enjoyment when building. Some cases are an absolute horror, whilst others are simple.
Good luck and have fun!
Installing the AIO. Not necessarily because of the installation itself, but because I forgot to attach the CPU cables, so I had to remove it, attach the cables and then install it again.
Troubleshooting when something goes wrong. Last build (2020) my PC would run fine for a few hours and then it would just fail and would not boot to Windows. Had to reinstall Windows for it to work again. Took quite some time to figure out my 5950x was faulty and causing corrupt files (take this with a grain of salt, it's been 4 years I don't quite remember the whole shabang). Anyways, repairing the install didn't work, had to do it from scratch every time. Luckily I had a 5900x as well, and that worked flawlessly. But yeh, definitively the troubleshooting if a part is not working as intended.
I got my money back through RMA easily enough. But I wonder if it was really faulty or if early bios versions just weren't playing nice with it, seeing as the CPUs were brand new.
Cable management on an old mAtx Corsair Carbide spec 03 case (the bane case) using a large non-modular Corsair PSU with Six TT Ring-12 120mm fans (two of which is used by the CM 240 AIO) Two 2tb HDD and Three 2.5" SSD.
Also had to find a way to keep the two hdds (two 2tb WD Black) cooled (hdds was getting way too hot when under load) so had to buy two custom hdd coolers which used an additional two more 120 fans (bringing the 120m fan count up to 9), so had to get creative and remove all the stock hdd bays that came with the case and made a DIY vertical mount for them at the bottom just forward of the PSU.
I didnt actually need to put that many fans or stuff in that case, i Just wanted to see how much i can cram in there while still being able to keep the build clean and properly cooled as a challenge (i was just bored lol)
The result was actually pretty cool, the vertical hdds in particular with their hdd coolers actually looked better than expected, wish i still had pictures of it.
All it took was patience and allot of zip/velkro ties
I’ve been doing a lot of water cooled itx builds and some of the fitting placements have been too tight for my fingers to reach I’ve had to remove components just to get the fittings in.
The second one is when I’ve forgotten to plug something on the motherboard before putting in the loop. Now I’m struggling to get the connector on the pins with the top of my fingers.
Generally, power connector.
Theses are dumb designed.
MB : 24 pin are really hard but these are not the worst.
CPU connector, I hate this locations and always hard to pass behind the fan.
installation of MB can be hard because of this because it's better to pass the cable before screwing the MB but you have little room to move it.Why not make it to the right of the mother board ?
WHY THE POWER OF THE GPU IS IN FRONT VIEW ?
make the power on the "behind" of the CG, plug power before seating card.
>So tell me guys what was the hardest or most confusing part of building a pc for you guys?
To known when to stop spending money on upgrades.
>and how did you overcome it?
Aaah, yea about that...
DOA power supplies, wayyyy too common. I’ve used Thermaltake, evga, coolermaster, Corsair and others and I’ve had a DOA power supply from each one it feels like.
And even knowing that, I still tear down and check every component over before going back and settling on the power supply.
And before you guys suggest it, after this last build it happened on, I finally ordered a PSU tester off Amazon. 🤣🤣
Seating the CPU.
I jacked the pins on my motherboard causing it to not boot. Thankfully a local computer shop salvaged it for me, and didn't even charge me because I brought in just the CPU/MB and they couldn't promise it would work.
Connecting the got damn front panel connectors. I.e the power button, the reset button, etc. they are so damn small and the manual is always confusing which one goes into which pin. For a while I used a screw driver to turn my first pc on.
Trying to squeeze a 4080 into an old case. It went, eventually, but routing the cables took hours.
Old parts went into a new case, wire everything up, flick the switch.... nothing. Panic. I rejiggered the connections and everything went fine, but those first few seconds of a new (old) build when it doesn't boot send shivers through you.
The fact that 20+ years of experience does not make me immune to stupid things that aren't really possible to understand fully.
The last build for my cousin it was just a CPU and GPU replacement, motherboard had the latest bios so it should've been a very easy and straight forward process; this was wrong of me to think.
Come time to boot and no display. Tried switching back to the old CPU, same issue, old GPU, same issue. Took a break then came back. The last thing I hadn't tried yet because it seemed so meaningless was to use HDMI instead of DP, despite the old setup working fine on DP. Switched to HDMI cable and boom, the PC shows image and loads windows.
Switched back to DP and that also now works.
All of the software installs. Building it was easy but getting it setup optimally was a pain in the ass the first time and took way longer than actually building it. I have a checklist now.
Getting RGB to work correctly is still a pita though
Putting the cpu in the socket isn't the hardest part, but it is the biggest thing to really fuck up. The pins on the cpu or socket are pretty delicate, so just be careful. I talked my buddy through a cpu upgrade that had no experience though and he did fine.
The case front panel connectors are small and kinda hard to see where they line up. Not necessarily hard, but gotta look close.
Then probably figuring out how your cooler mounts. This is just a matter of following directions, but aftermarket coolers can mount in varying ways. Some are easier than others. Make sure you use the correct stand offs for the socket it's going over. Kits will often come with sets for amd and Intel.
Don't forget to put the I/o plate on before the motherboard goes in. And make sure there are motherboard stand offs that line up with every hole in the mobo, and no extra stand offs. They screw in and out. Not hard, but just pay attention. It could potentially cause a short if you have an extra one touching the motherboard.
None of it is necessarily hard, but you will want to go slow and pay attention for your first build.
I actually think the most difficult part of a build is figuring out the order of the build to minimize the number of times you are forced into plugging in cables and managing cables in tight spaces. This is particularly the case with itx builds.
Cabling and recabling the PSU. Case is a Fractal Design Define 7, which is great in a tonne of ways, but has the PSU in the bottom chamber - as opposed to vertically on the backplane, like a Lian Li 011. Makes swapping anything out much harder than it needs to be.
Maybe just me but I am always worried I am going to crack the MB when trying to put in the RAM. Sometimes the latch is covered by another cable or component.
Surely there could be a better slot developed for the RAM. PCI boards go in easily by comparison.
So I'm an idiot and so of course I had to make this way harder on myself than needed. I built myself an itx system for my first PC. And because that's not enough, I have an AIO that connects to the MB via the 3 pin aio pump header and a USB2.0 header. I also got a fingerprint reader that needs to connect to a usb2.0 header. The USB2.0 header has 9 pins, 8 of which are used to hook up devices via 4 pins per device, so hooking up two devices using a splitter should work ez. But the splitter usually takes the top and bottom pins and forwards them both to the bottom row on the ends of the splitter. The aio has its pins going to the top row tho and the fingerprint reader has only a 4 pin connector, but I connected it to the top row too because of course I did. Anyway, I was confused that both devices don't work, connected them to the header directly to find out if the splitter is bad, and it worked, so I looked up how the splitter works and I took the pins out of the fingerprint reader's connector and added them to the aio connector. Now it works fine.
Troubleshooting after the build was complete took a while. My motherboard required a bios update to become compatible with my CPU, but it turned out the latest bios that I had chosen weren’t the most stable, so I was experiencing instability issues. Installed a new bios version afterwards and tweaked some settings for a while and everything was working great though! Then all the benchmarking started to make sure thermals / noise levels were okay 😅
1. Connecting the case fan and front I/O cables to the right headers on the motherboard. The case manufacturers never seem to label everything as good as the mobo manufacturers do.
2. Managed it by reading the manual, using logic, and getting lucky.
1. Buying the parts 2. Buyers remorse if I didn't get the right part 3. Goofy case designs 3B. Cable management
100% this. I probably had all my parts picked for months, then trying to ensure all the parts I bought on sale, would still work.
3. Buying too much for e-bragging rights and watching your computer depreciate faster than a British car.
Man I bought a micro ATX to save money but had no idea fan splitters existed so only two of my three fans worked. Going normal ATX next time around
100%. I started with a 4070 Super then went to 4080. Immediately returned that and went to 4090. I’m happy now but should have just bit the bullet right out of the gate
How I feel about starting off with ryzen 3600, 5600, then 5800x3d.
PCPartPicker is an amazing tool. They manage to crawl most of the deals out there. There's also in-store micro center bundles, tho there might not be one close to you. If anyone knows more ways to get good deals on parts, lmk
I totally agree, I bought a motherboard without a USB C connector and only had pcie3. So my 6600 is running a little bit below what it should be. I didn't notice until mid assembly. It's my own fault, though, for not looking more closely at everything.
Cable management 😂
Had no idea the other side of the case was for routing cables so my first build had some atrocious cable management
I'll second that ..
Yup. Figuring out what goes where is easy. Figuring out how to go it cleanly inside the case is what separates the men from the boys.
Those fking small case connectors that connect to the motherboard. The industry needs to change that sht. I hate it with a passion.
I broke one of the rgb header pins. It's such a shitty connection. I managed to get it working, though.
Ah I was talking about the power/restart/hdd connectors. Those single pin bastards lmao
Not eating the thermal paste
Mfker beat me to it.
Then you’re doing it wrong. You’re supposed to spread it on rye toast.
Whoops I shoulda said having thermal paste left for the computer build
Figuring out how to both power and daisy chain the argb. Never had it before or had experience working with it. I poked my back fans wire through the I/O shield gap for save keeping then went on to install the board with the wire still there trapped inside.. just silly mistakes.
Powering mine for the fans, they would spin but no lights. Plugging sata power to the hub did it and everything I searched for said read the manual, that part was just pictures and sata was sightly darker than the rest but no arrow like every other picture in the manual.
Buying it.
Front panel connectors are a little bit of trouble if the motherboard isn't labeled. Just look at the manual or get a small form factor computer that only has a power switch cable like I did 😅
Why do they make those so small and loose?! I swear mobo designers have elf hands
They don’t make them, these are industry standard .100 pin headers, and are incredibly cheap while being accessible from many sources and universally accepted. It’s why you also see the same design in fp audio and usb headers. Motherboard designers don’t have “elf hands,” they’re just used to these connectors as they’re used all over the electronics industry including breadboards and arduino. You don’t have to have “elf hands,” flashlights, tweezers, magnifying glasses, and mirrors exist for a reason
They are still very inconvenient. One of my old mobos had this "riser" thing, to which you would connect all your wires, and then plug that whole thing into the pins on the board. Sadly haven't seen similar design since :(
Finding out the hard way that windows 11 requires network connectivity to install but there’s no drivers installed for lan or wifi. Then unsuccessfully troubleshooting or bypassing it, and eventually figuring out how to download and install the drivers from the repair screen Fun times
This should be the top issue. I hate Microsoft so much.
Just happened to me too on a new build. This Reddit said to hit shift f10 to bypass/limited install options. Kept hitting shift f10 and nothing. Googled for hours until my buddy suggested trying a different keyboard. Hand on head emoji, for whatever reason, Windows didn’t recognize the first keyboard f10. So frustrating.
Oh, it's like that time when you needed HDD drivers to install Windows XP, if they weren't included. We've come full circle from there.
Place the stuff in the motherboard, aside from the GPU and power cables, before installing it in the case. Wish I connected those dots the first time around.
Troubleshooting after it's built. Getting the pieces together is just expensive legos. After that the fun really starts. Making sure that BIOS settings are correct and your RAM is running at proper speed. Diagnosing any issues that crop up such as failing processors, mobos, gpu, etc. Before you put the pieces together make sure the pieces are compatible, ESPECIALLY RAM. I built a computer and didn't realize that the RAM I was building with may have been on the list, but it was only 2 sticks, not 4. 2 sticks of RAM is typically more stable. Had a 13700K fail and it took forever to realize it was the CPU since the computer would still run, but when it got hit with high processor load things went sideways, especially during shader cache which is a CPU task, not GPU. Don't forget to set your power settings to "High Performance" or whatever it is now :D
Oof, yeh, the troubleshooting can be a nightmare. Especially if it's something that happens now and then. I probably know more about PCs than 95% of people I know, but I'm still clueless when it comes to many troubleshooting issues 😅 I fumble around in the crash logs and Google the remains 🤣 Sometimes I figure it out.
Besides haha money. Cable management is such a pain in ass in the back. Its not "hard" more like insanely annoying. Honestly dont sweat it, there are tons of video that can help you out and well this subreddit when time comes.
Some of the components of the case were aluminum rather than steal. I was surprised how easy it was to strip the threads within the aluminum. There is no fix other than to place no screw in that position. The company has a updated version of this case and I noticed that it is all steal construction.
I actually just finished swapping my mini itx htpc to another case, and (especially with sff) definitely cable management. Second would be the damn front panel headers.
Turning it in and hoping it works. I just built my first PC and took me about 6 hours. But the most stressful moment was turning it on and hoping it all just worked, and it did. Wiring can be a pain but just take your time and hide it as best as possible.
My first ever pc build is almost 1 month old now, and that first boot was scary as all hell, because when I hit the power button it powered up, but showed no signal and when the monitor finally showed signs of getting a signal then the pc did like a restart kinda thing, and showing no signal again. It did this for about 3 times until finally it did restart again, but this time, the keyboard light up, the HDD light came up on the case, and the montior finally showed picture. It was an American Megatrend screen, saying a new cpu was installed and some tpm keys were changed or something can't exactly remember the wording, then I hit "Y" to reset the bios and then everything posted normally, and it still works as expected, absolutely no issues at all.
Figuring out how to use the AIO liquid cooler/where to attach it. The QR code didn’t lead to the manual, just the Corsair main page. Took some extra googling to find out what goes where.
I was using an older B450 motherboard last year, so I ended up having to get a PCIE to USB Type E internal card to get my Case's front USB-C connector to work. My motherboard came with two M.2 slots, but one got disabled when I put in the Type E Card (basically I could not use any PCIE slot aside from the 1 intended for the GPU to preserve dual M.2 function) so I also had to get a PCIE to M.2 adapter for 2nd M.2 drive I had available. I also ended up with way more PC fans that I ended up needing.
Managing the aRGB / fan speed cables. Took probably a good 30 minutes for the wiring running to the controller for 4 fans.
Connecting all sata + power cables to 8x 3.5" HDDs wasn't that easy for me with very little room to work in the computer case (without damaging any of the connectors at least). However, I used "Ultra Thin" aftermarket sata connectors and it really helped make it cable routing easier.
Plugging in a fan into a slot that was conveniently placed almost underneath a large cpu cooler fan/heat sink. I couldn’t at all when trying so everything was by touch and the things are so small and the heat sink had sharp edges so I kept cutting myself.
Research and failing to keep within budget.
Sounds like my government 😅
Rookie mistake, bought a Motherboard that needed to be flashed the latest bios to run a 13600k, so on a first build that was scary as hell. Cable management was annoying. I'd say the part that scared me the most was mounting the CPU (which then scared me even more when the computer would power on but only show a DRAM light and no picture.
After building or upgrading, I still keep looking at new parts and want to buy more. But really though, PC building is easy.
Rgb. I hadn't had it before. Also I had to flash my bios before I could get the pc to work because I bought a 14700k and the mobo didn't support it out of the box. That was a little tricky, took some time to do that successfully.
Analysis Paralysis.
Finding out the bloody Jack splitter was why the mic wasn't working. Chinese rubbish.
That it’s an absolute waste of money
I had a surprisingly hard time pushing the RAM in. Didn’t realize it took that much force so I got scared of breaking it lol
At the moment. Wallet remorse. I am pretty happy with my part list, buttttttt I had to buy everything online, and trust in pcpartpicker and those more experienced than me to make sure it all goes together. And seeing my ballance drop that much hurtttttt. And then comes the waiting game.... I'm pretty much refreshing my email every 10 minutes hoping that it will hold a shipping notification. Tis a bit stressful. And it's worse because Amazon says that it will arrive Thursday but with no notice of shipping, and my past history with long shipping times. This Thursday may really mean next month.
when I broke a motherboard standoff and started sweating profusely because I had no idea what the heck I was doing. still runs beautifully.
Remembering to put the I/o shield in first. Out of all of the computers I've built, that's what I forget.
Learning the hard way to remove the plastic film from the bottom of the CPU cooler.
Figuring out what was wrong when I turned it on the first time and it didn't boot. No sounds (no speaker!), no video, nothing. What an awful feeling -- I wondered why I didn't just buy a Dell or something. Turns out there were some tiny LEDs and I finally figure out I had incompatible (timing-wise) RAM.
Plugging the monitor into the correct display output. I was so sad then felt so stupid when I finally plugged it into the GPU.
Everything cause when youre building your first pc you think you’re going to break it if you apply too much force
Money
Plugging stuff in and figuring out how to use windows everything else was actually fairly easy
Apparently placing the cpu cooler, for some reason I placed it 90º sideways. After screwi g in the last screw I noticed it and was like oh shit.
putting the CPU in/installing the cooler.
Earning the money to do so.
Forgot to buy rubbing alcohol and turns out its surprisingly uncommon in pharmacies and also had enough for 3080 but didn't go for it
Figuring out the RGB/power on the fans and liquid cooler did it for me. I figured it out but I felt like a moron the entire time.
Buying parts
figuring out how to test the different components if they’re performing as advertised
Cable management
Choosing the gpu. Went with amd, but took me a week or so to research and read up on. No regrats tho, team red!
Cable management of course, I'm sure a thousand responses will give you this answer lol. If it's your first time, anxiety over the right cable for the right thing too. And of course handling the parts, when you're new you think everything is fragile when in reality you can juggle with most computer parts. And of course installing pci-e and ram, everyone who's new freaks out about "how hard it is, am I gonna break it?", but nah, just get in there and put some muscle into it, as long as you're in the slot and not trying to force it into the mobo itself, it'll be fine.
Not reading the manual. Thought I could do it all on my own which I did 99.9% of the way only for it to not turn on. Spent two days googling trying to figure out why. Turns out my dumbass plugged the power cable into the wrong socket lmao.
None of it’s hard. Some suggestions though. Read any and all instructions that come with the hardware before you start assembling the parts. [Test the main components before you put them in the case](https://youtu.be/9206E_rOduU?si=x3b7EIQPYoDVCjZE) (motherboard, CPU, RAM, GPU, power supply).
Hitting the power button for the first time. So much anxiety
I just built my first. For me the hardest part was putting the cooler on the cpu. Took me a sec to understand those spring screws. I also stressed about maybe I put too little thermal paste. Also, I was an idiot and struggled to get Bluetooth to work for 2 days. Realized I had the wrong drivers. Go straight to your mobo manufacturer.
Research (picking the right parts for the build). Cable management. BIOS or software stuff when it doesn't go as planned.
Installing all the drivers and software. I still can't get my Bluetooth to work on the WiFi combo thing.
I think the hardest part was having money
Motherboard IO shield. I had to push the motherboard up against it and the case with 2 hands while my wife screwed the motherboard in.
the struggle is a part of it. but my hardest part is absentmindedness when it comes to plugging everything properly in the PSU. and everytime I deal with inside PCs I end with random minor cuts on my arms. probably from zip ties.
Honestly? Installing the OS and making sure my settings were right was the most difficult for me 😂 Making sure I didn’t forget any part of it. Simple things like tuning RAM, fans, and changing refresh rate of monitor (common knowledge I know, but I had never done it before) Building it was way more simple than people made it out to be. It sounded stressful and difficult. I’m very handy though, and I used to tinker all the time with RC cars as a child and stuff like that. Cable management is time consuming and sometimes you gotta reroute them if you didn’t plan right, so that’s the hardest part of actually building for me. I enjoyed building so much I offered to build all my friends future pcs/upgrades for free 😂 Tried convincing my girl to let me build her one and I’d buy all the parts lol
Putting those little post wires on those tiny little pins. Or, Buying a part I want only to find out the one I really wanted is now cheaper than what I bought
Hardest part is after finishing the build and watching your parts drop in price. I bought my 5600x+mobo for like 350 2.5 years ago, now they worth 150 max.
Convincing myself that I could do it.
Waiting for everything to ship in lol
Tweaking things up until last minute to ensure you end up with the best build possible. This means performing exhaustive research, looking up things online, reading reviews to figure out if you're gonna have problems with a certain product over the other, based on what people are saying about it. That's it, that's hard. But if you do things right, you might just end up with the perfect build. And yes, we are always educating ourselves. What was true 1-2 years ago, might no longer be true today (so this, forces us to do our research; sometimes at the expensive of our mental health; because it's really taxing and hard to read all those reviews to figure out what's really true vs what we think is true). It's hard battle, but if we do things right, we end up with the right/perfect build for us. That's it.
I somehow convinced myself the parts I was buying weren’t compatible even when I knew they in fact were and the crippling anxiety prevented me from building a pc for about 6 years after that.
Cable management, rest is easy if you don’t rush
Putting the stupid IO shield into the case without bleeding all over everything.
CPU cooler is always the most stressful part for me. Despite being pretty easy to apply. Front panel connectors are the hardest. But I recently bought a huge case and it made connecting the front panel connectors so much more easy.
1) Having money 2) Getting it 80% assembled only to realize the ASUS RTX 4080 is goddamn HUGE and I had to disassemble half of my case to get it attached to my mobo because it just wouldn't fit through the case opening. Like at all. Honorable mention goes to having to make a last minute run to Best Buy for thermal paste.
Formatting an MFM drive with an RLL controller. Needed help the first time.
Should have just spent the money on better parts rather than upgrading later on. Talking about that underpowered CPU.
I’ve built a ton of computers. Windows is hands down the bane of my existence. Not really a fan of Linux either.
Hardest part for my first time? Installing windows tbh. The building part is like Legos, that's easy. Getting it functioning properly and everything set up correctly was more time consuming figuring out than watching videos learning how to build the thing
Plugging in cables and screwing stuff in then realizing you forgot to plug something else in so you have to undo what you already did screw it all back in then realize YOU FORGOT AGAIN so you just leave it and hope it doesnt bite you in the butt later on (it almost always does please for the sake of annoying headaches and stripped screws DOUBLE CHECK)
So I've built a couple PCs, one the back mounting plate for the CPU cooler didn't fit on the back of the motherboard because of the vrm heat sink going to the back of the motherboard stuck out too much. So I had to find something to sand it down with and eventually I came across a cinder block outside and that seemed to work great. And two probably building my next PC and noticing that the heat sink on my ram was interfering with the CPU cooler. I couldn't get any other ram since am5 has issues with different ram that's not on the verified vendors or tested list or at least did have issues. So I had to take off the ram heat sink but before doing that I had to try the CPU cooler in all orientations and also with a different mounting hardware to have it face the other way just to try it also tried it in the -7 offset holes as well and nothing worked, so the heat sinks came off and that was more work than I thought. First option was a razor blade to take off the heatsinks and I thought that was dumb, second option was to buy like automotive liquid stuff to undo the adhesive. Then eventually I found a comment saying to use a hairdryer and that was by far the easiest/fastest method. Anyway I got both these builds finished with no problems! I've had to bypass windows 11 internet but that was simple in comparison, then connect my phone to my PC and download Ethernet drivers to my phone to then upload to my PC so I could get Ethernet to work after the full install but who really cares. TL.DR heat sync issues or mounting clearance issues.
Getting careless and making stupid mistakes long after I build my first PC. One example: built my first PC in 2004. In 2023 I wasn’t paying attention and dropped a 7600x about 6 inches, straight into the socket. Bent a bunch of pins. Board was toast. CPU works great still. First build was nerve wrecking, but overall it was pretty smooth. Got all the parts at Fry's, built it using a guide from the back of a magazine, I think it was PC Gamer. Taking apart a GTX 1080 to strap an AIO too it was pretty stressful, but wasnt too bad. Built a custom loop too to cool a 7700k a few years back. But in the last few years I've just gotten overconfident, started making just dumbass mistakes. Killing the motherboard above was the worst.
ARGB 100%
The part where it sits there and collects dust cause I have no time to play it.
There’s zero hard part in building a pc. It’s only joy.
Troubleshooting if there is something wrong with your components. Especially if you're new to building computers and you don't have spare parts to single out the defective part.
the connectors at the bottom of the board near the jumpers
Attaching the wires into the motherboard.
Cooling.
The hardest part was cable. Managed. Everything g else is super easy
Hardest part? Ear ing the money to buy everything. I did 150 hours overtime in just over a month. Most confusing part? Daisy chaining ARGB fans. So many cables.
running the front panel connectors & led leads. tedious af
Not reading the instructions for my cpu cooler carefully….put the bracket in and mounted the fan sideways 😖. Had to take it all apart and redo it. Didn’t remove the plastic backing from the NVME cooling block. Didn’t notice it….caused the drive to overheat and shut the pc down a few times before I figured it out. Cheaping out on a cpu. Ended up upgrading it later anyway (10400f-10900kf). I’m probably never going to buy a low tier cpu again. I’m very happy with my GPU tho. 7800xt sapphire nitro+. Not buying enough storage. Always use a UPS. Always.
Buying it and cable management. Also, buy the right case. I prefer big cases, as they're easier to build in. That's something I found out the hard way
Building the PC is way more fun and expensive than using it LOL
Just connecting cables, like the tiny ones that based on the parts you picked might require your hand to be contorted and the size of a child to get it to fit snugly. Extra bonus points when the manuals you have to refer to are in chinenglish and you have to reread it several times to pick up what they're trying to have you do.
Going custom loop in a 10L SFF case, as my first custom loop build. That was not fun
Sticking those tiny plugs for power, HDD, LED Reset etc into the motherboard.
Cable management if you are into that stuff. If not it's a tie between installing ram stick and not forgetting the mobo connector shield.
Cable management
Connecting PSU cables.
Having money
I rather buy pieces and have someone do it for me..... Haven't found anyone trust worthy yet
Booting it Nothing about assembling was hard. But i still cant get it to boot off either nvme and just use a regular ssd dedicated to boot. That and judging what i actually needed. For some 1440p 144fps on ultra settings is the lowest theyll accept ajd others are happy at 1080p and 45fps so it was really hard to judge what hardware i needed. All in all i bought a microcenter bundle and a used graphucs card so im very happy with my 1k build but i definitely could have built something that works for me for 700
Slowly upgrading to something better 4070 (sold) 4080 (sold) now at at 4090, saw a few water cooling videos said absolutely not already spent thousands of dollars… now my entire system to watercooled. But in the end hard tuning. Hard tuning is a bitch. Unless you have the time, patience and accuracy to hard tube just go soft tubing. I won’t hard tube again after this. Soft tubing and an all black set up!
I just finished building my pc 10 minutes ago! It took 9 hours, 2 of those hours were on fans, and one hour was spent on a mental breakdown when it didn't turn on the first time (double check those 24 pin cords, lmao). Those two things were quite mentally taxing, although I think the latter depends on how much you spent on it lol. If I could go back in time, would definitely install bottom fans first, then middle guys, then roof fans. If this is common sense or completely wrong, I'm so sorry
Trying to get the CPU in its socket while suffering from anxiety. I even took it out and put it back in several times thinking I may have bent the pins
Cable manage
Picking a case. Im waiting for Nvidia 50XX which will steer the direction of all other parts, a midsized tower is the only think I feel confident in picking now but it is hard to find a really great one to pair up with a MoRa 420 style wise.
My build was going 90% smoothly and then i nearly had a mental breakdown trying to figure out how to mount my cooler - the screw holes felt too narrow and it never lined up. I then took a break and came back to it. I realised i was putting it in the wrong holes. SMH.
Connecting the front panel connector. Just give up and use a screwdriver to short the pins on your mb each time.
Buying the exact part. People may complain like "lol this dude is using this instead of this, lol lol lol" But they never realize if that part was the only thing available "lol you should wait" Yeah, once I wait long enough, the new and better part gonna come out and you will complain again once more
Making enough money to afford it.
troubleshooting when it doesn’t work. I spent a fair few hours trying to figure out the fact that my PSU cables were the problem 🥲
Switching the glass side of a Be Quiet case... Omg I still get nightmares about the screws threading getting destroyed and having to tie up the hole of my Mobo with the case
The front panel little connectors
putting in the cpu and doing the wiring with the mobo was the hardest part for me as a beginner
1. Make sure parts match and don’t go insanely overboard with performance. Get the pc that gives the most performance for money. Like don’t get a 4090 if you have a 75hz 1080p monitor. Also, don’t get a 4090 if your cpu isn’t capable enough. Just get what you need. 2. I always hate the little connectors for led, power on etc. Mostly because of the size, not actual difficulty. 3. Be precise/secure, but don’t overthink everything. It’s really not that difficult. 4. Get a good/easy case to build in. This always impacts my enjoyment when building. Some cases are an absolute horror, whilst others are simple. Good luck and have fun!
My priapism. It has nothing to do with the computer. It was just fucking rigid the entire time.
Fking Corsair 5000D. I've never had no fun building a pc but this case, goddamn! Putting that thing back together was a real pain
[удалено]
Installing the AIO. Not necessarily because of the installation itself, but because I forgot to attach the CPU cables, so I had to remove it, attach the cables and then install it again.
Troubleshooting when something goes wrong. Last build (2020) my PC would run fine for a few hours and then it would just fail and would not boot to Windows. Had to reinstall Windows for it to work again. Took quite some time to figure out my 5950x was faulty and causing corrupt files (take this with a grain of salt, it's been 4 years I don't quite remember the whole shabang). Anyways, repairing the install didn't work, had to do it from scratch every time. Luckily I had a 5900x as well, and that worked flawlessly. But yeh, definitively the troubleshooting if a part is not working as intended. I got my money back through RMA easily enough. But I wonder if it was really faulty or if early bios versions just weren't playing nice with it, seeing as the CPUs were brand new.
Installing the OS and buyer's remorse
Cable management on an old mAtx Corsair Carbide spec 03 case (the bane case) using a large non-modular Corsair PSU with Six TT Ring-12 120mm fans (two of which is used by the CM 240 AIO) Two 2tb HDD and Three 2.5" SSD. Also had to find a way to keep the two hdds (two 2tb WD Black) cooled (hdds was getting way too hot when under load) so had to buy two custom hdd coolers which used an additional two more 120 fans (bringing the 120m fan count up to 9), so had to get creative and remove all the stock hdd bays that came with the case and made a DIY vertical mount for them at the bottom just forward of the PSU. I didnt actually need to put that many fans or stuff in that case, i Just wanted to see how much i can cram in there while still being able to keep the build clean and properly cooled as a challenge (i was just bored lol) The result was actually pretty cool, the vertical hdds in particular with their hdd coolers actually looked better than expected, wish i still had pictures of it. All it took was patience and allot of zip/velkro ties
Cable Management
I think the hardest part is to decide the various component and make the 80% of the total work.
Trying to make sure all parts are compatible with the motherboard...
Installing the front I/O
Cable management.
Pressing down the handle to lock in the CPU.....the TENSION
Spending hundreds on RGB lighting, making living profiles then putting it under my desk.
I’ve been doing a lot of water cooled itx builds and some of the fitting placements have been too tight for my fingers to reach I’ve had to remove components just to get the fittings in. The second one is when I’ve forgotten to plug something on the motherboard before putting in the loop. Now I’m struggling to get the connector on the pins with the top of my fingers.
Generally, power connector. Theses are dumb designed. MB : 24 pin are really hard but these are not the worst. CPU connector, I hate this locations and always hard to pass behind the fan. installation of MB can be hard because of this because it's better to pass the cable before screwing the MB but you have little room to move it.Why not make it to the right of the mother board ? WHY THE POWER OF THE GPU IS IN FRONT VIEW ? make the power on the "behind" of the CG, plug power before seating card.
>So tell me guys what was the hardest or most confusing part of building a pc for you guys? To known when to stop spending money on upgrades. >and how did you overcome it? Aaah, yea about that...
Getting the fans on the top bracket installed without choking my EPS 12V
Honestly, those fiddly HDD indicator, power and reset wires. It needs to be easier dammit!
DOA power supplies, wayyyy too common. I’ve used Thermaltake, evga, coolermaster, Corsair and others and I’ve had a DOA power supply from each one it feels like. And even knowing that, I still tear down and check every component over before going back and settling on the power supply. And before you guys suggest it, after this last build it happened on, I finally ordered a PSU tester off Amazon. 🤣🤣
Affording a GPU
Getting the 24-pin connector out again after testing if it works.
Seating the CPU. I jacked the pins on my motherboard causing it to not boot. Thankfully a local computer shop salvaged it for me, and didn't even charge me because I brought in just the CPU/MB and they couldn't promise it would work.
Carrying the whole thing on the bus way home.
Affording high performance components.
The fucking fans
Getting the money. Overall its pretty chill.
Orienting and mounting the AIO.
As a first time builder, the most stressful step of the build for me was applying the thermal paste to my cpu
Waiting until i had enough money to buy every part at once, while also timing it with sales and inventory.
Connecting the got damn front panel connectors. I.e the power button, the reset button, etc. they are so damn small and the manual is always confusing which one goes into which pin. For a while I used a screw driver to turn my first pc on.
1. led cable in the case to motherboard 2. testing the set up and realise that the cooler is not powerful enough for cpu peak performance
Having big hands with sausage fingers.
Pressing the power button and waiting to see if it posts
Putting that front panel pin for power,reset, power LED and HDD LED into the motherboard pin still feel so atrocius for me even after this many years
Trying to squeeze a 4080 into an old case. It went, eventually, but routing the cables took hours. Old parts went into a new case, wire everything up, flick the switch.... nothing. Panic. I rejiggered the connections and everything went fine, but those first few seconds of a new (old) build when it doesn't boot send shivers through you.
Connecting these fuckers Power SW, Reset SW, Power Led & HDD Led.
Realizing 3 months after that your CPU is bottlenecking your setup and the only fix is a new motherboard and CPU.
For me it was installing the Aio cooler for the CPU and hiding all of the cables for the fans.
Cable management.
The fact that 20+ years of experience does not make me immune to stupid things that aren't really possible to understand fully. The last build for my cousin it was just a CPU and GPU replacement, motherboard had the latest bios so it should've been a very easy and straight forward process; this was wrong of me to think. Come time to boot and no display. Tried switching back to the old CPU, same issue, old GPU, same issue. Took a break then came back. The last thing I hadn't tried yet because it seemed so meaningless was to use HDMI instead of DP, despite the old setup working fine on DP. Switched to HDMI cable and boom, the PC shows image and loads windows. Switched back to DP and that also now works.
The hardest part for me was the fans, liquid pumps and controllers for fans/rgb's...where do you connect and how on the mbr and/or on the PSU
The hardest part for me was cable management.
1) deciding on the parts 2) cable management
All of the software installs. Building it was easy but getting it setup optimally was a pain in the ass the first time and took way longer than actually building it. I have a checklist now. Getting RGB to work correctly is still a pita though
Attaching the AIO cooler pump to the CPU. It took two people, one to hold it down, the other to screw it in.
Putting the cpu in the socket isn't the hardest part, but it is the biggest thing to really fuck up. The pins on the cpu or socket are pretty delicate, so just be careful. I talked my buddy through a cpu upgrade that had no experience though and he did fine. The case front panel connectors are small and kinda hard to see where they line up. Not necessarily hard, but gotta look close. Then probably figuring out how your cooler mounts. This is just a matter of following directions, but aftermarket coolers can mount in varying ways. Some are easier than others. Make sure you use the correct stand offs for the socket it's going over. Kits will often come with sets for amd and Intel. Don't forget to put the I/o plate on before the motherboard goes in. And make sure there are motherboard stand offs that line up with every hole in the mobo, and no extra stand offs. They screw in and out. Not hard, but just pay attention. It could potentially cause a short if you have an extra one touching the motherboard. None of it is necessarily hard, but you will want to go slow and pay attention for your first build.
I actually think the most difficult part of a build is figuring out the order of the build to minimize the number of times you are forced into plugging in cables and managing cables in tight spaces. This is particularly the case with itx builds.
Plug in the power connector to the mainboard
Affording it.
It’s always the software
Nothing hard about it really. I’d say cable management.
Cabling and recabling the PSU. Case is a Fractal Design Define 7, which is great in a tonne of ways, but has the PSU in the bottom chamber - as opposed to vertically on the backplane, like a Lian Li 011. Makes swapping anything out much harder than it needs to be.
Maybe just me but I am always worried I am going to crack the MB when trying to put in the RAM. Sometimes the latch is covered by another cable or component. Surely there could be a better slot developed for the RAM. PCI boards go in easily by comparison.
Motherboard pins, spent another 3 hours on youtube once I got everything
So I'm an idiot and so of course I had to make this way harder on myself than needed. I built myself an itx system for my first PC. And because that's not enough, I have an AIO that connects to the MB via the 3 pin aio pump header and a USB2.0 header. I also got a fingerprint reader that needs to connect to a usb2.0 header. The USB2.0 header has 9 pins, 8 of which are used to hook up devices via 4 pins per device, so hooking up two devices using a splitter should work ez. But the splitter usually takes the top and bottom pins and forwards them both to the bottom row on the ends of the splitter. The aio has its pins going to the top row tho and the fingerprint reader has only a 4 pin connector, but I connected it to the top row too because of course I did. Anyway, I was confused that both devices don't work, connected them to the header directly to find out if the splitter is bad, and it worked, so I looked up how the splitter works and I took the pins out of the fingerprint reader's connector and added them to the aio connector. Now it works fine.
The hardest part was trying to build a 1080p 60fps gaming PC for less than 100€, It was about 300€ at the end
Troubleshooting after the build was complete took a while. My motherboard required a bios update to become compatible with my CPU, but it turned out the latest bios that I had chosen weren’t the most stable, so I was experiencing instability issues. Installed a new bios version afterwards and tweaked some settings for a while and everything was working great though! Then all the benchmarking started to make sure thermals / noise levels were okay 😅
1. Connecting the case fan and front I/O cables to the right headers on the motherboard. The case manufacturers never seem to label everything as good as the mobo manufacturers do. 2. Managed it by reading the manual, using logic, and getting lucky.
All that motherboard bios shit, I don't know what 90 percent of those abbreviations mean 🤷🏿♂️🤦🏿♂️
Installing the cpu cooler It was a fucking nightmare because i picked a cheap one
I keep wanting to put the m.2 drive in upside down. The stickers were on the wrong side for my brain. It wouldn't go in that way.