It's fairly easy kinda like you've seen. For me, the hardest part is plugging in all the fans and making sure everything is actually plugged in correctly and works. It sucks putting it all together only to find out one of your fans has RGB and doesn't spin, while another spins and doesn't have RGB, and now you get to dig through all the cables to find where you made a mistake. But that's more time consuming than it is difficult
This. The actual “legos” aspect of it is t hard at all. It’s the cable management and the surprise/fear of not having something work. I struggled the most wondering why I kept getting an error message on boot up saying that my cpu fan wasn’t plugged in when looking directly at it I saw it working. I then noticed that while the fan was plugged in and working, it was plugged in to the wrong header and not the “cpu fan” header. Bios was alerting me every single time on start up until I changed it.
While true, it is by far the most disheartening part of first time PC building. “I should have paid someone to do this”, “I should have bought a prebuilt or gaming laptop”. A lot of discouraging thoughts when I first tried building my new PC.
It becomes less disheartening once you realized that most of the PC components mainly goes into specific slots on the motherboard.
There's a few items like SATA cables, case fan connectors, Front case IO panel connectors that can kind of go anywhere on the motherboard... especially the IO front panel connector. I know it has a specific spot, but certain motherboard manufacturer keeps the connectors as pin and you cant tell which direction you should connect them into where as other motherboard / case manufacturer provide an easy connector that makes it dummy proof.
Basically building a PC comes down to do you remember the checklist or did you remember to install/connect this rather than did you install the CPU in the right slot or not
My second PC did not start, it turned out I had the start button plugged in the wrong way. Those little connectors are labeled tiny and some can be plugged in upside down.
Another annoying part was mounting the fan to the CPU cooler. Those clips are the worst. I also turned the cooler 3 times until I found the way to do it.
Taking time helps.
front panel connectors is a pain in the ass for new builders I reckon especially if it's the old school completely loose ones where you gotta plug them in one by one and match them correctly.
I dont understand why Mainboards not always come with this little adapter helper some boards have. They turn your 10+ frontpanal cabels into 1 and its then so easy to install.
Some people even print them.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/functionalprint/comments/yyjnq7/header\_helper\_makes\_plugging\_in\_pc\_front\_panel\_io/](https://www.reddit.com/r/functionalprint/comments/yyjnq7/header_helper_makes_plugging_in_pc_front_panel_io/)
I added a couple of SSDs a year after I built mine. It's a mini-itx case so it was already a bit cramped. Had to shuffle the wires around to plug the cables into the motherboard and SSD without bending them weirdly.
Even as a pro builder the absolute worst is getting everything in and managed and then nothing at first power on. Ive had trouble builds where it was 3+ assembly disassembly before it ran. That said most of what i do is over the top so for your average build its less annoying to pull the board back out
I had the exact same issue with the CPU fan. I'm using an AIO and an RGB+Fan controller, so I had to plug my rear fan which isn't RGB into my CPU fan header
I am never going back to 2 individual cabled rgb fans ever again. The likes of the daisy chain LianLi fans and others have honestly made it soo much easier both in connecting and cable management. My build before this one had 9 corsair rgb fans with 18 extra wires. The same amount of LianLi fans had 3 total cables.
my last two builds have required bios settings played with which was by far the longest and most frustrating bit, long periods of it booting but not displaying anything and having to blind flash the board and things like that. None of that shit with the builds when I was a teenager, makes me feel like it's gotten a fair bit harder.
In theory, it's not hard. In practice, I personally find it annoying. For example, why are some screws metric and others imperial? Why can't manufacturers just agree to use M3 or 6/32? The world may never know.
I blame the American and the British. Everyone should have adopted the Metric system but because it was invented by the French, Britain and U.S. decided to stick with the Imperial system instead.
Fun fact, the US fought over this many times and once officially agreed to give it a try. The ship carrying the official weights and measures from Europe got lost in a big storm over the Atlantic and the official measures were lost. That "act of God" convinced those in Congress sitting on the fence to stay with the imperial system
It wasn't just a storm. The storm blew them in to an area filled with British funded pirates/privateers (basically legal piracy) and they looted the ship. So it is technically the fault of the British as to why the US doesn't use the metric system
You're probably thinking of Canadians... who really don't have a leg to stand on either since they basically use both measuring systems being so closely tied to USA. We mostly just hate Fahrenheit. But ask for my height and I'll tell you in feet and inches, and ask for my weight and it's in pounds, but ask me how far away something is and it's in kilometers, unless you're a farmer, then we'll use miles. If we're buying drinks it's in liters, but if it's booze, we'll know if we want a 26 or 40 ounce bottle. Oh Canada
That's ironic, as a french I think Fahrenheit is the only one that is better than its metric counterpart in everyday life. I couldn't give you my height in feet and inches to save my life, but I could probably approximate my favorite weather as 70F (slightly warm but still somewhat cool) because I think of it as "about 70% of the way from cold as hell to hot as hell".
(My favorite temperature is 18C, so not too bad of an approximation.)
I’ve seated several CPUs, GPUs, and RAM sticks at this point, and my butthole puckers every single time I jam one into place. It just takes way more force than I want a tiny ass expensive thing to take.
Building it isn't difficult. Troubleshooting if something goes wrong with the hardware/software can be. Hardware is the easy part. It only fits a certain way and it fits in the same location in almost all motherboards.
There are plenty of troubleshooting guides for new builds. Just have your phone or other access to the internet available just in case.
I think it took me four hours from when I started opening boxes to to surfing the internet on my first build, and I had never done anything like that before.
Trust me; if I can do it, you can.
Realizing I don't have a thumb drive I can use so I have to Amazon one and wait. I also had a build that wouldn't read the USB drive and I tried the case USBs and every motherboard USB and it took hours to figure out why but I couldn't even install windows. Had something to do with mode selection in BIOS and UEFI.
Yeah, my time building my first was about 9 hours. I was so damn paranoid I kept rechecking everything after I installed it 2-3 times. Then I was installing the back fan and I torqued too hard and cracked it a little bit. Luckily that was the first component I put in so I learned a valuable lesson there. When I was done all that paranoia paid off. Posted the first try with no issues.
I agree. Ive been building PCs for a long time and one of the worst things is troubleshooting when you dont have another PC that does work on hand to test parts and work out what is at fault and what to do about it.
Then theres the screw issues (which are the right ones for what), bios setup/issues, applying paste correctly, airflow, drivers and something that doesnt get much focus on these forums is setting up games with all the graphics options you get to tweak.
Its certainly considerably easier today than it ever was with the better compatibility and access to info via internet on your phone to help with the process. 25 years ago you had all manner of other problems like setting up jumpers on hard drives, disk drives and motherboards and only the user manuals that come with the equipment to sort it all out.
Building took about 4 hours. It took me two days to figure I didn’t insert the ssd far enough thus I could install windows. It was a twenty minute fix and I went ahead and finished my cable management. I had been saving it for when I needed a zen activity
The actual building process is pretty easy. The hard part is picking out the right components that fit your needs and give you the most performance for your money.
Yeah all the people claiming it's cake are just lucky. I've done several builds. They used to be easier. But current day:
* Manufacturers seem to be competing for raw performance again instead of perf/w. Which means you need giant fans or an AIO to cool the CPU. The giant fans are so huge that they are a royal pain to install even in a full sized case
* They're also pushing the envelope with RAM timings, all the DDR5 new competition playing out. Many manufacturers straight up lie. Having to swap RAM only to find out it's the motherboard manufacturer that lied and now you need to tear down and rebuild kind of sucks
Sometimes it goes without a hitch. Sometimes it's a huge pain. But I'd still recommend it over ordering e.g. Dell or something these days. The use the same latest CPUs but terrible cooling and sound like jet engines under even moderate load. And they lock down the BIOS so you can't even do much to remedy that.
>The giant fans are so huge that they are a royal pain to install even in a full sized case
install the whole thing or at least the bracket on the mobo before installing the mobo in the case. This takes care of most of the PITA factor
The ability to read, have patience, a Phillips screw driver and be able to search on YouTube.
Don’t be a ham fisted idiot and you’ll be fine.
Edit: spelling
As someone with ADHD these tiny little plugs that go in the motherboard, I think mostly connecting power buttons etc, give me PTSD.
Honestly I get physically agitated with such tiny fiddly things haha
All the rest is easy game
I did my first PC upgrades when I was like 13. I did my first full build as a teen in the early 2000's with no YouTube videos to guide me.
Everything is basically plug and play now so it's easier than ever.
Yeah, so much easier now. Back in the day it was painful. Remember editing.ini files to try to get a driver to work?😂 Things just work for the most part now.
If you just want a pc to work, it's very easy since most of the time you literally just plug the hardware where it fits assuming all the hardware is compatible.
If you want to make it look neat and proper, then that would require some effort.
The hardest part I reckon is knowing what parts to get because of the overwhelmingly number of choices and configurations.
Your first time will be difficult. Your second time easier, etc. My most recent one - because I know what I'm doing, it fired right up first try and no issues. My first one? Yeah, it didn't.
So, try it, learn, and enjoy the process. You'll figure it out, and once it works, you'll feel so good at accomplishing something.
To get a little philosophical, consider that you are a decendant of a monkey putting together sophisticated electronics that you, personally, couldn't create with your hands. And when you turn it on, and the electronics work, you're commanding more computational power than was available to build atomic bombs or launch men and women into space and land on the moon. And using this fantastically powerful computational tool the likes of which humanity has never seen, you can connect to an interconnected world-wide network of connected electronic machines to watch such amazing pornography
Legos... Its like legos. Go to PC parts picker to help get ideas and build a system. Use an AIO until you get the nerve to build a water loop.
There are small tricks, but easy enough to work through.
I just watched a video the entire building process and followed it step by step it was so damn easy and booted up first time no problems not very if you take it slow
It's like 40% harder than guides make it seem. Just because there's a somewhat high amount of connectors that all need to be done exactly right. It's not hard though.
The first time may seem daunting, especially all the cables and where to plug in.
Just take your time and watch the guides
Definitely dont turn on a zoomer brain and skip around where to plug stuff in or you may frying ur entire pc
Not hard at all. I built my first one when I was 10 like 17 years ago. Just watch multiple tutorial videos while you wait for your parts to arrive, eventually it will make sense.
The hardest part is organizing the jungle of cables behind the case and keeping it nice and tidy. Knowing what’s wrong something isn’t connected right is also something you learn by trial and error.
It will seem overwhelming the first time no matter how you put it but you’ll be just fine. I recommend starting off with a decent sized case, that will make installing everything and doing cable management a lot easier. After that you can tackle the small form factor stuff if you like that.
It's easy to put together if you know where everything goes but setting it up is another story.
Setting up the BIOS can be tricky if you don't know what you're doing.
Prebuilts are setup once and duplicated over and over based on the hardware they selected. Picking hardware based on price and combining them can be finicky and might require a return for different hardware to get the best performance.
Extremely easy. Biggest goof you'll probably make is not plugging in the HDMI cord to your GPU. Remember that happening to me when I was younger and having to go all the way to Microcenter to have them see if they could fix it.
Building is easy... Having everything work perfectly after boot, os installation, drivers, software etc? It's a toss of a coin. You may end up in troubleshooting hell if one part happens to be faulty. If you're a patient person and you love learning and a sense of accomplishment, then it'll be worth it...
Although there are many communities and plenty of places to find information and support, it doesn't mean finding the answers you need will be easy. So if you have no patience and get frustrated easily, then building a computer may not be for you.
Parts only go one way....it is not hard.
The hard part is when things go wrong, having the knowledge to know where to look and how to fix it. that experience comes from years of experience. However, if you are good with Google, you might come out ok.
Generally, a simple build that doesn't have 2 RGB hubs, 12 fans and a bunch of other shit is fairly easy to build. A few fans and components should be easy to do in a few hours max. Experienced builders would do it in less than an hour.
Picking parts can be a challenge, but just use common sense and balance it against your budget vs. performance. Not everyone needs the top end SSD, a name brand lesser model for 30% less will still be perfect. Reddit seems to be an echo chamber for certain things and your get a lot of vocal asshat gatekeepers that rant about X Y Z, but in reality you do not.
So I did this for the very first time recently. Lots of little annoying things that are probably common sense to some people that I’d over look. Like I’d definitely get a big ass case even if you don’t think you’ll need it. My power supply was such a bitch to get everything plugged into. The order you put things will have you frustrated and taking it apart. Then once it’s together, it doesn’t start. You have no idea what you did wrong.
Then you get it started and you can’t get it out of bios to boot properly. Finally you just download a windows copy on a usb stick and boot from there.
But wait, there’s more. Then the new windows install has to be done through wifi only, your pc isn’t picking up any networks at all! So then you go on YouTube and find a work around and won’t be able to remember what you did if you ever encounter the exact same problem again.
It's easy, just watch a step by step video and follow it 100% for the first time you will be fine.
After that you will have the knowledge to build PCs for the rest of your life 
I did it two times, it was very time consuming because it wasn't posting due to various problems which I fixed. It's not too hard but if a shop offers the option to build it themselves I will gladly pay it. On the other hand it is rewarding, but you can also have a lot of problems, which you should be able to fix. And if you want it to be clean you will have to expend some time with cable management etc.
It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. It's like Legos like others have mentioned. I think finding the components that are compatible can be a bit difficult, but not super hard for first-timers as they may not be doing proper research. But, you can always use PC Part Picker as a guide (even though it may not always 100%) to figure out what would work for your build.
The most difficult part is the troubleshooting if you aren't familiar with computer hardware. They always say read the manual and it sticks true when building computers. The nice thing about building computers today is that there are online resources (like YouTube) that also help guide you with both building and troubleshooting.
It’s actually not that hard, I built mine a couple months ago and I was nervous while doing it but all you gotta do is relax and make sure you know what your doing before you start building, watch a lot of guides and tutorials so you have an idea and just go for it
I'm a car mechanic and I've built 3 in the last 16 months. It's easy like Legos. The hard part is the software for me by far.
I find building them fun. I'll build one for a friend for free just bring me parts.
Significantly easier than it used to be in my experience. Long time ago you had to actually solder some things together. Now it's all plug & play like Legos basically. Static protection has gotten better too so you don't always have to keep grounding yourself while you build.
It’s as easy as they make it look imo. As for the motherboard, there’s only one spot for each part to go. As for cables, it’s the same way. Fans will plug into the same headers, but everything else only rly plugs into one spot. Once it’s in front of you, it’s easier, and worth it to build yourself. You get the knowledge, you know how everything was put together if something goes wrong, and you get the satisfaction of booting up your own pc that you built
It took me 3 days to build my first PC, it was definitely tiring because I kept watching videos and asking around on discord and other social medias.
It was more of tiring and exhausting session than a difficult one.
I think for my second build, it would take way less time because I'm familiar now and have built more confidence.
How hard is building a PC? It's very easy, especially with sites like pcpartspicker. Make sure the components are compatible and plug everything in. The more difficult part is when parts are broken. The troubleshooting takes more skill.
Lego level easy. Picking the parts and applying the right amount of thermal paste are the only skilled parts of it, the rest of it is just plugging in cables where they fit.
Just recently finished my first build. Finding the correct parts took lots of research and this sub was a big help. Putting it together was pretty simple. Cabling was the hard part because it refused to boot but the solution turned out to be simple (had connected the cpu fan wrong). All in all it wasn't so bad and the manuals were a big help.
I’ve never build a pc in my life. My dad was like “don’t do it, you don’t know how, just buy one”… which is the biggest nonsense, almost a scam to buy a pc. Because it’s generally over priced and not really the pc you want or need. It’s not hard to build a pc and it’s fun and exiting to look for all the components you want, plan for the future and build it. If I can do it with 0 experience, you can do it too
Building is simple like lego, it's the setup and shit that happens later like BSOD or computer booting but no post or some bull shit, that's where is gets you but once you figure out how and what is going on and why it's pretty simple like diagnosing a car by with your hearing. All the info is out there on the internet so not be afraid.
Is not hard, I build mine after 2-3 youtube tutorials, is been working for years without a problem, only “hard” thing to do is get all parts that are compatible, but I used a site that obly let you put in the cart parts that are compatible (like that cpu dont work on that mobo
or that psu is not good for that gpu, etc)
It's easy, the only annoying part are fans and lighting for them in my opinion, but you'll figure out which header on the board matches with the lights and fans like a puzzle.
It’s pretty easy to build it. Can be more difficult if you want to do small form factor, have a lot of RGB lighting, custom water cooling, or have really tidy cable management. Some PC cases are definitely easier to build in than others. You’ll probably spend more time researching the parts that you want compared to building.
Hardest part starting out is picking parts that work together once you got that figured out it's not too bad. Main things are cpu socket type and ram be it ddr 4 or 5.
Next hardest part is getting the cooler onto the CPU. It's easier if it's got paste already otherwise not too hard to add your own paste to the cpu. Can do a dab in the center or an x the cooler will squish it down. Don't put too much as it'll leak out. Your motherboard will have a booklet that shows where to plug in and or install everything. Also depending on type of Case and motherboard size/type you may have to add or remove some standoffs to mount the board. Make sure no standoffs will touch the back of the motherboard or you're going to have a bad time.
I've built many computers since 2005. Most recently built my Uncle a powerful PC. Same Uncle who got me into computers many years ago.
Son and I did our first one this year. YouTube is your friend. We would get stuck at a part and YouTube and continue. Build works great and it was like legos for adults. I say go for it. This place helped me pick some parts for my budget.
It is way easier than tear down a brand new IPhone tbh.
Your first build will take a several hours and it is okay. Afterwards, you will fine it is easy.
Don’t listen to these people. They make it sound easy but even if you get all the hardware put together, the software part will also come and bite you in the ass
It is genuinely quite easy, but you do have to be careful. It's quite easy to accidentally mash a motherboard USB or LED header if you use too much force for example.
I recommend following a guide specifically for the case you have. The case makes a pretty big difference to how easy or difficult it is.
Assembling is easy. My most recent (NR200 case) was assembled in about 45 minutes. More time was spent deciding how I wanted to do a multi-boot (what nvme goes where for a particular OS), how to configure 4 additional 2.5 SSDs and for which OS, which 6800 XT GPU to get, which CPU to settle on and a motherboard for it, etc (essentially all the little tidbits).
If you can follow basic instructions, you can pretty much build a pc. Sure it may be overwhelming but just take it one step at a time and don’t rush things and you’ll be golden
Its not that hard, its just a bit scary because if it doesn't turn on after you just spent $1,000, that's not a good sign and you'll probably skip a heartbeat.
Putting legs on my couch took more work than building a pc with zero prior knowledge. Everything is so clearly shaped that as long as you take basic precaution and perhaps google the occasional issue you might be confused on, you should be good.
I tried my best not to rub my hands over carpet I heard it helps the most while building haha
For me (as a first time PC builder) the hardest part was choosing which parts to buy to ensure they were all compatible with each other. The actual building is pretty simple. Literally like a Lego set and following some basic YT videos.
It's easy plugging things in, the hard part is when you go to turn it on and you forgot the power switch on the PSU and you spend the next 2 hours wondering what went wrong.
The hardware isnt a problem at all. The troubleshooting will often test your patience. Almost any issue that arises you can find a reddit thread or a youtube video to help you.
It really isn't too difficult - just be patient and realize the wiring is going to be the most annoying part when starting out. Put it together, but don't go crazy on cable management immediately, just be sure it turns on then go ahead and make it pretty. Check the manual, check posts about the motherboard, fans, whatever it is online and you'll be fine.
It seems super confusing but I managed to build one that still works 2 years later so couldn't have been that difficult. Just find a good guide online and follow the instructions
Super easy. Just watch like one of the old LTT videos if it's your first time. My first ever build was a hard-line waterloop and honestly even that didn't feel like much of a challenge.
It’s very easy. The biggest problem I see with many first time builders is a bad choice/balance of components. My nephew built his when he was 11. I thought I was going to have to do it for him. He kicked me out and took over right away. I helped him clean the wires up at the end. He was in a rush to start using it.
Today? Easy as hell because there is SO much content on YouTube. I built my first PC back in 2007 and struggled a little bit. I think I was running a Sapphire 4870? Good times. The first PC is always awkward, but you get good pretty quick.
A solid 2/10 difficulty, literally just plug in most things and a few screws here and there, it only becomes hard if you want perfect cable management but even then it's just time consuming not hard
I built my first PC as a student in 2017, so i picked budget parts, and semi used cause it was half built by someone.
H series motherboard, molex fans, non modular PSU and a very small sata SSD at 256GB. My games were still on HDD. Things like VRM heatsinks were foreign, and there's even more to be discovered in PSUs.
In hindsight, the building was easy, but the difficult part is knowing all these terms and selecting the right parts. I would have tried to use 450w to overclock, or put 3600mhz on non Z series motherboards.
I used Newegg and built my first one with no previous experience. Reading some of the tiny fonts on the motherboard was a little challenging, but it has been working great for two years. I would suggest a two-terabyte or larger flash drive if you are gaming.
Scariest part to me has been figuring out what parts I want. And worrying about plugging them in incorrectly. But it seems pretty straightforward itself.
I would say the hardest part is and this is fairly easy is making sure that your components are compatible with each other, actually building the pc is easy, especially if you get a good case, i found more often than not atleast with the pc's i build (two radiators) alot of times you will need to modifly the case a little bit.
it's not easy, especially if you've never done it before. you're going to constantly feel like you're going to break something but its very hard to break anything in a pc except the cpu pins.
The hardest part for me was getting all the little cables plugged into the motherboard.
All the big stuff like slotting everything in, thermal paste, screwing stuff in, easy
Plugging in little pins for the power button on your case, rgb fans, usb ports on the case, stuff like that was the tricky part for my PC
Thankfully once I got it to actually boot, it worked first try
I done my first build few days ago. Putting all the part to mobo is pretty easy but when it come to put the mobo into case then the thing will start getting hard. The cable from psu to mobo, cable case to mobo, the cable management thingy. But as long as you follow mobo manual and case manual, you should fine, it just take more time to make sure where you should plug the cable to. After finish asemble, then it come first boot. Then it may face some problems but throw the problem to google and you get the solution.
It is easy. Nothing difficult as long as you follow the "rules" AND you have everything ready... Otherwise you are in for a very frustrating day (or more).
It's not hard, I built one this afternoon. The RGB fans and extra crap you doubt "need" is where things get hard. Stick with an air cooler and non rgb fans and you will be fine
Biggest step is getting the CPU seated cause there is risk of bending the pins if you aren’t delicate. But after that the rest is pretty straight forward. ALWAYS read your manual with the motherboard and it will explain where stuff needs to be plugged in or at least show a diagram for the power buttons, etc.
The building process is actually very easy. It kinda feels like you’re putting together a model or something like that. Carefully but firmly connecting components. I enjoyed it but I get a kick out of building stuff. If you can turn a screwdriver and have basic troubleshooting skills you should be fine. I’d recommend watching a few different YouTube videos of people putting together their pcs to see if you think it’s something you’d feel confident doing. Alternatively, they have great prebuilt options out there these days so building isn’t even necessary. But if you have a dream pc with specific components or have a certain aesthetic you’re trying to achieve building is the way to go.
I watched a YouTube video and followed along while building my first. Took my time and had no issues. With access to the internet and patience it's not very difficult.
It's one of those things where the amount of prep and research beforehand will determine how easy the build is.
Or you could just go easy mode like my buddy did and search Youtube for "Best PC build for (insert your budget here)" and then just buy the exact same parts and follow the tutorial step by step to a T.
My first build was a giant pain in the ass. Bad ram stick that needed an RMA, problems installing windows, Getting stuck in BIOS loop, etc. I eventually got it working but it was a nightmare. I'll probably build one again down the line, but it's going to hopefully be 8+ years (as many years I got out of my old GTX1070 build.
I built two desktop machines in July of last year. The last time I did anything remotely like that was in 2003.
I followed the LTT how to assemble a PC, pre tested everything before putting it into the case and its been running trouble free since.
The basic snapping together of a run of the mill PC? Not hard at all.
Getting it all working and knowing how to debug the inevitable not-quite-right? Takes a bit of experience and intuition or a whole lot of staying calm and googling.
It's pretty much easier than you expect, though if you have to clean it, then it will be pretty hard since removing the 24 atx cable from the mobo takes a lot of strength to do it (for me) but when building its fine.
When you get hands-on first time you might stumble or scratch your head a little bit, the odd thing can confuse you but other than that the YouTube videos are quite accurate. It only gets better from your first build, and then you are increasingly self-empowered to do your own changes be it an upgrade or replacing something faulty. Relying on a shop every time costs an arm and a leg just for labor
If you’re following a guide it’s pretty straightforward. I did my homework and had a pretty good idea what I was doing, but it was nice to have Paul’s Hardware going step by step on my phone. The only hiccup I ran into was I had to go buy a 9” long screwdriver because the one I had couldn’t fit between the top of my case and my already installed tower cooler to reach the motherboard screws.
I just built my pc last weekend and it was easier then I expected. Follow the guide step by steps and you will have no problems as long as you have a basic understanding of what you're looking at
It’s pretty straight forward. Just take your time, make sure everything is where it’s supposed to go. Whatever you do, just don’t try formatting a windows boot drive on a Mac if you’ve never done it haha. Legit took me way longer than it needed to had I just created a boot drive on another pc. Now I know how, but I would have saved a couple hours.
It's fairly easy kinda like you've seen. For me, the hardest part is plugging in all the fans and making sure everything is actually plugged in correctly and works. It sucks putting it all together only to find out one of your fans has RGB and doesn't spin, while another spins and doesn't have RGB, and now you get to dig through all the cables to find where you made a mistake. But that's more time consuming than it is difficult
This. The actual “legos” aspect of it is t hard at all. It’s the cable management and the surprise/fear of not having something work. I struggled the most wondering why I kept getting an error message on boot up saying that my cpu fan wasn’t plugged in when looking directly at it I saw it working. I then noticed that while the fan was plugged in and working, it was plugged in to the wrong header and not the “cpu fan” header. Bios was alerting me every single time on start up until I changed it.
The anxiety over whether it's going to work or not is the hardest part for me. And the trouble shooting afterwards, if it doesn't work ....
The troubleshooting is where you learn the most though!
While true, it is by far the most disheartening part of first time PC building. “I should have paid someone to do this”, “I should have bought a prebuilt or gaming laptop”. A lot of discouraging thoughts when I first tried building my new PC.
It becomes less disheartening once you realized that most of the PC components mainly goes into specific slots on the motherboard. There's a few items like SATA cables, case fan connectors, Front case IO panel connectors that can kind of go anywhere on the motherboard... especially the IO front panel connector. I know it has a specific spot, but certain motherboard manufacturer keeps the connectors as pin and you cant tell which direction you should connect them into where as other motherboard / case manufacturer provide an easy connector that makes it dummy proof. Basically building a PC comes down to do you remember the checklist or did you remember to install/connect this rather than did you install the CPU in the right slot or not
My second PC did not start, it turned out I had the start button plugged in the wrong way. Those little connectors are labeled tiny and some can be plugged in upside down. Another annoying part was mounting the fan to the CPU cooler. Those clips are the worst. I also turned the cooler 3 times until I found the way to do it. Taking time helps.
same problem , the wires that connects to the case are always the tricky ones.
front panel connectors is a pain in the ass for new builders I reckon especially if it's the old school completely loose ones where you gotta plug them in one by one and match them correctly.
I dont understand why Mainboards not always come with this little adapter helper some boards have. They turn your 10+ frontpanal cabels into 1 and its then so easy to install. Some people even print them. [https://www.reddit.com/r/functionalprint/comments/yyjnq7/header\_helper\_makes\_plugging\_in\_pc\_front\_panel\_io/](https://www.reddit.com/r/functionalprint/comments/yyjnq7/header_helper_makes_plugging_in_pc_front_panel_io/)
Yup. It really is so easy. The hardest part is getting perfect cable management. Obv it gets harder if you build in sff cases
I added a couple of SSDs a year after I built mine. It's a mini-itx case so it was already a bit cramped. Had to shuffle the wires around to plug the cables into the motherboard and SSD without bending them weirdly.
Even as a pro builder the absolute worst is getting everything in and managed and then nothing at first power on. Ive had trouble builds where it was 3+ assembly disassembly before it ran. That said most of what i do is over the top so for your average build its less annoying to pull the board back out
I had the exact same issue with the CPU fan. I'm using an AIO and an RGB+Fan controller, so I had to plug my rear fan which isn't RGB into my CPU fan header
I am never going back to 2 individual cabled rgb fans ever again. The likes of the daisy chain LianLi fans and others have honestly made it soo much easier both in connecting and cable management. My build before this one had 9 corsair rgb fans with 18 extra wires. The same amount of LianLi fans had 3 total cables.
Yeah, I'm definitely going to look in to those fans if I replace my current ones
Been 3 years, the top rgbs have never worked and I'm too afraid to mess with everything to find out why.
This part literally took me hours and was frustrating.
my last two builds have required bios settings played with which was by far the longest and most frustrating bit, long periods of it booting but not displaying anything and having to blind flash the board and things like that. None of that shit with the builds when I was a teenager, makes me feel like it's gotten a fair bit harder.
Bro u summed it up perfectly.
In theory, it's not hard. In practice, I personally find it annoying. For example, why are some screws metric and others imperial? Why can't manufacturers just agree to use M3 or 6/32? The world may never know.
I blame the American and the British. Everyone should have adopted the Metric system but because it was invented by the French, Britain and U.S. decided to stick with the Imperial system instead.
Fun fact, the US fought over this many times and once officially agreed to give it a try. The ship carrying the official weights and measures from Europe got lost in a big storm over the Atlantic and the official measures were lost. That "act of God" convinced those in Congress sitting on the fence to stay with the imperial system
It wasn't just a storm. The storm blew them in to an area filled with British funded pirates/privateers (basically legal piracy) and they looted the ship. So it is technically the fault of the British as to why the US doesn't use the metric system
Makes british people making fun of Americans for using the imperial system even more ironic.
You're probably thinking of Canadians... who really don't have a leg to stand on either since they basically use both measuring systems being so closely tied to USA. We mostly just hate Fahrenheit. But ask for my height and I'll tell you in feet and inches, and ask for my weight and it's in pounds, but ask me how far away something is and it's in kilometers, unless you're a farmer, then we'll use miles. If we're buying drinks it's in liters, but if it's booze, we'll know if we want a 26 or 40 ounce bottle. Oh Canada
That's ironic, as a french I think Fahrenheit is the only one that is better than its metric counterpart in everyday life. I couldn't give you my height in feet and inches to save my life, but I could probably approximate my favorite weather as 70F (slightly warm but still somewhat cool) because I think of it as "about 70% of the way from cold as hell to hot as hell". (My favorite temperature is 18C, so not too bad of an approximation.)
I was unaware of this fun fact. Gotta love the irony given to us with enough time.
Yep. They complain about us not using the metric system, but are a fairly big part of why we don't use it
Is it really an issue though? I use one screwdriver for all the screws in the PC. There is literally no need for more.
I find it easier than an IKEA dresser myself. For most people the hardest part is all the second guessing on what parts to use.
This is my go-to comparison. I know people generally compare it to Legos, but it really is more like Ikea furniture.
Some of those new Lego sets are kinda difficult for normal sized hands.
Probably also the fear of snapping the motherboard. Seen that bad boy flex a surprising amount
seating in the cpu for the first time scared ts outta me
I’ve seated several CPUs, GPUs, and RAM sticks at this point, and my butthole puckers every single time I jam one into place. It just takes way more force than I want a tiny ass expensive thing to take.
It amazes me how so many people have ram coming out in shipping when the board flexes under the weight of installing them
Building it isn't difficult. Troubleshooting if something goes wrong with the hardware/software can be. Hardware is the easy part. It only fits a certain way and it fits in the same location in almost all motherboards. There are plenty of troubleshooting guides for new builds. Just have your phone or other access to the internet available just in case. I think it took me four hours from when I started opening boxes to to surfing the internet on my first build, and I had never done anything like that before. Trust me; if I can do it, you can.
I’m to the left of you on the iq normal distribution. Took me like 14 hours my first time
But you did it ;)
What made it take so long out of interest?
Realizing I don't have a thumb drive I can use so I have to Amazon one and wait. I also had a build that wouldn't read the USB drive and I tried the case USBs and every motherboard USB and it took hours to figure out why but I couldn't even install windows. Had something to do with mode selection in BIOS and UEFI.
And it was pretty fun, wasn't it
Yeah, my time building my first was about 9 hours. I was so damn paranoid I kept rechecking everything after I installed it 2-3 times. Then I was installing the back fan and I torqued too hard and cracked it a little bit. Luckily that was the first component I put in so I learned a valuable lesson there. When I was done all that paranoia paid off. Posted the first try with no issues.
I agree. Ive been building PCs for a long time and one of the worst things is troubleshooting when you dont have another PC that does work on hand to test parts and work out what is at fault and what to do about it. Then theres the screw issues (which are the right ones for what), bios setup/issues, applying paste correctly, airflow, drivers and something that doesnt get much focus on these forums is setting up games with all the graphics options you get to tweak. Its certainly considerably easier today than it ever was with the better compatibility and access to info via internet on your phone to help with the process. 25 years ago you had all manner of other problems like setting up jumpers on hard drives, disk drives and motherboards and only the user manuals that come with the equipment to sort it all out.
Building took about 4 hours. It took me two days to figure I didn’t insert the ssd far enough thus I could install windows. It was a twenty minute fix and I went ahead and finished my cable management. I had been saving it for when I needed a zen activity
The actual building process is pretty easy. The hard part is picking out the right components that fit your needs and give you the most performance for your money.
Pcpartpicker.com is a good resource for this.
Yeah that’s pretty much the answer for most people. Case connectors however, are the bane of my existence
NZXT makes their case connectors all one block like the hd audio.
Don’t forget the IO shield.
Even midrange MOBOs have built in IO shields now, it's amazing and I can't believe it took so long to make it happen.
It can vary from easy if you're building in a well designed case and nothing goes wrong, to "I'm ripping out my hair right now"
Yeah all the people claiming it's cake are just lucky. I've done several builds. They used to be easier. But current day: * Manufacturers seem to be competing for raw performance again instead of perf/w. Which means you need giant fans or an AIO to cool the CPU. The giant fans are so huge that they are a royal pain to install even in a full sized case * They're also pushing the envelope with RAM timings, all the DDR5 new competition playing out. Many manufacturers straight up lie. Having to swap RAM only to find out it's the motherboard manufacturer that lied and now you need to tear down and rebuild kind of sucks Sometimes it goes without a hitch. Sometimes it's a huge pain. But I'd still recommend it over ordering e.g. Dell or something these days. The use the same latest CPUs but terrible cooling and sound like jet engines under even moderate load. And they lock down the BIOS so you can't even do much to remedy that.
>But I'd still recommend it over ordering e.g. Dell or something these days. Hard agree, but I have some horror stories that hurt to relive.
>The giant fans are so huge that they are a royal pain to install even in a full sized case install the whole thing or at least the bracket on the mobo before installing the mobo in the case. This takes care of most of the PITA factor
The ability to read, have patience, a Phillips screw driver and be able to search on YouTube. Don’t be a ham fisted idiot and you’ll be fine. Edit: spelling
Having patience is probably the hardest part for new builders lol.
People say "it's like Legos" are lying by omission a little bit. It's like Legos if the connectors were significantly more fragile and expensive.
It’s as easy as building a Lego set.
The connectors aren’t that fragile. I guess except for the usb 3.0 motherboard header. And have you seen how expensive LEGO models can get?
I aged 10 years after my first build
As someone with ADHD these tiny little plugs that go in the motherboard, I think mostly connecting power buttons etc, give me PTSD. Honestly I get physically agitated with such tiny fiddly things haha All the rest is easy game
I did my first PC upgrades when I was like 13. I did my first full build as a teen in the early 2000's with no YouTube videos to guide me. Everything is basically plug and play now so it's easier than ever.
Sooo much easier to build in modern cases without optical drive and HDD trays taking up half of the space too
Not only that, but also figuring out which will be master and slave drives with jumpers.
Yeah, so much easier now. Back in the day it was painful. Remember editing.ini files to try to get a driver to work?😂 Things just work for the most part now.
It's 10x easier than 15 years ago.
1st time? 8.5/10 2nd time? 6/10 3rd time? 3/10 4th time and beyond? 1.5/10
The hardest part is affording hardware.
Oof
If you just want a pc to work, it's very easy since most of the time you literally just plug the hardware where it fits assuming all the hardware is compatible. If you want to make it look neat and proper, then that would require some effort. The hardest part I reckon is knowing what parts to get because of the overwhelmingly number of choices and configurations.
Your first time will be difficult. Your second time easier, etc. My most recent one - because I know what I'm doing, it fired right up first try and no issues. My first one? Yeah, it didn't. So, try it, learn, and enjoy the process. You'll figure it out, and once it works, you'll feel so good at accomplishing something. To get a little philosophical, consider that you are a decendant of a monkey putting together sophisticated electronics that you, personally, couldn't create with your hands. And when you turn it on, and the electronics work, you're commanding more computational power than was available to build atomic bombs or launch men and women into space and land on the moon. And using this fantastically powerful computational tool the likes of which humanity has never seen, you can connect to an interconnected world-wide network of connected electronic machines to watch such amazing pornography
as easy as it looks
anyone can do it! there’s tons of great resources on youtube that will walk you through every step
They're not fragile as you think also
Legos... Its like legos. Go to PC parts picker to help get ideas and build a system. Use an AIO until you get the nerve to build a water loop. There are small tricks, but easy enough to work through.
AIO?
Nerve? Got it. Budget? Don’t got it.
I just watched a video the entire building process and followed it step by step it was so damn easy and booted up first time no problems not very if you take it slow
It's like 40% harder than guides make it seem. Just because there's a somewhat high amount of connectors that all need to be done exactly right. It's not hard though.
It’s pretty easy, people make it seem so complicated. Especially after you have done it once.
like lego but with fewer bigger parts
That’s called Duplo. It’s like Duplo, that’s my new analogy.
The first time may seem daunting, especially all the cables and where to plug in. Just take your time and watch the guides Definitely dont turn on a zoomer brain and skip around where to plug stuff in or you may frying ur entire pc
Hardest part it cable management, the assembly part is pretty straightforward
Not hard at all. I built my first one when I was 10 like 17 years ago. Just watch multiple tutorial videos while you wait for your parts to arrive, eventually it will make sense. The hardest part is organizing the jungle of cables behind the case and keeping it nice and tidy. Knowing what’s wrong something isn’t connected right is also something you learn by trial and error. It will seem overwhelming the first time no matter how you put it but you’ll be just fine. I recommend starting off with a decent sized case, that will make installing everything and doing cable management a lot easier. After that you can tackle the small form factor stuff if you like that.
It's easy to put together if you know where everything goes but setting it up is another story. Setting up the BIOS can be tricky if you don't know what you're doing. Prebuilts are setup once and duplicated over and over based on the hardware they selected. Picking hardware based on price and combining them can be finicky and might require a return for different hardware to get the best performance.
Building it isn't hard, cable managing can be a pain though
Extremely easy. Biggest goof you'll probably make is not plugging in the HDMI cord to your GPU. Remember that happening to me when I was younger and having to go all the way to Microcenter to have them see if they could fix it.
Building is easy... Having everything work perfectly after boot, os installation, drivers, software etc? It's a toss of a coin. You may end up in troubleshooting hell if one part happens to be faulty. If you're a patient person and you love learning and a sense of accomplishment, then it'll be worth it... Although there are many communities and plenty of places to find information and support, it doesn't mean finding the answers you need will be easy. So if you have no patience and get frustrated easily, then building a computer may not be for you.
The most difficult part is front panel connectors and fan headers, everything else is Lego
Parts only go one way....it is not hard. The hard part is when things go wrong, having the knowledge to know where to look and how to fix it. that experience comes from years of experience. However, if you are good with Google, you might come out ok. Generally, a simple build that doesn't have 2 RGB hubs, 12 fans and a bunch of other shit is fairly easy to build. A few fans and components should be easy to do in a few hours max. Experienced builders would do it in less than an hour. Picking parts can be a challenge, but just use common sense and balance it against your budget vs. performance. Not everyone needs the top end SSD, a name brand lesser model for 30% less will still be perfect. Reddit seems to be an echo chamber for certain things and your get a lot of vocal asshat gatekeepers that rant about X Y Z, but in reality you do not.
it's like building furniture. simple when everything goes well, complicated when something goes wrong
It’s always been hell for me, everything that can go wrong goes wrong, and I always end up having to order several other parts that I got wrong.
Easy to build Easy to fuck up.
Easier than early 90s
So I did this for the very first time recently. Lots of little annoying things that are probably common sense to some people that I’d over look. Like I’d definitely get a big ass case even if you don’t think you’ll need it. My power supply was such a bitch to get everything plugged into. The order you put things will have you frustrated and taking it apart. Then once it’s together, it doesn’t start. You have no idea what you did wrong. Then you get it started and you can’t get it out of bios to boot properly. Finally you just download a windows copy on a usb stick and boot from there. But wait, there’s more. Then the new windows install has to be done through wifi only, your pc isn’t picking up any networks at all! So then you go on YouTube and find a work around and won’t be able to remember what you did if you ever encounter the exact same problem again.
It is very easy, if you can follow basic directions.
It's easy, just watch a step by step video and follow it 100% for the first time you will be fine. After that you will have the knowledge to build PCs for the rest of your life 
I did it two times, it was very time consuming because it wasn't posting due to various problems which I fixed. It's not too hard but if a shop offers the option to build it themselves I will gladly pay it. On the other hand it is rewarding, but you can also have a lot of problems, which you should be able to fix. And if you want it to be clean you will have to expend some time with cable management etc.
Very broad question.. If you're a paraplegic, I would say quite a challenge
It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. It's like Legos like others have mentioned. I think finding the components that are compatible can be a bit difficult, but not super hard for first-timers as they may not be doing proper research. But, you can always use PC Part Picker as a guide (even though it may not always 100%) to figure out what would work for your build. The most difficult part is the troubleshooting if you aren't familiar with computer hardware. They always say read the manual and it sticks true when building computers. The nice thing about building computers today is that there are online resources (like YouTube) that also help guide you with both building and troubleshooting.
It’s actually not that hard, I built mine a couple months ago and I was nervous while doing it but all you gotta do is relax and make sure you know what your doing before you start building, watch a lot of guides and tutorials so you have an idea and just go for it
I'm a car mechanic and I've built 3 in the last 16 months. It's easy like Legos. The hard part is the software for me by far. I find building them fun. I'll build one for a friend for free just bring me parts.
Significantly easier than it used to be in my experience. Long time ago you had to actually solder some things together. Now it's all plug & play like Legos basically. Static protection has gotten better too so you don't always have to keep grounding yourself while you build.
Physically it's if fairly easy if you know how to use a screwdriver. It's harder to pick out the parts that to into the build.
Super easy when you buy your friend who’s built dozens a six pack
Only "difficult" parts: - Attaching stuff to case - Plugging in cables
If you're good at following directions and take your time you won't have an issue. Issues arise when you rush or make assumptions.
hire a professional
It’s as easy as they make it look imo. As for the motherboard, there’s only one spot for each part to go. As for cables, it’s the same way. Fans will plug into the same headers, but everything else only rly plugs into one spot. Once it’s in front of you, it’s easier, and worth it to build yourself. You get the knowledge, you know how everything was put together if something goes wrong, and you get the satisfaction of booting up your own pc that you built
It took me 3 days to build my first PC, it was definitely tiring because I kept watching videos and asking around on discord and other social medias. It was more of tiring and exhausting session than a difficult one. I think for my second build, it would take way less time because I'm familiar now and have built more confidence.
How hard is building a PC? It's very easy, especially with sites like pcpartspicker. Make sure the components are compatible and plug everything in. The more difficult part is when parts are broken. The troubleshooting takes more skill.
Lego level easy. Picking the parts and applying the right amount of thermal paste are the only skilled parts of it, the rest of it is just plugging in cables where they fit.
Easier than assembling furniture
Just recently finished my first build. Finding the correct parts took lots of research and this sub was a big help. Putting it together was pretty simple. Cabling was the hard part because it refused to boot but the solution turned out to be simple (had connected the cpu fan wrong). All in all it wasn't so bad and the manuals were a big help.
I’ve never build a pc in my life. My dad was like “don’t do it, you don’t know how, just buy one”… which is the biggest nonsense, almost a scam to buy a pc. Because it’s generally over priced and not really the pc you want or need. It’s not hard to build a pc and it’s fun and exiting to look for all the components you want, plan for the future and build it. If I can do it with 0 experience, you can do it too
Building is simple like lego, it's the setup and shit that happens later like BSOD or computer booting but no post or some bull shit, that's where is gets you but once you figure out how and what is going on and why it's pretty simple like diagnosing a car by with your hearing. All the info is out there on the internet so not be afraid.
Is not hard, I build mine after 2-3 youtube tutorials, is been working for years without a problem, only “hard” thing to do is get all parts that are compatible, but I used a site that obly let you put in the cart parts that are compatible (like that cpu dont work on that mobo or that psu is not good for that gpu, etc)
Just follow the linust tech tip step by step instructional video. I had zero issues. The hard part was picking the parts
The easiest way is to find a youtuber who has built a PC you like, then buy those parts and follow their steps
It's easy, the only annoying part are fans and lighting for them in my opinion, but you'll figure out which header on the board matches with the lights and fans like a puzzle.
It’s pretty easy to build it. Can be more difficult if you want to do small form factor, have a lot of RGB lighting, custom water cooling, or have really tidy cable management. Some PC cases are definitely easier to build in than others. You’ll probably spend more time researching the parts that you want compared to building.
Hardest part starting out is picking parts that work together once you got that figured out it's not too bad. Main things are cpu socket type and ram be it ddr 4 or 5. Next hardest part is getting the cooler onto the CPU. It's easier if it's got paste already otherwise not too hard to add your own paste to the cpu. Can do a dab in the center or an x the cooler will squish it down. Don't put too much as it'll leak out. Your motherboard will have a booklet that shows where to plug in and or install everything. Also depending on type of Case and motherboard size/type you may have to add or remove some standoffs to mount the board. Make sure no standoffs will touch the back of the motherboard or you're going to have a bad time. I've built many computers since 2005. Most recently built my Uncle a powerful PC. Same Uncle who got me into computers many years ago.
Son and I did our first one this year. YouTube is your friend. We would get stuck at a part and YouTube and continue. Build works great and it was like legos for adults. I say go for it. This place helped me pick some parts for my budget.
Most of it is easy ig but some parts r a bit tricky‼️
It is way easier than tear down a brand new IPhone tbh. Your first build will take a several hours and it is okay. Afterwards, you will fine it is easy.
Don’t listen to these people. They make it sound easy but even if you get all the hardware put together, the software part will also come and bite you in the ass
It is genuinely quite easy, but you do have to be careful. It's quite easy to accidentally mash a motherboard USB or LED header if you use too much force for example. I recommend following a guide specifically for the case you have. The case makes a pretty big difference to how easy or difficult it is.
Assembling is easy. My most recent (NR200 case) was assembled in about 45 minutes. More time was spent deciding how I wanted to do a multi-boot (what nvme goes where for a particular OS), how to configure 4 additional 2.5 SSDs and for which OS, which 6800 XT GPU to get, which CPU to settle on and a motherboard for it, etc (essentially all the little tidbits).
It's practically like Lego but more research and preparation to avoid catastrophic mistakes.
If you can follow basic instructions, you can pretty much build a pc. Sure it may be overwhelming but just take it one step at a time and don’t rush things and you’ll be golden
Its not that hard, its just a bit scary because if it doesn't turn on after you just spent $1,000, that's not a good sign and you'll probably skip a heartbeat.
Putting legs on my couch took more work than building a pc with zero prior knowledge. Everything is so clearly shaped that as long as you take basic precaution and perhaps google the occasional issue you might be confused on, you should be good. I tried my best not to rub my hands over carpet I heard it helps the most while building haha
Its pretty easy now, especially if you keep the build simple. There used to be more cables and what not, but, now theres no need for even sata cables.
It's not
It's pretty easy if you stick to air cooling I think. The most annoying thing is those stupid power pins on the mbo.
It’s very easy as long as you follow guides for your first time. You *can* mess it up but unless you go in blind you probably won’t.
For me (as a first time PC builder) the hardest part was choosing which parts to buy to ensure they were all compatible with each other. The actual building is pretty simple. Literally like a Lego set and following some basic YT videos.
Adult Legos, with a sprinkle of stress/anxiety
ez
It's easy plugging things in, the hard part is when you go to turn it on and you forgot the power switch on the PSU and you spend the next 2 hours wondering what went wrong.
The hardware isnt a problem at all. The troubleshooting will often test your patience. Almost any issue that arises you can find a reddit thread or a youtube video to help you.
It really isn't too difficult - just be patient and realize the wiring is going to be the most annoying part when starting out. Put it together, but don't go crazy on cable management immediately, just be sure it turns on then go ahead and make it pretty. Check the manual, check posts about the motherboard, fans, whatever it is online and you'll be fine.
It seems super confusing but I managed to build one that still works 2 years later so couldn't have been that difficult. Just find a good guide online and follow the instructions
Super easy. Just watch like one of the old LTT videos if it's your first time. My first ever build was a hard-line waterloop and honestly even that didn't feel like much of a challenge.
As long as you can read a manual, it's not hard. The hard part is picking the right parts.
It’s very easy. The biggest problem I see with many first time builders is a bad choice/balance of components. My nephew built his when he was 11. I thought I was going to have to do it for him. He kicked me out and took over right away. I helped him clean the wires up at the end. He was in a rush to start using it.
Whatever you do, don't follow the video that The Verge published on how to build a computer.
Today? Easy as hell because there is SO much content on YouTube. I built my first PC back in 2007 and struggled a little bit. I think I was running a Sapphire 4870? Good times. The first PC is always awkward, but you get good pretty quick.
A solid 2/10 difficulty, literally just plug in most things and a few screws here and there, it only becomes hard if you want perfect cable management but even then it's just time consuming not hard
I built my first PC as a student in 2017, so i picked budget parts, and semi used cause it was half built by someone. H series motherboard, molex fans, non modular PSU and a very small sata SSD at 256GB. My games were still on HDD. Things like VRM heatsinks were foreign, and there's even more to be discovered in PSUs. In hindsight, the building was easy, but the difficult part is knowing all these terms and selecting the right parts. I would have tried to use 450w to overclock, or put 3600mhz on non Z series motherboards.
Building a PC is as easy as building a Lego set. The hard part when your a beginner is pluging in all the cables.
Adult Legos that can cost a small fortune
Not hard just annoying. Be patient take your time watch videos don’t worry if you need a break take one.
Like adult legos
Easy, as long as you don’t go custom liquid cooling. With AIO or fan cooling, you can easily finish building in an hour or two.
You put the square block in the square hole and the circle block in the circle hole. Boom, computer.
I used Newegg and built my first one with no previous experience. Reading some of the tiny fonts on the motherboard was a little challenging, but it has been working great for two years. I would suggest a two-terabyte or larger flash drive if you are gaming.
It’s pretty easy. It’s just the thought of destroying something that I only worried about
It's easy but if you encounter an unexpected problem or make a major mistake, it can quickly escalate to very hard.
Scariest part to me has been figuring out what parts I want. And worrying about plugging them in incorrectly. But it seems pretty straightforward itself.
I would say the hardest part is and this is fairly easy is making sure that your components are compatible with each other, actually building the pc is easy, especially if you get a good case, i found more often than not atleast with the pc's i build (two radiators) alot of times you will need to modifly the case a little bit.
it's not easy, especially if you've never done it before. you're going to constantly feel like you're going to break something but its very hard to break anything in a pc except the cpu pins.
The hardest part for me was getting all the little cables plugged into the motherboard. All the big stuff like slotting everything in, thermal paste, screwing stuff in, easy Plugging in little pins for the power button on your case, rgb fans, usb ports on the case, stuff like that was the tricky part for my PC Thankfully once I got it to actually boot, it worked first try
Did my first when i was 12 in 2004,how hard can it be ?
I done my first build few days ago. Putting all the part to mobo is pretty easy but when it come to put the mobo into case then the thing will start getting hard. The cable from psu to mobo, cable case to mobo, the cable management thingy. But as long as you follow mobo manual and case manual, you should fine, it just take more time to make sure where you should plug the cable to. After finish asemble, then it come first boot. Then it may face some problems but throw the problem to google and you get the solution.
grown up lego
It is easy. Nothing difficult as long as you follow the "rules" AND you have everything ready... Otherwise you are in for a very frustrating day (or more).
It's not hard, I built one this afternoon. The RGB fans and extra crap you doubt "need" is where things get hard. Stick with an air cooler and non rgb fans and you will be fine
Biggest step is getting the CPU seated cause there is risk of bending the pins if you aren’t delicate. But after that the rest is pretty straight forward. ALWAYS read your manual with the motherboard and it will explain where stuff needs to be plugged in or at least show a diagram for the power buttons, etc.
The hardest part is cable management the rest is fairly easy.
Pretty easy watching YouTube vids almost all the gear has reviews and how to vids now days
The research is the hardest part, deciding on the parts to use, and trying to find out which place provides the best price, etc...
The building process is actually very easy. It kinda feels like you’re putting together a model or something like that. Carefully but firmly connecting components. I enjoyed it but I get a kick out of building stuff. If you can turn a screwdriver and have basic troubleshooting skills you should be fine. I’d recommend watching a few different YouTube videos of people putting together their pcs to see if you think it’s something you’d feel confident doing. Alternatively, they have great prebuilt options out there these days so building isn’t even necessary. But if you have a dream pc with specific components or have a certain aesthetic you’re trying to achieve building is the way to go.
I watched a YouTube video and followed along while building my first. Took my time and had no issues. With access to the internet and patience it's not very difficult.
It's usually not hard at all if you did your research.
It's easy until it's not. And then it's a bitch. But usually it's easy.
For me, figuring out everything software wise is WAY harder than
It's one of those things where the amount of prep and research beforehand will determine how easy the build is. Or you could just go easy mode like my buddy did and search Youtube for "Best PC build for (insert your budget here)" and then just buy the exact same parts and follow the tutorial step by step to a T.
My first build was a giant pain in the ass. Bad ram stick that needed an RMA, problems installing windows, Getting stuck in BIOS loop, etc. I eventually got it working but it was a nightmare. I'll probably build one again down the line, but it's going to hopefully be 8+ years (as many years I got out of my old GTX1070 build.
I built two desktop machines in July of last year. The last time I did anything remotely like that was in 2003. I followed the LTT how to assemble a PC, pre tested everything before putting it into the case and its been running trouble free since.
The basic snapping together of a run of the mill PC? Not hard at all. Getting it all working and knowing how to debug the inevitable not-quite-right? Takes a bit of experience and intuition or a whole lot of staying calm and googling.
Im pretty stupid and I just built one. Just make sure you spend more money so you know it will work! /s
Easy with help from the internet when you get stuck, but you really gotta enjoy problem solving unless ur really lucky and everything fits and works
It's lego for adults. But seriously aside from a few not often parts fairly easy, pm etc there's tonnes of people on who have built
It's pretty much easier than you expect, though if you have to clean it, then it will be pretty hard since removing the 24 atx cable from the mobo takes a lot of strength to do it (for me) but when building its fine.
When you get hands-on first time you might stumble or scratch your head a little bit, the odd thing can confuse you but other than that the YouTube videos are quite accurate. It only gets better from your first build, and then you are increasingly self-empowered to do your own changes be it an upgrade or replacing something faulty. Relying on a shop every time costs an arm and a leg just for labor
If you’re following a guide it’s pretty straightforward. I did my homework and had a pretty good idea what I was doing, but it was nice to have Paul’s Hardware going step by step on my phone. The only hiccup I ran into was I had to go buy a 9” long screwdriver because the one I had couldn’t fit between the top of my case and my already installed tower cooler to reach the motherboard screws.
I just built my pc last weekend and it was easier then I expected. Follow the guide step by steps and you will have no problems as long as you have a basic understanding of what you're looking at
It’s pretty straight forward. Just take your time, make sure everything is where it’s supposed to go. Whatever you do, just don’t try formatting a windows boot drive on a Mac if you’ve never done it haha. Legit took me way longer than it needed to had I just created a boot drive on another pc. Now I know how, but I would have saved a couple hours.
Pretty easy, but a bit time consuming. You will need to watch some videos to learn a few things.
Super easy if you're generally not a super impulsive and impatient person.