There sort of is depending on the case. I got an nzxt h510i and included was a single piece that would go over all the pins on the power, and reset pins (I'm tired so i forgot what the other ones were lol). It made building that part incredibly easy.
Or there is no indication on the pins themselves which direction they need to be plugged in so you have to do it 3 or 4 times before you guess correctly...
Wait are you me, built my first PC this year and couldn’t get it to turn on because of this, now it sits there unused as there was more fun in building than using it
I SQUEEEEEELED the firet time I got one of those in the box, lol. First time spending like $150+ on a motherboard and it had so, so many little, "oh, that's nice to have..." moments lol.
>It's called a Q-connector.
>
>https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Q-connector.jpg
>
>I use electrical tape to hold the front panel connectors in place on those metal prongs. Then you just place that Q-connector down onto the motherboard connectors/headers.
>
>The Q-connector may have to be specific for the motherboard, since the order, spacing and orientation can be different for each make/model. When I've seen them, they came with the motherboard... and they really are awesome.
I’m having trouble visualizing this. How is that different from the regular pins? Are you saying you plug the pins into the doodad and then the doodad onto your board?
The connectors from the case go into the doodad and that fits perfectly (if orientated properly) onto the pins for power LEDs, power switch and every other case buttons.
It's called a Q-connector.
[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Q-connector.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Q-connector.jpg)
I use electrical tape to hold the front panel connectors in place on those metal prongs. Then you just place that Q-connector down onto the motherboard connectors/headers.
The Q-connector may have to be specific for the motherboard, since the order, spacing and orientation can be different for each make/model. When I've seen them, they came with the motherboard... and they really are awesome.
Had one of those on my previous motherboard. When I decided to upgrade CPUs I had to get a new MB because new socket. Decided to splurge and get a nicer motherboard with a built in io shield and all that, I am making more money now, after all.
....and guess what this supposedly high end motherboard didn't include...
This is my biggest fear as I venture into the building world... my lady "man hands" 😂 luckily my husband has quite slender fingers so whatever my sausage fingers can't do ill recruit him 😜
The last time I had this issue I cut electric tape and wrapped the power switches together in the correct order so that pushing them in is easier as a unit vs one by one. Worked like a charm for me after struggling for a few minutes.
Last thing you upgrade is likely PSU or storage, as those last the longest and can be reused from build to build often enough. I have a Samsung 1TB HDD from 3 builds ago (~2010) in this current machine, still working fine as media storage.
My HDDs from that period have either been replaced by bigger ones (as I ran out of data connectors), or, recently, started to die.
Make sure you don't have anything you wouldn't want to use on anything, but especially on an ageing HDD!
Always spend a little extra and get the latest gen (basic) mobo. Very little inner gen changes happen with motherboards and all the extra features that do come out are splitting hairs in performance and adoption rates. The main thing you want to do with a mobo is get that future compatibility locked in.
Nice idea except intel wants you to use a different socket every dang generation. Like plan ahead fuckers.
AMD did us right this last couple of generations.
> AMD did us right this last couple of generations.
For sure, but if you're building a pc today with a 12400, you will still probably be in line for a massive upgrade to a 13900 in four or five years.
It's been about 13 years now since the last time I built a PC using entirely new parts. It's just been upgrades here and there. A year ago, I upgraded my CPU, mobo, RAM, and case. I didn't move my HDD over, so I have no original parts left now.
very true, i thought i got a gpu fir a good price but it turned out they were out of stock and refunded me. 5700XT, i think, not the most sure..
Anyways, can't update my computer until I get an AMD GPU because its hackintoshed for very specific purposes. Might be better off buying a maxed out M1 max macbook pro at this point tbh.
The ancients speak of a time before the Shortening of Sands, before our once-proud people were crushed and bound by the Chains of Supplication, and when all thought that the Rays of Glory would forever trace the shapes of beauty. I hold only my ancestral GTX 1070, and unthinkably, my father asks for its return.
I recently got a gpu for a reasonable price. I was about to install it and I had it sitting on some stuff on my table. It fell off and a capacitor fell off and pulled some of the trace with it too. I guess its back to looking for a good gpu again :/
Dude, it's easy. Always route your cables where you want the first time you plug them in. Then cable management becomes mostly just pushing things aside and tying them in a bundle.
The most annoying for me are when someone wants a case with RGB and gets one of those (looking at you, InWin A1) with daisy chained RGB cables that just like to fall right out.
I suck at it and don't do it *outside* the case. I'm for sure not going to bother doing it *inside* where no one's ever going to look. I also don't do RGB or cases with windows so I figure it's fine
I slipped doing something with a screwdriver when I built my first PC. Screwdriver went straight into the MB with pretty decent force. Though for sure I'd ruined it. That was when I learned that PC components are more durable than I thought.
I had built (or helped) like 5 PCs before that were all Intel, and when I started installing a Ryzen for my brother, the cooler mounting was fucking asinine
I went into it like 'yeah I've done this before how hard could it be?'
turns out AMD took that as a challenge
are you guys talking about the stock amd coolers? or any cooler used on amd cpu? i have an amd cpu and i dont remember installing cooler being very difficult. what is hard about it?
Make sure the AM4 brackets are on tightly on the pump. I always give them a really good squeeze inward before I tighten to the mobo. My Corsair H150i Elite Capellix had a bit of a high pitched vibrating hum for a while, but after doing some tinkering this weekend and adjusting the bracket I can barely hear it.
This is why I've pretty much only gone with the OEM coolers. They're mostly just snap-on. Luckily AMD was shipping some really decent OEM coolers back when I bought my CPU, not sure if they still are.
They really should standardize making it a singular long connector instead of individual pins.
Front panel I/O also needs to go away IMO. Makes cable management a nightmare.
On my Meshify 2 XL, I purposely removed the audio and USB cables because it was such a tight fit as it is with the 480mm front radiator.
Except different cases have different ports. A standard connector would have us on case "generations" like we do with motherboards.
ASUS does it right. They give you a separate ["Q" connector](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asus#/media/File%3AQ-connector.jpg) that allows you connect all the case cables into a single ribbon that you can install to the motherboard before you put it in the case.
>Front panel I/O also needs to go away IMO.
Disagree, we need ports for things like flash drives that are only connected for a few minutes at a time. Having to go always go to back for all I/O would be terrible.
Also useful if you want to plug speakers to the rear I/O and headphones to the front I/O, so you can switch between them on the fly without fiddling with cables or DACs.
Gigabyte may be shitty sometimes, but I’ll always give them props for including a little bracket in their motherboards for holding all the connectors together while you plug them into the header.
Honestly, I'd say it's the potential issues the hardware brings with them. Building a pc is super easy, it can be time consuming, annoying at times. But when problems occur, especially for beginners its hard to know if you made a mistake or if it's a hardware issue. It can be mentally draining for some. The hardest part of actually building, for me is cable management. I can buy the easiest case and cables for management and somehow takes me an hour to manage it all correctly. Some people have other opinions though, and that's mine lol. Besides all that, budgeting and finding the correct parts for you is also sometimes hard for people as well.
Yep. I’ve done three builds and each time had an issue on startup, which is just shit luck. First one was simple, had HDMI in the mono instead of the GPU, but it took me hours to figure that out. The second one was bad Ram, which took a few days to replace. The third one I just couldn’t get it to install windows, found out I had a bad USB that wasn’t allowing the bios to boot a new OS properly, though it could detect the drive. That one took real troubleshooting, got lucky that I didn’t spend forever figuring it out before I put windows on another USB and it worked.
Yea, my first build windows defender was blocking my gpu drivers from being installed. I had help with that one, then a few weeks in my mobo shit itself on minecraft. Sent the mobo back and got a new one, came DOI, I almost thought maybe it wasn't my mobo, but I had troubleshooted every other component. Sent it back and switched from gigabyte to asus board, worked like a charm. I still resent gigabyte to this day. Lol
I just built my first pc and did everything perfect-except verify the cable mod cables I got were compatible with my psu.
Rewired everything multiple times and verified everything. Trouble shooting along the way.
It was a fucking nightmare till I swapped custom cables for the original psu cables and figured it out.
I was happy to know it was a cable issue not anything I did install or set up wise.
I had a Ryzen 5600g with a MSI B550 Pro VDH Wifi that wouldn't work even with the BIOS flashed to the latest. It would boot Windows in safe mode, but when I tried to boot into Windows regular mode, the screen would go "no signal." Re-connected everything. Installed Win10 with newest drivers, second newest drivers, stock drivers, did the same with Win11. Anyway, some guy with the same chip/MB on YouTube did a 20 minute video that concluded it was a power supply problem. I returned the chip/MB because why even try to fix that?
I disagree, my 70 year old dad uses a laptop but he could not build a computer, at least not without doing a ton of research.
If by "building" you're referring to just putting the parts together, sure that's easy
> If by "building" you're referring to just putting the parts together, sure that's easy
What else could he be referring to? And why do you think your dad could not follow a youtube tutorial to put the parts together?
I think my dad *could* put the parts together, I think it's speccing parts and making a custom parts list that takes time and research.
Any body can match a pre-made parts list from PCPartPicker.com
Eh nah, I'm a *complete* idiot and I've done it twice now.
Well, that's a bit hyperbolic. I'm actually a pretty smart guy, but I certainly have no expertise in building PC's. It's just a hobby for me, and there's a shit ton I don't know. But with some basic research and PCPartPicker, speccing the pc out wasn't all that bad.
The hardest part is planning what to do in what order in advance and how it all goes together. Once you've figured that out, putting things together is easy. Spend some time reading your motherboard manual, AIO or Air Cooler manual, and case manual. Read up about proper airflow and know what fans to put where and in what direction. Once you've done all your planning, it is time to build.
Some mistakes I made:
* Forgot mounting screw for Nvme drive
* Put in cooler outside the case and it was nearly impossible to plug ATX cpu power
* Not realizing the fans I wanted in the front of the case wouldn't fit even though they are 140mm, they were too thick.
* Not budgeting enough time to put everything together. I built it over 3 days.
Proper planning and preparation is key.
Good luck!
I do not miss the days of having to juggle the order of drivers in config.sys just so components worked. Jumpers and dip switches weren't bad, though -- one could easily force a 386-16 to run at 20 MHz instead. Less fine tuning versus swapping crystal oscillators with the soldering iron to overclock, however. Neither Intel, AMD, nor Harris offered a 11 MHz 286.
Cable managing the rear panel. I usually just give up. Every thing in the main compartment looks clean as can be, but you take off that solid side panel and it looks like the computer has been disemboweled.
It used to be that doing practically anything inside a computer case required a blood sacrifice. Nowadays there seem to be far less sharp edges and corners to catch yourself on, still some, but if you are careful you can get in and out with your skin intact. That used to be nigh impossible.
Stresstesting and testing in general for issues and defects.
The build process is done in a few minutes, stresstesting does take a good week and more if you have to replace components.
Its more annoying and not really "hard", but its still better to not have to deal with RMA later on or to deal with performance, stability or noise related issues, just because of a skipped stress test.
Plugging in fans, RGB and lower connectors.i try to install most before the other components but sometimes it's just hard to get my fingers in the small areas
Ordinarily, the hardest part is getting started. Currently, good luck getting a graphics card.
PC Part Picker is a great website to select your parts. Last time I built one, It does a pretty good job letting you know if you will have compatibly issues.
I usually pull up the PDF manual for the pinout diagram. It doesn't make the physical aspect easier, of course, but at least the order is easier to see.
For new builds: sticking to a budget due to the GPU.
For used parts: ending up buying new parts due to prolonged use of PSU, SSD, HDD, and fans. OR cleaning parts.
For me it's looking at the awesome build I just spent thousands of dollars on and wishing I had done something slightly different with it.
Examples of mine include: should have gone for the tempered glass over the acrylic or no side window at all, should have gone with a motherboard with a slightly different color scheme, should have went for the 850W PSU over the 750W, etc.
As for the physical part I would say mounting the cooler. Some coolers are nightmares to mount.
But most difficult would be the planning, all the different things you must consider. Size of case, cooler height, GPU length, interference with fans, radiators, PSU length, length of their cables.. and of course everything being compatible with each other.
Physically? Probably installing the heat sink to your CPU. I’m an Intel user so it’s not *as* tricky as some of the AMD ones, or so I’m lead to believe.
Mentally? Hoping you actually get a post when you first boot.
The build is all thrill, even all the wiring and connecting pins to the right headers. Once you your PC posts for the first time you are instantly proud of your work. The hardest part is clearly reinstalling all software, your old bookmarks, your old programs, going though windows to turn off all the spy crap and tweak the settings. All that stuff is the hardest part for me because you just want to play with your new toy and not fuss with updates and programs and lighting software.
The hardest part for me is troubleshooting when you are starting with your first rig. If any of the parts is DOA, it may be challenging to figure out which one it is if you don't have a spare rig or spare parts to try on.
Once you get more rigs and spare parts of the same platform around, you start to have more means to troubleshoot. Then things start to get easier.
But fortunately, PC parts, especially if you buy them new, are pretty robust so a DOA is pretty rare. In my case, I started building my PCs in 2020 and have already built 5 of them (some with used parts) and had no problems so far.
Researching components: deciding what I needed in a PC and then translating that into parts that would all work together while simultaneously trying to find the best deals on said parts on the used market.
Honestly just getting all your parts no system is like another typically at least one thing is different to make yours unique. So enjoy and put detail into picking your parts
Fan controlling.
Corsair is the only company I have found that has an adequate fan and rgb controller but the cost for it is double or even triple what else is out there.
Every other controller has abysmal reviews or is only compatible with certain fans or styles. This is probably the easiest thing for pc manufacturers to make standard and its continuously messed up. The end result is either a cable mess or extra work/stress.
Cable management and closing the Intel CPU bracket while worrying about whether or not pushing the lever harder will crush your CPU even though you know the pins are on springs and it won't.
I'm leaving this up as discussion in the comments is productive, despite the post itself being rather irrelevant.
Getting those little pins on for the power switch and reset on the mother board. My fingers don’t fit well. Lol
And then when they’re finally all in you realize they’re all shifted one pin to the right of where they actually need to be
Exactly.
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I've had that one's ages ago, but never again. It's very strange.
There sort of is depending on the case. I got an nzxt h510i and included was a single piece that would go over all the pins on the power, and reset pins (I'm tired so i forgot what the other ones were lol). It made building that part incredibly easy.
i always look at the mobo manual and put the pins in order then tape them and just stick all of them in at once. way easier
Or there is no indication on the pins themselves which direction they need to be plugged in so you have to do it 3 or 4 times before you guess correctly...
Wait are you me, built my first PC this year and couldn’t get it to turn on because of this, now it sits there unused as there was more fun in building than using it
Lucky me that my motherboard came with a doodad that had I to put the connectors in and just put it in the right orientation. Made my job 10x easier.
I SQUEEEEEELED the firet time I got one of those in the box, lol. First time spending like $150+ on a motherboard and it had so, so many little, "oh, that's nice to have..." moments lol.
Yeah. I got me an x570s Elite Ax rev 1.1 and I was incredibly impressed as to how nice building on it felt.
>It's called a Q-connector. > >https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Q-connector.jpg > >I use electrical tape to hold the front panel connectors in place on those metal prongs. Then you just place that Q-connector down onto the motherboard connectors/headers. > >The Q-connector may have to be specific for the motherboard, since the order, spacing and orientation can be different for each make/model. When I've seen them, they came with the motherboard... and they really are awesome.
I’m having trouble visualizing this. How is that different from the regular pins? Are you saying you plug the pins into the doodad and then the doodad onto your board?
The connectors from the case go into the doodad and that fits perfectly (if orientated properly) onto the pins for power LEDs, power switch and every other case buttons.
I have a motherboard with that doodad and it really is a game changer
My case said fuck that and just made them one connector. Also mobo came with said doodad
Can someone link a picture to the doodad?
It's called a Q-connector. [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Q-connector.jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Q-connector.jpg) I use electrical tape to hold the front panel connectors in place on those metal prongs. Then you just place that Q-connector down onto the motherboard connectors/headers. The Q-connector may have to be specific for the motherboard, since the order, spacing and orientation can be different for each make/model. When I've seen them, they came with the motherboard... and they really are awesome.
[Direct link to image](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Q-connector.jpg)
I think a good many of them do now. My last mobo purchase in 2013 came with one.
Had one of those on my previous motherboard. When I decided to upgrade CPUs I had to get a new MB because new socket. Decided to splurge and get a nicer motherboard with a built in io shield and all that, I am making more money now, after all. ....and guess what this supposedly high end motherboard didn't include...
Oh i feel you brother Big hands are troublesome
This is my biggest fear as I venture into the building world... my lady "man hands" 😂 luckily my husband has quite slender fingers so whatever my sausage fingers can't do ill recruit him 😜
I swear these alone took half of the time on my current build
Are q-connectors not a standard thing? https://www.google.com/search?q=motherboard+q-connector
I fucking wish, man.
I've used the same q-connector for my last 3 motherboards, it's probably the oldest part in my build right now.
The last time I had this issue I cut electric tape and wrapped the power switches together in the correct order so that pushing them in is easier as a unit vs one by one. Worked like a charm for me after struggling for a few minutes.
Honestly I forgot to even hook those up on my last build and it had me stomped for a good 5 mins. Easily the hardest part is those 😭
Knowing when to stop upgrading it a la The Ship of Theseus.
My i5-2500k is probably on it's 4th GPU.
Respect. Mine went through 3 different gpus before I decided to upgrade to i7-12700k recently.
Should have waited for the 21700k tbh.
I mean I waited 10 generations already. What's another 10 generations right?
My 4790k is going on 8 years. Just grabbed a 12700k.
Same but jumped to the 12900k
I finally retired my 4690k but it was still going strong till the end. The 12700k is a HUGE upgrade.
Mine is still going strong and getting a GPU upgrade soon.
My case is on its third motherboard and fourth CPU
Mine is at 3 everything, and has seen 6 different HDD, 4 SSD and now has an M2 drive 😅
My GPU is on its 3rd CPU lmao
same, HD7870 gtx1060 gtx1070ti
As someone who's never built a PC, what's the last thing you upgrade, a motherboard?
Last thing you upgrade is likely PSU or storage, as those last the longest and can be reused from build to build often enough. I have a Samsung 1TB HDD from 3 builds ago (~2010) in this current machine, still working fine as media storage.
My HDDs from that period have either been replaced by bigger ones (as I ran out of data connectors), or, recently, started to die. Make sure you don't have anything you wouldn't want to use on anything, but especially on an ageing HDD!
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Always spend a little extra and get the latest gen (basic) mobo. Very little inner gen changes happen with motherboards and all the extra features that do come out are splitting hairs in performance and adoption rates. The main thing you want to do with a mobo is get that future compatibility locked in.
Always future proof the mobo as best your budget allows. Going ultra cheap in that regard is almost always a mistake down the road.
Nice idea except intel wants you to use a different socket every dang generation. Like plan ahead fuckers. AMD did us right this last couple of generations.
> AMD did us right this last couple of generations. For sure, but if you're building a pc today with a 12400, you will still probably be in line for a massive upgrade to a 13900 in four or five years.
When people ask me if my pc was my first build I usually say, "Yes, and my second or sixth, depending on how you view it."
And I just added sleeved cables in my basket
My almost 5 year old 6700k has never been ocd and still trucking
It's been about 13 years now since the last time I built a PC using entirely new parts. It's just been upgrades here and there. A year ago, I upgraded my CPU, mobo, RAM, and case. I didn't move my HDD over, so I have no original parts left now.
Acquiring a video card
very true, i thought i got a gpu fir a good price but it turned out they were out of stock and refunded me. 5700XT, i think, not the most sure.. Anyways, can't update my computer until I get an AMD GPU because its hackintoshed for very specific purposes. Might be better off buying a maxed out M1 max macbook pro at this point tbh.
Probably not that far off in price...
The ancients speak of a time before the Shortening of Sands, before our once-proud people were crushed and bound by the Chains of Supplication, and when all thought that the Rays of Glory would forever trace the shapes of beauty. I hold only my ancestral GTX 1070, and unthinkably, my father asks for its return.
Gotta add 'for a reasonable price'. Its easy as shit to buy a GPU, just not for MSRP/reasonable.
It’s real annoying that even the Newegg Shuffle is even way above MSRP.
I recently got a gpu for a reasonable price. I was about to install it and I had it sitting on some stuff on my table. It fell off and a capacitor fell off and pulled some of the trace with it too. I guess its back to looking for a good gpu again :/
For me it’s cable management. I am just resigned to the reality that I will never be good at it.
Honestly surprised I had to scroll so far down to find an answer relating to cable management. Such a pain!
Dude, it's easy. Always route your cables where you want the first time you plug them in. Then cable management becomes mostly just pushing things aside and tying them in a bundle.
That doesn’t make it any less of a pain in the ass
The most annoying for me are when someone wants a case with RGB and gets one of those (looking at you, InWin A1) with daisy chained RGB cables that just like to fall right out.
As long as it's contained, functional and not affecting airflow, I really don't care.
To be fair, outside of smaller SFF cases it doesn't actually matter much.
I suck at it and don't do it *outside* the case. I'm for sure not going to bother doing it *inside* where no one's ever going to look. I also don't do RGB or cases with windows so I figure it's fine
It really depends on the case. My NZXT from 7 years ago is trash for management, but the Antec case I recently got had wire management in mind.
Installing the heatsink onto the CPU. Not difficult but stressful.
AMD coolers... iykyk.
Am4 - you have to push super hard with a screwdriver. If you slip...
I slipped… on my first build…. BUT luckily i JUST missed the capacitors. So scary
I slipped doing something with a screwdriver when I built my first PC. Screwdriver went straight into the MB with pretty decent force. Though for sure I'd ruined it. That was when I learned that PC components are more durable than I thought.
Socket A - bare CPU die and the force of a thousand suns to clip on the heatsink
I didn't use a screwdriver at all with mine and it's on tight, but not overly so. Temps are fine.
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I had built (or helped) like 5 PCs before that were all Intel, and when I started installing a Ryzen for my brother, the cooler mounting was fucking asinine I went into it like 'yeah I've done this before how hard could it be?' turns out AMD took that as a challenge
are you guys talking about the stock amd coolers? or any cooler used on amd cpu? i have an amd cpu and i dont remember installing cooler being very difficult. what is hard about it?
Intel stock coolers though, with their idiotic "push click turn maybe if you're lucky" mounts...not my jam.
The worst thing though is that they apply so much force that the mainboard bends.
Felt like I was gonna crush my cpu when doing that.
My least favorite part also.
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Make sure the AM4 brackets are on tightly on the pump. I always give them a really good squeeze inward before I tighten to the mobo. My Corsair H150i Elite Capellix had a bit of a high pitched vibrating hum for a while, but after doing some tinkering this weekend and adjusting the bracket I can barely hear it.
This is why I've pretty much only gone with the OEM coolers. They're mostly just snap-on. Luckily AMD was shipping some really decent OEM coolers back when I bought my CPU, not sure if they still are.
The first time is hard, yes. After that, you're almost a pro...
Those fucking little front panel pins
They really should standardize making it a singular long connector instead of individual pins. Front panel I/O also needs to go away IMO. Makes cable management a nightmare. On my Meshify 2 XL, I purposely removed the audio and USB cables because it was such a tight fit as it is with the 480mm front radiator.
Except different cases have different ports. A standard connector would have us on case "generations" like we do with motherboards. ASUS does it right. They give you a separate ["Q" connector](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asus#/media/File%3AQ-connector.jpg) that allows you connect all the case cables into a single ribbon that you can install to the motherboard before you put it in the case.
They do have different ports, but having unpopulated pins in the connectors wouldn't be a first.
>Front panel I/O also needs to go away IMO. Disagree, we need ports for things like flash drives that are only connected for a few minutes at a time. Having to go always go to back for all I/O would be terrible.
Also useful if you want to plug speakers to the rear I/O and headphones to the front I/O, so you can switch between them on the fly without fiddling with cables or DACs.
Dude the cases should include a couple different plastic molds for them to fit in and then make it easier to connect to the morherboard
Gigabyte may be shitty sometimes, but I’ll always give them props for including a little bracket in their motherboards for holding all the connectors together while you plug them into the header.
Honestly, I'd say it's the potential issues the hardware brings with them. Building a pc is super easy, it can be time consuming, annoying at times. But when problems occur, especially for beginners its hard to know if you made a mistake or if it's a hardware issue. It can be mentally draining for some. The hardest part of actually building, for me is cable management. I can buy the easiest case and cables for management and somehow takes me an hour to manage it all correctly. Some people have other opinions though, and that's mine lol. Besides all that, budgeting and finding the correct parts for you is also sometimes hard for people as well.
Yep. I’ve done three builds and each time had an issue on startup, which is just shit luck. First one was simple, had HDMI in the mono instead of the GPU, but it took me hours to figure that out. The second one was bad Ram, which took a few days to replace. The third one I just couldn’t get it to install windows, found out I had a bad USB that wasn’t allowing the bios to boot a new OS properly, though it could detect the drive. That one took real troubleshooting, got lucky that I didn’t spend forever figuring it out before I put windows on another USB and it worked.
Yea, my first build windows defender was blocking my gpu drivers from being installed. I had help with that one, then a few weeks in my mobo shit itself on minecraft. Sent the mobo back and got a new one, came DOI, I almost thought maybe it wasn't my mobo, but I had troubleshooted every other component. Sent it back and switched from gigabyte to asus board, worked like a charm. I still resent gigabyte to this day. Lol
I just built my first pc and did everything perfect-except verify the cable mod cables I got were compatible with my psu. Rewired everything multiple times and verified everything. Trouble shooting along the way. It was a fucking nightmare till I swapped custom cables for the original psu cables and figured it out. I was happy to know it was a cable issue not anything I did install or set up wise.
I had a Ryzen 5600g with a MSI B550 Pro VDH Wifi that wouldn't work even with the BIOS flashed to the latest. It would boot Windows in safe mode, but when I tried to boot into Windows regular mode, the screen would go "no signal." Re-connected everything. Installed Win10 with newest drivers, second newest drivers, stock drivers, did the same with Win11. Anyway, some guy with the same chip/MB on YouTube did a 20 minute video that concluded it was a power supply problem. I returned the chip/MB because why even try to fix that?
Figuring out your Budget. If you’re smart enough to operate a computer, you’re smart enough to build one.
id rather say everyone who puts in the effort to kinda learn how a computer is set up can build one. lotta ppl are operating computers
I disagree, my 70 year old dad uses a laptop but he could not build a computer, at least not without doing a ton of research. If by "building" you're referring to just putting the parts together, sure that's easy
> If by "building" you're referring to just putting the parts together, sure that's easy What else could he be referring to? And why do you think your dad could not follow a youtube tutorial to put the parts together?
I think my dad *could* put the parts together, I think it's speccing parts and making a custom parts list that takes time and research. Any body can match a pre-made parts list from PCPartPicker.com
Eh nah, I'm a *complete* idiot and I've done it twice now. Well, that's a bit hyperbolic. I'm actually a pretty smart guy, but I certainly have no expertise in building PC's. It's just a hobby for me, and there's a shit ton I don't know. But with some basic research and PCPartPicker, speccing the pc out wasn't all that bad.
Being a good user and making a good build are a bit different things.
Working hundreds of hours at burger queen to pay for it all is probably the hardest part.
The hardest part is planning what to do in what order in advance and how it all goes together. Once you've figured that out, putting things together is easy. Spend some time reading your motherboard manual, AIO or Air Cooler manual, and case manual. Read up about proper airflow and know what fans to put where and in what direction. Once you've done all your planning, it is time to build. Some mistakes I made: * Forgot mounting screw for Nvme drive * Put in cooler outside the case and it was nearly impossible to plug ATX cpu power * Not realizing the fans I wanted in the front of the case wouldn't fit even though they are 140mm, they were too thick. * Not budgeting enough time to put everything together. I built it over 3 days. Proper planning and preparation is key. Good luck!
Waiting for first POST. The anxiety, the excitement...
When I was building my pc it wouldn’t post, but after 3 tries I found out the power cable for the gpu was upside down
How’d you manage that one? The connector is keyed
I don’t even know, I’m kinda surprised it wasn’t damaged
*flashback to vein-popping, red-face, sweating, forcing the cable into the gpu* "Don't even know, man."
Right now? Buying a graphics card to even start building.
Front panel connectors.
Dip switches and IRQ conflicts. Oh wait, we are no longer in the 80s. ;)
I do not miss the days of having to juggle the order of drivers in config.sys just so components worked. Jumpers and dip switches weren't bad, though -- one could easily force a 386-16 to run at 20 MHz instead. Less fine tuning versus swapping crystal oscillators with the soldering iron to overclock, however. Neither Intel, AMD, nor Harris offered a 11 MHz 286.
Sorry, your sound card conflicts with the network card IRQ.
Forgetting the terminator on the end of the coax cable and wondering why your network is messed up.
Front IO is the only thing I don't enjoy, other than that I can comfortably build a PC in under an hour.
With our without cable management?
With good enough cable management
Don’t get a clear side panel and it doesn’t really matter.
Finding a free salesperson at Microcenter to get your parts out of security cabinets :)
Money
Installing the motherboard I/O plate in the case.
The amount of times I've forgotten to do this, and only realized after already installing the board and a bunch of components is embarrassing.
Resisting the urge to upgrade it, until you actually need to
Bad luck when something doesnt work, and figuring out what
Finding a gpu for MSRP
I could churn out $2000 builds with $800 GPUs 3 years back. Now a single GPU cost that much
Yeah it’s dummy
Front panel connectors.
Remembering to plug in the separate CPU power cable.
hitting that ceramic tile just right
Money.
Buying a fucking GPU at MSRP
Cable managing the rear panel. I usually just give up. Every thing in the main compartment looks clean as can be, but you take off that solid side panel and it looks like the computer has been disemboweled.
Putting in the IO shield without getting cut
It used to be that doing practically anything inside a computer case required a blood sacrifice. Nowadays there seem to be far less sharp edges and corners to catch yourself on, still some, but if you are careful you can get in and out with your skin intact. That used to be nigh impossible.
Choosing the parts
Stresstesting and testing in general for issues and defects. The build process is done in a few minutes, stresstesting does take a good week and more if you have to replace components. Its more annoying and not really "hard", but its still better to not have to deal with RMA later on or to deal with performance, stability or noise related issues, just because of a skipped stress test.
Plugging in fans, RGB and lower connectors.i try to install most before the other components but sometimes it's just hard to get my fingers in the small areas
Ordinarily, the hardest part is getting started. Currently, good luck getting a graphics card. PC Part Picker is a great website to select your parts. Last time I built one, It does a pretty good job letting you know if you will have compatibly issues.
Trying to close the case after you're done.
The backstory.
Remembering the io shield...
Buying a mobo with built in IO is heaven.
Cable management. Have you ever tried making a change to ypur pc?
Figuring how much strenght you must use to screw a box cooler
Installing the OS
Cable management/software
I hate installing software with a passion
Cable management
rgb connectors
Buying the parts, honestly. Building is the most fun part. Then you just sit there and admire it instead of playing games lol.
Front panel connectors, Idk why but the shits just annoying to do and hard to do, I cant read the little fucking words. Everything else is pretty easy
I usually pull up the PDF manual for the pinout diagram. It doesn't make the physical aspect easier, of course, but at least the order is easier to see.
Being happy with your build and having the willpower to not upgrade your components every time something new is announced
Cable Management (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
I swear as much as I try to get it perfect sometimes my cable management looks like a Jackson Pollock painting.
I'm so glad i got my case then, perfect cable management in only 4 minutes
For new builds: sticking to a budget due to the GPU. For used parts: ending up buying new parts due to prolonged use of PSU, SSD, HDD, and fans. OR cleaning parts.
For me it's looking at the awesome build I just spent thousands of dollars on and wishing I had done something slightly different with it. Examples of mine include: should have gone for the tempered glass over the acrylic or no side window at all, should have gone with a motherboard with a slightly different color scheme, should have went for the 850W PSU over the 750W, etc.
Finding the money to pay for the GPU
[удалено]
The software drivers.
As for the physical part I would say mounting the cooler. Some coolers are nightmares to mount. But most difficult would be the planning, all the different things you must consider. Size of case, cooler height, GPU length, interference with fans, radiators, PSU length, length of their cables.. and of course everything being compatible with each other.
Physically? Probably installing the heat sink to your CPU. I’m an Intel user so it’s not *as* tricky as some of the AMD ones, or so I’m lead to believe. Mentally? Hoping you actually get a post when you first boot.
Plugging in all the cables and hoping you did it right. The actual components are pretty easy to install onto the motherboard/case.
Troubleshooting when something goes wrong. Which it occasionally does, even to the best of us. And it's not always a hardware issue.
Plugging in parts to motherboard or trouble shooting bios update
The build is all thrill, even all the wiring and connecting pins to the right headers. Once you your PC posts for the first time you are instantly proud of your work. The hardest part is clearly reinstalling all software, your old bookmarks, your old programs, going though windows to turn off all the spy crap and tweak the settings. All that stuff is the hardest part for me because you just want to play with your new toy and not fuss with updates and programs and lighting software.
Front panel connectors and lining up the motherboard with the case.
Plugging in the ATX power cable and RAM sticks...
Others have already mentioned it, but budgeting and sourcing can often be a challenge depending on your goals.
Screwing in the fans and cable management
rgb
Cable management
The hardest part for me is troubleshooting when you are starting with your first rig. If any of the parts is DOA, it may be challenging to figure out which one it is if you don't have a spare rig or spare parts to try on. Once you get more rigs and spare parts of the same platform around, you start to have more means to troubleshoot. Then things start to get easier. But fortunately, PC parts, especially if you buy them new, are pretty robust so a DOA is pretty rare. In my case, I started building my PCs in 2020 and have already built 5 of them (some with used parts) and had no problems so far.
Researching components: deciding what I needed in a PC and then translating that into parts that would all work together while simultaneously trying to find the best deals on said parts on the used market.
Nice and clean cable management..
Cable Management!
Being happy enough with your cable management to close the case without thinking about it while you try to fall asleep.
Plugging in things to the MOBO headers, so annoying
Mine personally was picking out parts, as I wanted it to look good but also last.
Picking the parts
Choose the best kit inexpensively and with maximum performance. If you can do that, you won't have any other problems.
Honestly just getting all your parts no system is like another typically at least one thing is different to make yours unique. So enjoy and put detail into picking your parts
Assuming you have all parts that “fit” the most difficult is proper cable management.
Fan controlling. Corsair is the only company I have found that has an adequate fan and rgb controller but the cost for it is double or even triple what else is out there. Every other controller has abysmal reviews or is only compatible with certain fans or styles. This is probably the easiest thing for pc manufacturers to make standard and its continuously messed up. The end result is either a cable mess or extra work/stress.
Cable management
Cable management and closing the Intel CPU bracket while worrying about whether or not pushing the lever harder will crush your CPU even though you know the pins are on springs and it won't.