After my last machine decided to stop functioning properly, somebody recommended that I build my own PC because it is cheaper than buying a prefab, and apparently the process is pretty easy, even easier than building a LEGO set! This is the biggest mistake that I made all season. He convinced me that I could handle it and I failed to handle it.
First of all, I don’t understand why anyone thinks that offering a how-to guide like this one on assembling a computer is a good idea. That is about as reasonable as giving someone a guide on how to fix an engine, as if a Yugo’s engine is identical to a sports car’s (yeah, right). Unless the reader or listener happens to have all of the exact same parts as the author, the guide is next to useless. There is no point.
Computers vary massively in layout and accessories. I hate to state the obvious, but you can’t just toss any fucking how-to guide at a beginner and expect them to understand and follow it perfectly. These guides, much like the official manuals, are dense and loaded with jargon, showing us crap that we don’t have and crap that isn’t where we expect to find it.
Here’s a good example: somebody told me that I needed a large screw to secure a stick. At first I thought that I had to order another part since I lacked that, but it turned out that the screw that I had was just obnoxiously tiny. Almost microscopic. Even my long-distance assistant said that it ‘looked wrong’ when he saw it, but it did the trick.
Likewise, it is ridiculously easy to plug something the wrong way, which can potentially fry your machine. My computer also came with a load of crap that I apparently didn’t need, which is fine for compatibility but ends up making the process more confusing and intimidating.
This hardware is both delicate and expensive to replace, too, which means that if you fuck up, it’s a big deal (unless you’re rich). It was only after I finally took my machine to a technician that I learned that I broke two parts beyond repair, meaning that now I have to spend about $300 on repair and extra parts for a plan that originally cost me $600. I could have purchased a good prefab with all that fucking money!
Look, just don’t tell anybody that assembling a computer is easy, and especially don’t tell beginners to try it without constant, immediate-distance supervision. (Long-distance supervision is still too risky.) The process is so delicate and there are so many ways to make serious mistakes that it isn’t worth it, and anybody who finds a guide or manual unhelpful is going to be very tempted to improvise, which is dangerous. I actually made my fingers bleed trying to assemble a computer (no joke), and I wasted hundreds of dollars that I could have spent on a cheap, prefabricated gaming computer instead. I feel very frustrated tonight, and I am stuck on my smartphone for another week or two.
The Noctua NH-D15S chromax Premium Dual-Tower CPU Cooler with NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan (Black) and the Asus PRIME B550M-A AC Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard.
They didn’t specify how I broke them, though. I did bend a few USB pins in the MB, and I broke the plastic lock for my graphics card, but I did not notice anything serious. As for the fan, all that I noticed was a slightly bent blade on the tower. That is it.
I appreciate the offer, but to tell you the truth I really don’t feel like risking anything by giving it another shot. I’ll have to get somebody nearby to help.
I’m sorry you had this experience. It’s not by any means something I think most people can rush through in an hour like some youtubers who do it so frequently it’s easy for them.
I’ll offer some thoughts on specifics:
spoiler
It should not normally be possible to break Noctua CPU coolers without serious effort and repeated blunt brute force. Now you can install them wrong, ruin the pre-applied thermal paste (and need to replace that for $9) or potentially install them in such a way that they put stress on the motherboard and cause cracks after a few hours but you should notice something going wrong before that happens like one side of screws not tightening and the cooler leaning. Noctua in particular gives VERY detailed step by step written guides with pictures with their products and tends to have links to videos. Honestly the most detailed instructions of any component these days tends to be their coolers IMO.
I suppose you could have broken the little spring clips that hold the fans on but you can get replacements for those by either begging Noctua via email (and waiting a week) or buying knock-offs on Amazon for $8. The trick by the way with those spring clips is to pull them forward along the surface of the cooler until the second ridge can line up and hook into the fins, the very top of the clips should just rest against the surface of the fins, not hold it, it’s the part behind that which should hook on and hold it. That’s the one part that messes some people up and isn’t always super clear.
Are you sure this technician is not exploiting your inexperience and ripping you off with false claims of broken things? Because that sounds suspicious.
As to bent USB pins that’s also interesting are you sure you did that or are they claiming you did that? Possible that it was bent from the factory (does happen) or a return. Not a huge deal, just something to note to always line up and push in connectors dead-on not from an angle. As to the ziff-connector PCIe/graphics card lock, I hate those things and they’re not necessary and are increasingly being phased out anyways. Tons of people break those. You can use the motherboard and graphics card just fine with it broken, at most if the card is really heavy you might spring $9 for a graphics card support bracket to prevent it from slipping out.
As to fans, unless you’re hitting them they shouldn’t break unless they had a defect and even Noctua fans can be replaced (including those for CPU coolers) for $16-$25. And Noctua warranties their fans for like 5 years so they’d definitely replace it. If it was a non-Noctua case fan those are often cheap anyways, manufacturer should offer a replacement if you contact them.