My confusion with how EASY it is to build a computer.
Posted by Ill-Entrepreneur3746@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 335 comments
Whenever I had first started watching tutorials on how to build computers, researching parts that fit my work the best. And yes, despite hearing this CONSTANTLY, I just never believed it. But now that I have physical experience, the fact that building computers is SUCH AN EASY TASK genuinely surprises me. It's like building Lego's with less pieces, and more reward. Of course you have to be careful, its not a plastic brick of Lego that you can throw across the room, we all should know that. But, it's genuinely easy. You don't have to wiggle anything to barely fit, it all just snaps into place. Has anyone else been confused by this feeling, or is it just me?
Mannymanstein@reddit
I recently built my first PC since the late 90's and I was nervous throughout. Probably didn't help that I chose to use a micro ATX case. But ultimately it was fun to choose and assemble the parts.
JonWood007@reddit
I hate the "legos" comparison. No, it's not that easy. When do legos ever involve thermal paste and tiny pins that if they get bent ruin the whole thing? When do legos ever involve crossing your fingers, hoping you installed all the wires properly, and hoping it turns on?
I'm sorry, but it's harder and higher stakes than legos and i hate that comparison. It is, however, not exactly brain surgery either.
Ill-Entrepreneur3746@reddit (OP)
I feel you are completely misunderstanding the comparison then. I also kind of stated that you do have to be more careful and its fragile. I think the comparison more refers to the assembly. It snaps into place, it all goes together perfectly if you have the right parts.
JonWood007@reddit
Eh, ive had crappy experiences in the past. Again, not brain surgery but not legos either.
LiLMaMa_iMSORRY@reddit
Erector Set
BenefitPlastic5609@reddit
The expensive Lego comparison is spot on — the hardest part is honestly just picking the parts, the actual assembly is weirdly anticlimactic.
KidBleck@reddit
Alright gpt
moonski@reddit
Why do you think that is AI...?
gewinner1001@reddit
Em dash is a pretty clear give away. Also the tone, and how all their previous comments were written in very similar ways.
WrathOfThePuffin@reddit
I've always used the dash and AI using it will not stop me from doing that now. Can't even form a normal sentence these days without some troglodyte yelling AI.
Dragoru@reddit
I like when people accuse me of using AI when I use a semicolon presumably because they don't know how to use one.
shortbusmafia@reddit
Being taught basic punctuation in grade school means you’re AI now. No one actually uses correct punctuation. Didn’t you know that?
nogumbofornazis@reddit
They’re even starting to call the Oxford comma a sign of AI… like, no, I just understand that it gives a list the necessary separation to be 100% clear, goddamn it!
Technical-Coffee7286@reddit
The Oxford comma thing is such a joke. I put my 12 page English 1A final that I wrote in 2019 through an AI checker and it flagged it because I used Oxford commas and the way I wrote was fishy (I had a K-12 classical education with an English focus so I just write… the correct way). They’re literally punishing effort now.
PigSlam@reddit
idiocracy wasn't supposed to happen this quickly.
AppropriateTouching@reddit
AI is helping us get there.
NSMike@reddit
As a technical writer who has spent years honing the craft of writing clear, concise documentation, the Oxford comma is a necessary tool. It takes very little time and thought to add, and can save you potentially hours of confusion.
Careful-Computer-685@reddit
That shit, the Oxford comma, is easily half my speech pattern when I learned it in HS. It tickles my brain every time.
shortbusmafia@reddit
Those people can pry the Oxford comma from my cold, dead hands. I didn’t have punctuation rules drilled into my head by a psychotic middle school English teacher just for some idiot accuse me of using AI to write papers and comments on the internet.
I’m thankful that I finished college and grad school like right before these dumb AI tools started to be used to analyze papers. I’ve seen far too many posts of people talking about their professors accusing them of using AI to write papers just because they use proper punctuation, like em dashes and the Oxford comma.
FPL_Harry@reddit
for the em dash, it's not about knowing the punctuation, it's that it's not a simple, obvious key on the keyboard like a hyphen is.
PigSlam@reddit
idiocracy wasn't supposed to happen this quickly.
ragun2@reddit
Thats why as a bot I dont use punctuation so they think Im just stupid
guoraGG@reddit
To differentiate, me from. AI; I use punctuation: wrongly?
kanonnn@reddit
It’s also hella underrated; semicolon does work.
Dragoru@reddit
It genuinely feels like the only appropriate punctuation in the context in which you'd use it; otherwise, the sentences come off as disjointed from one another or you end up with a run-on.
Mysterious_Pitch5882@reddit
I agree it's very useful symbol, even if slightly forgotten, but how do you use it regularly? You have some shortcut for it on your keyboard for convenience?
bunk3rk1ng@reddit
How do you regularly type an em dash? Why use it instead of the "-" symbol with some spaces around it?
Vilhelmgg@reddit
Because that's the purpose of the fucking symbol, a hyphen a has a different use case.
K4hid@reddit
The irony in all that, is that these people that can't help themselves but scream AI at everything, sound like bots more than actual AI.
KidBleck@reddit
It’s not just that just look at the tone of the whole message no human writes that way under a Reddit post.
reiichiroh@reddit
There are dozens of us! I've used it for decades now. At this point nowadays I am beleaguered at the constant accusations.
Fredasa@reddit
Still, it was fun watching a couple of folks make fools and asses of themselves.
My own use of the em dash strongly predates ChatGPT's existence and I was misappropriating the regular dash long before that. I'm just going to use this episode as a concrete datum that people don't read books anymore.
FlarblesGarbles@reddit
People would read more books if they could actually read at all. Reddit is littered with people who can't even read the comments you type. They just just imagine you've said something completely different and then respond to that.
CanApprehensive5387@reddit
So, are you sober?
sloggo@reddit
Reminds me of the old days getting accused of hacking playing counter strike when you’re just having a good day. Except this time there’s not really the positive connotations.
CanApprehensive5387@reddit
F10 for anti-hacking complaints! I use to camp with a shotty so much lol
BrokenZX81@reddit
Remember- everyone worse than you is a noob, everyone better is a cheat.
Aadarm@reddit
That's just a dash, not an em dash. So you are obviously a real person.
PrintShinji@reddit
I used to play on private ragnarok online servers where it was very important how close you are to the server location to win. If you had low ping, you'd basically always win battles with other people. You'd get accused of using scripts. Nah man, server is just 200ms closer to me than to you.
TryingT0Wr1t3@reddit
You can still use it to express Morse code. But in seriousness, how do people use it outside MSWord ? It isn’t easily available on the keyboard, is it?
ThirstyWolfSpider@reddit
On Linux, I just do
Compose---.Other people often memorize the numeric code for unicode characters, but I don't get how people put up with that when a mnemonic approach is available. I've been told of WinCompose, but not yet tried it myself.
R3tr0spect@reddit
You just double up the “-“ and it automatically converts into ”—“
ywgflyer@reddit
Same with me. I've been using it for like 20 years now and it pisses me off every time someone says "yOuR cOmMeNt iS AI!" nowadays. Especially in topics with a lot of debate and opinion.
I find it often means you made a good point with your comment, the person replying to you disagrees but is unable to actually come up with a good rebuttal so they have to stoop to "you're a bot so I win the argument by default, ha ha!".
ThirstyWolfSpider@reddit
It doesn't piss me off; it just tells me that they don't know what they're talking about. I RES-tag them with
[everything is AI], downvote, and move on. But if I see the tag later I'll know to disregard them a little bit quicker.IntelligentEntry260@reddit
I think most em dashes on keyboard is - - where an ai em dash is double chars that keyboards don't have - so if I were to use an em dash on a keyboard I would use a single dash. Pretty much, most people don't use them, but Ai always does.
VonCuddles@reddit
Do you use a dash or a om dash. They are different.
kingk1teman@reddit
Except that the account above is actually a bot account that is just spamming comments from LLMs.
dubnobas@reddit
Troglodyte is a wonderful word, I commend you for being a real human and dropping that bomb on someone’s nuts.
YetAnotherIteration@reddit
You've never used the dash.
No one has ever used the dash.
popop143@reddit
If you've ever actually sent an email with outlook (not sure with GMail), dashes are automatically changed to an EM dash if there is space before and after it. Also with MS Word, since like Autocorrect has been a thing. You sound like someone who never used both
PhotoFenix@reddit
Where did GPT learn the em dash from?
Humans writing properly
PaperDistribution@reddit
Most people have a certain writing style tho
McDonaldsWitchcraft@reddit
They're not writing the em dash correctly unlike AI.
tinysydneh@reddit
Em-dashes aren't a "pretty clear giveaway", truth be told. Do you know why AI uses em-dashes? Because people use them. I've been using them since I was a teenager, and I'm pushing about a quarter century past that now.
And being written in a similar way... my friend, you are aware that you most likely speak and write in similar ways consistently, correct?
Disastrous_Poetry175@reddit
Gpt emulates how people already communicate/d. Interesting you wish people to change how they communicate to further themselves away from how gpt is used. Which will begin to replicate those changes anyways.
PM_Me_Your_Deviance@reddit
Not really. It emulates a different style of writing. Thats why is sometimes stands out in casual situations.
ploonk@reddit
Stop trying to change how I communicate!
MrWally@reddit
Bro you need to not write people off as AI just because they used an em dash. I’ve been using em dashes since I was thirteen. They really aren’t that uncommon. It’s not a “clear” giveaway at all, and the discrediting of humans as AI is just as insufferable as the slop.
FiveTalents@reddit
Now my next question is... why? This isn't twitter/x where you get monetized for engagement.
wryterra@reddit
Do you know why LLMs use emdashes? It’s because humans use emdashes and they’re trained on human writing. Apparently human usage of emdashes was and remains so common that LLMs use them to emulate human writing.
sup3rdr01d@reddit
That's not the full picture. It depends on what data it was trained on. It was trained on mainly internet articles, which always have had this contrived type of cadence and tone. That's why all LLM output sound so...bland.
bear141@reddit
Do you mean internet articles from the past 5 years, which were 95% written by AI themselves?
nikomo@reddit
More importantly, old models were trained like that and outputted them. I haven't seen it happen for a good while now.
sup3rdr01d@reddit
It happens constantly, all the time lol
reluctant_deity@reddit
That's not why. It's because of Google's project Gutenberg. It saw dashes in print and translated that into the em dash. This data, now full of em dashes, was then fed into llms for training.
BallzNyaMouf@reddit
Who do you think wrote the books the LLMs were trained on -- martians?
reluctant_deity@reddit
The authors certainly did not tell the typesetter nor the OCR engine which type of dash to use when digitizing the books.
Rich_Barracuda_796@reddit
I'm a dash user too - and i refuse to stop just because it's common from llms
_MikeyP@reddit
For people over the age of around 30 the dash is extremely common. I see people older than me using it on an almost daily basis. The same with “..”they get off on that stuff I swear
FlarblesGarbles@reddit
Ah yes, the em dash – created by AI and used by AI solely.
JimmyTheDog@reddit
I've got six fingers on my hands, all my pics are now marked as AI
Plightz@reddit
I mean just look at the writing style and comment history. It's pretty obvious.
Frolo_NA@reddit
Too wordy and repetitive
ChironXII@reddit
Because of the way that it is.
It's not the emdash. There is a common trend on the internet of useless bot comments like these vaguely restating what was said in the original post, farming engagement to boost their account, so they can spam or manipulate discussions later.
Very easy to recognize with cadence and word choice and lack of meaningful content.
TheWaffleIsALie@reddit
GPT is also known for wordiness, and has a penchant for "spot on" and "honestly" and being excessively descriptive like "weirdly anticlimactic" although the weirdness was already established in the OP. That taken together with the tone, em dash and post history makes it read highly like AI.
lio-ns@reddit
If u look at the profile soooo many comments have em dashes lol
Responsible-Meat9275@reddit
How can you not? There’s no way you could spend any amount of time working with AI tools and not have the pattern recognition to see it
Sunscorcher@reddit
Also, the username is 2 random words followed by 4 random numbers. Generic bot username
lightningboy2527@reddit
damn im cooked :skull:
FLHCv2@reddit
Alright gpt
jimdil4st@reddit
I used to think that until someone with a username matching that pointed out that it was just the random name that reddit generated that they never changed. I then went to make a new reddit account and saw that it does in fact now generate a generic username for you, in that format. While it's going to be extremely common that bots don't change their name, I no longer see it as a telltale sign of a bot.
NoctiferPrime@reddit
Because people who drag their knuckles when they walk think everything is AI.
Boostie204@reddit
No that's literally how chatgpt talks
nivlark@reddit
Look at the comment history. It's clearly a bot.
McDonaldsWitchcraft@reddit
The em dash is written incorrectly. AI can't do that.
SassyFlyffball@reddit
Don't you think it is a bit wasteful to use GPT to write a one liner? Not everything that has an em or en dash is AI produced. Like look: –––———————––———–––———————––———–––———————––———–––———————––———–––———————––———–––———————––———–––———————––———
NoobVanNoob234@reddit
For a normal person sure. For a bot account it makes sense they’d use gpt
AdorableZeppelin@reddit
With how many times people point out the emdash in comments, wouldn't bots get fed the instruction "don't use emdashes" by now? Today there's a pretty good probability that whoever is being accused of being a bot for using an emdash is not actually a bot.
-Crash_Override-@reddit
They (bot makers) dont care and they dont need to. That post has 100+ upvotes.
My whole job is AI, im using it 8+ hours a day. When I read that single post I can not only tell that its AI instantly but likely what AI (im guessing Llama 3.2 maybe GPT nano).
But to someone who is a casual user, they dont know, even with the em dash.
MarstonX@reddit
I've built a few and I actually think cable management is kinda difficult to make it look nice. Some cases help with the process, sure, and m.2 helps a lot these days too, but imo it's still hard to make it look neat.
Sea_Perspective6891@reddit
CPU cooler can be kind of a bitch though. Got a Noctua air cooler for my build but directions were pretty bad. I had a buddy of mine who used to work in IT helping me & he even though the directions for the cooler was bad.
undead_scourge@reddit
I reused my case from my old pc for my new build and it’s not a very spacious case. I had to move the top fan to the forward slot to make my cooler fit, and even then it took 30 minutes to plug the CPU cooler fan into the header because it was so stupidly cramped. I have no idea how I will remove the CPU cooler when the time comes lmao.
Sea_Perspective6891@reddit
Yeah. I got another year or so before I change out my thermal paste so that's something I'll eventually have to put up with too.
HellfoxRules@reddit
It depends on the build, if you have a fully custom build it can take quite some time and expense. The average build is a simple affair, but when you make each part custom to the build, this requires time and dedication, which can sometimes takes years and hundreds of hours.
Example; Obsidian Overlord
ThankGodImBipolar@reddit
Yeah, you can easily make building a PC a lot more challenging if you start adding some RGB, want to do perfect cable management, building in a SFF case, maybe individually sleeving PSU cables, doing a custom loop, etc. You are mostly limited by your own creativity/desire to cause work for yourself.
The root act of putting together a computer that will POST isn't too complicated though.
Kitchen_Canary_6387@reddit
As someone who just finished putting together my first glass case RGB build, I concur. I was shocked by how long it took me to wrangle the cords.
Monotask_Servitor@reddit
Truth. The cable management on my PCs is always perfectly clean until I get to wiring up the RBG fans, haha.
Cody610@reddit
Except for the dreaded FPanel wiring.
FOR WHATEVER FICKING REASON I PICK THE MOST CONFUSING MOTHERBOARDS AND CASES 2/3x
Wexelos@reddit
I would say the front panel is not too bad, most of the time they have the same layout (from my experience, someone might have a diffrent experiencewith them) so I just plug them in like I do with every PC and it always works
Cody610@reddit
It’s not always terrible but for me it’s always never like clearly labeled slots.
Its labels on the wire they slightly resemble the letters on the mobo. But the mobo just has like say 12-16 (2x6-8) pins with letters on the side but it doesn’t specify the orientation in a super clear way.
Andddddd I’m not gonna lie….by the time I’m wiring the fpanel the manual is somewhere with the rest of my retail boxes that came 4-12mos ago… imma start leaving the manuals in the bathroom or something.
Wexelos@reddit
Jesus yeah that's a bit harder than my experience with fpanel headers. You should hang the manuals all around your house!
Cody610@reddit
I hang everything all over everywhere in the house. My ADHD is really bad sometimes. I just don’t organize my work spaces will I’m doing tasks and I start 2-6 tasks at once. So the result is a tornado.
The only good thing I can say I do is I never throw away manuals, boxes or inserts for most of my stuff.
ywgflyer@reddit
I don't understand why this is still an issue. Remember the good ol' days when most cases or boards came with a quick connector that you wired up ahead of time and then just plugged into the front IO block? Nowadays I spend 800 bucks on a top end board and I still have to fiddle with the fucking things endlessly (oh and they aren't labeled well so the power button is wired up to the HDD LED and now I have a heart attack when I press the button and nothing happens).
Drives me fucking insane.
kind_bros_hate_nazis@reddit
It's really not that bad, just look at the manual or the labels on the motherboard. Is there some other thing?
thugroid@reddit
While true, this won’t apply to 99.99% of people.
HellfoxRules@reddit
Thank You for clarifying, the top 00.01% of people.
thugroid@reddit
Nice build! Just fyi, making posts like that, unprompted, completely unrelatable and off topic, comes off as showing off and incredibly off-putting.
HellfoxRules@reddit
It wasn't unrelatable, as they were mentioning how easy it is to build a PC. I was just pointing out the fact that a fully custom PC takes much longer to build, and is not so easy. I was just confirming proof of that using my PC.
thugroid@reddit
Again, for the vast vast majority of people, YOUR situation will not apply and is not relatable.
kind_bros_hate_nazis@reddit
Oh you changed your oil? Have you ever built a 60s muscle car from the frame?
Wrong_Badger8411@reddit
80% of effort on that build is just for aesthetics.
HellfoxRules@reddit
More like 95%, every part on this rig has been customized in some way. Besides making all the custom aluminum parts, and creation of the illumination panels. I had to change the motherboard from a white Z690 formula, to a black brushed anodized aluminum motherboard.
To accomplish this I had to remove all the aluminum parts from the motherboard, then remove all the white paint. I then had to create special jigs, to hold the aluminum motherboard parts so I could brush the aluminum. This was a very delicate procedure, it took some time and patience.
Mehnard@reddit
The hardest part for me is plugging in those damn individual wires for power, lights, reset, ..
Professional-Bag7921@reddit
See I have a basic gaming pc, and I eventually wanna upgrade my i514400 to something better but I’m worried about that as I have tremors and don’t wanna mess up the thermal paste
SegataSanshiro@reddit
Saying "expensive LEGO" implies the resistance of a "cheap LEGO".
LEGO hasn't been cheap for decades.
Squall13@reddit
I dunno man I always struggle with cable management
Actual parts: 30mins Cable Management: 5 hours with 3 30 mins breaks
Lendari@reddit
Especially with AI its hard to get into a bad situation.
Im-Floof@reddit
Yeah compability is really the only "hard" (more annoying) part.
THE_GREAT_PICKLE@reddit
And sites like pcpartpicker will even tell you if there’s compatibility issues. It’s legitimately super easy to build a computer
Uhmattbravo@reddit
I wouldn't say anticlimactic. I always get giddy on that first boot.
SlightResist6704@reddit
That sentiment is largely accurate, with one sneaky asterisk. 🧩💻
My honest take
If someone is reasonably patient and can follow directions, picking parts is 60 to 80% of the challenge. Building is more like careful furniture assembly with higher stakes.
Can you give me a recipe for good brownies?
HeyThereBudski@reddit
Regular Legos are plenty expensive today too…
Metalsiege@reddit
Nah, hardest part is troubleshooting some random issue that’s keeping it from powering on or booting. Overlook something small and you could be scratching your head.
Woffingshire@reddit
The only difficult part is plugging the case into the motherboard when the mobo doesn't have the pins separated or clearly labeled but they still need to go in specific places or they won't work
Next-Reality-9032@reddit
I don’t think it’s a fair comparison, Lego cost more lol
ResortDisastrous6481@reddit
LIES!!! ITS THE 24PIN CABLE AND THE USB CABLE!!!
power button pins looking scared in the corner
cpekin42@reddit
AI
PerceptionWide7002@reddit
Same here man. I was told "It's just adult lego" but I still thought it would have *some* difficulty. It really is just snapping parts into place and occasionally using a screwdriver.
AdoboHuffer@reddit
building is the easy part
diagnosing and repairing without throwing tons of parts at it is the hard part…
similar to working on cars
JointChap@reddit
I was like 14 for first pc, and it was honestly pretty straight forward with a guide. The hardest part for me honestly was installing windows since I had to go from one computer to the next and messing with bios and stuff. Building a pc is pretty plug in play, maybe the i/o stuff was the hardest physically since you need to reference the MB manual for pins but otherwise, same. Easy pz.
deleted_by_reddit@reddit
[removed]
AutoModerator@reddit
Hi there! Thanks for the comment.
We ask that posts and comments be in English so they can be understood by as many people as possible. Translations on Reddit are client-side, and not all apps or browsers support auto-translate. Currently many users (and moderators) aren’t able to read your comment.
Could you please submit a new comment in English?
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
JosipC64@reddit
I personally enjoy it. Researching and selecting components is fun. The PCPartPicker website is very helpful. The assembly itself takes some time and is a bit exhausting. Then there's software (including BIOS) configuration and personalization. I enjoy that part as well; I can set everything exactly the way I prefer. The final result feels more "me".
However, I wouldn't say that the process of building a computer is easy. It's easy if you know what you're doing and are willing to read about things you are not familiar with. Once everything is done, there may also be problems through no fault of your own. So you need to be able to diagnose the problem and fix it.
KenS-TX@reddit
I built my first computer in the early 90s. Back then it was a lot more challenging. You used to have to use dip switches to set interrupt requests and things like that. Much easier now after plug and play. The thing that is a little more challenging is cooling and purchasing compatible components. In the old days any cooling fan would do. Now you need a strategy on how to cool things down. You also need to spend time verifying parts work together and that they fit into the case. But overall building a pc is not hard.
poshbakerloo@reddit
Plugging in the components to the motherboard is the easy part, sorting out all the cables is the hard part - and making sure your RAM is the correct physical size to fit under the cpu cooler is it overhangs...
topologeee@reddit
Its easy until you have a mental breakdown for 3 days trying to figure out why it wont post.
yahyahyehcocobungo@reddit
It's definitely gotten easier from 20 years ago. That is why youtube is full of people doing content on it.
Marco-YES@reddit
Now try building a 90s PC
Round_Ad_6369@reddit
That's nothing, try building a 40s computer,
j_ryerye@reddit
That's nothing, try building an astrolabe
RedofPaw@reddit
That's nothing, try building a Dyson sphere.
Calucia@reddit
or cooling one, which AIO do you use?
Round_Ad_6369@reddit
You kids and your fancy technology. Use a rock like we did in my day
j_ryerye@reddit
That's nothing, try using nuclear fusion to create iron to make rocks
Round_Ad_6369@reddit
That's nothing, try being an unstable, high-energy field that drove exponential growth before converting its energy into matter and radiation from a rapid expansion of space itself from a hot, dense singularity
j_ryerye@reddit
Fine
Lava-Chicken@reddit
That's great great great grandpa
hamfinity@reddit
Processors are just smart sand.
5n0wm3n@reddit
You kids and your fancy rocks, just 🌟 imagine 🌟
JJay9454@reddit
Astroglide applied to Labia.
Help, now what?
CaterpillarReady2709@reddit
I don't remember it being that much more difficult...
Filixx@reddit
It only hurt more. Building PCs in the early days required a blood sacrifice
Gavcradd@reddit
Only when you inevitably cut your finger on the sharp metal edge of the case.
Z3r0sama2017@reddit
Dear God, so many edges and heaven help you of you were giving a wire a bit of welly to get it seated and your hand slips.
STRYED0R@reddit
So true...they really added razer blades in there. The lego comparison really holds up. Those can be painful too
Wor3q@reddit
Do you remember the times when you had to set IRQs?
Or maybe the times when you had to look for drivers for anything, and the supplied ones didn't work half of the time?
Or modifying XP CD because it didn't have SATA drivers?
It's very easy nowadays.
deathhand@reddit
Dont forget jumpers on hard drives and master/slave configurations!
CaterpillarReady2709@reddit
Yeah, soundblaster had some extra steps for sure...
Cyber_Akuma@reddit
Or having to use a boot disk with a custom config.sys and autoexec.bat to get specific games to work because they somehow expected you to have sound, mouse, and cd-rom drivers loaded while having almost all of the 640k of base memory free and did not support extended memory even though you had several megs of memory installed...
BitRunner64@reddit
There were a lot more components (soundcard, networking card, serial port card, those bulky IDE cables etc.) and things were less standardized. If you plugged in the floppy or pc-speaker cable the wrong way, it could burn out the connector or even cause a fire (don't ask how I know). Cases were less ergonomic to work in as well.
Also plug and play didn't exist yet. You had to manually configure IRQ's etc. which could be a real nightmare if you had a lot of peripherals and components.
snacktopotamus@reddit
DIP switch configuration fun!
MWink64@reddit
But I really want to know how you pulled off such an impressive feat. If you install the data cable backwards on a 3.5" floppy, it usually just keeps the activity light on. If you flipped or offset the power cable, that could be trouble. I'm struggling to think how you could cause a serious issue with the PC speaker.
Attainted@reddit
Also jumper pins on the mobo & HDD for stuff that's now just config'd in UEFI.
Cyber_Akuma@reddit
The power connector on floppy drives was pretty small and flimsy, the guide rails were so small that it was easy to overpower them without even noticing. The connector was also symmetrical so it could easily plug in upside-down. The power connector for IDE HDD/CD drives didn't have these problems.
BitRunner64@reddit
For starters, I was 11 at the time. The connector wasn't keyed, just color coded and started smoking when the system was powered on. Luckily nothing else was damaged so I simply removed the PC speaker and the system worked fine.
ThirstyWolfSpider@reddit
I remember the complete lack of internet access making problem-solving harder. And then there were DIP switch configurations to get right, insufficient (paper) documentation, etc.
Cyber_Akuma@reddit
Routing IDE cables, setting the master/slave jumpers on hard drives, possibly needing to manually set the IRQs your expansion cards used with jumpers as well, needing an expansion card for pretty much anything (Sound, modem, video, in some cases even mouse or hdd controllers), connecting your cd drive if you had one to the sound card, USB not being a thing yet, need to boot from a floppy disk because booting from a cd (if you even had an optical drive) was not a thing motherboards supported yet, needing to use said boot floppy to manually initialize and partition your hdd with fdisk (which required a reboot) and then manually format it before you could install an OS.... and that's if everything goes smoothly and you don't have address conflicts with some of your hardware.... then comes manually installing your drivers and editing config.sys and autiexec.bat... I would say it was pretty different
countingthedays@reddit
Really not that different as long as you understand what IRQ means... and you can read the manual without google. And you have all the drivers on floppy because you can't download them. And you spent plenty of time figuring out potential conflicts because you have way less to go on.
But the plugging stuff together, not so bad.
Timthos@reddit
Every time I build a new computer I can't believe how much nicer and easier to work in cases keep getting. It's the biggest thing in my mind that makes assembling a modern PC a cake walk. That and the cable are smaller. Definitely don't miss the old ATA cables
LordKensworth@reddit
Building the 90s PC was the easy part. Configuring all the drivers and software was the challenge.
Man0fGreenGables@reddit
That brought back some repressed memories of reinstalling windows. There was always some random driver that wouldn't work for some unknown reason. And in the early internet days it was usually the network card driver that decided it wasn't going to work and you had no way to download a working one.
CaterpillarReady2709@reddit
Yup! Folk keep talking about configuring the PC, but I guess that is part of building it...
zabbenw@reddit
i've only built pcs in the 90s/ early 2000 but is it really that different? Its all the same parts.
LennyKarlson@reddit
those were also just adult lego. i was doing it as a kid.
JauntyGiraffe@reddit
Remember when CPUs didn't have heat spreaders and you could actually fuck them up by tightening them in the wrong order
randolf_carter@reddit
I did this once with an AMD Athlon XP around 2001-2002.
MWink64@reddit
During that era, most CPU heatsinks used clips, not screws. That's what made it so easy to crack the cores, because the HS would want to go on at an angle. To make matters worse, some used clips that were meant to be manipulated by slotting in a flat-head screwdriver, giving you a ~20% chance of stabbing your motherboard.
mathaiser@reddit
Gotta move the jumper on that hard drive! lol.
mr_dfuse2@reddit
i don't remember that being harder? no coolers to install, way more room in those large beige cases
TDYDave2@reddit
My first build was 50 years ago. It was a Digital Group Z80 based system. Back then I had to hand solder all the parts onto the circuit cards.
MWink64@reddit
Before or after the implementation of Plug-n-Play?
wavemelon@reddit
Yeah, it might be a liiitle masochistic but I actually preferred doing it then.
SgbAfterDark@reddit
Honestly, my first build a year ago was pretty stressful ngl, it was due to my own error of course but I didn’t know you’re supposed to route the chassis fans behind the back panel and it blocked the gpu from fully seating and even though I heard a click my 24pin wasn’t fully seated
Fast forward a year later I’ve been upgrading and fixing friends and family’s computers and now handling hardware/building is a breeze, I’m just a slow learner
I’m just writing this to say that if you don’t have the “easy adult LEGO” experience, sometimes once isn’t enough for ppl who are slow learners like me
Altruistic-Knee-2523@reddit
Hardest part was the wiring for me. As a first timer you really just have no idea where the stuff goes
Kilharae@reddit
Yeah, specifically wiring the PC case to the motherboard is kind of confusing and usually the motherboard's manual have pretty poor instructions.
HumanPea1140@reddit
Been building computers for better part of two decades and that is still the most annoying part of putting one together. They sell little adapters that make it easier, but wish more cases came with them.
resetallthethings@reddit
some do, it's becoming a lot more common
NoobyMcNooberSon1@reddit
My asus a31 did and its so nice just having a connector just like front audio
AchmodinIVSWE@reddit
Yeah, I had not connected my case fully for the part of almost a year after having built my computer. I had only connected the on/off switch and the usb inputs on the front. I had no clue how to connect the RGB that was included in the case. But it was just one SATA cable I had to connect to the PSU.
pfizersbadmmkay@reddit
This. The first time I was faced with from panel connection I was all *%$!@????
Ashankura@reddit
I am baffled that after that many years we still don't have a fucking standard for that. "Oh but someone could do it different" NO ONE DOES YOU FUCKER GIVE ME A NORMAL CONNECTOR
SauretEh@reddit
When I'm faced with front panel connection I am still all *%$!@???? but the question marks are "How did you stab yourself under the fingernail AGAIN you uncoordinated fuck?!?"
grendus@reddit
Yeah, that was what freaked me out.
My case didn't have all the connectors (no front panel LEDs, for example), so I had connectors that didn't seem to connect to anything. Terrified me.
Doesn't help that my very first build powered on once and never posted. I think I didn't add the spacers and it shorted out against the case, and I definitely used way too much thermal paste which may have shorted it out (silver based, so it was definitely conductive).
But once I got the wires together, the hardest part was figuring out Linux (because fuck W11)
hdhddf@reddit
it's mostly easy but it can be a pain, most of the issues people have are caused by frustration and impatience. sometimes the simplest of tasks can take hours, removing a 24pin connector can be a 2 minute task but sometimes it's such a pain I've seen people destroy their motherboard, the art of the wiggle is important experience. the real struggle isn't really the hardware but the software
Jormius@reddit
I started with a prebuilt with a xeon e5 and started putting different pieces into it. I bought my first motherboard and a new cpu, and just left them in their boxes for a month because I was so scared I'd break something. I put it together and had no clue where anything was supposed to be, and I bought a micro atx mobo without knowing anything about motherboards. I had so many hours of frustration before I eventually figured it all out, now I have a beaut with a water cooled i9 12900kf, 2tb ssd, and the rx 5700xt from the original prebuilt. I honestly can't wait to build my next computer!!
LighttBrite@reddit
You say you heard it constantly yet question if you're the only one realizing how easy it is.
Are you even human?
IceYetiWins@reddit
I definitely did not have that experience. Jamming my hands into the corner to get screws to go in and fiddling with tiny wires was a huge pain. Nothing like Legos.
jacobpederson@reddit
The snapping the pieces together is not the hard part - its making sure you bought the correct pieces and configured them correctly for optimal performance.
Standard_Landscape_6@reddit
I made my first PC with no experience in a couple hours after watching a couple videos
Gavcradd@reddit
Building a PC from parts someone has picked for you - very easy.
Picking out those parts in the first place so they all.work together - not so easy.
NoAnalyst7987@reddit
Easy, always get the best cpu and motherboard and ram and the worst gou,
A gpu does not make your pc open apps faster. It does not make loading times quicker it does not let you open many apps at the same time. A gpu just shows things on a screen. It is close to useless
Gavcradd@reddit
It's not just the "best" though. Which CPU works with which motherboard? How many slots for RAM are there on the motherboard, and what type of RAM does it support? Do I need a GPU to get it to boot up, or are there onboard graphics? Will this SATA SSD connect or not? IS it going to fit into the case I've bought? Does my monitor input match the output on the GPU?
All things that someone who is at "lego building" PC stage won't have a clue about. It's not that hard with a bit of research, but you've got to know what terms to even look for. I built plenty of PCS back in the 90s and 00s, when my (now 14 year old) son wanted a gaming PC built, I was stumped - things have moved on so much, I had to do hours of research to work out what I needed.
Nathaaaaanie1@reddit
I had never built a pc before when I built mine. I've watched videos on it before and I know what it should look like inside, but its pretty plug and play. Even with the wiring, its just matching them up. Hardest part is getting the os installed... which again is pretty simple.
The only time there would really be any issues is if you bought incompatible components or you have to update the bios for your cpu
Kitchen_Canary_6387@reddit
I’m a 45yo tinkerer who loves technology and has worked in tech for the majority of my career … and I disagree with this post 😂. While it is simple once you’ve done it, it’s not simple your first time. The absolute plethora of connections on the motherboard is overwhelming, and you’re afraid you might push too hard or not hard enough on a connection point. I thought I’d be fine with my first build, but it was very hard on my nerves and I ended up needing some help from a friend.
While the chances of messing up to the point you completely break something are slim, the chances of just building it on your own without some sort of instructions are even slimmer. Especially with the lack of helpful instructions included with hardware these days.
Dolapevich@reddit
Yeah, that is what 40 years of multiple vendors working on standarization and multiple standarization bodies can do.
Tell it to apple, car, tv sets, etc makers.
rucekooker@reddit
shi im still too scared to even pull away PC parts apart from RAM.
imhereforshad@reddit
my first ever modification i did to my pc was replacing the aio, lets just say it was a 3 hour learning experience...
HumanPea1140@reddit
First time I built one, I was scared of pushing down the latch for the CPU. I thought it required way too much force. Watched a bunch of videos of other people doing it and it seemed so easy to them.
Kitchen_Canary_6387@reddit
Getting the latch down was very hard for my recent build as well. I looked at it over and over and made sure it was placed correctly. It was fine in the end, but it was very nerve racking!
snil4@reddit
Better than the time I replaced a mobo (more like rebuilding the entire PC) and it refused to post because of a usb extender...
SituationSmooth9165@reddit
Sad
UberShrew@reddit
I feel you. Even after building, upgrading, switching chassis, building another, etc several times, I still feel like I’m working on a nuclear warhead every time. Always go in thinking surely this will only take me an hour and then finally boot up like 3 hours later.
kind_bros_hate_nazis@reddit
When I build with newbies, I make them insert and pull them out a few times. Especially the graphics card.
twhiting9275@reddit
It really IS quite easy……. Until you can’t do it any more
I’ve spent 3 decades taking shit apart , tearing it out, upgrading , cleaning it out , putting it back together. My last build was for my roommate 3 years ago, and I had to take so many breaks , get her to help . My hands just don’t work like that anymore more . Between arthritis and carpal tunnel, I can’t do it :(
I used to LOVE this kind of work . Now, I dread doing it
Phazetic99@reddit
It used to be waaaayyy harder. Today, things are really electroprotected. It used to be very easy to fry something with a little shock. They also used jumpers all over. They would have pins that you had to put jumper connectors in to set it up to communicate with other components. Thing were not plug n play. You really had to do research to make sure components would work with each other.
Things would go wrong easily and there was nothing to inform you of what was wrong. It used to be a lot more stressful
baggydiscord@reddit
building a computer is wild because there's like zero consequences if you mess up, everything just won't fit or won't click and you figure it out, it's basically impossible to actually break anything by accident so once you realize that the anxiety just melts away and suddenly you're like oh this is
EmbellishedMelodrama@reddit
once you realise theres basically no way to break anything without actively trying and that everything just slots in where its supposed to go it becomes way less intimidating, like the hardest part is just picking the parts in the first place
brendan87na@reddit
building it is easy, cable maangement is a bitch
fatty2flyinsquirrel@reddit
Give me 4 hours, and i will hyper-fixate on one specific PCI or SATA cable for 3.5 of those.
I remember when i finally made the switch to a modular PSU, it was like a whole new world for me.
JEs4@reddit
Business up front, untold nightmares in the back.
lio-ns@reddit
Eldritch god level of unruly tentacles in the back.
TokageLife@reddit
It has always been simple but people like to complicate it by refusing to read the manual and relying on random Youtubers to follow along with completely different parts.
munzter@reddit
I would encourage you to try building a water-cooled micro gaming PC and report back. 🙂
barkingcat@reddit
It's just more expensive Legos. Like a GPU "brick" can be worth $2000 but it is exactly like Legos.
Only problem is that there's a lot of Duplo mixed into the used market so the task becomes verifying whether you're buying Legos or Duplos.
DickFartin@reddit
Yea I was always duped by the local pc guys convincing me to pay them to build a pc for me. I bought a handful of old pcs to mess around with and took them all apart and swapped around the parts and put them back together and was like holy shit that was easy as hell. Now I now what all these parts are and what they do...
CrimsonxAce@reddit
I did initially! I'm in my late 30s and built my first PC despite not having any prior knowledge or experience except for Youtube lol. Only issue I ran into is short circuiting my motherboard after unknowingly placing it on top of the anti-static plastic it came in lol. Had to have it replaced.
resetallthethings@reddit
meanwhile you've had other posts here lamenting how it took them 12 hours, and they were shocked at how difficult it was based on how it's painted as so simple
Proper-Mobile-6438@reddit
I helped a buddy install extra ram in his laptop (took literally three minutes) and he looked at me like I did a magic trick.
excidius@reddit
I think ppl just assume you're building components and not simply snapping several things together.. lol
fistfulloframen@reddit
It's easy until something goes wrong.
MasterVule@reddit
Something going wrong is extremely rarely something which is your fault and can't be fixed from my experience
Shiny_personality@reddit
Troubleshooting is where the fun is 👌
RC_5213@reddit
Yep, I ended up having to bring my first build to a PC repair store to figure out what I was doing wrong (flashing the BIOS incorrectly)
My second build I completed from start to finish during this years Super Bowl halftime show.
BigSmackisBack@reddit
This is the best answer, it really is easier than its ever been to build a PC if things go well and these days QC is much higher on parts with hundreds of iterations of improvement in design. If something isnt working, without good previous experience troubleshooting and decent knowledge of the hardware, you wont know the questions you need to ask to even start!
Go back 20 years or more with limited/no internet access, bad paper manuals, flaky parts, limited info and especially with brand new hardware - a fault or config problem could see you scratching your head for a week!
Disastrous_Poetry175@reddit
Easily spend many times more hours figuring out random bullshit not working than building the damn thing.
Shiny_personality@reddit
It is. Done it for the first time this summer. I built mine and saw how easy it was so I did an other for my husband. Now I kinda miss the fealing and one to build more pcs 😅
KingdaToro@reddit
I've always said this: building a computer is 40% research and choosing the parts, 20% actually building it, and 40% installing and setting up the OS and software.
Kitchen_Safe4871@reddit
Only if you don't buy cheap small chassis.
Liesthroughisteeth@reddit
The hardest part really is getting to know the hardware available and how it fits into the performance level you are are wanting to have...and willing to pay for. :D
Generaldar@reddit
It's easy until you run into issues.
SausageMcMerkin@reddit
I used to work for a system integrator, and have built hundreds of PCs. 90% of the time, yes, it's pretty damn easy. However, there are some genuine catch points that can make it pretty difficult sometimes.
SATA connectors on hard drives can be quite brittle, an can break with not much pressure.
USB 3.2 headers are keyed to only plug in one direction. However, the keying is not that drastic, and it's quite easy to plug it in the wrong way if you're not paying attention, which can fuck up the header and make it useless. USB 3.0 headers can also be fucked up pretty easily due to tight tolerances.
If you happen to buy a cheap case, the motherboard screws can often be shit, and can crossthread the standoffs pretty easily. If the standoffs are built into the case, this makes it extra problematic.
Lastly, you don't know pain until you've had to troubleshoot a ground short on a motherboard. If you're doing this at home with little experience, you could very well find yourself eating the cost of a motherboard.
Many of these things are avoidable if you RTFM, pay attention, and take your time. Some are not, and are just luck of the draw.
q-milk@reddit
Building a PC is a little like climbing a mountain. Most often it can be like a walk in the part, but if something goes wrong, it can quickly get very complicated.
SovietKnuckle@reddit
Unless you're doing something like a SFFPC, then it's genuinely never been easier. Every time I do a new build I'm finding the process has become easier than before. It's all in the small details.
zabbenw@reddit
why would it be hard?
alexaudio10@reddit
And yet, every week I have people coming into the store with a ton of boxes they bought from Amazon, half-assembled, with broken CPU pins or a motherboard mounted directly in the case...
TommyV8008@reddit
The hardest work is already done for us.
shipshaper88@reddit
Desktops have always been put together by hand so the parts makers have had 45 years of experience refining the parts to make it as easy as possible to put together. It used to be more annoying - maybe 20 years ago and before. But it never was truly difficult.
Jeep-Eep@reddit
With the Eisbaer/core 2 or that wierd Barrow block/pump/res combo, that's even somewhat applicable to custom loops these days.
maxxxminecraft111@reddit
The hard part is affording the parts to build the PC 😭😭😭
makoblade@reddit
Physical assembly with modern parts in a modern case is easy. Not sure why anyone would doubt that following basic manuals is anything but easy unless they're illiterate.
Now making sure everything actually works correctly? If it re
Victus_MK@reddit
Now try building a laptop /s
TheMinisterOChlorine@reddit
Now try repasting your ol' gpu, six screws and some thermal PTM and you'll lower that hotspot by up to 10c, PCs are braindead easy, the worst part is the nerves in the beginning when handling expensive parts, hell PCB can be bend almost in half and still bounce back yet people are super delicate and shaky with mobos.
Gex2-EnterTheGecko@reddit
The meme that building a PC or just even that pc gaming in general is overly complicated or difficult is old and tired. It isn't that hard, and frankly I kinda think a lot of people are telling on themselves when they say it is.
Atrium41@reddit
How about that 24 pin? That was the hardest part for me, personally
BloodyStupid_johnson@reddit
Just built a pc. Was overwhelmed at first. Then went step by step, slowly learned what each component on the motherboardsl was for (each plug, port, connection)c, watched a ton of videos, asked Claude a ton of questions which was really helpful. The thing powered on and boot up first time like magic.. I'm looking forward to building another.
STRYED0R@reddit
It's a tight fit sometimes to wire things even with my huge case and pretty normal sized hands. Also, not a fan of some power cables being so hard to disconnect or connect.
KozyKub@reddit
I’ve put together Pcs since 2005. It’s always been fairly simple for me and fun. But I’m a little nervous with my next build. I think maybe because the parts basically are like gold with how expensive and I really hope I don’t mess anything up.
SchmeckleHoarder@reddit
Been doing it since the 90s. Nothings really changed, form factor and pin connections… sure. But yeah anyone can do it, and should. Just for the simple fact of learning how troubleshooting and maintenance works you know what everything is, where it goes, and how to fix it.
Aggressive_Yak7094@reddit
The only area i am a bot confused with are the power switch, restart switch, hdd light, power light and other such wires. Everything else is easy.
Cody610@reddit
Yeah that’s what I said the fpanel/case fans and random USB ports/lights sometimes aren’t the most intuitive.
Like you’ll have tags on the wires with letters/number combos similar to what’s on the mobo but not exactly the same. And the motherboard has a row of pins 2x6-8 or whatever with letters on the side button don’t know what orientation all the time. And it’s not like they’re always neatly next to eachother or every other slot. Some are 2x2 some are 1x2, etc.
My first two PC builds were a breeze and literally everything was “plug it in the obvious place where it fits” and i didn’t even inspect manuals really unless i had a bios issue.
I just feel a universal cable labeling and connection system should be adopted. So USB ports, HDD/system lights, CPU coolers, RGB, case fans, power and reset controls, etc should have the same label across everything. That and consolidating things alike in their own little area across 2-3 sections would solve the majority of issues IMEs
MWink64@reddit
Good news! Some modern cases don't bother with anything but the power button.
brokemillionaire572@reddit
It's much easier than it used to be 30 years ago. I had a to build an audio driver once years ago, but now Windows does almost everything for you once you get online.
Dr_Shenanigans24@reddit
I found that finding the components you want and making sure they're compatible takes way longer than building the PC lmao
stulew@reddit
The hardest part is loading in Windows OS without relinquishing your privacy data.
Firestar_119@reddit
nobody's forcing you to use windows, if you actually care enough then use something else
repocin@reddit
If you take some time to pre-configure an autounattend file you can get rid of most garbage during setup without touching anything. I think it took me about seven minutes to install Windows from the moment I hit the power button to the desktop after assembling my new build back in October, and there's no sign of garbage like OneDrive fucking up my folders, Office nagging about some subscription I don't want, or disk encryption tied to an online account.
Definitely the way to go if you still need Windows for one reason or another.
CerberusInExile@reddit
Lego held together by tiny screws. The plugs are mostly color coded and shaped/keyed to only fit one way. As long as you don't force anything and can reasonably use a small screwdriver with patience, you can build a PC.
The initial boot up is when the real fun begins.
Konrow@reddit
Yes. I built my first full PC at like 17 and the "hardest" part was picking components. About 15 years later my little brother asked for help building his and I just laughed. "Dude, it's Lego, you'll be fine but I'll help". Afterwards he was also saying damn that was stupid easy.
PaulTheMerc@reddit
If you're building in a large case, you're fine.
Space issues become well, issues in non standard cases with LARGE GPUs, and much more so in Small Form Factor(SFF) builds.
In SFF builds if you don't get the right size gpu, it will NOT fit. If you build in the wrong order...you guessed it, it will not fit.
If you build it but don't cable manage as you go, it...it will fit(probably), but it will look bad and airflow might actually be an issue.
Another large part is do you have a cheap PSU, or did you get a semi/fully modular one?
I have a large computer tower, and I hate it. BUT, it was $20 new, so like...yeah. That SFF tax is high.
Carnifex217@reddit
To be fair you’re only really putting the computer together. Which is why it’s like Lego’s as you put those together as well. If you were actually building a computer it would be much harder as I don’t imagine most people possess the means to manufacture a motherboard or graphics card. But pretty much anyone can plug a graphics card into a motherboard
PigSlam@reddit
It gets a little harder when you try to shove it all into a smaller case, but yeah, you've got the gist of it.
RX3000@reddit
Yes its literally just plugging things into other things. Its not a big deal honestly. I just prefer to not do it. 🤣
getbusyliving_@reddit
Until you plug the display cable into the MB rather than GPU 🙃
iszoloscope@reddit
I part so expensive shouldn't require a cable to work.
lazyhustlermusic@reddit
I always just refer to them as adult legos.
It's weird when someone believes they're the most highly intelligent wizard in all the land just because they assembled one once though.
Chowder110@reddit
I always hated lego
Legirion@reddit
I have been building computers since I was a little kid in the early 90s. It was never hard.
IamArawn@reddit
Hardest part for me was cable management
johnnymonster1@reddit
The only thing I struggled with is plugging some cables in, either there was no room for my hand or its too hard to stick it in. Or the cable is too tiny for me to precisely put on a pin. Otherwise it’s pretty simple ye
VirtualMachine0@reddit
Having worked in consumer computer repair, I'll add that the main things folks mess up are RAM seating and power cables.
Less common mistakes include fan orientation, heatsink mounting, suboptimal port usage, improperly tightened screws.
Gone are the days of incorrect jumpers and incorrect drive bay quantities.
sob727@reddit
It's easy while it works.
Troubleshooting can be tricky.
rav-age@reddit
the hard part is making all those parts. still fun to do and great if it starts :-)
TechnoGMNG589@reddit
Yeah, apart from cable management and software, its easy.
stefanciobo@reddit
The little cables from the case to the motherboard are still hard ...or at least annoying .
NoChickenman__@reddit
the Lego comparison is spot on, once you realize everything only fits one way the fear just disappears
Acrylic_Starshine@reddit
Much easier with the internet obviously and YouTube.
You just need that faith on yourself and have half an idea what youre doing.. aslong as the parts are compatible and you put them in the right places its easy.
I would recommend experience in upgrading and troubleshooting hardware and software in the past so you arent relying on others seeing as you get zero technical help.
Vandalarius@reddit
Having a well designed case is actually really important for ease of installation.
brighton_on_avon@reddit
I think the hardest thing for me was having a sense of all the stuff I needed. I didn't really take cooling seriously at first - then wondered why my computer was so hot, then had some fans fitted to the front. I've only recently fitted a non-stock CPU cooler after owning my PC for six years...
RemuIsMaiWaifu@reddit
Nowadays, everything is very simple. The biggest issue is the cost and the anxiety about it. If you mess up, you may lose plenty of money and time. I built many PCs when I worked with it, but even now I get a little bit of anxiety when I do that first turn on, or when the RAM stick insert sound is a little too loud.
turkoid@reddit
Back in my day...
But for real, First PC I built was in the year 2000 and researching and buying parts, in hindsight, was a pain in the ass and documentation was lackluster. I mean having to remember to have one hard drive as your "master" and the other(s) as "slave" drives.... Later when i had to install my first after market heat sink, I remember it took me a few hours before I had the courage to put that much pressure on my CPU. Not to mention, how complicated mounting brackets were.
Over the past 26 years, I've built many more and almost every aspect has gotten easier, and that's a good thing. It makes it way more digestible and easy to pick up. Also, the tools/tutorials available today are great, I mean pcpartpicker was a fucking game changer.
That said, it all comes with a price (literally) and newer generations lose the ability to do any self troubleshooting with their builds. Again not a bad thing, just a sign of the times.
AzureDrag0n1@reddit
Assembly is simple. It is when things don't boot up normally that becomes the hard part and you have to mess with the BIOS for hours.
painneverending@reddit
Yes, especially when told all my life that building stuff was only for certain types of people.
Next-Reality-9032@reddit
It used to be a lot more difficult, compatibility between parts has improved so much over the years, I remember building my first PC in 2003 in preparation for Half life 2 and I didn’t even have the internet had to use PC gamer magazine guide lol and things would just not work and it was really hard to figure out why,
I think people who have no interest in tech generally believe it’s some kind of arcane art or something but really it is very straightforward especially with tools like Reddit, YouTube and online forums you can usually find a solution to the very specific problem you have
speling_champyun@reddit
the way i feel - building computers is sufficiently easy that I feel pretty sad that some people end up buying crummy all-in-ones or similar.
but its also fairly easy to fix a lot of things on cars, but people don't
life is a lot cheaper when you fix as many things as you possibly can. anyway, glad you became a builder - kudos
wryterra@reddit
Building a full size ATX tower? Yeah. It was designed to be easy. These components are made to go with each other.
Now… building in a SFF case with tight tolerances and no margin for error, requiring absolutely precise cable routing and assembling things in the right order or risk having sockets unreachable to connect cables to? You can play on hard mode!
Anderson22LDS@reddit
When you choose the correct parts that are compatible yes. Upgrading my mo/bo firmware before installing it was terrifying though, especially when it seemed dead and I had to clear the CMOS with a screwdriver.
Dense-Elephant5048@reddit
Indeed, all you need is a Philips star-shaped screwdriver. But before first build there's a lot to know about.
forseti99@reddit
My confussion comes when people want to shove things into places they clearly don't belong or not the way they fit using as much force as they can. Then they act surprised when they ruin the pieces.
Cyber_Akuma@reddit
I can't believe I have read multiple stories of people trying to hammer or sand down a card to make it fit, like you realize it's not a block of wood you're trying to install right?
kind_bros_hate_nazis@reddit
You can't design past dumb
elvpak@reddit
I found that too! I only did my first build a couple of months ago. I was really worried about accidentally breaking something or something not fitting but it was fine in the end (apart from forgetting to plug in one power cable and one fan header).
vitek6@reddit
It’s pretty easy but it can get a little bit cumbersome when building SFF.
simagus@reddit
It's very basic as a lego kit, but it's also more delicate. The CPU socket or the pins on the CPU in particular.
I've built 6-7 PC's and my most recent one was AM4 which I had not seen or built with before.
Never before bent a pin on anything. I've straightened pins, which can be a long and... strangely fun and satisfying time.
I had to straighten the pins on that CPU, but that was because I couldn't get my fingers under the cooler and when I was trying to wiggle the cooler off... out it comes... bent pins and all.
Building it was easier than trying to take it apart. I should have taken a hairdryer to the heatsink, but I did run it twice in a row at heavy load to try and heat up the CPU so the cooler would come off.
It was like it was glued on there and the CPU just ripped right out the socket.
Bent pins.
I fixed it, and it's running fine now, but that was one of those PC builder moments.
Sea_Compote_755@reddit
Computers are mostly plug and play these days. I'm old enough to remember when it took days and days of troubleshooting to get a new build running. Or soldering pins for "over clocking." In a way, I miss those days because of the tremendous satisfaction you received when you got it working, but I also appreciate getting a new build up and running in mere hours to get to playing games with my friends.
kind_bros_hate_nazis@reddit
Yeah I feel you. I went from a c64 to 486 to a Pentium etc. I'll be honest, it's kind of boring now. Helping other people build is amazing though
BitRunner64@reddit
It's not that difficult, but the consequences of messing up can be quite significant. A slightly misaligned CPU can bend the pins or burn out the CPU/socket. A connector that isn't fully seated (even by a few millimeters) can cause crashes and issues that are hard to diagnose for a beginner.
It also depends on the motherboard and case. If you put in things in the wrong order, it can sometimes make things like M.2. slots and fan headers very hard or impossible to access, requiring you to disassemble the system multiple times to get everything in place.
Aranxi_89@reddit
The hard part is learning about parts compatibility, best combinations of hardware for maximum results with minimal investments, and troubleshooting should something go wrong.
Building a PC is easy. Figuring out why a freshly built PC isn't booting is harder.
SaltAbbreviations986@reddit
Everything it's expensive and easy to break. You have to know how to navigate a bios. Have a windows usb and know how to install it. Cable mananmenght. And probably something it's not going to work fine feom the start. How it's that easy.
Ill-Entrepreneur3746@reddit (OP)
This is referring to the assembly, building it. Not configuring it, not installing Linux, windows, whatever you use, its the assembly. I am NOT referring to buying the parts, picking them out, I AM TALKING ABOUT THE BUILD PROCESS. What you listed IS NOT EASY, the **ASSEMBLY** is.
Ceska_Zbrojovka_V3@reddit
One of those things that SOUNDS way more complicated than it is. I tell people I develop my own film and people think I'm a goddamn alchemist. I try to tell them it's easier than baking a cake lol.
heyyoudvd2@reddit
It’s all super easy until it isn’t.
Once in a while you’ll come across a defective piece of hardware that is hard to diagnose.
And occasionally you’ll come across some weird compatibility/boot issue with Windows, where suddenly you’re doing research into acronyms like UEFI, MBR, CSM, and GUID to figure out why the hell Windows won’t load.
NoSolution7708@reddit
I don't think it was ever meant to be a big deal. However, a subculture has accumulated around it, since it's pretty accessible.
Like anything, you can get things wrong, so just the fact that you need to know some basics then builds a perceived barrier until you start looking into it.
ps-73@reddit
Which is why ITX is the best way to go. ATX is so boring.
ThatDistantStar@reddit
Yeah, the actual building part is easy, but the number of individual parts to choose from and their selective compatibility can be extremely overwhelming to a complete novice.
ben_is_second@reddit
The only issue I’ve ever had is getting the case pins in the right spot on the MOBO. Sometimes the labels for those make zero sense.
Kael018@reddit
Now it's time to build a watercooled pc with parallel tubes
DontKnowHowToEnglish@reddit
The only hard part when starting out is the research regarding what parts to buy and why (depending on your o objective budget), but even so there's so many great comprehensive reviews (GN and HUB are the goats) that's not really difficult, it's only a time investment
arcos00@reddit
I only build PCs every few years, usually for myself, very occasionally for others. Every time I get pretty stressed out at the beginning. Will I break something? Will I screw up somewhere? It can happen, but of course I know the chances are low, and I've never damaged anything. When I'm done I always think "I shouldn't have worried that much".
Geog_Master@reddit
Hardest part is getting the stupid case wires onto the right pins on the motherboard.
TerdyTheTerd@reddit
Then you have people who act like changing a single case fan is the most complicated and horrible experience of their lives.
Sent1nelTheLord@reddit
it is easy. the hard part is buying the parts and making sure they all are compatible. the building process is just tedious and takes a while, but its far from hard
oh and connecting the front panel connectors? yeah, bane of my fucking existence. i hate em
ScientistAsHero@reddit
I still don't like messing with CPUs and thermal paste. (I can do it; it's just nerve-wracking.) Everything else has become fairly simple.
agitatedandroid@reddit
It gets easier all the time. I started building my PCs in the early 90s. They’ve been idiot proofed even more since then.
Beginning-Ad-3015@reddit
Honestly, I was pretty nervous putting together my first couple computers. It's a learning curve but it's really not that nerve racking, the hardest part for me is the cable management but as long as you take your time and cable manage as you go it's pretty easy
BigFatCoder@reddit
Obviously there are different types of people
1. who can disassemble things and can reassemble nicely
2. who can disassemble things but end up with extra parts after reassembly.
3. who can't even disassemble things properly
MDCCCLV@reddit
The hard part is then modifying it later when you don't remember which cable is which in the back and then you just add stuff and leave stuff behind and it gets messier over time. It's helpful to label things while you remember what they are.
Funny-Carob-4572@reddit
I've built a few but the last one.. I put the CPU cooler fan brackets on the wrong way so the fan obviously wouldn't sit
Lucky because I forgot to pull the sticker off the bottom of the CPU cooler fan doh!
Saved myself with another lapse of concentration!
jhaluska@reddit
Picking the components is by far the most time consuming part for me.
BikeSawBrew@reddit
It’s really easy when everything works right the first time. Learning how to troubleshoot why things aren’t going as expected is a lot tougher. There’s much less of that now than there was in the 90s, fortunately.
beedunc@reddit
It is cool.
Sp3ctre18@reddit
It's also gotten easier but I'd imagine it still depends on budget tier and form factor. In the old days, front panel headers had to be inserted individually and that was a monster pain - possibly as a short-fingernail person. Smaller and OEM cases didn't leave much room for maneuvering and I'd scratch my fingers sometimes. Even now I get a scratch at least once every build.
These days front panel headers are one piece, cases are roomier, higher tier cases and motherboards have convenient features, etc.
Personally I feel the scariest/hardest parts is still the CPU & cooler and putting the motherboard into the case. Handling can be awkward and you don't want to drop or squeeze or bend things!
But yeah, be careful, don't be panicky, know about not overtightening screws, be aware of static and grounding, get a case roomy enough for your component, and sure - almost anyone can do it, I think. :D
Researching and picking parts can be the real hard part lol
Financial-Brief-1038@reddit
As long as the chips fit correctly
Jay467@reddit
I had a similar experience with my first full build in 2017 - that's when it dawned on me that PCs are highly standardized today with the only real proprietary things being CPUs and their respective motherboards (which are still a standard form factor like ATX, mATX, etc).
So, really the trickiest parts are the specific knowledge of components you're choosing, power requirements, and not psyching yourself out as a first time builder.
Varkoth@reddit
It was designed to be easy by really, really, really smart people.
MetaphysicalEngineer@reddit
Attention to detail goes a long way. If you get the correct set of parts, the physical assembly is straightforward. Doesn't stop people from making small mistakes all the time, causing expensive damage or at the very least leading to hours of troubleshooting headaches.