What confused you during your PC builds?

[spyder]

Simple question

 

We all go through these dumb moments where we are not thinking properly and just rushing to do things. 

 

 

During my first build, I stared at the case manual for 15 mins figuring out why I need to use 8 screws to mount the PSU when I only have four included with actual PSU box and none from the case manufacturer.

 

When I eventually put in my GPU, It was sagging, was staring at the machine wondering how I am supposed to make sure it doesn't fall, then I remembered I had to use a screw to attach to the case. 

 

Was fighting tooth and nail to seat the PCI wireless card in the second slot, only to finally figure it goes in the last slot. 

 

Had a panic moment when the power supply came with a 24 pin header only, was thinking WTF, what am I supposed to do, only to realize there was an actual 24 pin cable at the bottom of the box.

 

Connected my case fans to the motherboard the wrong way, my machine was awfully silent for two weeks, only when I downloaded a fan speed monitor software to realize the fans were not even spinning. 

 

When I initially tried to mount the hyper 212 evo cooler, I was using the wrong stand offs (those 4 things you mount on each corner for the heatsink to make contact with. (LGA 2011) when I was supposed to be using the 1150 ones. 

 

Now its your turn. 

[Guest]

Which side to open the Intel box from.

[Levent]

Which side to open the Intel box from.

I ended up tearing the whole thing because I was in such a hurry.

[spyder]

Which side to open the Intel box from.

I wanted to open mine professionally, however ended up tearing one of the sides off. 

[Pedex]

Can't remember my FIRST time. But I watched so many YT videos before getting my current build, so I would avoid any confusion. And it worked!
Though I still don't understand why no one has made a standard single-connector for the front panel lights/buttons. I mean, most cases/motherboards support the same lighting/button configurations, why not make a single connector instead of those flimsy easy-to-misconnect things.

[Guest]

I ended up tearing the whole thing because I was in such a hurry.

 

I wanted to open mine professionally, however ended up tearing one of the sides off. 

 

Lol, thought i'd be the only one.

 

I ended up cutting through the side with all the serial numbers and info on; lets hope i never need to claim under the warranty....

[Guest MinimalEffort]

Thought the 8pin CPU power was just for lolz... Apparently you need it...

[Untouchable]

I ended up tearing the whole thing because I was in such a hurry.

Yeah, i did too.

[Thorium19]

I had an issue with the front panel audio connector, where there were two headers on the motherboard which appeared identical to eachother, the same pin layout to the front audio, but after trying in vain for a few minutes with the wrong connector, I eventually discovered the other header and it slipped on easily. Turns out that the pins were slightly further spaced apart I think on the actual connector.

[spyder]

Thought the 8pin CPU power was just for lolz... Apparently you need it...

I can imagine the panic there when your machine would not post. 

[Darkman]

Which side to open the Intel box from.

I had that issue.

 

I always ended up forgetting what cables were plugged in. Oops.

[TheGeeker]

During my first build I hid my usb 3.1 and usb 2 case connections behind my mobo and I went on for 1 year thing they were just dead and oh well. 

[themaniac]

Can't tell ya I haven't built one yet

[spyder]

During my first build I hid my usb 3.1 and usb 2 case connections behind my mobo and I went on for 1 year thing they were just dead and oh well. 

If that was me, I would of RMA the motherboard back ASAP without even thinking properly. 

[Griffin81]

Well nothing really confused me on my first build, buuuuut i did forget to plug the power connector for my CPU cooler to the mobo. Long story short 90C in about 10 minutes.

[SteveGrabowski0]

I was building a system with $1500 worth of hardware I had picked out for a friend, and this was right about the time GPUs started needing external power. So having built a billion systems before, I built my friend's system and the thing wouldn't POST and I got the biggest feeling of terror, like man, my friend just spent $1500 and the thing can't even turn on. After about 5 minutes I noticed the PCIE power connectors on the side of the GPU had nothing plugged in lol. I plugged those in and everything worked great.

[spyder]

I was building a system with $1500 worth of hardware I had picked out for a friend, and this was right about the time GPUs started needing external power. So having built a billion systems before, I built my friend's system and the thing wouldn't POST and I got the biggest feeling of terror, like man, my friend just spent $1500 and the thing can't even turn on. After about 5 minutes I noticed the PCIE power connectors on the side of the GPU had nothing plugged in lol. I plugged those in and everything worked great.

Frightening experience, if you never realised then your friend would start doubting your PC building skills.

[gcubed]

It doesn't happen as often as it once did, but every once in a while you need to RTFM and when you read the instructions you find that it has went through three translations by people who didn't know either language they were using so were using an X to Y translation dictionary. When this happens you often wonder what the hell flushing a light fixture has to do with a CPU heatsink mounting bracket.

[ThyFeared]

The power and reset switch on the MSI boards. The instructions were way not clear.

[The_Stig]

I built a server where one power connection on the motherboard wasn't supposed to be used and would refuse to post if it was plugged in. I spent hours wondering why my $3,500 server wouldn't post and even RMA'd the PSU (Silverstone 400W). Discovered it by accident when I unplugged and plugged in everything for the third time and forgot to plug that one in. I was so happy that I didn't mind when it took me 3 hours to put windows server on it (the BIOS wouldn't find the CD Rom).

[Trik'Stari]

Connecting the power/reset buttons, and hard drive activity light.

[Darkman]

Connecting the power/reset buttons, and hard drive activity light.

Trying to do that with a dell motherboard that isn't labelled is fun, then finding out the reset part on the motherboard doesn't work and once its powered on the power button is a dummy button.

[Atmos]

Which side to open the Intel box from.

 

No, you're supposed to soak the box in luke-warm water until it dissolve and you can remove the cpu from the bowl. 

 

 

Uh, the thing that confused me the most during my first build was cable-management. I ended up giving up after 30 minutes and just throwing cables in there w/o regard for placement.

[jem.graham]

When I was building my media server I couldn't work out why the internet wasn't working, spent a good 20 minutes looking online, trying to install various things and eventually I worked out that I'd not actually plugged the ethernet in haha

[Lethal Seraph]

What confuses me during my first build was extra screws and cables. I'm like wtf, did I miss something?