What is the hardest thing about building a computer?

[Legend8887]

Title.

[22b3]

Knowing how to build one. Getting the things you need for it. That kind of thing. If you know how to build one and have the stuff then your good to go.

[♥]

I really want my dad to build one, since we have the money, and he has the brains. but hes all like: "No! i cant because im lazy as hell, go away!"

[Vitdom]

Reading up on all the comonents' reviews, trying to find issues, etc etc etc.

Every time I ignored reviewing the components before buying them everything went to hell. Now I'm locked with a GFX setup from AMD for which driver support was dropped 6 months after release. Keyboard manufacturer doesn't know what kind of features they put in the keyboard etc.

What's worse is the audio card which has some weird ♥♥♥♥ drivers that doesn't make sense and randomly resets settings on system restart. The developers know it and has never listened.

[Joker]

hardware compatibility

motherboard/cpu installation

choosing a good case

choosing quality parts, reading all the reviews

It's all pretty easy really. Most should succeed on the first attempt if they read up on it, watch alot of YouTube videos and read the manuals the parts come with. Look for references to make sure stuff is compatible (bundles, kits, other people's rigs etc) and read the specs/requirements the parts list. It's pretty idiot proof to put the parts together. Certain wires and screws only go in certain places etc.

[mason]

I would say just the suspense of the first boot, hoping it will boot, and, if it dosent, what you did wrong. Also, cable management. Otherwise, I think everything else is easy (Mostly), with 1 way most of the hardware can fit.

[Josabooba]

First most difficult and time consuming is spending days or weeks making sure you put in the effort and read read read... Review everything and Google problems with parts to see if much hassle experienced by those who already have.

Then cable management and air flow & cool temps.

Mounting CPU & Heatsink - if it's your first time, watch lots of videos and know what you're doing before you do it.

Personally I think the actual putting it all together is easy and in fact a joy, but I understand some people possess other skills that don't suit PC building.

[Ghost Robertson]

When i was younger the hardest part was getting the i/o panel correct,
A lot of systems the hard drive activity and power lights would be wrong.

These days it's just trying to keep up, New components seem to be released on the hour.
Oh and even though I've been building computers for over ten years the first boot can still be nerve racking. :D

[TGC> The Games Collector]

Creating the microchips.
Let's just leave that to the professionals.

[JellyPuff]

getting the money for it.

the hardest part after that, is right after the computer is build up. getting it to work like YOU want to takes alot of patience.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Do your research before buying any parts. There are lot of potential holes you can fall into if you dont know what parts actually fit together and how different brands and series compare to eachother in power level.
Also there is clear difference in quality between some brands. So read the reviews.

[Blah™]

doing the research to make sure you are getting what you are paying for is the "hardest" in my opinion. i spent 2-3 weeks researching all my parts on my rig before buying. and any upgrades after that i spend at least a week or 2 looking at reviews, benchmarks, compatibility. then it comes down to how much you want to spend. with pc gaming, you get what you pay for IMO. if you want to be cheap about it, then you wont have the greatest experience IMO and will end up with cheap parts that dont last as long as others. im glad i forked over a hefty amount of money on my pc and has served me very well with all the research i did and made sure my parts were gonna last me for the next couple years. sure i decided to upgrade some things, but other things i havent bothered to upgrade because it still holds up very well (my inital setup didnt really need an upgrade, most people would be extremely satisfied with it). a nice PSU with good wattage and effeciency will hold you over for years to come as power useage on newer parts are taking a dive, which is a good thing. Overclocking is a HUGE thing to look into in my experience, as it is a potential "free" performance upgrade, so long as you order parts that are overclocking ready and can hit decent OC's. good heatsinks and cases are another thing to look into. a nice big case will serve you 10+ years if you want to keep it that long. also, in my experience, multi-gpu setups are amazing and will give you exactly what you paid for in my opinion. Im a Intel/Nvidia user, and have had a great experience with multi gpu and a high end cpu setup. I dont know for AMD users, but i would HOPE its a great experience for them as well as I really do wish AMD would start to step up their game and crush those companys. the parts that i have upgraded since i built my rig 3.5 years ago from this day are my GPUs(went from 2 gtx 470's to 2 gtx 670 4GB last year exactly), a faster and bigger SSD for my OS (60gb first gen SSD to a Samsung 840 PRO 256GB), bigger HDD (wasnt necessary but was a cheap upgrade), and a newer heatsink for my processor. I also spent a little bit to get double the ram i had (6gb to 12gb) I also went ahead and bought a new case just because i wanted a cooler looking case and one that had better airflow in it. and i bothered to get windows 8 PRO when it came out and love it. my i7 930 @ 4ghz (have had it at that clock the entire time ive had it) has served me very well and spite the fact that i dont have SATA3(which is fine by me honestly) and dont feel the necessary upgrade until DDR4 comes out. my power suppy is a 1000w max and i know i probably will never need to replace it unless it craps out (which surprisingly it hasnt though it only had a 1 year warranty). warranty's are another thing to look at, make sure they have at least a 3 year warranty or just isnt too worth it (only part i had that didnt have this was my PSU). after all is said and done, it comes down to CARING AND NOT BEING LAZY about taking care of what you invested in, like software cleaners (auslogics boostspeed, glary utilities, ccleaner), as well as cleaning out your case with a few cans of compressed air to get them dust bunnies out. i personally clean mine completely once every other month, sometimes even take a vacuum to it and a damp rag to get those "crusted" dust areas, as well as clean the fans throughly (i have dust screens too to lower the dust accumilation). also look into getting good thermal paste for your parts if you want to replace it, i re-do my thermal paste on my cpu every year or so. not necessary with gpu unless you see a heat problem with it.

TL;DR
RESEARCH
RESEARCH
RESEARCH
LOTS OF READING
LOTS OF PATIENCE WILL GET YOU FAR

[Rzep]

Putting on thermal paste=) I always feel like I am going to break the processor while handling it.

[eram]

Attaching the cpu cooler. Damn you clips!

[27]

Nothing is Hard If you know How to build it.

[Edotee]

Well, as everyone else already stated - the god mother fudging damn research. It also depends on what your goal is, what hardware is alreadyon hand and how deep your pockets are.
Most people kinda mistake potent hardware for a good PC - and by PC I mean the whole thing. Higher / more potent isn't always synonymous with better.

In my opinion, what most gamers - and people in general - should look for is a composition that gives you the most bang for your bucks which means that you have to make reasonable choice depending on what you're gonna do with your computer. It also means, that you have to know what each part of your PC does and what is actually required when you use it.

Examples:

• Getting a GTX Titan slash the newest GPU slash the most expensive GPU? Damn son, no, just a big no. You're paying at least 3 times the money for something that gives you, like, only 3 FPS more. And running around in town and yelling "Hurr, durr, my PC runs Battlefield 4 at 200 FPS" ain't something to be proud of if you had to pay way to much money for it.
  
• Dude, no one needs a damn i7 slash an hexadeca core slash the newest CPU to play games. Most games aren't even using more than 4 cores. Actually, I can't even think of a single game that uses more than 4. And an i7 solely for gaming? Really? And games nowadays make use of the GPU's RAM anyway, so shift your money from the CPU to the GPU if your sole purpose for the PC is gaming. (Nope, you don't need special hardware for YouTube. Same goes for Twitter. And yes, you don't need a MacBook Pro for Facebook)
  
• Oh, that fancy power supply that's offering you 1.21 Giga Watts? Nope, calculate your damn energy consumption and pick a quality power supply that fits your needs. If your PC only demands 250W, than pick a 250W / 300W PSU and not a 900W one. And don't be stingy, if that damn thing dies while you're running your PC - have fun with your fried i7 and whatever got fried as well because you wanted to safe that 20 bucks on your PSU.
  
• Damn, 64 gigs of ram sure are smexy. It's totally needed - not. If you're not using your PC for demanding tasks like video editing, you'll barely need more than 8 gigs of RAM.

Just a small list of common mistakes most people unfamiliar to building a PC make.

You get my drift? Make reasonable choice based on your knowledge. If you don't have knowlegde, research your sh*t. If you don't wanna read tons of text, google for pre-composed lists from reputable sites / forums / users - you may modify them to your needs if you're knowledgeable enough. (Using your favorite brand of RAM or HDs / SDDs)

Also this:

引用自 eram：

Attaching the cpu cooler. Damn you clips!

EDIT:
And also this:

引用自 Vitdom：

(...)What's worse is the audio card which has some weird ♥♥♥♥ drivers(...)

Make sure your components of choice are supported for the next 2-5 years, depending on how long you plan on keeping your stuff.