I was pretty fed up with what my dying macbook air could do, and my parents answer to my request for a pc was a pretty reasonable “only if you build it”. That is exactly what I did. I created a build online, and went searching in the city for the best price for each part. Eventually I had everything compiled and was ready one Saturday morning to dive right in. After watching people do it themselves and reading some guides, I realized it was pretty much just like putting together a giant puzzle where you had to try really hard not to break anything or electrocute yourself.
I had everything set up and was ready to start glueing and screwing until I tested the motherboard and couldn’t get it to work. After sending it back and getting a new one, I finally was ready to start again the next Saturday. After that it was unbelievably straightforward. All the pieces just kind of went where they were supposed to go, it was more like a puzzle that told you where to put all the pieces. The only hard part was the cabling, which I think I organized beautifully until I went through and cleaned everything a few times. Now I use it for pretty much everything I do and I have a better understanding of all the components in a computer and what their jobs are.
