As someone that considers themselves a seasoned PC builder, I’m the first to admit that I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, both in parts selection and in the building process. I’m not afraid to admit that I harbor regrets from past builds, but these 5 still manage to keep me up at night.
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5
Skimping on the case and power supply
Never again
The case and power supply are such an important and underrated part of your PC build. When I was doing my first PC build, I really underestimated the value of a good, reliable power supply, and building in a cheap case made the entire experience much more painful than it otherwise would’ve been.
Not only are you compromising the stability and longevity of your system by opting for a cheap power supply, you’re also risking the rest of your parts inside. All that money you spend on a well-performing GPU and CPU means nothing if your PSU is a fire risk.
As for your PC case, most builders will continue to upgrade and build their system in the same enclosure. The ATX standard isn’t going anywhere fast, so you can spend a little more on your chassis without worrying about compatibility. The extra cost affords you higher-quality materials, creature comforts that help with the building process, as well as greater compatibility.
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4
Buying an AIO liquid cooler
It just didn’t fit my build
The conversation of “Air cooler versus AIO liquid cooler” has, and will continue to rage long after I stop building PCs, but when I was building my first few computers, I fell into the trap of thinking liquid was better for every application.
Liquid certainly has its benefits, but for the build I was doing, I could’ve saved a good chunk of money by going with an air cooler. I wasn’t working under any kind of space constraints and the thermal load of my CPU wasn’t enough to warrant a big radiator.
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3
Not taking the time to cable manage at the start
A little time goes a long way
There’s nothing more exciting than finally having your full assortment of parts and getting to throw it all together. When I was building my first PC, I threw everything together hastily without much regard for managing the cables, and I would come to regret it. Future upgrades would take so much longer to do because of my lack of patience when I first put everything together, and I ended up having to untangle a rat’s nest anyway.
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2
Spending more for RAM with RGB
I didn’t realize how little I would care
RGB has been forced into quite literally everything, and while I do enjoy tweaking my build’s esthetics with lights, it’s not worth paying a premium for. When RGB lights were first put on RAM, I paid that premium, and I came to regret it heavily later. Now, the difference between RGB and non-RGB RAM comes to a few bucks, but I’ll gladly opt for the boring RAM that’ll be covered by my CPU heatsink anyway.
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1
Opting for an Intel CPU over an AMD one
Brand power got to me
Intel fans can put away their pitchforks; when I built my last PC, the Core i7-10700K that I chose to be the heart of my gaming build was the best CPU available at the time. It hardly beat its little brother in the 10600k and was at a premium price compared to its AMD counterpart, and despite that, I still chose it without doing much research beyond looking at what chip was at the top of gaming benchmark charts. It wasn’t a bad choice by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn’t the best choice for upgradability.
This came back to bite me later, when I went to upgrade earlier this year. Had I gone with a 3900X or other AM4 chip, I could’ve upgraded in-socket to a 5800X3D without having to spend a penny more on RAM or motherboard. I truly underestimated the AM4 platform, as many others might’ve also done at the time, and I fell for Intel’s (understandably) powerful brand presence.
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Only know you love her when you let her go
Regrets are a part of the learning process
Whether it’s buyer’s remorse or a mistake during the build, it’s better to admit that you made a mistake in your build than cling to your decision and try to justify it, even if it’s objectively a bad one. If it’s not a purchasing mistake, errors in the building process can easily be rectified with a bit of time and effort. These things are all a part of this beautiful hobby that we all enjoy so much.
