Serious Issue Rate for DIY built PCs?

[yodachoda]

Hi all,

I'm looking to get a high end desktop but the only thing holding me back from building it myself is that I'm afraid there's a decent chance that after I build the system, it will have a serious issue that I either cannot resolve or cannot resolve without spending a ton of time, effort, and possibly money.

I estimate that the chance of encountering an error when going with a good pre-built company known for reliability is probably less than 5-10%.

What's the chance if I build one myself? Assume I use top of the line components that were rated highly by people.

 

[maarkr]

if you have no technical skills with electronics or no skills at troubleshooting your OS, then you have a fair chance of failure. Especially if you do not find and follow good videos and articles on building a computer using similar components for your build. Research, prepare, read build articles, read OS install articles, ask questions about things you do not understand... then you should have good success.

 

[USAFRet]

Hi all,

I'm looking to get a high end desktop but the only thing holding me back from building it myself is that I'm afraid there's a decent chance that after I build the system, it will have a serious issue that I either cannot resolve or cannot resolve without spending a ton of time, effort, and possibly money.

I estimate that the chance of encountering an error when going with a good pre-built company known for reliability is probably less than 5-10%.

What's the chance if I build one myself? Assume I use top of the line components that were rated highly by people.

Christmastime, I taught a 10 year old to build a PC. He did 95% of the work. 2.5 hours from opening the first box to booting into the BIOS.
Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

 

[rhysiam]

If you choose good components and take your time while you put it together, set aside some time when you're not distracted or interrupted, and (if you haven't done it before) watch a few good how-to guides (youtube them or something) to get a idea of what to do... if you do all that the chances of serious issues are very small.

In terms of troubleshooting, it helps massively if you have alternative components. CPUs with onboard graphics can help (if it boots with onboard graphics but not with your graphics in the machine... well you have pretty good grounds to blame the graphics card). Having two RAM DIMMs help (you can boot fine on one at a time to eliminate RAM), etc. Chances are you'll be fine, but even if you're not MOST problems can be pinpointed without too much trouble.

Here's a little anecdote for what it's worth. I recently bought a second hand 3 year old computer for a friend. The guy had paid a chunk a company to assemble the PC for him. The guy I bought it off gave me a little off the price because the reset button, front USB ports and HDD light didn't work.
When I got it home I discovered a dogs-breakfast cabling job, and simply redid the onboard headers to fix the issues with the ports, lights and buttons (they'd plugged the front USB ports in a firewire header). What was worse, the guy had paid for an SSD but the assembly crew installed the OS on his HDD and just copied a few files to the SSD to show off how fast it was.
That was a much better computer once I'd spent a bit of time and effort routing cables properly, plugging things in where they were supposed to be (which isn't rocket science, it's labelled clearly in the motherboard manual and is easy if you take your time), and putting the OS on the SSD where it's supposed to be.

FWIW, personally, I like doing it myself. I feel much more confident having done it myself and that experience further eroded my faith in having "professionals" do it for you. You'll always care more about your stuff than some guy in a basement who has 10 PCs to assemble before he knock off for lunch.

I do get your time, warranty and peace of mind concerns though. If your time is worth more to you than the money you save doing it yourself, or you'd rather someone else holds the responsibility if components don't work, there's for sure an argument to be made for paying someone else to do it. It depends what your priorities are.

 

[USAFRet]

I estimate that the chance of encountering an error when going with a good pre-built company known for reliability is probably less than 5-10%.

A couple of days ago, there was a user here who had 'issues' with the CPU cooler mounting on his pre-built PC. Turns out, the assembler was either 1. Clueless, or 2. Lazy. or 3. Both.
He lied about why it could not be done 'the right way'.

Previous to that, there was a guy who had wildly different temps across his CPU cores. On removing the heatsink, it turned out to be a woefully inadequate application of thermal paste.

When I see the words "Assembled by our professional staff", I read " the 18 year old new hire that started 2 days ago, and this is his first assembly".

 

[DonkeyOatie]

The right professional company will do a good job or stand behind their work, and a local brick and mortar operation needs to consider its local reputation.

Aside from cost and performance, the main advantage of 'roll-your-own' is demystification. It changes the locus of control from external (experts who understand the 'magic' stuff in computers) to internal, YOU!

These:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2516487/build-log-mini-itx-middle-school-student-build.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2328703/build-log-mini-itx-middle-school.html

are two of the builds at my middle school, with more queued up before the end of the year.

Yes, I supervise, but the students to the work and learn how things fit and work. It does require care and methodical work. It does require careful reading of the 'secret plans', and may require some basic trouble-shooting and problem solving, and a lot of patience.

Your main obstacle is the classic FUD effect. (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt)

Some schools, or community colleges offer summer classes or camps in computer construction.
Perhaps you can find a nearby Toms member who would ride shotgun.

For a straightforward build, components are almost plug-and-play these days. Yes you need to load drivers and initialize and configure things, but this is so much easier with an Internet connection.

The last thing I would want is to twist your arm. You need to come to your own decision.

If you have a friend/child/parent in a similar situation, you could start by building a cheap, simple, computer for them, as a practice project.

 

[yodachoda]

Though I've never build a PC before, I consider myself pretty knowledgable on PCs. Here's proof: I know what RAM stands for (random access memory).

Let's say I take my time in building it and follow good guides. What is the failure rate of the PC then? Would it just be equal to:

1- [(chance motherboard is not defective)*(chance PSU is not defective)*(chance graphics card is not defective)....continued for all essential components]?

 

[USAFRet]

Though I've never build a PC before, I consider myself pretty knowledgable on PCs. Here's proof: I know what RAM stands for (random access memory).

Let's say I take my time in building it and follow good guides. What is the failure rate of the PC then? Would it just be equal to:

(chance motherboard is not defective)*(chance PSU is not defective)*(chance graphics card is not defective)....continued for all essential components.

The probability a of defective part out of the box is miniscule.

 

[yodachoda]

Though I've never build a PC before, I consider myself pretty knowledgable on PCs. Here's proof: I know what RAM stands for (random access memory).

Let's say I take my time in building it and follow good guides. What is the failure rate of the PC then? Would it just be equal to:

(chance motherboard is not defective)*(chance PSU is not defective)*(chance graphics card is not defective)....continued for all essential components.

The probability a of defective part out of the box is miniscule.

So the main cause of building a PC with a serious issue is an error while building?

If you guys had to estimate my chances, what'd they be? 20%? 30?

 

[USAFRet]

Though I've never build a PC before, I consider myself pretty knowledgable on PCs. Here's proof: I know what RAM stands for (random access memory).

Let's say I take my time in building it and follow good guides. What is the failure rate of the PC then? Would it just be equal to:

(chance motherboard is not defective)*(chance PSU is not defective)*(chance graphics card is not defective)....continued for all essential components.

The probability a of defective part out of the box is miniscule.

So the main cause of building a PC with a serious issue is an error while building?

If you guys had to estimate my chances, what'd they be? 20%? 30?

Read lots
Go slow
Don't drop anything
Tighten all the screws, gently.

You'll be fine.

 

[rhysiam]

Take your time and watch some youtube tutorials and you'll be absolutely fine. If you do that the chance of you making a serious (damaging) mistake is extremely low.

The only bit I find unnerving is putting RAM in, as often (particularly with a new motherboard) you have to apply quite a lot of pressure. As long as you make sure it's the right way around (line up the little notch on the RAM with the slot), you won't damage anything.

The only other thing that's easy to screw up is the spaghetti set of cables that connect from you case onto the motherboard (for things like the power and reset switch, HDD and power lights, etc). They're tiny and fiddly and easy to get wrong, particularly if you eyesight isn't the best. However you can't do any damage by getting those wrong. You'll just notice that your power light (for example) isn't working, so you check again and fix it.

Otherwise you'll be fine.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

If you post a log with photos, you can ask for help and advice as you go. Building your first computer is a bit like your first parachute jump

Reading this board gives you a false sense of concern. You rarely hear about the tens of thousands of successful builds (Look at them all on PCPartpicker), you only hear about the few builds with problems, and if you read those, the problems are often simple and easily fixed.