A topic for System Builders and enthusiast of computers.

[Spellsong]

What is the most fustrating part about installing a or upgrading computer parts? Mines is the CPU fan. Mainly the AMD one. My first time I spent 15 minutes trying to get it pinned down on the CPU. Later to discover that the fan was faulty. I had to replace it with a spare. Problem with the fan is that they have these 2 latches that refuse to stay even. It makes it hard to install on to the CPU, and it messes up the thermal paste if you keep lifing it up.

[Jale]

I agree with you there. I've built my computer from scratch and the most bitchy part has to be the CPU fan. IDE cables are bitchy things too, specially when you have many drives.

[Zach]

I find that it is a rather subjective problem. No doubt the CPU fan is a turd.. Even more so with folks like me who occasionally install a water cooling setup on their rig.

However when it comes to other parts, hands down the biggest annoyance is drivers. Sometimes things go smoothly, other times it's a pain in the ass.

I'm just glad things have improved so much compared to what it was like in the 90's.. IDE is so damn old, I was glad to get rid of it. IDE cables aside from being a pain to manage when you have a lot, also kill airflow inside a case. SATA has pretty much solved that issue now. If only it would catch on for optical drives...

Drivers and hardware in general have also improved a lot though.. I remember spending a whole day or more trying to hunt down and fix mysterious blue screens or lockups only to discover it's just a hardware incompatability or even the fucking motherboard chipset itself being buggy..

It made the early days of AGP a real pain in the ass for me, especially since I used the early Via chipsets in the AMD K6 era.