I’ve been building my own PCs since around 2001, when I assembled my very first machine from scratch. I was incredibly excited — new parts, everything laid out on the desk. I powered it on, it booted up, and about 30 seconds later it shut itself off. I smelled something. That specific burnt plastic smell. Turns out I had mounted the CPU cooler correctly but forgotten to plug the fan in. I had fried a brand new CPU. The next day I walked to the computer store and bought a new one. That’s the kind of mistake you only make once.
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