Since 1995 or so, I've built perhaps 15 machines (several as personal machines, several for others, a few desktop-format servers), with a long detour through Ap

Since 1995 or so, I've built perhaps 15 machines (several as personal machines, several for others, a few desktop-format servers), with a long detour through Apple land in the middle. I have fairly frequently had issues like the ones mentioned by the gp. Some factors: I'm clumsy and break things. I did not, in the 1990s, take static seriously. The instructions that come with computer parts are often more reminder than instruction: they have a lot of useless boilerplate, and then the actual instructions will admit more than one interpretation or simply imply the correct actions rather than state them. I have more than once had the experience of not being able to complete a build until the next day because some screw I needed was not included, or the screwhole wasn't threaded, or because a 2 cent plastic tool was not included, but still semi-required. Going back to the store might be something you can do, but maybe you'll have to wait for shipping, or maybe the store is far enough that it's a weekend activity to go (not everyone has a Fry's or Microcenter within ten miles...). Over the weekend, I, too, picked up a shiny new Ryzen and mainboard. Since I have had poor experiences ordering parts from Amazon, Newegg, etc, I drove to Microcenter and picked up the parts I needed. If I got the wrong part, it would be a week before I could go back, so I'd probably order online, but that doesn't satisfy they "build a new machine this weekend" desire... The sales rep helpfully told me I'd need an adaptor for the heatsink/fan, which was important and which I'd not run across online in research... why would there be a bunch of mainboards available for AM4, but no heatsinks to attach to them? But that seemed to be the case, at least there in the store. If I'd bought parts online, frustration would have definitely ensued. The heatsink came with around 20 screws and other parts, and a complicated process for attaching a part that looked like a swiveling X to hold the heatsink against the CPU. The adaptor had a single bar with two latch-and-screw arrangements. It showed an image of how to attach it. It said "Easy installation!" in the instructions, and that was the only clue that you need not use all the other hardware that came with the heatsink. It literally took more than half an hour for me to understand that this was how it was. While there are definitely similarities, and things that don't change much any more (ATX, for example), the details of things like storage connectors (large plastic with thick metal pins for IDE, then small plastic tabs for SATA, now a spring-loaded card insert on the mainboard with a screw to hold down the other end of the m.2 card...) change so frequently that if you only build a machine when you need it (4-10 years apart), you'll be dealing with several new connections and card types, and everything has to be approached from the standpoint of "if I slip or the static clip is pulled off the grounding or I am too confident that something should fit where it does not, I will end up going back to the store and buying a new whatever".