Facepalm: Even the most experienced of PC users feel that moment of anxiety when hitting the power button on a new build, so imagine live-streaming your first-ever attempt to an audience and something going horribly wrong.
The incident was the work of 21-year-old Twitch streamer Fastaction99, who was putting together a PC for the first time with some help from viewers in the chat and friends on Discord.
Once the build was complete, Fastaction99 pressed the button to see if the system would post---always a tense moment. But seconds later, we hear popping noises and smoke comes pouring out of the PC.
When examining what went wrong, the streamer said he believes it was the front fans that "fried," but the video appears to show smoke emanating from the motherboard, possibly in the area of the 24-pin connector.
Sensibly, Fastaction99 said he would be taking the PC to Microcenter for an expert to take a look. Hopefully, there won't be too much damage to expensive components, but the amount of smoke that poured out isn't a good sign.
While putting together a PC today is nowhere near as daunting as it was a couple of decades ago, thanks partly to the numerous help guides and YouTube videos on the subject, even the best of us can make a rookie mistake at times. What's the worst PC-building horror story you've heard of? Forgot to add thermal paste? Left the CPU cooler off? Blown up a PSU? Let us know in the comments below.
Image credit: Roman Pyshchyk