but when guiding newbies, we should be making the process more secure and simple.

I know I'm willing to take the risk and do the legwork. (It was an X99 mobo geared more towards business even!) Microcenter gave up and just upgraded him one tier up in mobo. 1 of which had his mobo (thankfully under insurance) fail twice. Lately, out of the 4 people I've assisted with their builds IRL, 2 have had components fail. If you're not willing to take the risk, insurance or prebuilt computers/boutique builds with warranties are the way to go. Only for it to break 3 weeks later and reduce you into a gibbering mess, with worst case scenarios putting you at needing maybe another 600-800 bucks to replace the components that might have failed. For a first-time builder with little troubleshooting experience, I cannot think of a more horrifying situation where you built your computer that cost $1200 and proved to your parents that you're a techie. Look, even the best Mobos can have a 5-10% 'DOA or Fail within first year' rate. I'd prefer physical store, because when your parts are crapping out and you're all lost and alone, having a physical store and people to cry to is far more comforting than email. I know some people will hate me for saying this, but really, go to Microcenter or even Best Buy or at the very least Newegg, and get the hassle-free insurance for your parts.

It's very easy to overbuy on your components, and then when something goes wrong you'll feel that the world is ending. That being said, from my own experiences, I think K9Thefirst1 should consider not pricing out things so high at the moment. I've found that the current compatibility and stability has come very close to acceptable for a first time builder.

At the pricepoint shown and the timeframe shown, I'd actually be much more comfortable with suggesting a Ryzen 7 build.

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