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Hey everyone,
Wanted to share my experience paying Micro Center to build a custom PC so that you know how it works and what went well/what didn't. Here's the parts list.
Did the $150 build which means hardware assembly with air cooling only. No OS install as I prefer to do that myself. They had two specials I took advantage of - 10% off the entire purchase if you signed up for the credit card and pay the bill in full, and a bundle where you got the CPU, mobo, and RAM for $450. Also did some price matching. They didn't have the case I wanted in black, so they discounted the white version to $99. Thought that was nice and completely unnecessary.
Went on a Wednesday night, had a parts list picked out, and the PC was ready for pickup the next day!
Brought it home and immediately noticed the CPU cooler was quite loud and my CPU temps were hitting 91 celcius. Then I started gaming and the PC would intermittently shut off.
Took it back to Micro Center and they couldn't replicate the issue. Took to Reddit to help troubleshoot and nothing worked. Was convinced my power outlets at home were faulty, or that the power supply was bad.
Took it back again to Micro Center and they found that the tech had left the plastic on the heatsink. Immediately after removing this, CPU temps went down to 65-70c peak and the CPU clock from 3.3ghz to 4.4ghz. Fans were noticeably quieter, and haven't noticed any shutdowns since.
My guess is the CPU was peaking into the 100s but my software wasn't showing me because it would be for fractions of a second.
I asked them to warranty the CPU incase of plastic damaging it and they gave me a complimentary 2 year warranty.
All in all, a bit of a frustrating experience, especially bringing it back in and telling me there's nothing they can do since they couldn't replicate the power offs (even though the temps were sky high for my CPU/fan combo), but they made it right in the end.
If I had to do it again, I'd probably still do it but I'd be checking for plastic everywhere after this experience. It's something I never would've thought to check for.
Hope this helps!