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I recently had the opportunity to replace a failed power supply on a manufactured “small form factor” system. To replace it, I had to remove not just the side of the machine, but both the hard drive and optical drive, and the framework they attached to, and the one expansion card, and the motherboard(!). Several of these were complicated by barely long enough cables. One of the power supply cables to the motherboard was in the “not quite long enough” category. The manufacturer had instructions for removing/replacing everything BUT the power supply, and I found out why by the time I was done.

Opting for more standard hardware certainly makes hardware support easier later.

I’d like to echo this, and generalize. USB port malfunction has been my favorite method of causing Blue Screens all the way back to Windows XP initial release. As a hardware issue, the OS has little it can do. My personal method is faulty USB external hubs. I favor machines with a large number of built in ones. I use the Shorty USB cables to decrease damage to the physical port on the machines as well, and avoid hubs, but nothing is certain in computing (or life in general).