This is the second PC I’ve built, but I’m still kind of a newb. Don’t want to get into details of how it happened, but she’s paying for a brand new one and with interest. Just have to know where to start first
Did you guys breakup coz of it, I mean the spill?
Identify the areas with soda stains and use Isopropyl Alcohol (>91%) to clean them.
My suspicion is that your motherboard may be damaged, and the PSU could be affected too. If I were in your situation, my priority would be testing from the storage - SSD and HDD, as data without a backup is irreplaceable. Then, proceed to test the RAM and CPU. Assessing the GPU could be more challenging; you’ll need to disassemble its fan and heatsink to examine the extent of the soda damage.
The pc was on when this happened?
Power supply could be dust, or potentially break later on so I would replace that to be sure.
Motherboard, good chance that fried.
CPU, GPU & RAM, possible but may still be good.
Since it was soda and no idea where it may of spread I would strip the whole computer down and wash everything with isopropyl alcohol using a soft toothbrush. Then I would start building the computer out of the case putting together the basics first, power supply & motherboard, do a test boot does it start up, no then replace. Go from there, if you still have old parts use that to test to see if it that part that is stuffed.
have her pay you for a new build and give her your old pc.
If you have the money for it, it would honestly be easier to just make sure the hard drives survived and start and new build, depending on where she poured the soda on.