I'm honestly kind of panicking right now because I'm finally trying to build my first real gaming PC and I keep seeing all these scary videos about how the new processors are bending or getting way too hot because of the way they're held down. I already spent most of my savings on an Intel i7-14700K and my brother is building a Ryzen system at the same time so we're trying to do this together next weekend but I'm terrified I'm gonna break something expensive before I even turn it on. I have maybe $30 or $40 left for this part but I dont even know what I'm looking for really.

I live out in a really hot part of Nevada and my room gets super stuffy in the summer so I'm really worried about the temperatures getting out of control and ruining the hardware. People keep mentioning contact frames but then I look them up and there are all these different brands like Thermalright and Thermal Grizzly and some of them cost like double what the others do and I have no idea why. Is one actually safer for a total beginner? I'm so scared of touching the motherboard pins or over-tightening something because I've never done this before and the thought of taking off the factory latch thing makes me feel sick to my stomach.

I saw one video where they said you can void your warranty if you use these but then another person said your CPU will definitely warp if you dont use one so I'm just stuck in the middle and feeling really overwhelmed. Are there specific ones that are better for the Intel 1700 slot versus the AMD ones or are they all basically the same piece of metal? Sorry if this is a really basic question I just really dont want to mess this up and end up with a very expensive paperweight on my desk... which brand is actually the most reliable for someone who has zero experience and is super nervous about the installation process?