Also random question, would putting a short circuited component to test whether it's truly broken wreck the computer? I'm obviously not going to try this if something could happen.
That will certainly depend on how the component is short circuited.
If we talked about a PCIe card where VCC and GND is truely shorted, then could "interesting" things happen.
As long as we are not talking short circuited power rails, then will you in most case be safe.
But if you don't know what you are doing then are you better off throwing the component away or test it in a old computer.