Hey there!
This blog post is part of an ongoing series of posts, going in-depth on how to build a PC. Find links to each part here:
Part 1: Here
Part 3: Coming Soon!
Part 4: Coming Soon!
You may have heard of peoples building computers, instead of buying one that’s prebuilt. At a first glance, this may seem crazy and absurd. That’s what I thought too, 6 months ago when I just stepped into what’s called PC building. Now I’m here, 6 months later. After doing days, might I even say weeks of research in total on this topic I can confidently say that I can guide you through this adventure. In multiple blog posts (Including this one) I will explain everything I learned so that you can decide if you want to do this and how to do it. So, let’s get started!
This whole post will be selecting the best parts for any budget. Please note, I’m not giving specific parts to buy, I’m just giving the resources to select the parts best for you.
PC Part Picker
This is going to be where you pick out your parts don’t worry about what you choose, for now, just experiment it doesn’t have to be good just get a sense of what you’ll be doing. Please note that by default prices will be in USD so be sure to select your country at the top right. This will ensure that it will use local stores (Such as Canada Computers) and using the currency of your country.
Like I said before, you should experiment a bit with this website by clicking system builder at the top left. Select the following parts, I recommend selecting these parts while thinking about a budget:
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- CPU
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- Motherboard
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- Memory
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- Storage
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- Case
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- Power Supply
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- Graphics Card
Alright, so now you chose the parts, you have to note a problem with PC parts right now. Because of the semiconductor shortage Graphics Cards are impacted dramatically. This is an important concern as you may be paying as much as double the MSRP. So, for now, remove it from your list. In a separate post, I will explain why this is happening, and what the solution is for you.
Now, I want you to delete your parts this may sound confusing st, and start from scratch. This time, read the info on all the parts below, to guide you in selecting the right parts.
CPU
The CPU is one of the most important parts of your PC. Also known as Central Processing Unit, you have to consider some factors when selecting your CPU. Firstly, are you going to be overclocking? What is overclocking you may ask, to say it shortly increasing the CPU’s clock rate to get more performance. More information can be found here. I’m going, to be honest, most people should probably not overclock although if you want, choose a CPU and Google if it is overclockable. For example on Intel, the letter K means it is overclockable.
The second note to look over is integrated graphics. Due to the semiconductor shortage, you may want to consider your CPU to do your graphics instead of a dedicated card. This is definitely the way to go for users who want to use a PC just for productivity purposes.
Motherboard
The motherboard, it’s basically the main circuit board of your computer. People sometimes overpay for unnecessary features, like wifi. (You can just get a wifi card for much cheaper) Although don’t get me wrong it’s important to invest in a good motherboard to take the full potential out of your components. Every motherboard has its pros and cons, depending on your budget your motherboard will appear different.
Something important to note is that the CPU you choose will not be compatible with every motherboard. Luckily, PC Part Picker takes care of compatibility issues (Look, I know I keep on praising this website although it’s really useful).
Memory (Aka. RAM)
Memory, not to be mistaken with storage you use to store all your data. To find out more info on Random Access Memory click here. Depending on what you will be doing, you may want to use 16 GB to 64 GB! The clock speed also matters, preferably at least 3200 MHZ.
The final thing to note here, take advantage of dual-channel mode with RAM. Don’t buy one stick of RAM, but two or four of the same amount. Trust me, splitting the same amount on multiple sticks will benefit you.
Power Supply
People tend to spend less than they should cause “it just does the power stuff”. But let me be clear if you want an explosion then go ahead and buy a 10-dollar power supply. Don’t cheap out, seriously. At least get an 80-plus Bronze power supply (Yes I know that means more power efficiency yet still necessary).
Not much to say, just stay in the safe zone. Please.
Storage
This is a quite simple explanation of what storage to choose. Typically, you would want your boot drive (The drive with your Operating System installed on it), a solid-state drive. Hopefully, with D-RAM cache included. Then a separate hard drive for big files.
There are two types of solid-state drives, SATA, and M.2 NVME. M.2 drives deliver much better performance and it’s usually not too much more to get this. Although a SATA SSD also works.n
Case
I personally recommend not to was too much money on this. Ensure that you choose a case that’s with great airflow and is easy to cable manage. How do you know if it’s the right case for you? Check out some reviews on Google. Literally, that simple dude, take the time to do the research.
CPU Cooler
Alright, the CPU cooler like it says in the name it cools the CPU. You may see that I did not add that to the list before. That’s because the CPU most of the time has a great cooler (This cooler is called the “Stock Cooler”). Although this may not always be the best idea to choose from and it may be necessary to invest in a different cooler. If you will be overclocking your CPU. I don’t recommend investing a lot into a cooler, you should just look at reviews and see what fit’s your budget. It should probably be the last part to choose to fill the budget.
Now, let’s talk about other resources that you can use.
You can really find some great and friendly communities to help you out and give you some useful advice.
Google/Youtube
This is useful to find reviews on the parts you are considering. The pictures say one story, but the review typically says another. I recommend staying away from sponsored reviews as they are typically biased, which does not help you.
Conclusion
PC Building is a crazy adventure I defiantly recommend taking on. Stay tuned for more posts to help you build your future computer. Like always thank you so much for reading, and I hope to see you next time. Have a great rest of your day!
