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The average Joe looks at a computer and sees a single device that’s equally capable of performing an infinite number of tasks. They know that some computers are faster than others. But what they don’t know, is that most consumer PCs are configured based on margins and ease of manufacturing, and their capabilities vary dramatically.
On a typical $500 pc from Dell or Acer, you can absolutely launch a game, stumble through editing some photographs or video, and lurch around the interwebs. What you may not realize, is that for that same $500, you could fine tune a custom built computer, that sacrifices in areas that aren’t important to you, in order to have a gaming powerhouse, a lithe living room PC, or an editing behemoth.
Building a PC has three major advantages:
1. You can put lots of money into the components you need, and save on the ones that are secondary concerns.
2. Because of standardized cases and parts, with a little planning, you can ensure easy upgradability for years to come. In the long run, this can save you a small fortune over buying a whole new computer year after year.
3. Finally, and most importantly for me, you get to play with shiny graphics cards, motherboards and LEDs. Many, many LEDS…
when you build it yourself, you can select quality parts throughout the system, increasing the life of your computer.
One thing to be aware of is that, generally speaking, custom building a computer isn’t going to save you a lot of cash upfront. That’s because big manufacturers buy bottom of the barrel parts in bulk, so they’ll inevitably pay less per part than you will. The lower end the computer, the harder it will be to save a lot of cash over buying a prebuilt system.
That said, when you build it yourself, you can select quality parts throughout the system, increasing the life of your computer. You’ll end up saving cash in the long run by not wasting money on parts that don’t need to be top shelf, and by upgrading individual components over time instead of replacing the whole shebang.
By assembling it yourself, you’ll also learn what does what, which comes in handy when your computer starts having problems and you need to find the cause.
This series will run through everything you need to know about PC building, whether you’re building for the first time, or just looking for part recommendations, or detailed info about more complex setups.
This first post focuses entirely on picking parts.
Component Selection:
Most first time PC builders are worried about damaging their parts, or not knowing how it all connects together. The actually assembly process is incredibly easy. Off the shelf PC parts are built with the knowledge that they’ll be handled by average consumers, and tend to be pretty resilient.
the truth is, if you’ve played with legos, you have the skills necessary to build a PC.
And while the connections might involve consulting a manual occasionally, pretty much every plug and slot on a motherboard is carefully sized so that you can only physically connect the correct component into the correct slot. I’ll offer specific building tips in another post in this series, but the truth is, if you’ve played with legos, you have the skills necessary to build a PC.
The real challenge of PC building comes with picking out your components. Select the right stuff, and you’ll build an efficient system at a reasonable cost which will boot perfectly on the first try. Rush though your part picking, and you’ll wind up with poor performance, or even a machine that doesn’t turn on at all.
I’m going to run through it part by part, to explain what parts are important for what tasks, and what to watch out for to ensure all the pieces work well together.
CPU
Computer processors are perhaps the most misunderstood part of a PC. Decades of marketing have given a lot of people the false impression that poor performance on a computer is due to a slow processor.
The truth is, somewhere around six years ago, processor designs crossed a threshold, where even the lowest processors in a manufacturer’s lineup became very capable of day to day processing tasks. This has never been more true than today, where “budget” parts from Intel and AMD (the only two consumer processor brands) have four to six cores, and are readily capable of powering everything from VR to video editing.
On the flip side, because processors are improving so slowly from year to year now, if you’re building for the future, a top notch processor can last five years or more without becoming a drag on the performance of your system (more commonly referred to as a bottleneck).
Choosing a CPU is very simple. You’ve got two platforms/brands: AMD, or Intel. For the past decade or so, Intel has been the king of the processor market, but as of this writing AMD is having a resurgence, and now holds the crown for best bang for your buck processors.
Next, you need to decide how many cores you need, and how fast you need them to run, or their “clock speed.” This is the famous Gigahertz number that’s been touted on packaging for forever.
For casual gamers on a budget or light weight media center/office pcs, 2 cores is generally fine. For solid midrange gamers, shoot for 4. For heavy gaming, VR, and typical video editing or photography workflows, aim for 6-8 cores. 99% of people should AVOID buying any CPU with more cores than 8 unless they use specialized 3D rendering software like Maya, or regularly compress high resolution video files. The reason why is that CPUs with 16 cores produce a ton of heat, and each core actually runs more slowly than a typical 6 core CPU, so you’ll literally be spending more for less performance.
TL;DR? Don’t spend more than $400 on a CPU unless you know why you need it. Most people can get away with spending about half that.
Compatibility:
The CPU you’re buying will dictate what kind of motherboard you buy. that’s because each processor has a specialized socket it slots into, so you need to make sure your matching the two together.
The current generation consumer socket for AMD is the AM4, for Intel it’s the 1151 socket. It used to be that any motherboard with the right socket would work with that processor type, but things have gotten a bit more complex lately. Every motherboard is designed off what’s called a chipset, or a controlling chip designed with a set of features. As each new processor generation is designed by Intel, they also design a new chipset that pairs with it.
Generally, if the CPU matches the motherboard socket, and they’re both recently released products, they’ll work together, but check the product pages to make sure one will support the other.
Newer chipsets are pretty much always incompatible with previous processor generations, so for example while last generation’s 7600k processor uses an 1151 socket, it would not boot up if you put it in a motherboard that’s designed with the latest z370 chipset. Conversely, an older motherboard chipset WILL usually work with a newer processor. The reason that’s relevant is that it gives you an opportunity to swap out your processor for an upgrade down the line.
I know I’m throwing a lot of info at you. All you really need to know is: start by choosing the processor you want, then when you’re motherboard shopping, sort by socket type, and make sure that compatibility with that CPU is listed on the product page. Newegg has a fantastic site design that makes this sorting particularly easy. It even distinguishes between older and newer versions of the same socket in your sorting options E.G. 1151 (300 series).
Generally, if the CPU matches the motherboard socket, and they’re both recently released products, they’ll work together, but check the product pages to make sure one will support the other.
Motherboard
Next, you pick your motherboard. If you look at the marketing, you’ll become convinced to buy the best motherboard you can, with all sorts of fancy capacitors and “faster” ethernet ports. The truth is, for most uses, you want the cheapest motherboard that has all the features you need, that’s from a trustworthy brand.
Here are my favored brand, in order of preference: ASUS, Gigabyte, EVGA, MSI.
Decisions to make when choosing a motherboard:
- How many usb ports do you want or need?
- Do you need built in wifi/bluetooth, or are you comfortable using USB or PCI adapter cards to add these features?
- How many add on cards do you anticipate using? (see sizing, next).
- What type of storage do you plan to use? The fastest available storage drives now use the M.2 form factor, and requires an M.2 slot of the correct size to work. Most boards have these slots now, although springing for a pricy board will often give you two or three of these slots, which is a boon for upgradability.
On sizing: Motherboards come in four standardized sizes. Mini-itx (baby bear), Micro-ATX also known as M-ATX (mama bear), ATX (papa bear, or the most common size), and XL ATX (really big papa bear).
If you’re trying to build the smallest PC possible, go Mini-itx . Generally, ATX and M-atx offer the best balance of price and features. If buying a smaller board, it’s important to consider what you’re giving up, namely ports and expansion capabilities (Mini-itx boards typically have only one usable PCI-E slot.
If you only plan on ever having one graphics card, and no add on cards, than this should be a non-issue. However, those who want any flexibility at all to add ports later should probably avoid this size). I personally have settled on M-atx boards for my builds.
If you’re brain’s starting to hurt, just buy an ATX motherboard and a case that supports ATX.
Compatibility:
Your motherboard is the main component that everything else plugs into, so it’s important to run down a checklist and make sure that every part you’re buying will work with your board. Every board will only be made to work with one size of RAM chip (DDR4 is the current standard), and the speed that RAM can run at is ultimately dictated by the motherboard. Any modern graphics card (like, made within the last fifteen years) will plug into any modern mobo, so that’s a non-issue.
RAM
Memory selection is very easy. DDR4 SDRAM is required for all desktop motherboard chipsets made within the last couple of years. 8GB is a modern minimum for pretty much anything. 16GB is my recommendation for new machines, unless you’re on a tight budget. In terms of speed, 2400Mhz is a good minimum. If you choose an AMD processor and motherboard, I recommend 3200MHz, as the current generation of AMD chips use a design that’s very sensitive to RAM speed, and requires faster ram to perform at its best. There’s a lot of crap online about how sky high ram speed is essential for performance, but the vast majority of benchmarks show no difference at present on intel systems, and minimal improvements for AMD past 3200 or so.
Also, be advised that RAM prices are currently through the roof globally due to some complicated supply chain issues, so it may be worth hanging fire for anyone considering an upgrade. My current VR gaming machine uses 8GB, but I’ll be upgrading it soon.
Storage Drives
Storage is perhaps the most misunderstood computer part. Most people read the spec sheet on a computer and go: “Oh, it’s got two terabytes. That sounds like enough. Sold.”
The truth is, selecting the right storage is perhaps more essential to the practical minute to minute performance of your machine than any other part. Remember a few million words back when I lamented the overzealous marketing of CPUs as the essential component for performance? Storage is the critical component that will make a huge difference for the following:
-How fast your computer starts up.
-How fast files open
-How fast programs launch
-How quickly levels load in most videogames
-How quickly high resolution photographs or video playback in editing software
-How slow your computer becomes during times of intensive usage when you’ve maxed out the available RAM.
So verdict? If you’ve got the budget, buy fast storage.
In terms of capacity, it’s really different for everyone. I would aim for 512GB or higher for most people, although as I use my PC exclusively for gaming, I have a 256GB drive, and I simply uninstall the games I’m not playing. If you’re not sure what to buy, start by looking at what drive you have in your current computer, and work from there.
Now, there’s three mainstream consumer options for storage today.
The first is the tried and true spinning hard drive. Still offering the cheapest price per gig, hard drives are good for specialized cases where you’re on an extreme budget OR when you’re storing extremely large quantities of data (say, for editing large quantities of video or high resolution photos). My advice is, DON’T buy a hard drive, unless you need vast amounts of storage, or can’t afford another option. They’re dramatically slower than the competition, produce a lot of heat, and are MUCH more prone to failure. I spent several years repairing computers, and by far the #1 most common hardware failure was spinning hard drives.
The other two options are different types of SSDs, or solid-state drives. They come in two flavors. The first is a traditional “SATA” SSD, named for the cable and plug used to connect it to the motherboard. These drives are the mama bear option. Reasonably fast, reasonably cheap. These have been around for a while, so even the budget options are fairly fast and reliable.
Finally, we have the new gold standard of consumer storage. The M.2 NVME SSD. I won’t get into what the acronyms mean, but suffice it to say that these drives are FAST. Two to five times faster than a traditional SSD, depending on whether it’s writing or reading data. There’s two downsides. The first is the price, which has come down quite a bit but is still noticeably higher than SATA. The second is that NVME drives, at least for now, are only available in two fairly limiting form factors. Most drives slip into a horizontal M.2 slot on the motherboard itself. These take up a lot of space and data bandwidth on the board, which is why most boards allow for only one drive. The other form-factor is the PCI-E card style, which are generally more expensive, and sometimes have driver and boot issues. I use these drives in my systems now, and couldn’t go back.
COMPATABILITY:
Not too many gotchas. Any SATA SSD or traditional hard drive will connect to any motherboard. If you’re going with M.2, you want to make sure that the board has a horizontal slot that fits a full height M.2. drive. It’s pretty rare now to find this, but there are technically M.2 slots that will only fit shorter M.2 drives (I’ve really only seen this on off brand budget boards lately). Confusingly, drive manufacturers are now selling M.2 style drives that are NOT NVME. This means they perform at the much slower SATA speed, despite looking physically the same as an M.2. NVME drive. Rule of thumb, make sure the product page specifically mentions NVME before you buy.
Graphics Card
What graphics card you buy (or whether to buy one at all) comes down to what you’re going to be doing on your PC. A powerful graphics card (often referred to as GPU for the processor inside the card), is essential for gaming, and useful for specific tasks in photo and video editing. It’s important to note, however, that even though these are “graphical” tasks, most processing for video and photo editing software is still done on the CPU, NOT the graphics card. If you’re building an editing hot rod, prioritize money to your CPU first, than RAM capacity, then buy the best GPU you can afford from there. In recent years, CPU manufacturers have started to include “integrated” graphics, or GPU chips that are physically included as part of the processor. Modern integrated graphics, specifically those included on the latest AMD processors, are more than capable of rendering your desktop for “day to day” tasks, like e-mail, web browsing, and watching movies. If you’re building a casual machine for that purpose, an HTPC, or a server, you really don’t have to buy a separate plug-in graphics card anymore. Do beware, however, that high end processors often don’t include integrated graphics, as its assumed that those processors will be paired with high end graphics.
For gaming specifically, you want to buy the fastest GPU you possibly can. Doubly so if you’re planning on getting into VR, or playing games on a 4K resolution screen (the higher the screen resolution the faster the graphics card you need, as it’s having to render dramatically more pixels at once). At present, NVIDIA designs the best performing consumer graphics cards in the 1080Ti and 1070, although in the midrange of $200-300, the GPU crown frequently changes hands between them and AMD’s discrete graphics card division.
Note, while NVIDIA and AMD design their graphics cards, they license the designs to partners for manufacturing. These tend to be slightly higher clocked and/or cheaper than buying direct from NVIDIA/AMD.
COMPATABILITY:
Simple. If you’ve got a full length 16X size PCIE slot (all motherboards have at least one of these), you can plug in any GPU. If you want to get fancy and install more than one graphics card, you’ll need to check to make sure that your motherboard has enough 16x slots, and that it supports either “Crossfire” for AMD cards, or “SLI” for NVIDIA cards. SLI has become something of a rare thing to see on most boards these days, as NVIDIA has started pushing consumers to higher end single cards. As an aside, multiple graphics cards sound perfect on paper, but they’re rarely worth the hassle. Multi-GPU support is something that needs to be manually coded in by every developer, so you’ll find that many of your favorite games and programs don’t benefit at all from increasing the number of GPUs. Even if it is supported, the performance gain is usually far below a 100% multiplier (so for two cards, you’ll get closer to 150% performance, for example). If you’re desperate to improve your graphics power, I’d steer you toward selling your existing GPU and buying a faster single card instead.
Power Supplies:
A Power supply unit, or PSU, takes the 120 volts from the wall, converts it into a usable DC voltage, and distributes it to all of your parts. Unless you’re a hard-core overclocker, buying a PSU comes down to picking the right form factor and buying the right wattage. 99% of cases support an ATX form factor. The rule of thumb with wattage is, it’s better to have more than you need than not enough. PSUs are a boring part to buy, but if you cheap out and scrape the bottom of the barrel with a knockoff brand or too little voltage, your PSU can blow, potentially destroying everything connected to it. For sizing a PSU’s wattage, I use an online calculator like Outervision. Just fill out the form to get an estimate of your power draw. Go overboard, input everything you think you could ever see yourself connecting, and then buy at least the recommended wattage. Don’t forget to input the little things, like how many fans you’re case will have, and how many USB 3 devices will be drawing power from it. Being safe is smart, but there’s no need to buy a 1000W PSU when it’s saying you’ll only use 500.
Power supplies also market bonus features, like modular cables that allow you to only plug in as many as you’re using. This isn’t all that necessary, unless you’re building in a VERY small case where space is at a premium, or you’re a neat freak. Power supplies are also rated for their efficiency level. The higher the grade, the less power is wasted in the conversion from 120v to 12v, but you’ll pay a premium for a Titanium rated PSU over Silver, or Gold. They all work exactly the same way, so unless you’re particularly keen on saving the planet (as I am), or you’re building a server that will be using electricity 24/7, this is a good place to save cash.
COMPATABILITY:
If you’re buying a small case, it may require a special size, like a smaller SFX power supply.
Cases:
Confession to make upfront. I have a bit of an obsession with cases. An addiction, really. Part of the fun of building your own computer is putting it inside an enclosure that makes it look shiny and exciting. I’ve changed out three cases in as many years, mainly because I wanted something newer and shinier, but occasionally because I’ve switched gears and need something that will fit larger parts. The thing to realize is that you can literally run a PC on a table, without any case at all. Some people get funky and build their own. Others mount their parts unprotected on a wall. I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy a case, but the bottom line is, spending big on a case isn’t going to improve the performance of your computer. All you’re buying is a metal box with a power button, a reset switch, and couple of front mounted USB ports. This is another place you can save cash.
Now, how a case is designed IS important. If a case doesn’t have good airflow from its fan and vent design, your parts will start to slow themselves down to prevent overheating. However, there are many many good budget cases out there with great airflow, so how much you spend isn’t the deciding factor.
My one piece of oddball advice is, when you’re picking a case, think about where it’s going in your room, and where you’re going to want the power button located. So many people buy cases that are going on their desk, which have a power button mounted on the top where it’s going to be awkward to reach every single time you turn it on. Conversely, if you’re putting it on the floor, make sure the button’s not on the side or the bottom. Along the same lines, if you’re building a computer that’s going to travel or be frequently moved around the house, buy something with handles built-in.
If money is no object, pick something well built that’ll last you years. Many cases tout ease of use features like hinged doors for easy access, and thumb screws for installing parts without a screwdriver. This stuff is genuinely nice to have, but if you can’t afford it, it’s not at all necessary.
COMPATABILITY:
Case product pages will almost always have a maximum GPU clearance, or the max length of GPU that will fit inside. Don’t buy a case that’s too small for your graphics card!
Similarly, if you’re planning on installing a fancy CPU cooler like a water cooling system or a tall air cooler, check the case specs to make sure the height will clear inside the case.
CPU Cooler:
All CPUs need some sort of heat dissipating devices mounted to them in order to work correctly. Budget intel processors, and all current gen AMD processors include a CPU cooler that’s perfectly usable.
If you’re buying a higher end processor, you’re planning on overclocking, or you just want a quieter machine, you’ll need to buy your own cooler.
There’s three types.
Air coolers, or a big metal block with a fan on it, is by far the most common method. These are inexpensive, and contrary to popular belief, can be quieter than water if you pick a design with a large fan. They are bulkier, so it’s more common to have issues with top performing coolers not fitting in small or narrow cases.
Water cooling, once a niche, is now very common. If you’ve got money to burn and a strong stomach, you can shell out hundreds of dollars to build yourself a custom water cooling loop, picking out your own pump, tubing and reservoir. I’ve done this, and it’s a lot of fun, but there’s really not much advantage to going down this road anymore unless you want bragging rights, or just a really badass looking computer. The more practical option is to buy an AIO, or All In One water cooler. This is a prebuilt loop that’s sealed together at the factory. It involves zero maintenance, it’s much cheaper than custom water cooling, it’s quieter than most air coolers, and it’s a strong choice for overclocking. To get something that will outperform a top shelf air-cooler though, you’ll have to shell out for a midrange model that uses a 240 or larger radiator. I use a 240MM AIO from Corsair.
The final option is a heatsink only cooler. These are only useful for special machines that won’t be throwing out a lot of heat, like a simple HTPC or a basic home server.
Compatibility:
Make sure it fits! Each CPU socket type has a different mounting hole pattern, so it’s important to make sure that the cooler you buy will line up with the holes around your CPU socket. Popular coolers will include several different brackets, but again, check the product page to ensure it’ll go on. As mentioned in the case section, if you’re buying an AIO with a 240 mm radiator, make sure your case has room for a radiator of that size. One nice advantage of AIO coolers, is that even though the radiators are large, the block that rests on the CPU itself is usually smaller than an air cooler, so you can fit these into some very narrow cases.
Armed with this new knowledge, you should now be ready to go online and buy your parts. Below, you’ll find a list of my favorite brands for each component, as well as the components I’m currently running in my main VR gaming PC. I’ll be following this article up in the coming weeks with additional posts on how to assemble your pc, as well as advanced tips and tricks.
Preferred brands:
Everything here is either a brand I’ve owned, or researched extensively and would buy without reservations. Ordered by preference.
CPU:
Intel, AMD
CPU Cooler:
For AIOs: Corsair, NZXT, CoolerMaster
For Air Coolers: Noctua, CoolerMaster, Zalman
Motherboards:
Asus, Gigabyte, MSI
RAM: Corsair, Kingston
Storage:
SSDs: Samsung, Crucial, Kingston, Western Digital
Hard drives: Western Digital, Toshiba, Seagate
Graphics Cards:
Evga, MSI, Gigabyte
Power Supplies:
Corsair, Seasonic
Cases:
Corsair, Lian-Li, Bitfenix, In-Win, Nzxt, Fractal Design, CoolerMaster, Phanteks, Silverstone
My VR System:
CPU: Intel 8700k
Cooler: Corsair H100i
RAM: Corsair 2400Mhz DDR4
GPU: MSI GTX 1080Ti
PSU: Seasonic Prime 750W Titanium
CASE: Corsair Vengeance C70
This article is continued in Part 2.
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As an aside, I only endorse products that I’ve personally used and loved, or thoroughly researched and genuinely recommend.