Why should I build a PC?

There’s a few reasons:

• Why not? It’s cool, you get to learn (on a very basic level) how a computer operates.
• It’s cheaper than building prebuilt computers
• You have full customization over what goes into your computer.
• You can have full control over how your computer looks.
• Install any software blah blah blah..
• Just do it!!!

How do I start?

Determine a budget.

• Having a preset budget lets you keep a realistic goal of what you want to be spending on each part.

Determine what you want out of your computer.

• Do you want to be streaming?
  • You’re going to need a pretty good graphics card.
• Do you want to be gaming a lot?
  • You’re going to need a decent graphics card.
• Do you want to program?
  • You’re going to need a good processor.
  • What about AI programming, or any massively parallel programming?
    • You’re going to need a good ass graphics card!!!

Honestly, the biggest thing you want to dedicate your budget to is your graphics card, and your processor.

The rest of the stuff you get, while equally important, can often be dialed back, especially since to have decent performance for most of the rest of the components, you don’t need to spend nearly as much money.

Okay so what do I need?

You need the following components at a minimum:

• A case
• A motherboard
• A power supply
• A processor
  • As well, you should probably get a CPU cooler.
  • They almost all come with a cooler, but they fucking suck and you should buy a better one.
• A graphics card
  • This isn’t actually required, the processor has an internal graphics card, but its not very powerful, and these days it’s generally recommended to have one.
• RAM
• Storage
  • There are different types, and people often mix them, but you only need at the very least one:
    • Hard drive - medium speed
    • Solid State drive - faster speed
    • NVME drive - fastest speed

What else can I get?

There are many PCIE (these are generic slots on your motherboard, that allow you to add extra components) utilities you can buy, one thing I often recommend is a WiFi card. Even if your motherboard comes with WiFi internally, the wifi card will often be far better for connection speeds, and also provides bluetooth.

Okay where do I get this stuff?

I’m in Canada so I’m going to be linking Canadian websites.

Newegg - A Canadian site thats generally pretty reliable.

Canada Computers - A canadian business, that has storefronts near me, which is far more attractive to me than buying online.

Amazon - You can buy parts through amazon, while I generally wouldn’t, they often can have good deals. I’ve bought stuff on amazon in the past and had no issues.

Parts

I haven’t really paid attention to the markets and developments since like 2020, so I don’t know whats the craziest and best technology these days, but I will go off what was true back then lolz.

CPU

First let’s determine the CPU to get.

There’s only two brands you can choose from (monopoly lol!).

AMD:

• My personal favourite, the better brand when I was upgrading, its what I use, but they’re both fine.

• Canada Computers’ selection, Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7, Ryzen 9, get whatever man, theyre all fine.

Intel:

• Canada Computers’ selection, i3, i5, i7, i9, all good, all fine

Regardless of the brand you get, I would recommend at least get a processor with 8 cores. Not required, but its powerful and will last you years, and do everything you need.

What about the cooler?

I use BeQuiet!, people often recommend Noctua as well. These brands are good for super quiet coolers, you can get whatever. AIO coolers are neat, they’re water cooling systems. I would just stick to air personally, less risk (probably not but it makes me feel better). As long as it fits your socket type, get whatever you want and whatever you can afford.

Motherboard

Form factor

There are different sizes of motherboards:

• eATX (super big)
  • You will probably never need this lol
• ATX (the biggest normal size)
  • A little big for my taste, but if you want to expand a lot in the future, go for this
• Micro-ATX (medium sized)
  • Probably the size you will need, it typically has 2 PCIe slots, which is all you’ll need.
• Mini-ITX (smallest)
  • Probably avoid this if you want a graphics card, network card, etc. The size can limit you.

However, whatever size you get, make sure you have 2 PCIe slots at the minimum, if you want to have a graphics card, and network card (recommended).

Socket type

This is the board that all of your components connect to, and you will be limited based on what processor you choose.

What does this mean? Well, each processor has a socket-type.

AMD uses, AM3, AM4, AM5. Intell uses LGA…. a bunch of numbers, idk its confusing.

When you choose your processor make sure you note this down, so you know which motherboard to buy.

Extra features

Motherboards will often boast extra sound quality, super crazy military grade heatsinks or whatever. Ignore all that marketing garbage. The biggest decision you will make regarding a motherboard, aside from price, is whether it comes with WiFi or not.

Personally, I would just go with the model without network, as it costs more money and can be subsidized (for better quality) with a network card.

Graphics Card

Again, only two brands to choose from, and theres one super clear choice, but ill talk about them both.

(Yes, Intel has graphics cards too, but they’re mainly for development and research purposes, none of them are really used for gaming.)

AMD:

• These cards are OK. Their drivers are open sourced, which is nice, so that you know whats going on.
• Thats pretty much where the benefits end.
• Canada Computers’ selection

NVIDIA:

• Generally the clear choice, they have better drivers, better hardware, and wider support.
• Cool utilities like shadow play, game readiness, extra frame boosting abilities.
• Canada Computers’ selection
• Models to choose from:
  • 1xxx, 2xxx, 3xxx, 4xxx, 5xxx series cards.
  • I run a 1660, which is a pretty old model these days, but it does not fail me at all. You can afford to cheap out on those older model cards because they were great back 5-6 years ago, and can still run circles around most video games.
  • I would go for anything in the 16xx series and up to 3xxx. These all lie less than $600.

RAM

Generally, doesn’t super matter, go for 8gb. You can go higher, a lot of people run 16gb, but don’t listen to the propaganda, unless you’re virtualizing you will never use 16gb.

There’s also clock speeds, the increase in price comes with diminishing returns, it’s not really important, get whatever as long as its in the 8gb range.

Storage

Here’s where you need to make some real decisions.

The typical setup people run is 1 harddrive (1tb-2tb), that stores all their bulk files (such as games, documents, etc). And a solid state drive (or NVME) for their operating system. I’ve done this in the past, the solid state / nvme lets your computer start faster, and if you put frequently played games on their, they will also start faster and run better.

OR YOU COULD JUST USE LINUX AND BOOT TIMES WILL BE <10 SECONDS REGARDLESS OF THE HARDWARE.

I digress.

PSU

This is the power supply unit, it provides power to all of the components in your computer.

There’s three options to choose from:

• Non-modular
  • All of the cables are hardwired into the power supply
  • This can make cable management a little difficult because you’re stuck with a crapload of (mostly unused) cables in your PC.
  • Cheapest
• Semi-modular
  • The required cables (motherboard, a few others) are hardwired, the rest can be removed
  • Better for cable management, because you can often removed most of the unused cables.
  • A little pricier
• Fully-modular
  • Every single cable can be removed
  • Great for cable management
  • Pricy

As for power ratings (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Gold++), anything beyond gold is typically what you want to look for. These ratings are just the power conversion rate, gold and above will save you money on electricity costs and also produce less heat. These are also less prone to breaking since they’re more efficient (source needed).

Case

Doesn’t fucking matter, as long as the case fits the size of motherboard you get, get whatever you like.