Building a pc: What you need to know (HARDWARE side)

[Snowarch]

Okay, building. apc isn't as hard as it sounds, if you know what you want/need. 

• First ask: What do i need it for

  - Well, if gaming, rendering, and or streaming, youll need a graphics card, if not doing these things, integrated will do, and if youre not needing a graphics card, going lower specs and a linux os may be good cause you get browsing speed, but a little less compatability so more research is needed if you wanna save a bit, and hunt down some open source or apps. 

 - What os do you want? 

   - Some form factor stuff

 well, if going windows, and low basic stuff, would need slightly mid-low range dtuff. maybe a used or pre built laptop would be better, but go mid specs, at least 4 cores @ 1.5ghz or better. i have a 1.1ghz quadcore linux laptop that originally came with win 10. 10 was MUCH slower. or if prefiring to not need to look stuff up a lot. i realise this is a build guide, but if not thinging youll ever need more graphics power down the line, laptop is better, if you need firepower and or want possibility to upgrade down the line, desktop form factor is better, 

 

 • Tech Tip: If old laptop just needs little more speed, upgrade ram, or to an ssd first. can help if bugget, and only little more speed is issue, boot time especially.

 

 •Tech Tip 2: the easier linux distros i'd recommend are Mint, Ubuntu, Debian, Or maybe minjaro. the last i havent tried personally. if you wanna see the oses before making a jump, Virtual Machines can help, As well as Rufus usb creator if you wanna install a linux version and make the usb an installer on windows. Duelboot lets you have two oses (2 linux, or one. win, one lin) easy but once you make partitions (Harddrives within your hard drive) They. Are. LOCKED. Vms are easy to kill if exploring. would recommend virtual box. easy enough to set up.

 

• Why i recommended these as begenner distros, debian is more Graphical User Interface(GUI) based than some other linuxes. ubuntu has multiple versions so its known.

 - Mint: Win7 looking

     -Ubuntu: Easy like win, but little harder

        - Debian - other teo are based off it.

 

• And windows... As we all know... 10 or no microsoft support. 

     

• Where do i start?

 - okay, you can choose... only desktop unless you wanna sauder a "frankenboard" from old pcs but that is beyond this guide. you'd wanna be a pro if you even tried, and be good at saudering.

 

• Cores or speed? 

my answer: Back to begenning, what do u need? 

Cores: More cores, more things at once, if streaming a game and playing, you want these.

Speed: If gaming only, or doing one thing with light music player (some are heavier than others, Spotify is heavy in my celeron expirence, Pithos is lighter.) 

 

More heavy stuff at once, you want more "guys" (cores) to lift it right? go cores

dome light, and medium to one-ish heavy? "running shoes!" speed wins here

 

okay with that? good, lets go!

 

knowing what you need, pick a cpu. amd or intel, see whats in buget, adsuming you chose os already.

  -intel itd in pre-builts a lot, but more speed oriented in dome cases

 -amd sometimes cheaper, but more core oriented on high end

• Motherboard

 - Linux Note: do research, see if that board has a good linux compatability, and look up if support is good. ive run into issues with apci on my own build, still cant install os.

 

  - Look up your cpu socket, and pick a board, do research.

 

my phone is dying right now, but i will finish this guide later, SnowArch the linux gamer out for now.

 

• Ram and Storage (AKA) Short term memory, and Long Term momory

 - RAM 

First, lets discuss it. some of y'all already know, Random Access Memory(RAM) is used for holding tomporary files, not enough can bottleneck high setting games, well bottleneck if something else doesn't. The general rule of thumb is 4 Gigs for struggling win10(Youll lag) but 8 is breathing in a small room, enough for most linux distros, and windows. if you love google chrome browser, not too many tabs on 4gb ram it eats it. so in general 8gb or more is good if not high end gaming. Tabs, and small temporary files in games that add up, especially with shaders (ie minecraft shaders) so at least 8gb.

 

  • Tech Tip- most boards come with 2-4 ram slots, and ram sticks come in 2,4,8,16, and 32 gb sticks. unless you overclock, the default ram speed is around 2133 speed, so if you buy a higher speed, you'll end up overclocking in some way.

 

  -Know. Your. DDR.

Theres ddr3, Ddr4, currrently, and diffrent forms of it for laptops. the hole is in diffrent places for ddr4, and ddr3 desktop version. laptop ddr4, and laptop ddr4 are diffrent so do research if laptop ram upgrading, and check you have enough slots, and or the right size for hoe much ram you want.

 

 

 

• SSd-Brick, Ssd-stick, or hhd?

Well... Again, depends on need.

 -HHD cheaper, and slower than an ssd, external ones of these are used for backups, but if youre gonna play low specs games like searching, or You just need a lot of space for photos or else, good idea.

. -rbrck Fast boot time, and helps with gaming modestly interms of lag if HHD is slowing you down, you need sata ports per these. heard is a common thing to use hhd for storage, and ssd for system (boot files) and or gaming. i have never done this personally, but 

have heard of the duel setup.

-  Stick? Well, i do not know much about this, but they use m.2 ports and work like ssds sometimes faster, but most expendive per gig kind. may wanna use this if frankenstein board is an idea for you, or if you just "want the best".

 

  • Cooling... Water or Air?

Well, this could spart oppenion debates here, so ill be as basic as possible. If you're a major overclocker, Water may be nice, especially a custom loop, but much more work! air is good if normal clocking, but read cooler reviews. a cooler may be good air wise, but not as good as it could be so read reviews, fan speed descriptions, and fan size. Loud fans may be faster but cooler, quioter fans may be less. I don't know much on water cooling so cannot say much. if someone can say unbias, i may add in the guide. 

 

Tech Tip: Read reviews, make sure the socket type is compatable, and not a bad mounting system in reviews. a good cooler, and replaced fams is better than a bad one with good stock.

 

• Case 

Theres 4 motherboard sizes of desktop, make sure the case is the right size for your board, and that there is enough space for your graphics card, and cooler. the sizes of board are ITX, ATX, LTX, and MITX. The ATX is the largest and can fit in mid, or fill tower. Really concider cooler, and graphics card size on this! 

 

• Graphics Card

This depends on a lot.... Do you want rtx? currently an nvdia 20x0 series thing, goin amd? Well i don't know much. search for an online gpu hiarchy, and mske sure the driver is supported well by os, and version. W10 updated break things sometimes.

 

 

• PSU (Power Supply Unit)

Calculate your wattage if you're at this step, and went in order. your graphics card matters too, so concider that when reading the rest.

Pcs, they literally only use what they need. you have a 300 watt psu in a pc, put in 1000 watter, will still use 300, but more if the psu was bottlenecking.

 

  - Bottlenecking is when the weakest part in a build causes it to go slow. so in psu case, if it was running slow after being on, the components were cool, tempeture, well maybe your graphics card upgrade is simply eating more power or goin into power saving mode. thats the only time it'd use more. look up recommended power consumption or use a calculator on line to help you choose. better higher, or a little over than not enough.

 

 

 

 

 • Extra

   -Wifi comes with some boards, others it doesn't and requires lan. concider, this, and how many ports are needed when buying a board. you may need 4 usbs (or less if extender) if pc is for couch gaming for example.

 -Rgb versions of stuff is pretty, but the same part's rgb version can be more expensive, concider when on budget.

  

  • Rap-Up

 

- well, you have all your parts, did your research, now connect the dots! most cables will tell you where they go in the motherboard manual, can usually find a pdf of the board manual if you have it. make sure the connections are in tight enough, or it may not turn on.

- Happy Building

 

• Screen?

One thing i should mention, if its concidered an oppenion, please tell me, and out of the guide it goes, thats why its below rapup. 

  - if it has monitor in the title, you can get a tv at a bigger size in most cases same price both use hdmi. Monitors overly expensive. diffrence between this and a same size tv? so, unless you want refresh rate, not too much worry.

Monitor

  -Higher refresh rate, More expensive.

Tv

    -lower rate of refresh less for same size.

[Snowarch]

ill add more when i can, its a lot to type on a dying phone, lel, and hope this can be helpful. 

[Snowarch]

okay mostly done, if nyone has watercooling info to add, and unbias, lemme know.