How do you build?

[Borgus Bohr]

*Not sure if this belong in this forum ''category'', but my question felt too general to put anywhere else.

 

Personally, my last choice of component when building a new computer, is the case. I normally base my case options on my cooling system, but first, is always the CPU. What is your way of planing and building a computer?

 

[SansVarnic]

Normally I build around a theme, but I am pretty spartan, I like all black/grey or red nothing fancy like rgb). From there I start with the CPU and move on from there.

My choice of CPU depends on the workload I plan to put on it. Top tier is not the always the goal, if it goes to waste, I'll use a lower end or mid-tier CPU for the build.

[RONOTHAN##]

For me, it goes CPU, MOBO, Cooler, RAM, GPU, PSU, Case, Storage, then balance everything to go under budget. I basically pick components in the order of least difficult to upgrade (RAM and GPU are pretty interchangeable for which I pick), as well as easiest to cheap out on to let me get the bigger ticket items like the CPU and GPU. 

 

That being said, there are some builds where I do go in a different order. For my current system I went cooler, GPU, CPU, Case, PSU, storage, mobo, RAM. I wanted to do a custom loop, then the 30 series and Ryzen 5000 was announced, so I knew which of those to get, and everything else was trying to accommodate those (case big enough to hold dual 360mm rads, large enough PSU for a 3080, etc.)

[IkeaGnome]

Usually, I see a part I want and go with it. Then build around it. For example, I wanted 5900x and 6800xt. I didn't get a 5900x since I got my parts in November. I was able to get the 6800xt and 5800x when the 6900xt dropped. Then at first, I wanted to see how small of a case I could fit it in. I found the limits of that and then went for high airflow high cooling. 

[WhitetailAni]

Well, every PC build I've done has been inspired by the motherboard/CPU that I have laying around. For Y2K I had an ASUS P3V4X + Pentium III 500 Katmai, so I built a PC around it. Same story for P4HT - I got an ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe + Pentium 4 3.4 Prescott, so I built a PC around that. P4HT isn't done as the P4C800-E Deluxe needs recapping though.

For Phenom, again - motherboard+CPU. ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 + Phenom II X4 955. I recently got a Gigabyte GA-990FX-UD3 as well which I'll be swapping in once I have time.

With each build I try to add a unique marker. For Y2K I have a bunch of external drives - optical, 5.25" floppy, 3.5" floppy, Zip, for P4HT I have a bunch hard drives, for Phenom the system is designed to be as CPU-oriented as possible (it runs my Minecraft Java server) - 3D Rage II +DVD PCI video card, 24GB of RAM, and 2 cores disabled on the CPU for a high overclock. In my main system it's packed as full as I can get it - 2 graphics cards, 32GB RAM, full front bays, no power cables left unused, etc.

[da na]

Pretty much same as @FakeKGB - I find parts and then build an era appropriate build if it's a retro thing. I mainly do refurbishing of prebuilt office PCs, in which case they get a dual monitor 1gb Radeon HD, 8gb of ram, 240gb SSD and a quad core CPU. 

[dizmo]

I go through, buy a used PC for every part I want. Then part out the rest of the PC.

I'm usually a generation behind, but I don't really play a ton of games so it doesn't really matter much.

[kucharczykt]

38 minutes ago, Borgus Bohr said:

*Not sure if this belong in this forum ''category'', but my question felt too general to put anywhere else.

 

Personally, my last choice of component when building a new computer, is the case. I normally base my case options on my cooling system, but first, is always the CPU. What is your way of planing and building a computer?

 

Note: I've only ever build one pc so I'm not exactly an experiencer builder.

 

The way I build my PC was first decide the budget, second take 30-50% percent of that and see what the best GPU you can but, and then I decided the parts around that GPU e.g. not using a 10100 and a 3080 or spending 200 on the gpu and 200 on the case and/or rgb. And as far as actually building the PC I basically just followed an ltt tutorial, mobo, CPU, cooler, ram, m.2 SSD, case, psu, GPU and I at least tryed to cable manage along the way but my case didn't make it easy.

 

[Mark Kaine]

For me its the opposite, ill start with the case as its the thing I'll be looking at all the time and also temps/airflow is important to me (although that's difficult to fully judge *before* the build is actually done)

 

 

[CommanderAlex]

I'll start with the CPU and motherboard. Then I'll pick up everything else around it as follows; CPU cooler, RAM, storage, GPU, PSU, and case. I'll refine it more afterwards to bring the price down below my budget. Any accessories/extras like keyboard and mouse or case fans I don't really include as its the main system. 

[char3327]

I pick the CPU and MB first, then the cooling and the case. Then i choose the gpu, and then based off that i can decide PSU, RAM, Storage, ect.

[Ravendarat]

Its never always been the same for me but for instance in the latest one I built it was a case decision first, I saw the 7000x launch and decided I really wanted that case, so then I chose parts to fill it out such as using dual res/pump, 420mm and 360mm rads and push pull fan configs where they fit. For the actual components I carried over a lot from my last system and the gpu I picked was based strictly on what was available at the store at the time that I could order a water block for, hence I ended up with a TUF 6800

[GreatnessRD]

I pick the CPU and motherboard then go case and cooling with everything else in between.

[CerealExperimentsLain]

Me: "What's a good, highish end computer case, to hold 3x5.25" bay devices for my BDRE drive and two hot swap hard drive bays?

Internet: High end and 5.25" bays?  We got cases where the front is made of GLASS how's that?"

Me: One Corsair Carbide 200R plz. >_>;

[GDRRiley]

I've not done a full new build in a long time. upgrades and builds tend to be done around whats good value parts, its why I've got a 2700x over a 3600x, because 2700X were on fire sales start of 2020 for 130$

Cases is easy for me, I keep reusing my obsidian 350D with my 750D as an option if I go full ATX which I might for my next build.

I need HDD bays I'm not someone who can leave them behind, at least 3 is my requirement.

as for colors I tend to go mostly black with a few splashes around, right now I've got LTT fans with their orange and some silver on my b450m pro4

[jones177]

My builds are now about what it takes to feed a particular GPU and keep that GPU cool under load.

I use either a big air cooler or a 360mm AIO so the CPUs are fine. 

 

The 30 series cards have put even more emphasis on cooling the GPU since half the cases I own have failed even though they were fine with overclocked RTX 2080 tis in them.

All are called high air flow but that seems to only mean that they have lots of holes.

 

My motherboards are mostly high end now since I have less issues with them. I do more research on them than anything else.

 

My PSUs are 1000 watts plus because they last the longest and power is going up with GPUs even though die size is going down. 

 

The last thing I buy is the motherboard since if there is a boot issue 99% of the time it is the motherboard and I want to return it and not deal with a warranty.

 

All my builds start on a test bench and the GPUs are tested separately on established builds.

 

My latest build was last month and it is an i9 10900kf on a Aorus Master Z490 with a RTX 3080 ti.

It was going to go into a Corsair 5000d but I tested the 5000d with my old i7 8086k/Hero X setup along with the 3080 ti and I could not get the GPU temps down to were I wanted so it was replaced with a lian li o11 dynamic.

 

[IPD]

Well, since most of my PC buying has been laptops, the order is a bit different. 

 

-When I got my Borg Cube, Case was consideration #1.  I knew I was going to put an xx80 GPU in it.  16gb ram, but wasn't too concerned with CAS timings, speeds, etc.  And the i5 was the first i5 with 6-cores, so that was an easy downgrade from my usual i7 fare.  M.2 SSD was still a bit rich for my blood in 2018, so SATA SSD boot + HDD rounded out the mix.  PSU, MOBO and everything else was "whatever comes with it".  Although I do seem to recall upgrading the MOBO from the default choice...

 

-Laptops (assuming the right size form factor) are easily "what display" at #1.  GPU is #2.  #3 is "what is cooling like?"  #4 is probably "does it have a backlit keyboard?"  CPU, storage and RAM are virtually irrelevant considerations--given that the perfect solution for #1-4 (if it even exists) usually yields like 1 choice.

 

P.S.

My STX build was also built around the case.  And I pretty much struck out trying to get a bare mini-STX MOBO, NUC box was the only option.

[Guest]

18 hours ago, Borgus Bohr said:

*Not sure if this belong in this forum ''category'', but my question felt too general to put anywhere else.

 

Personally, my last choice of component when building a new computer, is the case. I normally base my case options on my cooling system, but first, is always the CPU. What is your way of planing and building a computer?

 

step one: open pc part picker

 

step two: select item (start with motherboard, then gpu, then ram, then cpu, then ssd, then peripherals)

step 3: sort by: price

 

 

no, but in seriousness, the first, and maybe only pc I'm going to make in the near (10 years) future will be top of the line, and a bit less than 10x cheaper than this one which I made with the steps above (around 10.5k), and I feel like the order of part choice I listed is accurate

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Finnegan16/saved/q4G9cf

• here's the method I showed above ^