PC Build for newbies
- Thread starter knapplc
- Start date
Danny Bateman
Donor
Here's a few helpful links that I've used in the past:
BuildaPCSales - Subreddit dedicated to highlighting PC component sales. Gotta be quick on some of them but it's been helpful in the past searching for specific things I wanted to upgrade.
PCPartPicker - Useful site with a lot of build info and detailed info including price history on most components.
CPU/GPUBenchmark - Website that tests and compiles performance numbers on components. Use this to determine how a part you're considering compares performance-wise to similar ones and whether it's a good value.
Oh, also you could have @BlitzFirst check out a potential build for you, he knows his stuff. :thumbs
BuildaPCSales - Subreddit dedicated to highlighting PC component sales. Gotta be quick on some of them but it's been helpful in the past searching for specific things I wanted to upgrade.
PCPartPicker - Useful site with a lot of build info and detailed info including price history on most components.
CPU/GPUBenchmark - Website that tests and compiles performance numbers on components. Use this to determine how a part you're considering compares performance-wise to similar ones and whether it's a good value.
Oh, also you could have @BlitzFirst check out a potential build for you, he knows his stuff. :thumbs
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Enhance
Administrator
@Danny Bateman nailed basically everything I would've said.
If you're more casual about the process (like I am), I recommend looking at some of the system build suggestions on PCPartPicker and seeing if they fit your needs. I find it helpful to read some of the comments and feedback from the community on those builds because sometimes they'll have good advice about different parts or if a build is lacking in some way. The nice part about building a PC is that, generally speaking, you'll save a ton of money compared to a pre-built alternative.
If you're more casual about the process (like I am), I recommend looking at some of the system build suggestions on PCPartPicker and seeing if they fit your needs. I find it helpful to read some of the comments and feedback from the community on those builds because sometimes they'll have good advice about different parts or if a build is lacking in some way. The nice part about building a PC is that, generally speaking, you'll save a ton of money compared to a pre-built alternative.
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RedDenver
New member
I second/third everything Danny and Enhance have already said. PCPartPicker allows you to only pick compatible parts, which is extremely useful for making sure you aren't accidentally getting a component that doesn't work with the rest.
My advice is always get a power supply at least 100W more than you think you need and higher quality. Spending more for SSD instead of HDD is probably the best thing to do if you want better performance in general.
And I always encourage everyone to use linux.
My advice is always get a power supply at least 100W more than you think you need and higher quality. Spending more for SSD instead of HDD is probably the best thing to do if you want better performance in general.
And I always encourage everyone to use linux.
Danny Bateman
Donor
And the nice thing about building a rig from scratch is you can take your time acquiring only components you want when you can get a good deal, rather than paying more upfront for some components you may not want.
More customization, better prices, build at your own pace. What's not to like?
More customization, better prices, build at your own pace. What's not to like?
Toe
New member
Physically putting together a PC is actually pretty easy. About like putting together some furniture you got at Ikea or something. IMO the harder/more time-consuming part is on the software side: getting the OS installed, getting all the drivers set up, and getting all your other crap installed & running. It's a good idea to download all the latest drivers for your hardware to a USB drive before you begin, BTW.
I'm gonna disagree with those who say you'll save money by building your own. That was true years ago, but these days, price competition has driven things down to the point that buying a system on sale at Best Buy or whatever will probably be at least as cheap and a hell of a lot quicker (time is money, yo). To me, it's more about getting the exact parts that you want.
Think about how large of a system you need. This is another place where prebuilt systems usually win: all their parts are custom-made, so it's easier for them to be made smaller. Mostly, this will come down to how many PCI-e card slots you need. These days, a lot of stuff that used to be placed in expansion cards is either built into the motherboard or connected via USB. Most people don't need a full-size ATX tower, micro-ATX is plenty, and mini-ITX is perfectly viable for even some fairly high-end builds as long as you double-check the video card's dimensions.
Next question: do you need a dedicated video card, or is integrated video enough for your needs? If you're not a heavy gamer and aren't doing 3D modeling or anything, integrated is fine. Get an AMD Ryzen if you're going with integrated video. Intel says their upcoming Xe stuff will be better on the video side, but I'll believe it when I see it. And right now, I'd mostly recommend AMD over Intel on the CPU side - they're just a better value overall.
I would skip PassMark's benchmarks (CPUBenchmark.net linked above) - they're not exactly a real-world test. If you want to get into the nitty gritty, you could dig into Anandtech's Bench, but honestly, you might as well just skip to the bottom line and check out their Best ____ Guides (menu at top-right).
From there, you could maybe look over PC Part Picker for some build ideas. When you're ready to start buying, Newegg is the most popular place to get parts, but do some price comparisons on Amazon and such, too. Just browsing Newegg can give you a lot of alternatives for things like video card and case. Like you might find a build guide you want to use that has an ASRock RX-5500 video card, but then when you browse Newegg you might find a similar RX-5500 card made by Sapphire for cheaper than the ASRock card - might as well save some money. Newegg also has a really good search feature, like you can search by max GPU length if you're doing a small case build.
I'm gonna disagree with those who say you'll save money by building your own. That was true years ago, but these days, price competition has driven things down to the point that buying a system on sale at Best Buy or whatever will probably be at least as cheap and a hell of a lot quicker (time is money, yo). To me, it's more about getting the exact parts that you want.
Think about how large of a system you need. This is another place where prebuilt systems usually win: all their parts are custom-made, so it's easier for them to be made smaller. Mostly, this will come down to how many PCI-e card slots you need. These days, a lot of stuff that used to be placed in expansion cards is either built into the motherboard or connected via USB. Most people don't need a full-size ATX tower, micro-ATX is plenty, and mini-ITX is perfectly viable for even some fairly high-end builds as long as you double-check the video card's dimensions.
Next question: do you need a dedicated video card, or is integrated video enough for your needs? If you're not a heavy gamer and aren't doing 3D modeling or anything, integrated is fine. Get an AMD Ryzen if you're going with integrated video. Intel says their upcoming Xe stuff will be better on the video side, but I'll believe it when I see it. And right now, I'd mostly recommend AMD over Intel on the CPU side - they're just a better value overall.
I would skip PassMark's benchmarks (CPUBenchmark.net linked above) - they're not exactly a real-world test. If you want to get into the nitty gritty, you could dig into Anandtech's Bench, but honestly, you might as well just skip to the bottom line and check out their Best ____ Guides (menu at top-right).
From there, you could maybe look over PC Part Picker for some build ideas. When you're ready to start buying, Newegg is the most popular place to get parts, but do some price comparisons on Amazon and such, too. Just browsing Newegg can give you a lot of alternatives for things like video card and case. Like you might find a build guide you want to use that has an ASRock RX-5500 video card, but then when you browse Newegg you might find a similar RX-5500 card made by Sapphire for cheaper than the ASRock card - might as well save some money. Newegg also has a really good search feature, like you can search by max GPU length if you're doing a small case build.
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Enhance
Administrator
To go off of one of @Toe's comments, one thing to be mindful of right now is parts access. I think we're still playing catch up a bit due to coronavirus. Some stuff is out of stock and Newegg doesn't really make it clear if (or when) they'll get more. So it might mean that you have to look at alternatives. Most things I tried to find were in-stock but others weren't.
For example, I wanted to get a Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 Super but couldn't find one online anywhere. Did some research and talked to a few buddies of mine who had nothing but good things to say about the EVGA variant, so I found found the EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 Super for only like $40 extra than what the Gigabyte one would've been.
For example, I wanted to get a Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 Super but couldn't find one online anywhere. Did some research and talked to a few buddies of mine who had nothing but good things to say about the EVGA variant, so I found found the EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 Super for only like $40 extra than what the Gigabyte one would've been.
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