building a pc

hi hi I want to build a pc (never built one before) and I've done some research but I wanted to ask if anyone has any tips, recommendations, general advice or even just things to consider

I have a copy / paste post I always make, so...

If you're completely new to building, you may be in for a stressful time. People say it's "just a jigsaw puzzle!", which it kinda is, but this comes from people who build PCs all the time. Everything's simple with practice and when you know the pitfalls.

Right now 4-cores 8-threads has become the minimum

If / when you need to upgrade CPU, it can be as simple as an update and dropping the new Ryzen CPU in, as the socket will be the same.

Get one that's 140mm (the bigger the fan, the better and quieter it usually is) and make sure it fits your CPU socket (that's 'AM4' if it's Ryzen). You'll see options for air and water, and generally the more expensive the better, but a low-cost air cooler like a 'Hyper Evo 212' or a 'be quiet! Pure Rock' will keep your CPU cool enough and be near silent. Even if the fan dies on those two, you can easily just swap it for another fan.

Additionally you'll need thermal paste to put it on (it'll often come with paste, but you need more in future) and certain liquids like TIM cleaner to wipe off the old paste first.

An old tip, but just in case: if you want 1080p HD, avoid 'HD ready' TV. 'HD ready' was bizarre code to swindle consumers into buying a TV that was 720p, not 1080p.

Size is also important, but bigger isn't always better. Sat on a sofa or in bed playing console, sure, but on PC you're going to be sat only a certain distance from the monitor. Put a 42-incher there and you'll have 2 heads moving: your in-game head, and then your real head looking round the monitor. There are guides / calculators that will tell you your ideal montior size for your viewing distance, but it'll probably be about 24".

Speed is also a consideration, and 3200MHz is a popular sweet spot of performance v price.

If you want to spend more, a popular option is an SSD as a 'boot drive', plus an HDD for extra space. You can have more than one drive! If you ever need more space, you just put in another. There are a few types of SSD and a couple of sizes. All you need to know is the 2.5" one connects like an HDD by SATA cable, and the M2 is the small one that you screw to your motherboard.There's no real speed difference between the SSD types out there currently. I prefer 2.5" due to some overheating issues with some M2s. Feel free to look up tier lists for SSDs, but there are budget options. And if you get an HDD, only buy 7200 RPM ones.

When I was buying, Seagate had a bad reputation, so I got a 1TB Toshiba HDD for less than £40. Years later I added a top tier SATA 500 GB SSD (Crucial MX 500) for £50. If I wanted a budget option, like a Kingston A400, that would've been half the price.

Look up 'PSU tier list 2020' and aim for the top few categories. The higher the tier, the more it'll cost. You don't need overkill though; ~£80 area is fine.

Bigger = better and quieter. You usually want at least one intake at the front and / or side, and one out the back getting rid of the CPU cooler's exhaust. 'be quiet!' and 'Noctua' are popular brands, while my Enermax ones are quiet too.

- Go into your BIOS and turn on the XMP profile, as you may notice your RAM isn't at the right speed. This should set it right. If you get BSOD issues, try the other profile or a slower speed until you're stable. Also change your fans to PWM (so they change speed according to temps, rather than go at a constant speed)

Update drivers using the disc with your motherboard and the manufacturers' websites (like NVIDIA for NVIDIA GPUs) and update BIOS if needed.

'Overclocking' is where you basically make something run 'faster' than it does normally at default stock settings. Not long ago, you'd get a CPU and expect to overclock it, but AMD want to eliminate this and have their CPUs 'working out the box'. So if you've got Ryzen, you'll find you won't be able to overclock it much or at all, with gains not noticable. You can overclock your GPU, but again it's minimal. RAM these days are what people like to overclock most of all, but it depends on what RAM you have, the motherboard, and it's still a lottery. Even so, unless you manage huge gains, the FPS difference is minimal and features (Precision Overdrive etc.) are effectless gimmicks.

- You only need to download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to scan your computer every so often for malware; the antivirus and firewall that comes with Windows 10 is fine.

I disagree to an extent. While I wouldn't say it's akin to a jigsaw, it is still very simple. I usually phrase it something like fitting shapes together and a few screws because that's essentially what it is. There are some little things to keep in mind, but it's pretty hard to put things in the wrong place.

It doesn't really become stressful unless something doesn't work... Even then the fixes are usually so painfully simple you feel silly for getting stressed over it.


This idea that there is some sort of universal minimum is something that has irked me for a long time. It's simply down to what you want out of the PC that dictates what your minimum is


I think this is a bit of an iffy claim to make. Granted, AMD has been better than intel when it comes to reusing sockets, but at the same time there's no guarentee they'll continue to use the socket. As far as I'm aware, AMD has passed any commitments they've made in regards to lifespan of the AM4 socket.

Generally speaking, any CPU upgrade worth having will almost always involve buying a new motherboard as well.


Too much generalising for my liking. There's so much more to coolers than just the fans, like, if the fin arrary or heat pipes are a pos design, the amount of air you're pushing is moot. Then there's the whole thing about fan specs which can change things up.

Bigger doesn't neccecarily mean better, it generally means there's more potential, but ultimately, it's the actual performance that matters.

Also dislike the "more expensive the better". Of course, that does ring true to an extent. But you see some AIO units going for a fair bit more than some top quality air coolers while really performing no better, if not worse.



Probably worth noting that the OP should look into thermal paste to find out whether it's conductive or not, just in case they make a bit of a mess with it and get it on the board or, god forbid, in the CPU socket.



It wasn't so much a swindle and more uneducated consumers. Strictly speaking, anything over 576 verticle lines is high definition (480 in North America). So 720p is HD, while 1080p was often called Full HD. Yet I'd wager a lot of people would say 720p isn't HD.


Yep, 24"-27" is usually the sweet spot for standard aspect ratio monitors


There's more to RAM speed than just raw speed, you also have to factor in latency.

I've got two kits up as a comparison right now, one is a Crucial Ballistix kit, the other is a PNY XLR8 kit. The Crucial is running at 3000 MHz while the PNY runs at 3200 MHz. Sso the PNY is better? At face value it seems that way. However, when you factor in CAS latency (15 for the Crucial, 16 for the PNY) and crunch the numbers, you'll find that the two kits will perform exactly the same in virtually all cases as their real-world latency is identical



I think you've fallen behind here. It's worth mentioning that M.2 drives come as either a SATA or a PCIe SSD and the OP would need to check compatability with that as well as the fitting.

There are certainly speed differences between the SSD types out there these days. SATA drives cap out at about 550 MB/s in the real world, while a number of M.2, PCIe based SSDs are pushing twice that speed.

As for the HDD, depends on the use. I wouldn't necessitate the need for a 7200 RPM drive if it were just for media storage for example. Though, given the way the market is, it'll probably be a 7200 RPM drive anyway seeing as they're generally the best value drives anyway.


Budget options can be very questionable, even from reputable names. Always best to get a solid SSD imo, Crucial is usually the go-to for a solid, good value SSD.

It's also wise to keep important things like documents, pictures and save games backed up on both drives or USB sticks, as most drives either fail in the first few months or last many years.



I'd change "aim" to nothing but the top few. PSUs are like car tyres. They are what can separate you from a really bad day, so don't cheap out of them.




Bigger =/= always better

You'll find a number of high performance 120mm fans outpacing a lot of bigger fans



While the OP is there, they should check everything else is showing up as well


Don't bother with the disc unless you absolutely have to (wireless adapter drivers for example), just go straight to the website. It's best not to update your BIOS unless there's some sort of issue due to the risk of corrupting your BIOS in the event of an unexpected shutdown.



Yeah, there are gains to be had from a CPU overclock. But GPU overclocking is rather moot these days since they boost the clocks right out of the box. The gains are going to be very minimal on modern cards because they're already pushing themselves past the standard clock speeds.


ADW cleaner is a good one to keep on hand as well

- Oh yeah it's good to hear there are a few competitive Intels now, though what cost are the motherboards? I remember checking ages ago and seeing that a decent motherboard was more expensive and made up the difference and then some.

My Wraith Stealth with a 3600 went too high when I tested it under load, and when I compared it to others, and when Googling to compare with others, they were getting similar temps (high 80s).

- I mentioned paste because I can see one (of many) disheartening first time build scenarios - being midway through (after waiting impatiently for all your parts to come) then you realise you've smudged up the pre-applied paste and it's on your arm or your bed, or mess up installing it and have the cooler off and on again. It only costs a few quid to be prepared and it saves getting it later anyway.

- GPUs are something new builders won't know where to start, and they end up looking at a PC with some old XP-era GPU because they don't have a handle on it before going deeper with comparisons. Like now it'd help them to start off with if you say 'you want at least 6GB of VRAM for Ultra at 1080p', and then they can look up 6GB+ cards and compare them, it narrows it down a lot.

Some people swat aside that bronze etc. ratings matter with PSUs. People will have issues with one then say "it's an 80+ rated PSU" but it turns it out it wasn't all that good after all. Ultimately a tier list does the same job but better.