https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-CYF2Oy9GU

How to Build a PC Without Messing Everything Up

40 min readFeb 24, 2021

After countless hours of browsing subreddits related to PC building and PC gaming, I’ve ran into my fair share of posts and comments from people scared to build their own PC thinking that they’ll “mess everything up” or “make something explode.” Of course, this fear is pretty reasonable for someone unfamiliar with PC building or with limited knowledge on how assembling a computer works these days. In fact, PC building has gotten so easy in the past few years that it’s often referred to as “LEGO for adults.” But that fear becomes very unreasonable due to the extremely low likelihood of a component igniting or getting damaged (so long as you’re careful).

In one of my previous posts, I detailed my experience building my first PC. After that post’s estimated read time reached over 20 minutes, I decided that if I wanted to write a build guide, it would have to be in a separate column. So here I am. I’ll keep this guide relatively broad so that it can apply to most personal PC builds. You’ll read about examples from my own build to serve as explanation for each step, but keep in mind that every build is a little bit different.

Picking Parts

Before we get to the build itself, we have to choose the parts, which is no easy task on its own. First, I recommend working out a budget, and be very strict about it. Regardless of peripherals, miscellaneous components, furniture, etc., you should have a budget for the computer itself. Remember that peripherals like a mouse, keyboard, and pieces of furniture like a new desk do fall under the umbrella of the setup as a whole, but don’t fall under the same category as “PC parts.”

There are a lot of ways to figure out your budget. Coming up with an arbitrary number is one of the simpler ways, and starting off with that could work for you. But that’s really just a shot in the dark, and I would recommend formulating a budget after figuring out the prices of a few components that you’re interested in. If you decide on a strict budget after selecting, say, half of the components, then the function of that budget is to ensure that you don’t overspend on the second half of parts (in theory). Of course, that might not be the case if you set an absurdly high budget after deciding on a few parts. That might not even be the case depending on the components you picked for your “first half.” If you pick out your most expensive components for your first half and then double that price for your budget, than your budget will likely be too high. The same goes for if you pick out your least expensive parts for your first half and then double that price for your total budget — your budget could be too low. The latter of these scenarios might force you to save money on the pricey components, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a good idea. This is because basing a budget off of a list of parts missing the core components will probably force you to make sacrifices on those core components for two reasons: (1) The “non-core components” are less expensive than the core components, so using the doubling logic will leave you with an insufficient budget. (2) Sacrifices tend to be made in the latter half of the list (you don’t want to skimp out on the items that you selected first; there’s a reason that you prioritized them in the first place).

To gain a better understanding of the price ratios between the parts in a PC, let’s take a look at the functions of the parts themselves.

CPU: The CPU, also known as the central processing unit (not the computer processing unit as widely believed), is the brain of the computer. It carries out all of the main calculations necessary to make your computer run through a simple three step process. The CPU fetches instructions from the memory, decodes those instructions, and executes them. With the rapid advancement of computers in the late 20th century, central processing units are able to fit on small chips called microprocessors in modern computers. A few important details to note when looking at CPUs are the clock speeds and the cores. A CPU operates by repeating clock cycles, or single electronic pulses of the CPU. Computers can execute one or more instructions per clock cycle. The clock speed determines how many clock cycles a CPU can perform per second. A CPU with a clock speed of 3.6 GHz, for example, can perform 3,600,000,000 clock cycles per second. In general, a higher clock speed is better, but the number of cores should also be taken into consideration. A core is essentially a small CPU built into a larger CPU or CPU socket. You can think of an 8-core CPU as 8 smaller central processing units working together. In general, the higher the core count, the better the performance for multi-tasking or applications that use multiple cores, such as certain video editing, gaming, or 3D rendering programs.
CPU Cooler: Although CPUs have passive means of cooling themselves through a copper/copper alloy plate called the Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS), they require active cooling to prevent temperatures from getting too high. When a CPU gets too hot, it thermal throttles, meaning it loses performance for the sake of cooling down. This is bad for two reasons: (1) The CPU loses out on performance and (2) thermal throttling temperatures can damage the CPU and shorten its lifespan. There are many different ways to cool a CPU. You can opt for an air cooler, which dissipates the heat from the IHS via heat pipes/heat sinks and cools it with (a) fan(s). You can also go for liquid cooling, which cools down the CPU “more effectively” with the higher heat capacity of water. Of course this liquid doesn’t come into direct contact with the CPU, as the thermal energy from the IHS is dissipated through a water block. This block then cools down the liquid through a radiator that transfers the heat of the liquid to the air outside of the PC. I would strongly advise against any passive means of cooling, like a standalone heatsink. Most CPU coolers that you run into are some form of active cooling.
Motherboard: If the CPU is the brain of the computer, then the motherboard is the spinal cord. That analogy seems a bit less intuitive, but it’s the most accurate one I can make if we’re comparing a computer to a human. The motherboard is the main Printed Circuit Board (PCB) that connects all of the components of the computer, enabling them to communicate with each other. Without the motherboard, the CPU isn’t able to take instructions from the memory, and therefore, cannot perform any calculations. The same can be said for many other combinations of components — that is, if there is no motherboard, then the parts cannot work together. Since the motherboard is the component that connects all the other components, you can be sure to find a lot of crucial specifications for it. What follows are some of the most important ones. First, there is socket compatibility, which dictates whether or not the CPU is compatible with the motherboard. Motherboards with AM4 sockets can only support certain chips from AMD, for example. Trying to put an Intel chip into a motherboard designed for AMD Ryzen chips is something that I strongly recommend not doing. It will not go well. There is also RAM compatibility to consider, since DDR3 RAM will not work with DDR4 slots (DDR4 is just one generation newer than DDR3 here) and vice versa. You’ll also want to check if your motherboard supports dual-channel memory, which has proven itself to be much faster than just running a single stick of RAM of twice the capacity (ex: getting two 8 GB sticks running in dual-channel rather than a single 16 GB stick will have better performance assuming all other specifications are held constant). The PCIe support of your motherboard will also have influence on components that use the high-speed connection, namely GPUs and SSDs (although there has been much debate as to whether or not PCIe bottlenecks are of any significance). And if you’re doing your build in a case (which in most cases, you are [no pun intended]), the form factor of the motherboard cannot be forgotten. From largest to smallest, the standard motherboard form factors are: EATX, ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ATX. As long as your case supports your motherboard’s form factor, it should fit just fine. Remember that larger cases will support motherboards with smaller form factors than its own. Other motherboard features, like RGB headers, fan headers, AIO pump support, IO shield, etc. can usually be found in its manual or product page.
Memory (RAM): Also referred to as Random Access Memory, the memory of a computer is crucial for giving instructions to the CPU, and therefore, allows the whole system to function. Memory shouldn’t be confused with storage, however. One way to think about memory is that it’s like short-term memory (STM) while storage is like long-term memory (LTM). While RAM is where instructions are constantly being updated for the CPU to fetch, storage is where your vacation photos are stored. It’s called “random access” memory because information can be accessed and manipulated in any order. Two notable details of RAM to take note of are its speed and CAS latency. RAM speed is measured in Megahertz (MHz), which, like the CPU, measures cycles per second. Faster is better, evidently. CAS latency or Column Address Strobe latency is the delay in clock cycles between when an instruction is given and the moment the data is available. Lower is better in this case, since we want data to be available sooner rather than later. Don’t forget about dual-channel memory!
Storage: As mentioned in the last paragraph, storage is very different from memory. Without storage, you can’t install your operating system, download applications, or save files. While memory takes the form of RAM sticks, storage takes the form of drives — hard drives, solid state drives — that kind of thing. When looking into parts for storage, you should note the read and write speeds of the product, that is, the measurements of how long it takes the drive to open a file and save a file, respectively. And you can’t forget capacity, or how much space the drive has. You will commonly see anything from 256 GB to 4 TB, with hard drives falling on the side of slower read/write speeds and higher capacities. While an SSD (solid state drive) has no moving parts (hence the name, solid state drive), a hard drive has a storage platter that spins with a mechanical read/write arm that points to a location on that platter (think of it like a record on a phonograph). So to access a specific file, the hard drive needs to point to the correct location on the storage platter by spinning it. As a result, hard drives are much slower and less power efficient than solid state drives, but are also much more cost efficient for capacity when compared to SSDs. While a typical 2 TB hard drive will cost you just over $50, a 2 TB solid state drive may cost four times as much. The reason why so many people recommend getting an SSD and an HDD (hard disk drive) for building a PC is because the SSD can be used to store files that need to be accessed frequently (the OS in particular should be on an SSD so that the system can boot and run faster), while the HDD can contain files that don’t need to be accessed so frequently that will also inevitably take up a lot of space, like photos and videos.
GPU: Unlike the CPU, motherboard, RAM, and memory, it’s not so easy to give an analogical example for the GPU, or graphics processing unit (also referred to as a graphics card or video card). The job of the GPU is to handle all of the graphical computations so that you can get video output from your computer to the display. The GPU has even more work to do with tasks like video rendering and gaming. But here’s where it can get a little bit confusing: You might not need a GPU, and you’ll still be able to get video output to your monitor. This is possible with an iGPU, or Integrated GPU. An iGPU is built into the CPU, meaning the chip is capable of not only the principal calculations for the system, but handling the graphics as well. Though an iGPU may suit your needs, there is no doubt that an iGPU is outperformed by most discrete GPUs. A discrete graphics card is one that is distinct from the CPU chip, and as a result, does not share the same memory as the CPU and can have its own cooling solution. In general, a separate graphics card will outperform CPU graphics for a multitude of reasons: It has its own PCB, chip, VRAM (video RAM), cooling, etc. As for what you need to look out for GPU specifications, it’s not as clear-cut as other parts. The two main manufacturers for PC graphics cards are Nvidia and AMD, both of which have different metrics for their specifications. While Nvidia’s latest generation of GPUs (the 3000 series) boasts thousands of “CUDA cores” as its primary specification, AMD’s competing 6000 series responds with a measurement of several dozen “compute units” and a few thousand “stream processors.” The distinct architectures between these two companies makes it more difficult to discern differences in performance and makes it slightly more confusing for the consumer. Though it is certainly a good idea to look at the base/boost clocks and VRAM of graphics cards, you might be able to get a better understanding of GPU performance through looking up benchmarks online. Benchmarks are able to go far more in-depth than raw specification numbers, as a variety of tasks can be thrown at the system to test strengths and weaknesses of the component(s).
Power Supply: Without power, a computer cannot function. Evidently, that’s where the power supply comes in. It’s important to note that the power supply is the one part that has the potential to destroy the whole system. Although this is fairly unlikely, when a power supply dies, there is a chance that it sends an electrical surge through the components, thus, damaging them. Higher-end power supplies reduce this risk, so it’s not a bad idea to go a little bit overkill with the PSU (power supply unit) just to be safe. With power supplies, there are two main specifications to take into consideration for performance/compatibility: Wattage and efficiency rating. The wattage of the power supply determines the amount of wattage that it will be able to provide to the components. By adding up the wattage requirements of your components (it’s very easy to find this number for GPUs in particular), you can get a rough estimate of what the wattage of your PSU should be. Of course, having a higher wattage PSU than necessary is better than lowballing it (which may prevent the system from running consistently or booting at all). The efficiency rating of a power supply simply indicates how efficient it is at drawing AC power from the outlet and converting it to DC power that your PC parts can use. A 50% efficient, 500W power supply would require drawing 1000W to reach its peak performance, for example. However, most power supplies offer at least 80% efficiency, otherwise known as 80 Plus (or 80+). This simply means that the power supply is at least 80% efficient. Anything higher than 80+ (like 80+ Bronze, 80+ Gold, etc.) is just more efficient. A more efficient power supply is usually “higher-end,” but the wattage of the power supply is far more important than its efficiency rating. Making sure your system can run for paying a dollar or two more per year is definitely a worthy trade. The main specification for convenience with power supplies is its modularity. A fully modular power supply can have all of its cables detached, meaning you can pick whichever ones you want to use and some space without the unnecessary ones. Semi-modular means that the necessary cables are connected to the PSU and you have the freedom to attach the remaining ones. Non-modular just means that all of the power supply’s cables are attached to it. This one is really just a matter of convenience, and forgoing a modular or semi-modular model isn’t that big of a deal.
Case: This is the most complex component of a PC, and at the same time, is the last one to prioritize. In theory, it’s not even necessary, as many people choose to build their computers outside of their case first to make sure their components work, before assembling everything inside. One of the most important details to note is the case’s size/motherboard support. Keep in mind that larger form factor cases will support smaller motherboards (ej. an EATX case will support an ATX motherboard usually). The description of case size might not perfectly align with motherboard form factor, but in general, full tower = EATX, mid tower = ATX, mini tower = Micro-ATX, and smaller form factor = Mini-ATX. Aside from that, case specifications aren’t too uniform. You might be interested in the number of USB ports, which generation they are, or the aesthetics of the case, but I would personally recommend looking into the airflow potential of the case. Airflow cases are designed to allow air to flow easily through them, and even more so if you add case fans to circulate air through your system. Higher airflow generally means lower temperatures. Lower temperatures will yield better performance. You can usually tell if a case is designed for airflow or has good airflow based on the front panel — if it’s littered with openings via a mesh panel, or just a pattern of holes, then chances are it’s an airflow case.

If you feel like you’re still totally lost, don’t worry. I personally felt lost when I first did my research on PC building. It took quite a bit of repetition for me to gain just a simple understanding of these parts. Even so, I’m by no means an expert, and I’m still learning more and more about PCs everyday (writing about them in blog posts definitely helps).

But we still have to get to the bit where we pick our parts, and we shouldn’t do that when we don’t have a concrete budget. One good way to determine your budget is to visit PCPartPicker, which is pretty much the gold standard for creating PC parts lists. This website is packed with tons of useful resources — whether it’s the various build guides that give you the price for a specific build or the completed builds section where the community posts their finished products and their price tags. I would definitely recommend checking these out; they can definitely give you a better idea of what most budgets look like. These builds will also help you understand which parts don’t result in bottlenecks, something that I discussed in my personal PC build blog post (you don’t want to be running a very slow, old CPU with a brand-new, flagship graphics card, for example). And of course, I can’t forget to mention PCPartPicker’s system builder, which is its titular feature. The system builder will automatically update the price of your build, and more importantly, will notify you of any incompatibilities that arise. Although the system builder isn’t able to check certain issues like CPU cooler/RAM clearance (when the RAM is too tall for the CPU cooler to fit), it will catch the major ones, like if your CPU isn’t compatible with the socket of your motherboard. It also warns you if certain documented dimensions could pose issues — the most common of which is the GPU’s length and the case’s interior length. After you’ve messed around in the system builder and checked out miscellaneous parts/accessories like case fans and PSU cable extensions, don’t forget to save your parts list and give it a name.

But there’s one last question you need to answer before you go ahead assembling your parts list that’s very, very important: What do you want your PC to do?

Different types of PCs call for varying allocation of money for parts. While a gaming PC might require much more money to be invested in the GPU, one with the sole intent of video editing might benefit more from higher capacity RAM rather than a high-end gaming graphics card. Of course the example I gave is very vague and is only meant to serve as explanation for the variation in builds that can be made. It gets even more specific if you consider the exact situation of the games, video editing, rendering, etc. you plan the PC to run. Is it more GPU-intensive or is more CPU-intensive? Would your system benefit from consistent cooling that boosts performance for your long work/gaming hours? Would faster read/write speeds help you export clients’ videos faster? But just knowing what you want your PC to do isn’t sufficient for making a parts list that synergizes well. It might be a good idea to head over to the experts at r/buildapc for some help. Whether you already have a parts list and want feedback on it or feel lost in picking out your first component, this subreddit is always there to help. I’ve found myself browsing the feed for r/buildapc just to look for questions that I can answer (although there are hundreds of thousands of people on that subreddit alone that are far more qualified than me :)).

As you wait for a response from the computer geniuses at r/buildapc, I would strongly recommend watching various build videos, especially those from tech YouTubers. You’ll gain a better understanding of how PC builds happen from start to finish, and encounter build-specific steps/niche scenarios. For example, you might run into a build that has the pre-applied thermal paste removed from the base of its CPU cooler and then delves into the controversial topic that is thermal paste application. It’s not a bad idea to also spend some time watching build tutorials (slower paced, step-by-step), and even if you don’t have the parts on hand, you can still take notes.

Eventually, you’ll settle on a final parts list, which you should neatly organize into a spreadsheet with payment/shipping details. Whether you choose to buy all of your parts at once, or slowly order them as deals roll along is up to you. Of course, there is much greater risk with buying them over a long period of time, since return policies don’t hold forever. You might be able to work around that by not opening your products, but that comes with its own risk of potentially finding an item to be faulty after it sat in your room for three months. Though I went with this option, I wouldn’t recommend it. Even if you purchase all your parts at the same time, they will inevitably arrive over the course of a few days at minimum (the case will probably arrive last). So unless you’re picking up all your parts from a Micro Center, you’ll likely have some waiting time between parts.

Getting the Tools

Get a screwdriver. That’s it.

Truthfully, a screwdriver might be all you need. If you check out any PC build guide, it will indicate that a Phillips head screwdriver is the only thing you need. But other tools can be required depending on the build, so here’s a list of a few items you might want to consider having on hand (don’t forget your tweezers!):

Thermal paste: A thermally conductive compound that acts as a medium between heat sinks and heat sources (CPUs and GPUs most commonly). You might need some thermal paste depending on your CPU cooler, as many come with pre-applied thermal paste on the base, but others come with none. Even if your CPU cooler comes with pre-applied thermal paste, you may want to use your own, higher-quality paste.
Knife: To open all of those Amazon boxes, of course.
Zip ties: For cable management.
Scissors: To cut the zip ties that you messed up on.
Anti-static bracelet: If you are really paranoid that you’re going to destroy your motherboard with a static shock, then you can pick up one of these. They keep yourself grounded, and therefore, prevent any static buildup from being discharged on your expensive motherboard. I’ll explain later how you can use your power supply alone to keep yourself grounded for the most part.
A container: This one is pretty vague, but I would definitely recommend having something to contain all of your screws. You can use something like a mug, but if you don’t want your porcelain to be scratched, you can use something softer, like a small cardboard box (which is what I opted for).
Flashlight: This one can’t hurt. I had pretty good lighting while building my PC, but I found that having a source of light to illuminate the inside of my case to be very useful. Bonus points for using a headlamp.
A pair of steady hands: “In Japan, heart surgeon. Number one. Steady Hand.”

A Mini Guide to Airflow

Before we get into actually building the computer, I want to discuss an aspect of PC building that often gets overlooked — airflow. As its name implies, airflow is a measure of how well air circulates through a computer case. Higher airflow means more of the case is “open” in some way. Whether that means having an entire panel of the case removed or having a panel with numerous holes to allow circulation, airflow is a surefire way to reduce temperatures in a PC.

Components like your CPU and GPU produce a lot of thermal energy, so making sure that there is some way to exhaust all of that hot air is critical for a system’s long-term performance. Even if your CPU and GPU have the most amazing air coolers, they are severely hindered if your case is closed off with little means for hot air to escape.

There are two main details to consider with airflow, the former of which takes precedence over the latter:

Case design: This is the natural design of the computer case in respect to airflow. You’ll notice that most cases, regardless of whether or not they are “airflow cases,” have a fan slot for exhaust in the rear of the case (next to the motherboard IO shield). Even old computers from the late 90s chose this to be their sole fan slot. However, with all of the thermal energy that is outputted by modern processing units, a single exhaust point might be a little too toasty. In addition to the traditional exhaust in the rear, airflow cases will have mesh running along the top where more fans can be placed, feet to provide ample spacing between the bottom of the case and the surface it is placed on*, and most importantly, a front panel that is mesh or has cut-outs that allows the fans on the front to pull in significantly more air than if they were constricted by a closed-off front panel.
Fan setup: This is where your design ideas come into play. Given your fan slots and whatever fans you decided to pick up, you can configure them in any way you wish. Of course, 140mm fans will only fit into slots with 140mm fan compatibility, but aside from that, you should have no problem with the standard 120mm case fans that either came with your case or you bought separately. The most important concept to keep in mind while installing your case fans is this simple law of physics: hot air rises, cold air sinks. Knowing this, your goal is to create a fan layout that maximizes the cool air that is pulled into the case and maximizes the warm air that is pushed out (furthering whatever natural airflow the case perpetuates).

Some old desktop computers with exhaust fans in the rear

The reason why case design takes precedence over fan setup is because having naturally high airflow is much more important than having dozens of fans working hard against closed-off panels. Fans can only help facilitate airflow in a case that will allow it, so adding more fans (even in a good configuration) may or may not help all that much, depending on the case panels (namely, the front panel).

To give you an idea of what an airflow case with an efficient fan layout looks like, I’ll explain my rationale for my own build.

The case that I used for my build is the Phanteks P400A, an airflow case that supports up to six fans: 4x120mm fans plus 2x120/140mm fans on the top. Even though I had enough fans to fill up all of the slots, I ended up only using five. Why?

Let’s label the six fan slots on the Phanteks P400A starting from the bottom fan on the front panel, going counterclockwise — that is, the rear exhaust fan is #6. I’ve decided to populate slots 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6, skipping over 4.

Knowing that hot air rises, we want to exhaust air higher in the case, rather than lower. This is met by slots 5 and 6 on the case, which are at the top of the case and set to the exhaust orientation. The entire front panel, or slots 1, 2, and 3, are set to intake for a multitude of reasons. First of all, setting them to exhaust would leave no intake fans. Secondly, front panels are conventionally used for intake rather than exhaust since they are further away from the components/motherboard and end up taking lower positions on the case (notice how slots 1, 2, and 3 are lower than 4, 5, and 6). The fan slots that are closer to the components can immediately exhaust the hot air that they produce; it makes less sense if fans near the components were intake, since we want to pull the hot air out of the system.

If any of this sounds complicated, there’s a simple series of steps to determine your fan configuration, regardless of your number of fans. This method involves determining an “intake corner” and “exhaust corner” which will be directly opposite of each other:

Pick one: “intake” or “exhaust.”
Determine which corner of the case (out of the four “corners” while looking at it from the glass side panel) will be best for what you just chose. In the case of intake, which requires cold air (which sinks), you want to choose a corner that’s low. That eliminates the top-left and top-right corners. The bottom-left corner has no fan slots, leaving the bottom-right to be the optimal corner for intake. In the case of exhaust, which needs to get rid of hot air, you want to choose a corner that’s high. That eliminates the bottom-left and bottom-right corners. The top-right corner might have a fan slot or two, but you have to consider that the bottom-left corner has no fan slots, meaning the top-right corner isn’t viable since the corner opposite to it can’t have any fans. That leaves the top-left corner for exhaust.
Now that you’ve determined your intake corner or exhaust corner, you’ve also determined your exhaust corner or intake corner, respectively.
Install a fan as close as possible to the exhaust corner as an exhaust fan.
Install a fan as close as possible to the intake corner as an intake fan.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you run out of fans (in the case of my build, steps 4 and 5 were switched).

To explain why I left slot #4 empty, consider the function of cool air entering the system. One way to conceptualize it is that the cool air needs to warm up. If that sounds weird, then think about it in the sense that cool air needs to cool down the warm components. It’s the same thing, but with the former, we can easily draw the connection to what we don’t want to happen with the cool air brought in by intake fans — we don’t want the cool air to exit the system before it warms up. If this occurs, that means that the fans didn’t really do anything other than circulate some fresh air into the system that didn’t make contact with the motherboard and components before it got exhausted. That’s the issue with slot #4, which lies just above the RAM. Placing an exhaust fan in this slot could exhaust a lot of air that didn’t get a chance to cool down the components closer to the rear (like the CPU and the majority of the GPU). More fans isn’t always better.

I’d also like to bring up the different types of air pressure your build could fall under depending on your case fan configuration. There is positive air pressure, in which there is more intake than exhaust, negative air pressure, in which there is more exhaust than intake, and neutral air pressure, in which the difference between intake and exhaust is negligible. Having a good airflow case and good fan configuration is far more important than the resulting air pressure positivity, so I would definitely leave air pressure as a last concern. However, I have to say that you shouldn’t shoot for a negative air pressure build. Having significantly more exhaust than intake will mean that dust will get pulled through all of the cracks and crevices in your case at a much faster rate than neutral air pressure. Of course, none of this even matters if all of the air that your intake fans isn’t being filtered in your positive air pressure build. Don’t worry too much about air pressure; just shoot for neutral or positive air pressure if it’s not too much of a hassle.

*I STRONGLY recommend placing your PC on top of a hard surface, like a wooden desk. Placing a computer on top of the carpeted floor will cause dust to build up inside much faster, and could marginally worsen airflow (especially for the PSU).

Building the Computer

I’m going to try to keep this section brief, including only the steps necessary to have your system boot successfully, with each ‘*’ indicating an explanation referencing my own build. Here’s the video that I referenced to write my steps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO-V8E9MIBg and if you’re interested in my own build, you can check out my build video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXrYLKf1jpM

Ground the PSU: Grounding the power supply first is important, since the part you’ll actually be working with first is the motherboard. Discharging the static buildup onto your board from your person can be deadly for a motherboard. To ground the power supply, plug it into an outlet and make sure the power switch is off. Every time you move your feet, touch any metal part of the power supply to ground yourself. *I touched my grounded PSU at the start of the build and at every step until the power supply itself had to be installed. To be more specific, I tried to touch it each time I moved my feet.
Prepare the motherboard: Though you can buy fancy desk mats manufactured specifically for working with circuit boards, your motherboard box works as a cheap and effective anti-static working surface. Grabbing it from the sides, set your motherboard upon its own box and make sure to have set aside a SATA data cable (which will probably be the only cables that come with your motherboard) for each 2.5" or 3.5" drive (SSDs and HDDs, respectively) in your build. *I only have one hard drive in my build, so I grabbed one SATA data cable and made sure I had an M.2 standoff prepared for the next step.
Install any M.2 drives: Though installing the CPU is usually the first step with the motherboard, installing any M.2 form factor SSDs doesn’t cause any interference. If your motherboard comes with heatsinks for these SSD slots, make sure to unscrew the appropriate one, install the standoff for the drive, and install the M.2 drive by inserting it into the slot at a slight downwards angle. Finally, peel off any adhesive on the heatsink and replace it. If your board has partial compatibility for PCIe 4.0 (or whatever is the newest generation) and has multiple slots for M.2, then the higher slot should be the newer generation slot. *Just a few days before I did my build, I did some research regarding M.2 form factor drives and found out about the adhesive that comes on the back of heatsinks for the SSDs. I made sure to be very careful while peeling off the adhesive prior to replacing the heatsink.
Install the CPU: This part can be pretty scary, since the CPU is a very delicate component that can be destroyed simply by bending or breaking a few pins. Be extremely careful when handling the CPU, grabbing it only by the sides. You do not want to touch the gold pins, and neither do you want to touch the top of it (the IHS), since the oils from your skin could reduce the efficiency of its heat dissipation. But before you even touch the CPU, you need to open up the socket on the motherboard. For both Intel and AMD platforms, lift the retention lever by pushing it gently to one side and then lifting up. The CPU will only fit one way, which will be indicated in one of two ways. For Intel CPUs, there will be two notches cut into its sides that make it fit in one way, and for AMD CPUs, there will be a tiny gold triangle on the CPU that lines up with the small triangle in one corner of the socket. After grabbing the chip by its sides, simply lower the CPU into its socket without applying any significant force. Secure the CPU by pushing the retention lever down and locking it back into place. *Though I was anxious for this part of the build, I was much more apprehensive about the CPU cooler. Installing the CPU was very fast and simple, and I found that the retention lever didn’t require much force to operate.
Install the CPU cooler: This is the one step that varies from build to build significantly enough that build guides and video guides don’t give much instruction. It gets even more complicated if you’re doing a custom water cooling loop. In general, however, air coolers require you to secure the heatsink to the CPU and fan(s) to the heatsink (if not already attached). AIOs (all-in-one water cooler) will require you to secure the water block to the CPU and install the radiator and fans to the case in a similar fashion to installing case fans. If your cooler doesn’t come with pre-applied thermal paste, you’ll have to install some on the CPU. If you want to remove the thermal paste that’s pre-applied, make sure to use high concentration isopropyl alcohol (90%+) on something like a napkin (or even better, something less fibrous, like a coffee filter) and wipe it off thoroughly. Air coolers will require a cable connection to the CPU cooler header, and AIOs will require a cable connection to an AIO pump header. I would strongly recommend looking up an installation guide for this step specifically, since it can vary so much from build to build. In fact, depending on your RAM (the next step), you may want to do this step later. *The CPU cooler in my build is the Wraith Prism, which comes with the Ryzen 7 3700x and a few other AMD CPUs. Installing it was relatively simple, since it used the native AM4 brackets that come on an AM4 motherboard. I simply had to loop the metal arms on each side of the cooler to the AM4 brackets and secure the black lever on the top of the cooler. I expected this to require quite a bit of force from the research that I did, but it wasn’t too bad (certainly more force than the retention lever on the CPU, though). This lever is also notorious for seeming like it’s pushed down all the way, while that isn’t the case (no pun intended). As I pushed this lever down, it had two clicks, or milestones, the first of which was what tricks many people into thinking it’s fully secured. Only by the second click was I certain that the CPU cooler was installed properly.
Install the RAM: Installing RAM is very simple, but most people find that it requires more force than expected. Find the appropriate slots for your RAM if you have less sticks than the number of slots (which are likely the 2nd and 4th ones counting from the left, but check your motherboard manual to make sure), and open up the DIMM slot levers. With newer motherboards, each DIMM slot only has one lever (rather than two), so it’s recommended to insert the end of the RAM stick opposite to the lever first. The RAM will only go in one way, as indicated by the notch on the bottom of the memory sticks. Find which orientation is correct, and insert the RAM by pushing down. The levers will click into place, and you’re done. *The amount of force it took for me to install my two sticks of RAM was far more than I expected. In fact, it was the only part of my build in which I doubted the physical compatibility of two parts. I genuinely didn’t think the RAM would fit into the DIMM slots. At first, I feared that if I exerted too much force, it would break. I was able to convince myself that that couldn’t be the case (no pun intended). By just pushing down a little bit harder, the RAM clicked into place — a very satisfying experience.
Prepare the case: To prepare the case, set it on its side (back panel touching your working surface), so that the motherboard will be facing up when installed. Remove the side panel and remove any pre-installed fans that you don’t want. If motherboard standoffs aren’t already pre-installed, make sure to install them according to the form factor of your motherboard. All of this information can be found in your motherboard manual, or in a pinch, with a quick Google search. *Even though I got a fairly budget case, it was very easy to work with. It came with motherboard standoffs pre-installed, and I removed the two stock fans that came installed on the case.
Install the IO shield: You might not have to do this one, especially with some newer motherboards. If your IO shield isn’t already attached to your motherboard, you’ll have to find the correct proper orientation to install it and press it firmly into the frame. Though you should be careful with the IO shield (it is just a thin piece of metal after all), this is another step that people have described as requiring slightly more force than expected. *My B550 motherboard came with its IO shield attached, so I have no firsthand experience with installing an IO shield to a case on its own.
Install the motherboard: Installing the motherboard is very easy and occurs this “late” into the process since we want to get as many parts as possible onto the board itself before getting it into the case — a closed environment that is much harder to work in. Simply place the motherboard onto the standoffs and screw it in. *Though this is different for different motherboards and different form factors, my ATX motherboard required 9 screws in a simple 3x3 configuration.
Install the PSU: After having grounded yourself many times throughout the build thus far, you finally get to install the power supply. If you have a power supply shroud, then you’ll be installing your unit into that “basement” section of your case. For semi-modular and fully modular PSUs, make sure you figure out which cables you need and plug them in before installing the unit. You’ll need a cable for the CPU (8-pin/4-pin), cables for the GPU (2x8–pins), a cable for the motherboard (24-pin), and SATA power cables for any 2.5" and 3.5" drives. Installing the power supply usually takes four screws. *I installed my power supply upside-down, as most build guides recommend, as it creates a relatively isolated environment that can intake air from outside your case and exhaust its hot air independently. I also accidentally attached a peripheral cable to my PSU, thinking that “peripheral” implied keyboard/mouse, but later found out that it’s used for older drives and CD/DVD drives. It was fairly difficult to unplug the cable from the power supply that was already installed, but I made sure it was done. I didn’t want any unused cables plugged into my power supply.
Install drives: Whether you have some 2.5" SSDs or 3.5" HDDs, now is the time to install them. This step will differ from build to build mainly due to the case. Installing a hard drive involves screwing it into a hard drive tray, connecting the appropriate cables (a SATA power cable from the PSU and a SATA data cable to the motherboard), and replacing the hard drive tray into the hard drive cage. There are also often mounts for drives along the wall of the case and at the bottom of the case. *In my case, my hard drive cage was at the front, opposite of the power supply. I unnecessarily unscrewed a panel above the hard drive cage at this step but I was still able to install my 3.5" hard drive successfully. This panel proved to be a little bit troublesome later down the line, but it ended up working out. By the time I realized that this panel was still removed, I had already installed my case fans, preventing me from accessing all of the screw holes that held this panel in place originally. I ended up skimping out on a few screws when I reinstalled the panel, which fortunately, had no effect on its stability.
Install case fans: This will vary greatly depending on fans and RGB, but each fan should require 4 case fans screws. Make the proper cable connections to each other and the fan/RGB headers on the motherboard (with them ideally routing to the back of the case), and that’s pretty much it. Similar to the CPU cooler, there can be a lot of variation here, but it’s also a fairly intuitive step. *This was without a doubt, the HARDEST step in my build. Figuring out how to daisy-chain my fans together to one RGB header on my motherboard was simple enough, but screwing them in took the most force out of any step in the process. Unlike screwing in a lot of things in the build, like screwing the M.2 heatsink back into place, my case fans didn’t have threads. I was essentially screwing right through plastic with nothing but my bare hands. I had to take multiple breaks as I installed my five case fans, and I even started sweating. This step called for a lunch break. Only after I had a bite was I able to finish the grueling task that was installing my PC case fans.
Make power supply connections: Though this step is very simple on paper, it can be quite difficult in reality. The motherboard and CPU will need power, so the 8-pin/4-pin and 24-pin connections need to be made first. If you have any cable extensions, you should connect them at this point. The cables will only plug in one way, so you’ll know if you’re doing it wrong. Plug in the 8-pin/4-pin (near the top of the motherboard) and the 24-pin (on the side of the motherboard), and that’s it. *Though I unfortunately had no cable extensions on hand, my power supply’s cables were still of very high quality. The only problem that I ran into was plugging in the 8-pin CPU power connection at the top of the motherboard. Since my case fans were already installed, I had very little space to work with. It took me well over 10 minutes to make this one simple connection. Half of that time was probably allocated to me shining a flashlight into the case to figure out how I could plug the cable in with the limited length that I had left (which is why I highly recommend PSU cable extensions, which are longer and thinner). I ended up routing the 24-pin cable through a drive mount opening, alongside my case fan cables. The 8-pin cable also routed alongside more case fan cables.
Make motherboard/front panel connections: There should be a lot of cables hanging loose from your front panel, so to make this simple, I’m just going to list where they need to be plugged into. Blue-tipped USB cable goes into “JUSB3.” Cable labelled “USB” goes into “JUSB1” or “JUSB2.” Cable labelled “HDAUDIO” goes into “JAUD1.” Front-panel connectors labelled “POWER LED+/POWER LED-,” “POWERSW,” “HDD LED,” “RESETSW,” or abbreviated in any way, get plugged in, in that order, reading from top-left to bottom-right into “JFP1” (I’ll include an image following these steps). If you haven’t already, make any necessary case fan connections, including RGB headers. *The only struggle I had with this step was wondering where two of my front panel connectors were. After following the cables from the front panel, I realized that two of them were trapped underneath my motherboard when I had installed it originally. Luckily, I was able to pull them out without taking out my entire motherboard.
Install the GPU: It’s only fitting that installing the graphics card is the final step. After all, the graphics card is usually the largest part of any build that fits inside the case, so it makes sense that it’s saved for last. To install the GPU, you need to remove the appropriate PCIe brackets. A two-slot card will require two brackets to be removed, for example. You will usually skip removing the first PCIe bracket. If you aren’t sure which one to start with, just take a look at how high the PCIe x16 connection is. Figure out which bracket lines up with it, and start by removing that one. Remove the protective cover from the GPU’s PCIe connection, open up the lever on the PCIe x16 slot (similar to the lever on DIMM slots) and plug it into the motherboard. Screw the GPU in place of the PCIe brackets, while making sure to hold the GPU up to avoid sag. Pretty much 90% of GPU sag can be mitigated by holding the GPU up as high as possible while very firmly screwing it into place. Finally, plug in the PSU connections to give power to the graphics card. *I had a few struggles with this step. First of all, the graphics card isn’t necessarily small, so handling it was much harder than say, handling RAM sticks. I removed the correct PCIe brackets initially, but was very confused when the graphics card wasn’t clicking into the motherboard PCIe x16 slot, even after I popped the lever open (which I had found out just a day or two prior to doing my build). After I stopped trying to force the graphics card into the slot, I finally realized that I never took off the protective rubber cover it came with — something that I didn’t even know about. After removing it, it went in just fine. I did make the mistake of not holding the GPU as high as possible while screwing it in, but I ended up fixing that later (it had some noticeable sag on my initial installation). With my thick PSU cables routing to the GPU, I was just barely able to replace the glass side panel to complete my build.

Front panel connectors (ignore the red highlight). Taken from Tom’s Hardware

Setting it Up

Setting up a computer after it’s put together is, without a doubt, one of the most overlooked steps when going from a pile of parts to actually using the computer. It’s very important to know how to set up a new computer before doing the build — the downtime between a finished build and a working computer can be long, and it’s ideal to try and minimize that time. I’m going to go over how to set up a newly-built computer with Windows 10 and give a few tips and tricks on how to optimize your system and your overall experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYYoCXh2gtw

(Note: You should definitely boot the system before even trying to set up an operating system. Making sure the hardware isn’t faulty takes precedence here.)

Windows installation media: Insert a flash drive with at least 8 GB of remaining space into a computer with internet connection. We first need to download Windows installation media onto a drive for the new computer. When Microsoft recommends 8 GB of remaining space, they really mean it. Try to find a flash drive that has even more than 8 GB of space available. Navigate to the “Download Windows 10” page: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 and click “download tool now.” Opening the downloaded file will prompt you with some terms of agreement. After accepting the terms, you can then create the installation media. Make sure to select the appropriate language and architecture. Only remove the flash drive after the files finish transferring over. This step can take quite a long time, and you certainly don’t want to lose progress by removing the flash drive a little too early.
Getting into the BIOS: The BIOS (UEFI on modern systems), or the instructions that the CPU uses when a computer is first turned on, is the first interface that you’ll encounter. You have a lot of control over your system in the BIOS, as you can change fan curves, voltages, clock speeds, etc., but I wouldn’t recommend doing any overclocking before installing the OS. To get into the BIOS, make sure that your computer isn’t connected to the internet (which would be via an ethernet cable at this point). Not being connected to the internet actually gives us more control over the set up process, since Microsoft won’t be able to automatically install various unnecessary software. Though not necessary, it’s recommended to be using an HDMI cable for display, just in case graphics drivers are required for other display connections to be fully compatible. The computer’s power supply should be plugged in and turned on, and a mouse and keyboard are needed for input to the system. After plugging in the flash drive to a USB port, turn the computer on. Immediately begin mashing the DEL key, as this is how the computer will allow you to enter the BIOS. Once you’re in the BIOS, you’ll notice that your mouse pointer is incredibly slow. In fact, you’ll probably have to lift your mouse off the mouse pad several times just to move the pointer to a dropdown or a button. It’s usually much faster to navigate through the BIOS with your keyboard, so I would strongly recommend using your arrow keys to get around, and hit ENTER to actually interact with what you’ve selected. A few things should be confirmed in the BIOS: First, you want to make sure that the system recognizes all of the drives that you have installed. Every BIOS is a little different, so it might take some time hunting around. It should also recognize that there is a USB flash drive plugged in (if it doesn’t, then you won’t be able to set Windows up. Lastly, check the speed at which your RAM is running at. It should be running at a slower speed than advertised on the product’s marketing page. You can set it to its advertised speed by enabling XMP/DOCP profiles, but we’ll revisit the BIOS one more time later down the line, so you’re not in any rush. Besides, getting everything up and running on stock RAM speeds is, in theory, more stable (but probably not by any meaningful margins). If you’re really paranoid that you’ll somehow install Windows onto your slower hard drive, you can always just unplug the SATA cable for the next step. Proceed to save the BIOS, which will cause a restart.
Windows setup: Upon restarting and NOT mashing the DEL key, you’ll be prompted with entering your Windows CD key. These keys can cost hundreds of dollars, but if you know where to look, you can also get them for much cheaper. After inputting your key, you’ll want to do a custom install on your fastest drive (SSD if you have one). Though this next possibility is rare, it should be taken into consideration. If the screen shows a prompt asking you to accept EULA terms, you’ll need to unplug the flash drive and restart your PC. Aside from that, it’s very simple to finish installing Windows. Make sure to select “I don’t have internet” when prompted, and “continue with limited setup” (if anything, the limited setup is better, since we have more freedom over what Microsoft will install). Ensure that you don’t sync devices at the next screen (this has been notorious for wiping previous devices), and proceed to decline everything possible in the next few screens. Whether it’s for the digital assistant or Cortana, make sure to toggle the option to “off.” Eventually, you’ll reach the Windows desktop, and at this point, it’s safe to plug in any SATA cables that you may have disconnected earlier.
Updates and drivers: The first thing you’ll want to do once on the Windows desktop is to enable any storage that is locked by default. Find “disk management,” and have “GPT” selected for “Disk 0.” Right click on the black drive and create a new simple volume. Assign the drive a letter name, and finish the disk set up. At this point, you’ll need to start doing updates and installing drivers. Go ahead and connect your ethernet cable or connect to Wi-Fi (you may need another computer to install LAN drivers via a flash drive to actually connect to the internet). Search for the word “update” in the Windows search bar, and work your way through all of the updates until the page states “You’re up to date.” This may require a few restarts. After that, you’re free to install any drivers you wish. This includes your chipset driver, audio driver, and graphics driver. You can also switch to any connection you want after your graphics driver is installed. If you have a refresh rate higher than 60 Hz, make sure to change that in display settings (the number of stories of people running 60 Hz on a 144 Hz for years is painfully high).
Finishing with the BIOS: This step might be optional depending on what you’re trying to do (and what you did earlier in the BIOS). However, it’s not a bad idea to give the BIOS one more visit. By holding SHIFT while restarting, you’ll have the option to “troubleshoot,” select “advanced options,” and select your BIOS (or UEFI). Once you restart, you won’t even have to mash the DEL key and will be put right into the BIOS. From here, it’s just about tying up any loose ends: setting RAM to the proper speed and timings, undervolting your CPU, etc.

Conclusion

Building a PC takes a lot of preparation and a lot of research. Arguably, the whole process is a lot of work. But unlike buying a prebuilt PC, building a PC doesn’t forgo experience. For many years, a main point of argument for building a PC was to save money. With prebuilt companies getting better and better, that’s sometimes blatantly false. Some prebuilt computers can offer better deals than putting the parts together yourself on account of the SIs being able to buy in bulk. But that doesn’t mean that PC building is out of the question. And on top of the experience that comes with building a PC, you get to know exactly what parts are in your system. Prebuilt computers will often skimp out on the PSU, motherboard, and RAM to make their bought-in-bulk GPUs and CPUs shine in an amazing deal.

From this blog post’s length alone, it’s clearly evident that a lot of research needs to be put in before building a PC. But truthfully, I’ve barely scratched the surface. This is just the beginning for me in my passion for computer hardware, and hopefully, if that wasn’t the case for you before you read this, it is now.

No pun intended.