Many of us tend to jump the gun when PC building when it comes to selecting parts, or even assembling the device together. Although, I believe many people make their first mistakes before they even start building any PC.
Many people will find that their system is Bottlenecking quite often when their GPU can’t output the correct quality when their monitor in actuality is at a much lower FPS, and Hertz frequency that can be handled from the graphics card. Another example of bottleneck is when you plug a PCIe 16x into 8, or 4 slots, you will also receive another form of the bottleneck which results in the GPU only running up to the performance of a PCIe 8x, or 4x slotted GPU. I also want to provide some good habits to do when taking care of your PC as well. In a previous post, I talk about a PC I built before. It is one of my first builds, so I believe there are some things that could be improved as well.
Speaking of the graphics card, if you look at the list below I chose an Radeon RX 6750 XT. For a regular build it might be a bit overkill, but since our total came to be roughly $1600, the GPU fits right in with our 2560 x 1440p monitor, at 170 Hz. I feel this will not bottleneck, and I might be able to get more out of the monitor knowing the cards overclocking capabilities.
When it comes to actually assembling the parts together, many people will incorrectly install, or in some cases torque the PC, for example when it comes to screwing certain parts in such as the cooler. This will make the screw hole bigger, creating a loose end on whatever part you’re installing. You could also get screws stuck in certain places, which is a whole new problem that has been created and would have to be carefully handled in a way so that no further, and significant damage is done to the PC case. The rule of thumb I tend to follow, is if it does not screw further anymore when turning to the right, it is done. Investing in a kit of screwdrivers, such as this Unamela screwdriver set is a huge recommendation coming from use of it myself.
Shopping for Parts
A good rule of thumb to keep in your back pocket is that more expensive does not equal better. In reality, it is the way you utilize them that creates a good PC, that can last well in the long run given you provide good maintenance, and care to it. A way of judging exactly what you are buying is through a quality-to-quantity ratio.
What this means for example, is like the following example question: Do I really need a 30 or 40-series GPU, or would I be fine with a 1080, or possibly a 20-series card for not only less money, but the exact performance, and long-term run time I am looking for? Again, a lot of this also is due to maintenance as well. You can’t expect a PC to be perfect if you do not take care of it. This can be through driver updates in the device manager, OS updates, application updates, and more that will be further elaborated on. Let us take a look at the following list I assembled below. What can be improved?
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor |
| Cooler: | Vetroo V5 52 CFM CPU Cooler |
| Motherboard: | Asus ROG STRIX B550-A GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard |
| RAM: | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory |
| SSD: | Kingston NV2 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive |
| HDD: | None |
| GPU: | Gigabyte GAMING OC Radeon RX 6750 XT 12 GB Video Card |
| PSU: | Corsair RM750x (2021) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply |
Source (with prices)
The total price equated to $1600 rounded, which is relatively expensive, but it is a higher-end build. One major thing I noticed, is that you don’t want to cheap out on your Power Supply. I feel 750w might be a bit too much looking at it in hindsight, but it is better than potentially harming your entire system with a short-circuited PSU. This Power Supply still fits within the user’s budget range overall as well. What happens if you do not have enough wattage in your system? Either, your system will simply not start, your other parts will perform at a much lower level, or the power surge will damage, possibly totaling your parts.
Motherboard, And Power Supply Selection Advice
Since we are still talking about centralized power, let’s mention why I chose the B550-A Gaming motherboard. The B550 has one PCIe 4.0 16x slot, which is efficient enough to support any modern graphics card up to date. All the while having a max RAM speed capacity of up to 3200 MHz, which is much better considering many people use up to 16 GB 2600 MHz of RAM speed on average. Out of habit, many people tend to leave their PC on hold with high-intensity applications which tend to eat up performance leading to the question, “Why is my PC so laggy?” A good practice when maintaining your PC is shutting it off at all times even when you leave for a second. Windows itself with no applications open can build up a laggy-performing PC with time. Regardless of your PC specifications, this should always be practiced.
I am thinking for this list I can maybe upgrade the RAM to a 32 Gigabyte stick, given the higher quality Processor, and Graphics card, it will equate to the rest of the build. it will also be well supported with the B550 motherboard’s Overclocked RAM speed of 5100 MHz compared to the average 4406.19 MHz speed. for a build like this. A good practice, even if it does not directly effect anything else, is keeping your parts on the same performance level with one another.
Storage
Despite only having one form of storage through the SSD, an optional Hard Disk Drive can be beneficial. This depends on how you want to organize your files. Partitions are necessary to any operating system as you want to distinguish operating system files, such as System32, or .dll files. For example from regular user files such as downloaded apps, media or excel documents. They are necessary for dividing one disk into separate sections.
Although not necessary, having no HDD would be fine. Although on the contrary with what we have, having an SSD with 1 TB should fit the majority of peoples needs. It is always good to have a secondary drive, either as a backup, or another way to divide files (not partition related), since HDD’s and SSD’s are very different in the way they perform tasks. Many people also choose to implement external SSD’s and HDD’s so the device isn’t always on the PC. This method of storage is commonly used on laptops.
It is commonly said, but good to be reminded on the occasion, but a good storage habit with your PC is to delete files and applications that are rarely in use, while also keeping Cloud Based backups enabled as well through OneDrive, or even an online service you can pull up on a browser, such as Amazon Photos, which isn’t directly connected to your storage.
Take Away
Frequent PC user or not, regardless you will find yourself in a situation where you need to keep your personal PC, or an office PC up to par. Keeping such advice in your back pocket, with many other tips out there, like cable management, and installing parts in a certain order, all will help you in the long run, and even when building your next PC.
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