Things I'd wish I'd known before building my first PC

Hi all,

Not necessarily the right season; should be posting this closer to Black Friday/Christmas holidays, but was worried that I would forget.

When my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I decided to build our first computer together, it was definitely a fun but intimidating experience. Lots of things that "could" go wrong. Moreover, after having the PC for over a year now, I'm coming to some realizations about the whole experience. Things I wish I'd known before I jumped headlong into the tech enthusiast world.

An EXCELLENT resource for planning your build:

PC PartPicker
https://pcpartpicker.com/

1. DO NOT SKIMP ON YOUR CASE. Especially as a first time builder, having a good quality case (i.e. Fractal Design, Corsair, NZXT) can make the learning experience significantly less frustrating. The highest rated cases may not necessarily fit your space/aesthetic constraints, but there's more than enough variety on the market to suit your needs. A good range to go for is ~$60 to 100 MSRP cases.

2. Read reviews on every part BEFORE you buy it. Do a quick google search on the exact part you're thinking about buying for reviews to see if there are any common flaws or pros people are finding. At least two reviews from different sources for small purchases, and around 4 to 5 for large portions of your budget (i.e. graphics cards). Websites like Anandtech are an excellent resource for this. Which leads in to 3...

3. YouTube channels are a great resource for reviews. Some channels that I recommend are GamersNexus, Paul's Hardware, and (maybe) Linus TechTips (although their videos have gotten to be less technical and more sensational/sales-like lately). These channels also have some good first-time builder guides, but keep in mind that your parts won't necessarily fit the same way as the parts shown in the tutorials. General principles should still apply though. That being said though...

4. Know what you need and what you don't. A lot of tech YouTube channels tend to show pretty high-end equipment on a normal basis, with less focus on low to mid range stuff. It creates a sense that "oh, I need that because it's the norm". In truth, what you need depends on your use case scenario. For example, are you building a machine solely for gaming? The 8700K is a great option, sure, but an (overclocked or not) 6700K, 7700K, or 8600K would work just as well given that most games don't take advantage of core counts greater than 2 to 4. And while you COULD get the 360 mm RGB AIO, an air cooler can also be just as good given the right case, thermal paste, and airflow conditions.

If you have any hindsight you'd like to share, feel free to add to this thread.

 

The only thing I’d comment on is that I don’t think it’s necessary to spend a lot on a case as a first build. My first build was with an el-cheapo $20 Apex mid-tower and it was just fine (ignoring sharp corners). More expensive cases are nicer and can make some stuff easier (tooless drive mounting, areas to hide cables, etc), but nothing I’d consider essential imo.

Actually, the hardest case I’ve ever worked on so far would be the two mITX cube builds I’ve done recently.

 

Nice! ITX form factor PCs definitely present some unique challenges even for experienced builders given that physical space (or lack thereof) becomes its own resource, he he. It also seems like a lot of ITX components come with a price premium, maybe to cover the cost of engineering/production of small scale given that it's still a smallish market?

Good points about the price. After giving it some more thought, I think a better way of phrasing my first point would be "don't let your case be an after-thought". Going in to my first build, I kind of tunnel-visioned onto my core components (namely my graphics card). After upgrading from the Thermaltake Versa H25 to a Fractal Design R4, my one thought was "I wish I had bought the R4 first!" In any case, it's definitely true that more expensive cases don't always provide necessary features (and with current trends in the market tending towards aesthetics rather than cooling performance, a more expensive case may actually be detrimental to your build if your use cases tend to be computationally intensive).

 

Things to know first.

1. Gaming or Everyday usage?
This will determine where you start and end up with.
2. How much down payment do you want to do?
3. PartPicker is good but what you want to do is do your own research on the hardware to know what are the real reviews to understand the hardware.
4. If you got room get Mid-Tower with USB3 or USBC or Both connections built in to go.
5. Read much Reviews as possible - there might be stuff there you didn't expect because someone already did.

 

Down payment? We're talking computers, not cars

 

Reading to far between the lines here...

 

IDK, a nicely apportioned P870TM1 get's you well above $7,500 and closer to $10K. And that's not chicken scratch!
lol

 

But... why? >.>

 

I agree, I built my first desktop back in Nov 2016, and I researched everything, even the case, but the case has a big impact on aesthetics/cooling performance/noise/& ease of build - in my view it's the hardest part to choose. I bought a Phanteks Eclipse P400 because reviews talked about good/reasonable air flow, it looked good and generally got good reviews. Having built the machine (it was good to build in), I set about testing different case fan configurations and case fan RPMs - all of these things made massive differences to GPU temperatures in particular. The idiom of more fans = better is not true, it's well worth optimising fans by testing all fan configurations in terms of number of fans and number & position of intake vs exhaust fans. I even cut out my exhaust fan grills, and incorpated a cardboard baffle to route cold air from the front intake fan to the GPU. I also replaced my PCIe slot covers with 'improvised' fine mesh netting for greater airflow to the GPU - the GPU sucks in a good portion of it's own air from those now mesh covered empty PCIe slots (negative air pressure in the case). All of these modifications and tested fan configurations resulted in easily a 10 degC difference in GPU temperatures when comparing modded optimised case vs unmodified unoptimised case. My point is that the computer case can have a massive effect on the noise & performance of the PC, and I think there are two choices: you either buy a case & mod & test the hell out of it to get best result possible or you review the hell out of a case before you buy it and choose one that is massively air flow orientated for performance - I think for air cooled setups the latter is the easiest & probably best way of doing it. I'm really happy with my modded case now, and I think it performs as well as any case out there now, but it was a lot of work! Choosing the other components is easy in comparison, and PC parts picker is what I used like the OP said.

EDIT: Gamers Nexus are the best resource for comprehensive/comparative case testing I find, so look them up to choose a case.