LMX - 10 point guide for building your first personal computer

We use computers everyday but how many of us had the courage to open and fix your pc when something wrong happens. We always wait for 'the guy' to come and fix the problem. Let me take out that fear by helping you build your own first pc. In this article I will give you guidelines to select matching hardware components. So how to choose the components. Let's start:-
1.Purpose
First of all you will building you pc for a specific purpose. You wanna do basic excel, presentation some browsing watch a movie or listen music. These all come under basic task. Now if we want to do something like gaming, little video editing etc.. these are bit of medium to heavy tasks. Say if you wanna do content creation using various designing softwares like Premier Pro , after effects and gaming at big resolution 4K, 1440p Utra etc.. or something that tax CPU a lot like scientific calculations These are heavy tasks. So for basic task we need low end system and heavy task we might need a top end system. I will use this baseline for defining other parameters

2.Processor
Intel and AMD are market leaders in Computer Processor market. Let's take latest lineup and see hot it suits your need. Intel have basically three categories of CPUs i3 i5 and i7.Currently 8th generation is running for these processors. Apart from that we have Xeons, Pentium series also. For AMD they have Ryzen 3 , Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 lets call R3, R5 and R7. Apart from that they have APU which is combination of CPU and GPU and threadrippers. Threadrippers and Xeons are workstation and server grade processors. They cost more and normal consumer won't need it. So let concentrate on i3,i5, i7,R3, R5 and R7. Pentium can be considered somewhat equal to an i3 little inferior. Usually performance of i3<i5<i7 and R3<R5<R7, not always hold true but mostly. And there is a chance that i3 8th gen may be better than i5 5th gen. But for given generation it mostly holds true. So for a basic system i3 or R3, medium one R5 or i5 and top end R7 or i7. Nowadays AMD improved a lot and provide better value for money and match performance of Intel.

3.Motherboard
By second step you might have decided the processor. Now search for the socket of the processor. Just google your processor model with socket word. Like Intel i7 8700K and you will get socket as LGA1151 and if you search Ryzen 7 1800X you will get socket as AM4. So now search for mother board with the socket. Motherboard come in different sizes like ATX, Micro ATX, Mini ITX etc.. ATX is large one Micro ATX is next and Mini ITX is smallest. You can decide the size based on form factor you want. Usually bigger boards will give more features and connectivity options like more PCI slots and RAM slots, USB connectors, Fan Headers etc. Also some motherboard have WiFi built in.Base on your requirement you can choose one. Also some give overclocking facilities means increasing ability of Processor by changing values like voltage. It's somewhat dangerous for a newbie to attempt.So at this point you won't need it. Each motherboard will have certain chipsets for example Ryzen will have X370, B350 and A320 chipset all with AM4 sockets.So do a research before you buy.

4.RAM
Nowadays every one uses atleast 4GB RAM, so basic system we can have 4GB. For gaming atleast 8GB is recommended so medium can have 8GB and top end can have anything from 8GB upwards. I will recommend 16GB. Since you are building latest system mostly you will need DDR4 ram. It will be specified in specs of your motherboard. Also frequency of the RAM that motherboard will support. The higher frequency faster the RAM. It also depends on CAS latency or CL. CL should be lower and frequency should be high to make RAM faster. Make sure your motherboard also support that frequency.
Now coming to number of RAM sticks. If your motherboard support dual channel then you can have 2x4GB sticks instead of 8GB. But it will increase cost also make sure CL and frequency of both RAM are identical. Also RAM can be easily upgraded so don't overkill just buy what is needed and later upgrade if required.

5.HARD DISK
You have SSD, M.2 and Mechanical hard drives.SSD are expensive so we can get 120 or 240GB SSD and use mechanical hard drive for remaining memory requirements. In mechanical drive you will get 5400rom and 7200rpm drives. 7200rpm drives are faster than 5400rpm. There are also category like SSHD which is hybrid of SSD and Mechanical. For example a 1TB SSHD will have 8GB SSD storage and remaining as mechanical. So frequently accessed files are moved to 8GB memory and can be easily retrieved.M.2 are faster than SSD but make sure your motherboard support it. For me ideal combination will be SSD+Mechanical drive.Example 240GB SSD+ 7200rpm HDD. It all based on your storage requirements

6.GRAPHICS CARD
Basic system won't require a graphics card as onboard graphics will take care of it. For gaming system graphics card is a must. Nvidia and AMD are major graphics card manufacturers. Even video editing and design software make use of graphics card.So based on requirements you can decide. If you have a monitor which supports only 1080p60Hz resolution you won't need a high end card like gtx1080Ti or Titan Xp. Medium end cards like gtx1060, gtx1050Ti etc will suffice. If you want to game at 1440p then you need gtx1080 or gtx1070.That also varies with gaming titles. For editing works or designing it's better to have high end card. Multiple cards also will help. AMD have cards like RX580, RX Vega 56, RX Vega 64 etc.

7.PSU
Power supply unit is another major part. So wattage of powersupply is determined by all the components. To make this step easy you can go to any PSU manufacturer website and select all the components and it will give total wattage for the components and recommended wattage for the PSU. It's always better to get 100W or so higher than total wattage. If you plan to add a graphics card at later point consider that also while calculating wattage.

8.Case
You can buy case based on form factor of your motherboard.ATX case will be able to support Mini or Micro as well. Its better to get big case if possible to ensure better air flow. You can add more fans as well to aid better air flow.

9.CPU Cooler
Usually cooler supplied along with CPU wont be that great. So you can opt for after market cooler. Make sure the mounting bracket match your socket type before buying one.

10.Other accessories
You can have other accessories like sound card, led strip, fans, water cooling etc.

I suppose this will help you build your system easily.Do checkout pcpartpicker to make sure your components are compatible