Ultimate Computer Building Guide For Beginners

Hello everyone, I just wanted to create this article to make it easy for first time computer builders to understand the basics of hardware, today there are loads of computer parts and to know which ones are compatible can be a challenge, so hopefully with this article I can make it easy for you to buy the correct parts.

CPU:

When buying a CPU there's a few things to consider, Is it compatible with my motherboard? and if you're a gamer, does it work well with my GPU? When checking the compatibility you want to look for the LGA (Land Grid Array) Let's assume you're getting a Intel Core i7 7700K it says its a LGA1151, this means when you look for a Motherboard you want to get an LGA1151 Motherboard, if you get a AMD Ryzen 7 1800X you want to get a AM4 Motherboard, i'll talk more about Motherboard compatibility in a minute.

RAM:

Now this is a fairly simple one, all relatively new Motherboards support DDR4 RAM depending on what RAM speed your Motherboard supports (MHz) you want to get RAM thats within the motherboards compatible MHz, as of 28th of January 2018 RAM prices have doubled due to a RAM Shortage, DDR4 has become mainstream and because of that its price has gone up immensely, so choose wisely, most PC users including gamers dont need more than 8GB of RAM and you can always upgrade in the future, most motherboards support up to 4 sticks of RAM

Motherboard:

Now you go to look for a Motherboard for your LGA1151 CPU (i7 7700k) but you find many different sized Motherboards with "B270F" "H270N" in their names and you have no idea what this all means, well lets begin with the size of the Motherboard or the Form Factor, when looking for a Motherboard it should say something like ATX or Mini ITX this is something you have to consider when buying a Case as well, depending on your Motherboard Form Factor it may have different features, Mini ITX usually comes with its own Network Adapter while most ATX Motherboard do not, although Mini ITX is significantly smaller than the ATX Motherboards meaning that the ATX Motherboard can pack more features like more RAM slots or PCI and PCI-E slots this could be handy for Crossfire or SLI. If you decide you want to overclock and get a "k" series** intel processor** (unlocked intel processor) you need a Motherboard that supports this feature, for example i7 7700k would pair up with a Z270 motherboard, AMD is a bit different, nearly every CPU and Motherboard is overclockable but some overclock better than others.

Case:

The Case is a fairly easy one, depending on the size or Form Factor of your motherboard you want to get a Case that supports that Form Factor, a Case generally supports many different sized Motherboards because ATX is one of the larger sized Motherboards although when you buy a Computer Case I would consider getting one made for that specific sized Motherboard, an example would be if I were to buy an ATX size Case with a Mini-ITX Motherboard it would look silly because most of the Case's space would be empty.

Storage:

Many new Motherboards support M.2 which is a slot that offers very fast speeds when it comes to storage, if the Motherboard you buy supports M.2 I'd suggest buying a 128GB M.2 SSD to put your Operating System onto and important programs or games if you're a gamer, this will improve boot times and the speed at which your programs or games load. If you do end up getting a Motherboard without M.2 there are Adapters out there that go into one of your PCI-E slots. For everything else I'd getting a standard 3.5inch HDD, depending on how many 2.5 or 3.5inch drives you have you may need to check with the Case how many it supports, SSDs are simply too expensive to buy with large amounts of storage, or you could get a hybrid called an SSHD, an SSHD is a HDD or Hard Disk Drive but with added cache storage that offer similar speed to an SSD, the way it works is while the SSHD is running it finds your frequently used programs/files and speeds them up by putting them onto its cache storage.

Cooling:

Many CPUs come with a Cooler but in some cases like if you're considering overclocking may want to look into upgrading to a better Air Cooler or maybe even Water Cooling, no matter what the cooling there's a few things to consider, the main factor is the CPU Socket, if you have a AM4 or a LGA1151 the Cooler will say which one its compatible with, some coolers are compatible with both, also check with your Motherboard whether or not there's enough clearance for that Cooler, in some cases a Cooler can interfere with your RAM slots (dimms) or other components and you'll also have to check with your Case that there's enough space some Air Coolers can be beefy, if youre gonna buy Water Cooling and you're just starting out I'd suggest getting an AIO or All In One cooler these are Water Coolers that are put together for you, when buying a Water Cooler you want to check if your case has Radiator support.

Power Supply:

When buying a Graphics Card it'll say the Recommended Watts (Wattage) which will which will most likely determine the Power Supply that you purchase, I always like to go** 50 Watts** more than the recommended just for peace of mind but in some cases you may not even purchase a Graphics card, if so a 350 watt Power Supply is pretty standard, also its a good idea to buy from a established brand like **Corsair **or EVGA when buying Power Supplies, a dodgy Power Supply can cause massive problems in the long run, some dodgy brands also advertise more watts then what they actually are, pretty much every standard Power Supply is ATX size and that's what most Cases support.

Graphics Card:

When buying a Graphics Card there's a couple things to consider, firstly how the Graphics Cards powered, some Graphics Cards require to be powered by extra connections, if so your Graphics Card should say something like** 2 x 8-pin** meaning that it requires an additional two** 8-pin** connectors from your Power Supply, check with your Power Supply before you purchase that it has the required connectors. Another thing is to check with case what sized Graphics Card it supports, it should say something like 400mm GPU clearance

Operating System:

Windows is pretty much the go to for PC builds, Windows does come at a cost though, there are many websites that offer Windows for cheaper but personally don't trust, you can skip activation of Windows and install it for free however you get a watermark that says "Activate Windows" in the bottom right of your screen and customisation of the system is locked, but anything fullscreen in Windows overlays the watermark so it can't be seen, this is a positive for many PC gamers because you'll be most likely be playing in fullscreen anyways

Anyways that was my guide on building computers, if you've made it this far thank you for reading i'm not an absolute expert at computer building but I hope this helped a lot of you who are new to computer building.