This is a bit of a story, stats below. :)
Right now I am marveling at the customization abilities of a PC after being on mac for 10 years (used pc prior to that). I cannot believe the insanely wild stuff you can build. I am so excited. I recently got this wild hair idea about building my own computer. What a lofty and novel idea for me! I thought, wow, you really must need to know what's going on in order to be able to conquer such a feat. Well, yes and no. For me, it was flying by the seat of my a** but also carefully picking apart the manuals and making sure I don't become a source of static electricity. I have to give credit to my friend John, who gave me pointers, inspired me, and poked the bear awake.
It all started with me trying to rehabilitate my old HP from 2012. It survived floods, evil exes, college, and multiple moves. I was feeling attached and had plans of gifting it to my daughter for learning purposes. It was so slow.
In addition to the HP being incomprehensibly slow, the only mice I had were bluetooth, and of course the bluetooth wasn't working. It was a nightmare. So, being undefeatable I navigated that old thing with my keyboard for a few days and picked up keyboard navigation skills along the way. That was the silver lining. As I dove into the completely dysfunctional obsoleteness, I realized it was time to let go. I had to let go of my attachment to move forward. My HP has been dismantled and is ready to go to recycling. (oh, such emotion)
I used the old hard drive from my HP to keep a copy of windows and some nice apps.
I spent roughly 3 days looking at parts online, trying to figure out what is going on and what works with what, ect. This was all new territory for me. There is so many parts, brands, variations and styles. A true rabbit hole! I soon caught on to name brands and was cross referencing stats to non-name brands. Boy, what a money pit. I was working with a strict budget and managed to fit in some good stuff. Microcenter refurbs and bundle deals are a big money saver when starting from scratch. Highly recommend.
What I took home:
| Part | Name | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i9-12900K | View |
| Motherboard | ASUS Z790 | View |
| RAM | TeamGroup T-Force Delta RGB 64GB | View |
| Drive | SK Hynix Platinum P41 2TB 176L 3D TLC NAND Flash PCIe Gen 4 x4 NVMe M.2 | View |
| Graphics Card | GeForce RTX 4070 | View |
| Power Supply | PowerSpec 850W | View |
| CPU Fan | Cooler Master Hyper 212 Spectrum | View |
| Case Fans | Bitspower Touchaqua Notos RGB | View |
| Case | Lian Li O11 Vision Tempered Glass | View |
Building
As a first timer, I had a fear of breaking brand new expensive parts. I was extremely cautious and moved very slow and was researching things like "How much force should it take to insert a RAM?" Turns out, up to 30 pounds of pressure might be needed to get it to snap in. Researched proper thermal paste application, learned about grounding so I don't fry the mother motherboard. And thank goodness, because there was definitely a static shock at one point on the case before installing anything. (THANKS JOHN!) I was careful not to touch anything I didn't have to.
Getting the Processor installed and attaching the fan wasn't so bad. Tiny proud moment. It's so pretty!
Keeping the motherboard manual open to the diagram, I inserted each component, cable, and power cord ever so carefully.
After everything was installed and I was certain everything was connected, I inspected every connection again to be absolutely certain. I found a few minor things, like making sure the power connectors were fully snapped in, those can be a little tricky! I have now gotten to the point where I can look at the motherboard and have an idea of what's what. Cool! It's not a mystery anymore.
The Big Moment
After hemming and hawing about whether or not it was ready to be powered on the first time, I decided I was being excessive and I needed to face the fear and hit the power button. It turns on the first time!!!! A baby is born.
Alright, I got everything perfect except for 1 fan. I fixed the fan and put the case on. After many transfers, updates, and installs, we have a quietly purring kitten on the desk.
This is truly the nicest thing i've ever had, not because of some specific hardware or price tag, but because of the tremendous pride that comes with it. Invaluable.
I always thought building a PC was some fancy tech thing for the elite. It turns out it's just allowing yourself the time to learn the details. Some basic electronics safety, ability to read and handle a screwdriver. You can do it if you give it a proper try.
What I learned:
- Keyboard navigation
- BIOS
- Building a PC
- Transferring OS from one hard drive to another
- Anything is possible
- I want more LEDS
You can do it! Build a computer!
<3
Top comments (10)
Wow! Congratulations! I'm very happy to hear your experience. I started the process of building my own PC (or doing a massive upgrade depending on your point of view, since I kept some parts from my old one) about a year ago.
I'm not really sure how old my PC was, but it had a dual core CPU, and originally 4gb of RAM. It came with a DVD driver (which I disconnected a long time ago, but kept in the PC case for aesthetic reasons). Around 2018 I was in college and trying to run Windows 10 on it, and it was HORRIBLE (I was pretty sure my machine would burst into flames if I opened 3 Chrome tabs), so instead of upgrading, I just decided to run with Linux (since I'm a programmer, it was also a good learning opportunity) and buy an SSD, which made working with it pleasurable again. Fast-forward 5 years and the hardware was not meeting my professional needs anymore. So it was time to do something about it.
PC parts were very expensive in the country I live in, so I had a VERY tight budget, but happily going back to Windows was not an option for me anymore, and I'm in no way what is considered a "gamer", so I did not need to have a high-end computer. I spent a very long time looking for parts that would work well together, and that would make an upgradable system, so I could run with it for longer then I had with the previous one.
I chose a motherboard that met my needs and also could enable multiple upgrades in the future. But choosing the parts was very hard, because I was dead afraid to buy parts that in the end would not match, like a processor that did not fit into the mobo's socket (I bought everything on my own, over internet). In the end, it fitted, and booted. I just had a problem with the processor's clock that needed a little bit of adjustment.
I did so much research in the parts, and making sure that they would go well together, that I forgot one important detail: I would use my use case. I cannot describe the despair when I tried to put in the mobo and the processor, and it would not fit. Luckily I managed it to fit, but very tightly.
Building (or upgrading) my PC was a very scary, but rewarding and fun experience. If I had more money, I think I would definitely repeat the experience soon, but as I said, this one has to last some years.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I have to say, I also had a scary moment when putting the graphics card in, it was a little bit on the close side. It BARELY fit LOL. The one thing I did not do, was to do some sort of check to make sure that everything was going to fit. However I did buy a very large case, so I definitely got lucky!
Good build my only gripe is the power supply get something from corsair or a more reputable brand
For sure. I do plan on making some fun upgrades at some point and I'll have to look into that!
I agree totally, after 5 builds it is evident that it needs mostly patience and all will be fine. Appreciate the great encouraging message for newbies, it would be first time for every one :-)
Yes definitely. Only a newbie once!
It's my dream to build a high-end PC for myself once I get hired as a professional software engineer. I graduated this month, and started to look for jobs. Thanks for the motivation!
It's very rewarding, and you gain a real respect for the hardware that makes everything work. Excited for you! :)
love this - congrats!
Thank you!