Building a custom PC is a fulfilling hobby that combines technical skill, creativity, and personal customization.
Whether you’re a gamer, a graphic designer, or simply a tech enthusiast, building your own PC is something that I would recommend doing at least once if you have free time on your hands. There is a certain satisfaction in creating something uniquely yours.
Now, where do you even start? Well…
The Research
If you have an infinite budget, this is easily the most boring part of the whole process. You just buy the most expensive stuff out there and call it a day. Simple. Or is it?
You still have tons of options: different manufacturers, varying prices for the same product, reliability, and whatnot.
Now, if you don’t have an infinite budget and care about the price-to-performance ratio, this part could get interesting. There are MANY components on the market, and picking the right one is not always as easy as it seems.
Luckily, there are also many tools such as PCPartPicker to help you do this. People on Reddit (I know, I know, Reddit can be a cesspool at times) can be very helpful as well in recommending which parts to take.
Once you are set and have ordered the components, the fun part starts, which is…
The Build
Your parts have arrived, and you are super stoked to get started working on your PC. You open up a guide from your favorite YouTuber, or you just read the manual, and then you think… I should have ordered a pre-built PC like a normal person. But once this stage of \”WTF is going on\” goes away, you start.
You set the motherboard on its box and start with the basics, like slotting in the processor or CPU.
It’s a relatively straightforward process, and manufacturers have also created guidelines to help you align it. This is the easiest part but also the most stressful and requires the most delicate touch.
Bending even one of the pins on the CPU or motherboard could spell doom for your expensive little project.
Once you do this, it’s relatively straightforward. You just place your cooler and then put the motherboard inside your case. Then slot in the rest of the parts, like the RAM, graphics card, and power supply, and you are good to go.
A good practice BEFORE you put your motherboard inside your case is to connect everything and test it outside of the case. This way, you can see if everything works, take the parts out because it could be difficult to place the motherboard inside the case with everything on it, and re-do them again.
While you will have to slot in the components twice, it beats connecting everything in the case, then taking it out if it doesn’t work, and then re-doing the whole process again.
Once you finish this, and you see something on your screen, it’s time to…
Cable Manage
I lied at the start; THIS is the most boring part. You just try to manage your cables as best as you can, making it look clean while hiding them in places people can’t easily see. Once you are done with your build, fire it up and just…
Game
Let’s be real, I didn’t buy a 4090 just to sit there, right?
This process took me about seven hours the first time I did it. I watched and re-watched videos, read the manual more times than I’ve read any other book, but it was worth the effort.
It gets easier with practice; now I’m down to just about two hours when I build something, and I still like it. It’s just like Lego but a lot more expensive.