In late 2020, I started to have the idea of building my own custom PC for the first time. There were a few reasons; working from home in the profession of graphic design was less efficient when on my relatively cheap laptop; also, with my return to writing on this blog and further ideas to create video content alongside it, more processing power and improved ease of use appeals to me; in addition, learning the process of building your own PC would be genuinely educational and fun. As long as I kept an eye on the financial impact of it, it seemed a great activity to dive into.
One roadblock was that I really had a lack of knowledge on how to go about it. So, I am glad to say I had a friend who knew a lot in this area to help me through every stage of the process, from establishing a theme for the build (white and frosty), to picking out the parts, then buying them, and eventually putting it all together. To that person, and everyone else who helped, thank you!
As you may have guessed, I am writing this having just finished putting my PC together and getting it up and running (woah, so much screen space). Along the way I took some photos (and even a video aha) of building the PC so that I could do a post at the end, and, well, here we are! I hope that my documentation of putting my PC together below is of intrigue to you, whether you have built a PC before or not. As well as this, I have put a list of parts I got to create this PC via PCPartPicker, which is a really useful online resource for comparing PC parts, putting them together, and seeing how it works out (and how much it costs)! On thre cost side, all these parts plus extras such as the keyboard and mouse eventually cost me around £850-ish. Oh, and the SSD I got was the Kioxia EXCERIA 480GB part; in the list below it says Kingston A400 but that is because PCPartPicker does not have the Kioxia on it and this was close in specification.
The PCPartPicker List
| Component | Part |
|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor |
| CPU Cooler | Deepcool GAMMAXX 400 White 74.34 CFM CPU Cooler |
| Motherboard | ASRock B450 Steel Legend ATX AM4 Motherboard |
| Memory | Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 CL15 Memory |
| Storage | Kingston A400 480 GB 2.5″ Solid State Drive |
| Video Card | MSI GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 4 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card |
| Case | Phanteks Eclipse P400 ATX Mid Tower Case |
| Power Supply | SeaSonic CORE GM 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Full 32/64-bit |
| Monitor | Asus PB258Q 25.0″ 2560×1440 60 Hz Monitor |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-01-23 13:35 EST-0500 |
The Build
So, time for pictures! Below you can see some of the stages of my PC build. Just be aware some of these images were taken mid-build, which is why they may be a bit rough in places. Enjoy!
There you have it, my PC is built! Now, back to creating more posts, on a larger screen with a new tactile mechanical keyboard! Upgrading has been awesome, and I am wondering how I spent so long on my previous laptop… Not going back now!
Have any of you built PCs? How has it gone? This is my first time and it has been very rewarding, so it’d be great to hear from others! Have an awesome day!
WCRobinson 
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