How to Pick Out Parts for your PC

By now you should have a basic understanding of what each part in a PC does, now all you need to do is decide which parts you need. There are hundreds of different components from dozens of different brands for each category. This will be your guide to each of those, so that you can narrow it down.

Choosing a processor

Your build should revolve around the processor, which is arguably the most important component. Because, while you could get by with a low quality motherboard or RAM, a bad processor will definitely be living hell.

First of all, if you only plan on using your PC for work, YouTube, and Netflix streaming, you don't have much to worry about in this section. But if you have specialized needs such as gaming or video editing, you will want to do a bit research. Basically the important stats are the socket type, the GHz and the number of cores. The socket type must be compatible with your motherboard. The GHz is the speed of the processor and the number of cores (duel core, quad core, uni-core, etc.) is how many things the computer can do at once. The two big name manufacturers of these are AMD and Intel. Some people have a preference over which brand to choose, but neither one is really better the other, you'll be fine with either.

The video card

The GPU (video card) and the CPU (processor) go hand in hand. The time you spend researching these can either make or break your PC. If you're incredibly lazy, a good rule of thumb is to buy a CPU and GPU of similar price points. Obviously, a $60 CPU will not have the processing power to keep up with a $500 GPU. The two main manufacturers of GPUs are AMD and Nvidia. Again, you'll be fine with either. Just make sure your motherboard is compatible with the video card you choose. Some motherboards only work with a certain type of video card, but this info should be clearly stated, so you dont have to read tons of stats only to find that the card you selected wont work.

The motherboard

There's not a lot to this, you don't have to do nearly as much research for the motherboard as you do for the processor and the video card if you choose to get one. Just make sure the board is compatible with your other components. Make sure the CPU and GPU socket types are supported. And look at the USB port type, if you want faster speeds and are willing to spend a few extra bucks, get the USB 3.0 ports. Otherwise, 2.0 works just fine.

RAM

Basically, be sure to get RAM that's compatible with your motherboard. The most common type right now is DDR3. But if your board supports something better like DDR5, get that!

Power supply

You can find lots of calculators online where you input your exact components and it will tell you how much power it will draw. Be sure to get something above what the calculator tells you you need. Also, get a PSU that is at least “80plus bronze certified”. You don't really need to know what this means other than its quality and wont go out on you.

That's about it, thanks for reading!