Choosing the components that we are going to use to assemble our new PC is, without a doubt, one of the most important and complicated steps that we have to take. Not only the final result will depend on it, but also the total cost of the equipment, its performance, consumption and temperature valuesand also the possible appearance of imbalances, failures or even slight or serious incompatibilities.
Its importance is beyond doubt, and for this reason we must give it the importance it deserves and be aware of its real complexity, because it is a subject that It is not limited to choosing the components with the best price-performance ratio of the moment, it is also necessary to take into account the compatibility and the correct functioning of the same once they are assembled.
On the other hand, if we want to buy them at the best possible price, it is also essential compare prices in different stores, and adopt a certain strategy that can help us reduce the total cost of the equipment considerably. In this article we are going to touch on these two big issues, and we are going to leave you with five keys that will make your life a little easier when you have to choose, and what to buy, the new components to assemble your next PC.
1.-Beware of PC components that are compatible, but not optimal
This is a subject that I have already mentioned in the introduction, and it is that it is not enough to choose components that offer good performance at an affordable price and join them to build a good PC. These components must interact well with each other, that is, they have to to be able to work optimally and without bottlenecks.
It is a very easy subject to understand. Think, for example, what would happen if you pair a Ryzen 5 5500 processor with a Radeon RX 6600 graphics card. The first only supports the PCIe Gen3 standard, and the second is limited to the PCIe Gen4 x8 interface, which means that combining both components would create a significant bottleneck because the graphics card would be forced to work under the PCIe Gen3 x8 standard.
This is just one example of how important this topic is, and that we must pay close attention to make sure that the list of components that we are going to buy to assemble our new PC is not only compatible and fits in the chassis, but also can work optimally, and that they will not create bottlenecks neither for interface nor compatibility issues.
Following the previous example, the solution would be to mount a processor compatible with the PCIe Gen4 standard, and a motherboard that also supports said standard. In the case of AMD, Ryzen 3 3100 and higher are compatible with the PCIe Gen4 standard, but you should keep in mind that there are exceptions, and that these are mainly those CPUs that are actually APUs with the GPU disabled. They are easy to identify, because they have less L3 cache than equivalent versions.
We could also produce bottlenecks if we mount DDR4 or DDR5 memory with very low speeds or very high latencies, if we use high-performance SSDs in motherboards with older standards or in slots that are limited by the number of PCIe lanes available, and if we decide to install the graphics card in a PCIe slot that has fewer PCIe lanes. Always look at the specifications of each component, and make sure that they will interact perfectly with each other.
2.-The included cooling system may not be enough
Many users still believe that the cooling solution provided by the manufacturer is sufficient to be able to use a particular component optimally, but this is not the case. Low-end processors do usually work without problems with the cooling system they bring from home, but this it falls short in many cases when we jump to the mid-range.
For example, an Intel Core i3-13100F works fine with the home heatsink, and the same goes for Ryzens that have four cores and eight threads. However, a Ryzen 5 7600 reaches too high temperatures with the heatsink it brings from homeand reaches such a high level that it is essential to buy a more powerful refrigeration system to be able to use it with a minimum of guarantees.
The same can happen with other components, such as SSD storage drives in M.2 format. The versions that are based on the PCIe Gen3 standard usually work without problems without the need for additional passive cooling, that is, it is enough with the sheet that the manufacturer includes, and that collects the heat from the key points of the unit, but as soon as we we move in more powerful units this is insufficient.
PCIe Gen4 drives offer higher performance and therefore generate more heat, so require a passive heatsink block to provide optimal performance. The same is true for PCIe Gen5 drives, which improve performance but also generate more heat as a consequence.
Keep all this in mind and follow each cooling component that it needs to work optimally, otherwise you could have performance and stability problems, and in extreme cases suffer crashes, blue screens and even accelerate the death of certain components.
3.-It is always better to go a little too far than to fall short
With this I do not mean that it is a good idea to splurge and buy hardware that we do not need, nothing is further from reality, but it is better to buy components that slightly exceed our real needs than to build a PC that in the end is below what we really need.
In the first case we will have spent a little more, but we will be sure that will meet our expectations, and that we will be able to take advantage of it for a longer time. On the other hand, in the second case, the experience may end up being so short that, in the end, we have to change certain components and carry out an expansion in a short time.
In order not to make mistakes in this sense, it is necessary to be clear about our budget, the room for maneuver we have and what we need. So, for example, if we are going to choose components to assemble a gaming PC today it does not make sense to save a few euros to mount 8 GB of RAM instead of 16 GB of RAM, but we do have to buy a 6-core and 12-thread processor instead of an 8-core and 16-thread processor and allocate what we save to mount a more powerful graphics card.
On the contrary, in a PC for office automation it would be a good option mount a slightly larger SSD to have more leeway, and it would also be a good idea to mount a little more RAM memory or even a more powerful processor, as long as we do not fall into unnecessary excesses. So that you have concrete references, in this sense it would be a good idea to mount 8 GB of RAM instead of 4 GB of RAM, and it would also be a good idea to buy a 4-core and 8-thread processor instead of one limited to 2 cores and 4 threads. .
4.-Focus your choice on the main use that you are going to give the PC
In the end, the use that we are going to give to the PC is the starting point that should guide our choice of components, since based on this we will have to prioritize certain pieces, and we can make certain sacrifices in others. It is related to what I have mentioned in the previous point, and it is very easy to understand.
If you are going to build a PC to play, most of the budget should go to the graphics card, and then you should follow this order of priority: processor, RAM, storage and motherboard. For example, it would be better to build a PC configured with a Ryzen 5 5600, a GeForce RTX 4070, 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD with a cheap motherboard than purchasing the components to mount a Ryzen 7 7700X, a 12 GB GeForce RTX 3060, 32 GB of RAM, a 2 TB SSD and a high-end motherboard.
The cost of both configurations would be similar, but the first would offer much higher performance in games, because the GeForce RTX 4070 is much more powerful than the GeForce RXT 3060 and also has DLSS 3 support. The best thing is that said configuration would not have any serious bottlenecks, since it would be well balanced in CPU-GPU relation.
To assemble a PC dedicated to office automation, the order of priority would be very simple, we should invest more in processor and storage unit, and later in RAM memory. The rest of the components will have a lower weight, and this will give us greater flexibility when completing the list of components.
5.-Compare prices and wait for the right moment to buy
I know that I am not telling you anything new, because I am convinced that all of you already search and compare prices, but it is also important that you keep in mind that there are better and worse times to buy PC components. Usually, the worst moments are usually immediately after launchsince it is when they are new and when the prices are higher.
This situation may change in the short term, especially if there is a very marked competitionwhich is what has happened with the Ryzen 7000 and Intel Core Raptor Lake-S, or if there is excess stock and low demand, which is what is happening right now with RAM and drives SSD, and to a lesser extent with graphics cards.
It can also happen if the demand is very high and the competition is very low, that the prices of the components increase even over time, when the normal thing would be for precisely the opposite to happen. We already saw it a couple of years ago when the last bubble in the cryptocurrency mining sector occurred.
With all this in mind, we must make it clear that there is no magic rule that allows us to establish a fixed time as “the best” to buy PC components, but in a normal market scenario Yes, there are a series of keys that will help us buy PC components at more attractive prices:
- Wait a reasonable time after the launch of new products.
- Do not rule out the purchase of components of the previous generation, they usually perform well and are much lower in price.
- Take advantage of situations of excess stock, high competitiveness and low demand.
- Sale seasons are a good time to buy, but we must be especially careful and more thoroughly compare prices between different stores.
- Avoid buying components before the release of a new generation, because the prices of these will eventually drop soon after.
