Assembling a PC is a process that is divided into two very important parts. The first is the choice of components that we are going to use, and the second supposes the assembly and configuration of the team. We might think that the second part is the most important and the most complicated, but the truth is that we should not underestimate the component selection phase at all, since the performance of the equipment, its possibilities and its cost will depend on it. .
If we make a mistake in the choice of components we may end up building a PC with serious imbalances, or that it does not have the necessary power to move the games that we like, nor to carry out certain tasks. There is also the possibility that we end up buying too expensive components that we really do not need, and if this happens we will have made an investment that we will not be able to amortize even in the long term.
I have been in this world for many years, and I have seen many cases of assemblies that had a very good aesthetic and that had been assembled with care and with exquisite cable management, but that had terrible component selection. One of the clearest examples was that of a gamer who decided to ignore me, and who thought it was better to combine a Core i7-10700K and a GeForce GTX 1660 Super instead of opting for a Core i5-10400F and investing the savings at the CPU level on a GeForce RTX 2070 Super.
In this article I am going to share with you a series of basic but very important tips that, together, They will help you make the right decision. when choosing the components you need to assemble a PC. I won’t limit myself to gaming gear, as I’m going to approach those tips in a general, clear, and direct way.
How to choose the right components to build a PC
1.-Think about what you are going to do with that PC and choose accordingly
The first thing you have to consider is what kind of use you are going to give the PC, and based on this you should be clear how should you distribute the budget that you have For example, if you are going to build a PC for office automation, web browsing and multimedia, you will not need a powerful graphics card, in fact you will not even need a dedicated graphics solution to enjoy a good experience, but if you are going to use it to play yes you will need to mount said component.
- If you are going to assemble a PC for office automation you will have enough with cheap components and low-end, as long as you do not go below a minimum configuration that would be like this: CPU with two cores and four threads, 8 GB of RAM and SSD.
- In case you are going to build a PC to play you will have to opt for more powerful components, and avoid low-cost solutions, as they offer very poor performance with games. You shouldn’t go down from a quad core 8 thread CPU, 16GB of RAM, the graphics card should be at the level of the Radeon RX 6500 XT-GeForce GTX 1650 Super for a good 1080p experience and an SSD is also a must.
- For professional teams you will have to make a deeper analysis and assess what type of programs you are going to usewhat type of components will influence its performance the most and how much RAM and storage you will need.
2.-Prioritize components, but without imbalances
It is very good to give priority to those components that will most influence the performance of the equipment, and in those applications or programs that we are going to use, since this will allow you to better distribute the budget that you have, but we must avoid over-adjusting and falling into absurd configurations. You should always stay within minimum values that will help you avoid imbalances in components, something that, as many of our readers will know, can end up producing a bottleneck.
- On a PC for office automation it would be nice to give a little priority to the processor and RAM, but without falling into absurdities such as mounting a CPU with 6 cores and 12 threads and accompanying it with only 4 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD. It would be better to choose a CPU with 4 cores and 8 threads and use the money saved to mount 8 GB of RAM and a larger SSD.
- When choosing the components to build a gaming PC You must give priority to the graphics card, but without giving up a series of basic points: having a 6-core and 12-thread processor that has a good IPC, including at least 16 GB of RAM and accompanied by an SSD.
- In the case of professional teams you must prioritize the component that most influences application performance What else are you going to use? If you are going to edit video or render, the graphics card should be your priority, but without incurring imbalances.
3.-Avoid unnecessary excesses, you will be wasting money
The components we use to assemble a PC are currently divided into three big categories:
- Low range: groups the components that have a low level of benefits. In general terms, they are an option that can be interesting for assembling equipment for office automation and basic tasks.
- Mid-range: a level where we find a huge offer of components. Many of them are the best option for assembling equipment for gaming and work with a good price-performance ratio.
- High-end: at this level are the most powerful components, but also the most expensive. Their price-performance value is usually not as good as that of the mid-range ones, although in specific situations they can be a good choice.
Within each of these ranges there are a large number of components with very different prices and features, which means that we must be very careful when choosing. That is why it is so important to be clear about those minimums that we should not go below, and that we have already seen before. However, we must also be clear that there are maximum values that do not make sense to exceed.
- On a PC for office automation and basic tasks it is absurd to spend more than 100 euros on the processor, and it also makes no sense to buy mid-range motherboards or high-performance graphics cards. You won’t need high-power power supplies, or large amounts of RAM, either.
- With a gaming PC there is no point in spending more money on the processor than on the graphics card. Buying a CPU of 400 euros or more just to play is an unnecessary excess, and we will not need more than 16 GB of RAM or a high-end motherboard to get a quality assembly. The choice of graphics card will depend on the resolution at which we are going to play, and our aspirations, but in general terms we will have a good experience with the GeForce GTX 1660 Super-Radeon RX Vega 56 in 1080p, and with the GeForce RTX 3060 and Radeon RX 6600 in 1440p. For 4K we must choose at least a GeForce RTX 3070 or a Radeon RX 6700 XT.
- A PC for work and professional applications must follow the premises that we have already given you. For example, if we are going to use video rendering and editing applications that mainly depend on the graphics card we will have to invest more in that componentbut taking into account the necesary resources for the workload that we are going to face. Continuing with this example, a GeForce RTX 4090 would not make sense for editing 1080p video.
If you make excesses and buy components that are too powerful for the use you are going to give the PC, you will have wasted your money because, in the end, you will have very powerful components that you are not really taking advantage of. These will eventually be surpassed by other components within a relatively short period of time, and they will lose value while you continue to not get the most out of them.
4.-Do not limit yourself to the newest on the market
Many people tend to limit themselves to the latest components when choosing parts to build their new PC, and this is a mistake, since in most cases the components of the previous generation continue to deliver excellent performanceAnd they are much cheaper. It is a question that depends on each generation and the market situation at all times, but it is worth taking it into account.
For example, AMD’s Ryzen 7000 processors currently offer very good performance, but need a bigger investment than what we would have to do if we chose a Ryzen 5000 processor, and this makes the latter have a more interesting price-performance ratio. The same could be said of the Core Gen11 processors, where we find models like the Core i5-11400F, which has a very low price and still performs wonderfully.
This same it can be applied to other components such as RAM, SSDs and power supplies. You don’t need a PCIe Gen4 x4 SSD capable of reaching 7 GB/s to build a good PC, a PCIe Gen3 x2 model would suffice, and you don’t need to mount the latest generation RAM memory with ultra-low latency and speed. super high work
You can easily go back to previous generations with more discrete latencies and frequenciessince in general lines from DDR4 at 3.6 GHz with CL16 latencies or DDR5 at 5.2 GHz with CL36 latencies we will already achieve a good level of performance.
On the subject of power supplies, be clear that, in the end, its quality is important, but you don’t need to go for a new generation model, nor a very expensive one that doubles the power you really need. For example, a mid-range gaming PC equipped with a Ryzen 5 5600, 16 GB of RAM and a Radeon RX 6700 would not need more than a 650-watt source, and an 80 Plus Bronze certified model would do without a problem.
