How to spec out a new PC🔧

Thinking of building a PC? Got a quote from a builder? Dont know what you want vs need? This guide could be for you!

I love PC’s. Have for a long time, as a result, I stay up to date with the tech. But I know im a bit different to most. I mean, who cares what a CPU is? What does the RAM do? These questions are not really important to know, until a discerning buyer is organising a new PC. I will attempt to break things down and give some reccomendations to keep in mind when building your shiny new PC! 😉

Case

The case has to house the components of your PC, generally speaking, if looks dont matter, you can get just about any case that will fit your components. How do you know? The case will be sized ATX, ITX, mini ITX etc, what this means is what size motherboard the case can fit. When building a PC, the case specs will state the motherboard sizes the case can fit.

Power Supply

The power supply has three main factors that should be considered. The power output in watts, the effeciency, and the quality. Wihtouth going into too much nitty gritty, generally around the 650watts is a nice minimum requirement.

Power output

Power output is mainly dictacted by the power of the graphics card you choose (GPU) these are the most power hungry components in a build.

Effeciency

The efficiency is usually rated in gold, silver, etc. Put simply, this is related to how much of the power flowing from the wall plug, makes it to your machine.

Quality

The quality is related to the manufacturer. When you build/buy your PC, the vendor can guide you on their experience with various manufacturers and their experience with them in terms of warrant claims etc.

Motherboard

I must admit, when building PC’s in the past, the motherboard took a back seat. This is what you need to check when choosing your motherboard:

Fits the case
Fits the CPU your using. Note – Intel and AMD CPU’s use different sockets. Make sure you are using a motherboard that works with your CPU!
Can make the most of your RAM
Has enough connectivity for your storage mediums. These days as a minimum you probably want 1 or two m.2 slots, 2 or more SATA connectors.

CPU – I7 or Ryzen 7

There are many options for CPU’s generally speaking as long as you are in the mid to high range, your CPU wont be the bottle neck. Make sure your CPU fits your motherboard!

RAM – 16gb

16gb is still plenty for most tasks. Where you might need more is:

You play AAA games. 16gb should still be enough for most.
You swap between alot of running programs.
You do graphics intensive work

You may be able to get away with 8gb if:

You only do light gaming
You just browse the web
You do light work (emails, light speadsheets etc)
You dont multi task.

Graphics (GPU) – Nvidia RTX3060

The subject of graphics cards is an ever moving, strange thing. Manufacturers are not able to improve their technology as quick as they once could. As a result, graphics cards from back in 2016 can still give pretty great performance on modern titles. The big changes that came in more recent years is the ability to render raytraced graphics. If you can afford this tech, and are into gaming, it maybe worth bumping up your GPU specs.

When integrating the GPU, your main concern is:

Fitment (graphics cards can be big! Make sure the case is big enough)
Power consumption (make sure your power supply puts out enough power to support the GPU)

Graphics cards use a fairly universal PCIe slot which (thankfully) is a standard and as such any GPU should fit any motherboard (doesnt hurt to check with your Motherboard manufacturer)

Storage – 1tb SSD

If you ask me, one of the quantum leaps in tech in the last decade has been solid state disks or SSD’s. It blew me away when you could literally put an SSD into an older PC and watch its boot time drop by order of magnitudes. Historically storage was a bottleneck with older machines, and the latency to get the data off a mechanical drive to the rest of the machine really sapped responsiveness.

When shopping for storage about 1tb in size should be plenty for your use. This will allow plenty of space for your work, games, and music.

If you can also spring for a hdd, you can use an older style drive to store things that dont need to be as fast to access (photos, media, data archives). It also means that you can set up regular backups so that if your primary SSD goes down, you have a backup that can get you up and running again, something that really pays for itself when this happens (notice how I said when? Dont wait for this to happen! Always take backups)

Monitor

I like a clean desk. With the emergence of cheaper, 32 inch monitors, it means that you have plenty of screen real estate. Did you know that a 4k monitor has 4 times the pixels as a regular montior? This means that you can divide your screen into 4 parts when multi tasking. It also means you dont really need a second monitor (keeps your desk a little more tidy)

Keyboard and Mouse

I dont have a huge budget, but have found spending a little more in this area really pays off. My personal choice lately is this microsoft wireless combo.

https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/microsoft-wireless-desktop-keyboard-and-mouse-3050-mswdtcomb?istCompanyId=0403b0ba-0671-498f-aeb7-e2ff71b61924&istFeedId=ea709c9a-279e-40be-951f-2668243ec753&istItemId=wliwrrtpt&istBid=t

Hopefully this guide has helped! If you have any feedback or would like to chat, contact us below: