Let’s begin with me being completely honest, I built a desktop PC around 10 years ago while the process was fresh in my mind from college, but I have not touched the inside of a PC since and so it was like learning to walk again. I didn’t know where to start.
I’ll hold my hands up that I did get a little guidance when selecting the parts to ensure the right compatibility, but I then got a confidence boost using PC Part picker to select the right parts for me.
It starts with a Motherboard
With so many different boards out there, I really had no clue where to start, but the advice I received was to think about what I needed and go from there. I’d already chosen my case so I knew at a very base level that I needed an ATX board. I selected my CPU, so i knew I needed an LGA-1151 socket for 7th generation processors.
DDR4 RAM was the way I wanted to go, so my board needed to handle this RAM type.
My desired board should have the ability for M.2 Sata support for my SSD, so I delved in further to find something that supported this.
As my PC was primarily going to be used for gaming, I decided to go for a gaming motherboard, I selected the ASUS ROG STRIX Z270F Gaming motherboard.
And then a CPU
As I’d be doing a lot of multi-tasking from video editing to game capture, I wanted a processor that could handle these tasks with complete ease. I went for an Intel Core I7 7700K 4.2 GHZ (without turbo).
This processor multi-tasks with extreme ease, and handles pretty much any application i throw at it.
Next came the RAM
On as many systems as I can remember having (mainly pre-built) I have always used a maximum of 8GB RAM – which was normally DDR3. If I was going to turn this machine into a beast, I wanted to go that bit further than your average at 32GB DDR4.
Specifically I chose Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2 x 16GB @ 3200MHZ and I’m glad I did.
Plus a Graphics card (the fun part)
Any gamer knows that this is the most important factor to take into consideration if you want your build to be a thing of beauty, and fortunately after a little research i found this gorgeous piece of tech that delivers a wealth of performance. It’s 4K and VR ready, and after running a VR test on Steam it reached the top end of the scale stating how decent the MSI Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TI really is.
A PSU
A beauty of a gaming PC is not complete without a PSU as the finishing touch, and going with the super quiet theme of this build I decided the PSU should follow the same path. I chose the Be Quiet! Dark power Pro 10 due to it’s reviews of being a platinum energy grade, super silent, and having a modular design (enabling you to connect components directly to the PSU instead of the motherboard).
Liquid CPU Cooling
With every PC i had used/purchased I had always used a conventional CPU cooling solution, but as I was going all out with this one I decided to give liquid cooling the benefit of the doubt. I’m pretty chuffed with the result to say the least. My cooling device is a Corsair H100i V2 as this was a recommendation from a friend and he had nothing but positive review. I did find the install a little fiddly but got there in the end.
a Solid State Drive
I mentioned i was out of touch when it came to building a new PC didn’t I? When I built my last one I had the option of SATA or an IDE hard drive, but as things move so quickly with technology I hadn’t anticipated getting this little RAM-sized module when I ordered the Samsung 960 EVO 500GB SSD. it did take me a few moments to realise where to connect this as it had nowhere to connect a SATA cable, i then realised it would fit into the M.2 PCI slot on the motherboard and is fixed using a standoff screw.
and of course – an epic case to show it all off
What’s the point of building an awesome gaming PC if you can’t see the glowing components that bring bounds of power to your system
I wanted a case that would literally light up the room, so i opted for the Corsair Crystal 460X RGB case. Boasting a midi tower design, tempered glass, efficient cooling, room for an ATX board and multi-coloured LED fans, this case is the perfect choice for any aspiring gamer.
