Have you built your own PC before?

A few years back, for my 21st birthday, I treated myself to a personal project: building my very own PC. At that time, my interest in tech had already been cultivated over several years of avidly following tech YouTubers (any fans of LinusTechTips and MKBHD here?).

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when my graphics card decided to call it quits. This prompted me to share my PC building experience and guide others on their first PC build journey.

In our modern era, our laptops, smart devices, and PCs have become extensions of ourselves as human beings. As a proponent of transhumanism, I've even undertaken a school project on the topic in the past (perhaps more on that in the near future). Stepping back from that digression, let's relate current smart device technology to our human organs/parts for an easier understanding of the topic.

In my opinion, there are 11 essential cores within a PC building process:

CPU - CPU or Central Processing Unit is like the brain of a computer. It processes all the activity and information that is generated onto the computer. The CPU community is split into two factions, AMD and Intel, also known as team red and team blue. I personally uses a AMD Ryzen 5 3500 processor.

GPU - GPU refers to the Graphics Processing Unit. I would like to refer to this as the optical nerve within an eyeball. It processes the graphics display of the information on the computer. It works closely with the monitor to provide the users with a seamless and high quality display of visual information on the monitor. Usually gamers/designers/photographers/video editors/etc. would care more about the GPU as it helps with rendering not only 2D visual information, but also 3D information like rendering of 3D models, 3D games like minecraft that uses ray-tracing technology, etc. After my new purchase, I run a Nvidia RTX 3050 OC.

PSU - PSU or Power supply unit is the m i t o c h o n d r i a i s t h e p o w e r h o u s e o f t h e c e l l. Basically the power supply unit is as it name suggests, but take it as the mouth in our body. It “eats” the electricity to power up our computer. With a higher computing power and more activities happening on your computer, it takes up more electricity. Thus a good and expensive build usually eats more electricity than a normal daily driver for a computer.I run a Armaggeddon PSU Voltron Pro 475X.

Motherboard - I would say Motherboard is like the skeletal structure of the human body. We as human beings all have different body types, and it is handed to us with our genetics. No matter how much we bulk or slim down, our body type stays the same. Same goes for the motherboard, it is the base of the PC and the kind of motherboard you purchase will determine spaces for future expansions. Do you have 2 or 3 PCIe slots? 1 or 2 slots for a SSD cards? Motherboards come in different sizes, and the common ones are ATX, Micro ATX, Mini ITX. I run a MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX ATX motherboard.

Coolers - There are different coolants and coolers out there. If our blood is circulated around our body to maintain our body temperature by the heart, coolers are like the heart of the computer, circulating air/water/coolant around the PC to maintain a constant optimal temperature. Coolers are especially important when you run large processing activities like graphics rendering or high-res games as the PC tends to heat up very quickly. There are 3 main types of cooling, fan cooling, liquid cooling (water tubes, coolants, etc.) AIO coolers (combination of both fan and liquid cooling). One of my favourite youtubers, DIYPerks, even created a waterproof PC that can be cooled directly in water, and a PC set up that is build in a tank of mineral oil for cooling. I run a fan cooler.

HDD/SSD - This is the storage component within your brain of the computer. HDD/SSD, also known as Hard Disk Drive or Solid State Drives, are different types of storage devices to keep your precious memories (photos or videos), applications, games, movies, etc. HDDs are older technology compared to SSDs, and is reliant on a mechanical disk to keep your data. There are relatively a lot cheaper than SSD storage wise, but are also a lot more prone to corruption of data as the mechanical parts are easily damaged. SSD are getting cheaper and are more secure, thus they are a better option for people with more budget. I run on 1 M.2 SSD and a HDD. I use a Western Digital HDD and SSD.

Thermal Paste - There are no proper relations to the body part for the thermal paste, but they work the same as coolers, to disperse heat away from the PC to maintain an optimal temperature. Thermal paste/pads are applied over the CPUs, before attaching a CPU dedicated cooler over it.

RAM - RAM is known as random access memory and also provides the processing power of the PC horizontally (if it makes sense). Take it as someone who is good at multitasking versus someone who can only focus on one thing at a time. RAM allows you to run multiple programs or chrome tabs at the same time.

Case - More like the skin of a PC, cases provide the external shell to the whole PC build. A case keeps all the components together within the casing itself, pretty self-explanatory. However, there are people who likes to build without a case, mounting the parts on the wall, building the PC within their tables itself. There are many ways to build without using a case. Only if you know what you are doing.

Monitors - As mentioned, if the GPU is the optical nerve of the eyes, monitors are the eyeballs itself. They display the visual information onto a 2D screen, and the more monitors you have the more information you are able to see with your human eyes at a time. I run a dual monitor setup with a projector that I occasionally use for watching movies on my bed.

Accessories - This component includes speakers, keyboard, mouse, microphones, wifi card, etc. Accessories provide the senses to the computer, much like the 5 senses that humans have. Speakers are like the mouth for speech, microphones are the ears for listening, keyboard and mouse are like the limbs for tactile information. No olfactory or gustatory perceptions though, that would be pretty weird for a computer.

While this post turned out longer than expected, I enjoyed documenting my knowledge on the platform. I hope you've learned a thing or two about PC building! What knowledge would you like to share with fellow youths on this platform?