This Winter, I decided that I had enough with my quad-core i5 computer with no GPU. I was running Rainbow 6 at a lowered resolution, and at <20 frames per second. I was playing a decent amount and I figured I probably would be playing a lot more games in the future.

I went and collected all my Chinese New Years money from the past 3 years and totaled my budget to around 1100$.

I figured I could get a mid-level PC with that money, and would last me well into university. I decided it was a worthwhile investment and could also do heavy level video processing or run CAD software if needed.

I used https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/ because firstly, Carson and Max recommended it, secondly it’s extremely convenient to use and automatically would calculate the Watts needed, and also it looked through all the Shipping companies that shipped to Canada and found the cheapest prices.

I had an RX 580 left over from upgrading my old computer, but I reused it into this build because GPU’s are expensive.

Both Carson and Max have the same CPU in their computers, and I didn’t want to get a Ryzen processor. The processor also was important because my computer would replace the old family computer, meaning that my parents may have to use it for word processing, excel spreadsheets, and such. This relies on the CPU rather than the GPU.

I didn’t really look to deep for a good motherboard, and I just found something someone recommended on Reddit. I knew I would get a Mid Tower because a Mini would be too loud and I didn’t really have room for a full tower. I also made sure that the motherboard was dark like the case so it would be subtle.

Choosing the Ram was simple, Corsair Vengeance had a good reputation, and it wasn’t much more expensive then the cheaper sticks I saw. I also choose 16 GB because it would be important for a family computer to run well, especially if I needed to keep their tabs open if I was going to play a game.

Both the SSD and HDD were bought based on how cheap they were and how the reviews looked. My computer actually has a slightly slower 2TB Hard drive and and extra 1 TB SSD which is nice.

I choose the case by looking on Reddit for subtle quiet PC Mid Tower cases, as I wanted my computer to run quietly and not to be too flashy.

Finally, Carson wanted a new PSU, so he sold me his old one for cheaper.

Building it was pretty simple, I just watched a couple videos on YouTube on how to build a computer. The hardest part was probably managing all the cables from the Power Supply into everything else.

Overall, building a PC was pretty straightforward, especially when you have friends who can recommended parts and advice. There isn’t much I would change if I built another PC or upgrade my current one. If anything I would maybe add some RBG lights and a cooling system, although the RGB really is just for aethetics, and the cooling system is so the PC can be even quieter.

I’m pretty happy with it’s performance. I’m only using a 60hz monitor, so I don’t really need it to run more than 100 frames. It can easily hit 100 fps on games like League of Legends, OSU and lower graphics settings on R6 Siege, Destiny 2 and Starcraft. Generally the only time the PC struggles is when my brother uses it to stream, or uses the built in recording and instant replay software. This is when the GPU usage hikes to around 60% just on an empty desktop if my brother doesn’t log out of his account and leaves the GPU on instant replay.