Hardware: Building a gaming computer

Background

Just like the jedi knights of Star Wars needs to build their own lightsaber, we techies should build our own computer to get a greater understanding for the tech we use and because it is an interesting project and a test of our ability.

This is the second proper gaming desktop that I have, the first was a prebuild that lasted me for 10 years (with some repairs included), but this was before my career in IT. Now I wanted to take on the challenge of building my own gaming computer. As a sidenote the primary games I wanted to play with this new computer were Enlisted, Minecraft, World of Warcraft and Skyrim. Later on I also want to try GTA 5 and League of Legends.

Building was the quick part, while budgeting and planning was the slower part of the adventure. This will be a post about my observations and what I learned. 

Preparations

The decision to build a computer started roughly a year ago, or a bit more. I postponed it for two reasons, I needed to save up some money and I wanted to wait for prices to go down. Furthermore I was also not sure about the parts or even the process itself. So I started by putting together many various setups using the online tool at Inet where I would play around, see what the best parts would give me or how expensive some setups could be. Some setups would be around 2500 euros, which is a lot. So a part of the problem was knowing how much to scale down the computer in performance to lower the costs. It took quite a few sample builds before I realized what would be "good enough".

So my lesson for you is that you can save a lot of money on your build by adapting it for the realistic use case. Maxing everything out is probably fun and definitely expensive. It would future proof your build as well. Which is something you want to keep in mind. You could for example focus on getting parts that are modern, but not necessarily the best performers, to allow for reasonable upgrades in the future.  

So when it was finally time to pick out the parts I would use for my real build what I focused on was getting enough performance for my games and getting relatively modern pieces, this allowed me to cut the costs down to 1200 euro. I can still upgrade RAM, processor and add more storage for example.

These are the parts I ordered for my build, two of the small fans were never used.

• Chassi: Chieftec Pro Mini Svart
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 8700F 4.1 GHz 24MB
• Graphics card: ASRock Radeon RX 6600 8GB Challenger
• Motherboard: ASUS Prime B650M-R
• RAM: Kingston 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 5200MHz CL36 FURY Beast AMD EXPO/Intel XMP 3.0
• Storage: Kingston KC3000 M.2 NVMe SSD Gen 4 512GB
• Big fans: Phanteks M25 140mm PWM Svart
• Small fans: Arctic P12 PWM Svart PST Svart
• CPU-cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition
• Power supply: Chieftec Proton 750W

I chose 32 GB ram to give me ample of headroom, while allowing me to upgrade to 96 GB in the future. The NVMe on 512 GB allows me to quickly boot up the computer, store all of my games at the same time while still leaving me a bit of room. I have a whole slot that I can install a much larger storage into later as well. The CPU felt quite modern and it didn't come with integrated graphics, which means I am 100% reliant on the graphics card. 

Another part of the preparations was to create a bootable USB-drive with Windows 11 Pro, so that I instantly could install it once the computer was ready.

Building the computer

Seeing as this was the first build I had no complete desktop building experience to draw upon. Instead I had a bit of laptop maintenance experience and knowledge from general tinkering and exploring. 

The first step was to gather all the boxes with components and look it over, bringing a general screwdriver and a knife for opening the boxes. The general principle is to complete your motherboard first, before putting it into the chassis. 

So after unboxing what had to be unboxed right away, I put the CPU, RAM and SSD in place. The RAM was the easiest, just make sure to put it facing the right direction and that it fits the slot. The SSD is also quite easy once you know how to keep it in place, in this case I used a locking mechanism made from some type of plastic. The CPU was a bit interesting, make sure to align the corners properly and drop it in straight from above. Then you use the clasp to hold it in place, at this point a plastic cover flew off which I wasn't prepared for. Scary!

Once the CPU was equipped, I first used a default CPU cooler, it already had thermal paste on. But later when I had research the non-stock cooler I equipped it using thermal paste that comes with the cooler in a tube. The CPU cooler was relatively easy to install, the trick is to lower it down on top of the CPU in an even fashion to not create too much bubbles in the thermal paste. Remember to remove the plastic sticker covering the area that connects to the CPU. Fasten the screws a bit at a time, once again making sure to spread the pressure evenly until it sits properly against the CPU.

Next step was to prepare the chassis, I installed the backplate for the motherboard. The secret to installing this backplate is to push it out evenly from the inside, just make sure to align the holes correctly. The role of the backplate is to protect the computer, it can help with both heat and to some degree interference, it also offers extra stability.

Continuing on the journey I now installed the front fans. This was very tricky because it was a challenge to get the front cover off. If I could have traveled back in time, I would perhaps have installed it earlier. I also installed the chassis to the motherboard, along with the power supply. At times it was a bit tricky to see which component that needed which cable, and in some case it was difficult to connect them to the motherboard. Here I also could have done a better cable management job, by running some of the cables behind the motherboard (there is a space there). My advice is that if you are working in a dark chassis, bring plenty of light, a lamp on the forehead would have helped a lot.

Lastly I put in the graphics card, I noted that it looks like it sits upside down in this build and on the backside you only need to remove the sliders that makes room for the card's interface. The graphics card was relatively easy to install, in part thanks to a combination of a good enough chassis and that the PCIe-slot didn't cause any issues. The graphics card needs electricity too, so I connected the power to it from the power supply.

Finally I installed some additional fans (and it was after this that I installed the non-stock CPU cooler).

Setup, first time use and finishing touches

I must admit that the first time I started the computer, I stretched my arm out to the power button, just in case it would explode. But fortunately, it worked on the first go. However, I did not connect it to my main setup at this stage, I had a small touch screen connected just to get through the Windows 11 setup and then of course the USB drive with the operative system.

After making sure it was correctly setup and working, I brought it to my desk and connected it to the ethernet cable and monitor, along with peripherals. 

First thing to do was running Windows Update, downloading specific drivers and update the firmware.

When everything was set and done it was time to download games and start enjoying the product, and what a relief it was to finally be able to play the favorite games again on full graphics. As the games were installed on the desktop I could also remove the from my Framework 13, who had been struggling even at the lowest graphics.