PC Build Consultation and Assembly

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Intro

During the fall of 2020, I was working on my Dell Optiplex flip because I wanted another project after upgrading my desktop. My friend Isaiah asked what I was doing at the time and I let him know about my Optiplex project.

Since he knew about my project, he asked if I could help him with a new desktop. He wanted my help in selecting parts. He had some background about computer parts but he wanted my input because I had vaster knowledge from previous projects. Isaiah also wanted help putting it together because he was nervous working with expensive hardware. He also knew that with me, the build would be completed much faster than if he was by himself. He wanted to get up and running as fast as possible.

We consulted over discord and used resources like pcpartpicker.com to come up with the build. I let him know that a PC with good bones that would allow some upgradability would be around 600$ or 700$. This was a ballpark. I told him that we can put together a build and if it ends up being too expensive or too cheap, we could make changes accordingly.

Selecting Parts

As we started choosing parts, I immediately suggested we use a Ryzen processor. The Ryzen 3000 series had a bunch of great processors for the price and the up and coming 5000 series was going to use the same socket. This would allow for upgradability in the future without having to change the motherboard. We decided on the Ryzen 3100 processor. It has 4 cores and 8 threads which is perfectly fine for most games. Having a better process would only be useful for heavier multitasking or video editing. We were close to selecting the Ryzen 3600 but we had to be cost effective at the time. The opportunity to upgrade to a 3600 processor or better was always an option in the future.

The motherboard is a part that is more important for compatibility rather than performance. Investing in an expensive motherboard is usually only important for users who want to overclock or want certain bois features. Because we were certain we wanted a 3100 Ryzen processor, we chose the lowest cost compatible motherboard. It ended up being a micro-atx motherboard which let us know what size case we were looking for. The case also isn’t too important in terms of performance as long as it has alright airflow. We decided on the Cooler Master MasterBox MB311L.

The rest of the components weren’t restricted in size, but there were still parameters we needed to hit. 16gb of ram was recommended for gaming. I also knew we wanted at least 3200mhz ram so we bought the cheapest 16gb kit at 3200mhz. There are four total ram slots on the motherboard so there is plenty of room to upgrade in future. When it came to storage, we wanted the most cost-effective storage possible. Isaiah had a 250gb SSD from his previous computer that he could move over. The operating system could then run on this drive. We still needed more storage for games or whatever large files he needed. We decided on a 2tb hard drive as it was cheap.

This then brings us to the GPU. I knew there was definitely a shortage of GPUs at this time. However, it was still possible to get a GPU as they restocked. Luckily for us, Newegg had a restocking of the Nvidia 1660 super. This was perfect for our price range. Isaiah wanted to be able to play games at 144hz at 1080p. This card could achieve that at high settings as well. Another reason it is good to go with Nvidia cards is for their NVEC encoder. This encoder is made into the card and allows for you to put the load of streaming on the encoder. This is beneficial because it doesn’t impact your CPU performance which would have been a problem with our Ryzen 3100 processor

Last but not least was the power supply. I told Isaiah it’s good to buy a power supply above the wattage needed to drive your equipment. Having an 80+ rating on the power supply would also be good to ensure quality. Isaiah actually ended up buying a power supply without me looking it over. It was a 600 watt 80+ certified so I couldn’t complain. I’m one to care about brand and aesthetics a little more when it comes to power supplies, but Isaiah was perfectly content with his choice so it was fine by me.

Full Specs:

• CPU: Ryzen 3100
• Motherboard: ASRock B450M PRO4 AM4 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
• Case: Cooler Master MasterBox MB311L
• RAM: Team T-FORCE VULCAN X16gb (2x8gb) 3200mhz
• Storage: 240gb Kingston A400 SSD & 2tb Seagate BarraCuda ST2000DM008
• GPU: Nvidia 1660 Super 6gb
• PSU: COUGAR VTE600 600W ATX12V PFC Power Supply

Building The Desktop

When all the parts finally came in, Isaiah messaged me to let me know to come over. We got to work right away. Everything was smooth and effortless in the beginning. We installed the CPU, RAM, and motherboard no problem. The front IO was easy to connect. Then we had to do the fans. The fans that came with the case were ARGB fans, but that had a couple different attachments for the connectors. I think they just wanted to give us multiple ways to power the LEDs, either through the power supply or motherboard. The documentation wasn’t that good. I ended up guessing where they would go.

We then had to put in the GPU. In the back of the computer there was some space between the GPU case slot and edge of the motherboard. The bracket of the GPU was supposed to slide in there. But when we were putting it in, we realized it was stabbing the motherboard. Obviously, not good. We then tried to remove it from the PCIE slot but it wasn’t moving. I thought the PCIE slot had a slide lever to hold in the GPU. It turns out, it was a push lever. When we tried to remove it, the lever snapped off. It turns out, the leaver was removable so we had to reattach it. We didn’t end up breaking anything but it was a good learning experience. We reseated the graphics card perfectly.

It was now time for our first test boot. We powered it on and received a post screen. All the fans and lights seemed to be working accordingly as well. Given the success, I started to do some cable management to organize and put the back panel back on. After organizing, we turned on the computer again to install Windows. To our surprise, all of a sudden the LED for one of the fans wasn’t powering on now. We double checked all the cables and everything was still plugged in to the right pins. Nothing changed from the first time we booted to the second. It was annoying to have one fan not light up, but it didn’t impact performance. The fan cord that powers the motor still worked. We tried multiple fixes and checked all the wiring. I think the RGB wire just ended up being faulty because I pulled it a certain way when cable managing. There was nothing we could do so we just settled with no LED lighting for the one fan.

We proceeded to install windows and everything went smoothly. Driver and software proceeded smoothly without a hitch.

Upgrades

Isaiah ended up doing some upgrades by himself around August 2021. The upgrades can be seen below. He was able to get the 3060 by randomly showing up to a MicroCenter and finding out they had a couple in stock. This was at a time when it was almost impossible to buy a reasonably priced graphics card and stock was hard to find. I am a little jealous. So proud of him :’)

Specs

• CPU: Ryzen 3100 → Ryzen 5600x
• Case: added 2 fans (1 each to the top and rear of case)
• Storage: 250gb ADATA SU635 SSD → 2tb NVME 3.0 SSD
• GPU: Nvidia 1660 Super 6gb → Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 12gb