The Components For My New Computer Have All Arrived!

If the size of the box is any indication, this tower is going to be HUGE! I don’t do a lot of research into computer chassis brands and manufacturers, but I’ve at least heard of Corsair, and I have a positive enough recollection to realize I should be getting a decent house for my machine’s inner workings. My friend is big on cable management, and this allows plenty of space for the components, as well as room to work in to keep all the cables untangled. It’s also got room for a large number of USB ports, which is something I’ll definitely need and appreciate for all my gaming, content creation, and productivity peripherals.

Speaking of extra USB ports, this particular model has at least seven of them. That’s a lot of back-facing accessibility, which I’ve come to hear is important for certain apps and processes actually “seeing” and interacting with them. Aside from making sure it (1) fits well with the case, and (2) is compatible with the processor, the ports, inputs, and ability to keep everything cool and working well together are good reasons for making sure you choose a motherboard that can give you the flexibility and duration to help you make a PC that can last a long time.

The last time I built a computer, when it came down to the processor, one of the bigger metrics to determine speed was megahertz, gigahertz, etc. Cores were just becoming a marketable unit of measurement. Now, it looks like hertz speeds are all but irrelevant, and cores, threads, and processor generation and series numbers seem to be the more important measures of a good CPU. With that in mind, I bought my first AMD Ryzen at the suggestion of my friend, and he assures me this model will be more than adequate for my particular needs for a good long while. It also my have helped that there was a substantial price drop at the time I grabbed it.

The graphics card is usually the biggest technological, and financial, piece of a power PC, and this acquisition was no exception. With my friend’s knowledge of benchmarks and overall price points for GPUs, we were able to find a pretty nice price on a card that is leaps and bounds ahead of the one in my current PC. While it’s still a big bite out the build budget, I’m optimistic this graphics card will keep me gaming and editing videos nice and smoothly.

The SSD used to be known as the internal hard drive, but I’m happy to see that solid state drives are supplanting the older, slower, magnetically vulnerable spinning drives that acted as the mass vault of memory for a computer’s files and programs. They’re now faster, more durable, and overall, simply more reliable. I’m certain this acquisition will do a fine job of keeping and storing the bulk of my computer’s data.

Ah, RAM, that good ol’ random access memory. It’s been around forever, and it’s probably not going anywhere for a while. RAM is another form of memory for your computer, but where your main drive holds EVERYTHING, your RAM keeps record of all the tasks and data you’re using frequently. More is better in computing, so the more RAM you have, the more it’ll help you. I’m not sure I’ve ever had 32 gigabytes of RAM on hand before, but I imagine this amount will help my processor and GPU keep things smooth and cool.

We’ll of course need to keep all these components powered! And not just powered, but making sure that each of them receives enough power that they can all function smoothly. While the model I’m using (pictured) doesn’t seem to be in stock as of this writing, I’ve linked to a power supply from the same manufacturer with similar numbers and price point as the one I’m using. I can’t guarantee it’ll be compatible with everything else here, so please do your research before you buy! With that said, I would imagine as long as it provides the wattage you need and you have the appropriate adapter, power supplies should be among the easiest components to switch out in a PC build.

I’m going to be honest and say I don’t remember buying a cooler specifically for any of my previous builds. It’s possible I did and simply forgot, or I just didn’t need them for my previous computers. In any case, with the amount of hardware I’m running, and the amount of high intensity work I know they’ll be doing, it’s perfectly plausible that some extra help may be necessary in addition to anything the motherboard can provide. I’ll be happy if this cooler can keep my computer plugging along without overheating, and doesn’t get noticeably loud while it’s doing so.