50 PC Build Tips in Under 10 Minutes

So here are 50 PC building tips in under 10 minutes. Tip number 1. Thermal paste application is overrated. Here's an example of too much, too little, and pretty much ideal. Bigger CPUs of course need more, but try not to overthink it. 6-core CPUs are pretty much the sweet spot for gaming right now. I wouldn't recommend going with an 8-core unless you plan to use those extra cores for other production workloads, otherwise that spare cash is better spent on a faster GPU. Even if you plan on streaming, you are much better off with the updated NVENC encoder which can be found on the following Nvidia GPUs. It's much more efficient than streaming with x264 on the CPU, the FPS impact is basically nothing, and the quality is really good as well. Now when it comes to PC assembly, try and avoid over-tightening things. All of these small screws are very easy to over-tighten and strip if you try hard enough. A good rule of thumb is to aim for around 95% tightness. The only exception here I'd say is when it is close to 100% tightness as you can to maximize mounting pressure, but again, over-tightening is still a thing. 6-PCPartPicker.com is your best friend. Seriously, there is no better resource out there for planning out an entire PC build, balancing a budget, and finding out if there are any incompatibilities with your parts. Generally, the order of assembling your PC build should look something like this. Install your CPU onto your motherboard, then install your RAM, your M.2 SSDs, and your CPU cooler mounting bracket. Then install that motherboard into your case, then your power supply, CPU cooler, fans, and then finally your graphics card. When building with an all-in-one liquid cooler, mount it in a way so that the pump is not the tallest point of the loop. This can shorten the lifespan of the cooler as air travels up into the pump, as well as contribute to a noisy operation. Custom loops are the exception here where you can have a reservoir directly feeding the pump liquid. Speaking of custom loops, for easier soft tube installation into a compression fitting, wet the end of the tube before tightening the collar. This makes installation a whole lot easier and allows you to get 100% tightness. Also, don't forget to leak test your loop with EK's leak tester. It's super easy to use and can quickly find any loose fittings and potential leaks. If you're only playing at 1080p resolution, the more you spend on your GPU, the less performance you'll get in return. High-end GPUs scale very poorly when it comes to lower resolutions. A proper toolkit like this one from iFixit is highly recommended for any PC build, especially if you're installing waterblocks and tearing down GPUs. There are also more affordable, similar kits out there that should be fine as well. When doing a fresh Windows 10 installation, always grab the latest copy that's available online. That way you can avoid doing a ton of updates once you get your installation up and running. On a similar note, do not share a Windows 10 boot drive between Intel and AMD systems, or between much older and newer chipsets. It's usually fine if you're just doing a CPU swap or a motherboard upgrade on the same platform, but otherwise a fresh Windows 10 install is always recommended. And after your install, always remember to enable XMP in the BIOS to get the full speeds out of your memory kit. You'd be surprised how many beginners actually forget to do this. If for some reason your memory kit is not stable with your particular build, try increasing the DRAM voltage just a little bit, or decreasing the frequency by one or two steps. Tip number 18, Nvidia's SLI and AMD's Crossfire are pretty much pointless at the moment. Do not buy multiple GPUs if you are looking for more gaming performance. This also means that a well-ventilated ITX case like the Cooler Master NR200 is pretty much as big as a gaming PC needs to be these days, and thermal performance is a lot better than you'd expect. When it comes to graphics cards, they all have intake fans that blow onto a heatsink, but the way they exhaust that air can be quite different. Most open-air cards have exhaust airflow being vented at the front of the card, but also down near the PCIe slot, but there are some that have the heatsink fin array in the opposite direction, exhausting air at the end and near the I.O. Then you have blower cards, which exclusively exhaust air out near the I.O., and the flow-through FE cooler design, which is a hybrid of the two. So just consider how this may affect the airflow of your build before choosing either one. Now if you're building with RGB components like fans and LED strips, try and stick to just one RGB ecosystem from a single brand. This makes lighting configuration, compatibility and cable management significantly easier. Also, despite what you've heard online, RGB lighting does not give you 10% more gaming performance, at least I'm pretty sure. Now when getting a fresh build up and running, it's a good idea to have your WiFi and Ethernet drivers all ready to go on a USB. Most motherboards do not have this packaged and pre-installed, meaning that you won't be able to access the internet on a fresh build. On a similar note, do not install all of the bloatware and junk that your motherboard recommends. This stuff constantly runs in the background and you don't need it. Now if your build uses 2 sticks of RAM but your motherboard has 4 slots available, always refer to your motherboard's included handbook to ensure which 2 slots are preferred. Typically it's the 2nd and 4th slot on newer boards, but always check to be sure. If you are upgrading to a new GPU, make sure you completely wipe your old drivers with Display Driver Uninstaller or DDU for short, otherwise you may encounter performance issues. For PC case airflow, aiming for a balanced or neutral airflow setup is always generally best for most builds, where the number of intake fans should roughly match your number of exhaust fans. Compact ITX builds under 10L are the exception here, where generally you will want to stick to exhaust or negative pressure to encourage air through the side panels. Now if you have an Nvidia RTX 30 series Founders Edition GPU, consider carefully trimming the sleeving around the 12 pin cable adapter to make it much less bulky. This can be done very safely and works both for the single 8 pin and dual 8 pin adapter. If you are building with a custom loop, I'd highly recommend adding a coolant temperature sensor. This way you can control the fan speed based off of the liquid temperature, which avoids those sudden ramping up and drops in fan speed. When it comes to overclocking these days, don't be disappointed if you get pretty poor results. Current gen CPUs and GPUs don't actually have as much headroom as they did a few years ago. One part to this is that they just have smarter boosting algorithms now which allows them to take advantage of higher frequencies already out of the box. And on that note, the more cooling your CPU and GPU have available, the more performance that you can actually get out of them at stock up to a point. This is mostly the case with AMD Ryzen processors and pretty much any modern GPU. However, you'll want to avoid overspending on a premium cooler for budget to mainstream GPUs. Cooling those cards is already pretty easy with the more affordable cooler designs, and the premium price is better spent on an actually faster GPU. Now once you've got your fresh build up and running and you've downloaded all of the programs that you want, head over to Startup Programs in Windows and toggle off the ones that you don't need. This creates a much lighter and faster launching experience. Also, don't forget to disable Enhance Pointer Precision in your mouse settings, which adds acceleration to your mouse movement by default and negatively impacts your aim in certain games. Tip number 36, do not overspend on your power supply, especially with most builds only using a single GPU. 1000W and above PSUs are pointless here. Generally, 750W is the upper limit of what I'd recommend today. Most builds honestly don't need more than a decent 600W unit. Similarly, most users don't need to overspend on their motherboards, especially for gaming builds. For AMD users at least, B550 is a great, cheaper alternative to X570 with the same overclocking features. For the best 120mm fan on the market, you just can't beat the Noctua NF-A12x25. In all of my testing, this consistently comes out as having both the quietest motor and airflow operation, but do consider the Arctic P12 as a much cheaper alternative which do come pretty close. Now, when it comes to air vs liquid cooling, the best air coolers on the market typically have performance about equal to a decent 240mm liquid cooler, but noise at idle is typically lower in most cases due to not having to use a pump. Liquid cooling, though, is still the best when it comes to achieving maximum cooling. If you are building with one of those large tower coolers, though, I'd highly recommend installing that after you've plugged in all of your motherboard cables, otherwise they're pretty much impossible to access. If your build uses a motherboard and GPU that have both PCIe Gen 4, which is all current gen parts, avoid using a case that has a PCIe Gen 3 riser cable. For improving cable management and aesthetics, consider upgrading your power supply cables to a set from CableMod. Their ModMesh cable kits are epic in quality and are great if you're looking for that final touch for your PC build to stand out. A very important note, though, is to not mix and match the cables between power supply models, even from the same brand. The pinouts are often different, which can lead to you damaging your components. For a gaming CPU choice, despite AMD Ryzen completely dominating the enthusiast tier, Intel currently wins the mid-range with their i5-11400. At $180 or so, paired with fast memory and a B560 motherboard, it's an epic starting point for any current gaming PC. If you find your GPU is running a bit hot, you can reduce the operating voltage by undervolting in MSI Afterburner. This works for pretty much any GPU and is extremely effective, full guide listed down below. For checking all of the temperatures, clock frequencies and fan speeds of your system, there's no better tool out there than HardwareInfo. This way, you can check for any issues or cooling problems in your new build. RAM above 3600MHz is typically not recommended for AMD Ryzen CPUs. If you go beyond that, the fabric clock and memory clock will be out of sync, and you'll actually get lower performance despite running a higher frequency. As for how much RAM your build should use, there isn't much point going beyond 16GB for gaming PCs today, but of course more can be useful if your PC also doubles as a workstation. If your CPU comes with a stock cooler in the box, most of them are fine, but don't expect them to give you the best performance. Even upgrading to a small budget tower cooler can be a decent investment for most CPUs. And lastly, I'd highly recommend sticking to just M.2 drives for new builds. They're actually priced pretty similarly to 2.5-inch SSDs, but can save you a ton of installation time and cable management. So those are my 50 tips for PC builds today, hope they helped you out, and I will see you all in the next one.