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How to pick
Decide what the machine is for before you spend a penny, because that changes everything. For a machine that does email, documents and browsing, the graphics card barely matters and money is far better spent on a fast drive and enough memory. For games, the graphics card is most of your budget and everything else exists to feed it. For video or photo work, lean on the processor, memory and storage. Now the compatibility traps, which are what actually catch people out. The processor and the motherboard have to share a socket, and AMD and Intel are not interchangeable. The memory generation has to match the motherboard, so DDR4 will not go in a DDR5 board. Check the graphics card physically fits the case, both length and how many slots thick it is. And add up the power draw, then buy a power supply with real headroom from a decent brand, because a cheap one failing takes other parts with it. Two honest warnings. Prices on processors and graphics cards move constantly and any figure you read is out of date, so always check on the day. And if you are buying a graphics card, look carefully at who is actually selling it, because marked up third party listings are common.
What I recommend
NVMe solid state drive
If you change one thing in an older machine, make it this. Moving from a spinning drive to an NVMe drive is the difference between a computer that takes two minutes to be usable and one that is ready before you sit down. Samsung and Western Digital are the safe picks. One terabyte is the sensible size now.
- Impact
- The upgrade people feel most
- Size
- 1TB is the sensible default
- Brands
- Samsung, Western Digital
- Check
- Your board has an M.2 slot
DDR5 or DDR4 memory kit
Sixteen gigabytes is the floor for a new build and thirty two is the comfortable answer if you keep a lot of tabs open or edit anything. Buy it as a matched pair rather than one stick, because that lets the machine use both channels. Check whether your motherboard takes DDR4 or DDR5, because they do not physically fit each other.
- Floor
- 16GB, comfortable at 32GB
- Buy as
- A matched pair, not one stick
- Must match
- Your motherboard's generation
- Note
- DDR4 will not fit a DDR5 board
AMD Ryzen or Intel Core processor
For everyday use and most gaming, a mid range chip from either brand is plenty and the money is better spent elsewhere. Spend up here only if you do video editing, run virtual machines, or stream while you play. Whatever you pick, the motherboard has to match its socket, so choose the two together.
- Mid range
- Plenty for everyday and most gaming
- Spend up for
- Video editing, VMs, streaming
- Must match
- The motherboard socket
- Choose
- Chip and board together
80 Plus Gold power supply
The least exciting part and the one most worth buying properly. Add up what your parts draw, then get comfortably above it from a known brand. A bad power supply does not just die quietly, it can take other parts with it. Corsair and Seasonic are the ones I would trust.
- Rating
- 80 Plus Gold or better
- Wattage
- Comfortably above what you need
- Brands
- Corsair, Seasonic
- Why care
- A bad one can take parts with it
Motherboard
This is where compatibility lives. The socket has to match your processor, the memory slots have to match your memory generation, and it needs enough of the connections you actually plan to use. Beyond that, expensive boards mostly buy you features you will never touch.
- Socket
- Must match your processor
- Memory
- Must match DDR4 or DDR5
- Size
- ATX, or mATX for a small case
- Skip
- Features you will never touch
NVIDIA GeForce or AMD Radeon graphics card
Only matters if you play games or do 3D and video work. Match it to your screen rather than to a number: there is no sense buying a card for 4K if you are playing on a 1080p monitor. Measure your case before ordering, because the big ones are genuinely enormous, and check who is selling it.
- Match it to
- Your monitor, not to a number
- Measure
- Case length and slot thickness
- Power
- Check your supply can feed it
- Watch for
- Marked up third party sellers
Related reading
Parts arrived and you are staring at them?
Happy to build it with you, or take the box and hand it back working. Either way you will understand what is inside it when we are done.