Question

List the required components for a usable PC; be as complete as possible, include quantity of items needed and rationale for your choices.✱

Answer 1

By building your own computer you gain a lot of knowledge into the inner working of hardware components, how everything fits together and you will be able to troubleshoot if any problems occur.

It is really an interesting activity.

But now the question arises, how to find the best storage, memory and processor to build the best computer possible.

First Let's talk about some basic components that are required for a usable PC:-

1. Case - the computer case is nothing more than a fancy looking box that holds all of the PC's component. It can be opened and closed. PC cases come in a different colours, sizes, with or without fans, some have LED lights some don't. Some popular cases are NZXT H700i - ATX Mid-Tower or the Phankteks Enthoo Pro.
2. Motherboard - motherboard is one of the most important component of the computer system. The motherboard dictates the physical form factor and size of your PC build, but it also determines what other piece of hardware the computer can use. The motherboard establishes the power of the processor it can handle, the memory technology (DDR4, DDR3, DDR2, etc) and number of module that can be installed, and the storage form factor (2.5 inch,mSATA, or m.2) and storage interface (SATA or PCIe). The motherboard has connectors for cables like power cables and data cables, slots for cards like GPUs and sockets for CPUs.
3. Processor - Into the the motherboard socket, the CPU is plugged in. Every CPU type has a specific socket, that is named like 2066,1151, AM4, TR4 and so on, and the motherboard will need the exact same socket to be compatible with the CPU. The CPU is the engine of your computer and sets the performance of expectations for the entire build. When you are determining which CPU to install, pay attention to the gigahertz (GHz) - the higher the gigahertz, the faster the processor. More GHz also means the CPU consumes more energy.
4. CPU Cooler - anything that draws power also produces heat and the CPU produces lots of heat. Some CPU is like the AMD Ryzen 3rd Gen series (3700X/3900X and so on) already have a CPU coolers included in the CPU box. Make sure you have a CPU cooler that is compatible with your CPU and socket. There are mainly two types of CPU cooler. 1. Air cooled tower cooler 2. AIO closed water loop CPU cooler .
5. Graphics Card - Its purpose is the calculation of anything having to do with the visuals and outputs these visuals (Images, User interface,GUI) on to the monitor. There are two main types of GPUs, the integrated GPU (iGPU) and discretea GPU. iGPU means means, some CPUs already have a graphics chip built-in and you will not need an additional GPU to attach. Like intel in 8700k CPU . The discrete GPU is a GPU that is not part of the CPU. It usually comes on its own limited printed circuit board. Some of modern GPUs include RTX generation such as RTX 2070, RTX 2080,RTX 2080Ti.
6. RAM - random random access memory is the temporary thinking storage part of the computer if you would compare it to a brain. The RAM stores the data that is actively being worked on the CPU. It can read and write very fast but loses everything it had stored once the power is turned off. Choosing the best RAM for your system involves two things: compatibility and how much RAM your system can support. First, for compatibility, identify the kind of module your system uses by identifying the form factor (the physical form of the module - generally, desktops use UDIMMs, laptops use SODIMMs) then figure out the memory technology (DDR4, DDR3, DDR2 etc) your system supports. If you buy 64 GB of RAM and your computer can only handle 16GB, that's 48gb of wasted memory.

• Storage - because Ram can't store anything without power and we do want to be able to turn off our computer from time to time, we need a storage medium that retains its stored data, even when the power is off.There are three main storage types 1. HDD 2. SSD 3. NVME
• An HDD is the slowest of the three and will usually read and save data at about 100MByte/s.
• An SSD already read and write at around 500 megabytes and
• NVME SSD currently reads and writes sequential data with up to 3500 megabytes.

Both HDDs and SSDs are plugged into a SATA plug onto the motherboard via a sata cable. They also need power that they get through a power cable PSU.

SSDs are on average 6x faster and 90x more energy then hard drives.