What to know about DIY PC

There are three highly important questions you need to ask yourself:

Budget

How much are you going to spend on the build? Generally the more you spend on a system the better it is; however, the performance over cost diminishes above a certain point as shown by this graph. Most view this point to be around about $2000 US however opinions vary.

What are you aiming to do?
Is this for a gaming on a single display or 3D rendering? Perhaps the office PC needs an upgrade? One system doesn’t suit all.

Ability – there are three different types of system

• Preassembled – you can purchase a pre-assembled system from a company such as Dell, HP or Apple and many others. These are often suitable for most low power PC users such as families and office systems.
• Custom PC builds – These come in two options from specialist hardware retailers such as NCIX and PC Case Gear. They can be designed and assembled by the retailer and often come with warranty for the build as well as the individual parts warranty. You can also select your own parts and have the retailer assemble the system for you for a fee. This also often includes the peace of mind of a warranty.
• DIY – This is most common among enthusiasts whereby you select all the components yourself and then build the system yourself. The downside is that you are not covered by a warranty for your own work; just those accompanying the components. This can be a big risk with water cooling loops.

Selecting Hardware
Any mainstream computer system is made up of seven simple components. These are:

• CPU or Central Processing Unit with accompanying heat sink – the brain of the entire system. (Note that Intel 2011 socket CPU’s do not include a stock heatsink.)
• Motherboard – this is what everything is either mounted to or connected to in some way.
• RAM – Random Access Memory
• PSU or power supply
• GPU or graphics processing unit – these can either be an expansion card purchased separately or be built into the CPU.
• Storage device – where data such as an operating system is stored.
• And lastly, the case – where everything goes.

Of course, there are other components such as SSD’s (Solid State Drives) and aftermarket coolers however these are not ‘must have’ items.


Optional components and accessories
Now that you’ve got the core components out of the way, here are certain optional components that can be added for a performance increase or aesthetic reasons.

After market coolers
These are a replacement for the stock cooler that comes with your CPU. They offer a variety of changes from form factor to cooling performance. They come in three main forms; air coolers, all-in-one (AIO) water coolers and then custom loop water coolers.

AIO’s and air coolers are the most simple where you simply mount the CPU block and the other mounting accessories and you’re done. Custom loop water-cooling is more complicated; however, with experience and planning, it can be achieved.

Lighting
This comes in the form of either LED’s connected to a power source or Cathode tubes connected to an inverter. The LED’s are a lot sharper with their light and do not fade over time. Cathodes, on the other hand, have a softer appearance but can fade unevenly over time.

Custom cables
Let’s face it – most PSU cables, or rather most internal cables in general aren’t the most flattering - so why not fix them? Custom sleeving is a fiddly job but if done properly can yield good results. Sleeving involves the removal of the pin and wire from the power supply connector, and applying new sleeve, normally of a different colour, over it. There are many guides on the forums so I won’t go too in-depth here. If; however, you’re not up to it, brands such as Bitfenix and NZXT sell sleeved extensions that make it look like you’ve done your sleeving. Silverstone and Corsair also offer cable kits for their PSU’s in a variety of colours and lengths to suit any build, big or small. Please note though that these cable kits are incompatible with other PSU’s.

Overclocking
Overclocking is raising the settings of a component above the manufacturers default settings. It's often done with graphics cards, RAM and CPU's. It's done in an aim to increase performance without buying a higher performing product. With increased performance however comes increased power draw and thus increased heat output. A beefy cooling system is required for most forms of overclocking especially with CPU's. RAM isn't too bad and the coolers on most graphics cards will give you a bit of overhead before you reach the hardware limits set by NVidia and AMD.

Also note that to overclock an Intel CPU, you need to ensure it has an unlocked multiplier which is determined by the "K" denomination in its name. For example a 3570K can be over-clocked whereas a 3570 cannot.
Aside from buying pre overclocked GPU's, all forms of overclocking void the stock warranty. Intel however realise that enthusiasts want to push their CPU's faster so they provide the Intel Tuning program. It's an advanced warranty program set to cover overclocking your Intel CPU. intel.com/tuningplan/

 Overclocking can take two forms - automated and manual. Automated is often hit and miss and you find that the system will set the voltages too high which can lead to excess heat and physical damage and degradation over time leading to a shorter lifespan. Manual depends on the platform and below I have linked various overclocking guides for Intel 3rd and 4th generation CPU's and RAM and GPU overclocking basics.

Ivy Bridge Overclocking
Haswell Overclocking
GPU Overclocking
RAM Overclocking