DIY Beginner’s Guide

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To begin with, let’s pose the most pressing question: In the past two years, DIY prebuilt PCs have emerged as a new trend. Retailers offer fully configured systems, allowing customers to simply select and purchase one based on their budget and requirements; a fully assembled PC is then shipped directly to them. Does it mean we don’t need basic DIY knowledge and experience just to use it? The answer is obviously no. The reason for saying this is that the DIY market as a whole is still in a chaotic state, and some inexperienced DIY beginners are very likely to fall into traps. Why say that? That’s because most players only pay attention to the total price of the entire platform as well as the key hardware, such as the graphics card; hardware configurations that seem affordable often have shortcomings, or even serious flaws! Let’s take an example to illustrate this briefly: CPU: Intel Core i7 4770, quad-core with eight threads for fast processing speeds and smooth gaming performance; Fan: Kyushu Wind God Archer or Sunflower fan for more effective heat dissipation; Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87P-D3, featuring exclusive 5-layer protection to ensure optimal performance and security of the entire system; Hard Drive: Western Digital/Hitachi 500GB – one of the best-selling desktop hard drives in the world; Memory: G.Skill DDR3 8G 1600, offering great value for money and making it an ideal choice for system installation or upgrades; Graphics Card: Colorful iGame760 God of Fire and War U-2GD5, which supports one-click overclocking for ultra-high-quality graphics in games; Case: GameSir Blade 3 Standard Edition. Note: This version does not come with a fan, so one must purchase one separately; Power Supply: Seasonic Nuclear Power – Super Ship S7, featuring a 12cm silent temperature-controlled fan, wide design, and a rated power output of 400W with a peak of 500W. This configuration was randomly selected by the author from Taobao. It can be seen that, first, this configuration selects a Z87 motherboard, but for the CPU it chooses the i7-4770 instead of an overclockable model with a “K” suffix; thus the motherboard’s overclocking capabilities are wasted. The seller may save a hundred or two hundred yuan by using this CPU, but loses the potential performance improvements that could have been achieved. Secondly, in order to make the total price appear more affordable, the seller chose a 500GB hard drive. With 1TB–2TB drives being the standard these days, choosing a 500GB drive with a lower storage-to-price ratio is clearly a foolish decision. Consumers may not be aware of these issues, and the product works fine, but you are indeed being deceived. Whether it’s a compact mini PC or a cool MODded PC, they can both be built by oneself. Even DIY systems that seem to offer a \"one-stop service\" require careful evaluation; players who want things to be simple should give up the idea of DIYing as soon as possible. Here, the author still urges everyone to build a PC by themselves; after all, the DIY hardware industry has reached a stable stage of maturity, and the technical barriers have decreased significantly compared to years ago. Its user-friendly design allows beginners to get started quickly, while its rich level of playability ensures that experienced players are not bored. For beginners in DIY, figuring out how to properly and reasonably select hardware is the first challenge to address. Today, from the perspective of actual system assembly, we will explain that the core component of any platform is the CPU processor. Currently, the desktop platform is divided into two main camps: Intel and AMD. Both offer products for various performance and price ranges – entry-level, mainstream, and flagship – each paired with different chipset-based motherboards. Beginners may find it difficult to determine how to distinguish between them, so we will explain each one separately here. (Note: The CPUs and motherboards mentioned in this article are relatively common in the current market; older models are not recommended.) Starting with the Intel platform, the processors currently available on the market mainly belong to the “3.5th generation.” These processors can be identified using four different code names based on their release sequence: SNB (Sandy Bridge), IVB (Ivy Bridge), Haswell, and Haswell Refresh. The Haswell Refresh generation saw no improvement in CPU manufacturing process, nor was there a change to the processor architecture; it was simply an upgraded version of the original Haswell, with only an increase in clock speed. Step 1: The CPU pins must match the motherboard interfaces. So how should we pair a CPU with a motherboard? It is a basic requirement that the CPU pins correspond to the motherboard’s CPU socket interfaces. Motherboards with identical interfaces are then differentiated by their chipsets: Processor code: Interface compatible with the motherboard: Motherboard chipset type – SNB: LGA 1155, H61, H67, P67, Z67; IVB: LGA 1155, B75, H77, Z77. Haswell: LGA 1150, H81, H85, H87, Z87; Haswell Refresh: LGA 1150, H97, Z97. By choosing a CPU based on the interface type of the motherboard, we can avoid the problem of unable to install it. However, this only ensures a “correct” pairing of CPU and motherboard. To achieve optimal performance or the best cost-performance ratio, such a pairing is considered “reasonable”. The chipset types for Intel motherboards are quite consistent: from the “Series 6 chipsets” corresponding to SNB, to the “Series 9 chipsets” corresponding to Haswell Refresh, the logic behind the chipset numbering remains largely the same. Since both the SNB and IVB generations of processors can support \"Series 7 chipset motherboards,\" while the Series 6 chipset motherboards marked in red lack proper support for USB and disk interfaces, and there is very little of them available in the market, it is advisable to choose a Series 7 motherboard if building a system at present and to ignore the Series 6 motherboards. Step 2: Choose a CPU with K for overclocking. For the motherboard, opt for those starting with the “Z” series; the Core i5-4690K supports overclocking, and it can be used with Z87 or Z97 motherboards. In terms of CPU performance, the hierarchy goes from lowest to highest: Celeron, Pentium, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7. Among them, the Core i5 and Core i7 series also have flagship models with a “K” in the model suffix (such as Core i5-4690K, i7-4770K), indicating that they feature an unlocked design and support overclocking. After selecting the CPU, it’s time to choose the motherboard. From a purchasing perspective, the specifications of a chipset mainly depend on whether it supports overclocking. Just look for boards with “Z”-series chipsets: the Z77, Z87, and Z97 flagship chipset boards all support CPU overclocking. Other than that, the differences between these chipsets lie mainly in their support for expansion capabilities (such as the number of USB3.0 ports, the number of SATA III ports, and support for multiple PCI-E cards), but we won’t go into detail on this here. By following this principle, we will waste the CPU overclocking performance for nothing ； When paired with a CPU that is not overclocked, you can choose a motherboard that offers the best value based on your expansion needs. ◆Friendly reminder: 1. If you choose an 8-series motherboard to pair with a new Haswell Refresh CPU, the motherboard’s default BIOS version may not be compatible with the new CPU; it is necessary to update the BIOS version on the official motherboard website in order to use it properly. 2. In the Haswell Refresh generation, the Pentium G3258, as a 20th-anniversary edition of Pentium, also features a locked-frequency design, making it a special case. Once we understand the principles behind pairing CPUs and motherboards on Intel platforms, the next step is to consider our requirements regarding graphics performance (GPU performance), in order to decide whether to use a dedicated graphics card and which type of card will provide the best overall balance of performance. ◆“Entry-level Celeron and Pentium: These CPUs have limited performance; pairing them with a dedicated graphics card is somewhat wasteful. Celeron and Pentium processors are suitable for basic office and home use. However, using them with a dedicated GPU seems like “using a small horse to pull a heavy cart.” Since the CPUs on Intel’s mainstream platforms all come equipped with integrated graphics—what we commonly refer to as iGPUs—although their performance has seen significant improvements in the Haswell architecture, neither the HD4400 found in most Core i3 processors nor the HD4600 integrated into Core i5 and i7 processors can handle mainstream PC games effectively, aside from being able to play HD videos smoothly. The author believes that entry-level Celeron and Pentium processors have relatively low performance, making them suitable for general home use (daily office tasks, HD decoding, light gaming for leisure); in such cases, having a dedicated graphics card is not very necessary. ◆“The “transition” Core i3: Its built-in graphics processor is valuable, and pairing it with a dedicated graphics card is also a good option. The i3’s integrated graphics are sufficient for playing esports and ordinary online games. In terms of performance, the Core i3 occupies a middle ground, falling between entry-level models and high-performance mainstream models; thus, choosing it requires some careful consideration. Generally speaking, there are two directions to consider: if you mainly play esports games such as CF, Dota, and League of Legends, or some online games that don’t require high specifications, then the integrated graphics in a Core i3 is sufficient, allowing you to avoid the cost of a dedicated graphics card; cards in the thousand-yuan price range work well with an i3. However, if you are a fan of traditional desktop games, then having a dedicated graphics card is essential. Players can choose a graphics card in the thousand-yuan range based on their budget: for NVIDIA cards, options like the GTX650, GTX750, GTX750Ti, GTX660, and up to the GTX760 are recommended. For Class A cards, it is recommended to choose models in this price range: R7-260X, HD7850, R9-270, and R9-270X. The performance of a graphics card is ideally at the mid-to-low end of the market. ◆“The mainstream Core i5: Starting at around 1,000 yuan for GPUs with dedicated graphics, with top-tier options being near-flagship models. Core i5 processors represent mainstream performance levels; the vast majority of single-player game players opt for a Core i5 processor. The performance of these processors, when paired with dedicated graphics cards, is somewhat similar to that of Core i3 processors. The price range starts around 1,000 yuan, with the upper limit being around the price of the latest generation of near-flagship graphics cards. The GTX770 is now available for less than 2,000 yuan, offering a good cost-performance ratio when paired with an i5 processor. For NVIDIA GPUs, options include the GTX660, GTX760, and GTX770; the GTX970, which belongs to the Maxwell architecture, is also more than sufficient. For the A-series cards, there are R9-270X, R9-280, R9-280X, R9-285, R9-290, etc. Although CPU performance is relatively abundant these days, especially at the Core i5 level, the CPU is often not the bottleneck for gaming performance; game frame rates and graphical quality mainly depend on the graphics card. However, a budget of 2000–2500 yuan for a graphics card represents a reasonable upper limit. ◆“The high-end Core i7: The sub-flagship and flagship models represent the best combinations. The new flagship GPU based on the Maxwell architecture, the GTX980, can work well in tandem with flagship CPUs. Among Intel’s mainstream platform processors, aside from the Core i7, the i5 models that can be overclocked also have performance capabilities on par with those of the i7 tier (they are slightly inferior in multi-threading, but this doesn’t result in a significant difference in gaming applications). However, for gamers who opt for high-end hardware, although mid-range graphics cards offer good cost-effectiveness, they seem rather out of place when used with high-end platforms. Therefore, when price sensitivity is not a major concern, choosing mid-range or flagship graphics cards as standard, or even setting up multiple graphics cards using CrossFireX or SLI, are all suitable options. ◆““APU, Athlon, FX” – these three series dominate the market. We’ll focus on AMD’s platform; its CPU product lines mainly consist of the APU series, Athlon series, and FX series. From the perspective of actual purchases, the mainstream models of APU and Athlon are all affordable quad-core processors ； As AMD’s high-performance processor series, the FX series focuses on multiple cores; the most worthwhile models to purchase are those with six or eight cores, as these differ significantly from APU and Athlon processors. The APU, Athlon, and FX series are distinct from each other; we will not cover the older models here. Starting with the Bulldozer architecture, the APU and Athlon series share the same pins as well as corresponding motherboard interfaces ； The FX series has always used a separate set of pins and motherboard interface systems. APU series: Aside from the first-generation APU that used the FM1 interface (which has no value for purchase, and the FM1 interface as well as the corresponding A55 and A75 chipsets will not be discussed further), subsequent versions were introduced: the bulldozer architecture (second-generation APU), the pile driver architecture (third-generation APU), and the roller architecture (the latest generation, Kaveri APU). Both bulldozers and rollers are equipped with the FM2 interface, while the Kaveri APU for rollers uses the FM2+ interface. Athlon series: Aside from the Athlon 860K, which was released recently and features the FM2+ interface, most of the affordable and popular models (Athlon 740, 750K, 760K) use the FM2 interface. FX series: The current main models, FX-6300, FX-8320, FX-8150, FX-8350, and FX-8300, all use AM3+ sockets. By clarifying the above issues, we have completed the first step. ◆The FM2+ interface is compatible with FM2 sockets: Motherboards based on the A78 and A88X chipsets are affordable and effective; they are compatible with CPUs that use both FM2 and FM2+ sockets. Motherboards featuring the FM2+ interface (those based on the A58, A78, and A88X chipsets) can not only support CPUs with FM2+ sockets natively but also work with CPUs using FM2 sockets. Since FM2+ motherboard prices are not high, the author recommends that whether you choose a new or older APU, or an Athlon series processor, opt for A78 or A88X motherboards (A58 motherboards have lower specifications and are not recommended); upgrading to a Kaveri processor is a more convenient way to save money. Additionally, the difference between motherboards based on the A78 and A88X chipsets also lies in their expansion capabilities. (For example, for players who set up RAID arrays, the A88X chipset supports the Raid 5 mode in addition to Raid 0, 1, and 10, as compared to the A78 chipset.) ) Overall, the practicality difference between the two chipsets is not significant, and users can choose based on brand and price. Friendly reminder: 1. It is relatively easy to choose a motherboard for FX series CPUs. The corresponding chipsets (970, 990X, 990FX) differ mainly in terms of power supply specifications and expansion capabilities. Generally speaking, well-known brand motherboards can provide sufficient power support; only very few motherboards have limits on the power consumption of CPUs, and they may not be compatible with flagship CPUs like the FX-8350. 2. The AMD platform does not impose any restrictions on motherboard chipsets regarding overclocking; therefore, as long as the CPU is a version without frequency locks, the motherboard paired with it will provide overclocking support. All CPUs in Intel’s mainstream platforms come equipped with integrated graphics, but AMD follows a clearer strategy: only APU processors have integrated graphics, and the performance of these integrated graphics is quite good. The other Athlon and FX series do not come equipped with integrated graphics, but the Athlon series is aimed at budget-conscious users, while the FX series offers higher performance and is suitable for mid-to-high-end gamers. Naturally, the graphics card specifications for these two series differ as well; we will discuss this in three sections below. ◆“\"Powerful integrated graphics\" APU: It’s a disadvantage when paired with a dedicated GPU! If a dedicated graphics card is used, then a powerful integrated graphics chip in an APU becomes unnecessary. From the first generation of APUs to today’s Kaveri APU processors, AMD has been continuously improving the performance of integrated graphics chips. The integrated graphics chip in the Kaveri APU even uses the GCN architecture; it is a R7 series graphics chip. The flagship model, the A10-7850K, comes with as many as 8 GPU computing cores, which allow it to run many games smoothly even at the default graphics settings. If our requirements for game graphics aren’t high, it’s indeed possible to play many games smoothly. So if our budget is tight, there’s no need for a dedicated graphics card; an APU processor is a good choice. But if a dedicated graphics card is used, the advantage of the APU’s integrated graphics is completely lost; after all, it has an integrated graphics chip in addition to the cores that it offers over Athlon processors of the same class. Of course, if we originally had an APU with integrated graphics, it’s also a good option to choose a cost-effective graphics card later on in order to improve performance. ◆“The “user-friendly” Athlon: A GPU costing up to 1,000 yuan is a suitable choice; the R7-260X paired with an Athlon offers significantly better GPU performance, although its cost is higher than that of the A10-7850K. In the past couple of years, Athlon processors based on the bulldozer, pile driver, and roller architectures have been introduced – in simple terms, these are products that lack the integrated graphics chip found in APU models. However, Athlon processors with the same architecture and specifications are priced at roughly half the cost of APUs. If you’re dissatisfied with the graphics performance of an APU and have a limited budget for DIY builds, opting for an Athlon allows you to use the saved money to purchase a graphics card. However, given the limited performance of Athlon processors, a graphics card with a price range of around 500-1000 yuan is generally suitable when used in combination with them. One can consider the graphics cards paired with Core i3 processors; options such as GTX740, GTX650, as well as GTX660 and HD7850 within the 1000-yuan price range should all be good choices. ◆“The “multi-core” FX series: Mid-to-high-end graphics cards that utilize the FX series are mainly based on older flagship models, which are the bestsellers; graphics cards in the 1500–2000 yuan range are suitable for this purpose. Lastly, there’s AMD’s high-end multi-core processor series, the FX series. Since no new models have been released for this series recently, there is only one high-power flagship model available this year, the FX-9590, which comes with a water-cooling system – yet it’s also in short supply and hard to find. The high-end models in this series – the FX-8300, FX8320, and FX-8350 – all fall within the price range of 800–1000 yuan. When paired with flagship graphics cards that cost over 3000 yuan, this constitutes an unbalanced combination compared to the price of the CPU. The author recommends choosing mid-to-high-end graphics cards priced around 1500–2000 yuan for such configurations. The R9-280X offers good value for money in the 1500-2000 yuan price range. Since the AMD platform has always been considered affordable, players who choose AMD’s high-end platforms do so because of its cost-effectiveness. If your budget allows for it, the R9-290X and R9-290 among the A-series graphics cards are priced at 2,500 yuan and 2,000 yuan respectively. These represent the lowest prices ever for flagship and sub-flagship models. When paired with the flagship FX series processors, they offer great cost-effectiveness in terms of building a high-end gaming platform. Of course, if the budget is a bit tighter, within the 1500–2000 yuan range, the R9-280X is also an affordable excellent option that falls just below the tier of flagship GPUs; it enables smooth gameplay with high graphics settings in most standalone games, and it also aligns well with AMD’s tradition of offering cost-effective solutions. CPU: Athlon II X4 760K (in box), 400 yuan. Motherboard: ASUS A88XMA, 402 yuan; MSI A88X-G41 PC Mate, 499 yuan. GPU: GTX660 Black Edition, 1199 yuan