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PC building rules I used to ignore
If I were building a PC today, there's a lot I'd strive to get right. I'd pick the best CPU and GPU I could within the budget, balance all other components based on performance and value for money, not cheap out on the crucial stuff, and keep esthetics and peripherals in mind. When I was younger, however, I ignored all these best practices, and just went with the cheapest hardware.
Some of my worst picks weren't even the cheapest options — I was just so ignorant about building a PC that balanced performance, esthetics, and budget. So, here's a look back at the PC building rules I never knew I was flouting.
Investing in good peripherals
They're essential to the PC experience
Of course, peripherals were the last things on my mind when I was starved for cash — the quality of the keyboard and mouse didn't matter to me. If I were struggling to buy a decent graphics card, how was I expected to care about peripherals? So, the kind of keyboard and mouse I had on my desk were pretty much what you'd expect — the cheapest possible models from brands no one had heard of.
They looked ridiculous, didn't add anything to the experience, and didn't last very long. Today, I know the importance of investing in the best mechanical keyboards and mice — they not only enhance my typing and gaming experience, but also make me more productive. My childhood self hadn't heard about productivity, and gaming performance was simply a function of whether my PC was able to launch a game.
Giving esthetics their proper due
I only learned it with time
A PC is much more than a machine you build to complete certain tasks. It's often a deeply prized possession where looks can matter just as much as performance. I never had these notions in my head when I was 15 or even 20 years old. You can see that from the kind of PC cases, peripherals, and monitors I used in my early years. The concept of esthetics hadn't yet formed in my head, so it never occurred to me to focus on how my PC looked.
Three years ago, when I was picking the components for my current build, I tried to get as many white-themed components as possible to build an all-white PC. I used SignalRGB to sync all the lighting inside the PC, and even combined that with Wallpaper Engine to ensure the PC was displaying the colors on my monitor screen at any given moment. My desk is also white, and has wireless peripherals now. And the monitor is a 27" 1440p 144Hz display from LG.
I also have a few plants on and around my desk, and many figurines adorning the interior and exterior of my PC. If your PC and setup don't look inviting, and more importantly, personalized, you're not getting the most out of it.
Picking a decent case
The curious case of ignorance
Airflow and cable management were also alien concepts to me until I built a first-gen Ryzen PC back in 2017. Even then, I made some questionable choices when it came to the case. I was on a strict budget, and wanted to spend as little as possible, so I got a Corsair Carbide SPEC-04, which was as barebones as they came. If I go back in time, the cases before that didn't even have decent air intake or cable management features. They looked like something an office PC would have.
The cooling setup of my earliest builds was hanging on by hopes and prayers. I wasn't using programs like HWiNFO or MSI Afterburner to overclock or monitor my GPU and CPU, so I didn't care which CPU cooler or case fans I had. My CPU temps must have been in dangerous territory, and my GPU would have been gasping for air during gaming. If I were picking a case today, I'd look at build quality, looks, airflow, form factor, pre-installed fans, component clearance, and compatibility with upgrades.
Avoiding cheap PSUs
It should go without saying
This is perhaps one of the biggest blunders I routinely committed from the ages of 15 to 25. Not being aware of the critical importance of a quality power supply, many of my PCs either had off-brand power supplies or unreliable units from known manufacturers. The first custom PC that we ever got probably had one of those power supplies with a silver case and no allegiances to any known brand.
I remember even using repaired power supplies on our PC without a second thought about its load-bearing capacity or dangers to the other components. Fortunately, I didn't have to go through an exploding power supply or other associated mishaps to learn a hard lesson. Today, I check a long list of things before finalizing a power supply for a build. The PSU is the number one thing you shouldn't cheap out on, no matter what. Even on a limited budget, there are always decent options available.
Striking a good CPU-GPU balance
I was sheltering unknown bottlenecks
The first PC I ever built didn't even have a discrete graphics card, and when I finally got the Radeon HD 5670 in 2010, it wasn't a result of much deliberation — I just got a cheap 2GB VRAM card that I could afford. So, pairing the right GPU with the CPU was never something that crossed my mind, even when I picked the GTX 1050 Ti with the Ryzen 5 1600 in 2017.
The latter was influenced by my limited budget, but I should have stretched to at least the GTX 1060 6GB. The graphics card is the main driver in any gaming build, and it's better to compromise a bit on the CPU rather than skimp on the GPU. Building a balanced gaming PC means extracting the most FPS out of your budget while maintaining a healthy level of future compatibility and respectable esthetics.
The more you know...
When I didn't know better, I regularly flouted the most fundamental rules of PC building. Using off-brand components, ignoring airflow and esthetics, and picking the wrong CPUs and GPUs for a budget — these were some of my biggest mistakes. Once I educated myself on the importance of investing in quality peripherals, power supplies, and cases, everything fell into place. Picking good-looking components isn't as difficult as it might s