Paranoid Professor

The CPU is going to get hot, really hot and so you need to keep it cool. This was covered above under the topic of CPU Cooler. Yet that is not everything as the GPU will also generate heat and both the CPU and GPU will be inside a metal box.

All cases will have a case fan or two but quite a few of the larger cases have a few prepared locations for an extra fan or two (or five).

The question of how many to add depends on how you plan on venting the hot air. There essentially are three different situations in the case.

• Positive pressure
• Negative pressure
• Neutral

Neutral pressure simply means that the amount of air coming in is equal to the amount going out. Positive pressure is when more air comes in compared to the amount going out and conversely the negative pressure is when more air is coming out compared to coming in.

It is impossible to be truly positive or negative pressure, in that situation the extra pressure will equalize via any crack or opening in the case.

Obviously the best case would be neutral pressure but failing that positive pressure would be the next best. The over pressure will escape via cracks. This usually means that the incoming air is filtered and then escapes but the negative pressure situation will have unfiltered air entering into the case via all cracks or openings. The unfiltered air means that dirt will begin to accumulate in your case.

There are different sizes of fans but the most common sizes are 120mm and 140mm. Larger fans will push more air which means that they can spin slower and will be quieter.

Air pressure examples

Selecting a power supply is somewhat anticlimatic in comparision to some of the other accessories. It is a matter of getting a supply that is big enough to support your accessories

Power supply calculator

https://www.bequiet.com/en/psucalculator

Power supply calculator

https://www.coolermaster.com/power-supply-calculator/

Power supply calculator

I choose a modular power supply so I can connect only the cables that I need and specifically the Dark Power Pro as the cables were slightly longer than other bequiet power solutions.

Any computer needs a hard disk to hold the operating system and any other types of work that you do. As recently as a few years, ok perhaps 10, the only question was how large of a hard disk do you need and the only hard disks were mechanical.

There were a few different types, but basically the difference was how fast were the platters spinning which affects how quickly the data can be returned. For mechanical hard disk the data throughput rate was about 100mb per second.

The biggest advance was the invention of the SATA SSD which is a huge advance as the hard disk is just a bank of memory. The delays due to spinning disks is eliminated and the throughput skyrocketed to about 500mb per second. This transfer rate actually approached the limits of the SATA interface.

The most recent breakthrough was when the NVME M.2 SSD hard disks. The difference was the change of the electroncs from the SATA to the PCI bus. This resulted in another giant breakthrough to data transfers of from 2100mb per second.

History and comparison of hard disks up through NVME SSD disks.

Visual demonstration of different disk technology in load times

Selecting ram for the computer is actually very similar to deciding on a graphic card. You need to know what will you be using a computer for and how much memory is needed for that task.

Depending on your motherboard you will have 2 or 4 slots for memory. Picking which memory modules are appropriate are difficult unless you have a way to sell any used memory. It is possible to select 4 x 8gb modules and you then have 32gb of memory but if you need more you either have to replace some or all of the memory. It could be possible to remove two of the “8gb” modules and replace them with 16gb modules. This would change the memory from 32gb or 48gb.

As I am planning on running virtual machines lots of memory is advantageous.

In theory all memory is following the same specifications so you should be able to pick any module but the motherboard manufacturer does have lists of memory from various ram manufacturers that is supported.

Picking a graphics card depends on what you are planning on doing with your computer.

• Play games
• Mine bitcoin
• Play super intensive fast pace games
• Surf the internet
• Watching youtube videos

Once you have answered which one or more of these you will need a graphics card most of the decision is done. The next question is do you or your games need cuda support. Cuda is a parallel programming library developed by Nvidia and runs exclusively on Nvidia. Thus if you need Cuda your decision of which GPU vendor has been decided.

An up and coming alternative to Cuda is Vulkan. Vulkan is a cross platform computing API which is intended to replace OpenGL or Direct3D and also offers parallel processing.

If Vulkan actually becomes more common it could allow more and higher quality games to be available on other operating systems than windows.

The final piece or the decision is how much money can you afford. Both Nvidia and AMD do have graphic cards that cover the price spectrum. Usually this is selecting either a slightly older model or the latest and greatest GPU. It is just a matter of getting the most GPU that you can afford that fulfills what you need a computer for.

I already discussed some about the CPU cooler. There are essentially three different choices you can make

• Air cooled
• All in one
• Custom water cooled

The aircooled cooler is pretty much just as it says. It is a fan that is connected to a heatsink which is attached to your CPU and when it runs it keeps it cool. There are two other somewhat similar air cooled options

• U-Type
• C-Type

Both of these CPU coolers have some pipes full of liquid in a heatsink. Attached to this heatsink is one or two fans. The fanes pull the heat out of the heatsink and essentially into your case which is why your case needs to a way to dispose of this heat. The actual name “U” Type comes from how the heat pipes are relative to the rest of the heatsink. In the case of “U”, they are oriented like a U relative to the CPU.

An all-in-one cooler is actually similar to a air cooler on steroids. It has its own radiator full of liquid and pipes that lead directly to the pump which is connected to the heat sink that is mounted on the CPU. The pump pulls cool liquid to the CPU to cool it and sends off the warm liquid to the radiator. The radiator typically has multiple fans which will blow cool air over the warm radiator and thus draw the heat out so it can then return to cool the CPU.

There is really not much sense in me discussion a custom water cooled solution. This tends to be a highly customized solution that is built by the user. They select parts that will fit together and essentially assemble something similar to an all in one cooler. Yet this is only similar, the main difference is that custom water cooled solutions need to be monitored and maintained.

It is possible that an all-in-one solution, after a few years in service, may begin to evaporate. This is a slow process and over time and if this become a problem the entire all-in-one cooler will need to be replaced.

The air cooled solution may not be able to cool as high of a load (think bit coin mining or extensive video editing) but if the fan starts to go, it can be removed and replaced with a new fan. In this situation the heatsink will remain to cool the CPU although less effectively – you mileage may vary.

Dark Rock Pro 4 – installation and review

Note: Make sure that your cooler supports the socket type for your CPU. This might require purchasing additional mounting hardware.

Picking a case is to a certain extent a decision based on your preferences. The CPU or GPU won’t go any faster by having a larger or smaller case.

The only limitations are that the case you purchase does support the size of your motherboard.

• Extended ATX (E-ATX)
• ATX
• micro ATX (mATX)
• Mini ITX

However, there is yet another couple of considerations when picking a case. The case has to be large enough to contain the motherboard but it must also support a graphics card if you choose a discrete graphics card. Simply put you cannot get a graphics card that is 12” long if there is only space for a 10” card which is the average size.

The available size for the graphic card depends on the case but if you have a tower case it also depends on any internal mounting hardware such as what might be used for hard disks or DVD’s.

One more consideration on the size of case is how large the CPU cooler is, if you choose an aftermarket air cooled fan for your CPU. Some CPU’s are sold with a cooler which typically appears to be a fan that is laying on top of the CPU. As you can imagine this not a very high cooler and would probably fit into all or almost all cases.

After market CPU coolers can be quite tall. The Noctua NH-D15 is actually 16.5cm tall. Thus if you are choosing such a CPU cooler you have to get case that will accommodate such a large cooler.

One of the least important attributes for the running of the computer is how the case looks but that is important for the owner as it displays a sense of style. The Final but probably most important consideration is airflow of the case. Both the GPU and CPU will generate heat when the computer is running. These pieces of equipment last longer and work better when cooled and to major (air cooled) or minor (water cooled) degree you should get a case that allows in cool air. How much air is required depends on the CPU and GPU but also how many intake and exhaust fans are running.

Case Dissassembly and review

Deciding on a motherboard is less of a religion than finding something that you can afford and that supports your processor.

The question of the motherboard is more complicated depending on how high end of a CPU you are planning on using. If you are just planning on a small 4 core/8 thread pc you could probably get away with any of the existing compatible motherboards. It would most certainly be overkill to get the brand new x570 AMD motherboards if you are planning on getting an Ryzen 3 with only has 4 cores.

With certainty you could find a motherboard from last years lineup and use it with even the most current Ryzen 3, well with a few exceptions. If You are planning on going to the other extreme and getting a high end processor you might then opt for a newer motherboard with all of the new functionality. It might not be necessary to have a PCI 4 bus for your new Ryzen 7 or 9 CPU but if you are getting a high end processor you might also be getting a high end graphics card and that would benefit from the faster PCI 4 bus.

In my case the decision was to go with one of the existing motherboards that supports the AM4 and 3^rd gen ryzen or to get one of the new motherboards that is chock full of newer technology.

Depending on the boards you might also be talking about better built in audio, more support m.2 cards, built in Wifi or even 2.5 gigabyte Ethernet port. Other things might also be availble such as newer easier to use versions of Bios or the ability to flash the firmware without even having a CPU.

Both motherboards have the AM4 socket which was released in 2017 and seems to be holding strong. The socket seems scheduled to be in use into 2020. How to actually select a motherboard is really difficult. I have done a lot of research and it is not to difficult to find negative reviews for all of the different motherboards.

My old computer is about 56 years old (in dog years) and I can only imagine that my new computer will also be kept for longer then the normal two or three years upgrade cycle. With this in mind I will be getting the current x570 which supports pci4 which will future proof things.

A lot of these options are actually available on a lot of x570 motherboards with the exception of the 7 segment display for post codes.

There is of course one additional consideration, the ability to install Linux. This actually falls under the heading of the UEFI bios and the ability to disable secure boot so I can install a non-microsoft signed operating system.

Note: make sure you get a motherboard with the same socket as your CPU.

Building a pc tends to be done by enthusiasts and so it is done by people who know the difference between ram and the hard disk. With that in mind selecting a cpu tends to become more of a question of which technical religion do you follow – Intel or AMD. Over the last few decades the undisputed champion of performance has been Intel, after all they did create the processor that made its way into the IBM personal computer from which most pc’s share their common ancestry.

Despite being in the AMD camp for a very long time I had also eyed the Intel I7 processors but never quite had the money for a processor which hasn’t changed dramatically over the last decade. It was only in 2017 when AMD changed the game. Since then I had been hoping to get the 1^st or 2^nd generation threadripper which would have more than doubled the processing power I currently have if my computer were twice as powerful as it is.

Late last year when I started to have some computer troubles I decided to get started. The AMD 3^rd generation threadrippers were coming out but AMD had gone over the top. The new low end threadripper now has 24 cores and despite the relative cost performance to the Intel being quite good I seem to have been priced out of the threadripper market. It isn’t just the processor but the cost of an entire system which was getting a bit rich for my budget. Well not only that but 16 core/32 thread processor was probably more than I could fully utilize.

This is a tremendous jump in capability over just a few years which in itself would be amazing but AMD’s entire line has taken a jump in abilities but they have also just released their own enthusiast chip Ryzen 9 3900x. This chip has 12 cores and 24 threads and the bigger brother 3950x has also been released. This chip will have 16 cores and 32 threads which is just as formidable as the first generation threadripper.

The Ryzen 9 3900x is an amazing chip which is quite muscular and should be relatively future proof for my particular uses.

The decision of the processor allows me to move on to the next decision which is which motherboard I should purchase.

My experiences of building my own pc’s has been somewhat mixed. I had considerable help building the last two machines I have had by my friend Mikhail. When I say I had help building that means I created the requirements and he waded through the technical jungles to come up with a compatible parts list.

Oh, sure I helped to assemble them. My last one I assembled in its entirety including all the backwards fans. Once I was done my work was reviewed which is when some of my missteps were discovered and then corrected.

This time around I have to fly solo and do everything myself. I am both good with my hands and not afraid of electronics so how hard could it be? It did take a lot longer to come up to speed on all the changes in technology than I thought it would but I thought I would. Not only does the internet is full of all the information you need to know but it is also covered in a greater depth than I am prepared to go.

I know a couple of people who are considering building their own computer so I am pulling together a general list of the technology as well as a basic explanation of each. I am listing what I learned during my research. This will highlight a lot of the interesting or tricky steps as well as include links to a lot of supporting material.

Over the next few days I will be writing up my notes on the entire process and a quick summary after the process is over.

This series contains links to some of the resources I used as well as a few hardware vendors. I have not received anything from any of the vendors or websites. This information is included as it was either described better than I could do it or by someone who could be considered to be an expert.