Building my first pc was fun and surprisingly easy.

The first and hardest part was choosing parts.

For the CPU, I chose the Ryzen 5 5600. It offers some of the best price-performance ratios in lower-end builds.

The GPU is the RX 6750xt, which beats the 7600xt in virtually everything for the same price. It destroys anything Nvidia has to offer on the lower end. Namely the 4060. Which for similar prices gets significantly worse performance. Not to mention the fact that it only has 8 gigabytes of VRAM compared to the 6750xts 12 gigabytes.

The ram is a 2x16 kit of 3600mhz ddr4 with a case latency of 18. Specifically the g.skill Trident Z RGB. While there are some better value options for ram and higher-performing options, this kit isn't much more than others but has RGB lighting which I like the look off.

The motherboard is the MSI b550m Pro VDH Wifi. This is an undisputed champion for budget am4 builds. For only 90 dollars it offers wifi and other nice features like lots of IO. Compared to other similar-priced motherboards this leaves little to be desired.

The power supply is an MSI mag a650bn. There are definitely better options out there such as the ADATA XPG kyber 650w. This is what was in stock about a month ago when I bought all my parts.

The SSD is the teamgroup mp44l 1tb. This SSD is one of the most affordable gen4 m.2s. Beating out most other competing priced SSDs. Like the crucial p3 plus which is known to have some quality issues. And the Kingston nv2, which has major quality control issues.

The final part is the case, which isn't very important other than for looks. I chose the Sama 2771 because i like the dual chamber design. Which has a separate chamber for the power supply rather than having it under the computer. This give you more space for cable management and makes the computer shorter which is mainly an aesthetics thing. The case also comes with 3 ARGB fans. And has a "fish tank" design which has been getting more popular. In a fish tank case the front panel is glass allowing you too see the internals easier.

Front view of the computer

                          

The assembly was relatively smooth but had some challenges. I didn't have my CPU while assembling so I put the SSD and RAM into the motherboard and then installed it into the case. Then I installed the graphics card and power supply. I plugged in all the cables and then wired the case front IO in, which is a hard process due to the power supply cables blocking access to the front cable. And how small the cables are. However, I was able to finish pretty quickly. The next day I got the CPU and installed it along with the CPU cooler. I booted it for the first time and it had no issues. I plugged in my windows USB and ethernet than installed Windows, all my apps, and my drivers.

Side view of the computer

One problem did arise. The fan's lighting was not working with my computer. It was a wiring issue from the case

manufacturer. So I had to rewire the fans and daisy chain the argb to fix it.

Now here are the benefits of a custom-built pc over a prebuilt or laptop.

The biggest benefit is cost saving. Although you do have extra work and research to do you will save at the minimum hundreds of dollars.

Especially with laptops which have underclocked worse performing parts for the same price as the desktop variants.

Another major benefit is customization. With a prebuilt, you can only buy that specific pc configuration. Let's say you like everything about a computer except the case. You can't swap out the case without buying the computer and wasting the provided case.

Another major benefit is upgradability, laptops aren't upgradable at all. If you want a better processor in a laptop you'd need to buy a new one. Whereas with a pc you can just buy it and swap it out. And with some prebuilt pcs they use custom parts that don't work with anything other than the parts they provide.

Buying a laptop or prebuilt is easier and doesn't require the same research. But you lose out on a fun experience and something that can turn into a hobby or even a job.