Desktop Computer

Jan 1, 2020

Desktop Computer

Overview

I had the desire to build a computer during the ending years of high school and at the beginning of college but never had the money or resources to justify the cost and time. Finally, at the beginning of the summer of 2020, I felt like I was in a position to pursue this desire. I then began to design the type of system that I wanted.

Building an end-all be-all system with high-end, maxed-out components wouldn't make a lot of sense. First, I wouldn't need this type of processing power, and second because in a few short years all of those components would be outdated.

Current Parts List

Type	Item
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard	Gigabyte B550 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory	Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
SSD Storage	Western Digital Blue 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
HD Storage	Seagate BarraCuda 1 TB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (x2)
Graphics Card	MSI GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB GAMING Z Video Card
Case	Corsair 275R ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply	EVGA B5 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Monitor	Asus TUF GAMING VG249Q 23.8" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor
Keyboard	Logitech G413 Silver Wired Gaming Keyboard
Mouse	Logitech G602 Wireless Optical Mouse

PCPartPicker Part List

Desktop Parts

Timeline

Wednesday August 5, 2020

Vertical GPU and Plant

Thursday July 2, 2020

Extra storage and mouse upgrade

Tuesday June 30, 2020

FINISHED THE BUILD!

The build took about 4 hours from parts to Windows. The two biggest problems were that I forgot to power the GPU during the first post and also overheating the CPU during Windows install. I wanted to make sure the system would post so after installing the GPU, RAM, CPU, and storage I attempted a boot. The graphics card wasn't powering on, and I soon realized this was because I wasn't giving it power from the power supply. After getting graphical output, I attempted to install Windows. At this point, I did not have the CPU cooler installed; however, I did not think this was going to be a problem. I was completely wrong. Installing an OS is a very CPU-intensive process, and the CPU would overheat not very far into the install. I only realized this was my problem by accidentally touching the CPU (and burning myself). After that, I installed the CPU cooler, and the rest of the process was relatively smooth. Cable management was fairly clean. The case provided several conveniently placed ports with rubber flaps to feed cables through. The only complaint that I have is there was not a direct route for the cables to take on the back side of the motherboard around the hard drive bays and into the PSU area. However, after it was all said and done, my inner OCD was very pleased. I tuned all of the RGB to a white output which really pulled the build together and gave it that clean look that I was after. An unintentional byproduct was the reflection of RAM's white LEDs from the metal backing on the GPU. It actually splits the spectrum into RGB which looks pretty cool. I am extremely happy with the final product!