Choosing Components

Welcome to the choosing components section of the wiki. Here we will, as the name states, choose the components for your computer. First we will choose a CPU, the central processing unit, for the computer. This will determine what kind of motherboard and RAM you will need to select for everything to work together. The two manufactures of CPUs for desktop computers are Intel and AMD. Both options have their pros and cons but it is best to choose what is right for your use case. If you are planning to use the computer primarily for gaming eight CPU cores should be plenty, but if you are going to be using the computer for more CPU intensive tasks you may want extra cores. Intel and AMD have plenty of options for almost any use case. IN addition to the CPU itself you will also need a cooler which can come in the form of air cooling or liquid cooling each has their advantages and disadvantages, for most people air cooling will be perfectly fine for their use case. Generally Intel is better in single threaded performance, how much work a single software thread can complete in a given time. AMD generally is better in power efficiency, multi threaded performance, and longevity.

Once you have selected a CPU you will need a motherboard for the CPU and all of the other components to connect to. Intel and AMD use different sockets for their CPUs and have different naming schemes for their motherboards. Current, as of writing this, Intel is using LGA 1851 for their newest CPUs LGA 1851 motherboards. AMD is using their AM5 socket for their most recent series of CPUs AM5 Motherboards.

After choosing a motherboard you will need to select RAM, random access memory, for your computer. In a desktop the minimum recommended amount of RAM is 16GB with most people going for 32 GB due to how resource hungry windows and other programs can be. Most new builds are going to be using DDR5 which is the fastest and best for desktops, as of writing this. In addition to RAM you will also need storage to store all of your files, apps, and operating system. Most computers are going to have between 256 GB of storage and one terabyte, 1024 GB of storage. This should provide enough storage for the average user but if you keep a lot of files, are a creative or, use your computer gaming then two terabytes of storage oddly be a good lace to start. Storage drives come in two different forms, SSD and HDDs or hard disk drives. SSD stands for solid-state storage drive. SSDs are similar to flash drives but generally much faster, these are good for apps that need quick access to files. HHDs are good for long term storage and archival of files because they are fairly resistant to failure.