Full PC Build (from scratch, on a budget)

Who: Chris B.
When: October 2018

This is my own personal PC build. I was using a Dell Precision 380 Workstation PC made in 2006, but the PC could not handle the 2018 environment. I finally decided to build a new PC from scratch, saving only the hard drives for backup storage. I purchased the original motherboard, RAM, CPU, and PSU from a friend of mine, and purchased the remainder of the build myself. I have further updates planned for this PC, and once I implement them, I’ll put up a new post with pics and details. (I will be cleaning up the cable management of this PC when I pick up a modular PSU for it, as nonmodular PSUs make maximizing PSU shroud storage painful)

Full Build (as pictured):

• CASE: NZXT H440i Mid Tower, Matted Black / Red
• MOBO: MSI X370 Gaming Plus (past: MSI B350M Pro-VDH)
• CPU: Ryzen 3 1300X (3.2 GHz stock, stable overclock to 3.8 GHz) (future: Ryzen 7 1700X or 2700X)
• COOLER: AMD Wraith Stealth Low-Profile Air Cooler (future: Cooler Master ML120RGB)
• RAM: 16 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws V, DDR4-3000 (2×8 GB) (past: 4 GB Patriot Viper, DDR4-2400 (1×4 GB)) (future: will expand to 32 GB by adding a second matched 2×8 GB set)
• GPU: MSI Radeon RX 560 – 1024 4G AERO ITX (future: Powercolor Radeon RX 580 “Red Dragon” 8 GB)
• PSU: (future: Corsair 650 Watt ATX, 80+ Bronze, Modular)
• HDD1: Samsung 970 EVO, M.2 nVME, 250 GB (best M.2 in the world as of this post!)
• HDD2: Western Digital CAVIAR, SATA3, 380 GB (future: Team L5 Lite SSD, 1 TB)
• HDD3: Western Digital CAVIAR, SATA3, 80 GB
• WIFI: PCE-A51 PCI Express X1, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (dual-band)
• LED: LEDdess LED Strips, Red (1 in case; 1 on bottom, as under-glow)