After months of planning and collecting parts, I finally had everything I needed to assemble my first computer. My wants for it were for some light gaming, video processing, coding, but mostly for the experience. If I was going to work in IT, I NEEDED to build this computer. Plus, it will help with gaining experience in building a home network, and building labs in virtual environments.
First thing I had to figure out was what processor to go with, AMD or Intel. After considering what I want to use the PC for, I decided on the Intel i5 12600K. With 12 cores and 16 threads, it was more than enough for the job I was going to ask it to do. And to cool it, a Vetroo V5 cooling tower and RGB fan.
For the motherboard, I wanted to make sure it had built in WiFi, be DDR4 capable and have plenty of input/output (I/O) ports for various peripherals and add-ons. With that in mind, I decided to go with MSI MAG B660 Tomahawk WiFi DDR4 ATX Gaming Motherboard. It has the space for DDR4 RAM, enough M.2 slots for the solid state drives I planned on putting in it, and just a bunch of I/O ports.
Because I like to multi-task, memory was also important for me. I went with two 16 GB DDR4 RAM sticks from Corsair. My intention is to add two more just like it, bit 32 GB will be good for now.
Storage was going to be two M.2 SSD’s from Samsung. A 500 GB SSD for the operating system, and a 1 TB SSD for the main storage.
For the graphics processing unit (GPU), I didn’t need top of the line, my bank account also didn’t need it. But I wanted to be able to play games, and run video processing so I couldn’t go super cheap either. I landed on a Zotac GeForce RTX3060, which I couldn’t be happier with at this stage. Plus, I got it for under 300 on Amazon Prime Day!
Lastly. I wanted to make sure the power supply unit (PSU) was up for the task of powering everything and then some, so I went with a Thermaltake 750W fully modular PSU. I was only rated to consume less than 400W, but wanted to make sure I had room to grow.
So, what now? As Ham Solo once said, “That’s the trick isn’t it?”, I can do whatever I want. First, Diablo 4, then start learning Active Directory using a virtual machine. I’ll keep you posted.
Cheers!