Best PC Build 2021: PC Parts Explained | How to Build A PC 2021

are you a new or returning pc builder who's confused about the current pc parts market in 2021 maybe you're not sure what cpu and motherboard combos go together or maybe you're still trying to understand how to get the features that you want out of your pc build and this pc parts explained 2021 edition we're going to go over pc parts for beginners and returning builders including both amd and intel platforms from the best gaming pc parts explained 2021 to the best video editing pc parts explained we're going to get you what you need and that's coming right up [Music] hi welcome back to pcbuilder i'm jason i am really excited about this video because it's been a long time coming now if you're new to the channel you might not know that we've done deep dive videos on a number of pc parts including best ram best cpus best motherboards best coolers and more and of course i'm going to put a link up in the card to the entire series right there today we're bringing it all together in a compact best pc parts explained 2021 edition this video is going to give you a broad overview of what each pc component is what to think about when buying it and how it all connects together of course that's what this channel is all about it's about getting you the best price of performance in your pc if you get value out of this video give it a like to support the channel and of course subscribe and click the bell icon to get notified of new content with that let's jump into it we're going to kick off our pc parts explain for beginners with one of the most important decisions you're going to make and that is the central processing unit or cpu now there's two major cpu makers amd and intel and they make a variety of cpus but we're just focusing on the consumer desktop cpus today i want to highlight my recent best cpu for gaming 2021 video where i go into everything in a lot more detail and i'll put a link to that down in the description and up in the card right there the cpu connects into the motherboard and is the brain of the computer but the cpu itself has more than one brain it can use at a time those are called cores most modern processors are at least four cores and they come in 6 8 10 12 and 16 core versions the more cores the more the cpu can do at once though some tasks like gaming only need between four and eight cores depending on the game and how powerful the cpu is now with all the current intel core and amd ryzen processors like this one here each of the cpu cores can do two tasks simultaneously and we call this multi-threading so when i say the ryzen 5600x has six cores and 12 threads that means it has six cores that can each do roughly two things at the same time some cpus come with integrated graphics like all of the intel cpus that do not have an f in the name and amd cpus that have a g in their name like the ryzen 3400g however most of the uses for the integrated graphics are just for people who do mostly office tasks and if you're gaming or doing video editing type of work you're going to use a dedicated graphics card now some of the amd cpus that are still relevant include most of the recently launched ryzen 5000 lineup the preceding ryzen 3000 lineup for intel their most recent cpus include the 11th generation cpus like the i5 11 400 and 10th generation cpus like the 10400 i'll leave a list below of the ones that i would consider and include links to the relevant retailers that you can purchase them at all amd cpus are unlocked meaning you can overclock them if you want to and also overclock the memory with them intel cpus are different only the ones labeled with a k in the name can be overclocked and only on compatible z series motherboards more on that later but none of the other intel cpus can be overclocked however the memory can be overclocked on compatible z series motherboards or b560 or h510 series boards with any of the 10th or 11th generation cpus next up on our pc parts explained 2021 we have the graphics card or gpu now currently as i'm filming this there's an ongoing shortage of gpus and if you want to learn more i'll leave a link to a video explaining what the heck is going on on graphics card shortages now a dedicated graphics card plugs into the motherboard and you use the outputs on the back of the card rather than the motherboard itself to get the video signal graphics cards are primarily made by amd and nvidia however intel is going to launch its own lineup of graphics cards likely at the end of 2021 as it stands now amd and nvidia are both excellent gaming graphics cards but nvidia is still better if you need productivity features like video encoding for video editing work although amd is catching up how powerful a graphics card you have and the types of games you play will determine what kind of monitor resolution you can use and how many frames per second called fps you can get along with the type of monitor you buy i go over a lot more in my best gaming monitors 2021 guide so i'll leave a link to that down in the description below in a normal gpu market the gpu is typically the easiest but most expensive component to upgrade in the future as it just requires taking out the old one and putting a new one in though you may need a slightly larger power supply if you jump way up in overall gpu power with your upgrade so what is the right cpu and gpu combo for you well it depends on what you're doing now for gaming you're going to want to buy the best gpu that you can buy and a cpu that's not going to bottleneck the gpu or the game if doing video or photo editing work you're going to want a reasonably fast cpu with more cores and at least something like an nvidia gtx 1650 super graphics card or better now the best thing to do is to make a list of the programs you use and see what the recommended specs are for those programs now i go over these concepts in more detail in my best cpu for gaming 2021 video which again is linked down in the description that leads our pc parts explained to motherboards now i do the best motherboards for ryzen 5000 video that does a deep dive into motherboard features and of course i'm going to put it in the link down in the video description below the motherboard is the thing that all components plug into and it allows them to talk to each other and frankly everything to just work motherboards are specific both to the brand so amd has motherboards that only work with its cpus and intel motherboards only work with intel cpus and the motherboards themselves use something called a chipset most of which are only compatible with certain cpu series so for instance a z590 motherboard is an intel chipset motherboard that will only work with 10th and 11th generation intel processors and an x570 motherboard is an amd chipset motherboard that will only work with ryzen 3000 and 5000 cpus i'll leave a list of motherboard chipsets and with which cpu lineups they're compatible with and links down in the video description now there are three common motherboard sizes there's a full size atx a half size version called a micro atx or m80x motherboard and a very small version called an itx motherboard on the back of the motherboard there's going to be usb ports of varying speeds audio output for the onboard sound wired and wireless networking if it's there and display outputs if you're not using a dedicated gpu now motherboards also have either two or four slots for ram sata connections for the sata storage drives and at least one slot for the m.2 and connections for system fans rgb front pc case usb and audio ports now the motherboard of course has an onboard operating system called bios which allows you to change the way the motherboard memory or other components run one of the most important motherboard features is the power delivery on the motherboard called the vrms a little half square right here around the cpu which often have a heat sink like this one right here to avoid overheating under heavy use you need to pay close attention to these if using an 8 core or greater cpu then of course there are the pcie express slots also called the pcie slots now the top one right here is a by 16 slot and it's for the graphics card they vary in size depending on how much bandwidth they have note that smaller adding cards can be used in the larger slots now most motherboards use what's called pcie 4.0 speed however most users will currently not benefit from the extra speed so i wouldn't fret that much using a motherboard that only has pcie 3.0 all this and more in the motherboard video link in the description ram also called memory is what the system uses to temporarily store information it's using immediately now i did a whole video on best ram for ryzen 5000 which goes into a lot of these concepts in great detail so link of course down in the description and by the way i want to say a big thank you to kingston for sending over their fury renegade ddr4 kit ram comes in sticks that are called dims and the current generation of systems use ddr4 memory now most common memory speeds are between 3000 and 3600 note that the speed is it's technically not in megahertz but it's such a widespread misconception that i don't even bother correcting it anymore ram also has a cast latency rating abbreviated cl or c with a number so common cast latencies are cl14 cl16 and cl18 memory is always best used in a pair of sticks something known as dual channel as using just a single stick is going to heavily hurt performance and i strongly recommend against it how much memory you need depends on what you're doing but a general rule of thumb is at least 16 gigabytes for gaming streaming gameplay to a server slice twitch or amateur video editing and i'd recommend at least 32 gigabytes for professional level streaming or production workloads and of course ram can come with rgb which is just a lot of fun storage now storage comes in three types today hard disk drives which are dying out and should be avoided as boot drives and solid state drives or ssds which come either using a sata connector like this or as an m.2 that plugs directly into the motherboard i did a whole video on best ssds for gaming that delves deep into these complex little devices so i'll leave a link down in the video description given how cheap they've become i would strongly recommend getting an m.2 ssd nvme drive like this it's easy to overspend on supposedly high-speed ssds but for most users i would look to spend about 50 to 60 on a 500 gigabyte nvme m.2 ssd or about 100 on a one terabyte drive so cpu coolers now of course i did a very deep dive on cpu coolers and my best cooler for ryzen 5000 2021 video link is going to be down in the description so why do you need a cpu cooler well basically if your cpu overheats it's going to throttle your performance and that's bad so you want to make sure you give it enough cooling now the more cores or the more power it requires and i'm looking at you 11th gen i7 and i9 cpus the more cooling it's going to require now you can do that with an air cooler like this or an all-in-one liquid cooler like this also called an aio or you can do it with a custom built liquid loop cooler now listen if you're watching this video i recommend either an air cooler or a liquid aio and have several good recommendations in the linked video of course ryzen 2000 and 3000 cpus come with an included box cooler and for the most part they're very decent performers however the included intel box coolers they are glorified e-waste and they should not be used except for low-end cpus the pc case now the case it's not that complicated the front panel is going to have a mix of usb and audio jacks and if it's got a front panel usb type c connector you're going to want to ensure that your motherboard comes with the right header for it you also want to get the right size for your motherboard an atx size case is going to fit the three sizes we discussed the motherboards while micro atx cases are not going to fit in full atx size motherboard so check the compatible motherboards listed in specs before you buy a case now pc cases provide airflow to remove the hot air and bring in cooler air from the outside mesh front panels are best but unfortunately there are still quite a few cases with really bad airflow pc cases are usually going to come with one or more fans included though sometimes the quality can be disappointing pck's fans commonly come in 120 millimeter and 140 millimeter sizes so when buying additional fans make sure they're gonna fit in the case how many fans do you need for atx size cases i'd recommend at least two to three intake and at least one exhaust but the more the better and of course rgb lighting makes fans fun uh the cat's favorite to eat is rgb fans the power supply now your pc needs power to its various components and that's what the power supply unit or psu is there for now of course i got a whole video on how to size evaluate and buy the best psu in 2021 and i'll leave the link in the description below psg's come in two main sizes atx like this one here which is the most common and sfx which is for small form factor cases now check to make sure you get a case and power supply of the correct sizing power supplies come in different wattages and different efficiency ratings called 80 plus and range from a white rating to a bronze rating to a gold rating to a platinum rating psus are actually quite complex and i strongly recommend you watch my psu buying guide video before making your final decision if you're looking to add a little bit of flair to your pc build you can of course get cable extensions in different colors as well and it just adds some cool features to your build the monitor now i'm listing the monitor here and of course i have a great video on them that i'll link down in the description but i'm listing the monitor because it's important to get the right resolution and refresh rate monitor to pair with your gpu now the main resolutions are going to be 1080p 1440p and 4k and refresh ranges from 60hz or 60fps roughly all the way up to 360hz i strongly recommend using the displayport cable connection from your gpu to the monitor and getting one that has at least freesync which will be compatible with both amd and nvidia gpus alright miscellaneous parts finally we got the miscellaneous parts like fanon rgb controllers wi-fi add-in cards wi-fi usb adapters video capture cards and more now listen as a builder it might help to use a fan rgb or combo rgb fan controller like this one if adding in a lot of fans and or rgb now if your motherboard doesn't come with wi-fi i'd recommend getting a wi-fi and bluetooth adapter just note that some adapters are wi-fi only i would kind of avoid those because otherwise you won't be able to connect your headphones and things like that and you can either get an add-in pcie card or just a usb wi-fi dongle adapter like this of course there's a lot more here like video capture cards more storage thunderbolt 3 support and more but those kind of specific items are best left to dedicated videos if you need them for your pc build that was our pc parts explained 2021 edition pc parts for beginners and returning builders and i hope even some of the more advanced folks got a little bit out of this video of course remember if you did get value out of it give it a like it really helps out the channel and of course subscribe and click the bell icon so you get notified when we produce more content if there's anything that you feel like we could cover in a deeper dive video in the future leave it down in the comments i read all the comments i try and get back to them all so again thank you for joining me this week and i'll catch you on the next one [Music]

Channel: PC Builder

Views: 274,387

Keywords: PC Parts Explained 2021, best pc build 2021, how to build a pc, pc parts explained, budget gaming pc build 2021, pc build, pc build 2021, best gaming pc, 2021 pc build, build a computer, graphics card explained, motherboard explained, cpu explained, amd vs intel, pc build guide, pc build guide for beginners, mid range pc build, best budget pc build 2021, pc builder

Id: jDLCz8kVko8

Length: 16min 22sec (982 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 25 2021