I built my first PC! There were several Black Friday discounts that make the build substantially cheaper. Still the price ended up being slightly higher than I had hoped.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FmpjQ6
| Type | Item | Seller | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor | Amazon | $137.06 |
| Motherboard | MSI PRO B550-VC ATX AM4 Motherboard | Amazon | $129.99 |
| Memory | TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory | Amazon | $49.99 |
| Storage | Crucial P2 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive | Amazon | $39.99 |
| Video Card | MSI GeForce RTX 2060 VENTUS GP OC GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB Video Card | Best Buy | $269.99 |
| Case | Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case | Newegg | $71.64 |
| Power Supply | Thermaltake Smart BM2 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply | Amazon | $54.99 |
| Total | $753.65 |
Case
I had a problem with the first case I bought. There are apparently 3 sizes of motherboards - ATX, Micro ATX, and Mini ATX. My motherboard is ATX, which is largest size for a motherboard, but the original case only supported Micro and Mini, so I had to exchange for a different one. The new case is quite spacious and everything fits perfectly.
Steps
- Assemble the motherboard - put the CPU, CPU fan, RAM, NVMe hard disk on the motherboard. My CPU fan came with some pre-applied thermal paste so I did not need to add any extra. Only the NVMe installation was tricky. The motherboard comes with tiny screws for fixing the hard disk.
- Attach the motherboard to the case
- Connect the Case cables to the motherboard - the connections for the power and reset button are very tricky and poorly marked. You need to carefully read the motherboard manual for this.
- Attach the graphics card
- Connect the power supply cables - i needed three cables: two for the motherboard and one for the graphics card
- Connect the power supply to the case
Done!