Choosing the components we will use to build our new PC is undoubtedly one of the most important and complex steps we have to do. Not only the final result will depend on it, but also the total cost of the device, its performance, consumption and temperature valuesas well as the possible occurrence of imbalances, malfunctions or even mild or severe incompatibilities.

Its importance is unquestionable, and therefore we must give it the importance it deserves and be aware of its true complexity, for it is a subject which It is not limited to the selection of components with the best price-performance ratio nowadays it is also necessary to take into account their compatibility and proper functioning after their assembly.

On the other hand, if we want to buy them at the best possible price, it is also essential compare prices in different stores, and adopt a certain strategy that can help us significantly reduce the total cost of equipment. In this article, we’ll touch on these two big issues and leave you with five keys to make your life a little easier when you need to choose and buy new components to build your next PC.

1.-Watch out for PC components that are compatible but not optimal

This is a topic that I already mentioned in the introduction, that it is not enough to choose components that offer good performance at an affordable price and connect them to build a good computer. These components must interact well with each other, that is, they must so that we can work optimally and without bottlenecks.

It is a very easy topic to understand. For example, think about what would happen if you pair a Ryzen 5 5500 processor with a Radeon RX 6600 graphics card. The former only supports the PCIe Gen3 standard, and the latter is limited to the PCIe Gen4 x8 interface, which means that combining the two components would create a significant bottleneck, as the graphics card would be forced to work under the PCIe Gen3 x8 standard.

This is just one example of how important this topic is and that we need to pay a lot of attention to make sure that the list of components that we are going to buy to build our new PC are not only compatible and fit in the chassis, but also can work optimally and will not create bottlenecks nor due to interface or compatibility issues.

According to the previous example, the solution would be to install a processor compatible with the PCIe Gen4 standard and a motherboard that also supports this standard. In case of AMD, Ryzen 3 3100 and above are compatible with the PCIe Gen4 standard, but you should keep in mind that there are exceptions, and that it is mainly the CPUs that are actually APUs with the GPU turned off. They are easily identifiable because they have less L3 cache than equivalent versions.

We could also create bottlenecks if we mount DDR4 or DDR5 memories with very low speeds or very high latencies, if we use high-performance SSDs in motherboards with older standards or in slots that are limited by the number of available PCIe lines and if we decide to install the graphics card in a PCIe slot that has fewer PCIe lines. Always check the specifications of each component to make sure they will work perfectly together.

2.-The included cooling system may not be enough

Many users still believe that the cooling solution provided by the manufacturer is sufficient to make optimal use of a particular component, but this is not the case. Low-end processors usually work without problems with the cooling system they bring from home, but this one in many cases it falls short when we jump into the mid-range.

For example, the Intel Core i3-13100F works well with a home cooler, and the same goes for the Ryzens, which have four cores and eight threads. However, Ryzen 5 7600 reaches too high temperatures with the cooler it brings from homeand reaches such a high level that it is necessary to purchase a more powerful cooling system in order to use it with a minimum of guarantees.

The same can happen with other components such as SSD storage units in M.2 format. Versions that are based on the PCIe Gen3 standard usually work without problems without the need for additional passive cooling, that is, they can do with the sheet that the manufacturer includes, which collects heat from the key points of the unit, but as soon as we move to more powerful units, it is insufficient.

PCIe Gen4 drives offer higher performance and therefore generate more heat they require a passive heatsink block to ensure optimal performance. The same goes for PCIe Gen5 drives, which improve performance but also generate more heat as a result.

Keep all of this in mind and respect each cooling component that it needs to function optimally, otherwise you could experience performance and stability issues and in extreme cases suffer from crashes, blue screens and even accelerate the death of certain components.

3.-It is always better to go a little too far than to fall behind

This is not to say that it’s good to splurge and buy hardware we don’t need, nothing could be further from the truth, but it’s better to buy components that slightly exceed our actual needs than to build a PC that in the end below what we really need.

In the first case, we will spend a little more, but we will be sure of this will meet our expectations, and that we will be able to use it for a longer time. On the other hand, in the second case, the experience may end up being so short that we end up having to replace certain components and expand in a short period of time.

In order not to make mistakes in this sense, it is necessary to be clear about our budget, the maneuvering space we have and what we need. If, for example, today we are going to choose components to build a gaming PC it makes no sense to save a few euros for fitting 8 GB RAM instead of 16 GB RAM, but we need to buy a 6-core 12-thread processor instead of an 8-core 16-thread processor and allocate what we save to fit a more powerful graphics card.

On the contrary, it would be a good choice in a PC for office automation mount a slightly larger SSD to have more space, and it would also be good to install a little more RAM or even a more powerful processor if we don’t indulge in unnecessary excesses. To have concrete references, in this sense it would be good to mount 8 GB of RAM instead of 4 GB of RAM, and it would also be good to buy a 4-core and 8-thread processor instead of one limited to 2 cores and 4 threads. .

4.-Focus your choice on the main use you are going to give the PC

Finally, the use we are going to give the PC is the starting point that should guide our choice of components, because based on we will have to prioritize certain piecesand in others we may make certain sacrifices. This is related to what I mentioned in the previous point and is very easy to understand.

If you’re going to build a gaming PC, the majority of the budget should go to the graphics card, and then you should follow this order of priorities: CPU, RAM, storage, and motherboard. For example, it would be better to build a PC configured with Ryzen 5 5600, GeForce RTX 4070, 16 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD with a cheap motherboard than buying components to fit Ryzen 7 7700X, 12 GB GeForce RTX 3060, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD and high-end motherboards.

The price of both configurations would be similar, but the first will offer much higher performance in games, because GeForce RTX 4070 is much more powerful than GeForce RXT 3060 and also has DLSS 3 support. The best thing is that the given configuration will not have any serious obstacles, as it would be well balanced in the CPU-GPU ratio.

If you want to build a computer designed for office automation, the order of priorities would be very simple, we should invest more in processor and storage unit, and later in RAM. The rest of the components will have a lower weight and this will give us more flexibility in adding to the component list.

5.-Compare prices and wait for the right moment to buy

I know I’m not telling you anything new because I’m sure you’re all already looking and comparing prices, but it’s also important to remember that there are better times and worse times to buy PC components. Usually, the worst moments are right after launchbecause that is when they are new and when the prices are higher.

This situation may change in a short time, especially if there is very strong competitionwhich happened with Ryzen 7000 and Intel Core Raptor Lake-S, or if there is excess inventory and low demand, which is happening right now with RAM and SSDs and to a lesser extent with graphics cards.

It can also happen if demand is very high and competition is very low, component prices rise even over time when it would be normal for the opposite to happen. We already saw this a few years ago when the last bubble in the cryptocurrency mining sector occurred.

With all this in mind, we must make it clear that there is no magic rule which allows us to establish a fixed time as the “best” time to buy PC components, but in a normal market scenario Yes, there are a number of keys to help us buy PC components at more attractive prices:

• Wait a reasonable amount of time after launching new products.
• Don’t rule out buying the previous generation components, they usually perform well and are much cheaper.
• Take advantage of situations of excess inventory, high competitiveness and low demand.
• Sale seasons are a good time to buy, but we have to be especially careful and compare prices more thoroughly between different stores.
• Avoid buying components before the next generation is released, as their prices will drop soon after.