I know it’s a pain in the ass to check the compatibility of PC Parts, and we all suffer from this when we try to build our very own custom PC for fulfilling our needs.
Sometimes building a PC by ourselves is rewarding and exciting. Still, when we started to build the one for ourselves – we may experience many compatibility issues, making it harder to build the PC.
But don’t worry now!
If you’re looking to build a custom PC for yourself, then here we’re with another most interesting blog post on checking PC parts’ compatibility even before buying them.
In this guide, we’ll make sure to share every detail you should have to look out for before building a custom PC for you.
PC Parts Compatibility – Where Should You Start From?
When you decided to build a PC for yourself, you’ve to start by checking various online stores and merchants for the parts. But before checking the parts, you have to make sure about the compatibility of the parts you’re going to buy.
If you purchased the wrong parts or the parts that aren’t fully compatible with each other, it could be dangerous for you, and you’ll lose all your money on nothing.
So choosing the compatible parts is the most important thing which we talked about in this article. And depending upon all these factors, we’ve listed the core components of the PC, which are most important to look out for a while building the PC.
These parts are as follows;
- Processor
- Motherboard
- Graphics Card
- RAM
- Storage
- Cooling Fans
- Case or Chassis
- Power Supply
These are the core components of the PC and we will discuss them in this guide.
Keynote: I know most of us will get confused even after reading this article, and it will end up losing all your money for nothing.
So to make sure you get the most compatible product without getting into any trouble, we do like to share a few websites with you, these websites will help you to check the compatibility of the product even before buying them and it helps you to make sure you always get the most compatible products.
Some of these websites can include PC Builder, Build My PC, Vibox and you’ll get several more sites on Google.
These websites have more than 10,000+ algorithms for computer compatibility and provide you with easy access to build a custom PC according to your needs.
They also support various online merchants, including Amazon, Flipkart, so you’ll easily get all the parts for building your PC without going here and there for them.
Now without wasting no time, let’s get started;
Processor
Choosing a processor is one of the most important things while building your custom gaming PC. If you’re building a custom part, then you should have to spend a good amount on a processor.
So before building a PC for yourself, you have to think about the needs – so you can get a value for the money processor accordingly.
Basically, you’ve to choose the processor from the two most popular brands, AMD and Intel.
These two processor companies are the most popular in the world, and you’ll get the best class service with them.
The difference between both of them is cost and the other difference is backward support.
When we compare both the brands, the AMDs processor cost way less than the Intel processor and provides you with a better performance. Along with it, the AMD processors are backwards compatible, so it will be compatible with both next-generation chipsets and backward generation chipsets.
When you choose Intel, they’re not backwards compatible and they change the chipset with every generation update.
For example; The Intel 8th and 9th generation processors support the same LGA 1151 motherboard as the 7th generation processor but the chipset for the 8th and 9th generation is Intel 300 series while the 7th generation has Intel 200 series chipset.
They change compatibility with every update. So, you’ve to choose the processor accordingly because all the other compatibility will depend upon choosing the processor and motherboard.
Motherboard
After the processor, the next core component is to select a motherboard. A motherboard is the main circuit board of a computer and another most important core component when we talk about the custom PC.
While selecting a motherboard, you’ve to focus on matching the socket type of your motherboard and the processor. This is the first step towards getting a compatible motherboard for yourself. Once you match the socket type, the next thing is to look out at the chipset of the motherboard.
If you’re choosing an Intel-based processor, then you’ve to focus more on getting a motherboard that is compatible with your processor and which supports the chipset used by your processor. You’ll get more information on the intel’s official website for the chipset.
But if you’re choosing an AMD based processor, then you can get any motherboard – because processors from the AMD Ryzen series are backward compatible with the motherboard – but still, I recommend you to go with the 400 and 500 series motherboard for optimal performance.
Graphics Card
The next thing is to choose a graphics card or a video card. It is another most important component for building a PC, especially when your processor doesn’t have integrated graphics.
So the first thing you should have to check before getting a graphics card is to check your processor if they have any integrated graphics and if they don’t have any, then you should have to get a separate graphics card.
And if you’re building a PC for gaming purposes, then make sure to get a powerful graphics card. And if we talk about the compatibility of the graphics card, you don’t have to match anything as we do on Motherboard. But instead of this, you just have to check if your motherboard does support PCIe 3.0 ports.
But no worries, the Graphics card is backward compatible. It means if you’re a graphics card of PCIe 3.0 interface, then it does work with the PCIe 2.0 port but choosing the PCIe 3.0 over the PCIe 2.0 is crucial for optimal performance.
RAM
RAM or Random Access Memory is another most crucial component of the PC. I have seen people getting confused between choosing a RAM depending upon the speed and the capacity.
But after reading this article, I can guarantee, it will become easier to choose an ideal RAM for your build. So as you know, you’ve to choose a RAM on the basis of their speed and capacity, so let me explain the compatibility of these two in brief.
Speed
When you’re selecting RAM for your build, you’ve to make sure you’re using a DDR4 based memory. DDR4 is the latest generation of RAM, and the stock speed of DDR4 RAM is 2133 MHz.
Anything over this speed means your RAM can overclock up to the speed that they’re showing on their information page. But the main thing is to check your motherboard for the ideal speed and choose the RAM accordingly.
Capacity
Another most crucial thing you have to remember while selecting the RAM is capacity. Capacity is one of the main things which you should have to look out at.
Normally, if you’re building your PC for browsing and streaming purposes, you can choose the 8GB RAM but if you’re looking to overclock your PC, play FHD games with 100+ FPS, and also for video editing and rendering purpose, then I’ll recommend you to not grab a RAM below 16GB of capacity.
Storage
Another crucial component that you should have to look at is Storage or a Boot drive. A storage device is one of the most important things in our build because it is the place where your operating system gets installed and your system will boot from.
Along with it, the storage device is used by several applications to run ideal. And when we talk about the compatibility of the storage, you’ll get various options to choose from.
These can include a mechanical drive with 5400, 7200, and 1000 RPM or an SSD drive based on SATA and NVMe M.2 slots. Basically, SSD is much faster than HDD or mechanical drive, so I always recommend you to get an SSD drive for your build.
Keynote: If you want, you can get multiple storage devices for your PC. All the machine drives, NVMe, and SATA drives are compatible with each other.
Cooling Fans
Some processor comes with stock coolers so you need not buy any additional cooling fans until you want to – but when you overclock your PC, the processor will get overheated and you need a powerful CPU cooler to prevent your system.
Here, you need separate cooling fans for your processor to overcome the heat issue. And for this, I highly suggest you to grab a powerful CPU cooler for your build.
The CPU Coolers come in two different types, one is a liquid cooler and another is an air cooler. Basically, a liquid cooler is more efficient at cooling your PC slightly faster than an Air cooler. The only issue while choosing a liquid cooler is, it can cause dangerous damages to your PC if the water leaks into your hardware.
Case or Chassis
The next thing after choosing a cooling fan is Case. Sometimes it is also referred to as chassis. It is another most important component of our build.
The only thing you should have to look at while choosing a case is if your motherboard and other components will perfectly fit on it.
Mostly the motherboard comes in four different sizes, and these are as follows;
- Mini ITX
- Micro ATX
- ATX and
- Extended ATX or E-ATX
So before choosing a chassis or a case for your build, you should have to check the type of motherboard you’re using for your build.
Depending upon this, the chassis or case also comes in four different sizes;
- Mini ITX,
- Mini Tower (Micro ATX),
- Mid Tower (ATX), and
- Full Tower (EATX).
So keeping all these factors, you should have to choose a case or chassis in which your motherboard and all other components will fit perfectly.
Power Supply
The last but not least thing is to select a power supply according to your build. Choosing a power supply unit isn’t rocket science, you just have to check the wattage of your power supply and the wattage required by your build.
Every part needs a specific power supply to run, and if you provide an under-wattage power supply, then the chances are, it will not run smoothly and sometimes your PC will not boot up. So always choose a power supply, which is ideal for fulfilling the power supply to your PC. Check out Bravo Electro for more insights.
Wrapping Up!
So in this guide, I tried my best to explain the PC Parts compatibility to you. I’ve also shared a few websites which help a lot while building a compatible PC. These websites will help to pick compatible PC parts with no worries and confusion.
You can build a perfect PC for yourself if you take care of all these compatibilities.
But I always recommend you choose the pc builder tools over selecting the compatibility of your product yourself because it makes your building process easier and it’s better to build it knowingly.
Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Happy Building 🙂