Why You Should Build A PC

by Sebastian Gomez

Computers are everywhere in society. Whether it is at our work space, home office, or game room, computers connect people to services that help them succeed in life. Especially in this day and age, computers have helped people stay connected during this pandemic and stay empowered to accomplish great things. Nowadays you can think of a computer as a car; computers are needed to traverse the digital space, and without it, you'll be missing out on a world of opportunity.

With that said, having a reliable and affordable computer available for your needs has become a necessity, and building one is a fantastic solution. Of course, it is wise to better understand the world of Windows 10 that you could one day be entering into, especially if you come from a Mac OS background.

Making the Jump from MacOS to Windows

Recently, I had a client who wanted a more powerful computer to study for their upcoming MCAT exam. They already had a 13" Macbook Pro, but they wanted a more stationary work station. Additionally, they wanted to start doing some light gaming on the side. So they turned their eyes to the 24" Apple M1 iMac, and were quickly disappointed in the available configurations. To get an idea of how underwhelming the $1,299 base iMac model is, I want to share some technical insight into the matter. As I am writing this blog post, I have 10 Google Chrome Tabs, Discord, and Zoom open. I checked my memory usage with Windows Task Manager and I am already using 7.8 GB of my 16GB available RAM. ALL of the 24" iMac models are locked behind 8GB of unified memory; memory that can never be upgraded in the future and that will surely be a performance bottleneck. And don't even get me started on the lackluster amount of storage on the iMacs.

Another drawback to the new iMac is their lack of ports. One can argue that the two thunderbolt type C ports that come with the base iMac model can easily be expanded with the help of a dongle. However, in the event that one wants to connect their iMac to Gigabit ethernet, they will have to cough up an extra $200 for this feature, something that comes built-in with many motherboards in PCs. Keeping multiple USB Type A and C ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and Headphone and Microphone Jacks available is a major feature of modern PCs.

Nevertheless, the iMacs are excellent well-rounded machines with a great built-in webcam and a respectable set of speakers that are great to listen to. However, as I stated earlier, my client felt that they were missing out on some quality of life improvements that I shared with him from my Windows experience. Some of which include being able to snap multiple windows to view in just a few clicks and being able to quickly switch (Alt+Tab) between all of your applications. Additionally, there are only a handful of games that are optimized for the MacOS environment, seeing that MacOS is unable to natively run games that operate on OpenGL or DirectX12. Meanwhile, the gaming environment on Windows 10 is alive and well, allowing users to play games from PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, Epic Games, etc.

Prebuilt Chaos

I also want to talk a bit about prebuilt desktops. Today I also spent some time navigating CyberPowerPC and IBUYPOWER PC, two well-respected Custom Desktop computer companies. These companies offer a variety of prebuilt configurations that you can further customize to your liking. Need a stronger CPU? Check this box. Need a weaker GPU? Check this other box. However, I quickly found that although these websites and many others try to make their building process as accessible as possible, it is obviously no place for a beginner to wander around. From the perspective of someone who has experience building multiple computers, it was difficult to keep up with the changing configurations. On top of that, the images that were being displayed for the preconfigured desktops were all images of the configurations with the most expensive parts, with the entire build costing thousands of dollars. In other words, they only showed what their most powerful configuration would look like, confusing the buyer even more. This is a feature that I found very disappointing. Furthermore, these websites fool you into thinking that you have full control over the parts that you put into your desktop, because your options are really bound by the parts that they have available at their warehouse. How can you call that custom if you can only offer a handful of options? All the more reason to embark on building and designing your own computer from scratch, where you have full control over your components and one can visibly see each part of the desktop that will eventually come together to make a beautiful system.

Prebuilts Remove the Fun from Desktops!

And finally, let's address the elephant in the room: the fact that all of these companies remove the best aspect of a desktop computer which is building one in the first place! There is nothing more satisfying than taking a pile of assorted parts, piecing them together, and creating your very own computer that you will use for many years. It is truly an experience that I believe should be enjoyed by everyone, which is why I created this business in the first place.

The End Result

So, after a quick Zoom meeting with the client I mentioned earlier, we put together a modern computer that was more budget friendly than the base iMac model and sporting much more respectable specifications. Complete with a gorgeous 32" 1440p 144hz monitor and high quality peripherals, the total including tax and shipping for his entire setup and PC came out to around $1,200, with the PC only being $880. The specifications for the PC that we designed are as follows:

CPU: Ryzen 5 5600X

MOBO: ASRock MINI-ITX B550M-ITX/AC

RAM: Team T-Force Za 2 x 8GB 3600MHz

Storage: Western Digital SN550 1TB NVME SSD

GPU: EVGA FTW GeForce GTX 970 4GB

Yeah. We did a fantastic job finding the right deals and directing money towards the most important components of the build and saving on others. As of writing this blog, the client is waiting on the last few parts of their build so I am really excited to share the results soon.

Without a doubt, I am confident that they will enjoy the Windows 10 experience and study comfortably knowing that they got the best bang for their hard-earned buck.

All in all, I encourage you to make the jump! Have confidence in your ability to create something truly amazing. It really is an exciting time to build your future!