PC Building

Acronyms

100

PC

Personal Computer

200

PSU

Power Supply Unit

300

GPU

Graphics Processing Unit

400

SSD

Solid State Drive

500

RAM

Random Access memory

Building Mistakes

100

This mistake could result shattering your PC's glass panel

Tile / Building on Tile

200

If you forget to add this component early, you'll have to undo many steps in order to put it in place.

IO Shield

300

If you don't do this before working on your PC, you risk shorting the system.

Ground yourself, touch the case

400

The entire purchase of your Graphics Card could be useless if you make this mistake, even if the PC was built correctly and no parts are damaged.

Plugging in display cables through the IO shield / to the motherboard

500

Despite being a good fit, making this mistake could fry your entire computer. Mr. Pursley made this nearly catastrophic mistake when building a PC earlier this year.

Swapping modular PSU cables

Building Process

100

This must be considered when picking a case, aligning fans and managing cables. Critical for optimal computer performance.

Airflow

200

Responsible for creating a strong contact between the CPU and the CPU Cooler

Thermal Paste

300

This component gets mounted onto your computer's case early in the building process. Other components will be connected to this later on.

Motherboard

400

The most cost-effective and efficient builds use this many sticks of RAM

Two

500

You could buy this, or opt to use a free version. This is the first thing you will install on a new PC.

Operating System

Components

100

The "Brain" of the Computer

CPU / Processor

200

The component responsible for generating graphics and animations.

The Graphics Card / GPU

300

Provides power to all other parts of the computer.

The Power Supply

400

This comes in many different shapes and sizes and allows for a great deal of customization in any PC build. While important, this will have a small impact on your actual PC experience when compared to other parts.

Case

500

The part of a PC build that is most likely to cause a clearance issue in your case when building a PC.

The Graphics Card.

Misc.

100

The slower but more affordable form of computer storage.

Hard Drive

200

The term for the problem caused by having mis-matched components in a PC: Some very strong and capable and others not.

Bottlenecking

300

A way to keep your PC and/or CPU at low temperatures other than using just traditional fans.

Liquid Cooling

400

When building a budget, it may be important to keep these things in mind as they are not in the traditional PC build list.

Monitors, Keyboards, or other peripherals

500

The year that Mr. Pursley built his first PC

2019