Assembling a PC from Microcenter parts

Firstly, I got an AMD CPU because even though Intel CPUs are better, unlike Intel, Intel does not change the socket design for CPUs in each generation as frequently as AMD. Because of this, when my CPU gets slow after a few years, I can go back and get the best CPU for that socket available at the time. This saves a lot of money.

I used to have an old 1.8 GHz Opteron in my server. After 5 years, when it got too slow, I replaced it with the fastest CPU supported by the motherboard which was 2.8 GHz. I was able to use the PC as long as the motherboard did not die. So, it lasted for three more years (a very long time).

I selected the FX 8350 over the FX 8370 because there is not much difference in performance compared to the price difference.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/401795/FX_8350_4GHz_AM3_Black_Edition_Boxed_Processor

Note that this CPU does not have 8 cores. It has 4 physical cores and something like hyper threading to make 8 processors show up in Windows.

I got a better motherboard because I've noticed that motherboards die faster than the CPUs. This one has a 5 year warranty, USB 3.0, SATA 6 Gbps, and a lot of PCI Express x16 ports (more than enough).

http://www.microcenter.com/product/446616/SABERTOOTH_990FX_R20_AM3_ATX_AMD_Motherboard

The next item to be got is 16GB of RAM which I got because it was very cheap. This was from EVGA which is not that bad of a company actually.

The next item is a heat sink. This is an important component because if it is good, the CPU will have a long life.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/373900/Hyper_212_EVO_Universal_CPU_Cooler

This is very difficult to install for someone new to heat sinks. Firstly, there are four screws at the end which come down on the motherboard. These four screws need to be in the center slot and not on either of the ends.

There is a part which goes below the motherboard and you send a screw from top to bottom - this is a base. Note that it takes a lot of patience and watching the you tube video to install the heat sink.  


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