CPU (COMPUTING PROCCESSOR UNIT)

The CPU is the brains of your computer. It is the most important part of your PC and the start of your building process. To start off you need to know about two words: Multi-Core and Hyper-Threading. Each CPU has a different number of cores, think batteries that power your computer.

TO OVERCLOCK OR NOT TO OVERCLOCK

First you have to ask yourself if you are a power user or a casual user. If you want to squeeze very last bit of performance out of your CPU you will want to have an unlocked cpu, with Intel, these are the processors that end in a K. Keep in mind that this will take some research and possible BIOS resets. So you decide if you want to overclock or not.

GAMING OR EDITING? WHY NOT BOTH?

Then you have to ask yourself: are you a gamer or a you a professional that needs a powerful computer? If you are answered just gamer, the higher the frequency and IPC (Instructions Per Clock) are what matters, but if you use Photoshop, Premiere, or Blender you will need more cores, the more cores the better for productivity.

Budget or High end?

The next step is to decide how much you want to spend on your CPU. Processors now a days are able to handle just about any sort of casual use so your power usage needs may vary. Simple everyday tasks will require a CPU of about $150 dllrs, medium gaming CPUs cost about $300 dllrs, and high end productivity CPUs can cost up to $500 dllrs.

INTEL OR AMD?

The last question you have to ask yourself is you are Team Blue or Team Red? This is all up to preference and sometimes budget, but now a days both sides of the spectrum cost about the same for the same performance, the only difference is in the requirement of newer motherboards for newer Intel generations while AMD usually has a long socket life.