In 2015 I begun building my own PC with scrap parts I had collected. At the time, it was a duel core i3 processor with a stock cooler in a common Dell OptiPlex chassis. I was a sophomore in college at the time and was hooked on the custom PC building bug. My friend and I had scavenged the parts from some local junk yards and garage sales. It’s surprising how many computer parts you can find in north Philadelphia.
This was my computer for a while. It ran ubuntu and was used to store files, browse the internet and write code. During that year, we found a core i5 processor and upgraded some of the RAM and hard drives. In late 2015 I got my first real job at SAP and immediately purchased a better case for this rig. From 2015 to 2016 I did everything I could to turn this PC into a real work station.
I was holding off on purchasing a GPU at the time, mainly for financial reasons. This was the worst mistake I made on this journey. After Bitcoin became the phenomenon that it is today, GPU prices skyrocketed. This left me a powerful workstation without the ability to play AAA video games.
Inserting the motherboard 
Connecting some hard drives and the power supply unit 
Adding the water cooler 
Tinkering on the build 
Some awful cable managment 
Calling it a night wishing I had a GPU 
Closing up the case 
PC from the outside
There were many times I considered purchasing a mid-tier GPU and calling it a day. I couldn’t justify the cost of a GPU until the Nvidia RTX series came out. When I saw the power of ray tracing, I knew it was time. It took 4 years for me to save up enough money to purchase the Nvidia RTX 2070 super and the LG 4k monitor to go with it.
Holding the RTX GPU 
Admiring the GFORCE RTX logo 
Sinking the GPU into the PCIE slot 
Not believing that it uses up 2 slots 
This card occupies so much space
Now, I have a powerhouse of a PC and I feel like I can accomplish anything with it. I will forever continue to build and modify this machine. I have plans to perform some better cable management and upgrade the power supply unit. Eventually, I will want to attempt a custom water loop. This hobby has become a lifestyle and I want to remain on the cutting edge of custom-built PC’s.
Breakfast at my workstation 
Managing AWS servers 
Entertainment is great on this machine
In total I spent $1300 building and configuring my setup. For a comparison, an Origin PC with similar specs starts at $2420 and that does not include the screen or keyboard. I highly recommend building your own computer if you are interested in the best performance for the lowest cost.
Parts used in this PC build
- Intel Core i7-6700K 4 GHz Quad-Core Processor
- NZXT Kraken X31 69.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
- Asus Z170-DELUXE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
- Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
- Kingston A400 480 GB 2.5″ Solid State Drive
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB Video Card
- Fractal Design Define R5 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case
- Corsair HX Platinum 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
- Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit
- LG 34UC88 34.0″ 3440×1440 60 Hz Monitor
