Planning

Chapter 1 — Planning Your Build

Before a single screw is turned, the plan is already doing most of the work. A well-planned build saves money, avoids incompatibility headaches, and produces a machine that genuinely fits your needs. This chapter walks through exactly how to think about your requirements, audit your existing hardware, and arrive at a clear, confident parts list before chapter two begins.

Defining Your Use Case

The single most important question in any PC build is: what will this machine actually do? Every component selection flows from the answer. A machine built for video editing has completely different priorities from one built for gaming, and a development workstation differs again.

Use case categories and what they prioritise

Your specific use case

Your workload sits firmly in the software development column with some nuances that matter for component selection:

• Compilation and build tools — benefits most from CPU core count and fast NVMe storage
• Simultaneous remote sessions — X2GO (Linux desktop via OpenVPN), RDP, WinSCP, Kitty/PuTTY all running at once. Each session needs CPU threads and RAM; network is the bottleneck here, not GPU
• Three monitors — requires a GPU with three simultaneous display outputs; your RTX 3050 LP has exactly this
• Video playback — handled comfortably by any modern GPU or even integrated graphics; no requirement for a dedicated gaming card
• Not gaming — this is significant: you don't need to spend £400+ on a GPU, and your existing card is entirely suitable

Understanding Form Factors

Form factor describes the physical size standard of the motherboard — and because the case must fit the motherboard, and the motherboard determines which CPUs and RAM you can use, the form factor decision has a cascade effect on everything else. The three most common consumer form factors are:

Your existing Kolink Citadel is a Micro-ATX case, and Micro-ATX would work well for your build. However, since you're replacing the motherboard and potentially the case, ATX is worth considering — more M.2 slots (useful for adding an NVMe boot drive alongside your SATA SSDs), better long-term expansion, and generally easier to work inside. Chapter 2 covers the case decision in full.

Key Compatibility Concepts

Before selecting any component, there are five compatibility dimensions you must understand. Get any one of them wrong and the component simply won't work — or won't work well — with the rest of the build.

1 — CPU Socket

The physical interface between CPU and motherboard. A CPU and motherboard must share the same socket — they are not interchangeable. Major current sockets:

* LGA1700 boards come in DDR4 and DDR5 variants — not both on the same board. Choosing a DDR4 variant lets you reuse your existing 64GB DDR4-3600 RAM.

2 — Chipset

The chipset is a chip on the motherboard that controls communication between CPU, RAM, storage, and PCIe devices. It's paired to a CPU generation and determines which features are unlocked. For LGA1700 (Intel 12th/13th gen):

Since you're not overclocking the CPU, a B660 or B760 DDR4 board is the sweet spot — unlocks XMP for your DDR4-3600 RAM (which runs at 2133MHz by default without XMP enabled), saves £50–100 versus Z-series.

3 — RAM Generation (DDR)

DDR4 and DDR5 are physically different — the slots and notches are in different positions. You cannot put DDR4 in a DDR5 motherboard or vice versa.

4 — PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express)

The slot standard that GPUs, M.2 NVMe drives, and expansion cards use. PCIe is backwards compatible — a PCIe 3.0 card works in a PCIe 4.0 slot and vice versa, just at the lower speed. Your RTX 3050 LP is PCIe 4.0 and will work in any modern LGA1700 board.

5 — Power Connectors

Modern motherboards use a 24-pin ATX power connector and a 4+4 or 8-pin CPU power connector. Your Corsair TX550M provides both. GPUs typically need 6-pin or 8-pin PCIe connectors — the RTX 3050 LP uses a single 8-pin (or 6+2 pin). All compatible with your existing PSU.

Your Existing Components — Full Audit

Budget Planning

A realistic budget has two parts: what you're spending, and what you're not spending because you're reusing components. Both matter.

Tools You'll Need

A PC build requires surprisingly few tools. Most of the job is done by hand. Here's what to have ready before build day.

Pre-Purchase Compatibility Checklist

Before ordering any component, run through this list. Each chapter will revisit these points in more detail, but this is the master reference.

Course Roadmap

Here's how the rest of the course is structured. Each chapter covers selection, compatibility, specs, assembly, testing, and reuse decisions for its component. Use the shorthand prompts (PC2, PC3…) to generate each chapter.