Five stocks that build a PC and can build a portfolio

Welcome to AI Collision 💥,

In today’s collision between AI and our world:

• You spoke, I listened
• My shopping list turns into an order
• Five companies at the heart of my PC and maybe a portfolio

If that’s enough to get the custom rig built, read on…

AI Collision 💥

The consumer is always right. The customer is always right…

Nah, readers of AI Collision are always right!

On Monday I asked if you were an Apple or “anything but Apple” consumer.

Closer than I thought, but the anything-buts took the win!

There were also some valuable comments from a few people which did help push me over the edge. The push I needed really.

There was this from Johnny,

Apple vs Mac – Apple is a closed shop – a real wallet squeezer but if you have an iPhone it’s worth having just to edit your video clips. However I love the freedom of a PC. Bottom line, get both if you a afford it 😉

Scott said,

I got a new Alienware laptop recently. Battery life is a bit of a joke but the rest is great.

Alienware stuff is great. I can attest to that. Overpriced? Yeah, maybe. But it does look the business and performs as such too. So that had entered my mind. But I wanted this to be a proper DIY project, to build it all myself. So Alienware was set aside. Besides, I didn’t want to spend that much anyway.

Then J B gave some great insight into their experience. I won’t post it all here as it was very detailed and in-depth (which is great!) but you can read that at the end of this post.

I will admit, I’ve been a “swing” consumer for a while really.

My first Apple experience was the Apple IIe. Then, of course, who didn’t use a Macintosh? But then it was PCs for the better part of the next two decades. I did get myself an iPod, I even had an iPhone 3G, but then swung over to Android phones.

My first laptop had GeForce graphics built in and was running Windows. Most of my computers always had Intel CPUs. But eventually the ease of one ecosystem to rule them all took over.

I ended up with a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iPad Pro, iPhones, Mac Mini, the whole shebang.

But now, well, Apple is just not doing it for me anymore. My Mac Mini struggles to run more than four Chrome tabs. I tried to do a video recording on a streaming platform the other day with a background filter and basically my computer gave up.

The iPhone is still great. I think I’m going to stick with that for some time. I still use my now ancient and ageing MacBook Pro solely to host all my music files to use with my Numark NS6II DJ controller. And I do have a newish MacBook Air that’s running an M2 chips. The family iPads are also, frankly, bloody brilliant. So, I’m not completely leaving Apple.

But the computer, the day-to-day workhorse… well, I can’t ignore you, my loyal readers, can I?

So, I spent a few days pricing and scouring online to find the best deals for the kit I needed. I don’t really need a hardcore gaming rig. I just need something with a truck ton of memory and a little bit more future-proof to run at least six Chrome tabs at once.

I have on order…

• AMD’s Ryzen 5 9600X CPU – this should run pretty cool, pretty quiet, low power, but still have more than enough to get me through my needs without blowing the bank.
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti – not completely power hungry, mid-range GPU, capable enough for me, not blowing the bank. The Gigabyte version I’m getting also looks damn cool.
• Gigabyte AORUS Elite motherboard – compatible with AMD5 sockets, enough connectivity and space to plug and load everything in, looks sharp too.
• 32gb Kingston Fury DRAM – 2x 16gb DDR5 SDRAM should be enough to have a whole bunch of multitasking going on without capitulation. Upside is with the motherboard; I’ll still have two slots left and I could upgrade this sucker to 128gb DRAM if I really wanted to!
• Crucial 2TB M.2 SSD – plenty of storage space, but read speeds at 7,300MB/s and write speeds at 6,800MB/s. Should help with things like boot speed.

Then it’s a bunch of other stuff: a Gold+ 850W power unit, a liquid CPU cooler, thermally efficient case, couple terabytes SSD from Crucial, and RGB lights everywhere. It’s going to glow when it’s up and running.

I might record my build, post the video, show people how a hack like me can buy and build a custom PC and make it look pretty.

But the other thing I kept thinking while building it was all the different names and companies that were involved in the process.

Of course, there’s AMD (AMD), the company that many see as the silver to the gold of Nvidia. Then the GPU. How could I possibly look past Nvidia (NASDAQ) when getting a GPU? Even a mid-range one? I couldn’t. My storage is made by Crucial which you won’t find listed on the stock market. That’s because it’s its parent company, Micron (NASDAQ:MU), you’d buy in the market.

There’s also Kingston Technology, the largest retail memory maker in the world, but it’s private. And then there’s Gigabyte Technology. Gigabyte is listed. I considered buying it around five years ago, when its stock price was TW$40. But therein lies a bit of the problem. That’s Taiwan dollars it’s priced in, and investing in the Taiwan stock market is very difficult, so I passed. The fact it’s now around TW$268 does not make me feel better…

Oh, and then there’s the operating system. Yep, it’s Windows. Yep, that means Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).

We talk a lot about AI, about the wild things that are coming our way. Sometimes it’s easy to forget where the footing of it all exists. And that’s in the basics and fundamentals of computing.

AI is just really good, really advanced computing. It can do incredible things, it will do incredible things. But it is just companies and people working in those companies, plus consumers like you and me that are all equally critical to it all. Nvidia, AMD, Microsoft, Micron, Gigabyte… these are companies anyone (mostly anyone depending on where you live) can buy. They are the foundations of our AI future – and if their products are good enough to buy, surely their stock is too?

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Boomers & Busters 💰

AI and AI-related stocks moving and shaking up the markets this week. (All performance data below over the rolling week).

Boom 📈

• Gorilla Technology (NASDAQ:GRRR) up 86%
• Oddity Tech (NASDAQ:ODD) up 2%
• Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) up 1%

Bust 📉

• Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) down 10%
• Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) down 10%
• Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) down 10%

From the hive mind 🧠

• It’s not always the first name you think of when you think “AI servers”. But then again, who really takes the time to think, “AI servers”? But for Dell, HPE and Super Micro, you mustn’t forget, Lenovo is also a big and competitive player in this space.
• This is going to really give us some insight as to the demand for big tech IPOs in 2025. If this is a boomer, then watch the dominos fall as others hit the IPO trail. Watch this space, it could be big… and could be a good IPO to get a slice of the action on.
• “The Silicon Smugglers” has a nice ring to it don’t you think? Maybe I should write the screenplay before anyone else can! Surely the way the market is heading, this becomes a Netflix series or at least an indie flick on a low budget?

Artificial Polltelligence 🗳️

Weirdest AI image of the day

Blue (Da Ba Dee)

ChatGPT’s random quote of the day

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to leave comments and questions below,

Sam Volkering

Editor-in-Chief

AI Collision