PC Helper

PC Helper is a tool to help you figure out what PC parts you need for your next build.

Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop

Getting started

Download or clone the git repo to a folder of your choice on your computer.

git clone https://github.com/Kerko0/PC_Helperv2.git

Navigate to the folder you downloaded the repo and open it in either the command prompt or an IDE of your choice (i.e Visual Studio Code)

cd /PC_Helperv2

To start the application run docker-compose in the repo folder.

docker-compose up -d

After the container has launched navigate to the frontend page on port 4200.

Usage

Configuration

Before taking the quiz you must first configure the PC components. There are 4 different types of components each with different variables:

• CPU
  • NAME: Name of the processor
  • BRAND: Processor brand (i.e Intel, AMD)
  • PRICE: Price of the processor
• GPU
  • NAME: Name of the graphics card
  • BRAND: Processor brand (i.e Nvidia, AMD)
  • PRICE: Price of the graphics card
• RAM
  • CAPACITY: RAM Capacity
  • TYPE: RAM Type (i.e DDR4, DDR5, only number is required)
  • PRICE: Price of the RAM
• Motherboard (MAKE SURE THE MOTHERBOARD SOCKET AND CHIPSET MATCHES THE PROCESSOR AND SUPPORTS THE RAM TYPE)
  • NAME: Name of the motherboard
  • PRICE: Price of the motherboard

This is because the PC component market is ever-changing and the same components may not be available for everyone or have the same value.

The components are divided into different Tiers based on their performance. There are no set rules for what components should go into what tier however some general recommendation would be:

• Tier 1:
  • CPU: Any top of the line CPU released after 2020.
  • GPU: Any top of the line graphics card released after 2020. (RTX xx80 Ti/90-series card from Nvidia or x900 XT from AMD)
  • RAM: Up to 64 GB but recommended is 32 GB.
  • Motherboard: Any >$300-400 motherboard that matches the chipset and socket of the chosen processor.
• Tier 2
  • CPU: Any high mid-range CPU released after 2020 (i7/Ryzen 7)
  • GPU: Any high mid-range card released after 2020 (RTX xx70/70 Ti-series card from Nvidia or x800/800 XT from AMD)
  • RAM: 32 GB
  • Motherboard: Any >$250-300 motherboard that matches the chipset and socket of the chosen processor.
• Tier 3
  • CPU: Any mid-range CPU released after 2019 (i5/Ryzen 5)
  • GPU: Any mid-range card released after 2020 (RTX xx60/60 Ti-series card from Nvidia or x700/700 XT from AMD)
  • RAM: 16 GB
  • Motherboard: Any >$200-250 motherboard that matches the chipset and socket of the chosen processor.
• Tier 4
  • CPU: Any budget CPU released after 2019 (i3/Ryzen 3)
  • GPU: Any budget card released after 2018 (Avoid GT models from Nvidia like the GT 730 or 1030)
  • RAM: 16 GB
  • Motherboard: Any >$100-150 motherboard that matches the chipset and socket of the chosen processor.

You can also put a different component than recommended if it matches the same performance. For example if you're fine with buying used cards a RTX 2080 SUPER performs almost the same as a RTX 3060 Ti at a potential better price if you're lucky.

After you've configured all the components and all the fields are filled in you press the SAVE button to save your changes.

If you want to clear your saved data press the RESET button.

You can also export and import data using the respective buttons for sharing purposes. Exporting creates a .json file with the PC compoent data and saves it to your computer. To import you simply press the Import button and select the file you want to import.

Make sure to save after importing!

The Quiz

If ALL PC components have been properly added to each Tier you can do the quiz.

Select the option that matches your answer to the question best for each question and once done press Submit.

This will display your results at the bottom.

To re-do the test just refresh the page.

Application Overview

Development tools

This application was developed using the following frameworks and tools:

• ASP.NET CORE
• Blazor WebAssembly
• Entity Framework
• PostgreSQL
• Docker

Architecture

The project consists of:

• Frontend Blazor WebAssembly App: User interface.
• Backend ASP.NET Core Hosted Web App: The API handling requests between the frontend app and database.
• PostgreSQL Database: SQL Database with good Docker integration to host the application's data.

Cloud Infrastructure

The cloud infrastructure of this application consists of the following Azure resources:

• Resource Group
• App Service (S1)
• 2 Web Apps for Frontend and Backend respectively
• Azure PostgreSQL Database

Important Configuration

Frontend webapp must have BACKEND_URL with the URL of the backend web app in appsettings.json or in the App Settings under Configuration in the Web App.

Backend webapp must have PostgreSQL connection string as DefaultConnection in ConnectionStrings. You need to do Update-Database once you have provided the correct connection string to the backend webapp.

Availability and Scaling

To make sure the application runs as expected I have implemented auto-scaling features for the App Service to make sure it can handle heavier loads.

Autoscale Rules:

• Scale out if the CPU percentage is over 80 percent, up to 5 instances
• Scale in if the CPU percentage decreases

Because this app is not only lightweight but also probably wont have high demand and generate any money, the availability is not very important. It is also further strengthened by the fact that this app can very easily be run locally if the cloud hosted app isn't working as expected.

Known Issues

• Cloud hosted app doesn't work as expected because the configuration saves to the same server for everyone. This mistake was due to focusing too much on local development with docker-compose where this isn't an issue.
• Once you've selected an answer in the quiz you can't change it, you technically can but it will ruin the test results. Current solution is to refresh the page if you make a mistake.
• After finishing the quiz you may have to press the button multiple times.
• There is no visual confirmation for if your configuration data got saved or reset.
• UI is very ugly and not worked on at all.
• Quiz doesn't display the total price yet.