Before you start playing games, it is a good idea to at least familiarize yourself with the various components of your PC. This way, you can resolve problems and make necessary upgrades to your system without going out and just buying a whole new one. This post will not be a full on guide to building a PC, as this is an intricate process with people a lot better than me out there. If you would like to look into this topic further, sites such as pcpartpicker and YouTube channels and videos such as Paul’s Hardware’s guide to setup a new PC, BPS Customs, and Joey Delgado, are all good resources I used to build my PC. I would recommend staying away from tech journalists and sites like the Verge, as they typically don’t offer the best recommendations.
The primary marketplace for PC components is Newegg, not Amazon. This is because Newegg does not add taxes to their components and offer very competitive prices. If you’d like to go to a physical store, I would recommend MicroCenter over Best Buy or any other store. Best Buy’s employees are typically not trained very thoroughly in PC knowledge, as they are trying to sell all of their products. MicroCenter on the other hand, offers typically lower prices, great bundles, and many of their employees are passionate PC enthusiasts. Other places to shop for PC parts include Fry’s Electronics, and other local stores.
The most important part in a gaming system is the GPU, or graphical processing unit. There is an association between better graphics cards and better gaming performance. A good graphics card will enable you to run many new games at high resolutions and frame rates. The two main players in this business are NVIDIA and AMD, with NVIDIA taking the majority of the market share. This should cost the majority of the price of your system (up to ⅗ the price).
The CPU is the main processing unit of your computer, and most of your computer’s instructions are run through it. There are two main players in the CPU marketplace, Intel and AMD. AMD Ryzen is more applicable for streaming and multitasking purposes while Intel known to be better for straight up gaming performance. AMD has been gaining on Intel lately, as they released CPUs with much better stock coolers and in many people’s opinions, better value. At the very high end of CPUs, there are the AMD threadrippers and Intel i9s, and for budget builds, I would recommend buying either Pentiums for Intel or Ryzen 3s for AMD. Even though there are cheaper options than those, they would bottleneck other components in your system (cause other parts to lag behind their peak performance) .
For CPU coolers, it is recommended by many to not go with the stock cooler the CPU comes with, as one would have difficulties overclocking (tuning your CPU to run past stock performance). This means that you should buy your own cooler. There are two ways to cool your system: water cooling and air cooling. Water cooling is often advertised as more effective because water can disperse heat better, but this also means that it is more expensive. One can design his own piping and pumps inside their system, but most people just end up buying an All-In-One water cooler. I personally prefer air coolers because I can afford them and they have a nice aesthetic, with my primary example being the G100M from Cooler Master.
RAM, or random access memory, is where your programs are run. It is very fast in reading storage information and expensive to manufacture. It is recommended to have at least 8gb of RAM for normal gaming use and at least a speed of 3000 mhz for AMD CPUs. It is a good idea to buy 16gbs to futureproof your system.
The motherboard is where all your components are connected to. The BIOS, or system before windows is connected to your motherboard. Various motherboards enable overclocking on a system (B450 and X470 for AMD).
The Power Supply is the heart of your system, where power is provided to the other components. It is recommended to get at least an 80 plus certified power supply, for a long run time. Power supplies can also be modular, meaning you choose what cables to connect to it. This makes cable management a lot easier.
There a 2 forms of storage, SSDs and HDDs, with SSDs offering fast storage and thus fast loading times while HDDs offering large amounts of storage at a cheap price. It is recommended to install operating systems and important applications onto SSDs and large games onto HDDs. If you are getting an HDD, I recommend getting at least a speed of 7200 rpm.
When buying a case, I recommend getting a tempered glass side panel, as this doesn’t scratch easily and is very visually appealing. Another thing to consider is having good cable management and ventilation throughout your system. This ventilation can be achieved through buying accessories such as case fans, other accessories to consider include keyboards, mice and headsets.
Dust Filter 
USB Controllers 
Case Fan
In terms of operating systems, Windows typically offers the best performance in gaming, as there is minimal interference and basically all games are supported. You can also install MacOS(hackintosh)on your own system, but apple doesn’t support it. Other options include linux.
However, the most important thing to get in any gaming system, more important than any item above, is a gaming chair 🙂
GOGblog 
I really like your specific PC build, as it is very similar to the one I have that is pre-built. I have the same GPU, but a little bit better processor. I really think that it is usually better to build and PC, as after I calculated some costs, I realized that a pre-built PC is generally more expensive.
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Hey Ernest!
I have a prebuilt desktop with an AMD Ryzen 7 processor and an rx580 graphics card. Your PC guide recommends 8gb of ram for a starter build but I believe that 16gb should be the norm. With my setup, which is similar to your setup, I feel like 8gb might be too slow for most people.
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Hi Ernest, your post was very informative as I am looking into building my own PC soon. As I understand it, a gaming chair is an incredibly important part of a gaming setup. The amount of lumbar support that it provides is immeasurable, and they can be obtained for incredibly low prices, with the best starting at $399.
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Hello Ernest,
I found the information you provided very helpful. I am in need of a new computer. I do not know that much about PC’s so I found the information useful. I am debating if I should get a laptop or a PC like what you have described. What are your thoughts? Anyway I found that your explanations were thorough but not too lengthy. It was easy to understand as well. Nice Work!
-Austin
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Thanks,
I would definitely recommend getting a PC in most situations, unless you want to have an ultra portable system.
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Dear Ernest,
As someone who is extremely interested in and who has done lots of research about computer parts, I found your post to be extremely accurate. I think that the specific components you mentioned are actually all of great value, and definitely worth the price. This is because of how these components all seem to have great performance, without costing too much. However, I disagree with the recommendation for Intel Pentium processors. I think that anyone who is buying components to build a PC should invest in a slightly better and more expensive processor to ensure that they have the best experience for the lowest price. As such, I think that those people should consider looking at Intel’s i5 line of processors instead.
Thank you,
Rahul Garikapati
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Hi Rahul,
This may be because of my relative inexperience with Intel products, but new i5’s start at a bit more than $250. Unless the recommendation is for older gen i5’s, say in upgrading a used dell optiplex, I would go against getting an i5 in a budget build. From personal experience, I find basically similar performance with limited bottle necking in budget CPUs such as the AMD one I own, as the bulk of performance comes from the GPU.
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