Building your own computer, whether it’s for gaming, school, or work, can be an exciting project. It lets you get the PC of your dreams. But even before you start to build your PC, you need to pick your components and that is a step that can get exceedingly complicated. From all the different motherboard chipsets, to the different CPU and GPU generations, RAM types, power supply ratings, and storage solutions, getting everything together can be tricky.
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You need to make sure everything is compatible and can hit your performance targets. You need to factor in noise levels, cooling potential, component clearance, and how it will all look when you’re done. If you aren’t sure what you’re doing, picking the wrong components can leave you with a PC that doesn’t meet your needs at best, and one that doesn’t work at all at worst. Fortunately, picking components is an easy-to-learn skill, and one you too can acquire with enough research. To get you started on that journey of discovery and understanding, we’ve put together an in-depth look at every important component so that you can figure out what you need to build the PC that you want. Here’s how to choose PC components for your next build. Form factor CPU Motherboard RAM Graphics Cards Storage Power Supplies Cooling Cases Before you dive into individual components, you need to take a moment to think about what kind of PC you’re looking to build. High-end computers often need bigger coolers, which means bigger cases. Bigger cases can fit big graphics cards and more expansion cards too, which in turn need bigger and more expansive motherboards to take full advantage of. If you’re looking to build something more compact, you’ll be limited to specific motherboard styles, certain cooler sizes, and certain graphics card lengths. More limited cooling can in turn mean you’re limited to more modest components, which may ultimately affect the kinds of things you can expect to do with your system, how hot it gets, and even how loud it sounds when you’re pushing it hard. This is particularly important if you’re looking to build a gaming PC, as some small cases just aren’t designed with top-tier graphics card power and thermal demands in mind. They may also not have the physical space for multiple storage drives, or even restrict you to ultra-compact M.2 designs. You don’t have to make any hard decisions about components just yet, but it’s important to consider form factor from the beginning, as the type of PC you want to build will affect the limits of what your PC can be, and do. The central processor, or CPU, isn’t the lynchpin of overall system performance that it once was, but it’s still arguably the most important individual component. It dictates your system’s general compute performance in many productivity-focused tasks, and can have a big impact on gaming performance, too. It will also mandate what motherboard chipsets you have access too, and what features you can expect, such as certain generations of memory and PCIexpress, and even the type of ports you have access too, such as USB and Thunderbolt. There are two main CPU manufacturers worth considering with desktop computers: AMD and Intel. While in the mobile space you also have Apple’s silicon to consider, as well as Qualcomm ARM SoCs, for PCs, AMD and Intel are the best for custom PC building by a long way, offering a robust range of processors across several generations. The right CPU for you will very much depend on what you want to do with it, what your budget is, and whether you need a clear upgrade path for the future. Picking between AMD and Intel is your first step on choosing the right CPU for your PC build. When it comes to performance, the two companies produce chips that are relatively comparable throughout their respective ranges. At the time of writing, Intel’s processors tend to offer better raw performance, but they do draw more power from your power supply and the wall socket in turn, as they just aren’t as efficient. You’ll find greater support for Thunderbolt technology on Intel PCs, too, especially when it comes to the latest Thunderbolt 4 generation. AMD PCs, however, do have access to a range of stellar performance enhancing technologies, like Smart Access Memory, and the latest generation of Ryzen 7000 CPUs also feature USB4, which can offer up to 40 Gbps bandwidth for high-speed data transfers. Those latest 7000 Series CPUs are on a brand-new socket design too, so whether you’re upgrading or building new, you’ll need a whole new motherboard and DDR5 memory, since it doesn’t have DDR4 support. While that does mean more of an upfront cost, there is greater scope for future upgrades, as AMD has committed to supporting the socket until at least 2025.
For more modest upgrades, or if you don’t need all the latest features, AMD also offers its last-generation Ryzen 5000 CPUs. These are the last processors that will support AMD’s AM4 socket. That means that you’ll only be able to upgrade to other Ryzen 5000 CPUs, so bear that in mind when it comes to choosing your generation of CPU.
Intel currently offers its 12th and 13th generation CPUs, both on the LGA 1700 socket – though there are 600 and 700-series motherboards to consider. Both support DDR4 and DDR5 memory, though that depends on your motherboard of choice, and 13th generation CPUs support faster memory out of the box. For upgrades, since the CPUs and motherboards are interchangeable, you could easily start on a modest 12th generation CPU and upgrade to a 13th generation model later. If you buy a high-end 13th generation CPU, however, know that your upgrade path will be limited, as Intel’s 14th generation chips will be based on a new socket design when they launch in the next couple of years. The most important factor to consider when picking a processor is the CPU’s generation. Both AMD and Intel release new CPUs every year or two, and they tend to make big improvements to their performance and efficiency with each generational leap. In some cases, like the Intel 12th-generation Alder Lake processors, the company made a major redesign of the CPU architecture and overall design. For 12th Gen, Intel switched from using exclusively large performance cores in its CPUs, to splitting its chips between high-performance cores and smaller efficiency cores. This kind of design is more typically seen in mobile and laptop CPUs from the likes of ARM, but it may well be a trend that catches on with desktop CPUs moving forward. This split of high performance and efficiency cores continued into the 13th Gen of Intel Raptor Lake processors, though it remains exclusively an Intel design, for now. AMD’s processors continue to use the same chipset design, with multiple core complexes housing several cores a piece. That goes for both its latest Ryzen 7000 series, and its older Ryzen 5000 series. Although a high-end CPU from a previous generation may be more capable than a lower-end option from a more recent generation, it’s generally a good idea to aim for a newer-generation processor when buying or building a PC. It gives you access to the latest and greatest features, gives you the most upgrade potential, and tends to grant you the best value for money by giving you the fastest processor available at a given price. For Intel PCs, the 13th generation processors are by far the best option today. They offer the best performance per dollar, and still offer DDR4 support. You could opt for a 12th-generation option, as they are still stellar gaming CPUs, especially at the lower-end where the 13th generation isn’t quite so fleshed out yet. But you will get the best performance with the latest CPUs, especially in gaming and heavily-multithreaded workloads. For AMD PCs, the latest generation Ryzen 7000 CPUs are your best bet today, going toe-to-toe on performance with Intel’s best. Ryzen 5000 CPUs are still great options too, but the cost-to-power ratio skews a bit lower and you soon won’t find as many compatible motherboards. Ryzen 5000 also lacks any kind of clear upgrade path, so you may find yourself having to put together a new build before long. Both Intel and AMD classify their processors in distinct tiers to make it easier to differentiate between them. These aren’t the only information you need to know when it comes to choosing a CPU, but they give you a good idea about the general performance of a chip and its potential cost. Intel classifies its mainstream CPUs as Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Core i9. The Core i3 processors tend to be the most affordable and least performative, but they still offer two to four cores, reasonable clock speeds and all of the same architectural improvements as their higher-end siblings. Core i5 processors generally come with six cores and offer higher clock speeds and greater overall performance. These tend to be the chips that most people should go for when building Intel-based mid-range gaming PCs or work computers, as they offer solid all-round performance in most tasks, and don’t cost as much as the more high-end options. Core i7 Intel CPUs have more cores and higher clocks again, and are a better fit for more demanding tasks, like high-end gaming PCs, as well as video and photo editing. The extra performance will run a bit more, but can be very worth it if you intend to heavily use your computer. Core i9 CPUs are Intel’s extreme processors. They’re designed for very-high-end gaming PCs and demanding video editing workstations, and have the greatest numbers of cores and the highest clock speeds. They also require a lot of power and cooling to really make the most of them, so make sure that if you’re building a PC with a Core i9 CPU you have a very capable cooler and power supply. As for AMD CPUs, there are also four tiers to consider: Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7, and Ryzen 9. Ryzen 3 CPUs are the most affordable options and tend to cover with a minimum of four cores, and lower clock speeds. They are designed with lightweight web browsing and office tasks in mind. They’re fine for gaming too, though they’ll hold back high-end graphics cards. They also aren’t readily available in recent generations of desktop CPUs, appearing mostly on mobile platforms and with older generations of AMD CPUs. Ryzen 5 CPUs target more mainstream gaming and day to day office tasks, but there’s some scope for photo editing and more demanding tasks if you’re willing to wait a little longer. To speed them up, or to maximize frame rates in more demanding games, Ryzen 7 CPUs come with more cores and higher clock speeds, delivering greater performance in single and multi-threaded scenarios. Ryzen 9 CPUs are, like Intel’s Core i9s, the most powerful of AMD’s CPUs, and while you will get the best frame rates with Ryzen 9 CPUs, you might find they offer more oomph than you can use. Where you will see a big benefit with them, though, is video editing and transcoding, where the additional cores (double Ryzen 7 CPUs in some cases) can really be brought to bear. Outside of their tiers, Intel and AMD CPUs are also often given a suffix letter to further differentiate them. These can, in some cases, denote some special features, enhanced performance, or a lower power draw. Intel employs four letters to differentiate its processors: K, S, F, and T. Sometimes they’re use individually, but some CPUs are given more than one. The K series Intel CPUs are its enthusiast-grade chips. These offer greater performance than their non-K counterparts, with higher boost clock speeds and a higher thermal design power, or TDP, which means they draw more power from the wall and require greater cooling potential to stay within safe operating temperatures. They are also the only Intel CPUs that can be manually overlocked by adjusting the multiplier, for easier and more advanced overclocking. Current generation examples include the Core i5-13600K, and the Core i9-13900K. When available, these CPUs will be notably faster than their non-K counterparts, the 13600 and 13900. Those CPUs will also lack overclocking support. S CPUs are Intel’s highest tier of processor. It’s a suffix added only to the most powerful K-series CPUs. They have higher boost clock speeds again, and even higher TDP demands. The only example in Intel’s current CPU lineup is the Core i9-12900KS. Intel CPUs with the F suffix have the onboard graphics disabled. That means that in order to run a PC with an F-series CPU you have to have a dedicated graphics card. These CPUs tend to be less costly than their non-F counterparts. Current examples include the Core i3-12100F and the Core i5-12400F, as well as higher-end options, like the Core i5-13600KF, and Core i9-13900KF. T-series CPUs aren’t typically available to general consumers, and are very low-power versions of their non-T counterparts, with considerably lower clock speeds and reduced performance. They tend to be found in pre-built PCs aimed at enterprises. AMD CPUs only have a couple of suffixes to differentiate between its processors: X and G. AMD X-series CPUs have higher clock speeds and often higher-TDPs than their non-X counterparts, leading to greater overall performance. Usually the difference isn’t as stark as Intel’s K-series, however. AMD non-X CPUs are often restricted to OEM companies, too, but they can be overclocked, as AMD places no restrictions on that at the CPU level. As of writing, only Ryzen 7000 CPUs available at the time of writing are X-series versions. In the case of the Ryzen 5000 series, there was over a year where there were only X-series CPUs available, so it’s not as readily used to break up AMD’s product stack as Intel does. Traditionally, AMD’s G-series processors (categorized as accelerated processing units, or APUs) have been the only ones with onboard graphics. However, that changed with the Ryzen 7000 series, as all of those CPUs have onboard graphics cores. There is still some benefit to G-series models, however, as they sport many more GPU cores. They can currently only be found on older Ryzen 4000 and 5000 CPUs, however, so the CPU and GPU cores aren’t as powerful. APUs are also typically weaker CPUs, to retain the same TDP with the enhanced onboard graphics. Good examples include the Ryzen 5 5600G and Ryzen 7 5700G, both of which offer impressive onboard GPU performance and make good options for those looking to buy a CPU now, and a GPU later – although you can also do that with both Intel and AMD’s latest CPUs, just with weaker GPU performance. The biggest differentiator between different tiers of processors from both Intel and AMD is their number of cores. These are effectively, individual processors on each chip that allow the CPU to handle multiple tasks at once. More cores mean better multi-tasking performance, and in the case of applications that can take advantage of them, faster overall performance, too. There is a ceiling, however. Games typically use between four and 10 cores, while photo editing applications like Adobe Photoshop use only a few cores at a time. Video editing suites can use almost as many cores as you can throw at them, with even 32 core CPUs showing some room for improvement with particularly high-resolution video work. Most mainstream CPUs today also support simultaneous multi-threading (Intel CPUs call this Hyperthreading) which allows unused portions of a CPU core to complete other tasks while the rest of the chip is occupied. This effectively doubles the number of tasks that a CPU can handle at once, and though it’s not as good as having double the number of cores, it makes a big difference to a chip’s overall multi-threaded performance. With that in mind, entry-level quad core CPUs that can handle eight threads at a time are perfectly adequate for entry-level gaming, web browsing, and other lightweight tasks. For more demanding gaming and day to day work, six cores and 12 threads should be considered the minimum on desktop. Those looking to do more demanding gaming may want to consider eight core CPUs, while anyone doing video editing or transcoding should target as many cores and threads as you can. In the case of Intel CPUs, the above advice still applies, but it relates to performance cores. While a budget CPU with four performance cores and some additional efficiency cores might have a higher overall core count, for games and more demanding applications, performance cores are what matters the most. Once you have a solid baseline of performance cores, additional efficiency cores can go a long way to improving multi-threaded performance, especially in applications that can leverage them, like video editing, video transcoding, and 3D CAD work. Intel’s most recent generations of CPUs employ two different types of cores in their design: Performance (P) cores, and Efficiency (E) cores. P cores are Intel’s traditional core design, using the latest process node technologies, and hitting the highest clock speeds. These are the cores that do all the heavy lifting when you’re playing games. The E cores, on the other hand, use older process technology, and run at much lower clock speeds, but they’re smaller, so can come in greater numbers, providing enhanced multi-threaded performance for handling background tasks, or when running applications that can use a lot of cores, like for video editing or video transcoding. E cores don’t have a huge impact on gaming, so if that’s your main focus, buying a CPU that has enough P cores is much more important than getting one with lots of E cores. If you’re looking to work with your PC, though, or need as many cores as you can get, the CPUs with lots of E cores offer the best multi-threaded performance. In some cases, applications may not be adequately designed for, or updated to support, Intel’s unique core design, so double check the applications you want to run work well with Intel’s latest CPUs before buying. AMD CPUs only use one P core design, so they are more straight forward. Another major factor in a CPU’s performance are its clock speeds. This effectively controls how many calculations a processor can make every second, so higher clock speeds mean greater performance. All CPUs come with a base clock, which is the minimum speed they will run when given adequate cooling for their TDP. However, most CPUs also have a boost clock. This is a higher frequency that the CPU can run at when needed, delivering much greater performance. In some cases, this frequency can be maintained for only a short period of time, with the CPU then reverting to a slower speed that is more manageable if longer term tasks are performed. In other cases, the CPU can maintain its boost clock speed as long as it remains within safe operating temperatures. Clock speeds can be improved through certain overclocking algorithms, some of which need to be enabled in the BIOS to take full advantage of a CPU, but most will perform as well as they can, if given the available power and thermal headroom and depending on the task at hand. The latest generation CPUs from AMD and Intel run at higher clock speeds, and will provide the best overall performance. Higher-tier CPUs typically run at higher clock speeds too, but there are instances where certain tasks may perform better on more older cores, rather than fewer cores running at higher clock speeds. Cache is a quick-access, short term memory that CPUs have on the chip itself for the fastest possible access. In the same way that system memory (RAM) provides quicker access to data stored on the SSD or hard drive, cache provides even faster access than RAM and can be a major indicator of CPU performance. Although most CPUs have different levels of cache, typically L1, L2, and L3, there are some chips that have more cache than others. While this is usually only seen with chips that have higher core counts, there are some CPUs which are specifically designed to have higher quantities of cache. AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D is an intriguing example, as it has similar specifications to a standard 5800X, but has an additional 64MB of L3 cache bolted on top. This has varied effects on performance, with some games and applications unaffected, while others show huge boosts to performance with that additional cache available. One of the big upgrade with AMD’s Ryzen 7000 generation of processors, was doubling the amount of L2 cache per core to 1MB. It’s part of why this latest generation of CPUs performs so well. Intel also increased its per-core cache on its new 13th generation Raptor Lake processors. It increased the amount of L2 cache on the P cores to 2MB, and the amount per E core, to 4MB. Higher end CPUs need more power and output more heat. Even though newer CPUs are often more efficient than their predecessors, that is often leveraged to improve performance, rather than reduce demands on power and cooling. TDP is the figure usually used to give an indication of what those demands are for a CPU. The thermal design profile, as it’s called, is a wattage figure and lets you know what a CPU will draw and put out at its base frequency. A 65W AMD Ryzen 5600X will demand and output more when running at its boosted frequency, but not by much. A Ryzen 7 7700X has a TDP of 105W, but demands close to 200W when at full load. Intel CPUs now often have multiple TDP ratings: one for its base frequency, and one for their boost frequency. The top-end Core i9-13900K has a base TDP of 125W, and a max boost TDP of 253W. If it has strong enough cooling and a big enough power supply to draw from, though, it can pull over 300W when fully loaded. Ultimately, you should know that higher-end CPUs with more cores and higher clock speeds will demand more power from your PSU, and require a more capable cooler to keep them running at safe temperatures to avoid thermal throttling. Recent generations of CPUs from both AMD and Intel have had much higher thermal and power demands at the top end, although the more modest options are often very efficient and don’t require anywhere near as much power as their predecessors. The best CPU for you depends very much on your needs and your budget, but there are some universal ideas you should consider when it comes to making your choice. If you’re just looking for a machine for lightweight office tasks, web browsing, and watching Netflix, then an Intel Core i3 or last-generation AMD Ryzen 5 CPU would be a great pick. A Core i5-12400 or AMD Ryzen 5 5600G would be great bets. These CPUs are often the least expensive and, with their onboard graphics, you won’t need to buy a graphics card as well. If you’re building a PC that will have a dedicated graphics card, perhaps because you plan to do some lightweight gaming, you could opt for the Core i5-13600K, or < href="/product/652684/amd-ryzen-5-7600x-raphael-am5-47ghz-6-core-boxed-processor-heatsink-not-included">Ryzen 5 7600X instead, netting you similar CPU performance without the onboard GPU. For more mid-range gaming, or if you want to run more demanding applications and do heavier web browsing with a greater number of tabs, then mid-range CPUs like Intel Core i5-13600K or AMD Ryzen 7600X are excellent picks. With their six (P) cores they have all the performance you need for high frame rate gaming when paired with a powerful graphics card. They’re solid workhorses too, able to leverage 12 and 16 threads a piece, for impressive multi-threading performance in a range of applications. If you want to build a high-end gaming PC or a system designed with demanding video editing in mind, then the Core i7 and Ryzen 7 CPUs are a great option. The Ryzen 7 7700X and Intel Core i7-13700K are powerful high-end CPUs that are more cost effective than the top chips, but come close in performance in most tasks; especially games at 1080p. There’s even less of a difference at higher resolutions, too. If you’re building a flagship gaming system or want a machine for video editing and other demanding tasks, then the sky’s the limit. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and 7950X are amazing multi-tasking machines with traditional core designs that make them widely compatible with all applications while delivering impressive performance. At the top of team blue’s lineup, you have the 13900K. It features a staggering 24 cores (8P + 16E) for 32 thread support, and very high clock speeds. You could opt for the last-generation 12900K, as it’s still a gaming monster, but with half the number of E cores and a lower clock speed, its multi-threaded performance isn’t anywhere near as impressive. One final option for gamers is the unique AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which despite being last-generation remains competitive with even the best gaming CPUs. But with its older Zen 3 architecture and lower clock speed, it’s not as good at demanding productivity applications as the newer Ryzen 7000 and Raptor Lake processors. It also locks you into a last-generation platform with no clear upgrade path. Picking the right motherboard for your PC ensures that you can install all the components you want, and you have all the features you need. While you might not see much of a performance difference between the most affordable and the most expensive high-end models, those high-end motherboards do offer some advantages like sturdiness, RGB, and additional connections. So while you don’t need to pay for more than you need, going with a more budget-friendly board may leave you short ports or missing some important quality of life features. Motherboards come in a few distinct shapes and sizes, and that can dictate what hardware you can install in it, and what PC cases it can fit in. ATX motherboards are the most common and come with enough space for a full-size graphics card, four sticks of RAM, plenty of storage drives, and anything else you could want or need. They fit in most mid-size and full-size cases. Micro-ATX motherboards are a little smaller, usually dropping a couple of PCIexpress slots for add-in cards along with a couple of inches of PCB. They don’t have as many USB or SATA ports, too, and may not support as many storage drives. They are often more affordable, though, and can fit in smaller mid-tower chassis, as well as the larger sizes typically designed with ATX boards in mind. The smallest mainstream motherboard size is Mini-ITX, making it a great fit for small form factor PCs. They tend to come with just two RAM slots, and one PCIexpress x16 slot for a graphics card or expansion card. Although they can fit into almost any PC case, there are cases specifically designed with Mini-ITX cases in mind. Once you’ve chosen a form factor, the chipset is the most important factor to consider with your motherboard. This is the core chip on the board that provides its functionality, as well as helping to separate boards into distinct tiers. The higher-end chipsets have better features and components, while the lower-end options can be more restrictive. The chipsets currently available for Intel and AMD platforms are as follows: This is the first, and at the time of writing, only chipset Intel has debuted for its latest generation CPUs. Although the previous-generation 600-series boards (see below) also support the new Raptor Lake processors, the latest Z790 boards do give you a few little extras that may make the extra expense worth it. Z790 boards have full support for PCIExpress 5 across both PCIe x16 slots, as well as the M.2 slots, making them an excellent solution for those wanting the highest of storage speeds and the most future-proofed graphics. The VRM phases have been bumped up on the top boards, too, so they should offer more stable overclocking, with some manufacturers offering enhanced VRM and chipset cooling for added stability. Overall these boards have more PCIe lanes than any other Intel platform, and the greatest number of other ports, including Thunderbolt 4 and USB4, among others. They’re the best solution for a mid-to-high-end Raptor Lake build, with prices ranging from around $250, up to over $1,000. That said, the slightly-older Z690 boards are no slouch either. Motherboards built around the Z690 chipset are some of the most capable of Intel motherboards and are therefore, some of the most expensive, with costs ranging from $200, to over $1,000 in the most extreme cases. They have fully unlocked overclocking abilities for tweaking memory and the CPU, so if you’re planning on overclocking your Intel CPU, this is the only chipset you should consider. Other benefits include a large number of PCIExpress 4 and 3 lanes for high-end and multi-GPU setups (augmenting the CPU’s support for PCIe 5 on the x16 slot), as well as the greatest number of NVMe SSD ports of any 600-series boards. It also comes with the greatest number of USB ports, including USB-A and USB-C, and has access to the latest technologies like Thunderbolt 4, and Wi-Fi 6E. These boards are aimed at enthusiast PC users who want the most performance possible, as well as those who want to tweak their system. Z690 motherboards are designed and priced for those looking to blow past mainstream performance. The H670 chipset is almost as capable as the Z690, with all of the same access to high-speed PCIexpress 4, but with a few less lanes and USB ports. It also doesn’t have full overclocking support for the CPU, though you can still tweak memory settings to enhance performance. These boards are a great pick for high-end gamers who aren’t fussed with overclocking but want a capable platform with full support for all the latest technologies. B660 boards don’t have overclocking support for the CPU, and lose a few more PCIExpress lanes and USB ports compared to H670 boards. This limits the number of high-speed NVMe SSDs you can install, as well as the number of expansion cards. However, system performance is much the same and if you don’t plan on installing a lot of additional drives or devices, B660 motherboards are perfectly adequate for mainstream gaming and work machines. Motherboards based on the H610 chipset are the most affordable of Intel motherboards, but they have a restrictive feature set which may not work or all builders. They have no overclocking support, as with most other Intel chipsets, but they also lose access to PCIexpress 4 and USB-C. They also have fewer PCIexpress lanes and USB ports overall. So while these boards can be a great fit for a budget build, ensure that the model you’re buying has the slots and ports you need before doing so. AMD dropped a whole line of new boards with its Ryzen 7000 CPUs, with the X670E chipset boards sitting at the top of the pack. They only support Ryzen 7000 processors and only support DDR5 memory, but that gives them access to the fastest processors and the fastest memory, for ultra-high performance. Indeed, X670E is designed with extreme enthusiasts, gamers, and overclockers in mind, providing the most stable and high-quality VRMs and motherboard features for the highest frequencies attainable. Overclocking is fully supported, with no restrictions. Alongside the CPUs’ support for PCIe 5, the board has support for up to 20 PCIe 4 lanes, and an additional eight PCIe 3 lanes, for massive storage arrays, or leveraging multiple GPUs. It also supports the greatest number of USB-A and USB-C ports, including USB4. They also come with built-in support for Wi-Fi 6e and Bluetooth 5.2, in most cases. The TDP is less than that of the last-generation flagship x570 boards at 14W, meaning that the boards with big heatsinks can get away without active cooling. These boards tend to cost between $350 and $1000, with the higher-end options sporting the best VRMs, more M.2 slots, and enhanced cooling. Targeting high-end gamers and more-modest enthusiasts, AMD’s X670 motherboards feature almost everything the X670E boards do, but not quite. They also have full support for overclocking and have powerful VRM configurations, but they won’t be as impressive as the top X670E boards, so you are unlikely to hit quite the same frequencies on an X670 board; overclocks may not be as stable, either. They also feature fewer PCIe 5 lanes; typically, 16 from the CPU, and four from the chipset (vs the 16 from the CPU and 24 from the X670E chipset). That doesn’t make a huge difference at the moment where PCIe 5 SSDs are rare, and graphics cards don’t need that extra bandwidth, but the X670E boards are just that bit more future-proofed for it. To make up for that, X670 has more PCIe 4 and 3 lanes, so there’s plenty of bandwidth to go around, it’s just not quite as much as the higher-end boards. You’ll also find fewer USB ports altogether, with some boards dropping USB4, as well. Prices are more modest though, starting at around $250 and maxing out around $700. The B650 drops off significantly when it comes to PCIe 5 support. While it still has the benefit of the x16 slot supporting the latest PCIe standard from the CPU, the motherboard itself can have no PCIe 5 lanes. Support is entirely optional from the motherboard manufacturer, so what you get will depend on who you go with and the model you pick. They still have the total 36 lanes as B650E motherboards, so expect plenty of PCI express 4 (which is more than enough for almost any gamer or high-end user in 2022), but no PCIe 5 beyond the basics. USB ports remain the same as B650E, though less than the higher-end options, and it has full overclocking support with no restrictions. VRMs on these boards are much lower quality, however, potentially reducing your maximum frequencies. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support are extras that some manufacturers and models will include, while others won’t. Prices start around $200, maxing out around the $350 mark. AMD’s X570 is its flagship motherboard platform of its Ryzen 5000, last-generation CPUs. It made waves when first released for its high 15W TDP, demanding an active fan cooler on the chipset for the first time in many generations of motherboards. Still, that extra power does give it an expansive feature set. Buyers of X570 motherboards can expect a full PCIe 4.0 x16 slot support, as well as the option for multi-GPU Crossfire and SLI setups. In more mainstream features, you get the most USB ports on boards built around this chipset, including up to eight USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and up to 12 SATA ports for larger storage arrays. It has full support for processor and memory overclocking (both manual and automated) and has support for all of the latest AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs. The top x570 boards also offer the most impressive VRMs for advanced Ryzen 5000 overclocking, so even though you can overclock on cheaper chipset boards, the x570 platform is typically considered the best for AMD CPU tweaking. As you might expect, x570 motherboards tend to be the most expensive for AMD motherboards. They’re priced anywhere between $150 and $900, depending on the manufacturer and feature set. The B550 motherboards are excellent mid-range boards that offer most of the same features as x570, including CPU support and full overclocking ability. You won’t get quite the same options as those geared towards enthusiasts, and the VRMs are unlikely to offer the same kind of system stability when overclocking, but the option is there and you can take full advantage of AMD’s Precision Boost Overdrive algorithm. You do lose some PCIe 4 support, though, so you won’t be able to take advantage of high-speed NVMe SSDs in quite the same way. Elsewhere you get fewer USB ports and fewer SATA ports, but otherwise the boards are more varied based on manufacturer choices, rather than chipset features. The B550 boards excellent options for mid-range PCs, whether they’re for work or gaming, as you get a complete feature set without the extreme price tag of some X570 boards. A520 motherboards are the most affordable of AMD’s lineup. However, that low price does also come at a different cost, namely in terms of features and component quality. The A520 chipset gives you just six PCIe 3 lanes of its own, relying on the CPUs’ PCIe 4 lanes to give you access to higher-speed graphics and NVMe SSDs in a reduced capacity. You’ll also only get one USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, and four SATA ports – severely limiting your storage potential on an A520 platform. Perhaps most damning of all, the A520 platform doesn’t offer overclocking. Some third-party manufacturers have enabled it, but it’s not officially supported by AMD on this platform. Because of this, A520 motherboards can’t make the most of AMD CPUs, and should only really be used for lightweight office or homework machines. Motherboards of different sizes, with different chipsets, from different manufacturers all have different feature sets and that can impact the kind of hardware you can plug into them. Most ATX and mATX motherboards have four memory DIMM slots, meaning you can have up to 128GB of DDR4 (or DDR5) memory with four 32GB sticks. However, there are some motherboards, particular mini ITX boards, which only come with two slots. That may limit you to 64GB, or even 32GB in some cases, so make sure whatever board you buy has the slots you need for the memory you can to use (see more on memory further down this guide). You should also ensure your motherboard supports the type of memory you plan to use in it. All AMD AM4 motherboards support DDR4 only, while all AM5 motherboards only support DDR5. Intel 600 and 700 series boards, on the other hand, can support DDR4 or DDR5, so be sure to buy a board that supports the type of memory you plan to install in it. Goto ZHONGKANG to know more. You also need to consider your graphics card and add-in cards and whether your board has the PCIexpress slots that you need. While most contemporary boards offer enough PCIe 4 slots to take full advantage of the latest graphics cards, some support PCIe 5 for even greater bandwidth. Not all boards have the lanes you need for your NVMe M.2 SSDs, and some don’t have additional expansion slots for sound cards, network cards, and other add-in cards. Make sure that whatever motherboard you’re considering has all the slots you need, whether it’s for memory, GPUs, add-in cards, or even USB devices and SATA storage drives. Random access memory (RAM) is one of the key components of your system and it can have a big impact on performance in some cases. It’s the short-term memory that sits between your longer-term storage and the CPU and makes sure that all the information it needs is right there when it demands it. Buying the right memory can be tricky, however, as you need to factor in the right generation, make sure you have enough of it, and ensure it’s fast enough to allow all your other components to perform at their best. DDR5 memory might be the latest and most impressive memory standard, but not everyone can use it yet. Intel’s Alder and Raptor Lake processors and associated motherboards can run DDR5 and often perform the best when doing so, but you’ll need to buy a compatible motherboard to run it. AMD’s Ryzen 7000 CPUs and 600-series motherboards only work with DDR5, so you’ll need to factor that into your budget and build plans. For everything else, DDR4 is still a common standard. Older AMD motherboards still use only DDR4 memory, and many Intel Alder and Raptor Lake boards do too. All older Intel 10th and 11th generation systems only support DDR4 as well. Arguably the most important consideration with memory is making sure you have enough of it. Your operating system will need a couple of gigabytes to function at all, and a few more to function well, but it’s when doing heavy web browsing, or running demanding applications like games or photo and video editors that you’ll need more. Where entry-level laptops and tablets might function well enough with just 4GB of memory, the standard bare minimum for most desktop PCs is 8GB. This is enough for most entry-level games and heavy web browsing without running into too many problems. If you want to play more demanding games, or do any kind of photo or video editing, however, especially at higher resolutions, then 16GB should be the minimum you opt for. If you’re building a higher-end gaming PC, or want to make the most of your powerful processor in video editing, then 32GB is a better bet, and 64GB can even give you some performance advantages when dealing with ultra-high definition video or RAW image file formats. It doesn’t do much good to have lots of memory if it’s all abominably slow. RAM speed is typically measured in megatransfers per second, or MTps, but that’s often colloquially converted into MHz. While not exactly accurate, it’s used often enough that you’ll find it in official product listings and in discussions of memory, so consider MTps and MHz interchangeable for memory speed discussion. Fortunately, memory prices for higher speeds have fallen considerably in recent years, with only the latest and most capable kits in both DDR4 and DDR5 memory really stretching budgets. There’s a real ceiling on how much benefit you get from memory speed, too, so the most important thing is to make sure that you aren’t running slow memory. While DDR4 memory is the most common type used in gaming PCs and work machines alike (for now), the sweet spot of price to performance is around 3,200MHz. There are kits that will go up to 5,000 MHz on DDR4, but higher speeds can complicate some AMD PCs and older-gen Intel CPUs won’t benefit as much – certainly not enough that the average PC builder would see a noticeable difference. If you’re looking for faster memory on Intel PCs, just opt for DDR5. It will give you a better upgrade path having a DDR5-supporting motherboard, and the ceiling is higher for the potential performance you can achieve as DDR5 can simply run faster than even the best DDR4. AMD’s Ryzen 7000 CPUs only work with DDR5, and you’ll find better performance the higher you go, though AMD has said that the sweet spot for performance is 6,000 MTps. You can go higher, but then you’ll need to manually overclock other portions of your system to maintain a healthy balance. The other factor that affects memory performance is timings. These dictate the time your RAM takes to complete certain actions, or pause between them. Since executing commands too quickly will result in memory errors, but completing them too slowly results in poor memory performance, it’s a fine balance to find the right timings for any individual kit. However, unless you’re planning to do some in-depth tweaking and overclocking, you don’t need to worry too much about timings. Just know that DDR4 timings are typically much tighter (read: lower) than DDR5, but that doesn’t make much of a difference in performance when DDR5 kits have much higher bandwidth. When it comes to choosing your memory, know that lower timings do offer better performance than a kit with the same speed but looser timings. They won’t have too much an impact overall, though, so focusing on buying a kit that meets your capacity and speed needs should come first, with timings a tertiary consideration and only then if you’re really looking to maximize your system performance over anything else. If you’re building a gaming PC, there’s one component that’s more important than all the others when it comes to running the game smoothly and effectively: your graphics card. Fortunately, if you aren’t looking to do any kind of gaming, 3D design work, or hardware accelerated video transcoding, you can probably skip over a graphics card completely and just make use of your CPU’s onboard GPU (double check it has one before buying, and be aware that a GPU, even an entry-level one, can greatly improve performance). For gaming though, a graphics card is a must. Before picking the specific GPU that’s right for you, you’ll be faced with a question: do you buy an AMD, NVIDIA, or Intel graphics card? The one main benefit of the latest generation of GPUs is that both AMD and NVIDIA have a wide range of high performing graphics cards, so if you are looking for generally great performance at 1080p, 1440p, or 4K, a GPU from either camp will give you everything you need. Intel is very new in the space, but its Arc GPUs are competent enough for entry-level and mid-range gaming PCs, and they’re affordable enough that they are a very viable options for certain budgets. That said, if you want to play games where ray tracing is a major component, then NVIDIA GPUs are hands-down the best choice. Their second and third-generation RT cores deliver much greater ray tracing performance than AMD’s ray accelerators. Although you can get good ray tracing performance from AMD’s top cards, they’re roughly equivalent to NVIDIA’s higher mid-range options, so if you’re planning on playing games with a lot of ray traced elements, you’ll typically get more for your money with an NVIDIA GPU. NVIDIA’s RTX 2000, 3000, and 4000 GPUs also offer support for Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) It’s widely available with several hundred games now supporting it in some form or another. AMD (and NVIDIA) GPUs have access to FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), which is similar to DLSS, but is open source, and will likely see greater adoption in the long term (We’ll dig into this more in the ‘Upscaling’ section). AMD’s GPUs also support Smart Access Memory (SAM) when paired with an AMD CPU, which can improve performance slightly more than NVIDIA’s less focused Resizable Bar. ReBAR is a must-have feature for Intel GPUs, with Intel itself claiming that without it, you won’t get anywhere near the best from your new card. Intel GPUs, and to a lesser extent NVIDIA and AMD’s, support XeSS upscaling, which is a capable alternative to DLSS and FSR, though it’s still in the early stages of development and can’t compete directly with the latest offerings from the competition just yet. As with your CPU, you only really want to buy a graphics card from one of the most recent generations. These cards offer a combination of the best performance available and support for the latest features. They also tend to be built on more advanced process nodes, leading to greater efficiency, giving more performance per watt. When it comes to NVIDIA, that means buying a GPU from its GTX 1600 series, its RTX 3000 series, or RTX 4000 series. You’ll currently find the widest range of cards with the RTX 3000 series, as it’s the most recently completed series of cards, but the RTX 4000 series is beginning with the high-end RTX 4090, followed up by the RTX 4080. By the time we’re into 2023, Nvidia’s sole focus will be on the 40 series. NVIDIA has re-released a few of its RTX 2000 series cards recently, so a few are out there, but they tend to be more geared towards entry-level builders. AMD’s main current lineup is its RX 6000 series GPUs, offering impressive performance at very affordable prices, with the top RX 6900XT in particular offering great value after some heavy price cuts. However, AMD recently unveiled its RX 7000 series cards, including the 7900 XT and 7900 XTX. These are designed to challenge Nvidia’s RTX 4000 series and will do so in dramatic fashion when they launch in early December. Intel is the newest arrival in the GPU space and for now at least, is primarily aimed at folks building on a budget. The Arc A770 are an absolutely solid choice for anyone looking for a new, mid-range card, with decent rasterization and ray tracing support, as well as support for the increasingly-capable XeSS. However, there is nothing in the Intel lineup that can compete with the top cards from Nvidia or AMD, so if you’re looking to game at 1440p or 4K, you’ll need to stick with team green or team red. The two main factors that influence a graphics card’s general rasterization performance are its GPU core count and its clock speed. In short, the higher the number of cores (in NVIDIA’s case, CUDA cores, for AMD it’s stream processors) the greater the card’s performance. Higher clock speeds on cards with comparable numbers of cores will lead to greater performance too, but you’ll often find lower end cards with fewer cores also featuring higher clock speeds. The cards with more cores will almost always win that shootout. When it comes to actually picking the right GPU for you, however, you only really need to consider cores or clocks if you want to dig into the nitty gritty details between two cards from different manufacturers, like an RTX 4090 from ASUS and an RTX 4090 from MSI, for example. They might have slightly different boost clock speeds, and in those cases, the card with higher clocks is probably faster. But there won’t typically be much difference, since GPUs are already often pushed close to their potential maximum ability from the factory. As far as raw performance is concerned, it’s rarely the case that buying a more expensive version of a lower-end card is better than buying the more modest version of a higher-end card. That added cost will get you a better cooler and a quieter card overall, but it can’t account for more cores and higher clocks offered by the more powerful cards. One factor that’s important to consider when buying any graphics card is its memory. Sometimes referred to as video memory, or VRAM, a graphics card’s memory has a big impact on its performance in the same way that system memory does. Not enough VRAM can leave you with substandard performance, or even the inability to run certain in-game settings. How much you need really depends on what you want to play, at what settings, and at what resolution, but a good rule of thumb is that for 1080p or 1440p play in any game, 8GB is more than enough. However, if you’re looking to game at 4K resolution, then you want more than 10GB of VRAM. There are some cards designed with 4K gaming in mind which have 10GB exactly, like the first batch of NVIDIA’s RTX 3080s, but current AAA games are already pushing up against the limits of that when playing at 4K. If you want to future proof your gaming PC for gaming at 4K in the years to come, you want a GPU that has more than that, ideally. The latest GPUs from AMD and Nvidia have over 20GB of VRAM each, showing a clear trend in high-end GPUs. That is unlikely to change any time soon so expect even greater quantities of memory in the future. Ray tracing is a visual feature that was introduced in modern games a few years ago and it’s extremely taxing on a graphics card. So much so, in fact, that AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA have specialized hardware designed to accelerate ray traced calculations so they won’t weigh too heavily on a GPU’s performance. This can’t be accounted for entirely, though, and even the fastest graphics cards in the world can struggle to handle ray tracing in some games when playing at higher resolutions. That said, you will get far, far better ray tracing performance from the top-end graphics cards, so if you want to play games with ray tracing, consider it like playing at 4K: you almost certainly won’t get by with an entry-level GPU.
NVIDIA GPUs are also better than equivalent AMD cards when it comes to ray tracing. That means if you want to maximize your ray tracing performance, NVIDIA cards are your best choice, but it also means if you want ray tracing support, but don’t have a high budget, you’re more than likely locked into an NVIDIA card, as similar-priced AMD cards may not be able to handle it.
We’re still waiting for firm benchmarks on a lot of the latest cards, but roughly, AMD’s ray tracing is about a generation behind NVIDIA’s, with the RX 7000 series being about as good as the RTX 3000 series, and the RX 6000 series being about as good as the RTX 2000 series when it comes to ray tracing. Intel’s ray tracing solution is decent, but as its cards are focused on the mid-range and entry-level for now, performance still isn’t comparable to the higher-end offerings from NVIDIA and AMD. AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel have their own dynamic upscaling technologies, called FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), and Xe Super Sampling (XeSS) respectively. They use specialized algorithms to estimate what a frame would look like at higher resolutions without actually rendering it at that resolution. That raises the perceived resolution of a game without the associated performance cost and results in gamers being able to play at higher resolutions than their hardware would otherwise allow, or to improve frame rates and stay at the same resolution. While DLSS may be more powerful, with fewer visible artefacts and greater support among a wider range of games, FSR is available on every GPU and, due to being open source, will likely be implemented in a greater number of games over the long term. XeSS is also an open platform and is usable on any GPU, but it performs best on Intel’s cards. NVIDIA also debuted DLSS 3 alongside its RTX 4000 graphics cards which can generate entire frames to boost FPS and frame times. It’s still a very youthful technology, so there are a few visual hiccups to deal with for now, but there’s exciting potential for big boosts to frame rates with this technique. AMD has teased sometime similar in FSR 3, but it’s not launching until 2023. Ultimately, if you have an NVIDIA card, DLSS is the way to go. However, FSR is a fantastic alternative and is likely to be the most widely available long-term. XeSS is an up-and-coming option if you want to use it in certain games, though it’s use is a bit more limited at the current point. Graphics cards might be more efficient in one sense, providing more performance per watt than their predecessors, but this doesn’t mean they consume less power. In fact, the latest generations of graphics cards actually consume more power than their predecessors, and that means they output more heat in turn. The coolers produced by AMD, NVIDIA, Intel and their board partners have improved too, but even when that heat is pumped or blown away by the graphics card, it still has to go somewhere. You’ll need capable system cooling to get that heat out of the case in turn, and if you’re playing games or 3D modelling in a small room, you’ll notice the temperature rising when you’ve been working the GPU hard. How important cooling is to you will depend on a few factors, such as whether you have access to an air conditioning unit, or whether you’re happy with a card making quite a lot of noise when the fans spin up. You’ll get better and quieter coolers from third-party manufacturers for the most part, but to find out just how well-cooled or how loud individual cards are, you’ll need to look at reviews. However, know that higher-end cards demand more power and require greater cooling, so they aren’t always well suited to small form factor builds. You’ll also need a more powerful power supply to get them up and running (more on PSUs in their own section, below). Getting specific with graphics cards is difficult, as everyone plays different games at different settings and pairs them with different components. As with everything, though, there are some generic suggestions that are worth considering. If you’re looking for the more affordable, cost effective graphics card to just get your PC up and running to play your favorite esports and lightweight indie games, the most affordable card is the AMD RX 6400. While you won’t see 6FPS on 4K in AAA games, for the least-demanding games at 1080p resolution, it offers stupendous value. Alternatively, NVIDIA’s GTX 1650 is an older card (that is still fully supported by NVIDIA), but still performs great at that sort of resolution and settings. If you’re targeting higher frame rates and detail settings at 1080p, you could upgrade to an RX 6600. It offers a big uplift in performance over those more modest cards. The RTX 3050 from NVIDIA is a reasonable alternative, but depending on your use case, may not meet all your requirements. For those looking for a step up, the RTX 3060 is a fantastic mid-range card, with the Ti model offering even more performance for top-tier 1080p play. However, if you’re looking to dabble in 1440p and ray tracing, NVIDIA’s RTX 3070 is absolutely killer in that range. It’ll deliver high frame rates with everything turned up to maximum, and it’s even a decent card for ray tracing. The Intel Arc A770 also fits perfectly in this range, if you want to dive in with the (very stylish looking) newcomer to the GPU party. AMD’s RX 6700 XT is a great alternative, so snap up that deal if you find it and you’ll have an excellent card for mid-range gaming for years to come. Closer to the top, AMD’s RX 6800 XT is still one of the best graphics cards ever made, easily rivalling NVIDIA’s RTX 3080, and the RX 6900 XT is especially affordable. But keep in mind, if you’re looking for ray tracing performance in high-end cards, the RTX 3080 has a slight edge. At the very top end, if you want a flagship gaming PC designed with 4K and ray tracing in mind. While the RTX 3080 Ti is still a stellar card in this class and at its current pricing but, the NVIDIA RTX 4090 is head and shoulders above anything else available. It’ll put a dent in your budget, but its performance cannot be denied. If you want the ultimate 4K gaming machine, especially with regards to ray tracing, the RTX 4090 is the only card for the job. Storage grows cheaper every year, but as games grow larger, and people expand their collections of photos, movies, and music, storage needs can rise in turn. Fortunately, there is a range of storage options you can pick from to provide you with the capacity, speed, and form factor you need for your PC. The two main storage technologies available in modern PCs are solid state drives (SSD) and hard disk drives (HDD). In a straight head to head, there is no real competition: SSDs are faster, more durable, more compact, and more power efficient. With that in mind, there’s no reason not to use an SSD for your main boot drive and, if you have a large game library, your main game drive too. However, hard drives still have their place, especially when storing large collections of files and data, as, despite falling SSD prices, hard drives are still far cheaper per gigabyte. That means hard drives are the best choice for longer term storage of work, collections of music and movies, or even backups for your extensive collection of photos. You’ll also want a secondary backup option for the most important data, like an external hard drive or cloud storage. Although you definitely want an SSD for your PC, whether it’s a high-end gaming machine or something more affordable for work, picking the right type of SSD can feel a little confusing. There are SSDs in all sorts of shapes and sizes, some promising to be much faster than the others. But which one should you buy, and do you need all that pledged performance? SSDs can typically be split into two types: SATA, and NVMe. The former are almost all built in the classic 2.5-inch drive style, similar to smaller laptop hard drives. While these are technically slower than their NVMe counterparts, topping out at around 500 MBps for sequential read and write, they’re still plenty fast for the average user and will blow traditional HDDs out of the water. NVMe drives come in a few different shapes and sizes, most notably the M.2 form factor, which are little more than a short PCB stick with a few chips on them. There’s also PCI express drives, which plug straight into the PCIe slots on your motherboard, but they’re far less common. NVMe SSDs are much faster than their SATA counterparts, in theory. The top of the line models using the PCIexpress 4.0 protocol can reach sequential read and write speeds in excess of 7,000 MBps. While you won’t see those kind of speeds outside of transferring files between two similarly specc-ed drives, you will see an uptick in game load times on super-fast NVMe SSDs and you may even find that your games are a hair more responsive, crucial for esport-level gaming. NVMe SSDs are also much smaller and don’t need any kind of cabling to power or transfer data. That makes them great for smaller PCs and for a neater PC build overall. It is worth remembering that high-capacity NVMe drives can get costly. So, if you want NVMe speeding in your new PC without going over budget, we recommend a smaller NVMe SSD as a boot drive with optional SATA SSDs and hard drives for larger storage capacities and game libraries. That said, if you are building or configuring a PC yourself, you can absolutely get away with using a SATA SSD for your main boot drive, or even your only drive, if you need to. Just be sure it has enough space for what you want to install on it, and more besides. SSDs work their best when they aren’t near or at capacity. This will very much depend on what you want to do with your PC. If you’re just going to use it for light school and office work, you can probably get away with a very limited storage system. If you’re looking to do a lot of video editing, or have a large game library, you’ll need a lot more space. As a general rule of thumb, 256GB should be the absolute minimum for any PC. This is enough to install Windows and a couple of small games, but won’t leave you much more space for anything else. For anyone looking to play AAA games, you’ll want at least a terabyte on your main drive for Windows and your game library. With some games reaching well over 150GB, you’ll need a lot of space to install more than a couple of them at a time. A common setup for gaming PCs is to have a 512GB to 1TB NVMe SSD for the main drive, perhaps a 1TB SATA SSD for the rest of your game library, and a 2-4TB hard drive for storing important files and folders which you don’t access as often, or don’t benefit from being held by a faster SSD. Your storage needs are your own, however, so ensure that whatever PC you build it has the physical space in the case, and the physical connections on your motherboard to install the size and number of drives that you want. Not all motherboards have multiple NVMe slots, and not all of them support the latest drive speeds, so double check before buying everything. The power supply might be the least exciting component in your system, as, as long as it’s got enough power, it will have negligible impact on performance and in most cases, you can’t even see it. However, your PSU should be a serious focus of your attention and budget, because without a good one, you risk the health of all your other components, and without enough power, your system won’t run properly. There are a few different power supply form factors you can opt for when building your PC, although, unless you’ve got your heart set on a unique case, you’ll almost certainly use the most common. ATX power supplies are the standard that has been used for years. They fit in almost any case and provider all the power and connectors you need for almost any kind of system. In recent years, the SFX form factor has grown more popular in compact PCs. They are notably smaller and that often means higher quality components, as there’s no room for the bulkier, less expensive options. They are great for Mini-ITX and similarly compact PCs as they save on space and can still deliver plenty of wattage and have all the cables for high-powered components. There are also SFX-L PSUs, which are somewhere in between ATX and SFX, though they’re far from typical. They’re designed to fit into standard cases, whilst still saving a bit of room for easier cable management. There are also TFX power supplies, which are the super slim designs often found in cheap off-the-shelf office PCs. They can be very capable and high quality too, for the most ultra-compact of PCs, but they don’t tend to offer high wattage options, so aren’t well suited for high-end gaming or video editing PCs. Most PC components are better when produced by established, respected brands. That’s not always the case, and you can sometimes find great deals on relatively-unknown graphics card companies, and there are new SSD manufacturers which make great products that are worth considering too. One area where you shouldn’t step outside of the established norms, however, is power supplies. It’s so important that you get a good power supply to ensure the safety of your components, that you only want to buy a PSU from a retailer that fully vets its manufacturers for quality. Micro Center sells a select range of power supplies from the likes of Corsair, EVGA, ASUS, G.Skill, Thermaltake, MSI, Lian Li, and Seasonic. These brands offer high-quality power supplies at a range of wattages and with different features, and Micro Center has a PSU for almost any use case.
To even get your high-powered components up and running, you need a power supply that can deliver what they demand. A work machine using onboard graphics and a low-end CPU might get away with just a 300-400W PSU, but gaming PCs or high-end workstations need a lot more. For your specific needs, total up the TDP of your CPU and graphics card, and throw an extra couple of hundred watts on top of that for good measure, and you’ll have the kind of PSU you’ll need (the Micro Center PC Builder can help with this!). A 500W PSU is probably enough for entry-level gaming systems, while 650W is great for even moderately high-end systems. Those running the most high-end graphics cards will want to consider 1,000W units to make sure that you have the headroom, as some of those GPUs can spike to high wattage demands during high-stakes gameplay. They very latest high-end GPUs, like the NVIDIA RTX 4090, may warrant something closer to 1,200W if you’re pairing it with a powerful CPU. That’s especially true if you use a non-Founders-Edition model, which can often mean higher power consumption. Don’t just buy an overly-high wattage PSU if you don’t need it, though. While that might seem like the easier option, if you don’t use the majority of your power supply’s headroom, you run the risk of wasting power as PSUs are at their least efficient when demand is low. The exception to this is if you plan on upgrading in the future and want extra wattage so you don’t have to upgrade your PSU as well. The efficiency of your power supply is an important factor for not wasting power and keeping your electricity usage and bills as low as possible. Since this can be a relatively complex topic, however, most mainstream quality power supplies have an 80 Plus efficiency rating, which gives you an idea of how efficient they are at different power usages. For example, a standard, 80 Plus rating will mean that the unit runs at 80% efficiency at most power demands. So, if it’s a 500W unit and the components are demanding 400W, it will actually pull 480W from the wall, due to 20% wastage. It’s not always that exact and will fluctuate a lot during general use, but that illustrates what the efficiency rating can mean. If that seems like a lot of wasted power, you may want to opt for a more stringent 80 Plus rating. There are 80 Plus Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Titanium ratings, with the highest ratings models providing up to 96% efficiency at medium loads. Titanium models have a floor of 90% efficiency at any wattage demand, with the other ratings sitting somewhere in the middle. You can find more about 80 Plus efficiency ratings on this Micro Center article. Since higher efficiency power supplies are more expensive, it’s best to opt for a PSU that is efficient, but doesn’t stretch your budget too much. It’s perfectly adequate to opt for an 80 Plus Bronze rated unit if you typically use around 50-80% of its wattage, but if you’re keen to minimize your environmental impact, consider more efficient units instead. One final factor to consider with whatever PSU you choose is that it has the cables you need. Some graphics cards demand more PCI express connectors than others, and if you have a lot of storage drives, make sure that you have enough SATA connectors to power them. If cable management matters to you, making a tidy system that lets you maximize airflow throughout the case, you might want to opt for a modular power supply too. These let you only use the cables that you actually need, rather than having all of the cables pre-attached and potentially taking up a lot of space in your case. All PC components generate heat, and the most powerful of them can generate a lot of it. That’s why every PC, no matter what components it’s made up of, needs some form of cooling for the most important parts, and a little bit extra for the system as a whole. Most cases ship out with a single intake or exhaust fan, and though it’s possible you’ll get one with more if you’re buying something high-end, every PC should have at least one intake fan and one exhaust fan. If you have a powerful CPU and a high-end graphics card, you’ll likely want more of each to make sure there’s plenty of cool air flowing into your PC, and as much of the hot air flowing out as you can manage. As for your individual components, there are two you definitely need to cool well: your CPU and graphics card. Some processors and most pre-built PCs come with a perfectly serviceable, if underwhelming, cooler that will keep your processor within safe operating temperatures and allow it to hit its rated boost frequencies. However, there are drawbacks to sticking with the stock cooler, especially if you want to do any kind of overclocking or add your own personal touch to your build. If you want more of that headroom, or you want to be able to quieten down your PC, you can instead opt for aftermarket cooling. This comes in various forms, from larger air coolers with giant heat fins, to custom watercooling loops with hardline tubing. However, if you want to improve your CPU cooling, there are some simple ways to do it. Air cooling has come on leaps and bounds in recent years, and some of the biggest and most capable air coolers offer comparable performance to some of the best watercooling kits from years ago. You don’t need to buy the absolute best, but buying a cooler from a reputable company like Noctua, be quiet!, Thermaltake, and IceGiant, among others, will make sure that your CPU stays cool and relatively quiet. Just be sure to look up individual reviews of coolers to make sure it meets your wants and needs, and double check that it is compatible with your CPU socket. It probably will be, as modern CPU coolers are designed to fit many current and recent generation processors, but it never hurts to check. Some manufacturers have conversion kits to make coolers compatible with a new generation of CPUs and motherboards, too, so check for that if your favorite cooler doesn’t seem compatible. It’s also important to make sure that it fits into your case, and that your RAM has enough clearance that the cooler can fit, and vice versa. Some coolers are broad and some RAM kits are tall, which can cause issues. Double check cooler dimensions and your motherboard’s clearance if you’re unsure. Watercooling is a useful alternative for those who want to save space around their CPU cooler – waterblocks are much smaller than giant air coolers – or if you want to keep your system particularly quiet. You don’t need to delve into custom loops either, as there are many great all in one, or AIO watercoolers, you can pick from too. They come in various sizes, from single fan 120mm and 140mm coolers, to double 240mm and 280mm, to even triple fan 360mm options. Make sure that whatever case you have, has the space and the mounting points for the radiator before buying. There are more extreme versions of CPU cooling you can delve into too, like phase change units, or even liquid nitrogen cooling, but those are only for extreme overclocking, aren’t recommended for day to day PC use, and require special considerations to prevent collateral damage to your system. If you want to pursue that, do your research diligently before proceeding. Your graphics card cooler is important too, but that’s far more difficult to change. Although it is possible, and you can even mount watercoolers to them, the best way for most PC builds to have good GPU cooling is simply by buying a graphics card with a good cooler. That might cost more, but it can be worth it to have lower noise levels in your PC. There’s an argument to be made for picking your case before any of the other components, since it’s the chassis you’ll have to fit everything inside and it can dictate the hardware you can fit inside it. Either way, your choice of chassis will be an important one for your PC build, since it will also be what you interact with most on a day to day basis. You need to like the look of it, and it needs to do a good job of protecting your components, while funneling cool air to them. Remember that discussion of form factor at the start of this article? This is where it really comes into play. Cases come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but can typically be split into the following categories: There are also niche cases like giant ones designed to fit two individual PCs inside them, open plan cases which have all the components effectively attached to a frame with no side panels protecting them, and there are super compact designs that will only fit certain size components. Ultimately, make sure that whatever case you pick is in keeping with your build plans, or you could find that your motherboard, graphics card, or even cooler, just don’t fit. If you want a neat and tidy PC, then buying a case that takes cable management seriously is important, too. That means space behind the motherboard tray, cable runs for you to route the cables through and keep them out of sight. Some cases will also come with easy cable tidies, or velcro ties to help you organize all the internal wiring. If you want to really tweak and customize your cooling, adjusting fan curves and coordinating their speeds, then getting a case with a built-in fan controller or smart hub can be useful. These lets you plug all your fans into the single device and control it through software on your PC. You don’t need it, and many fans can be controlled this way when plugged into your motherboard, but these hubs do make the process simpler. If you want your PC to light up like a Christmas tree or just want a tasteful glow around your most important components, then there are cases that are designed with that in mind. Some have RGB fans – and you can add those in yourself if you like – while others have LED strips and other lights to beautify the interior of your PC. If you do want LED lights in your system too, be sure to buy a case with a perspex or tempered glass side panel so everyone can see what you have inside. The final consideration for any PC build is whether you need any additional cards. These add-in cards include everything outside of the most necessary components for a PC build: sound cards, USB hubs, network adapters, video capture cards, and more besides. They’re often a way to add additional functionality to a PC once it’s been built, but if you’re buying a motherboard without enough USB ports, or you want faster Ethernet than it provides, or even if you just consider yourself a bit of an audiophile and want higher-quality audio, then add-in cards can be a great way to get that. These cards typically plug into the spare PCIexpress slots on your motherboard, so ensure that you have the space on your board before buying them. Some of these cards require external power beyond what that slot can offer them, too, so make sure your power supply has the connections they need. You may also need to factor in managing the run of those cables through your PC, if keeping it neat and tidy is important to you. Building a PC can be an incredibly rewarding experience. It can teach you so much about the way computers work, and gives you the confidence to troubleshoot them yourself when something goes wrong. There’s a lot to learn about a lot of components, but if you’ve gotten this far you’ll have all the knowledge you need to pick the right components for your next PC. Just be sure to double check all the components are compatible before hitting the buy button, and you’ll soon be working or playing (or both) on the PC you’ve been dreaming of.Table of Contents
Form Factor
CPU
AMD and Intel
Generation
CPU Tiers
Suffixes: K, X, T, G, F, S CPU
Intel CPUs
AMD CPUs
Cores and threads
Performance vs. Efficiency cores
Clock Speed
Cache
Power and thermals
Which CPU Should you buy?
Motherboard
Form Factor
Chipset
Intel
Z790
Z690
H670
B660
H610
AMD
X670E
X670
B650E
X570
B550
A520
Does it have the slots you need?
RAM
DDR4 vs DDR5
Capacity
Speed
Timings
Graphics Cards
AMD, NVIDIA and Intel
Generation
Cores and clocks
Graphics memory
Ray tracing
Upscaling
Power and cooling
Which graphics card should you buy?
Storage
SSD vs. HDD
Types of SSDs: NVMe, PCIe, M2, SATA
How much storage do you need?
Power Supply
Form factor
PSU Brands
Wattage
Efficiency
Cables and modularity
Cooling
Cases
Form factor
Add-in cards
Conclusion
Buying a gaming PC used to be only for people with more money than time (or sense), but times have absolutely changed. Prices have come down to the point where building your own doesn't save you as much as it once did. Even if you do pay a price premium, you get perks like support, warranties, and discounts by buying prebuilt. But before you whip out your credit card, here are some things you should think about first to make sure prebuilt is right for you.
Is Now a Good Time to Buy?
When is it ever really the right time to get a gaming PC? They can cost as much as a used car, without the getting-to-places utility, and can prove as finicky as a large houseplant (without the air-cleansing benefits). Hear us out, though. We’re not really going anywhere right now, and unlike most houseplants, gaming PCs can last you about a decade if you invest time and money.
Gaming PC retailers really bury the lede on why gaming PCs are worth anywhere from $700 to $3,000. You don’t drop all that money just to play next-gen games with 4K resolution or to get the competitive edge with mouse-and-keyboard shooter accuracy. Gaming PCs are a social play environment. They offer access to an ecosystem of multiplayer games, in which you, friends, and strangers occupy the same digital space—in MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, competitive shooters like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, MOBAs like League of Legends, and in the infrastructure of PC gaming apps, including Discord and Steam.
Gaming PCs are channels for passive socializing, a way to stay in touch with homies or make new ones. A lot can be said before “Where we droppin’, boys?” and today’s online avatars are as expressive as ever. It’s hard not to feel lonely in quarantine, and for a lot of people, their gaming PCs form the heart of their daily online bonds.
“We’re seeing tens of digits of percentage increase in the amount of time people are playing at home, and tens of digits of increase in the amount of people playing,” says Intel’s GM of desktop Frank Soqui. “Gaming keeps people connected. Although you feel isolated at home, it’s extremely social—you can do things like stream your game, social media elements for voice and text in-game. Sometimes, people don’t use the game to game. They use it to hang out and connect again.”
How Are Prices?
Covid-19 has thrown much of the manufacturing world into flux. A lot of PC component manufacturers are based in China, which was hit hard by Covid-19. PC shipments have fallen 8 percent this year, according to analytics firm Canalys—the largest drop since 2013.
On the other hand, both AMD and Intel described PC and PC component prices as stable in interviews with WIRED. “We haven’t seen much volatility outside of the typical pricing competitiveness that we’re used to in our industry,” says Frank Azor, AMD’s chief architect of gaming solutions.
“We’ve seen prices fairly stable, but that doesn’t mean you won’t see one pick up here and there, depending on the manufacturer,” says Intel’s Soqui. Data on PCPartPicker.com corroborates this; although prices for video cards went up last year, they’ve remained mostly stable ever since. Monitor and power supply prices are a little up, and CPUs have had small ups and downs. Overall, nothing major.
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