Building a pc for a specific purpose is never going to be an easy task for a nontechnical person particularly. However, gaming PCs have the most complex configurations as compared to gaming laptops. Before purchasing a machine or parts to build a gaming PC, usually you ask yourself a general question, what do you need to build a gaming PC?

To find an answer to the question people seek a lot of research online to get to know about their actual requirements. Therefore, we prepared this PC-building guide to help out those who have less knowledge about building a gaming PC.

Before exploring our recommended gaming pc build in your decided budget I would suggest you have a look at the best gaming PC build under $1500 to make a mid-high range PC that would crush to run every single online and installed game on it. However, if you are unable to invest under $1500 you have the choice to build a gaming PC under $1000 to get a mid-range device. Also, that is not the final destination as you can try to build a gaming pc under $800 to get a stable gaming experience, and a gaming PC build under $600 for an affordable option.

Our Recommended Gaming PC Build & Prebuilt

We are recommended the best build PC for gaming with high-end hardware components to deal with every title in your gaming library and a budget gaming PC build option for budget-oriented guys who are looking to build a tower gaming desktop with limited resources. Also, we are suggesting here the most powerful mainstream prebuilt gaming PC that can handle anything.

High-End Gaming PC Build

(Editor’s Choice)

High-End Gaming PC Build

Intel-Based Build Gaming PC

CPU: Core i9 12th gen
GPU: RTX 3080Ti

Budget Gaming PC Build

(Editor’s Choice)

Budget Gaming PC Build

Intel-Based Build Gaming PC

CPU: Core i5 12th gen
GPU: RTX 3050

Mainstream Gaming PC

(Editor’s Choice)

Best Prebuilt Mainstream Gaming PC

MSI Aegis RS11

CPU: Core i7 11th gen
GPU: RTX 3090

The prebuilt recommendation is for non-tech savvy who don’t want to get into the hassle to build a gaming PC at all.

All Required Steps To Build A Gaming PC

First Things Frist

Before building a gaming PC and even before purchasing the machine or any other part, first you should look for the recommended requirements for the games you want to play. If you can’t find out how to build a compatible gaming PC for multiple games, just sort out which game recommends the highest configuration. You can find that out by googling the info about the game or our benchmarks
can lead your way. Then prepare your budget accordingly. The higher-configured PC you build, the more games you can easily play.

But of course, it should also be within your budget capacity. Usually, every part of the PC plays an important role when it comes to gaming, however, almost every game especially the latest ones require high graphics configurations. So your main focus should be a good graphics card while building a gaming PC. We will discuss this later in this blog. For now, once you decide which generation PC you need, you can follow up on this step-by-step guide for building a gaming PC. Here’s the list of essential elements of the gaming PC you should need to know. We will discuss each of them in detail. Hopefully, you will find this guide helpful.

Preparing Budget

We live in a world where we can’t buy a gaming PC without money. So it is really necessary to prepare the budget first. There are 3 types of parts of a gaming PC, Basic or essential parts, additional features, and extra or external parts. The details of such types are listed in the next part of this blog. The priority of these classes should be in the same order.

If you have a limited budget that can only fulfill the requirements of basic parts, you shouldn’t spend on additional or extra parts for sure, or else you will have to minimize your basic configurations. There’s no actual need for external and additional parts to build a gaming PC, however, these parts are for the safety and reliability of the PC. So if your budget allows, you should buy all of them. Also, if you’re not interested in building a gaming pc you can get plenty of prebuilt options.

Then you should check out the actual requirements for the games you play or want to play. You should not spend on any component more than needed if you don’t have enough budget to cover your expenses. First, prepare a price list for all of the essential and additional parts of the gaming PC. Then if you cover everything and still got some money in hand, then upgrade the components you want. It is suggested that you should consider upgrading RAM and GPU first. If you cannot buy all parts within your budget capacity, you should leave external parts for now. You can prepare your budget as you want. However, you cannot skip a basic part for an external part or additional feature.

Gaming PC Build Parts List

  • PC Case
  • CPU (Central Processor Unit)
  • Mother Board
  • Power Supply
  • Storage
  • Memory
  • GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)
  • Additional Features
  • Cooling System
  • Gaming Keyboard
  • External Parts
  • Stabilizer
  • UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply)
  • CPU

PC Case

Make sure to choose the Best PC Cases that are light, spacious, coming with cooling system installation bays to get you an advantage of cooling system upgrades for the future if you are not yet ready to invest in the cooling system. We always recommend integrating cooling system liquid or fans to get an incredible gaming experience without any heating issues.

Processor

CPU or central processor unit is the foundation of configuration, modification, or any upgradation in the system. The more advanced your CPU you have the higher you can upgrade and modify your system’s stability and performance. So you have to make a choice carefully when purchasing a CPU machine. Then there are different generations of each tech. sometimes a game recommends some specific tech machine for example i7 but also requires a higher than usual system’s memory speed. In this case, you need to check out every detail, because the older generations don’t support DDR4 or the latest RAMS. Inevitably, you have to get DDR4 for the required speed of memory. We will discuss in detail the system’s memory and its role in building gaming pc in the later part of this blog.

Motherboard

It is called a motherboard because it carries every component of the PC. Every element, essential or additional fits nowhere out of the motherboard. It provides bridges for each component to connect with each other. Of course, you cannot build a gaming pc without a motherboard even though you have every good component. However, gaming requires no specific type of motherboard, but the quality and reliability of the motherboard do matter. Gaming PC usually have high temperatures, that’s why we need to install a cooling system that reduces the heat and keeps the board at normal temperature. The lack of a cooling system usually affects motherboards first. Then there’s a power supply that constantly supplies heat with electricity. The process of power supply also increases the risk of burning, damaging and short circuits in the motherboard. For all these reasons, it is recommended to install a quality motherboard, especially while building a gaming PC.

The installation part of the motherboard is also critical. You have to be very careful while installing it into the case. As the motherboard is made up of thousands of small circuits, it is possible that these circuits might lose their stick. Also need to have a look at which side of the motherboard goes where in the case. Because while installing the other parts of the PC, you probably will have to change the sides. So be careful the first time installing and try to install it properly so that you won’t have to do it again and again to avoid any unexpected damage.

Power Supply

Just like the other essential elements, the power supply is a mandatory part of any PC. You definitely cannot operate a system without a power supply. While making a purchase for a power supply, especially when building a gaming pc the most general question that comes into my mind is how high voltage power supply should I purchase. Some say the more the better like up to 1000W, some say the lesser to avoid high risks of burning such as 650W or 600W, but the most commonly used and suitable power supply almost in every gaming PC is 850W. The second important thing for supply is compatibility. It is really necessary to check out if it’s compatible with your motherboard or not because most cases of burning or short circuits in motherboards occur due to the poor or incompatible power supply as we discussed above. The third and last thing to be checked in the power supply is wiring. Copper winding is always better than silver wiring. It passes electricity more smoothly and accurately and also lasts longer than silver winding. Hence, it is reliable.

Installing a power supply is as easy as putting a plug into a socket. You just need to find out a hole in the case where the power supply fits. Place it in the case and make sure its fan faces outside of the case. It is better if you install it before installing the motherboard. Then find out the ports where you will put its cables, just plug them into them, and voila! You have successfully installed a power supply in a gaming PC.

Storage

Storage is where your system’s data is stored. It is called a hard drive technically. Nowadays, there are two basic types of hard drives in the market, HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and SSD (Solid State Drive). SSD is not technically a hard drive though, but it can work as a hard drive in the absence of an HDD. The main purpose of hard drives is to store data. The larger the hard drive you got the more data you can store. To build a gaming PC, you definitely need a better and bigger hard drive. It’s up to you how many games or files you want to keep in your system. But these days, in building a gaming PC the most commonly used size of a hard drive is up to 1TB.

As far as SSD is concerned, it is usually used to boost the speed and response rate of the system. Other than gaming PCs, such as office PCs or school PCs don’t usually require the larger size of SSD. But when it comes to gaming PC, if you want to boost the speed and processing of the game along with the system, you need to install an SSD of a larger size. Because the SSD only boosts the files within it not the files in another hard drive. With all of its benefits, the one disadvantage of SSD is it’s more expensive than HDD. So if you have enough budget, you can install only SSD for both purposes, to boost speed and to store files.

The installation process of hard drives is similar to the power supply. There are ready-made slots in the case for hard drives, where you can install them. It’s up to you how many hard drives would you like to install according to the requirement of your system’s motherboard. After fixing the hard drive into the case, find out the slots to connect it with the motherboard, and that’s it. You have installed a hard drive.

Memory

Memory or RAM is also a fundamental component of the PC. The basic role of RAM is to transfer data. The more and faster the transfer rate is the more rapidly the system responds. RAM doesn’t only have importance in gaming but computers, but it also has an impact on PCs of other uses. However, in gaming PCs, it matters the most. The latest generations of CPUs usually require DDR4 RAM which is the advanced and updated form of DDR3 RAM. If you have an i7 processor of 1st, 2nd, or 3rd generations, you cannot install DDR4 RAM due to incompatibility. However, DDR4 is not necessary to build a gaming PC. You can still enjoy a good speed of the system’s memory with DDR3 RAM. Before purchasing RAM, you should check the compatibility of your PC.

The installation method of RAM is easier than installing other elements. Usually, a motherboard has 4 slots of RAM. It is suggested to use only a pair of slots at a time if you have two RAMs.

GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)

The Graphics card or GPU has a more important role to play in a gaming PC than other components. Today gaming has become too advanced, and high visual graphics games influenced gamers around the world. The latest and most famous games regardless of their genre require a good memory size of the graphics cards. There are only a few good games remaining that don’t need a high-resolution graphics card. But you still need a good GPU to get the optimum fun of gaming.

Additionally, there are two types of GPU, AMD, and Nvidia. You have to check out which type of GPU your system supports before purchasing it. Nvidia is more common than AMD, however, both types are the best in their own performance. The only difference is their compatibility with the CPUs. If we discuss the memory of the GPU, the 6GB graphics card is the best to build a gaming PC with a resolution of 1080p. However, if you want to install high-resolution textures, you may need more than 8GB GPU.

You will find a slim slot in the motherboard to place GPU, but make sure to place it properly to avoid any unexpected damage. Its VGA cable port side must face the outside of the case. It’s not so different from the installation of RAM.

Cooling System

The cooling system in gaming PC works like radiators in cars. It cools down the temperature of the constantly running system. There are multiple types of cooling systems available. The best and latest cooling system to build a gaming PC is a liquid cooling system. The air cooling system also works fine, but it has its lags. When the temperature increases out of the limit, the air-cooling system fails in some cases. If you have enough budget to afford a liquid cooling system, you should try it once at least. But inevitably, you need to install any cooling system your budget allows. Because without a cooling system, gaming PCs cannot be run longer and properly. And the absence of a cooling system might lead to the burn of the motherboard due to heat.

Gaming Keyboard

A gaming keyboard is not an essential part to build a gaming PC. However, it increases the aesthetical charm of a PC and also allows one to operate the PC in darker rooms. Usually, gamers around the world love dark and lone environments to enjoy the optimum pleasure of gaming. Gaming keyboards have RGB LEDs that help to see every single properly even in dark rooms. Those keyboards are specifically designed for gaming PCs and gaming laptops. LEDs divide the keyboard into 3 parts, so the operator can easily detect which key is he pressing at the time. Moreover, there’s no specific way to install a gaming keyboard. Just put the cable into the port and start operating.

Stabilizer

A stabilizer is not part of a gaming PC, but if you want the power supply and motherboard of your PC to last longer, you should consider installing a stabilizer for your PC. The stabilizer’s basic use is to stable the variable voltage. If you don’t face ups and downs in voltage, then there’s no need for a stabilizer, but it’s rare. As we have discussed that most of the motherboards and power supplies burn due to bad voltage. So it is recommended to attach a stabilizer to build a gaming PC set up properly.

UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply)

Imagine, you are playing on your PC and suddenly a power breakdown occurred, and all of your progress have been lost. Definitely, you don’t want to experience such an interruption. So what are the possible ways to avoid it? The best answer is to attach a UPS to your gaming PC. If you often face power interruption problems, then it is really necessary to install UPS. Because the frequent power break could also cause damage to the power supply.

Last Things (Run the tests)

When you installed every recommended part successfully, you should run a test to check if every part of the PC internal or external working properly or not. To test the basic elements, all you need to do is to set up windows first if haven’t done. Then open several windows and programs to test the RAM and SSD progress while multitasking. Keep them open and then run high-resolution media files to test GPU, or you can run high-resolution games to test advance. You will get results with these tests. If your system lags or slows down, then close some windows, if the problem still persists, close all windows except the game. It should be running normally now.

If not, that means you need to upgrade RAM or GPU. If both elements are according to the game’s requirement, then check out if your monitor or LED supports high resolution or not. If it doesn’t support it, you have to replace it with the upgraded one. You will eventually find good test results with these tips at last. Moreover, to test the cooling system, you have to run your PC a little longer to see if it’s cooling down the temperature of your system or not.

Furthermore, testing the external parts is not so difficult. There’s a meter in the stabilizer that tells you how many volts are passing in and how many of them are passing out into the power supply of the PC. Besides, to test the UPS, you have to switch off the main power line, the power supply of the PC should not be interrupted while switching off the main power. If it interrupts, check again if you attached UPS properly or not.

Conclusion

To sum up answer the question, how to build a gaming PC? To build a marvelous gaming PC there are four basic steps. Sorting out the actual requirements for the configuration of the PC, preparing the budget according to the priority, installing each part of the PC properly, and finally running the test to check out if everything is working properly. By following this guide you can easily build a gaming PC, as well as you can modify your PC according to your own mind. This universal guide to building a gaming PC can help you to build a good PC within a fair budget.

We hope you found this step-by-step guide helpful and build your next gaming PC with us!

martin mcgaha

Martin is a tech blogger who started his blogging career in the toughest times of his life back in 2015. Over the course of 5 years, he experienced many ups and downs and mainly focused on providing the best content for his audience. Martin is also a 50% share holder at a corporate company named FifeMatrix. FifeMatrix is the owner of many tech blogs and Software Products.

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