Building Custom PCs

by Dan Brubaker Horst

So, you want to build your first gaming PC? Great! This can be fun—especially if you understand how to make appropriate tradeoffs and avoid common pitfalls.

There is an endless supply of information about the minutia of PC building and the benchmarks of the latest tech. It’s easy to get lost in the details if you can’t evaluate this information critically. The good news is that the fundamentals aren’t that complicated and have remained largely unchanged since 3dfx created the market for PC gaming graphics cards in the late 90s.

Computer performance is a balance between CPU, memory (RAM), GPU, and disk (SSD). Over-power—or under-power—one or two of these core components and you’ll be wasting money on unrealized potential. These essential parts all communicate with each other via different buses and connectors on the motherboard—which is designed for a specific type of CPU. Once assembled, everything must get enough power—from an appropriately-sized power supply—and be able to get rid of the heat that is generated under load; cool computers run better. Oh, and you need to put all of this into some kind of enclosure—like a case or, in a pinch, a cardboard box.

The key design constraints are budget, availability, and the time you’re willing to spend on the endeavor.

  • Budget: The amount of money you’re willing and able to spend now determines the areas and degrees of investment you can make. Unless you have thousands of dollars to spend on a PC build, you will have to compromise on something.
    • Prioritize your spending on the things that are most difficult to change later. The CPU and motherboard are the core of the machine—buying a good set first gives you a foundation you can build on for 6 years—or, possibly, even longer.
    • If you can’t afford all the RAM you want now consider spending a little extra to get a single large DIMM—say 16GB—and adding a second (or more) later. That way you won’t end up with a pair of small DIMMs taking up your available RAM slots.
    • GPUs are the most expensive single component—and the fastest to get outdated. Don’t blow your budget on something that will diminish in value quickly.
  • Availability: The crypto boom, COVID supply shocks, and the AI boom have turbocharged demand for GPUs. In this supply-constrained environment, scalpers have made high-end GPUs at MSRP essentially unobtainable on the open market. Someday—maybe—the GPU market will return to a more “normal” state for PC gamers but, until then, sourcing a GPU will remain a major constraint.
  • Time: If you can devote a lot of time to researching specific components and tinkering with the results—overclocking etc.—you can achieve the best possible result for your money.
    • Focus on the core—CPU and motherboard—first then, work your way out.
      • For the CPU, find the price/performance cutoff point of the current offerings and decide if it’s worth it to you to go above that point, if not, select a solid CPU that offers a good value.
      • Motherboards are a bit more complicated. The chipset features, memory configuration, voltage regulator design, and the number and speed of the peripheral busses of a motherboard play a crucial role in how capabable and expandable your machine will be during its functional life. Get a good quality one—but you probably don’t need an ultra-premium gaming-focused one to get the results you want. Don’t get one with integrated graphics for a gaming machine.
    • If you don’t have a lot of time, just buy a pre-made machine. At the low end, OEMs have economies of scale and supplier arrangements that you don’t have access to as an individual. At the high end, say Falcon Northwest, you’ll get a more powerful, polished result than can be achieved by all but the most dedicated PC builder.

Other things to avoid:

  • Tempered glass case windows. It’s common for inexperienced PC builders to push something a little too hard and end up with a bunch of broken glass everywhere. It’s not worth it.
  • Pushing on anything too hard. Apply just enough force to seat components with good electrical contact. More than that risks damaging or outright breaking something important.
  • Using too much—or too cheap—thermal compound. You need just enough thermal compound to ensure the physical and thermal coupling between components—like CPU and cooler. Any more thermal compound than absolutely necessary to fill the surface imperfections of the materials will decrease the thermal performance of the joint. Spending a small amount of money on a high-performance thermal compound is a sound investment. Prep the surfaces to remove any skin oils—isopropyl alcohol wipes are fine—and use a squeegee—like an old credit card—to ensure it is applied in a thin, consistent layer.
  • Liquid cooling. Don’t start with this; get a good heatsink and add more case fans if necessary.
  • Tiny cases. I’ve always been fond of small computers but it makes fitting everything together and getting the right airflow a lot harder. If you want a small, quiet computer buy a Mac mini or something.
  • Thinking this will save you money. PC building is less of a money pit than some hobbies—like racing cars or owning a boat or whatever—but you’re not going to get the cheapest possible computing experience.

Go forth and be glorious!