Resolved How to Build a PC: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

[Editors' Note, May 24, 2024: We originally published this guide in mid-2023, but the general advice, and the product picks, remain current. For the reviews of the very latest PC components and storage (plus, more build guides!) check out our Rigged Up landing page.]

Perhaps you've only ever used prebuilt desktops, or relied on a laptop. But if you always thought that building your own desktop PC was beyond you, take heart: If you have the confidence to wield a screwdriver and follow basic instructions, you can do it. Indeed, putting together a PC these days is not entirely unlike assembling IKEA furniture. The most rewarding part is that, unlike with that blondwood bookcase, you get to select the right parts to go together and make it your own.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
You can find plenty of PC building guides and videos on the internet. Our aim with this one is to provide you with the context you need to select each component and put your purchases together. Specific part selection we'll leave to our library of deep-dive guides, referencing them as we go. As for the actual PC assembly, you can watch the video above or follow blow-by-blow below as we build a well-equipped mainstream gaming PC with all the trimmings.

PC building is infinitely varied, so no guide can cover every scenario. But we'll cover the most common issues you'll face assembling a desktop in 2023. You may decide to go fancier or more budget-focused with your build, but you'll walk away with a great grounding in what you need to know to do the job with confidence.

Yes, you can do this. (Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Choosing the Key Components
Today, PC builders are spoiled with such a wealth of handsome, modestly priced PC cases, mood lighting options, and color-coordinated components that it's easy to get pulled into a design challenge or passion project when all you wanted to do was build a simple desktop. To be sure, there's a hot-rodder element here: You may pay a slight premium for your parts versus buying a pre-built PC. Major PC makers enjoy economies of scale buying parts in bulk or designing some of their own components that you as a solo builder can't attain. But most of the time, if you price out the parts for your own build against the cost of a ready-made system, you should get pretty close.

The parts assortment we'll use for our sample build (Credit: Molly Flores)
In selecting components, where do you start? The interplay of the parts you put into your PC is crucial, both in terms of compatibility (some things won't fit if you don't choose the right bits, others will fit but won't work) and suitability to task. We'll run through the key components part by part, point you to plenty of help for each piece, then discuss building concerns based on our basic gaming PC. The job at its core consists of mounting things in a box, so let's start with a few words about the container: the PC case or chassis.

The PC Case
The case you buy sets the tone for your whole PC build. A big case allows plenty of room for drives, giant graphics cards, and maximum-size motherboards; smaller cases fit into space-constrained environments or entertainment centers. The chassis you choose is intertwined with your motherboard choice and sometimes your PC's power supply.

Do you mean to sit your PC case under your desk, on your desk, or in a niche in a bookcase or wall unit? Cases come in lots of shapes and sizes: traditional tower and midtower (usually between 15 and 22 inches tall); flatter "desktop" cases designed to lie on their sides (think of a stereo receiver); highly compact cases built for minimalist configurations. In some ways, the parts discussed below can dictate the kind of case you need. Alternately, your case can dictate the parts you select.

Every PC case lists the motherboard formats it supports. The three main layouts are ATX (a full-size, mainstream motherboard), MicroATX (a smaller variant with fewer expansion slots and other surface-area-related features), and Mini-ITX (even smaller, usually offering just a single slot for a video card). You'll see a few outliers like XL-ATX and Extended ATX (EATX), which are bigger than ATX, but first-time builders should ignore these.

Most cases that support a given motherboard format will also allow smaller ones—most ATX cases, for example, can accept MicroATX and Mini-ITX motherboards. That said, it's smart to match your case's size class with your motherboard so you're not wasting space.

Materials vary widely. You'll still find boring beige steel (though the default hue these days tends to be black), but even cheap cases can have flair such as side-panel windows to show off your handiwork. Indeed, cases with one or more tempered-glass sides have become very popular and affordable.

If you're buying a PC case without a side window or much in the way of bling, you may not care, but it's possible these days to purchase PC components that complement a case's interior or exterior. A case with a blackout-painted interior might contrast nicely with a motherboard that has a white or red printed circuit board (PCB) or highlights. It's possible to visually coordinate a PC build if you're interested in the showcase aspect of building; in fact, the sky's the limit if you want to get into that groove.

The Corsair 4000D Airflow case (Credit: Molly Flores)
Another view of our chassis (Credit: Molly Flores)
Our build uses Corsair's 4000D Airflow, a midtower chassis for ATX builds. You'll learn plenty more about it as we build. (For more about buying a PC case, see our roundups of the best PC cases and the guides to towers and Mini-ITX cases linked above.)

The Motherboard
Veteran PC builders will argue that the motherboard should be the first thing you select in a PC build, and all else will flow down from there. They're not wrong. Essentially your PC's backbone or foundation, the motherboard is very much tied into all your other component choices.

The nuances of motherboard shopping are many, but basically come down to three things: (1) You need a motherboard that works with the CPU you choose; (2) the board should be the right size and shape ("form factor") for your case; and (3) it should have the external ports and internal expansion slots you need for what you plan to install.

On the first front, the key factors are the motherboard's socket type and its chipset (the latter is its built-in core operating silicon). These dictate which processors you can install and how you can take advantage of the overall platform. For new motherboards for a first-time builder, the relevant sockets are those that fit with the latest mainstream Intel and AMD CPUs: Intel Socket LGA 1700 and AMD's AM4 and AM5 for Intel Core and AMD Ryzen chips respectively. The newer AM5 houses the very latest Ryzen parts, but AM4 remains relevant for budget buyers given the huge range of still-available and economical Ryzen CPUs that work with it.

Your local electronics mart may also offer motherboards with other sockets for high-end desktop (HEDT) systems: Intel's Socket LGA 2066 for the Core X-Series and AMD's TR4/sTRX4 for Ryzen Threadripper CPUs. There's nothing stopping you from selecting one of these, but these motherboards and processors are expensive—at the extremes, very expensive—and only make sense for certain power users or professional content creators.

As noted, the motherboard's chipset dictates the CPUs it works with, the level of supporting features the board has, and where it fits in the range of boards available for a given chip.

Asus Prime B660-Plus D4 motherboard (Credit: Molly Flores)
For our build, we're using an Asus Prime B660-Plus D4 motherboard. The B designates it a second-from-the-top platform for Intel 12th and 13th Generation CPUs. Top-end Intel boards use chipsets that start with Z; high-end AMD boards have chipsets that start with X. Both makers use a B series as their second tier. Check out the links below for much more on these distinctions; finding the best motherboard is among the most complicated aspects of PC part shopping.

The CPU and the CPU Cooler
You choose a CPU in concert with your motherboard; one must support the other. As with motherboards, the considerations when choosing a processor are complex and tied into what you can afford and what you'll use your PC to do, as well as aspects like power consumption and cooling. The relevant CPU lines today are Intel's 11th through 13th Gen Core and AMD's Ryzen 5000 and 7000 series.

We're skipping over very low-end CPUs like Intel's Celeron and Pentium and AMD's Athlon. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with these chips, but if you're going to the effort of building a PC, you should save enough to afford at least a modest mainstream Core or Ryzen CPU. If your budget's too tight, buy a pre-built consumer system and take advantage of the manufacturer's economies of scale.

Intel Core i7-13700K processor (Credit: Molly Flores)
For our sample build, we chose the Intel Core i7-13700K, our current top pick for gaming processors and an excellent choice for productivity and content creation as well. These 13th Gen Intel chips tend to run hot, and you'll likely want a liquid cooling system rather than just a heatsink or fan for this processor. The K suffix indicates that the chip is overclockable, but even if you don't overclock, liquid is the way to go.

Corsair H100i Elite liquid cooling kit (Credit: Molly Flores)
Some lesser (non-K) chips in Intel's 13th Gen line come with a CPU cooler that will suffice for them. But we've selected an aftermarket Corsair H100i Elite all-in-one liquid cooler. (For deep dives into buying the right processor and our current top picks, see our guides to the best CPUs and best CPUs for gaming, plus our guide to finding the right CPU cooler.)

The Memory Kit
Depending on the CPU and motherboard you buy, you'll need DDR4 or DDR5 memory. You'll want to check your motherboard's peak memory speeds, and if you're a performance hound buy a memory kit that works hand-in-hand with that motherboard support near the top of the range. Intel motherboards support a technology called Extended Memory Profiles (XMP), an auto-overclocking and -optimization scheme to sync your memory and your motherboard. Look for XMP settings in common between your memory kit and the board in question. AMD recently introduced a similar scheme that works with its Ryzen 7000 AM5 platform dubbed AMD Expo.

How much memory to get depends on your usage case and your budget. Today's barest of bare minimums for a Windows desktop is 8GB, with 16GB or 32GB easily attainable at current RAM prices. For a mainstream build, you'll want a matching pair of memory modules so you can take advantage of dual-channel memory speeds. (Mixing and matching different speeds and brands memory is not recommended.) For higher-end systems, you may want four modules; some Threadripper and Core X platforms can support as many as eight.

If you have a side-windowed case, some memory modules have RGB lighting or other decorative extras. A more important thing to look for is compatibility with what's known as the QVL (qualified vendor list) for a given motherboard. Check the list of modules tested with your motherboard by the latter's manufacturer. It doesn't mean other modules won't work fine, but it's an added bit of assurance when you're purchasing. Some memory makers such as Crucial and Kingston provide advice on what memory works with a given motherboard.

Corsair Vengeance RGB RS (32GB) memory kit (Credit: Molly Flores)
Our build uses a Corsair Vengeance RGB RS kit of 32GB (two 16GB modules), with a peak memory speed of 3200MHz. (For more about the nuances of memory, including specs related to memory speeds, latency, and capacity per module, see our guide to how to pick the right RAM.)

The Storage: SSDs and Hard Drives
You can go a bunch of directions with your PC's storage subsystem these days, but the smart default pick with new motherboards is a solid-state boot drive in the M.2 format supporting PCI Express data transfers. Stick-of-gum-sized M.2 drives save space inside your chassis, reduce cable clutter, and provide access to the high-speed PCI Express (abbreviated PCIe) bus. PCI Express 4.0 drives have emerged as the high-end performance standard these days.

You can still, of course, install an old-school platter hard drive, which costs much less per gigabyte than an SSD. Chances are, however, you won't need more than 2TB of storage, so should stick with SSDs. If you need 8TB or 10TB or more of mass storage, opt for hard drives, since mainstream solid-state drives top out at 4TB and are expensive at that capacity.

Corsair MP600 M.2 SSD (Credit: Molly Flores)
Our build uses a 2TB Corsair MP600 M.2 PCI Express boot drive for the Windows operating system and applications, plus a 3.5-inch hard drive to give 8TB of secondary storage on the cheap. (For details on buying the right drives and our current top picks, see our guides to the best M.2 drives and best internal SSDs.)

The Power Supply
We'll get into the different sizes of power supply unit (PSU) later on, but you'll want to use an online web calculator such as the invaluable PCPartPicker to determine the minimum PSU wattage you'll need based on the other parts you're installing. The CPU and graphics card you choose have the biggest bearing on power requirements.

We'll also talk later about modular, semi-modular, and fixed-cable power supplies. All you need to know right now is that when shopping, you must match or exceed the total minimum wattage for the components you're installing, and the form factor of the power supply needs to match that of your PC case.

Corsair RM750e modular power supply (Credit: Molly Flores)
For this build, we've chosen a Corsair RM750e modular power supply, which should provide plenty of power for the rest of our components and let us plug in just the cables we need for neatness' sake. It uses the ATX form factor, more about which later. (For more on the topic, see our guide to PC power supplies.)

The Graphics Card
Everyday tasks like word processing, spreadsheeting, and online browsing are fine with the integrated graphics built into most CPUs, but if you plan on gaming or running demanding content creation software or workstation apps, you'll need a dedicated graphics card with its own GPU (graphics processing unit). It's a complex component to shop for, but basically comes down to whether you play games, which monitor you own, and how much you can afford. (If you do decide to stick with your processor's integrated graphics, be sure your motherboard has video outputs—not all do!—so you can connect your monitor.)

Be prepared to make an investment: Graphics-card prices have skyrocketed since the late 2010s, when crypto mining boosted demand and the pandemic crimped supplies. It's key not to overbuy. You want to weigh your target resolution based on your monitor, the latter's peak refresh rate, and the type of games you play. (Recent gaming monitors support very high refresh rates, supporting high-end GPUs that can deliver gameplay at hundreds of frames per second.) You'll also need to consider the space available inside your chassis; recent high-end graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD are frankly enormous, 10 inches or a foot long and two or three expansion slots wide.

AMD's Radeon and Nvidia's GeForce are the two big GPU brands, and both offer high-end cards for gameplay on monitors up to 4K resolution. We selected a not-quite-top-of-the-line GeForce RTX 4070 Ti card. Cards based on this GPU start around $600 and are powerhouses for playing games at high detail and image-quality settings at 1440p and to a lesser extent 4K.

PNY GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics card (Credit: Molly Flores)
This particular card is manufactured by PNY, but many other makers offer RTX 4070 Ti cards with slightly different designs and cooling schemes. All should be in roughly the same performance ballpark, however. Decent mainstream GPUs these days start at around $300, with mostly older models for basic 1080p gaming in the $100 to $200 range. (For more on the topic and our current top picks, see our guide to the best graphics cards.)

Some Extra Bits: Six RGB Fans, and an Internal USB Hub
Our Corsair case has several preinstalled 120mm cooling fans and the liquid cooler has two of its own. But we decided to go all in on RGB lighting and replace them all, adding two three-packs of RGB fans with each pack including a multiport RGB controller. (We only need to use one of the controllers.) The kits are Corsair's SP120 RGB Elite.

Each fan has two cables—one for RGB, one for power and control—and the controller will bundle all the RGB cables under one component roof. Four of the fans go on the chassis (three up front as intakes, one in the back as an exhaust), while the other two will replace the plain-vanilla fans on the CPU cooler's radiator. The case fans will attach to the motherboard, and the radiator fans will attach to a cable cluster included with the liquid cooler.

Corsair SP120 RGB Elite triple-fan kits (Credit: Molly Flores)
Also part of our build is an unusual accessory: an internal USB header hub. Our motherboard has two built-in USB 2.0 headers, but our build will need three (for the RGB controller, the Wi-Fi card, and the CPU liquid cooler). So this splitter of sorts (Corsair's Internal 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub) costs about $25 and adds more USB 2.0 header connectors to the case.

Corsair Internal 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub (a special accessory our build needs) (Credit: Molly Flores)

Before we get started with our build, a word about the approach we're going to take. With its Intel Core i7-13700K CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti GPU, this desktop represents a well-equipped performance and gaming system as of mid-2023. You can go further upscale or opt for economy with almost any of the parts, but most of the installation considerations will remain the same. The big differentiator in terms of the physical install is the CPU and how you cool it. As we said, this Intel chip is best paired with liquid cooling, so we'll demonstrate that process but also discuss less exotic air cooling.

You've probably noticed that the lion's share of parts in our PC build are from Corsair, a company that makes a wide range of DIY gear including PC cases, power supplies, SSDs, CPU coolers, and memory kits. In fact, the components in our specific configuration are available in a bundle that Corsair sells as the Corsair Elite Build Kit. We're using these parts as they represent a good mainstream gaming desktop at this writing, but you can swap in or out any number of other components from other makers and in most cases have an identical or very similar installation process. In any event, the installation manuals for the exact parts you select should supersede our instructions whenever there is a conflict.