I built my first gaming PC when I was in the 8th grade. It wasn’t a beast by any means, but to my surprise, it booted up when I went back home recently. A PC I built in 2011 powered on without any issues in 2026. I remember spending countless hours on research just to get all the right parts and put it all together. Somehow, that made me feel like I had done everything right with that build.
Ever since I was a kid, I knew I wanted to do something with computers. Fast forward to today, that turned out to be mostly true. I’ve worked as a software engineer, and now I work as a technical writer focused on SaaS and SDKs.
However, the urge to build PCs haven't gone down even slightly. If you’ve ever thought about building a PC, be it for gaming, office work, video or photo editing, AI workloads, or something else altogether, this is your sign to do it.
What do you need to build a PC?
Before we get to the components, the first and most important thing you need before and during a build is patience. Think of it like baking a complex dessert. You need the right ingredients, precise measurements, and enough patience to troubleshoot when something doesn’t go exactly as planned. You might run into issues during the build, and keeping a clear head goes a long way.
With that out of the way, let’s get into the components.
PC case - The case houses all your components. Cases come in different sizes, like towers, mid towers, mini towers, and the one you choose determines what size motherboard you can use. Or you could get a motherboard of a particular size and get a case that fits it.
Motherboard - The motherboard is the main board that connects all the individual components of your PC. It sits inside the case and comes in form factors such as E-ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX, and Mini-ITX.
Processor - The processor, or CPU, is the brain of your PC. The major players in the desktop CPU space are Intel and AMD.
Memory - Memory is commonly referred to as RAM. It helps your system quickly access the data it needs while running applications. Popular RAM brands include Corsair, Kingston, Crucial, G.Skill, and others.
Storage - Storage is used for long-term data. For most modern PCs, a solid-state drive, or SSD, is ideal because of its speed and lack of moving parts compared to a mechanical hard drive. That said, if you need very large storage capacities, traditional hard drives are still cost-effective.
Graphics card - A graphics card, or GPU, is commonly associated with gaming, but it is also useful for AI workloads, rendering, video editing, photo editing, and other demanding tasks. Depending on your use case, you can choose between consumer-focused cards and workstation or business-focused cards.
Power supply unit - The power supply unit, or PSU, provides power to all the components in your PC. It connects to the motherboard, CPU, graphics card, storage drives, and other components as needed.
Things to watch out for
Knowing what to buy is only one part of the process. You also need to make sure the components you choose are compatible with each other.
For example, AMD’s newer AM5 platform supports DDR5 memory, while the older AM4 platform, which is still a solid performer, supports DDR4 memory. Intel’s 12th, 13th, and 14th generation processors can support both DDR4 and DDR5, but the type of memory you can use depends on the motherboard. Intel’s newer platforms are DDR5-only.
The processor you choose also has a specific socket type, and that socket must match the motherboard. Similarly, RAM comes in different formats. Desktop PCs typically use UDIMMs, while laptops use SODIMMs.
You may also come across ECC and non-ECC memory. Whether you can use ECC memory depends on both your motherboard and processor, so it’s always worth checking the specifications before buying.
The graphics card usually goes into a PCIe slot on the motherboard. Most modern graphics cards also require supplemental power from the PSU, so you need to make sure your power supply has the right connectors and enough wattage.
The first boot
In this first part, I only wanted to introduce you to the world of PC building. In the upcoming parts, I’ll cover useful details that will come in handy when you decide to take the plunge, from choosing compatible parts, avoiding common mistakes, assembling the system, BIOS setup, and more.
There’s nothing quite like pressing the power button on a PC you built yourself and watching it go through its first boot.