How To Build A Gaming PC: A Step-By-Step Process With Sample Builds

gamespot.com:

Building your own gaming PC is a rewarding experience and gives you far more control over the pieces and parts that wind up in your PC tower. Those without any familiarity of the internal workings of a PC may think that the process is too daunting and and opt for a pre-built PC. But if you're in that camp, you'll probably be surprised to learn that building your own PC isn't nearly as colossal of an endeavor as it used to be. If you're interested, we've created this handy guide to teach you how to build your own gaming PC. We've also included a couple of sample builds below that you could follow in order to build a high-end or budget gaming PC.

Before we dive in, we should note that this guide only covers the actual PC. You'll have to pair it with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse (at the bare minimum). For suggestions on which peripherals to pick up, check out our roundups of the best gaming keyboards, best gaming mouse, best PC gaming headsets, best PC controllers, and best cheap gaming monitors.

Before we get to the actual building portion, we need to talk about finding and buying the parts for your PC. Finding the right parts can be confusing — and expensive. Gaming PCs can cost as little as $500, or as much as several thousand dollars to build. Obviously, more expensive parts usually mean more power, but shopping for a build that fits your budget is often the biggest obstacle for first-time builders. There are several components that you need, each with a plethora of models, specs, and compatibility requirements to consider.

We know this can be overwhelming, so we created example builds from hardware available at the time of writing. The first is a high-end rig powerful enough for bleeding-edge gaming performance, and