Building a gaming PC seems like rocket science to many inexperienced people. The components are expensive, one is afraid of making a mistake during assembly, and when it comes to the necessary wiring, the mind shuts down. After 16 years on a console, I finally dared to build my own gaming PC – without any PC knowledge: Here’s how it went.
Why the sudden switch? 16 years on a console is a long time, but anyone who really wants to play professionally should consider switching to PC. I had many reasons for my part:
- I was fed up with the annoying and expensive subscriptions from Xbox and Sony and wanted to play online without extra costs
- The fixed graphics settings and limits for FPS were extremely bothersome to me
- I always wanted to improve games like Skyrim through mods and play old games from my childhood without having to buy old consoles on eBay
Now I had a choice: either I break my piggy bank and treat myself to a real powerful gaming PC or continue to be annoyed about consoles for many more years: I chose the first option.
The first step is done, but how does a complete tech noob begin to realize his gaming PC? If you know nothing about the subject, you need to gather information, and a lot of it.
Without knowledge, you should keep your hands off
Knowledge is essential in everything you do. When it comes to building a gaming PC, I can give you one piece of advice: If you don’t feel like informing yourself from the start, buy a pre-built PC, otherwise it will be frustrating and expensive.
I spent an entire month acquiring knowledge about PCs. Through countless forum entries, YouTube videos, and questions to our tech expert Benedikt Schlotmann, I gathered everything necessary for building the PC.
It mainly focused on:
- The necessary components
- The functioning of the components
- Compatibility of the components
- Sizes of hardware
- Types of cases
- Which cooling solutions exist
- How to connect the components
- Why wattage plays a significant role in the power supply
- Which operating system to choose
- and much more.
Once you’ve acquired the necessary background knowledge, you already have half the battle won; now it’s time to buy the components, and here comes the second problem.
Strong hardware is extremely expensive and scarce
When purchasing my components, I obviously didn’t want to go for the most expensive offer, so I used sites like idealo.de or geizhals.de to snag the cheapest prices. Prices fluctuate depending on the season, and I, of course, got the worst timing – my prices weren’t at the highest limit but were close to the threshold.
But even if you have the necessary money, you need to be lucky to find a seller who delivers the hardware to you on time. Many vendors had the necessary hardware at good prices but could only impress with a delivery time of 6 months, which was inconvenient for my situation. So you have to choose either expensive hardware with a short delivery time or cheap hardware but long delivery time.
I must say, it was fun to receive a new package of a component every day and check it for damage.
Now comes probably the most exciting part – the assembly.
An indescribable experience that you have to experience
List of all components I installed:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7800X3D
- GPU: ASUS TUF RTX 4090
- RAM: 2x Kingston FURY DIMM 32 GB DDR5-5600
- Motherboard: MSI MAG B650 TOMAHAWK
- Power Supply: Montech Titan 1200W
- Case: HYTE Y70
- Fan Hub: ARCTIC Case Fan Hub – 10-Fan PWM
- Storage for Operating System: WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD 1TB
- Storage for Games: WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe SSD 4TB
- CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 G2
- Fans: 3x Noctua NF-A14x25 PWM, 6x Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM
- Thermal Paste: Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut
- Operating System: Windows 11 Pro
Building my PC was really exciting, and I enjoyed every minute of it, even though I encountered many problems. One thing I must say, make sure to ground yourself when handling sensitive components.
When I was about to place my AMD Ryzen 7800X3D into the socket, I grounded myself first and got a shock from my heater. You can imagine how shocked I was. Had I not done that, the risk would have been high that my CPU could have been damaged.
But apart from that, everything went smoothly and according to plan. It felt like you were a real expert at what you were doing, even though you didn’t even know if the box would start or go up in flames.
The entire assembly took me two days and up to 12 hours, and that was just for one reason – my huge CPU cooler. That was the only annoying problem that cost me many hours, and let me show you why:
My cooler was the Noctua NH-D15 G2 – a monster that looks gigantic compared to other CPU coolers. I had the ASUS TUF RTX 4090 as my graphics card, another massive piece.
In itself, there wouldn’t be any problems since I took the case from Hyte, the Y70. In theory, there was plenty of space, but then again, there wasn’t. The CPU cooler was screwed on, and now the graphics card had to go in, but the cooler took up so much space that I couldn’t insert the graphics card without damaging it. It can only be installed vertically in that case.
So I unscrewed the cooler, inserted the graphics card, and then reattached the cooler without the fans, but then the next problem arose: I didn’t have enough space on the graphics card side to attach the fan clips to the cooler – I was getting desperate.
I was about to give up, but then I thought I would try something unconventional. I tried to use a wire to pull the clips towards the GPU from a distance. It sounded really ridiculous, and you don’t want to know how long that took, but it actually worked.
Sure, my fingers were scraped afterward, I bled, and some fins on the heatsink were slightly bent (I could even bend them back), but it worked nonetheless. At this point, I advise you to send your cooler back and buy one that actually fits – I, on the other hand, was determined to have this bulky cooler, so I endured the ordeal.
Finally, I played electrician and wired my PC. Don’t expect perfect cable management; still, I did well, even though wiring is an art in itself. If you make a mistake and the cables are just loosely plugged in, you risk a fire, so be diligent.
When everything was finished, I took my PC to the TV and connected it. The hour of truth came, either it turns on, shows no reaction, or sparks fly. But it turned on. I felt like a little kid who built his first block tower.
Now, this was almost a month ago, but how does the PC perform and what is my opinion on the switch? You will find out in my conclusion.
Conclusion: Many pros, but also some cons
The PC build was a complete success. I can now play at the highest graphics settings and also have a very quiet system. Should something break, I can simply swap out components, which is not possible with a console. Last but not least, I no longer have to pay annoying online subscriptions for a feature that should actually be free for everyone who pays their internet provider.
However, there are also some cons, including the price. In my case, I tried to buy the best components for my needs and ended up with a price of +3,500 €. Depending on the components, you can also get along well with 1000 – 2000 €. But if you want to push the limits, you have to pay a lot.
Another point is the adjustment of your PC. Sure, you assembled the PC, but if you use PWM, you can adjust the speed of your fans to make them run even quieter. You can undervolt your graphics card so it doesn’t run hot as quickly and is preserved, and the same applies to the CPU. Why this is a downside is the extra effort. You don’t have to do any of that with a console.
Clearly, tuning is purely optional, but if you want a perfectly tuned system, you have to inform yourself again to find the harmony in your components so that the respective system operates as you wish.
As for me, I will now only play on PC and look forward to the upcoming years in which I will improve my setup. Do you remember the moment when you assembled your first PC setup? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
