The TBG DIY PC Build Guides

Introduction to the TBG PC Build Guides

Welcome to TBG’s DIY PC Build Guides! This is where you’ll find all the best PC builds on the ‘net, from ultra-compact home office PCs to screaming-fast gaming towers. In total, we offer 24 distinct DIY PC Build guides, constantly updated with the latest and greatest components.

The Black Friday 2022 Updates

We’re in the middle of the biggest product launch season since Fall of 2020, so there’s a lot to say. AMD, Intel, and Nvidia have all made huge product releases, with more coming, so we’ll talk briefly about what they are, and how that might influence your purchasing decisions.

First off, AMD: it launched its new Zen 4 CPUs and the AM5 platform in September, and it was an instant bomb. While AMD has done a lot to move the ball forward over the last five years, Zen 4 isn’t going to go down as one its greatest triumphs. AMD has already reduced prices dramatically on Zen 4 chips, and while we are now considering recommending them in certain systems, the truth of the matter is that they were not priced right to start. What is priced right is AMD’s entire Zen 3 lineup, which also just had prices slashed, making these older CPUs an absolute steal for value-minded builders.

At the high end, though, we’re going with Intel, which came out swinging with its 12th-Gen Alder Lake parts, and the 13th-Gen Raptor Lake parts simply pack on the power. The key is pricing – Intel radically increased performance without charging more, and its hybrid architecture, using “performance” and “efficiency” cores, has proven to be brutally effective at dominating games (with a maximum of 8 really fast cores), and blasting through productivity apps thanks to those additional efficiency cores.

As for Nvidia, well, it always offers tremendous advancements with its new GPU designs, and the RTX 4090 is a beast and a half. Starting at $1600, it offers tremendous price-performance for a halo product. It’s 70% faster than the RTX 3090, which blew minds back in Fall of 2020 when it launched at $1500. In fact, the 4090 sold out faster than even that 3000-series predecessor, and it’s now being scalped like GPUs were during the crypto heyday, but amazingly this is purely due to demand from gamers. Easier to find is the $1200+ RTX 4080 16GB, which is actually a pretty decent GPU (second-fastest in fact), but is overshadowed by the brute strength of its faster cousin.

While AMD will soon be launching a few new GPUs in the $900-$1000 price range, we’re not expecting any new GPUs to arrive this year at mainstream prices. Luckily, there are simply amazing deals already available from $200 all the way up to $700 if you’re willing to go with AMD’s excellent Radeon RX 6000 series cards (and you should be unless you’re totally stuck on Nvidia’s marketing). Cards like the RX 6600, RX 6800, and RX 6900 XT are all amazing picks at their current pricepoints.

Using the TBG PC Build Guides

Whether it’s your first, tenth, or hundredth time building a PC, these guides will set you up with the best components you can buy. To find the right PC for you, feel free to browse all of the options below, or alternatively choose specific criteria from our filter browser below, which will display just the builds that meet your needs. You can then click on the “View Specs” button to see a quick view of prices, parts, and dimensions, or click the “View Guide” button to jump straight to the full Build Guide for that build. Happy hunting, and good luck with whichever build you choose!

Our DIY PC Build Guides are updated monthly, and sometimes daily, to ensure you get the most up-to-date info. If you appreciate the work we do on these, don’t forget to use our Amazon and Newegg links to support continued publication of these guides. And if you’re specifically interested in Small Form Factor PCs, definitely check out our monthly guide to the Small Form Factor PC Market as well.

We’d like to express special thanks to SilverStone Technology Co., which sponsors the TBG PC Build Guides. Founded in 2003, SilverStone has made major contributions to PC case design, small form factor PC development, and power supply innovation!