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 18 distinct DIY PC Build guides, constantly updated with the latest and greatest components.

The January 2025 Updates

Over the past few months, we’ve seen both AMD and Intel launch their biggest new CPU lineups in years, and they had something strangely in common – neither could clearly pull away from their predecessors. What we’re left with is a number of very good processors, a handful that we cannot recommend, and performance levels that are the best we’ll see until the next generation, likely no earlier than the end of 2025.

Overall, we’re going to have a lot of trouble recommending Intel’s new “Arrow Lake” 200-series processors, but in hindsight, they make AMD’s 9000-series look pretty impressive. The Ryzen 9 9950X 16-core processor is definitely at the top of the multi-tasking charts. In the midrange, AMD’s 9900X and 9700X are solid deals, for specific users – the 9900X excels at multi-tasking value, while the 9700X is a great gaming chip for the price. And AMD and Intel are offering serious discounts on their much older processors to fill out the low-end, in lieu of introducing new budget processors.

The most exciting release in the past year was definitely the exceedingly-fast 9800X3D, providing a 10-20% boost on top of an already dominant 7800X3D, which gives AMD a  commanding lead. The downside to this is extreme demand and above-MSRP prices, at least for a while. That’s why we still recommend the 7800X3D in many of our top-end gaming systems, due to its reasonable price and good availability. AMD has since announced the 9900X3D and 9950X3D, which will arrive in March and offer more cores, but no more gaming performance. If history repeats itself, the 9900X3D will be a hard pass due to sub-par gaming numbers, and the 9950X3D will slot in as our recommendation for gamers that also need top-end content creation performance.

On the GPU side, Nvidia announced a bunch of new models at CES 2025 in Las Vegas. The RTX 5080 16GB will arrive first, for around $1000, with 25% higher performance than the outgoing 4080 Super at the same pricepoint (meaning it won’t match the 4090). The 5090 32GB will beat the 4090 by about 20%, but for quite a bit more money: $2000. The 5070 Ti 16GB comes in at $750, perhaps matching the original 4080, and the 5070 12GB will come in at $550, offering a slight uplift over the 4070 Super. AMD has the RX 9000 series incoming, and it will likely come in at around $500 and will hopefully match the 5070, but it remains to be seen if AMD can make this a compelling offering.

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.

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!