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, updated with the latest and greatest components.

While we know our readers stumble upon a lot of other sites during their research, what we do is completely different: we professionally curate every build based on relationships we have with dozens of manufacturers and our constant testing of the latest products. That means our PC Builds are the most up-to-date builds you’ll find anywhere, and actually perform the best, too.

The August 2021 Updates

Well, things are actually “better” for DIY PC builders, in the sense that the GPU market went from really bad to just plain bad over the past month. You can now regularly buy GPUs from trusted, first-party retailers for double their MSRP, which is much better than the 3x MSRP scalpers were commanding on eBay until recently.

Unfortunately, it does appear these prices are going to stick around for a while, as the crypto market crash has stabilized. At this point, it’s becoming pretty clear that this generation of GPUs will never return to MSRP, so holding our collective breath won’t do a lot of good.

TBG’s Four Key Tips for PC Builders This Month

Now on to the latest updates! Here are four key factors to consider regarding component picks this month:

• There are only specific GPUs available at retail, mostly corresponding to what crypto miners didn’t buy up worldwide. From Nvidia, we have the 1650, 1660, 1660 Super, and 2060, which pretty much covers the lower-end and mid-range. From AMD, we have the entire 6800 series, which makes up the choices at the high-end. Yes, this is a bit of an inversion from years past, but nothing about the GPU situation is normal right now!
• Luckily, there’s a lot of other great gear you can get now at discounted prices, including many Intel CPUs, as well as the awesome AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and Ryzen 7 5800X. We recommend these particular Ryzen CPUs in the majority of our high-end builds, while gets the nod in many of our lower-end and mainstream systems.
• The price of high-end power supplies is actually starting to fall, and availability is improving. We think this is a sure sign that the crypto mining market is weakening. All high-capacity PSUs vanished instantly from the market in early 2021 due to their use in mining rigs. It’s no longer a challenge to find quality 550-850W units, and even some 1000W units are in stock from time to time. That’s about the highest we recommend for any system, unless builders just want a bigger number for bragging rights!
• OEM manufacturers continue to gain access to a select number of GPUs, so if you’re not dead-set on the DIY route, you can get a pre-built gaming PC with a great GPU today. And in even better news, prices are dropping fast on these OEM systems, perhaps because of better GPU availability in the wholesale market.

Our guides therefore offer two different approaches: for small office and mainstream content creation systems, Intel has a number of CPUs that will be a perfect match at a great price. For gaming PCs, we’ve identified a number of great pre-built PCs that you should definitely consider in lieu of building your own PC, or if you’re committed to building, you can get started using one of the GPUs available at retail today.

More In-Depth Content From TBG

Note that many of the PC builds we profile are Small Form Factor models, and while they are all listed below, you can learn more about SFF PCs by jumping over to our monthly guide to the Small Form Factor PC Market.

We’re spending all of our editorial and review time over at YouTube, which is where we’ve rolled out overview videos for many of our builds. You can post any question in our latest channel trailer here and we’ll answer it! And don’t forget to subscribe while you’re there to make sure you don’t miss out! Moving forward, only our very popular build guides will continue to get the “written” treatment, and 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.

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. Our build guides fall into five price ranges. 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!

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!