The cheapest (good) build your own PC in Spring 2022

1. Introduction to PC building
2. Choosing a processor (CPU) and motherboard
3. Choosing a case, memory (RAM) and cooler
4. Choosing a graphics card (GPU)
5. Choosing storage and operating system
6. Choosing a power supply (PSU) and case cooling
7. Tips for actually assembling your computer
8. Example build – The “cheapest (good)” build your own PC in Spring 2022
9. Example build – The “making your money go furthest” build your own PC in Spring 2022
10. Example build – The best “high-end enthusiast” build your own PC in Spring 2022

Buying advice

It’s hard to know where to start when doing something for the first time, so my Spring 2022 Example Builds will give any new PC builders a jumping-off point. Even if you don’t follow this build, it may give you ideas for your own.

I am recommending two cheap (but good) PC builds – one for gaming, one non-gaming. While it is always possible to go cheaper, you won’t get as much value out of your computer and may have to replace it sooner if you buy something underpowered.

All the parts I’m recommending are brand new and prices are true as of 12th January 2022.

Buying Tips to reduce costs further:

• You might be able to buy a prebuilt PC cheaper at the moment – check those prices too.
• You might be able to find nearly new components on eBay or at Amazon Warehouse.
• Use a site like camelcamelcamel to track prices to see if you’re buying at the right time – if the price now is significantly higher than earlier, you might be overpaying.
• Use a site like honey.com to check for money off vouchers. They do have some price tracking features too.
• Use a site like shopassist.com (one of mine!) to search lots of shops at once for a part.

Cheap PC: Build notes

GPU prices are far too high – still. I am not going to recommend buying a GPU right now. Like many people, I am anticipating a fall in GPU prices at some point this year, particularly when it becomes impossible to mine Ethereum using GPUs, which at the moment is scheduled for June 2022.

All my builds this spring will run on integrated graphics – even the gaming ones. If you absolutely must buy a GPU, I might include one you might want to target, but I’ll say it again: don’t buy a GPU right now. Build using integrated graphics and then buy a GPU when prices come down.

Similarly, you might consider my build not fully future-proofed, given that they all use DDR4. However, I’m recommending these builds for people wanting to build right now. 16 GB of 3200 MHz DDR4 comes in at exactly £50. The cheapest branded RAM I could find 16 GB of 48 MHz DDR5 was £144 and out of stock. When DDR5 becomes affordable, I’ll start recommending it but until then, there’s no way I would put it in a build today.

Finally, I have not included the cost of OS, keyboard, mouse or monitor as these are items that you may have already.

Now that’s out of the way, on to the builds!

Cheap Gaming PC

Build notes

I chose an APU rather than a CPU for its graphics performance. At this price point, I don’t think it’s worth buying a graphics card at current prices. However, if you were to build this PC, the case is large enough and PSU good enough that you could add a mid-range GPU later. The motherboard is a great option at this price with the B550 chipset for PCIe 4.0 compatibility. The MSI B550M PRO was available for just £60, but I’ve heard there are compatibility issues between it and this CPU, so I decided to pay the extra £13. RAM is two 8 GB sticks enabling dual channel support and clocked at 3200 MHz. This build would be good for gaming at 1080p on low to medium settings.

Cheap Non-Gaming PC

Build notes

I chose one of the latest Intel CPUs as rendering gaming graphics is not a factor in this build, although the UHD 770 is not too far off the AMD specified in the gaming build above. At this time, the newer i3-12100 CPU appears to be about the equal of the 5600G in many CPU related tasks, yet comes in at £90 cheaper. Some of the savings from the cheaper CPU have been spent on the motherboard, which includes 2.5 Gb Ethernet and PCIe 4.0 support. You might also want to add an additional internal storage drive, such as this £44 2TB Seagate BarraCuda. This build would provide excellent performance for most everyday computing applications, such as office tasks, browsing and email, online video and even light gaming.

James