The “making your money go furthest” 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 mid-range, value for money PC builds – one for gaming, one non-gaming. These builds are built around the idea that you wil not have to upgrade your computer for the longest possible time while still ensuring that you get excellent value for your money.

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.co.uk (one of mine!) to search lots of shops at once for a specific product.

Mid-range 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!

Mid-range Gaming PC

Build notes

I chose an APU rather than a CPU for its graphics performance. I’ll say it again, graphics cards are not worth buying right now. The 6600 XT specified above is decent enough, but in no way is it worth £520. The RTX 3060 Ti was launched about a year ago at a recommended retail price of £370 (roughly 30% cheaper) and is roughly 30% faster. Of course, you simply can’t buy a 3060 Ti right now for anything under about £700. It’s just a terrible, terrible time to buy a GPU right now and I strongly recommend you wait until prices return to whatever normal is.

The motherboard is a great option at this price with the B550 chipset for PCIe 4.0 compatibility. 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 without the 6600XT and at medium to high settings with it.

Mid-range Non-Gaming PC

Build notes

I really like this build! Intel’s newest generation of CPUs have great performance and will last you for years. The motherboard is great, it’s a compact, quiet build and performance in most use cases should be very solid. It has 1TB of really fast storage, although if you’re willing to drop to 500 GB SSD storage, you can get even faster PCIe 4.0 speeds for about the same price. There is also 4TB of long-term storage, enough for all your files and photos. If you don’t need a GPU, you can expect this PC to last you for years to come. And if you do, you can add one later!

James