With everything going today, most people are stuck in their homes. With that being said, some might become bored and are looking for something fun to do. When everything else runs out, you might consider building your very own AMD gaming PC.

Most gamers prefer pre-assembled PCs because they’re already assembled and ready to be plugged in and played. However, if you have some extra time, have a knack for research, and can find the parts you need, why not build your own AMD gaming PC?

Why Build an AMD Gaming PC?

Years ago, the reason to build your own PC was to save money. Still, with the influx of cheap pre-assembled gaming desktops that you can find on the market today, this argument holds little water. So why else would you take on such a time consuming and mind-involved task?

Building an AMD gaming PC gives you the chance to choose what exactly goes into the system. This means that you get to choose the parts that go into the computer, which allows you to customize your AMD gaming PC to fit your needs.

What You Need

Building an AMD gaming PC demands a clear idea of what parts to buy. The main ones include:

Case

The case that you choose will decide what parts will fit into your PC, how easy it will be to build, and how much space you’ll have to save for your gaming setup. When choosing a case, your checklist should include the appearance, layout, and size.

Layout

You must make sure that the case you get matches the motherboard that you’re going to purchase, without making the other components tightly packed.

Another essential aspect of the layout of the case is the cooling system. You’ll need more fans in your case if you have powerful hardware. Therefore, a proper case should already have a few fans out of the box with sufficient provisions to add more fans later.

Size

Larger cases are more space-demanding, but they also have enough room for more than one optical and hard drives, along with bigger GPUs. They’re also easier to work in because they give you enough space to move things around.

Motherboard

The motherboard is the body of the computer because it’s the part where all the other components fit into. It dictates the compatibility of your future and current parts and how well they’ll work together.

There are three things to consider when picking out a motherboard: longevity, and layout.

Longevity

The ability for your motherboard to be future proof is determined by its ability to keep up with new processors, RAM, GPU, and more. When you purchase a motherboard, you want to pay close attention to the chipset specifications and the sockets onboard.

Layout

The layout of your motherboard is dependent on your intended hardware, primarily your CPU. AMD chips have pins on their underside, which fit into pads on the motherboard. AMD chips are easy to work with and provide security from the processor when it’s been placed. However, you need to remember that an all AMD chip won’t work with an intel-based board.

Graphics Card

An AMD gaming PC requires a discrete GPU to take care of the graphics processing. Graphics cards are meant to help deliver excellent frame rates at high gaming resolutions and realistic detail settings.

CPU & RAM

The GPU does most of the processing in gaming PCs. They typically come with VRAM, so you can dial down a bit when you pick your CPU and RAM specifications if you need to adjust your budget to get a better graphics card.

CPU Choices

AMD has a new chipset out called the Ryzen. The Ryzen provides you with more cores than Intel and is generally cheaper than Intel’s at a comparable performance point. In addition, it supports newer sockets than Intel, which allows your motherboard choice to be more forward compatible.

RAM: Frequency & Size

Most AMD gaming PCs have fast CPUs and GPUs and often do well with 8GB of RAM, which is the accepted baseline. Unless you’re planning for the future or doing RAM intensive tasks like video or photo editing, anything above 16GB can be seen as overkill.

Getting RAM that’s faster than 2400MHz will have little impact on your gaming experience, but most gamers use faster speeds. Higher frequency RAM often requires at least some manual configurations, and unless you want to tool around with BIOS, they can result in lower performance levels.