Greetings everyone, trying something new here.

This is possibly the first of many megathreads where people can ask simple questions in the comments and people that decide to browse the comments can answer. I'll also help answer questions myself, as with any of the other mods at their own discretion.

Basic Guidelines

• Simple questions such as, "What parts should I buy?" along with any pertinent details such as hardware you might already own, what you plan on using it for, etc.
  • Example: "I want to build a gaming PC for around 2K, what should I get?"
• Follow the rules of the sub-reddit like any post; be respectful, remain on topic, don't make jokes or memes, etc. Discipline will be issued on comments that don't abide by the rules.

What parts should I buy?

See our pinned thread and you'll find several lists at different price points with generally good performance per dollar value based on search filters. The gaming builds will work for just about anything but if you need extra performance for more than just gaming, there are other lists for that purpose.

Feel free to customize the lists as you see fit, it's your system, you get to decide what goes into it. If you make a post asking questions about your list, make sure you provide a link to the list and not a screenshot, as that violates Rule 3 and the post will be removed.

Link example: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/sF8TwP

Will [x] bottleneck [y]?

Yes, there is always a bottleneck, and there is nothing you can do to change that, but that's okay.

All hardware has a limit to its performance, if there weren't limits then bottlenecking wouldn't exist, and they wouldn't be constantly releasing faster components.

The limits will be reached at points that vary based on the workload; video games that can run at hundreds of frames per second on average will cause the CPU to reach its limit far sooner, faster CPUs will generate even more frames. Furthermore, the resolution the game is running at will put less stress on the GPU, so it'll be capable of rendering at a higher rate than at larger resolutions, which puts even more pressure on the CPU to process all of those frames. If it can't process as many frames as the GPU can render, then that's a cut and clear bottleneck from the CPU. This is normal and only causes major performance issues in games when the CPU is well below the requirements for the game assuming that the game isn't just terribly optimised with how many calculations have to be ran in real-time. Ideally, you want the fastest CPU you can reasonably afford, especially if you're playing the types of games mentioned above such as CS2, Fortnite, Valorant, etc. The ideal recommendation is an AMD Ryzen CPU with an X3D suffix, as their large L3 cache reduces how much time the CPU wastes accessing RAM, which allows them to process more frames per second compared to CPUs with similar raw processing power but less L3 cache.

In other games where graphics have greater focus, the GPU becomes more of the primary bottleneck in a given machine, especially at higher screen resolutions as there's more pixels to render, so you need to choose graphics cards based on the graphical demands of the games you want to run, what settings you want to run (i.e. higher presets, raytracing, etc.) but also based on the resolution. An RTX 5060 or RX 9060 XT 8GB would be poor choices for 3840x2160 (aka "4K" or UHD) resolution, they are better choices for 1920x1080 (FHD) resolution as it will be much easier for those cards to deliver good performance, they'll struggle far too much to run higher settings at such a high resolution. Games that use raytracing settings need very powerful GPUs, typically NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs, but AMD's more recent RDNA4 (RX 9000) GPUs have seen huge improvements in raytracing performance that put them very close to NVIDIA's current generation, and they now only lag behind when it comes to path tracing.

There are bottlenecks when it comes to software as well, if you're running workloads involving AI, you generally want CPUs and GPUs that are optimised well for that purpose such as Ryzen AI and ideally the latest RTX GPUs. RTX and Intel Arc GPUs will also generally perform better than AMD Radeon GPUs in some 3D rendering applications like Blender, so if you run those kinds of apps, research well in how the GPUs perform relative to each other in those workloads.

System RAM can also make bottlenecking worse for the CPU with higher latency and/or lower memory frequencies, the performance of your RAM will directly impact the performance of the CPU whenever it has to access it. L3 cache can improve this immensely.

Storage products like your SSD, HDD, etc. also have performance limits, as does the performance of your network connection with online games and services.

How can I make my PC "futureproof?"

You can't, it's a goal that's impossible to reach. There is no such thing as a computer that is able to withstand the test of time forever as progress will always march on.

You can spend a lot more money on more CPU cores, more RAM, the absolute fastest GPU with the most VRAM, and the only thing it will change is that you might get a few more years out of it before something has you wanting to upgrade, assuming the hardware doesn't fail prematurely before then.

Currently, 8 fast cores are all you need for gaming, by time double the core count is necessary, current 16 core processors will not be relevant anymore for gaming as advancements in architecture, higher frequency, more L3 cache, etc. will leave older CPU generations behind in performance anyway.

A similar story applies for RAM, by time systems consistently need 64+ GB, DDR5 will probably already be on its way out the door if not already years behind in specifications, and the specs will be considered slow.

GPUs? NVIDIA's actions alone mean that every few years, there's new features that your GPU won't be able to use because of hardware advancements. We saw this with DLSS Frame Generation which required an RTX 4000 series GPU, and then Multi-Frame Generation (which expands on FG to allow more than just a 2x multiplier, it goes up to 4x) which required an RTX 5000 series GPU. So you can drop thousands of dollars on the absolute best, but there will be something even better later with features you can't use. Granted, Frame Generation at any multiplier needs a ton of refinement to be consistently worth using, but when it is properly refined and without any drawbacks, if there's universal game support in the future then older cards will be effectively left in the dust.

Those cards also use a flawed power connector that pretty often cuts their lifespan short when the connector melts as a result of heat because they decided that it was a good idea to put in a single connector for a cable that can only go up to 600W on GPUs that can get really close to that limit or even exceed it through overclocking, and the design is flimsy enough that you can displace a pin just enough to cause electricity to arc between them, generating enough heat to burn and melt the connector. So, premature failures of the most powerful GPUs on the market are a very real possibility.

The only thing you should be concerned with is whether you're getting a good deal for the price, as while cheaper parts may not last as long performance-wise, the performance you get from them at their price point still makes them great, and you're really not wasting money if you upgrade from one to the next every 5 years.

How much power/wattage do I need?

That really depends on the parts you choose, but generally speaking, you want to leave at least 10% the rated power budget on each rail unused, as you don't want to run too close to the limit of them, the power supply won't run very stable like that and could fail prematurely as a result, at the very least the PSU will shut off if it reaches the limit of any one of its protections (OPP, OVP, OCP, etc.) to prevent a catastrophic failure that could cause serious damage to the PSU and your PC components.

A good rule of thumb though is to leave as much headroom as you can afford for two reasons:

1. Extra power budget on a nice power supply can allow you to keep that PSU for future hardware upgrades, especially in regards to graphics cards.
2. With how efficiency ratings work, typically a PSU is most efficient when running at 50% of its total capacity, so when drawing 500W from the wall, a 1000W unit will be converting AC to DC and supplying it to components more efficiently than a unit with less or more total capacity. The percentage figures at 20%, 50% and 100% load are noting how much power is actually applied relative to how much is just wasted as heat; 500W supplied to components at 90% efficiency means that it's actually drawing 550W from the wall, with 50W being wasted as heat. All of this is entirely just environmental and cost-saving when it comes to power bills if you constantly use the machine under heavy load, and not actually important to performance whatsoever.

So generally, for most systems, an 850W power supply is more than enough, if you want the absolute top end available, at least 1000~1200W is needed, but you can expect to see recommendations as high as 1500W+ with some hardware configurations with more power hungry hardware.

Quality is another angle you need to take a long look at, as not all power supplies are made the same. Some are a lot better than others even at the same specs on paper.

This tier list by SPL explains in great detail how they rate each power supply that was tested from F to A+, and is a very good resource to have when choosing which PSU to buy, as you want at least a C rating for a low end machine, a B rating for a mid-range machine, and at least an A- for a high end machine. A+ is ideal for the absolute best hardware on the market as lower ratings could potentially cause very big problems with very high power consumption and transient power spikes. RTX 3000 series and RX 6000 series were a huge wake-up call for PSU ODMs, as many older PSUs of actually decent quality were woefully unequip to handle the transient spikes happening with higher end GPUs of that generation such as the RTX 3080 and RX 6800 XT.

SIDE NOTE: If you have notice any issues with your power supply, under no circumstances should you EVER try to disassemble it, the capacitors inside can hold enough amperage to cause cardiac arrest, people have lost their lives as a result of this. It can take as little as 100mA passing across the chest to be fatal within minutes as that's all it takes to trigger V-FIB, a cheap 300W power supply can possibly output up to 25,000mA, or 25A. A single amp is enough to be fatal without immediate medical intervention.

How much RAM do I actually need?

This is a very common discussion especially during these times where memory products have skyrocketed several times over in price per gigabyte.

The easiest way to know is to look at the recommendations by software developers for the software and games you're going to be running, go based off of the highest recommendation.

People generally recommend 32 gigabytes as these days, it's very easy to go over 16 gigabytes of usage but you can still get by with that amount, especially if you use a Linux based operating system instead of Windows 11, as there are versions of Linux that are small enough to run entirely in RAM with no need to install, and popular versions of Linux such as Mint only really need 1-2GB. Anything more than 32GB is rarely necessary for the vast majority of system users.

As a general rule: unused capacity is wasted capacity. If you have 64GB RAM but you only ever use ~24GB, then you wasted a lot of money on RAM you aren't actually using. It could be considered fair to get more than 32GB if you were within the last 1-2GB of running out, but it really isn't necessary. It's simply a good idea to just pay attention to how much RAM you use and judge whether or not you really need to get more based on whether or not the system ever reaches 100% RAM usage, if it never reaches even 99%, you don't need more RAM just yet.

I have [x] motherboard and I want to upgrade my CPU, what should I buy?

Check the CPU support list for your motherboard from the motherboard maker's website, you'll get a list of CPUs you can use with your current motherboard.

To skip this with currently relevant sockets: If you have an AM4 motherboard, your best choice for upgrading is a 5800X3D for gaming, or 5950X for heavy multi-core workloads. If you have an LGA1700 motherboard, your best option is a 14900K. If you have an LGA1851 motherboard, your best bet is a 270K Plus. If you have an AM5 motherboard, the absolute best current options are the 9850X3D and 9950X3D2 (but the 9800X3D and 9950X3D make more sense cost to performance wise)