Step-by-Step: How I Assembled and Installed My Gaming PC

This summer, I decided it was time to replace my old computer—it had become too slow for gaming. My mom agreed, but with a condition: “We won’t buy you a prebuilt system. We don’t know exactly how fast or powerful you want it to be, so why don’t you build your own?” I was instantly excited. I immediately pictured all the computer hardware I used to see as a kid in her lab. What I didn’t realize at the time was that this was actually a “trap” my mom had cleverly set for me.

From researching specs to comparing brands, models, vendors, and reading reviews, the process turned into a full-blown project. I started in early July by making a detailed parts list, placed my first orders mid-July, and due to some returns and re-orders, I didn’t finish building the system until mid-August. The whole process took a month and a half. I mainly compared prices and availability from three major suppliers: Newegg, Amazon, and Best Buy.

The first decision I made was choosing the case. Since I didn’t want it to take up too much space, I went with a Seasonic mid-tower, which happened to be on sale for Independence Day. I purchased it on Newegg along with an ASUS ROG STRIX Z790-H Gaming (WiFi 6E) motherboard. It was powerful but not the most expensive, and supported the Intel Core i7-12700K, which offers excellent performance for its price. More importantly, the motherboard supported DDR5 RAM, which I chose over DDR4 because it’s the next generation of memory—even though it’s more expensive. Since RAM type and capacity heavily influence system speed, I went with 32GB of DDR5.

So far, everything seemed to be going well. But then came the cooling issue.

When choosing a CPU cooler, I debated between air cooling and water cooling. Each had its pros and cons: air coolers are cheaper, easier to install, and reliable, while water coolers offer better performance under heavy loads and tend to be more compact. Since I planned to play performance-intensive games and do computational programming, I decided to go with a slightly more expensive water cooler. My mid-tower case was another reason—space efficiency mattered. Then came another dilemma: should I get a 2-fan or 3-fan water cooler? After comparing dimensions from both the case and cooler manufacturers, I estimated that a 3-fan cooler should fit. But when all the parts arrived, I discovered the mid-tower case couldn’t accommodate the 3-fan setup. Thankfully, I had ordered the cooler from Amazon, and their return process was smooth. I sent it back and resumed installation while waiting for the 2-fan version to arrive.

In order to speed up the game, I begged my parents to give me extra budget and bought a GPU gaming card. This was in exchange for my Christmas and birthday gifts in advance. After weighing the performance and price, I chose the AMD Radeon RX 7800XT 16GB Graphics Card. Then the problem came again. The Graphics Card was too heavy. After fixing one side in the vertical case, the other side of the horizontal card began to sag. So I measured the height of the card to the bottom of the case, polished a small stick with wood, and propped up the other end of the card. Wood is insulated, so there will be no problems when the computer is running. Looking at the GPU gaming card working stably, I feel such a sense of accomplishment.

Once I had all the hardware installed, I thought I was done. But I quickly realized I still needed to install an operating system. In the past, I’d only used prebuilt systems like Dell or Acer, which came with Windows pre-installed. This time, I had to purchase and install Windows 11 Home myself. Drawing from my computer science studies, I understood that an operating system is essential—it’s what enables the hardware to run applications.

I bought the OS, followed the installation steps, and finally hit the power button. When the Microsoft Windows startup screen appeared, I was overwhelmed with excitement. I had built this computer from scratch—all the way from choosing parts to assembling hardware to installing the operating system. It was my first fully custom PC, and I felt incredibly proud and accomplished.