How to build gaming pc 2022

 we're gonna go a little bit more high-end

for the purposes of this tutorial,

so we're gonna go with an i7-12700K.

Now, if you look at the model numbers

for all AMD and Intel CPUs,

you'll see that there's a little bit of a code to it.

So, "i7" means that this is one of the higher-end chips.

So it goes, i3, i5, i7, i9.

Just like Ryzen goes Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7, Ryzen 9.

The "12th Gen," as well as the "12" here,

just indicates what generation it is.

So, this is the latest and greatest.

"K" on the Intel side means that you can overclock.

Now, I will say, we're not gonna get into overclocking.

So, we're just gonna show you how to build a PC

and choose the components.

But if you wanna be able to overclock

and get the absolute most out of it,

you're gonna want a K series Intel processor,

and most AMD chips are gonna allow you to do that,

regardless of which one you picked.

Notice how this box is very small?

It's because there's only a CPU inside.

Now, for example, if I were to pick out a 12400,

so this is an i5, this actually has the cooler in the box.

Generally speaking, when you're buying the higher-end chips,

they just expect that you're gonna want to get

a secondary cooler.

And for our purposes, we actually are gonna do that.

But a lot of other chips do come with at least

a decent stock cooler in the box.

Though it's definitely something

that you wanna keep in mind.

If you're gonna go all out,

you're gonna have to buy an extra cooler,

but if you're building a little bit of a more basic system,

what's in the box is actually totally fine.

The next decision is to choose your motherboard.

Now, the motherboard is a very important component,

pretty much all of the different

bits and bobs inside your system

are going to connect to the board,

which is why we're gonna go with this MSI PRO Z690-A.

Now, there are a few things you should pay attention to

when it is time to choose your motherboard.

First and foremost, does it work with your processor?

Now, all graphics cards,

well, unless they're made in like 1997 or something,

will work with pretty much any motherboard.

That's not a really huge concern.

The big thing is to make sure that your CPU

and the socket is compatible.

So, for our build, the easy way to look

is to go to this little sticker on the top,

"Supports 12th Gen Intel Core processors."

Boom. We know that this will at the very bare minimum work.

However, look closely at that sticker.

You see this one right here?

Look at this, oh, I don't know, the Z590 supports 11th Gen.

The sticker's almost exactly the same,

except it says "11th" instead of "12th."

So, it is definitely worth double and triple-checking

to make sure that you have a motherboard

which will support your processor.

Now, other things to consider

when you're choosing your motherboard are the sizes.

So, the three main sizes for motherboards.

There's ITX, which is the smallest,

there's microATX, which is a middle,

and then there's, of course, full-size ATX,

which is what we've got here.

Most builds are probably gonna wanna do ATX,

that's what the vast majority of chassis are.

If you're building like a regular mid-size

or a full-size tower, this is the move,

it's gonna give you the most expansion, blah, blah, blah.

However, if you do wanna do

a smaller form factor build or something,

you may wanna go smaller.

Most important is to make sure

that the size of your motherboard

is equivalent to the size of your case.

One other very important thing to consider

is what kind of RAM you are going to be using.

So, for AMD this is not really a problem.

And for pretty much all the last few years of Intel,

it's not a problem.

However, for the latest 12th Generation Intel chips,

they actually support two different kinds of RAM.

You can use the DDR4, which has been around for many years.

It's a little bit more cheap,

but also it's much, much easier to get your hands on,

or you can get the maximum performance using DDR5.

Now, there are pros and cons to both,

DDR5 is faster, but more expensive,

a little hard to get your hands on,

but you need to make this decision

right now when you choose your motherboard.

Because even though you can get a DDR4 or DDR5 motherboard,

it's only gonna be one or the other, right?

We're gonna be using this tutorial with DDR5

because it is the latest technology.

But honestly, feel free to go with DDR4.

If you can find yourself a board,

they're usually gonna be cheaper.

The RAM is certainly gonna be cheaper.

You're losing a little bit of performance, it's not crazy.

But, for the purposes of this tutorial,

we're gonna show you the pretty much cutting edge,

most up-to-date system that we can,

which means DDR5 and a DDR5-specific motherboard