One of my friends from an old workplace approached me about helping him build his first gaming PC. His budget was extremely flexible. He already had a liquid cooler and a few other parts tucked away in his Best Buy cart.  I didn't want him to spend more than what he really needed. He wasn't a huge gamer but wanted a daily driver. So he kept the shiny RAM and BeQuiet Case, and I helped him pick the rest.

Parts List:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700G

SSD: Samsung 970 M.2 1TB

MOBO: Asus B550-F Gaming

RAM: Corsair 2x16 Vengeance RGB

Case: BeQuiet Base 500 FX

GPU:  MSI RTX 3060 12GB

This build for my older brother was a fun one. He approached me around Thanksgiving time. Right before the "PC Covid Wave". In other words, when everyone got bored during the pandemic and thought it would be a good idea to build a computer. Pair that with the price of BTC and a 1660 was going for 450.00.

I condisder Alex lucky. He got off around 800 - 900$ to build this beast. And he couldn't be happier.

This is one of my best buddy's, so I was really excited to work on this one. He wanted a simple build, with NO LEDs. Although he did want some light to see the inside of the case and it's parts. Windows 11, standard storage, with most of the budget being put into the CPU and GPU. He will be using this machine to game with me, so I really wanted to make sure he couldn't blame the performance on me. ;)

Overall, I had a blast with this build and cannot wait to see him online here soon.

While digging through old PC parts, I found my first build — the one I put together in 2015 when I was 15. I paid for the components with dishwashing money, and my uncle bought me the case I still use today, nearly a decade later.

I pieced together whatever parts I had on hand to get it running again. Right now, I’m even jump-starting it with a screwdriver since I don’t have a spare case. It’s an ongoing project as of October 2025, and I’m on the lookout for an inexpensive replacement to finish it off.

Back in the day, this machine could handle Minecraft, Fortnite, GTA V, and most games from that era — and revisiting it reminded me why I fell in love with building and tinkering with PCs in the first place.