When building a gaming PC, you might wonder which CPU platform to invest in, which components to buy, and how to find the best deals. What you should also focus on is building a balanced PC. You might configure your build around a hero component, such as a high-end graphics card or one of the best gaming CPUs, but it's essential to recognize the importance of every component so that you don't end up with a lopsided PC.

Besides nailing your CPU and GPU combo, you should also make conscious decisions while choosing the memory, storage, motherboard, CPU cooler, and power supply. Allowing yourself to buy more than what you need right now while still stopping the impulse to overspend on certain components is the key to achieving a balanced build.

6 Your PSU deserves more love

PSUs have been ignored for far too long

As an experienced PC builder, you might think this is obvious, but too many users still treat the power supply as an afterthought. Outside of Reddit and YouTube enthusiasts, many PC builders are still placing the fate of their precious PC components into the hands of either off-brand power supplies or branded units with questionable reliability.

Always trust PSUs from known brands and a decent 80 Plus or Cybenetics rating.

If you blow all your budget on a killer GPU and CPU, and try to pinch pennies when picking a PSU, you might lose out on a lot more in the long run. Power supplies with cheap internals and sub-par quality control can often lead to unexpected shutdowns, bottlenecked performance, and in the worst cases, component failure, costing you thousands. Always trust PSUs from known brands and a decent 80 Plus or Cybenetics rating.

You can also look up the unit you're buying on the Cultists PSU Tier List to get more information on its reliability. Even if it means spending a little more than you initially thought, buying a quality power supply is always the right decision.

5 Get more CPU cooling than you need right now

A little overspeccing on the cooler is worth it

Conventional wisdom dictates that you shouldn't buy, say, a powerful liquid cooler, if a decent air cooler can sufficiently cool your 65W processor. And there's merit to this — why waste money on a 360mm AIO when you're not using a particularly power-hungry chip, such as a Core i7 or Core i9 processor? However, your cooling needs won't always stay the same.

You may want to jump from your 6-core processor to something more powerful down the line. If you're on AMD's AM5 platform, swapping your CPU is quite easy, so moving from, say, a Ryzen 5 7600 to a Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a realistic consideration for many gamers. Alternatively, you might want to overclock your existing processor, which might need more cooling chops than your budget air cooler.

Budget liquid coolers don't cost a whole lot more than quality air coolers, so you aren't depleting your PC budget by going liquid over air cooling.

There are other benefits to using a 240mm or 280mm AIO instead of a single or dual-tower air cooler — less noise, better esthetics, and the ability to use a compact case. Besides, budget liquid coolers don't cost a whole lot more than quality air coolers, so you aren't depleting your PC budget by going liquid over air cooling.

The case also plays a role in the overall airflow inside your PC, but it's a more subjective choice, and you might want to pay a premium for something that has caught your eye. Just be careful not to spend more on the case than the motherboard — that's not really making the most of your budget.

4 Don't overspend on the motherboard

Don't get swayed by marketing speak

The motherboard is the foundation of your PC in many ways — the socket determines your CPU upgrade path, the expansion slots decide what you can and cannot upgrade to, and the quality of the board itself determines if you can really overclock your CPU. That being said, you shouldn't feel pressured into spending ungodly amounts of money on the motherboard.

All you should really focus on are the features that are must-haves for your use case — a particular chipset for CPU overclocking, or sufficient PCIe lanes, additional M.2 ports for secondary SSDs, four RAM slots, support for high-speed memory, enough USB ports, and Wi-Fi. Thankfully, these features are available on the best motherboards costing less than $200 (even less, if you can stomach a micro-ATX motherboard).

You shouldn't feel pressured into spending ungodly amounts of money on the motherboard.

Blowing your budget on needless features like overkill power delivery, customizable displays, and unlimited I/O ports will only make you regret not saving enough for the CPU, GPU, and RAM — you know, the things that will actually improve your gaming performance.

3 Don't splurge on Gen5 SSDs yet

A quality Gen4 SSD is ideal for gaming

PCIe 5.0 (Gen5) SSDs are phenomenal at sequential read and write — transferring large files or other sustained transfer scenarios. They can easily beat Gen4 SSDs if you're a professional who frequently needs to copy large amounts of data between your drive and PC. However, for a gaming PC, Gen5 SSDs have very little to offer. They're virtually the same as Gen4 drives in random read/write performance, and don't decrease boot time or loading times by much.

For a gaming PC, Gen5 SSDs have very little to offer.

Plus, some of the faster Gen5 SSDs tend to run hot, and the enormous heatsinks they ship with are another hassle. And these SSDs are still too pricey for the average gamer, who simply needs an affordable 1TB or 2TB SSD that doesn't hold back the performance of an otherwise powerful gaming PC. If you're building a balanced rig, just get a 2TB Gen4 SSD with or without DRAM, and save yourself some money and a lot of headaches.

2 Buy faster instead of more RAM

Hit the memory sweet spot for gaming

There was a time when 16GB of RAM was generous for any demanding game. Times have changed, and today, 32GB of RAM is often considered the minimum for some of the newest games. However, it doesn't make sense to exceed that when gaming is all you want to do. Installing 64GB or 128GB of RAM won't magically boost your framerates or even make your PC more responsive.

Ideally, you should try to prioritize RAM frequency and latency over capacity. Once you've decided to buy, say, a 32GB DDR5 memory kit, try to find one that matches the sweet spot for your particular CPU and motherboard combo. The Integrated Memory Controller (IMC) of the CPU and the Qualified Vendor List (QVL) of the motherboard play a big role in the amount and speed of RAM you can stably run on your PC.

Save your money, get a 32GB kit of 6,000MT/s CL30 memory, and know that you've bought the best RAM for gaming.

For AMD's AM5 processors, the sweet spot is around 6,000MT/s to 6,400MT/s, and for Intel's Raptor Lake CPUs, it's around 6,800MT/s to 7,200MT/s without needing manual tuning. Gaming performance doesn't scale linearly with higher RAM speeds beyond 6,000-6,400 MT/s, so save your money, get a 32GB kit of 6,000MT/s CL30 memory, and know that you've bought the best RAM for gaming.

1 Pair the right CPU with your GPU

Don't fall into the CPU bottleneck trap

The graphics card is rightfully the focus when building a gaming PC, but you can't completely ignore the role the CPU plays in gaming performance. If 1080p is your preferred resolution, your games will be a lot more CPU-dependent than at higher resolutions. Even at 1440p or 4K, where games are heavily GPU-bound, having a powerful CPU allows you to reach a higher FPS when you inevitably dial down a few settings.

Consider the kind of games you're playing, your preferred resolution, and the other workloads you'll want to run besides gaming.

So, don't simply go for the cheapest 6-core CPU you can find on the market. Consider the kind of games you're playing, your preferred resolution, and the other workloads you'll want to run besides gaming. You might be into simulation games that need more CPU horsepower than other titles. Using DLSS or FSR at higher resolutions will require the CPU to go toe-to-toe with the GPU. You don't necessarily need to buy a CPU with 8 cores or more, but assessing your use case is still worthwhile.

A modern 6-core processor might beat a previous-gen 8-core chip in gaming, but you still need to know this to avoid buying, say, an older-gen 6-core CPU that you'll want to upgrade a few years later. This is why I don't recommend buying a budget CPU anymore.

Balance is the key to building a PC you're happy with

The most important thing when building a PC is to be satisfied with the outcome. You shouldn't be rethinking your choices or regretting a few purchases after finishing the build. To avoid the chances of that happening, it's imperative to follow the tips to arrive at a balanced configuration. Focus on the essentials without ignoring the rest of the pieces of the puzzle, and you'll be able to craft a great gaming PC.