Building My First PC

I’ve been in tech my entire career. I’ve built products, shipped apps, architected systems, configured servers. I know what a PCIe slot is. I understand memory bandwidth. I can explain what a CPU cache does.

And yet, when it came to actually building a PC from scratch, I had never done it. Not once.

This is the story of that first build.

Why Now

I’d been a laptop person forever. MacBooks, mostly. They work, they’re silent, the ecosystem is seamless. But as my gaming ambitions grew I wanted a proper machine. Something fast, quiet, and ready for the next several years.

I also had a secondary goal: a platform capable of local AI inference. The RTX 50 series with GDDR7 was making local LLM work genuinely viable, and I wanted a machine that could handle both without compromise.

The plan: build a serious PC now, upgrade the GPU when the RTX 6090 launches. One platform, multiple GPU generations.

Full specs are at murat.dev/uses.

The Research Phase

The CPU decision was straightforward once I understood it. AMD’s 3D V-Cache architecture delivers 20-30% better gaming performance specifically because games are cache-bound. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D was the obvious pick 12 cores for AI workloads, 128MB L3 cache for gaming, Zen 5 architecture for longevity. For 49 zł more than the 9800X3D I got 4 extra cores. Easiest decision of the build.

Platform: AM5 socket with X870E chipset. AMD has committed to AM5 support through at least Zen 7, which means CPU upgrades without changing the motherboard. Non-negotiable.

GPU: RTX 5080. I got lucky using a first-time buyer discount on a partner account, I secured a Gainward Phoenix 16GB significantly below typical Polish retail. Good bridge to the 6090.

The PSU decision nobody talks about enough: the RTX 50 series uses a native 12V-2x6 connector, and using adapter cables has caused melting incidents. I needed an ATX 3.1 certified PSU with a native 12V-2x6 cable, not an adapter. This eliminated a lot of otherwise reasonable options.

The RAM Crisis Nobody Warned Me About

DDR5 RAM prices in 2026 are catastrophic. AI data centers consumed over 65% of DDR5 wafer production. A 32GB DDR5-6000 CL30 kit that cost around 80 USD in mid-2025 was 400+ USD by early 2026.

I went through four or five different options before landing on GOODRAM IRDM 32GB DDR5-6000 CL30. GOODRAM is a Polish brand with local warranty support, which matters. The kit runs confirmed DDR5-6000 in dual channel at CL30 timings, verified via CPU-Z after first boot.

If you’re building right now: check RAM prices weekly. They’re volatile. Buy when you see CL30 kits near the lower end.

Cooling

I was initially going to go with a basic air cooler. Then I discovered the be quiet! Silent Wings 4 fans and the build philosophy shifted: make the entire system as silent as possible.

I replaced every fan in the case 8x Silent Wings 4 total, including both fans on the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE CPU cooler. Fan stop enabled on the GPU via ExperTool. The system is genuinely silent when not gaming. Under gaming load you hear something, but it’s a low hum rather than a whir.

The 9900X3D has a 120W gaming TDP. A good dual tower air cooler handles it perfectly. No AIO needed, no pump noise, no liquid.

What I’d Do Differently

Start with the GPU budget and work backwards. The GPU defines the build. I got lucky on price that shaped the rest of the decisions.

Watch RAM prices for weeks before buying rather than purchasing at whatever the current price is. The swings are significant.

Skip the cheap wireless power button. I bought one to turn the PC on remotely from my desk. It works fine during normal use but loses state after completely removing mains power a known limitation most product listings never mention.

Would I Recommend Building vs Buying

Yes, with a caveat.

Building gives you exactly what you want, at lower cost than an equivalent prebuilt, with full knowledge of every component. The prebuilts I looked at in Poland were using previous-generation CPUs at current-generation prices with undersized PSUs that would have blocked my upgrade path entirely.

The caveat: budget significantly more time than you think. Not for the build itself actual assembly took a few hours. The research, component selection, and price hunting across Polish stores takes weeks if you’re doing it properly.

For a developer or technical person, building your own PC is worth doing at least once. You end up understanding the hardware stack at a level that genuinely informs how you think about software.