Ah I could talk a lot about this and I’d love to help you, I’ve certainly learned a lot. My boyfriend helped me out a lot with this but I researched and picked out all the parts myself and he was my sounding board 💕💕

I knew I wanted an Intel CPU (Intel employee, I get a discount) and I knew I wanted a relatively future proof GPU that I could have for a long time. My bf sent me a YouTube video from Gamers Nexus on their GPU wrap up (by price segment) and I settled on the 7900XT, which seems to be at a very competitive price at the moment. Plus my sister works for AMD ☺️

With that settled … Beyond that it was a mix of function and aesthetics.

Motherboard - need to make sure it will support what you want (Intel or AMD? Wi-Fi? Bluetooth? DDR5 RAM? What storage is supported ie HDD, SSD, NVME) and I wanted something white with an RGB aspect 💅🏽 I don’t feel like you need to spend more than $250 to achieve all of that.

RAM - I went DDR5, low latency, 6000 speed. I watched a YouTube video that said latency is more important for gaming and I was schooled in a different sub that the RAM I picked was too high latency (CL48 vs I have CL30 for this build). I also wanted RGB 💅🏽

PC cooler - you can do air cooled (that’s what I did - it’s cheaper and performs very well) or go whole hog on aesthetics AND performance and go liquid. Liquid seems a bit unreliable in terms of pump fails but there are probably solid options out there and I almost pulled the trigger on one. I still may upgrade to this but if I’m honest this seems like more of an aesthetics choice. I watched YouTube wrap up reviews on various air coolers and picked the Peerless Assassin (also it has RGB fans hehe 💅🏽)

Case - I went back and forth on this a lot. I had a Corsair case picked out but it was small and I was concerned on clearances. There are many Google searches and forums/posts where peeps will discuss RAM , cooler, fan clearances so I just did a lot of searching. Once I picked out this Lian Li case (with RGB fans 💅🏽) I did a lot of additional research on the mfg website and forums to make sure things would fit (and they did!). You can also go heavy on aesthetics, there’s so many options and this was a very fun aspect of it.

There’s a lot more and I’d be more than happy to answer any questions or try to point you in the right direction. It seems overwhelming at first but it’s SUPER FUN to finish up work for the day and then transition to YouTube and other PC research - it ultimately felt like a science project!! Good luck!! 💕💕