Wanted to share this here, this seems like the proper tag/category. This is about my 5th or 6th PC build now after about 15 or so of being PC-curious. I’ve been using PC Part Picker for years, and they have a completed builds section that I just had never bothered to use. Typically after finishing a build, I just want to get on it and play. But, I felt like it’s due time I actually catalog, photograph and post a completed build on the site, and with the story with this one I felt maybe a little more motivated too do so. Figured it would be fun to share on the forums here as well too. This machine isn’t by any means a state-of-the-art stunner; it’s a combination of spare parts, some philanthropy among friends, and a desire to help another ascend into the world of PC gaming.
With all of the news hitting regarding GPU pricing, and generally the speculative PC component pricing as a whole for 2026, many of my friends and I decided to pull the trigger on some upgrades we’ve been mulling over. That left myself, and others with some spare parts. A very good friend of mine was initially just parting with his GPU but ultimately ended up building a whole build. Since I was already buying his GPU at that point, he offered his full rig at an insanely good price of an additional $300 USD for the rest of the rig. While I had no personal need for the parts, as the rest of my components were on par with those purchased from him; I did see an opportunity to build a machine for a friend who’s been looking to make the jump from Xbox to PC gaming, but didn’t really have the financial means or technical know how to do it all (who can blame him with how expensive parts have gotten, it feels incredibly daunting and increasingly inaccessible.)
From the parts purchased, I ended up taking the motherboard & case for my personal build as those are full size ATX, while what I was swapping over was mATX. This is largely due to the space constraints required for the system; my friend doesn’t really have the space to add in a full desk setup, so instead I strived to make the machine work with what he has, and tune it to fit a more console-like environment.
Initially, that left the build with a stock AMD cooler, a spare exhaust fan and no GPU. But there was no way I was going to leave that 5900X on just a stock cooler and one exhaust. I went ahead and grabbed Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE as I currently have one in my fiancee’s build and it seems like a really great value. I also spent another $20 USD to get a 5-pack of Thermalright TL-C12C X5 66.17 CFM 120 mm Fans as again, there was no way I was just going to bank on one exhaust fan being enough, and the fans seemed like really great value, even if the max speed is lower then some other options on the market.
After that, I asked around my friend group once more to see if anyone had a spare GPU since many of us upgraded recently (my old GPU went to my fiancee’s machine, which she is very happy to be jumping from a 1070Ti to 2070 Super, Baulder’s Gate 3 looks super smooth now.) That’s where we end up with another great deal, scooping up the RX 6800 for $100 USD from another friend in the group.
The last bits of challenges for the build were all built around user needs. This PC in particular is built for someone who is coming from consoles, and simply doesn’t have the space to swap into a full PC desk setup. So, when building this machine I need to be conscious of the space it took up, and primarily gearing it towards a “console” like environment. This is partially one of the reasons I ultimately ended up swapping some of the parts around; I needed the mATX form factor much more for this build then my personal one. Likewise, I sprung for a WiFi/Bluetooth antenna so that cables were not running through the house, and signal strength for controllers was still super strong.
The last bits of the journey are all more software sided, where I setup Windows 11 for the machine so that he could easily flex between both Steam and Xbox/Microsoft launchers (who knows what they have coming down the pipeline software wise with the next Xbox being also a PC.) I wasn’t sure if he would still hold onto Gamepass or use the Xbox features on the system or not, so I elected to keep them on the system and let him decide what he wants from the system (also why I didn’t choose to throw something like Bazzite on the machine.) I did end up having Steam boot into Big Picture mode though so that it should be easy for him to jump into games with the controller without having to grab a keyboard and mouse on every boot up.
Overall, I’m very stoked with the outcome of the build, especially with it coming in a little over $500 spent (at least, in recent hardware. Obviously I had some money invested in the other things I threw into the box, but that stuff was just sitting around or was swapped with something else that was in use.) Hardware wise, while the parts themselves are aging, it easily stands toe-to-toe with the Series X that he currently uses. More importantly though, it’s a personal computer which opens up a world of multi-use potential. Plus, it’s great to give these parts a second life.
I’ll be gifting the PC later tonight, I’m very excited to see my friend’s reaction. I’ll try and snag a couple photos of it setup in his space once it’s all said and done.