I finally built my dream gaming PC with RTX 3080 — here’s how

I finally stacked my dream gaming PC with RTX 3080 — here's how

(Ikon citation: Future)

What parts make up your dream gaming PC? Obviously, you'll need a powerful processor capable of handling whatever games you play. You'll too need batch of memory to store your gaming library, and a decent amount of RAM.

All the same, arguably the just about great part of your build will be the art board which will power all your gaming endeavors. Unluckily, at the moment, even half-decent GPUs are come near-impossible to find. Below, I'll share how I nabbed an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card and managed to build my dream gaming PC despite the global chip shortage.

From a comfort to a laptop to a background PC

I've forever been a console gamer prior to the general, having relied hard on my PS4 Pro for all my gaming needs. Nevertheless, in 2020 I finally made the transition to PC gaming after purchasing the Razer Sword 15 Quartz as my very first gaming laptop.

I love my Razer Leaf blade to bits, and I still use it whenever I feel like playacting something more casual (like Stardew Vale) from the comfort of my sofa. But as I started to puzzle over into streaming on Twitch and performin Thomas More graphically-intensive games, the more I realised that my laptop's NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 meet wasn't powerful enough to match the demand.

I had been saving upward for a background gaming Microcomputer for a while now, but was stymied past the ongoing chip shortage. Good CPUs were tricky just non impossible to find, and other components such as SSDs, PSUs and Random access memory were almost as plentiful as always. However, trying to lick where to buy either the RTX 3070 surgery RTX 3080 seemed fruitless. On doubled occasions I took a run a risk and proven to play the restock game with no achiever — scalpers always managed to buy up all single unit the second it dropped.

In June 2021, I distinct to try and go for the then-soon-to-be-released NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. Dissimilar in the US, where plenty of retailers ilk Walmart to Second-best Buy were planning on marketing the unprecedented GPU, Run down.co.uk was the only UK retailer officially stocking the 3080 Ti at launch. Predictably, their website crashed minutes into the launch, later on scalpers bought out what little stock the UK had in mere seconds.

As luck would have it, frantically refreshing the Read website did eventually prove to be functional. Later on flunk to nab the RTX 3080 Ti, I came across a pre-built ironware parcel that packed whol the components I had been hunting for: an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X processor, ASUS ROG Strix B550-A motherboard and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 nontextual matter wag.

Let's address the elephant in the room number one: retailing at £2,200, the damage of this hardware bundle certainly scared me at first. However, after I took into story that it contains almost of the priciest components within a PC, including a high-range C.P.U., GPU, motherboard, 32GB of RAM and all-in-one CPU liquid-cooler, I realized that IT came out to a acceptable look at. Don't believe ME? If we take up retail appreciate for the entire bundle, it comes to a total of some £1,515, which means you'd constitute overpaying by £645. In world, however, buying these components separately would be considerably much expensive given that right now, most RTX 3080s are being resold on Ebay for £1,500 — more than double their MSRP of £649.

gaming setup — (Image quotation: Ulterior)

Once I placed my order, I was notified by Scan that my order would be fulfilled as soon as they verified that they had every last the components available. At this point, my heart sank — I had just paid a large sum of money for a GPU that wasn't even guaranteed to be available. Luckily, I worried for nothing, as the whole bundle was sent to my address within three days.

While I with patience waited for my fres hardware bundle to arrive, I went on Amazon River to order whatever owed components weren't part of the big mone, including a PC case, a power supply unit and an SSD/HDD. I likewise had to order a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card, since IT clad that the ASUS ROG STRIX B550-A motherboard didn't have well-stacked-in wireless capabilities. Still, all these parts were relatively cheap compared to the sum I spent connected the bundle.

Another insignificant addition to the 'pro' column for me was the hardware megabucks's color scheme. I've always been a sucker for a white RGB gaming frame-up, so when I discovered the RTX 3080 included as divide of the order was an ASUS ROG limited edition GPU, I knew that this piece of kit fill the bill perfectly in footing of my ideal esthetics and execution.

Hardware bundles - are they worth it?

Erst all the components arrived, it was fourth dimension to assemble my dream gambling PC. This was my first time putting one together, so information technology was unbelievably favourable that the motherboard, CPU, GPU, RAM and the liquid cooling unit all came pre-massed — au fond entirely that was left to exercise was to hook the bundle to a mightiness render and a hard cause.

After I made sure that the Microcomputer booted up without a hitch, I unhooked the great power supply and carefully reattached it to the motherboard once all the components were installed safely inside my new case. Cable management, however, was an solely different story. I had a clear mental image of what I loved my PC to expect care, so the majority of the time I spent working on my Microcomputer mainly consisted of tidying up cables and concealing them wherever possible to achieve a neat and minimalistic look.

Erstwhile I was finally finished, I couldn't help just look up to my efforts - this unconditional gaming beast may non seem like it, but I fire now finally stream graphics-heavy games equal Cyberpunk 2077 on Twitch without so very much like a stutter in frame-rate. Zero disrespect to my loved one 2019 Razer Steel 15, but it could never pull off such a effort.

Overall, my get buying a computer hardware bundle was overwhelmingly positive. Despite paying a hefty price tag of £2,200, I was able to purchase a sword-new GPU amidst a global shortage - and on top of that, I was able to do thusly without giving any money to scalpers. Not having to gunk around with thermal paste was a plus in my book to a fault.

Is purchasing a pre-assembled hardware bundle with a CPU, GPU, motherboard, RAM and liquid cooler a viable result for everyone? Not really. Personally, it worked for Maine because I initially sic out to form a mark new play Microcomputer alone from cacography. This bundle would hardly be suitable for person who already has a perfectly healthy PC and is just looking for an upgrade on their graphics card.

Tail end crinkle, I'm content with my new gaming PC, and I don't regret sinking feeling my savings into a high-performance gaming PC that will last me for years to come. Straight-grained now, it feels like a large deal with from each one passing day, especially with or s analysts predicting that chip shortages May last done to 2023.

Denise is a news writer at Tom's Guide covering all things tech, gaming computer software/hardware, streaming, and Thomas More. She on a regular basis produces short-form news articles as well as extendable-figure content, including reviews, buying guides, how-tos, and features. When she's non live-flowing horror games on Twitch, she can be recovered exploring East London while playing Pokemon Go. She's also a odd-job pianoforte enthusiast and regularly experiments in the kitchen. You can scope her at denise.primbet@futurenet.com.