Pick the parts. Understand them. Build a custom PC that fits.
A free tool for planning your next computer - a guided builder, an advanced builder, and a comparison tool that actually explains itself. We didn't want another parts database that doesn't help. We wanted the tool you'd build a PC in if your knowledgeable friend was sitting next to you.
- Components
- 3000+
- Cost to use
- $0
At this step, we'll teach you:
Hover any concept for a plain-English definition. The whole tool works this way.
Pick a purpose above to see how many CPUs fit your budget.
The guided builder.
Tell us what you want to play, edit, or run. We will walk you through every component - what it does, why it matters, what to look for - and enforce compatibility, budget, and balance behind the scenes.
Designed for first time builders, returning hobbyists, and anyone who wants to learn while they build their PC. There are nine steps in total.
- For
- Beginners +
- Steps
- 9 total
- Time
- ~15 min
The advanced builder.
If you already know what you're doing and prefer to assemble your own list directly: a fast, no handholding interface. Add any part. Get instant compatibility flags. Track the total total against your budget.
Eight component slots, full filter and search across the catalog, save easily on every build. Not designed to hold your hand, just a familiar part picking tool.
- For
- Enthusiasts
- Slots
- 8 parts
- Catalog
- 3000+
A radar for shape. A bar for magnitude
A better way to vizualize your part comparisons. A radar chart to easily see the differences in specs, bar charts to see their exact magnitude, and a table for familiarity.
A handful of quiet things, done with care.
Save and resume any build. Compare components from inside the builder. Track your running cost against a target budget without it ever lecturing you. Every CPU cooler is checked against every case.
Nothing here is novel on its own - but each one is built to be quiet, fast, and right. If you notice them at all, you'll notice them all working together.
Save & resume.
Walk away mid-build. Come back tomorrow. Your configuration is exactly where you left it, on every device.
Live compatibility.
Every part you add gets checked against everything else. Sockets, sizes, clearances. Quiet when it works, loud when it doesn't.
Smart budget.
Set a target. We allocate dynamically across components based on your purpose - not crude flat percentages of your spend.
Thermal Design Power. Watts the part is built to dissipate.
Glossary, live.
Every spec is a hover away from a plain-English explanation. 200+ terms, woven through the whole tool. No tab-switching to Wikipedia.
The hardest part of building a PC isn't building. It's the vocabulary.
VRM. CAS Latency. M.2 vs NVMe. CFM. TDP. The barrier to entry for hardware isn't tools - it's terms. Every spec on PC Launchpad is annotated. A small question mark, a hover, an easily understood definition. Below: a sample of the entries already inside the tool.
- VRM
- Voltage regulator module. The motherboard circuitry that delivers power to the CPU. Stronger VRMs let you run higher-end chips at sustained load without throttling - they are part of the reason a $200 board outperforms a $90 one with the same chipset.
- CAS Latency
- The number of clock cycles your RAM takes to deliver requested data after being asked. Lower is faster. On DDR5, real-world latency depends on both this number and the speed (MT/s); we show you the effective ns alongside the raw CL number.
- TDP
- Thermal design power. The watts a component is expected to dissipate as heat under sustained load - used to size the cooler and the power supply. Higher TDP does not always mean higher performance; it means more heat to deal with.
- Form factor
- The physical size standard of a part. Motherboards come in ATX / Micro-ATX / Mini-ITX. SSDs come in 2.5" / M.2 (with 2280 / 2260 / 2230 lengths). Cases declare which they accept. PC Launchpad enforces these behind the scenes, you'll only notice this if something doesn't fit.
- Bottleneck
- The component in your build holding back the rest. A $1,500 GPU paired with a 6-year-old CPU will spend most of its time idle. It's important to consider this when choosing what components should go together.
Begin where you'd like.
Free · No account required · Made by builders
3,065 components645 GPUs313 CPUs369 motherboards
What you might be wondering, before you start.
Is this actually free? What is the catch?
It's actually free. There is no account required to use the builder, the comparison tool, or the catalog. We earn from affiliate links to retailers like Amazon or Newegg. When you click through to buy parts - but you pay the same price either way, and we never inflate the recommendation to favor a higher commission. The recommendation engine is independent of the affiliate layer.
Why two builders instead of one?
Because the question "what should I buy" sounds the same to a beginner and an expert, but it's not. Beginners need a step-by-step with explanations and a structured budget. Experts need a fast, dense interface that lets them put exactly the parts they want into a list and tells them only when something is broken. Trying to serve both with one UI compromises both.
How current is the parts data?
Pricing is pulled from Amazon or our other partrners availability and refreshed regularly, specs are sourced from manufacturer datasheets. New SKUs are added as they launch, and discontinued or out-of-stock parts are flagged before they crash your build. We always recommend confirming live stock and price on the retailer page before purchase.
Do you offer custom builds or prebuilts?
Not right now. We are currently focused on the research-and-build tool. We may explore offering custom builds and prebuilts in the future, but if your reason for being here is to buy a finished computer rather than plan one, we will be honest and point you elsewhere. If and when this changes, we will update this FAQ item.