Looking for a good "Baby's First PC Build" information source

So the new consoles have finally pushed me to the point of saying "screw it, just build a PC". Problem is that every time I start researching information on parts I get overwhelmed and lose my motivation. I'm not completely ignorant to what each part does but discerning whether or not a part is the right one for me is where I lose it. I know what I want my PC to be able to do but I just can't make the connection on what one CPU can do vs another CPU or what it can do when combined with this much RAM and this GPU, etc. I just get overwhelmed and see/hear white noise.

Any advice on trusted resources? Preferably something that is detailed but also uses layman's terms?

It would help to know what it is you want your PC to do. What resolution, settings, framerates are you looking for? Are you wanting to use it for any other tasks? What's your budget?

PCPartPicker.com is good for telling you compatibility information, it also has build guides by price. TomsHardware.com is good for telling you best picks, and what is good for the money. It doesn't really matter which one is BEST, just best for the money when on a budget. I would recommend copying exactly someone else's confirmed good build if you're worried about picking the wrong thing. Copy the parts exactly that they spent a bunch of time selecting so you don't have to. I would stay away from small form factor cases your first time out and do a large ATX case with lots of room in there. (ATX is one of the case size standards.)

It's a project though, no two ways about it. If you don't want a weekend project, I would recommend buying a pre-built. It would be cheaper to buy all the parts and assemble your own but not THAT much cheaper, and you are your own support.

If you're already feeling overwhelmed, you may want to consider working with a company that either builds gaming PCs or sells pre-built ones. For example, NZXT's BLD service starts by asking what games you want to run and continues from there. I believe MicroCenter offers a similar "custom-built PC" service. Other companies include OriginPC, Digital Storm, or Maingear.

You'll end up spending more, but you'll have some help and the option for future tech support.

The PC nerds around here are trusted resources when it comes to building PCs. And like jacksmedulla asked: What games, resolution, and graphics settings do you want, and is gaming the only thing you want to do along with how much money do you have to spend?

We'll guide your hips during this maiden voyage.

@jacksmedulla: Good point. It'll primarily be a gaming PC but I would like to be able to do some video editing and streaming for friends. A minimum 1080p/60fps is all I really want. I don't have a ton of interest in the more taxing big budget games. I play a lot of older stuff but I want it to look great and run smooth. If I could have ESO and FFXIV running on their highest settings, I would be thrilled.

Oh and I've got my budget roughly at $1200-$1500

@pappafost: Okay I was using TomsHardware earlier so that's good. I just wasn't sure how reliable it is. It's just a whole new world for me. Honestly I'm excited about having a weekend project what with all this quarantine time on my hands. My main concern after spending the day trying to get an idea of what my build will look like is how I will get my hands on a good GPU.

I would Youtube this "$900 (or whatever your budget) gaming PC" and look for videos over the last few months, since prices for a lot of things went up during COVID. A good video will go over parts, how to assemble, and show the performance (frames, resolution, and temps).

Here is my PC I built around this time last year.

This is capable of running any game at 1080p 60 no problem on max settings.

CPU - AMD Ryzen 7 2700x

GPU - Asus ROG Strix RTX 2070 Super

Motherboard - Asus ROG Strix B450-F Gaming

Memory - Corsair Vengeance LPX 32gb 4x8 D4 3200 C16 VL

SSD - Inland Professional NVME 1TB

HDD - Seagate Barracuda 2TB

Power Supply - EVGA 650 BQ Bronze

Case - Lian Li Lancool 205

Total - $1,314.79 USD

This wbesite not only has the breakdown of individual parts, and how much they cost, broken down by EVERY possible budget, the builds on this website also make sure that they already fit together fine

Click here