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Can AI replace a human for complex tasks like building a custom computer? We tasked ChatGPT and Google Gemini with creating three distinct PC builds for a beginner. Watch as we analyze their recommendations, spot their mistakes, and decide if AI is ready to be your tech support.
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00:00I bought the PC gaming rig of my dreams and it was all planned by AI.
00:04AI has levelled up in the past few years, offering new use cases and agentic experiences that take
00:09search to new heights. But can it beat the experts when it comes to making complex buying decisions?
00:14Last year we used AI to plan our vacation and now we're back, pitting the two biggest AI
00:19platforms against each other to help me build the gaming rig of my dreams.
00:22So strap in because I'm joined by TechRadar's resident computing expert Matt Hanson
00:27to find out if ChatGPT and Gemini can navigate challenging supply chain issues,
00:32provide accurate information and help me build the rig of my dreams as a first-time PC builder.
00:40So Matt, we're recording this in the midst of years-long disruption in the PC market. So
00:45what's the landscape now versus say three years ago? Well it's both better and worse. It's a bit
00:51of a funny one. Three years ago we were coming out of a global pandemic and that's led to chip
00:56shortages. There was also a big boom in cryptocurrency mining which put a lot of pressure on GPUs.
01:03That was really difficult. That's subsided a bit now, but we've now had an issue where the
01:09boom in AI is taking a lot of memory-based products such as RAM and storage and making that very
01:17scarce.
01:18And that has meant that those components have really risen in price. Building a PC has become
01:22quite expensive again, but for different reasons.
01:29With my burning questions answered, Matt and I sat down to ask our AI companions for their top tips.
01:34You can read my full prompt in the description box below, but the long and short is that I instructed
01:38both agents to act as a computer technician supporting a first-time PC builder. That means
01:43providing real-time and market-aware recommendations to the user, balancing their target budget with
01:48performance needs, personal preferences and compatibility, and surveying the user to build
01:53three PC options. ChatGPT dove straight into its fact-finding mission, asking a wide range of
01:59questions to help inform its recommendations. In places these were a little more technical than a
02:03true newbie might be prepared for, but overall the queries were pretty easy to follow. But ChatGPT did
02:08go harder on some of those technical terms that I found quite hard to follow myself.
02:12Yes, I think that was the thing I was a bit worried about. If you're a beginner, you want clear
02:17advice,
02:19that's what I do when I'm giving people advice on TechRadar or just in day-to-day about building PCs.
02:25Skip the jargon, it doesn't impress people, it just confuses. Don't get caught up in that.
02:30Meanwhile, Gemini asked far fewer questions and padded out much of its response by acting as
02:35a hype man that I hadn't asked for.
02:38The questions covered most bases though and felt much more suitable for a first-timer.
02:43So it's asked me here which games I play most and it suggested GTA 6 is an option. Not already
02:49out.
02:49No, not yet, sadly.
02:51And not coming to the PC for probably another year after launch on consoles, so great start.
02:56And then here it said, building a PC in 2026 is an absolute treat. We've finally moved past
03:03the supply chain chaos. We've moved past it back. There's no RAM crisis.
03:07Thank you for that. We're free.
03:08Yeah, kind of right. We have moved past those particular supply chain issues,
03:13but there are new supply chain issues which are causing problems.
03:17I told both chatbots similar information, though naturally ChatGPT got more out of me with its
03:22broader range of questions. I want a gaming PC that can handle AAA games with some degree of future
03:27proofing. And I'd like next-gen features like ray tracing and DLSS, but I'm not motivated by them.
03:32And I want it to blend seamlessly with my industrial loft-inspired home decor.
03:36All of this, with a budget of $2,000 to $2,300 or £1,500 to £1,700 in the
03:43UK,
03:43is a pretty challenging ask in today's market even for a human being.
03:46I'll also link my responses in the description box below so you can read my needs in full.
03:50So with all that in mind, as well as the current state of play in Agenta KI,
03:54what do you think that ChatGPT and Gemini might face as obstacles in this?
03:58I think a big part of it will be what kind of information they use. If they're looking back
04:05six months to a year, if they're using information from then, they're going to be giving incorrect
04:10prices. And I know that building a PC under budget is a really important thing. If they get the price
04:16of RAM wrong, that could throw your whole build out of whack. So I think that's a big concern. I've
04:21always
04:22been concerned with like hallucinations. They come up with something which doesn't exist. And they
04:27say it with so much professionalism and so much like enthusiasm and confidence that you believe
04:33that it exists, but it doesn't actually exist. Building a PC, you need to make sure all the bits
04:39and pieces are compatible. That could be their strong point because they're just machines looking
04:43at the specs and that could be really good. Or if that hallucination comes into play,
04:48I don't want them recommending a product to go in another product and then not work together.
04:53All right, well, let's find out how they do then.
04:59Both ChatBots came back with their recommendations, which you can see on screen here,
05:03or check out via the link in the description. But there certainly were some quirks to their responses.
05:08So the motherboard, it suggested the MSI B650. Is that going to work for us with this build?
05:15It's a slightly older motherboard. It has PCIe4 slots. So if you were to get the very latest graphics
05:23cards, they benefit from PCIe5, which is slightly faster bandwidth. It's not the end of the world,
05:29and it will help save money. But I think that's something that's worth paying attention to. And I see
05:35also they say solid VRMs for the Ryzen 7. That's just jargon, really. I don't think that you really
05:42need to know what that is. And it's a bit weird because if you're trying to use this as a
05:47beginner,
05:47you don't want jargon. So then throwing stuff out like that isn't ideal.
05:51Obviously, as we come to RAM here, we're seeing our first instance of where that outdated information
05:55you mentioned earlier comes in because it's quoting £105 for 32 gigabytes of RAM. Do you have an
06:02estimate of where you think it probably sits right now? That particular RAM would probably be
06:06about four or five times more expensive. Yeah, it's I mean, if you could get 32 gigabytes of DDR5
06:13RAM for £105, $100, you'd be very lucky these days, which is a real shame because RAM used to be
06:20one
06:20of the more affordable components. Right. Not at the moment. Not anymore. Not anymore.
06:23For gaming, anything like that, you'll want an aftermarket cooler. So I'm a bit concerned that
06:28they didn't mention a cooler at all because also some CPUs won't come with a cooler. Yeah.
06:35And you do not want to be running a CPU without a cooler at action. It's recommending us that we
06:39go
06:40with the first option, which is called the Loft Specialist. It said the Fractal North is a dream to
06:46build in. It is a bit funny when it comes in with this like first hand-esque experience, right? It
06:51talks like it's done it.
06:53Where is it getting the information that it's a dream to build in? It might be there's probably like a
06:58review online, maybe a customer said that, but it's kind of pitching it as its own thing, which
07:03strikes me as being a bit inauthentic. Yeah.
07:10So here's an example of what I was just talking about there. It's a bit technical, right? It's talking
07:16about the AMD Radeon RX 1970 XT, which is a very good GPU for gaming. But one of the things
07:23it says
07:24is that it's clearly ahead of the RTX 5070 from Nvidia in raster performance. And that's, again,
07:31I think that's just jargon. You don't really need to know about that when you're building a sort of
07:37mid-range PC. And then looking at the actual builds it's given here, so it's recommended an AMD
07:43Ryzen 5 7600. Yeah, that's not a bad shout for keeping the price down. It's getting on a bit
07:49as a CPU, so I wouldn't go any older than that. Interestingly, for this third build, it's
07:55recommended us to use a used or refurbished RTX 4070 Ti. What would you say to that? Yeah, that's a
08:02tricky one because using refurbished secondhand tech is a really good way of keeping the money down. It's
08:10also better for the environment. However, a secondhand GPU is a bit of a risk because the RTX 4000 series
08:19came out at the height of that cryptocurrency boom I was talking about. Of course. So a lot of
08:24secondhand GPUs of that age will likely have been used for mining. And that takes a huge strain on
08:31the hardware and shortens their lifespan. You know, it's not a dreadful idea. It could save you some
08:37money. And the 4070 Ti Super is an excellent GPU still. If you don't know the history of the card,
08:44you don't know what condition it will be in. Approach of caution, I think, with that kind of
08:48recommendation. Oh, and then again, best if you emotionally value Nvidia features more than you
08:53value raw price or performance. Yes, you shouldn't emotionally value Nvidia features.
08:57Sony is like a beginner as well. Maybe if you were talking to a PC gamer who's done it for
09:03ages,
09:04they might have almost like a tribalistic kind of love of Nvidia versus AMD. You're not going to have
09:09that as a beginner. So it's just another weird kind of like tonal whiplash. And again, not really giving
09:16you the context information that you need as a beginner, right? Yeah, because there are some very
09:20good reasons why you would rather have Nvidia features because unfortunately for AMD fans,
09:26I have to say, I think the DLSS upscaling tech is a lot better for Nvidia compared to AMD's version,
09:34multi-frame gen as well. So there's some nice features from the Nvidia side that you could want
09:40to have with your PC. And it's nothing to do with emotions. It's all about just what gives you the
09:45best possible experience for the best price. Now, what do you make of ChatGPT's recommendations
09:52overall? Yeah, so it's not bad, not bad sort of selection at all, really. I think, you know,
09:59we pointed out the 32 gigabytes of DDR5 RAM, that's about what I would go for as a minimum these
10:06days for
10:06a gaming PC, but that's going to cost a lot. But yeah, AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is a good CPU,
10:14though slightly
10:15older these days. GPU, I think is a good sort of balance between performance and price, you know,
10:21solid. And then what about Gemini's? Gemini's? Yeah, so it's got a more modern, more powerful,
10:26recommending an AMD Ryzen 7 9700X, which is a core. Interestingly, it suggests an Nvidia RTX 5070
10:35at 12 gigabytes of VRAM, and actually the 5070 Ti, which is slightly more powerful, more VRAM,
10:44a bit more expensive, but that will give you a longer sort of future proofing, because that
10:51additional memory is much better for 4K gaming. So it's not bad as well, it sort of recommends the
10:58same amount of RAM, two terabytes of storage. I do find it interesting that both have recommended the
11:05same case as well. Obviously, I went for a very specific aesthetic, I went for industrial loft,
11:11because it will fit in nicely. I mean, I think that's the best choice. Yeah, fractal design are,
11:16yeah, they do some very nice, very stylish PC cases. So I'm not too surprised they both recommended
11:22that. And I think that was quite good that they sort of identified the look you were going for,
11:27and came up with a good suggestion for the product. And I think Gemini, it was, asked me about the
11:32RGB preferences as well, which is nice, because I didn't necessarily want something that's lovely
11:39and slick to be completely ruined by RGB, as much as I love it. You're going to get some RGB
11:44though,
11:45if this is a gaming PC, you're going to get a bit of RGB in there. But yeah, it was
11:50good to ask you
11:51that because some people love it. And some people, yeah, find it a complete turnoff.
11:58Ultimately, we went with the top picks from both chatbots. And with my build selected,
12:02it was time to send the chatbots on their way to find me the best prices for my components.
12:07Gemini immediately identified a possible improvement to its own build by upgrading to the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti
12:14to further future proof my machine. A useful tip, yes, but somewhat undermined by the fact that when I
12:19asked it to fetch me purchasing links and real-time cost estimates, it kept changing the configuration
12:24of my PC, after it realised that it couldn't fit the original brief. After some course correction,
12:29it told me the lower end machine would set me back by around £1409, while the bigger build would
12:35land in around £1684. ChatGPT, on the other hand, also did some rejigging once I'd prompted it to help
12:41me find a cooler, because it had forgotten to do so earlier. And even then it suggested holding fire
12:45on my order until prices stabilise. Its final total was £1765.
12:54For the first round, ChatGPT took a slight lead.
12:57I did like that it asked lots of questions. Yeah, that was good, you know, because you do want that
13:01back and forth a bit. Better tailor, you know, the build that you're after.
13:05In terms of the shoppable experience, it was a clear win for ChatGPT.
13:09The purchasing links all worked for one thing from ChatGPT, which was good. Although I was able to find
13:14some better prices elsewhere, and I think that's also where the human element comes in quite nicely.
13:19These AI chatbots are not quite as good at scanning for real-time prices as sites that do that all
13:26the time, like TechRadar. I actually found a couple of those components for cheaper myself, which was
13:30good. Gemini's links though, that was bad. Really? That was a real mess. I'm surprised, seeing as it's
13:36Google behind it, you know, I would have thought their links would have been pretty, pretty good.
13:40One of them took me to a toupee. Oh, really? Oh. Yeah, I don't understand why. I can't figure
13:46out why. I did try and point out the issues to Gemini, but it just kept changing my build instead,
13:51because it couldn't find the things that it was saying that it could find me at those price points,
13:55I think. I think the frustration I had there was that it wasn't able at that first juncture to do
14:00some
14:01the market research that I wanted it to do about pricing. So it did the recommendations first,
14:05and then worried about the rest of my needs like budget later. A bit frustrating.
14:09And as soon as they start linking to the wrong product, confidence in their recommendations just
14:14plummets. And then, because it's funny that it sends you to a toupee, so if they send you
14:18to the wrong processor, you might not realise that. It might be a slightly older one, different connectors
14:26or whatever. That's a bit more dangerous, at least if it had been something outlandish like a wig,
14:30you'd be like, oh, okay, I know that's wrong. But if it's a processor based on a different model,
14:35suddenly you might have a completely broken build. Especially with all of the access that Google
14:40has to shoppable links. Yeah, that's really surprising. I would have thought they would
14:44have really sort of like leaned into that. And was it Gemini which suggested that RAM was 100 and...
14:50Yes, it was. I think they both did suggest that it was going to come in around that level before
14:54we
14:54asked them to do pricing links, interestingly. Right, okay. Although ChatGPT was in the end closer by
15:00a long stretch with its pricing estimates. So Gemini quoted a total price of £1,409.68 for its build.
15:08But by the end, once it actually found the right links and looked into things, it was £1,725.
15:15And even then, I'm not entirely convinced some of those parts were actually on sale.
15:21Its bigger build using the TI was quoted at £1,684, but that would have actually come out at £2
15:27,189.
15:29That's a big difference. Very off. ChatGPT, on the other hand, super accurate. It estimated a total cost
15:35of £1,765, but there were some live offers on the links that it had sent me, which meant that
15:41it
15:41actually came down to less at £1,752. So a £13 difference in the overall estimation. Pretty good for ChatGPT.
15:50Especially with such a budget orientated build, the fact that Gemini's predictions were so off,
15:57it's kind of a deal breaker really, I think, because you've set a budget and it says, hey,
16:02you can build this brilliant PC for this amount, and on paper it looks like a great PC, but then
16:08all of a sudden you're spending £500, £600 more. That's just not going to be any good for most people.
16:14So I do like the fact that ChatGPT was pretty close to its original budget. Yeah, and I think
16:20still couldn't get some of those live offer things we were talking about earlier, still can't find you
16:24the best prices available, but it can find you that ballpark figure. Overall, we decided the best build
16:30was ChatGPT's. I do think ChatGPT's probably more on the money with what you're after, I think.
16:36That will be closer to your budget. I think the Nvidia one, which Gemini suggested, will be harder to come
16:42under budget just because it's got quite ambitious components on there. If you're a beginner,
16:48you're absolutely beholden to these AI suggestions, if this is what you're using it for. You want to
16:54have confidence that it's giving you the best advice, and I think Gemini hasn't quite nailed that.
17:02I think overall, ChatGPT felt more accurate and on brief throughout, and it knew from the beginning of
17:09this process that I was not going to be able to stick to a £1,500 budget, and it was
17:13going to
17:13need to stretch to £1,700, and it let me know that early on, which I like. I think that
17:17was good.
17:21So Matt, we've seen the four responses. How reliable would you say AI is as a stand-in computer
17:27technician? It was very good at researching, so bringing together the components. I didn't spot any
17:34sort of big incompatibility issues, which is probably one of the biggest concerns for beginners. So I
17:41thought that was good. I didn't like the fact that it didn't really take into account current market
17:46conditions. They both gave the wrong kind of ballpark price for RAM. A human would probably should know
17:53that the current market conditions mean you can't get RAM for around that price at the moment, and that
17:58affects then the entire budget. I wasn't a massive fan of the jargon use. I think for a quick way
18:06of
18:06putting together some compatible components, very good, I think it's still lacking on the human touch.
18:15Yeah, I don't think I would have felt as confident as I felt going through this process if I hadn't
18:18had you to double-check everything for me, which you spent a lot of time doing, so thank you for
18:24that.
18:25So that's our expert's opinion on the experiment, but what do you make of ChatGPT
18:28and Gemini's recommendations? Let us know in the comments down below, and make sure you hit the
18:33subscribe button so you don't miss the next episode, where we'll follow instructions on
18:36how to build the PC from our winning AI, ChatGPT.
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