About r/buildapc
In its own words:
Planning on building a computer but need some advice? This is the place to ask! /r/buildapc is a community-driven subreddit dedicated to custom PC assembly. Anyone is welcome to seek the input of our helpful community as they piece together their desktop.
The community was created on Apr 11, 2010, which makes it 16 years old. Since Oct 19, 2026, it has gained 2,767 subscribers (+0.03%). Among the 7 communities on our PC gaming list it is number 2 by size. It sits just behind r/FunnyAnimals (#88) and ahead of r/AnimalsBeingDerps (#90) in our ranking.
What sets r/buildapc apart
Compared with other large communities, r/buildapc leans heavily on text posts (100% of recent posts; the typical Top 100 subreddit sits at 17%). People mostly look and upvote here rather than comment — about 7.3 comments per post, against 16.2 for a typical large subreddit. For its size it is unusually busy: about 23.9 new posts a day per million members, more than 93% of the Top 100. Its rhythm is strongly tied to time zones: the busiest hour (18:00 UTC) sees about 3.0× as many posts as the quietest (05:00 UTC).
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Oct 29, 2026, r/buildapc grew from 8,531,558 to 8,543,941 subscribers (+12.4K, +0.15%). That is about 310 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (8 so far), so it gets longer every week.
Top posts on r/buildapc this week
The most upvoted posts of the past seven days, in the order Reddit ranks them (collected Oct 30, 2026).
- Is it worth trading an RTX 3090 for an RTX 5070Ti?u/PortPeeper · Oct 25 · text post
- Is the RTX 5070 enough? I want to buy a pc that will last me for the next 7-8 yearsu/Medium-Mushroom-6323 · Oct 23 · text post
- DDR4 RAM not fitting in a DDR4 motherboardu/EL-PSY-CONGR00 · Oct 24 · text post
- Moving to Windows: Shut Down or Sleepu/koichi20 · Oct 25 · text post
- 5090 to 5080 downgrade?u/Cythrex · Oct 28 · text post
- Built my first ever PC after 15+ years of console gaming and it was one of the most fun/rewarding things I’ve ever done.u/Sadvillainy-_- · Oct 27 · text post
- how are 9070xt prebuilts way more cheaper than building it myself?u/Dangerous_Panic · Oct 29 · text post
- Which RX 9070 XT model is actually the best? Is the premium over cheaper models worth it, and are magnetic fans more than a gimmick?u/SlideIcy8763 · Oct 23 · text post
- is ram the only issue when a building pc rn?u/Past-Elk-2594 · Oct 28 · text post
- What is the difference between AMD and INTEL when it comes to gaming?u/geekedbacon · Oct 28 · text post
All-time top posts
The highest-ranked posts in the history of r/buildapc, from 2016 to 2025, ranked by Reddit.
- I'm the owner/founder of PCPartPicker. Celebrating 10 years of PCPP + /r/buildapc. AMAu/pcpartpicker · Dec 14, 2020 · text post
- To the guy that advised me to take 64Gb of RAM back in Juneu/skyer954 · Dec 17, 2025 · text post
- Posted about building a Minecraft Gaming System on $300 Budget to build with my son. Redditor gifted a $1350 Build! UNBELIEVABLE!u/Steveofcourse123 · Dec 6, 2017 · 33,784 points · 1,564 comments · text post
- Can we all just take a moment and be thankful for the existence of PCPartPicker?Dec 31, 2016 · 31,066 points · 1,102 comments · text post
- BuildaPC's Net Neutrality Mega-Discussion Threadu/ZeroPaladn · Nov 21, 2017 · 30,231 points · 555 comments · text post
- My brother traded his ps5 for a 3080 with JayzTwoCents for me!u/nito213 · Dec 25, 2020 · text post
- Just built my first ever PC and I've got to sayu/smokingisbadforu · Sep 25, 2020 · text post
- The Verge is issuing copyright claims against other YouTubers who called them out on their ridiculous build a $2000 PC video.Feb 14, 2019 · 20,698 points · 1,062 comments · text post
- Just found out that for about a little over a year now my 144 hertz monitor has been running at 60.u/Vinguin7 · Dec 16, 2020 · text post
- PC Partpicker is by far the greatest tool for building a PCu/thegyptianmagician · Dec 31, 2019 · 19,112 points · 680 comments · text post
What r/buildapc talks about
We read the titles of 690 recent posts (Oct 21–Oct 28), the words that come up most are “help”, “build”, “upgrade”, “gpu” and “cpu”. Other frequent themes are gaming, good, advice, rtx, ram and budget. Recurring phrases include “simple questions”, “questions october”, “cpu upgrade” and “graphics card”. By format, 100% are text posts.
Popular post flairs: Build Help (203), Build Upgrade (168), Discussion (97), Troubleshooting (94), Full Build Req (49), Build Ready? (41).
Activity and best time to post
r/buildapc gets about 200 new posts a day. The public archive holds 3,803,951 posts and 27,861,981 comments in total, about 7.3 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Wednesday (213 posts) and the quietest was Thursday (163). Posting peaks around 18:00 UTC and is lowest around 05:00 UTC.
Rules of r/buildapc
The moderators of r/buildapc list 15 rules. In short:
- Be respectful to others
- No build-spoonfeeding requests
- No piracy or grey-market software keys
- No laptop or prebuilt PC questions
- No submissions about hardware news, rumors, or reviews
- No submissions about sales, deals or unauthorized giveaways
- No submissions about retailer or customer service experiences
- No titles that are all-caps, clickbait, PSAs, pro-tips or contain emoji.
- No submissions that are low-effort, memes, jokes, meta, or hypothetical / dream builds.
- No self-promotion, advertising or surveys
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/buildapc and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How big is r/buildapc?
r/buildapc has 8,543,941 subscribers (Oct 29, 2026), which makes it the #89 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 12,383 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Oct 29, 2026.
How old is r/buildapc?
r/buildapc was created on Apr 11, 2010, so it has been around for 16 years.
How active is r/buildapc?
Very active: r/buildapc gets about 200 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 3,803,951 posts and 27,861,981 comments. In a sample of 690 recent posts we counted 637 different authors.
When is r/buildapc most active?
Based on post counts from Oct 21, 2026 to Oct 27, 2026, the busiest day was Wednesday and the quietest Thursday, and most posts arrive around 18:00 UTC, with the fewest around 05:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What is r/buildapc about?
The community describes itself as: “Planning on building a computer but need some advice? This is the place to ask! /r/buildapc is a community-driven subreddit dedicated to custom PC assembly. Anyone is welcome to seek the input of our helpful community a…” Recent post titles often mention help, build, upgrade, gpu and cpu. Most posts are text posts (100%).
Is r/buildapc safe for work?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/buildapc as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
How do I post on r/buildapc?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/buildapc accepts text posts only, with galleries enabled. It has 15 posted rules, starting with: “Be respectful to others”; “No build-spoonfeeding requests”; “No piracy or grey-market software keys”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
Which communities are like r/buildapc?
Communities with similar topics include r/pcmasterrace (16.4M), r/AskReddit (60M), r/compsci (4M), r/facepalm (8.1M) and r/personalfinance (21.9M).
Stats from public data (data updated Oct 29, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Oct 29, 2026; top posts from Reddit’s public feeds). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/buildapc.