What you need to know
- Newegg's PC Builder ChatGPT plugin seeks to help you plan a PC build based on text prompts you provide.
- This AI assistance needs to be refined, but the plugin shows promise for helping PC building beginners and veterans alike.
- The Newegg PC Builder ChatGPT plugin is currently in beta and only available to ChatGPT Plus members.
Ever since ChatGPT launched last year and opened our eyes to the next level of realistic possibilities in AI assistance, companies have been creating plugins to use with the chatbot. Newegg is one of the latest to join these ranks with its PC Builder ChatGPT plugin, which is designed around helping people plan a PC build based on parameters set in text prompts.
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For instance, with Newegg's plugin you can tell ChatGPT that you want help building a gaming PC under $1,500 and it will list out all of the parts needed to do so. However, this plugin doesn't always stay within budget. Additionally, the plugin needs refining since it doesn't always suggest the best-priced optionsfor the best CPUs and best GPUs. This means that anyone using it needs to double-check prices to see if there are better deals available for the same components.
What's more, as Francisco Pires of Tom's Hardware pointed out, the PC builds that the AI suggests might look good initially, but some of the specific component choices can be questionable.
As of right now, this plugin is in beta and only available to those paying for a ChatGPT Plus membership. For those interested, Newegg has a helpful page explaining how to add the Newegg PC Builder plugin to your ChatGPT Plus account.
Windows Central's take
This kind of AI assistance in various fields will undoubtedly be the norm in the not-too-distant future. What we're seeing now is simply laying the groundwork for that tomorrow, kind of like what many of us saw when the internet really blossomed into being in the 90s. Remember how wonky, clunky, and unorganized that was? Yet look at where the internet is today. It's still wonky, clunky, and unorganized but there are more rules to it and many people know better not to just take anything they read online as fact, but to do their own research too.
Putting together a workable PC build can be a very daunting task for beginners. Hell, even people with experience doing it know that finding suitable parts that work together and provide the exact abilities they want can be a challenge. So having tools that can help folks plan out their PC builds is a very exciting thought. The processes just needs to be refined. If not by Newegg, then another, more convenient option will evolve into being eventually.
Of course, there are already some really helpful PC-building assistants out there. I personally prefer to use PCPartPicker as it helps me know which components will work well together and keeps track of everything I have and haven't acquired yet. However, even then I don't just accept the top choices that the site suggests. I make sure to research each component, weigh its pros and cons, and try to determine if there are better options out there before simply choosing one. This is the way to proceed going forward, even as AI assistance becomes more useful. You'll always be better served if you take the time to do some work for yourself, but an AI assistant can help you in that process.
