PC Workshop
A student builds a real computer: picks the parts to a budget, puts them together by hand on a 3D bench, presses the power button, and finds out whether it boots. The demo starts with every part picked, so the building starts right away. Free, in the browser, no account needed to try it.
Using this with a class? Make a free class and add your students yourself: each gets a username and password, with no email or Google account needed. Or give them one join code. Using Google Classroom? Post the link there; with a free class, the link also puts each student in your class, so you see their work. mytekDev is also available from the Google Workspace Marketplace, so your school's Google admin can install it for everyone.A first lesson: Everyone gets the same job and budget, builds and benchmarks a machine, then the class compares scores and argues about where the money went.
Set up a free class Share to Google ClassroomWhat a student actually does
They start with a job and a budget: a gaming PC for $800, a creator workstation, a home server. Then they choose about eight parts from roughly a hundred real, named products. Every pick changes the money left, the watts drawn, and the estimated score, and a part that cannot work with what is already chosen explains the problem instead of just refusing.
Then they build it, by hand, on a 3D bench: seat the CPU, spread the thermal paste, tighten the cooler, click in the memory, fit the drive and the graphics card, route the power cables, plug in the monitor, and flip the switch. The machine either boots or it does not, and if it does not, the beeps and four debug lights say where to look. A machine that boots gets benchmarked, heat and all, and a cooler that cannot keep up costs real performance.
The first boot is not the end. The machine moves off the bench and into a case, where airflow starts to matter and a build with no fans runs hotter than it did in the open. After that the student can open the BIOS, overclock an unlocked chip, install an operating system onto the drive they fitted, pull a part and upgrade it, or build a rack server and run it in System Design Lab.
A student with ten minutes can repair a computer in place of building one. Fourteen computers wait on a shelf, each with one problem and a line from its owner: the screen stays black, it beeps three times, it is slow after ten minutes of a game. The student reads the lights, finds the cause, and repairs it. There are no points. When the repair is correct, the app explains the problem and the reason for the symptom.
Pick a CPU and the parts that cannot work with it say so, and say why. Here it is the socket: the pins on an AMD chip do not fit an Intel board. Further down the list, the app flags a board with the right socket but the wrong generation of memory, a mistake real builders make.
Everything in it
The first build uses a small part of this. The rest is there when a student comes back for a second machine.
Parts and money
- About a hundred real, named parts: CPUs, boards, memory, graphics cards, drives, power supplies, coolers, cases and fans, with new parts added in dated releases
- Compatibility checked on every pick, with the reason written out
- A budget, a running total and a power draw that update as parts are chosen
- Prices that move: weekly deals, CPU and board bundles, and sale seasons
Building
- A 3D bench that works with a mouse or a trackpad
- Thermal paste, cooler screws, memory slots and every power cable done by hand
- A case stage with standoffs, the I/O shield, the front-panel lead and case fans
- Tower, small form factor and 4U rack cases
- Take any fitted part out by hand, or change a part, without starting over
Cooling
- Air coolers from low-profile to large towers
- All-in-one liquid coolers with 240, 280 and 360 mm radiators
- Case fans in 92, 120 and 140 mm. A fan can be mounted backwards by mistake
- Temperatures that depend on the cooler, the case and the fans
Booting and fixing
- A power-on self test that fails the way a real board does
- Beep codes and CPU, DRAM, VGA and BOOT debug lights
- A BIOS setup screen with boot order and port settings
- Firmware: a new CPU on an older motherboard does not start until the firmware is updated
- A memory profile setting (XMP or EXPO) and a boot order that decides how fast the computer starts
- Overclocking: raise the clock speed and the voltage, and see the extra heat and power draw
- Repairs: fourteen computers that another person built, each with one problem to find and fix
Benchmarks
- Four jobs to benchmark for: gaming, esports, creator and home server
- A score for what the parts can do and a score for what the machine holds once it is hot
- Leaderboards by what the build cost, for the class and for everyone
- Points per $100, so a cheap build can beat an expensive one
After the build
- Install a simulated operating system: a Linux-style system, MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, 98 or XP
- Partition and format the drive first, including the 2 GB limit old systems had
- Server parts: Xeon and EPYC chips, error-correcting memory, server boards and drives
- Rack the finished machine in System Design Lab and run real services on it
What they are learning while they play
Nothing here is presented as a lesson. This is what the activity is made of.
| What the student does | What it is |
|---|---|
| Matches a motherboard to the CPU | Compatibility and standards. Sockets, board sizes, memory generations. Parts only fit together because companies agreed on the same shapes. |
| Adds up the watts and picks a power supply | Power budgets. Every part draws power under load. A supply running past 95 percent of its rating shuts off, so it needs headroom. |
| Spends a fixed budget across eight parts | Tradeoffs. Money on the graphics card is money not spent on the processor. The score shows which choice paid off. |
| Puts two memory sticks in the wrong slots | Following a procedure. It still boots, but in single channel, and the benchmark shows the memory slowing everything down. |
| Tightens the cooler and watches the temperatures | Heat and throttling. A chip that gets too hot slows itself down to survive. Cooling is part of performance, not an extra. |
| Presses power and gets three beeps | Diagnosing faults. Three beeps and the DRAM light mean the memory. The CPU, DRAM, VGA and BOOT lights narrow a problem down the way a technician's checklist does. |
| Finds the part holding the score back | Bottlenecks. A system is only as fast as its slowest part for the job at hand, and the job changes which part that is. |
| Notices memory prices jumped this week | Supply and demand. Prices move with a market that changes over time, and the app explains why a price went up. |
| Moves the machine into a case and adds fans | Airflow. The same parts run hotter in a closed box. Fans that pull cool air in and push warm air out recover the score that the case reduced. |
| Raises the CPU clock in the BIOS | Overclocking. More speed needs more voltage, and both make heat. If the cooler cannot remove that heat, the score is lower than before, or the benchmark crashes. |
| Partitions a drive and installs an operating system | Storage and boot order. A drive has to be partitioned and formatted before anything can live on it, and the machine has to be told which drive to start from. |
| Racks the machine as a server | Hardware under software. The server in System Design Lab has the cores, memory and drives the student chose, and two servers on one machine share its speed. |
| Repairs a computer that another person built | Troubleshooting. Start from the symptom, collect evidence, and find one cause. This is the method a technician uses, and it works for any system. |
| Fits a new CPU in an older motherboard | Firmware. The CPU fits the socket, and the board does not start it. The board was made before that CPU existed, and its firmware must be updated first. |
How to tell whether it landed
Ask, and let them show you. A student who has understood it can answer these without help.
- Why will that motherboard not work with your CPU?
- How many watts does your build draw under load, and why is your power supply rated higher than that?
- Which two slots should two sticks of memory go in, and what happens if they go in the wrong ones?
- Your benchmark says it throttled. What would you change?
- Your score dropped when the machine went into the case. Nothing else changed. Why?
- You get another $200. Where do you spend it for the biggest jump in score, and why there?
Use it in your subject
Not a technology class? Then the app is how students show what they learned in your unit. More projects for every subject.
Math
Eight hundred dollars for a gaming computer. Students work out what percentage of the budget each part takes and defend where the money went.
Practical notes
- AgesAges 10 through high school. Younger students enjoy the building; older ones chase benchmark scores on a budget and can explain every part.
- TimeA first build takes thirty to forty-five minutes, parts to benchmark. Later builds go much faster. Overclocking, installing an operating system and racking a server are each a session of their own.
- EquipmentAny computer or Chromebook with a modern browser and a mouse or trackpad. Nothing to install.
- CostFree. The app has no paid tier, and nothing is bought with real money.
- PrepNone. Open the page and go. Reading this page first takes about four minutes.
- In a groupBuilds are compared on leaderboards grouped by what they cost, so an $800 machine competes with other $800 machines.
For co-ops, microschools, and classrooms
Give the whole room the same job and the same budget, and the argument starts on its own. Two students spend $800 and get very different scores, and the build reports show exactly where the money went. The leaderboard groups builds by what they cost, so the question is never who spent the most, it is who spent it best.
- Class leaderboards by budget bracket: under $600, $800, $1200, $2000, and open.
- No install, no lab setup, no per-seat license. Chromebooks are fine.
- A free teacher account covers up to 50 students.
- Student work is private by default. Sharing anything publicly is a separate, deliberate action.
Common questions
Is PC Workshop free?
Yes. The app runs in your browser and there is no paid tier of it. A free account adds saving, the leaderboards, and sharing, but nothing on this page is behind a paywall.
Is this the PC Building Simulator game from Steam?
No. PC Building Simulator and PC Building Simulator 2 are separate commercial games, and PC Workshop has no connection to them. PC Workshop is free and runs in a web browser, so it also works on school Chromebooks, where Steam games cannot be installed.
Is there a guide or a lesson plan?
Yes, and both are free to read. The user guide explains every step of a build, and the teaching notes give a three-session plan with the problems students meet most often. Both pages are written in plain English so that a browser can translate them.
Does my child need an account to try it?
No. The demo on this page is the complete app, and it keeps your build inside the browser tab. Make a free account and the parts you picked come with you as your first project.
How long does a student need?
A repair takes 5 to 10 minutes. A first build takes 30 to 45 minutes. Both are in the demo on this page, with no account.
How realistic is it?
The parts are real products with real names, and the build steps follow how the work is really done, down to which memory slots to use and tightening cooler screws corner to corner. The specs and prices are simplified for teaching, so treat it as a place to learn how a computer fits together, not as a shopping guide.
Does it have overclocking and liquid cooling?
Yes to both. An unlocked CPU on a board that supports it can be overclocked from the BIOS, and the extra heat and power draw are part of the benchmark. All-in-one liquid coolers with 240, 280 and 360 mm radiators are in the catalog. Custom water loops are not.
What can a student do after the first build?
Put the machine in a case and tune its airflow, upgrade a part, overclock it, install an operating system, or build for a different job and compare scores. A student with a free account can also rack the machine in System Design Lab, where it becomes a server they log into from a terminal.
How does PC Workshop connect to System Design Lab?
A machine that has been built, put in its case, benchmarked and saved shows up in System Design Lab as hardware to create a server on. The server reports the real core count, memory and drives of that build, and its speed comes from the benchmark score. Put two servers on the same machine and they split that speed between them. Making it faster means going back to PC Workshop and upgrading the hardware.
What ages is PC Workshop for?
Ages 10 through high school. Younger students enjoy the hands-on building. Older ones work to a budget, read the benchmark, and can explain why each part was chosen.
Does it install anything, and will it work on a Chromebook?
It installs nothing and runs in any modern browser, Chromebooks included. The build bench is 3D and works with a mouse or a trackpad.
What subject can I log this as?
Most families log it as computer science or technology. Picking parts to a budget is also consumer math, and heat and power are physical science. The table above lists specifically what is covered, so you can pick the label your records need and point at the evidence.
Is my child's work public?
No. Projects are private by default. Publishing to the public gallery is a separate action a student has to take, and public listings mask the display names of younger students.
Still have a question? Ask us, and a person will write back.
Where to go next
Badge kits and learning kits
Step-by-step projects in PC Workshop that end with a certificate: for a scout badge, or for homeschool families and classes.
- How computers work and stay safe: Girl Scouts Daisy Cybersecurity 1: Basics badge, or the learning kit for grades K-1
Lesson plans
2 ready-to-teach class periods with a teacher plan, a student worksheet, an exit ticket with answers, and the standards it meets.
Start with PC Workshop
Trying it costs nothing and takes about five minutes. An account is what makes the work last.
PC Workshop is one of the making apps on the platform. It uses real product names with specs simplified for teaching. It is a place to make things, not a course, and it is not a substitute for a teacher: it is at its best when an adult asks the questions above and takes the answers seriously.
Page last reviewed November 2026.
Google, Google Classroom and Chromebook are trademarks of Google LLC.