I had been building machines a lot previously, but then I got to the point where it became too expensive. The only way to build a good machine and save money is to wait when everything is on sale - otherwise your bill will be pretty much the same as pre-build machines in reputable computer stores - but with much wonkier warranty… so in fact I do suggest to go and see what a good computer store has (and I don’t mean best buy, but a store that sells components but also build their own setups - for example here in canada we have Canada computers)
As for AMD and intel - i was exclusively Intel guy i5, i7, can’t find anything bad to say, but for less money I tried the AMD Ryzen last year or so - my daughters gaming computer was dying. I’ve got good price on the Ryzen 5 - was about half price of similar intel so why not to try… after the build, I was really impressed… simple setup, runs fast and cool - no complains from my daughter and I saved some dough. So the Ryzen got there with the big boys for sure. The old AMD A6, A8 etc were all under-powered and had so many hiccups…and needed lots cooling but the Ryzen put AMD back on the map.