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General discussion (archive)How to start building a gaming PC?(54 posts)(54 posts)
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Posted March 10, 2012
I still don't yet have the money to invest in a decent gaming rig... but I will eventually, and "eventually" is getting closer and closer. So it's time to start learning. Does anyone have any tips on getting started, what to look for or be aware of, or good articles to read?
Posted March 10, 2012
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/how_build_kick-ass_gaming_rig_under_700

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/can_you_build_2560_x_1600_gaming_rig_without_breaking_bank_we_find_out

Just some ideas to kick around.
Posted March 10, 2012
Those are good starting points.

One thing to note is that the ongoing chaos in the mechanical hard drive market (last November's floods in Thailand wiped out a lot of production) makes SSDs a better deal than they used to be, and HDDs much worse. For those with the money to do so, I'd now consider going with two SSDs for the OS, user folders, and applications you use a lot, and a damned big "green" HDD for deep storage.

Their recommendations for Intel CPUs are, sadly, spot on. For a low-cost build, the Core i3 is a better choice than competitively priced AMD silicon, and the Core i5 has no competition at the high end of gaming. AMD is trying, but they still didn't catch up to Intel in the last generation of CPUs, and Ivy Bridge is going to widen the gap.

Gigabyte doesn't have their act together in UEFI yet. They still have a regular BIOS with bits and pieces of UEFI support. ASUS (and their second label ASRock) and MSI have the lead in motherboards until Gigabyte gets it together.

And a Rosewill power supply? Junk. DOA, component damage, fire hazard junk.
Posted March 11, 2012
I'd actually suggest holding back about getting SSD hard drives. They are still an emerging technology and prices are steep for what you get ( SSD 64GB $130 vs SATA 1TB WD Caviar Blue $108/Caviar Black $139 -- admittedly higher than normal pricing normally $65/75 AUD..this all in AUD)
Posted March 11, 2012
Imho, the first step is to assess your needs and constraints :

- budget constraint
- gaming pc means a good graphic card. But do you need a medium upper range GPU or something more powerful ?
- do you want to be able to use dual graphic cards solutions in the future ?
- how much physical space do you have. Will you go for a large case or do you have to do with a small one ( chosing a good case is important . It's the first step towards effective heat management and conditions how easy the build/ upgrades will be ) ? Will you go for a 21", 23" or larger monitor ?
- will you opt for a pre-built system ?

Then make a list of the components. If you can afford it, the best all-rounder CPU is an I5 2500 k. It's more than powerful enough for gaming. Of course, you may want to treat yourselve with an i7, but only if this doesn't mean cutting on the GPU , RAM, HDD etc...

Don't cut on the amount of RAM. Go for 8 gb or even 16 gb. You don't need the most expensive ram though.

Be careful about anything looking "hype". One of the favourite tricks of the industry is to add an attribute that do very little to an otherwise standard product, and charge you a premium for that.
Posted March 11, 2012
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Phc7006: Don't cut on the amount of RAM. Go for 8 gb or even 16 gb. You don't need the most expensive ram though.
Unless he's developing / compiling something very big and using multiple virtual machines at the same time, 16GB of RAM is just useless.

Most games are still 32-bit only, so they can use a maximum of ~2GB memory. So unless he's running a dozen Crysis 64-bit games at the same time, for several hours without turning them off, again, for gaming, 16GB is useless.
Posted March 11, 2012
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Phc7006: Will you go for a 21", 23" or larger monitor ?
That's the most important question. If you want a monitor with 1920x1080px, you'll need a powerful graphic card.

Just to make clear how important the resolution of the monitor is: I have a 21" tv monitor-hybrid with a resolution of 1360x768, a GeForce 9600 GT (4 years old mainstream card!), an Intel DualCore E5300 @2,6 GHz and 2 GB RAM. That's an over 3 years old 500 Euro system. I'm running Skyrim (the most recent game I have) without problems. I have maxed out the graphic options and can even add 4xAA and 8xAF. The framerate is around 30fps. Sometimes it drops to 20fps (in some places of some cities), but that's because my CPU is crap and can't handle too many shadows at the same time. If I go down with shadow quality, I don't have those drops.

I'm thinking about a new system as well and want to spend something around 500 Euro (excluding Windows 7) again. I think I'll buy a Phenom II X4 965 BE and a HD 6870. That's 300 Euro, more or less. 200 Euro should be enough for 4 GB RAM, mainboard, power supply and case.
Posted March 11, 2012
I'll just put some nice links here.....

http://lifehacker.com/5840963/the-best-pcs-you-can-build-for-600-and-1200
http://lifehacker.com/5828747/how-to-build-a-computer-from-scratch-the-complete-guide
http://www.techspot.com/guides/buying/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/01/20/which-cpu-to-buy/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/07/hard-choices-graphics-cards/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/21/hard-choices-8-things-you-should-know-about-monitors/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/22/hard-choices-the-only-4-monitors-you-should-buy/

Also: buy and read Upgrading and Repairing PCs by Scott Mueller. Why? Because yes :-P
Posted March 11, 2012
Well, the first thing to note is that I'm a pretty long ways from picky about how my games look. Simply being able to run them is what's important. Looking pretty is an added (and pretty desired) bonus. That being said, I get the feeling that trying to scrape by with the minimum is just going to shoot me in the foot. Yes, maybe I can build something for cheap that will run current gen games decently... but what about a few years down the line? So in other words, I'm looking for something that's respectable and will be able to run current games for a few years, but I'm not looking to build the ultimate gaming rig. So my current monitor is probably going to be fine (1920x1200 max), and having to turn down the resolution to get something like Battlefield 3 to run is probably fine (although that seems like it wouldn't bode well for future game prospects).

Budget-wise, I'm basically trying to determine how much I'd need to spend for a system like this. The one article seems to imply that $700 could get me a fairly good system. Again, not looking for a monster. Not even something that will turn heads. Just looking for something that will work and won't be outdated in the next year :P.

Would I be happy with a pre-built system? Heck yes. The only reason I wasn't considering that was because I assumed that it would be cheaper to build my own. Although, considering that I have almost no knowledge or experience with this sort of thing, there's the chance that I'd screw something up and destroy my $700 worth of equipment.

Also, you have to understand that I've NEVER owned a decent computer. The best I ever used was able to run Far Cry 2 on medium at 800x600. So I need advice about how high my standards should be as much as I need advice on building :P.
Post edited March 11, 2012 by jefequeso
Posted March 11, 2012
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/297

Umm... can this possibly be right? For a $65 GPU?

O_o
Posted March 11, 2012
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jefequeso: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/297

Umm... can this possibly be right? For a $65 GPU?

O_o
The benchmark is ok. But the 65$ price point is possibly wrong. The HD 5970 was sold for 600$ when it was released 2 years ago ;)
Posted March 11, 2012
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jefequeso: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/297

Umm... can this possibly be right? For a $65 GPU?

O_o
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real.geizterfahr: The benchmark is ok. But the 65$ price point is possibly wrong. The HD 5970 was sold for 600$ when it was released 2 years ago ;)
yeah, that seems a little more plausible.
Posted March 11, 2012
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jefequeso: Yes, maybe I can build something for cheap that will run current gen games decently... but what about a few years down the line? So in other words, I'm looking for something that's respectable and will be able to run current games for a few years, but I'm not looking to build the ultimate gaming rig.
"A few years", in computing terms, is a mystery. The rig you'll be able to buy three years from now could be three times more powerful than the one you'll buy today and cost half as much for all we know.
Posted March 11, 2012
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AlKim: "A few years", in computing terms, is a mystery. The rig you'll be able to buy three years from now could be three times more powerful than the one you'll buy today and cost half as much for all we know.
Despite that, a half-decent rig built three years ago is still very much able to hold its own today.
Posted March 11, 2012
Ok, I read some of the articles you guys posted (thanks, by the way!), and wrote up a build from what I learned (a lot taken from here: http://lifehacker.com/5840963/the-best-pcs-you-can-build-for-600-and-1200).

CPU: intel core i5 s500K [$210]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115073

Motherboard: MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) [$90]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130569

RAM: G Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333 [$26]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231425

GPU: NVidia GeForce 560 Ti [$235]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125363

Case: Thermaltake V3 Black Edition [$45]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133094

Power Supply: Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W [$60]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030

Harddrive: Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS [$110]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697

Optical Drive: ASUS 24X DVD Burner [$22]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

TOTAL: $798

The price is a little more than I'd like, but I'm not sure what areas I could pear down. I'm shooting for around a $600 mark, but I don't want to skimp on the videocard, specifically.

Anyone have any feedback on how this could be improved (cheapened)? I'd like to be able to max out games like Far Cry 2, Serious Sam HD, or STALKER CoP... or at least get close to maxing them out (at a modest resolution, you realize. 1280x1024 is fine with me). Well, maybe not "max out." But play on high. And I certainly want to max out old(er) games like Halflife 2 and Far Cry. Maxing out Battlefield 3? Naw. Being able to play newer releases at modest settings for a decent stretch of time? Yes, that would be good. If I'm going to spend any money, I don't want to have to shell out a couple hundred more in a year because I was being a tightwad.

So I might have gone overboard with the videocard and/or CPU. Possibly the motherboard too. I'm just not quite sure. If the $600 build they suggest would do what I want, I might just follow it.

I probably won't be buying stuff until summer anyway, so prices will likely change anyway... but I'd like to figure out as much as I can right now.


So, to summarize:

HALP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! O_o
Post edited March 11, 2012 by jefequeso
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)How to start building a gaming PC?(54 posts)(54 posts)
(54 posts)