denz
The Kingslayer
Retired
How To Choose A Gaming Build: Parts & Self-Building Information
Introduction:
In this guide, I am going to teach you how to choose the best possible parts for your budget, what qualities and features to look for when choosing your parts, and what kind of parts you should be on the lookout for. I'll also bust some misconceptions and provide some other bits of useful information.Introduction:
This is more of a brief outline than a full in-depth walk-through; So if you want more information, you will have to search for it yourself.
This guide is for gaming builds. Office, HTPC, etc. will be different and not covered in this guide. Some parts are still accurate, however.
This guide is my opinion and yours may differ from mine so please go ahead and post any changes you would like me to make and I will review them and change the guide appropriately. There may also be some bias but I will try and keep myself as neutral as possible.
I will not be going through what each part does in detail as there is a guide for that here.
This guide is accurate at time of writing so if you're reading this in the distant future, parts may or may not have changed.
Recommended Websites & Links:
Excellent Part Picker/List Website - http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/
How To Build Your Own PC Videos - http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/threads/how-to-build-a-pc-tutorial-videos.1064750/
Request A Build - http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/forums/computer-build-support.453/
Request A Build Template (Sticky Thread) - http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/threads/read-this-before-requesting-a-build.955503/
Twipz's Peripherals & You: A Guide to Buying the Right Hardware (Sticky Thread) - http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/thr...ardware-taking-info-requests-as-well.1164890/
Glossary:
CPU - Central Processing Unit; aka Processor
GPU - Graphics Processing Unit; aka Graphics Card
MOBO - Motherboard
RAM - Random Access Memory
SSD - Solid State Drive
HDD - Hard Disk Drive
PSU - Power Supply Unit
OS - Operating System
Reasons To Self -Build Instead of Buying Pre-Built:
Businesses like iBuyPower and Alienware want profit, meaning they will cheap out on things like the PSU, RAM, MOBO, etc., and charge a premium on actually building it. This money could be saved and used elsewhere if self-building.
The other main problem with pre-builts is that they don't focus on the GPU. A lot of time they have a high end CPU such as an Intel 4770+ but will skimp on GPU and will have, say, an Nvidia GTX 760. To then change the GPU even on their site as an upgrade, it costs substantially more than what the GPU on its own would cost if self-building.
To prove my point, I have conducted an experiment:
We'll use this as an example as it has a high end build basis and has a high end budget.
Cost: 1199$ with Intel® Core™ i7-4790K Processor (4x 4.0GHz/8MB L3 Cache) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 - 2GB - Single Card (Proves my above point about a high end CPU, mid range GPU, and how unbalanced it is.)
Nearly identical parts, if you were to self build, cost $1000: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kzHqP6
This means that it would cost 200$ just for them to build it for you and you'd get bad part balance as well. (Note that you can build a PC in under 4 hours, if it's your first time.)
Now on their site, I want to upgrade To a GTX 770. This costs $104 more and $20 on top of that to upgrade the PSU to 600W. This makes the net price $1323 (or an additional $125, in other words.)
If I was to upgrade the GTX 760 to the GTX 770 and PSU (remember, cheap standard PSU) on a build myself, it would cost - in total - $1083 (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DkbRYJ). This is $83 more than the original build price. A clear difference then on which has better price / performance ratio.
Now simply do the math: $1323 - $1083 = $240 saved!
With a $1300 budget and self-building, you would get this with quality, branded parts over generic PSU, RAM, etc. A 780 and i5 4670k (i7 is near useless for gaming as games don't use hyper-thread capabilities) and under the 1300$ budget.
To me, It's clear what the superior choice would be for gaming. There is no argument on which provides better performance per dollar.
Everyone should learn to build their own PC as it's incredibly easy, requires just few hours and some basic tools like a screwdriver, a brain, and the capacity to follow the motherboard manual as well as online videos.
Budgets:
Setting your budget is the first step after deciding whether to self-build or buy pre-built. Budgets and part lists / prices can vary in different regions but it's up to you to decide how many FPS you want, what settings you want, and the resolution you want to play at. Obviously the higher the factors, the higher your budget should be. This is a decent scale of budgets. Prices may vary by region. Examples given are in USD.
Low / Low-Middle Range Build: ~$500
Exact Mid-Range Build: ~$750
High-End Build: ~$1000
Exceptional / Very High-End Build: ~$1300
The main thing to keep as much budget as possible for is your GPU. You don't want to skimp out on the other parts (at least, not too much), but this is most important in a Gaming PC.
The main thing that suck up the budget is accessories / other non-part items. These are the OS, and peripherals like monitor(s), expensive keyboard / mouse if you want to buy them, etc. I highly recommend a separate budget for this.
Expensive KB / Mouse can make a difference, but you can start with Wal-mart value peripherals if your budget is tight. I don't recommend cheaping out on Monitor, though. For a wide range of peripheral products, visit Cryptid 's guidehere.
Once you have decided on your budget, it's time to look at parts and things to look out for.
How To Choose Parts
CPU: Intel Or AMD?
This has been discussed for years and now it's like beating a dead horse.
Intel:
+ Superior high-end performance, better single-core performance.
- Higher price.
AMD:
+ Best price / performance ratio, good for multitasking.
- Lower performance at high-end.
You should choose a CPU based on what you plan to do with it, and since you plan on gaming, the choice should be the one that suits your budget. Saving money on CPU could lead to a better GPU. For gaming, the GPU is more important and will give more FPS than getting a high-end CPU and mid-range GPU. i.e, FX 8320/GTX 770 could give higher fps than I7 4770K/GTX 750ti.
Graphically intense games like Crysis 3 require a good GPU. Computing intensive games like ArmA or other open-world games require a good CPU instead. Thus getting the balance right is important.
Single core performance is incredibly important as most engines use single or dual cores, thus the better the single core performance the better performance you will see.
For Intel CPU's the "K" at the end means it has unlocked multiplier and can be overclocked, whilst the "S" means that it has been downclocked for lower consumption and heat. I do not recommend an "S" CPU for gaming.
The CPU chosen has a specific socket, so you will have to get a motherboard with same socket and ensure it is compatible.
Once you have your eyes set on a CPU, do some research! Make sure you look at gaming benchmarks, power consumption, and temperatures especially.
Recommended Parts: AMD FX 6300 < AMD FX 8320/8350 < Intel i5 4570 and up.
Motherboard: Features, Features Everywhere.
Motherboards have different form factors. The form factor affects the size of the motherboard. The two most common form factors are ATX and Micro/Mini ITX. Each form factor has different subcategories that either makes them smaller or larger.
XL ATX - The largest ATX factor available
Extended ATX - Slightly larger than Standard ATX
ATX - The most common form factor available. Has a traditional layout.
Micro ATX - A small version of ATX
Mini ITX - Is an incredibly small form factor for use in applications that need a decent amount of power with a small footprint.
Depending on the size of your computer that you want to build, you will have to select what size motherboard you want. Usually for gaming builds ATX is standard unless you want 4 GPU's.
The main things to look for in a motherboard is the socket, and ensure it matches with your chosen CPU. This can be done by going to the vendor and checking the 'CPU Support' information. You'll also want to have the newest chipset possible, such as Z87/Z97 for Intel and 990/990FX for AMD. Going for old chipsets is not recommended. Also keep an eye out if the motherboard requires a bios update.
If you want to use 2 or more GPUs from NVidia or AMD ensure that the motherboard is SLI or Crossfire compatible, otherwise they will not work. I have seen people buy low end motherboards for SLI but they were not compatible, rendering them useless and wasting time.
Many vendors also offer added features with motherboards. The ASUS ROG series offers monitoring hardware like ROG Connect. Do your research, and decide if you need it and if it is worth paying the premium for it. There are wide variety of different features from different manufacturers, that may or may not be exclusive so you will need to check (if you want them.)
A good motherboard is also needed if you wish to overclock, as different quality motherboards may not overclock as well.
RAM: 8GB/16GB/99999 GB
First you have to decide how many gigabytes of ram you need. You will not use more than 8gb for gaming, therefore more is useless unless you want to use RAM intensive processes (digital rendering is the most common example of this.)
RAM is like a car park, it stores cars (Active Processes) and whilst gaming you will store 4 Stories (4 GB/8GB) worth of cars, even if you go ahead and build another 8 Stories (16GB Ram), you would still only use 4 Stories (4/16GB) so it would be useless and a waste of money.
I suggest going for two 4GB sticks to make use of dual memory instead of one 8GB stick in most cases.
1600 Mhz should be the baseline for RAM frequency. Paying for more is not really necessary and will not give a noticeable boost in performance unless going for double that and above.
Going for overpriced RAM sets like Corsair Dominator Platinum is useless and will give similar performance to standard RAM at the same range. I recommend going for the cheapest, well-reviewed and branded RAM at 1600 Mhz.
Video Card: AMD or nVidia
For gaming the video card should be the most important component in your build, you should try to get the best GPU possible.
Nvidia:
+ Gameworks, PhysX, GeForce Experience allowing ShadowPlay recording etc. Subjectively better driver support.
- More expensive.
AMD:
+ Mantle in supported games, Cheaper, best price / performance ratio.
- Higher heat, higher power consumption.
There are many 3rd party companies that produce cards with different modifications such as different coolers and clock speeds but at heart they are similar cards. It's up to you to decide which one you want to get. Do research into benchmarks to see which is quieter, overclocks the best, has the best heat / power management, etc. Whatever you want!
Once you have chosen the card that fits your budget, like you did for the CPU, I recommend searching for benchmarks and getting a rough idea of how well it performs like 'EVGA GTX 760 Benchmarks'.
It is usually better to have one single high-performance card than two or more mid-range or low-end cards. Micro-stuttering occurs in SLI and Crossfire setups, but is more prevalent in Crossfire.
Higher end GPU's and SLI / Crossfire may be needed when gaming at resolutions over 1920x1080 (1080p)
Storage: HDD & SSD
I won't go into detail on what they each do but basically HDDs are slower but cheaper per gigabyte of memory while SSD's are much faster but more expensive per gigabyte.
For storage I would always recommend for a good brand like Western Digital or Seagate for HDD's and Samsung, Crucial, or Kingston for SSD's.
For media / bulk games, I would recommend getting a 1TB HDD or above.
If your budget allows for a 120GB or above SSD it is excellent for boot times, and can also help many games load quicker, but it is more expensive. This could always be added in future, so if you're building a mid-range unit, I recommend skipping this for the time being.
Storage is incredibly easy to be added in future, simply buy the storage unit > put it in the case > connect it up > enable in Disk Manager > format the drive. 5 Minute job.
Power Supply: 80+ Bronze 700W?
Do not cheap out on your PSU. The unit powers your PC, and if it fails, it can (occasionally) cause issues with other parts as well. I recommend searching for a well branded unit such as Corsair, EVGA, or others and ensuring its not a generic chinese one. Many people have cheaped out on it, and it short circuited, burned, broke, etc. I personally had two cheap power supplies burn out on me.
Make sure it also has the cables needed to fit your PC and has number of cables for all your components (2x PCie for 1 GPU, for example.) If you want clean wires or don't plan on using all wires then look for a Modular PSU at a higher cost.
Ensure the chosen PSU is at least 80+ Bronze for efficiency. If you have a higher budget, then I recommend going for 80+ Gold efficiency.
These are the watts the PSU generally needs to generate to power the rest of the unit:
1 Low-Middle Range GPU: ~500W
1 High End GPU: ~600W
2 GPU's: ~750W
3 GPU's: ~1000W
4 GPU's: ~1200W+
If you start with one GPU but think will go for SLI or Crossfire in the future, remember to plan your PSU purchase accordingly!
Many PSUs have some technologies like Zero Fan Mode for high-end Corsair PSU's, search and see if you want/need this.
Case: It all has to go Somewhere
The things to mainly look out for in cases, aside from the quality of it, is size, ensuring everything fits such as GPU card length and CPU cooler height or radiators, and ventilation as well. Also, you can go wild or simplistic with your case so it's up to you to decide and what type of taste you have.
Example Build Lists: Let Lord GabeN Ascend You
Some sample builds that could get you onto the right path as of 20/09/2014.
$500~ - Next Gen Liberator: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/D3dYf7 or Intel http://pcpartpicker.com/p/RBbFpg (OVERCLOCKING IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ON THIS)
$750~ - Next Gen Exterminator: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jKm3vK or Intel http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bzc423
$1000~ - Next Gen Destroyer: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jv42zy
$1300~ - Next Gen Eradicator: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CsYVZL
$1500~ - Next Gen Annihilator: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kHh3sY
Conclusion:
Sorry for insanely large guide, it only covers the basics of some topics! This is still work in progress and will be changed and improved over time.
If any information is incorrect or you want something to be added, please post and I will review it and add it / credit it to you.
Credits:
- Denz - Manually typing this
- Cryptid - Formatting & Proof Checking
- Version 1.2 - Updated 20/09/2014
Still To Do:
- Pictures
- Missed DVD Drive/CPU Cooler Sections
- FAQ
Note: f***, this is much longer than I thought it would be.
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