If you are a gamer down to your bone marrow, you will need a machine that can support your gaming habits and give you the cutting edge over an intense online competition. The following article will include all the information you will need to assemble a gaming PC that you will be proud of and will eventually lead you to gaming greatness.
While there are a great many accessories and components that will fuel your gaming experience and your initial setup will probably be modified extensively over your gaming career, the articles mentioned here are the primary essentials. Without these your setup will not be dedicated to competitive gaming.
- The CPU (Central Processing Unit)
As the brains of the PC, the CPU has an important role in processing all the equations that will produce your enhanced gaming experience. The two most important manufacturers of top quality CPUS are Intel and AMD, both of which produced decent models without a striking degree of difference. That is, until AMD created the powerful and impressive Ryzen series.
Here are the recommendations we have for beginners to experts.
-Intel Core i3 or AMD Ryzen 3 for beginner to intermediate PCs
-Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 for intermediate to expert PCs
After this you will find CPUs like the Ryzen 7 or the Core i7, these are only suitable if you will be accompanying them with the most advanced GPUs in existence. If your CPU can’t keep up with your powerful graphics processor, most of the GPU’s advantage will be nullified.
2.The GPU – Graphics Processing Unit
All the in game graphic rendering will be accomplished by the strength of your graphics processing unit. It should be noted here that the GPU and the graphics card are two very different components and the card includes other important elements like the Visual RAM.
The best GPUs on the market today are made by Nvidia and AMD from Direct Components INC. Nvidia dominates the market with the best GPUs you can find, while AMD will provide you with a perfectly suitable GPU for a beginner to intermediate PC.
We Recommend:
- Radeon RX 560 for standard performance gaming PCs
- Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB or Radeon RX 580 Mid-range gaming PCs
- Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti for the Highest-end gaming PC
These options were selected for the high-value at the time of writing, but these should be reviewed as benchmarks for the performance of your gaming PC.
- Graphics Cards
Graphics cards are available from a wide variety of manufacturers. Some of these are produced buy bigger names like AMD and Nvidia, but there are some good options by Gigabyte, Asus or MSI. Things to keep in mind when looking for a good card option for you include, colors, shapes and the size of the circuit board.
Nevertheless, it is the cooling fan solution that is the most important thing to keep in mind. This comes down to three options available:
– Open-air cooling the card can have up to three fans that work to push cool air through the heat sink. This is the most efficient type of cooling system available today.
– Blower fan cooling – while this is mostly used on reference cards, this option has single fan and an enclosed heatsink. The fan blows the heated air from the back of the card and this can be good for smaller casing options as they don’t benefit from additional case mounted cooling systems. The aesthetic appeal of these options is another important selling point.
– Water Cooling – for those graphics cards taxed beyond their conceivable limits superior cooling measures will be needed. This is where the water-cooling options add complexity and next-level temperature to the most advanced systems.
VRAM capacity is another point to consider when selecting a graphics card. This used to be the single most important aspect of the card, but today a 4GB VRAM is more than enough to support a 1080p display. If you will be moving your gaming into 4K quality or want to turn all graphics options to the MAX at 2K, you’ll probably need an 8GB card.
- The RAM – Random Access Memory
RAM is what the PC uses to store information that it will need to access quickly, such as programs in operation. Today’s ram features impressive DDR$ technology and this is an important feature to look for in your RAM selection. But, RAM capacity is the most important figure. You are sure to notice that 4GB is far too small for the majority of online games coming out today. 8GB would be capable of handling most of your current games and a 16 GB Ram would be the best idea if you are planning for a future free of upgrades.
The largest 32 GB RAM drives are an example of overkill as they are only needed for servers and industrial strength workstations.
- The Motherboard
The motherboard holds all the components together while it will not actually affect the performance of your gaming. The important thing to look for is the sockets your motherboard supports and the chip set type. These will affect which types of components you are able to apply to your PC. While compatibility is not a huge problem, there are some issues with older components and newer boards, and vice versa.
- The Storage
There are HDDs (Hard Disc Drives) and SSDs (solid state drives) and the capacity and costs between them can be quite different. Because they are faster and costlier, your games and programs should be installed on a SSD of 500 GB or less, this can be supported by a conventional 1TB HDD on which all the stored data can reside.
- The Power Supply
This is probably the most straightforward part of your PC and supplies the juice that powers the experience. Quality and reputable manufacturers are the most important criteria for your selection. Low quality PSUs can overload the circuits and fry out your valuable components.