Getting a gaming PC.

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**djones520**

So I'm looking at a very significant pay raise here real soon, among some other extra flows of income, and I'm thinking of treating myself to a new PC. One specifically built to handle some solid gaming.

Problem is, I haven't the faintest idea where to start, what to look for, etc. I skimmed through a few websites, like Alienware, and the prices are what I expected, but I'm not sure what the best types of deal are.

So drop some knowledge on me folks.

**Co'tor Shas**

Don't get Alienware. I will grant that they are good, but not worth the price. Building a PC is probably you best option here. I'm at school so I can't put much, but I may put more once I'm home. There are however plenty of tutorials to build a gaming pc online, including what you should buy.

Edit: Look Here, it should have plenty if you look around a bit (although it is reddit).
Edir: Also this is a good overview.

**LordofHats**

A good thing to do is to go to CyberPower or IBuyPower. They're cheaper than many retails chains and build the computer for you but building a computer isn't as daunting a challenge as it seems and there are numerous guides on the net to help you do it.

What those two sites can do for you though is help you find hardware. Hunting down parts can be daunting because they don't spell out compatibility for you and there's so many its hard to shift through them. CyberPower and IBuyPower have a computer building tool that lists parts for you to select and will tell you if there's a conflict. Now you can do this and either buy the PC from them, or use the parts you put together as a shopping list

Take it to Newegg order the parts yourself and build it yourself. You'll save anywhere between $200 and $500 compared to their prices doing it on your own.

Some general parts stuff;

-You'll want a power supply with at least 650 watts for modern cards.
-Don't mix and match RAM. Buy a pair of RAM cards and use them together.
-Don't buy Asus. They're stuff is total hit and miss in terms of quality.
-Ignore product reviews on New Egg/Tiger Direct. People there will complain about the sillist things and there aren't many reviews so the results get twisted (someone complained a mother board was blue). Use other dedicated review sites.
-Do not forget thermal paste! I can't tell you how often people completely forget to paste their processor.
-Don't be too afraid of messing up. These days a lot of hardware auto shuts down to avoid being damaged. The chances of breaking parts are pretty low so long as your not tossing them at a wall.

**Alexzandvar**

What I did was I bought all the parts of Newegg when they were having a Christmas sale and payed a friend 50$ to put it together.

There's a lot more sites other than Newegg, but they have some pretty good deal now and again, I would also suggest trying some other websites for suggestions to.

/g/ on 4chan has regular PC threads

**FirePainter**

Having just built my first rig I must its really not that hard. The main thing is to do a lot of research. Make sure all the parts are compatible and that you have all the proper slots. Look at building a computer as an expensive lego set. Most parts are plug in and go. The big thing is getting the right parts.

Here is a good article from another forum that has good details and some sample builds to base your stuff on.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=426532

**Manchu**

LordofHats wrote:
A good thing to do is to go to CyberPower or IBuyPower.

I bought a desktop from iBuyPower four years ago and it's been great.

**LordofHats**

Same, cause I'm lazy

**Manchu**

My excuse is stupidity.

**Aerethan**

LordofHats made some good points.

I highly recommend you build your own. That way you get exactly what you want, and you can future proof it to a degree.

First thing you need to decide is a CPU. Core i7's are all the rage right now, but I'm an AMD loyalist(mostly because their socket layout almost never changes).
From there you choose a motherboard that has the features you want: 1 or 2 video card slots, X number of SATA ports, integrated 5.1 audio, uefi bios, etc.

Now that you have a mobo and CPU, choose your RAM that matches the highest speed possible on the mobo and stick with a matched pair of 2x4GB or 2x8GB sticks.

From here, choose a video card. This is one thing where (along with the CPU and MOBO) you will want to research it and look at reviews. Make sure it has the types of output connections that you want. DVI and HDMI are both being phased out slowly in favor of DisplayPort but there are adapters if need be. Here it has been nVidia with the edge for a while, but AMD makes good cards as well. My best recommendation is if you are on a strict budget, then choose your dollar amount first, then find something that you like in that price range(for me it's always $200).

Now that we have those items figured out, we need power. 650w is generally enough for a single GPU system, but you want to make sure that if your video card has a 6 or 8 pin plug that your power supply(PSU) has connections for that. Same thing with the MOBO and CPU connectors. Some mobos are 20pin, some 24 pin. And CPU connectors are either 4 or 8 pin. Beyond that most connectors are standard and you will almost always have extras you'll need to hide in the case.

After the PSU, choose your storage options. Popular choices these days are a smaller solid state drive(SSD) around 100GB to just install your OS and everyday smaller programs on like web browsers, media players etc. Then buy a larger hard disk drive(HDD) for large file storage like games, movies, music libraries, photos etc. 1TB is generally enough to start off with.

Pick an optic drive that you like. If you want BluRay it'll cost a little more, burner even more than that. I stick with old DVD-R combo drives that run $20 because I don't need to run or burn BluRay on my PC.

If you intend to game with this as you said, I recommend an aftermarket heat sink for the CPU. Find one that fits the CPU's socket type but take size into consideration as some are very tall and may not fit in the case you choose.

Pick a case. Some people like plain, some want Fast and Furious happening under their desk. ATX Mid is the overall standard size and will have the most options available. ATX Full towers are VERY big, so keep that in mind. ATX Mini will not fit standard MOBO's, so if you want a small case then it drastically changes your options for MOBO, PSU and GPU due to the limited space. Keep fans in mind as well, as there is a science to air cooling. Xoxide.com has a nice explanation(as well as nearly every case available). http://www.xoxide.com/resource-center.html

Get some decent Arctic Silver thermal grease for your CPU>Heatsink connection as well. The standard stuff that comes with them is gak.

Pick your OS(I suggest Win7 Ultimate for gaming), install all your parts where they belong and install windows. From there it's all pretty straightforward. I find this process to be highly rewarding mentally.

Some people like flashy peripherals like $100 gaming mice and keyboards, but honestly they are only good if they have some specific feature you want.

I personally use a Logitech K120 keyboard($15 from WalMart) and a Logitech M510 wireless mouse which runs about $40 and they work perfectly(battery life on that mouse is somewhere around 6 months of 8 hours a day use. I use one at work and have only swapped batteries once in the last 10 months).

Monitors are a whole other ball game. If you want to run 3 or more you'll need to research GPU's a little to see what can do what. Most decent 23" monitors run about $150.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Cyberpower and ibuypower are decent companies. They do allow you to customize a lot of options, and they offer liquid cooling(which I don't suggest first time builders try their hand at).

The clencher of course is that you are paying a small markup on parts, and you are paying for labor. But if you don't feel up to the task of a self build for what ever reason(time, stupidity, laziness) then those are good options.

Alienware is literally paying for the name and a case. Just rebranded Dell's. 0/10, would not bang.

**PrehistoricUFO**

Hey djones, I happen to write specs and assemble custom rigs for people on the side all the time. Just built my buddy a bad ass tower a couple weeks ago.

I'll make it easy on you and just write your specs for you if you like to save you hours of research on stuff you probably won't even understand the technical jargon of. As far as assembly goes, I'd do that for you too in an hour, but I'm kind of far. ;-).

Buy the parts I'll list when you get home, get a shop to build it. They won't charge much for two hours of labor - at least I hope not, I certainly don't.

**Orlanth**

Lot of good advice here.

One principle that I go by is:

The top 10% of performance is the top 50% of price. Dont get upsold, yes component x might be the emperor's dog's danglies, but the component below that is probably good enough.

You shouldn't need a pay rise to get a good computer rig unless you are the sort who likes to throw money at things.

Build smarter, not more expensive.

**sparkywtf**

LordofHats wrote:

-Ignore product reviews on New Egg/Tiger Direct. People there will complain about the sillist things and there aren't many reviews so the results get twisted (someone complained a mother board was blue). Use other dedicated review sites.

However, if you want a good laugh, read newegg reviews. The reasons they rate things so low is hilarious sometimes.

If you are going to build it yourself (which is fun!), I like pcpartpicker.com. It allows you to pick your parts, makes sure everything is compatible, and finds you the lowest prices.

**Imnewherewheresthebathroom**

Neeeeeeewwweeeeeeeegggggggg! Sorry but the best advice has already been given.

**LordofHats**

However, if you want a good laugh, read newegg reviews. The reasons they rate things so low is hilarious sometimes.

This is true. I love reading about motherboards and how it takes 'fifteen minutes' to boot up. Better yet the people who complain about how long it really takes, like hardware is trash if it takes more than 3 seconds XD

**daedalus**

Hey, you're in the STL surrounding area.

First off, what's your budget? Are you doing a prefab, or going to build your own?

I recommend building your own. You get more bang for the buck, and it's gratifying to have your own computer you built. Skilwise, it's basically just putting in screws and sticking the square peg in the square hole. Check out Microcenter by the Galleria mall. They usually have deals on components that are comparable to online retailers.

Based upon those questions, I could probably make better recommendations.

**Aerethan**

Budget is really the biggest question. When I build my own rigs, I shoot for $1000-1200, and I try to not let any single piece cost more than 200 before tax.

Buying from Newegg will almost always be cheaper than buying local, even with shipping included. The only items worth buying local are perhaps cases where shipping can get pretty high.

Generally a decent rig should have the following costs:
Case 100
CPU 100-200
GPU 200
PSU 70
RAM 50-70
MOBO 150
SSD 100
HDD 100
DVD 20

That gives an average cost of $950 before tax and shipping.

I also try to cannibalize old rigs if certain things are really needed new, like the dvd drive, case, PSU and HDD.

**daedalus**

Aerethan wrote:

Buying from Newegg will almost always be cheaper than buying local, even with shipping included. The only items worth buying local are perhaps cases where shipping can get pretty high.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130831 - $149.99

http://www.microcenter.com/product/400674/02G-P4-2653-KR_NVIDIA_GeForce_GTX_650_Superclocked_2048MB_PCIe_30_x16_Video_Card - $149.99 ($10 rebate makes it $139.99)

Not that I don't agree with you for the most part, but you'd be surprised sometimes.

**djones520**

My thing is I don't even know what specs I should be looking for. I have a pretty basic understanding of bigger number usually means better, but beyond that it's all pretty greek to me.

**Aerethan**

djones520 wrote:
My thing is I don't even know what specs I should be looking for. I have a pretty basic understanding of bigger number usually means better, but beyond that it's all pretty greek to me.

Which is where we can help. If you set a budget, I'm sure myself or one of the others would be happy to design a rig for you and give you a parts list to work off of.

It should be noted, that increasing your budget doesn't mean every component will be upgraded. CPU, GPU and RAM are the primary things you'd upgrade, so in my own designs any money beyond the first 1k would be spent on those components, and RAM tends to be inexpensive overall. GPU's are where most of the money ends up in my experience.

**daedalus**

Start with budget then. How much are you willing to shell out?

Just ballpark it even. $600? $1200?

**djones520**

Huh... my earlier post didn't take.

I'd like to keep it under $1,000 if possible. I'm not looking at a top end machine that will make neck-beard worldwide drool.

I just want something that I can play Rome 2 with maxed out settings, and not be bogged down.

**Aerethan**

djones520 wrote:
Huh... my earlier post didn't take.

I'd like to keep it under $1,000 if possible. I'm not looking at a top end machine that will make neck-beard worldwide drool.

I just want something that I can play Rome 2 with maxed out settings, and not be bogged down.

Cool. Give me an hour or two and I'll get a list together on newegg for about 1k.

**daedalus**

Is that including monitor? Keyboard? Mouse?

**djones520**

I have the peripherals.

Only software I should need is an OS. Do not want 8...

**Perkustin**

Just bought all the parts for one myself, haven't built it yet so cannot tell you how hard that part is. I think custom pre-built is still the way to go, the labour cost is pretty miniscule if you compare it to buying the parts retail.

I bought a pre-built one about a month ago that was faulty, i sent it to be repaired and it still didn't work, i could've sent it back for another free repair but i couldn't be bothered so got a refund. Bear in mind that most, if not all, custom PC places offer unlimited repairs gratis (i think you only get free parts for a few months in general) for between 6 months and 3 years.

I would still strongly recommend buying a pre-built custom one despite my personal lack of success. The only thing they overcharge for is Videocards in my experience. Also don't worry about i7, or 16 gbs of ram; 8gb and i5 (3570k, 4570, 4670, 4670k are all popular) will be great for even max settings gameplay. RAM is actually pretty useless for gameplay, that's what the 2gb of Vram on your videocard is for.

The parts i've bought are just a little bit cheaper than what i payed for the custom PC but i've bought a much superior (and expensive) Graphics card; GTX 770, the best card for the money, by a looooonnnng shot by the way

AMD R9 270x is another card that is FANTASTIC value for money.

Finally when you get your PC and start gaming turn AA completely off, at 1080p you hardly notice jaggies and AA crucifies your framerate.

EDIT: Only avoid 8 if you really hate the functionality, games are starting to run better on 8 compared to 7 and it's only gonna get worse. Also 8 boots slightly faster and eats slightly less memory.

**Aerethan**

https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=18677114

Let me know if you can't view that properly, it should be public.

So with that, just pick out which case you want, grab an OEM copy of Win7 and you are good to go.

The only specific thing you'd need to know is that with SSD's you CANNOT defrag them, so when you install windows you need to go to the defrag settings and turn automatic defrag off. Otherwise it fries them.

All in all a nice little system that should land you right at your budget after a case and OS.

hmm, sharing it may not have worked. PM me your email address.

**Perkustin**

Not a good idea going OEM, it's a violation of the license using it for a home build (that you're not immediately reselling) so you'll get no support from Microsoft and if the serial number doesn't work, you're boned.

Pay the extra $20 for a boxed retail.

**djones520**

Just took me to my own wishlist.

**Aerethan**

**Co'tor Shas**

Perkustin wrote:
Not a good idea going OEM, it's a violation of the license using it for a home build (that you're not immediately reselling) so you'll get no support from Microsoft and if the serial number doesn't work, you're boned.

Pay the extra $20 for a boxed retail.

I looked at a computer that has the same stuff as my day-to-day one and it was a little more $200 more. My gaming PC is powerful enough to be very hard to find a retail one of the same level, and it didn't even cost that much. If you have the knowledge you should build. You get support form microsoft for the OS, so that's set.