Hey folks! I'm READY! Been wanting to have an actual high-end gaming PC for, well, most of my adult life (I'm 39 now, a life-long gamer back to my TI-99/4A), and am ready to make it happen. I've built PCs for myself since high school, worked at a software/hardware testing lab after school, but it has been so long since I've actually built one from scratch (after college, I always just used whatever PC my job gave me), that I don't really know "what parts I need to go with other parts." I also like to hunt for deals (though I know you get what you pay for, and will gladly spend extra $$ for reliability).. So, I'm planning on doing this as a gradual build as I find good deals on various components. It has been a while, so I'm in no hurry. First, I've read in various places that it's not really financially worth it to build your own any more.. that you can get pre-built gaming PCs cheaper than you can get the components separately.. is that true? Second, assuming that's not true.. I think I just need a list of what I "must" have in order to build a gaming pc at this "snapshot" of a moment in time... e.g. Spring 2013... meaning stuff like.. Does my case need to be "ATX?" Do those still exist? What types of slots does my motherboard need to have, say, to be able to have the fastest graphics card available today? PCI/e ? Not that I will buy the fastest card available today, just that I'd like to be able to upgrade to it down the road.. Do I need 3 graphics cards to run 3 monitors? How can I guarantee my motherboard I buy separately will fit in the case I buy? Is a quad core processor good enough for today's games? Assuming running my games at 1920x1080 at high detail, though I'm not disappointed if I have to go down from there.. just trying to give more details.. Does my motherboard need any type of cache on it? If there are online resources I can look at for the above questions, please feel free to send me there! Or if there's a "good build" someone would recommend, that's cool too! I already have a 1600x1200 monitor which I might just stick with for now.. Sorry for the back to being a noob questions, but thank you and I look forward to doing this with your help!
Seriously buy what you think is best for you. Most cases fit most motherboards and quad is good enough for any game. Graphics card buy a good one will last you for years top end no mid range yes as you really will not notice the difference. I built my son a new pc thought I would give him my relatively new 7750 card and I would by a more expensive xfx card difference in game play hardly any difference if any. Go Quad mid range graphic card 8gb good memory and go windows 7 and you will be fine. SSD main drive would say be great for gaming and most motherboards quad designed will last a good while gigabyte being my choice but some prefer Asus
I'm in the process of doing the same and was browsing at Frys Electronics over the weekend. Without spending alot of time deciding what to buy these are the components I'm probably going to go with: Processor : AMD FX-8350 AMD+3 4.0G ($199.99) Mainboard : MSI Military Class A78M-E45 PCI-E 3.0 / USB 3.0 $79.99 Graphics : GeForce 6TX 650 PCI-E 3.0 2G $129.99 Memory : DDR3 1600 4G $46.99 (x2)
apparently newegg is cheapest parts supplier but they don't deliver world wide only certain countries (mainly usa). shops sell pre -built pcs usually at a very high price back when i got mine (2010)it was custom built in a shop for $1300 and pcs with similar parts and a nicer looking case were $2000-$4000 in all the major retailers here.some smaller owned computer stores can sell custom built cheap,basically parts price plus $100-$200 for built time. also should be noted when looking for deals and specials most pc hardward price drops every 3-6months when newer parts come out.
Hrdrk, you signed into wrong account, sign into your Hrdrk20 account & then you can edit your posts of that account.
