Hello friends. Some of you may remember me most probably not. I am looking to make my triumphant return to pc gaming and back into our community. I am interested in building my very first pc. But I need advice. I am wondering how difficult it will be. How hard is it deciding on a case and many many other questions/thoughts. If anyone has ever built one and can shed some light and knowledge about this please enlighten me. I welcome all advice. Thank you in advance. I look forward to being back one day and shaking the rust off of my skills. Much love for ego, imak.
Building a PC
- Thread starter imak
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Welcome back! First off.
The biggest thing here is, what's your budget, what are your goals?
The difficulty part is, well, not very difficult. Computers are like oversized lego for the most part and there are so many guides and videos on the internet now that it's quite hard to really screw it up. Everything only really goes in one place.
Get back to me on those parts and we can work from there. What I do like to keep in mind telling people is that if you spend a little more now on better and higher quality parts, the longer it will last and the lesser chance of you having to upgrade in 2 years will be a thing.
The biggest thing here is, what's your budget, what are your goals?
The difficulty part is, well, not very difficult. Computers are like oversized lego for the most part and there are so many guides and videos on the internet now that it's quite hard to really screw it up. Everything only really goes in one place.
Get back to me on those parts and we can work from there. What I do like to keep in mind telling people is that if you spend a little more now on better and higher quality parts, the longer it will last and the lesser chance of you having to upgrade in 2 years will be a thing.
Well I am in the beginning and thought process and doubting stages right now. I haven’t set my mind on a budget yet but of course I don’t want to spend too much money but I do want to build something nice as you said so I don’t have to upgrade within the foreseeable future. I don’t have a lot of money so it will be a process of buy something here and then maybe a few weeks buy something else.
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It's definitely okay to buy in steps - lots of people do. Keep an eye out for sales on what you want and then pick a time that is right. The graphics card market is the tricky part right now - a lot of prices are very high and inflated with the cryptocurrency epidemic going on. So buying in steps is definitely an option.
Do you own a desktop right now? Do you have a monitor/keyboard/mouse as is?
I sort of suggest a price range around $1500 total for most people. That' generally would get you something that can run any game, be good for quite a few years without much upgrading, etc.
Do you own a desktop right now? Do you have a monitor/keyboard/mouse as is?
I sort of suggest a price range around $1500 total for most people. That' generally would get you something that can run any game, be good for quite a few years without much upgrading, etc.
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Its hard to give you advice if you do not have a rough plan what your PC should be capable of.
How about you give us your estimated pricing range and tell us which games it should at least be able to run on good graphic performance.
Building a PC differs in the use case, e.g. for source games you would not need a dedicated graphics card, as the intergrated graphics in recent intel CPUs is more than capable of handling them on good detail levels.
So with a bit more informations I am willing to help you and answer your questions (I have build all of my PCs from scratch everytime).
How about you give us your estimated pricing range and tell us which games it should at least be able to run on good graphic performance.
Building a PC differs in the use case, e.g. for source games you would not need a dedicated graphics card, as the intergrated graphics in recent intel CPUs is more than capable of handling them on good detail levels.
So with a bit more informations I am willing to help you and answer your questions (I have build all of my PCs from scratch everytime).
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$1500 is a bit much if he does not need to buy a monitor and keyboard and mouse. A good PCs that is capable of handling current games (not including VR here!) should be for around 800 - 900€ (i am from germany, I do not know the prices in UK/US).
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800-900 with currency conversion and the current market is somewhere around there for us
Especially with the awful graphics card pricing currently.Well any current games I want it to play. I want to be able to buy a game a year from now and the computer not have an issue playing it. The cheaper the better as far as price wise but I still want to have something nice in the end.
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I?ll see about putting a few lists together tonight for a few budgets. Some others will probably chip in here too, we have a few section regulars.
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How good should games be playable in a year? You want them to play on highest detail level or is mid range OK for you? There is no cheap and ultra powerful . You can e.g. go for AMD, which is cheaper than intel but imho (and this is just an "imho", not a de-facto-statement!) you are longer happy with an intel (bought an i7-2600k when it came out (approx 7 years ago?), a friend of mine got that from me when I upgraded and it still plays all the games!).
But of course, Simon is right on the graphic card part. I forgot that the graphic card pricing is atm a bit insane because of all the crypto mining bullshit going on.
I would recomment shooting for a PC with an intel i5 of the newest generation (i7 would be overpowered, I only got that because I even compile my own Operating System (gentoo linux), otherwise I would have gone for the i5). That should be enough CPU wise. Then I would shoot for a Mainboard that is capable of SLi or Crossfire (First is nVidia, second would be ATI), whichever you prefer and buy a Graphic Card like the GTX 1070. Then shoot for 16GB or DDR4 RAM. That should make you happy a few years.
Then you need the stuff around that. You can take whichever case you like best (I use the 20€ ones, they are enough for me). You should only check if the Mainboard Form Factor is supported (shoot for an ATX compatible and you are fine, this also would fit smaller ATX ones like ?ATX).
Then look at the components and the TDP value, which means Thermal Design Point and gives you a clue about the maximum amount of Watts your components take. Sum, them up, multiply it with 1.2 and then you have an approx of the size of your power unit. Note: Its best to be at about 80% of its capacity to achieve the best efficiency.
Also take whatever drives you need, e.g. a BluRay Drive or a DVD Burner.
Then the last part would be the cooler. This is a bit of a philosophy. Should it be quiet? Should it allow overclocking, etc, etc. If you do not want to overclock and the noise does not matter, then you can simply take the one that is bundled with the intel. At work we have i7-7700 running with them at 100% cpu usage and they are cool enough. If you want it very cool and very silent, shoot for an Noctua NH-D15, but take a note that you need a case that can fit that.
That are some tips, of course not all. Ask if you have any questions.
. You can e.g. go for AMD, which is cheaper than intel but imho (and this is just an "imho", not a de-facto-statement!) you are longer happy with an intel (bought an i7-2600k when it came out (approx 7 years ago?), a friend of mine got that from me when I upgraded and it still plays all the games!).But of course, Simon is right on the graphic card part. I forgot that the graphic card pricing is atm a bit insane because of all the crypto mining bullshit going on.
I would recomment shooting for a PC with an intel i5 of the newest generation (i7 would be overpowered, I only got that because I even compile my own Operating System (gentoo linux), otherwise I would have gone for the i5). That should be enough CPU wise. Then I would shoot for a Mainboard that is capable of SLi or Crossfire (First is nVidia, second would be ATI), whichever you prefer and buy a Graphic Card like the GTX 1070. Then shoot for 16GB or DDR4 RAM. That should make you happy a few years.
Then you need the stuff around that. You can take whichever case you like best (I use the 20€ ones, they are enough for me). You should only check if the Mainboard Form Factor is supported (shoot for an ATX compatible and you are fine, this also would fit smaller ATX ones like ?ATX).
Then look at the components and the TDP value, which means Thermal Design Point and gives you a clue about the maximum amount of Watts your components take. Sum, them up, multiply it with 1.2 and then you have an approx of the size of your power unit. Note: Its best to be at about 80% of its capacity to achieve the best efficiency.
Also take whatever drives you need, e.g. a BluRay Drive or a DVD Burner.
Then the last part would be the cooler. This is a bit of a philosophy. Should it be quiet? Should it allow overclocking, etc, etc. If you do not want to overclock and the noise does not matter, then you can simply take the one that is bundled with the intel. At work we have i7-7700 running with them at 100% cpu usage and they are cool enough. If you want it very cool and very silent, shoot for an Noctua NH-D15, but take a note that you need a case that can fit that.
That are some tips, of course not all. Ask if you have any questions.
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Unpopular opinion, Go with a prebuilt. Normally I would advise against pre built systems because they are usually cheaper to just build yourself but with GPUs and RAM both being around double MSRP, there are some really good deals. On top of that, if you do have your heart set on building, I would hold off with buying your CPU until a few months from now when the second gen Ryzen processors get released. Those seem like a great value vs future proof CPU.
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You are absolutely right there. I would not recommend a K-version to a beginner, as they tend to not to know how to use the multiplicator anyways. So a non-k i5 should be fine for his needs i think.
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What you need to look for is if your just going to GAME on it only or if your going to be a streamer or rendering videos.
Add me up and we can talk on Team Speak and ill show you the way
I build my own Gaming PC and i can show you what parts you would need for what your building.
