Building a Gaming PC: an Introduction

So you’re in the market for a gaming computer, and you are looking to buy the most powerful one you can get. If you were to go to one of the popular gaming computer sites like Alienware or iBuypower and buy it from there, you would definitely be looking at a price tag of between $3,000 to even $5,000. Paying for it can be the fastest way to get a hold of your super gaming PC, but there is another way to get it your computer; you can build one.

This second alternative may take you a bit longer to get it together, but you can make an incredibly fast and powerful computer yourself for a fraction of the cost of buying one from the above companies. And the learning curve is really not that steep. It really isn’t that difficult. The best part about the whole endeavor is that ultimately you will get exactly what you want.

The concept is actually very simple. You simply buy all the different components separately and then you assemble and configure the finished product yourself. Even though there will be some leg work on your part, in the end there will be an undeniable feeling of accomplishment.

The benefits are obvious. You will save about 50% to 80% of the cost of a professionally made gaming PC. Also, this new custom gaming PC can be faster than most high performance computers on the market.

Another great benefit of building your own computer is all the great knowledge you will gain about your hardware and what it can do.  And lastly you will have ultimate control of the budget and the quality of computer that you put together. So let’s get to it!

These are the components that you will need to build your gaming computer:

1)      Mother board

2)      Gaming CPU

3)      Hard Drive

4)      RAM memory

5)      Gaming Video Card

6)      Sound Card

7)      Power Supply

8)      Monitor

9)      Keyboard & Mouse

10)   Computer case or tower

These components will all be the optimal components for gaming, which means they will most likely be the top of the line parts. For example, a great CPU for gaming would be Pentium’s Core i5 or Corei7. And you can also choose to go with AMD. Their Phenom X4 models are very good processors and very inexpensive. Recently, AMD has introduced their Phenom II x6 microprocessor, and it’s making waves as being the fastest CPU for under $200.

Once you have your processor picked out, you then need to find a mother board that can handle the CPU’S Performance. At the same time that you are choosing the motherboard for the processor, you also have to be keeping in mind that you will also need to find a high end video card video card and a sound card that are compatible with the motherboard. Most likely, the new video card will be a PCI express graphics card since the old AGP cards are becoming obsolete.

It is also suggested that you pick up a really fast and really big hard drive. The recommended speed is 7200 rpm’s of speed. Hard drive capacity keeps going up and the prices keep dropping, per gig that is.

The hard drive speed allows for quick access of the information on the drive. The interface is also very important. In general, you should stick to the old ATA or Advanced Technology Attachment interface, preferably the Serial type. The SCSI interface is much faster but ultimately unnecessary.

And finally, don’t forget the RAM. For gaming, about 4 to 6 gigabytes of DDR3 memory would suffice.

Remember these are the core components for your bare bones gaming power house. There are many additional accessories for the avid gamer such as headphones, gaming seat, and the gaming mouse and keyboard.

Now go to our step by step recommendation on building your own gaming computer here!