If you are planning to build your dream gaming pc but have no idea where to start, then we got you covered. Choosing the components for the PC can be difficult but by the end of this article, you will have a basic understanding of building your gaming PC. The guide will try to cover all the common parts of a gaming PC and helps you sort the various options to get the perfect PC to play your favourite games.
Before going to the guide let us understand, What Is a Gaming PC? A gaming PC is an entire gaming and computing experience. It is often custom-built to the owner’s requirements and the owner usually spends hours upon hours tweaking, playing, and updating the games on the system to suit their tastes. Whether it be a simple desktop gaming pc or a gaming laptop with amazing features, a gaming PC will allow you to play your games better than ever. Building a gaming pc is not daunting as it might seem. Once you understand how to do it then you can make your gaming PC.
In this article, we will try to give a step-by-step guide to setting up your gaming PC. But keep in mind that you can build a very good gaming PC, but it does take time and effort to do so. So read and do all the things that you need to do. It’s time to get started on building your gaming PC.
1. Understanding your Hardware Requirements: To build a good gaming pc, you need to know the hardware requirements as per your gaming style. The main components to look for are Cabinet/Power Supply, Processor, Graphics Card, Motherboard, Cooling system, Storage, and Memory. We will try to cover about most important components in the article but the selection of these is majorly dependent on the gaming level of the individual. For instance, games like CS: GO with the lowest game settings may only require up to 4GB of RAM, whereas for a Game like COD: Warzone, you might need to install up to 16GB of memory at the medium/high game settings.
2. Choosing a Graphics Card and Processor: Choosing a graphics card and a processor is a very important task, then you might think. For a gaming pc to run at its best it should have a powerful processor and a very powerful graphics card as the processor has a direct impact on your gaming performance and the graphics card has a direct impact on the graphical fidelity. There are two categories of graphics cards, these are dedicated graphics cards and multi-purpose graphics cards. The dedicated graphics cards are designed to offer the best graphics experience for gaming whereas multi-purpose graphics cards are even used in non-gaming pc. So, it is always best to go for Dedicated as well as Multi-purpose GPU.
3. Choosing the Power Supply and Cooling Supply: Power and Cooling come next. You would want to make sure, that your components are getting enough power and cooling to avoid issues related to overheating. The power supply should ideally be between 600-850 Watts. A cooling system with Rotations between 600-1500 RPM is recommended. If you have extra pockets, then you can add liquid cooling to your PC which will add extra layer of protection for your components.
4. Choosing the Motherboard: The motherboard is the main component in your PC that connects every component. While choosing a Motherboard, the most important thing you will consider is the form factor. Form factor means the size of the motherboard to accommodate different components. Bigger the size, the more components you can accommodate. The most common sizes available in the motherboards are – EATX (Extended ATX), ATX, MATX (Micro ATX), and Mini ATX. The form factor from largest to smallest in motherboards are: EATX>ATX>MATX>Mini ATX
5. Choosing the Cabinet: For the cabinet, you need to decide on the size of your motherboard and the number of components you want to install. The larger the size of the motherboard, the bigger the cabinet you will require. There are mainly 3 sizes available – Full Tower, Mid-Tower, and Mini-ITX. If you are going for the standard ATX motherboards, then Full Tower or Mid-tower should be your choice. Unlike these two sizes, mini-ITX can only fit mini-ITX motherboards.
6. Choosing the memory and storage: These include RAM and HDD/SSD respectively. RAM or Random Access Memory is the volatile memory that can boost your PC performance and improve the frame rates when playing games. Before you decide on the RAM capacity and frequency, check what RAM type is compatible with your PC. After that check for the capacity and speed (frequency). For a gaming PC, a minimum of 8GB of DDR4 RAM is recommended. Next comes the storage options. Unlike RAM and other volatile memory, these storage options do not get reset after reboot. In this category, you have three options – SSD (Solid State Drive), HDD (Hard Disk Drive), Hybrid of SSD & HDD. SSD are fast but they are expensive whereas HDDs might be slower, but they are cheap. So, depending on the budget and gaming needs, one can select a suitable option. Generally, it would be preferred to have a hybrid option of both SSD and HDD.
Final Thoughts
To sum up, DIYing your gaming PC is not hard. The main issue is to select and install the right components that suit your budget and your gaming needs. This can be solved by short research about the components and accessories that align with your needs. Hopefully, this guide has provided the information you were looking for to build your gaming PC!