How do I build a gaming PC?

[CitrusLover]

*This thread has probably come up multiple times, and if you've already answered this question, I apologise

So, I am a console gamer, I just found it easier to put the disk in and play rather than put the disk in, install it, update it fifty-million times, check if my operating system is compatible, etc.

However, the consoles have been getting increasingly mediocre titles filled with cut-scenes, quick time events, heavily scripted gameplay, micro-transactions, and not actual fun or exciting gameplay, while PCs have been getting fantastic games from AAA and indie developers and it just frustrates me.

So, if it's not too much trouble, can you tell me what the steps are to building a gaming PC? or is it much more simple than I think it is?

 

[Daystar Clarion]

If you're not comfortable with building one yourself (like me), it's as simple as picking the parts you want, for the budget you want, and then their tech guys will put it together for you.

The guys I used were very good, they assured me that the parts I picked would all work together, they put it all together, installed the OS, with absolutely no bloatware, and away I went


I noticed you're in the UK. I heartily recommend these guys. I convinced our own Sassafrass to buy a PC from them

http://www.cougar-extreme.co.uk/


If you don't even know what parts you want, just drop them an email, say what your budget is and what you want to use it for (gaming I presume) and they'll build you the best machine they can for that price.

 

[Alfador_VII]

It's not that much more complicated than building a Lego set, with limited instructions and no picture on the box.

But seriously, if you have no experience at all of building a computer, I'd recommend going to a specialist (not one of the big ones) who will build a machine to your specs for you. You can of course upgrade it yourself later.

The first thing to work out is how much do you want to spend? From there it's not hard to get some advice and find out what bits you need.

Without knowing anything about budget I'd recommend avoiding a laptop unless you have a pressing need for a very small machine, or one that needs to move often, and to try to go for Windows 7 rather than 8 if it's still an option.

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

It's not that much more complicated than building a Lego set

The parts are more delicate. It's okay to get a pre-built if one is okay with losing money. And doesn't go with something junky like alienware.

First off, there's a lot of tutorials out there on the internet. And while I called the more delicate that legos, it is rare that something goes wrong. The best part about building yourself, is that if something every does go wrong, it is incredibly easy to fix.

Again, getting a pre-built is okay, but one should make sure they get a decent pre-built. If you are willing to build yourself, though, it's a very rewarding and worthwhile thing. As you'll save a lot of money and be able to re-use cheap parts all the time.

If you want to learn, this is a good place to get started.
Just follow this video step by step, and it should work.

And if you want to know which parts to get, the Falcon Guide is a fix all.
http://www.logicalincrements.com/
Whatever your price range is, you can't really mess up by following this guide.

Also, updating and compatibility aren't much of a thing anymore with stuff like Steam and Windows 7. Things are pretty plug and play. You basically just pay a cheap price and download a game you want.

 

[Sassafrass]

If you're not comfortable with building one yourself (like me), it's as simple as picking the parts you want, for the budget you want, and then their tech guys will put it together for you.

The guys I used were very good, they assured me that the parts I picked would all work together, they put it all together, installed the OS, with absolutely no bloatware, and away I went


I noticed you're in the UK. I heartily recommend these guys. I convinced our own Sassafrass to buy a PC from them

http://www.cougar-extreme.co.uk/


If you don't even know what parts you want, just drop them an email, say what your budget is and what you want to use it for (gaming I presume) and they'll build you the best machine they can for that price.

I can second Daystar's recommendation, I recently got my first proper gaming PC through Cougar and they were really helpful in sorting everything out. They also have a great customer service department that answered my queries in about 2 minutes with no faffing about, no being put on hold or anything like that. Delivery may take a while but it's worth the wait, trust me.

 

[xDarc]

As for actual assembly, the two skills that are hardest to pick up when it comes to building a PC is being able to connect all the case fans, switches, lights and peripherals to the motherboard. The other is applying thermal paste and installing the heatsink fan for the CPU. Anyone can get the damn thing on there, but to do it right- yeah.

I prefer using the single BB sized dollup of paste in the center of the CPU, and then press the heatsink down to spread it nice and evenly. Never use a stock heatsink, unless you want to scrape the thermal pad that they come with off first. Some people will tell you to spread it with a credit card, but that's silly, one drop and some pressure will make a nice even spread every time.

You'll want to clean the smooth metal surfaces with rubbing alcohol and tissue first. Because it evaporates quickly and you will let it air dry, the idea is the most surface to surface contact between heatshield on chip and heatsink that goes to fan, with the paste filling in the tiny pores, microscopic scratches, etc. You do not need a thick layer of paste, that usually will make things worse.

It's also bad if you get your oils/salts from your hand in the thermal pad/grease/paste. I killed a P4 by getting a thumbprint on the thermal pad, over time the thermal material ate away/shifted where I touched it so there was no contact being made with the center of the heatshield on the chip. Toasted. I returned it and thankfully they had no idea what had happened.


So how do you know if you have a good CPU/Heatsink connection? Monitor your temps and compare what other people are seeing at similar clocks/cooler/case/ambient temp. With a good aftermarket air cooler, good paste and good connection, you should see temps in the low 30Cs at idle if your ambient temp is around 65-75F.

The rest of actual assembly stuff is mostly pretty simply, and any other challenges lies in selecting the right sized power supply, there are many "Power supply calculator"s if you google. You'll want to start with picking out a CPU and then finding what kinda socket the chip has, find a mobo with that socket, and then find the peripherals supported by the mobo. Don't forget mobos also have a form factor, many cases will fit multiple form factors, but always double check. I always go with a full size ATX mobo and mid-tower

It also helps to be aware of the price to performance ratios for the hardware you are selecting. It kinda peaks at a certain point where you will see two kinds of RAM say, and the regular DDR3 1600 is 50 bucks, and the super duper DDR3 over 9000 is 150 bucks... but in actual performance you might see an extra 2-5 FPS. Single digit percentage gains in most applications. You can find a synthetic benchmark that will make spending any amount of money look warranted, but you need to understand the difference between synthetic benchmarks which test a narrow function, and real world application/game performance... otherwise you'll want to spend way more money than is needed.

Also, I never do SLI/Crossfire. Two cards does not necessarily equal two times power of one card, there is scaling, which has gotten better over the years- especially with the most recent AMD cards, but keep in mind the cost of your PSU, mobo, case and cooling just shot up.

IMHO go with the best single card solution you can afford. That's the only category I will go balls out and buy a 7970 or other flagship card for. Other opinions include: You'll need at least one SSD for the OS to run on and main games you are playing, High end memory is a waste of money, stick with single slot PCI-E mobos, do not skimp on PSU, and do not get one larger than is needed. (650-700 watts gold cert is plenty for single gfx card) (should be modular w/ silver/gold efficiency cert) You'll get great overclocks on air, (get a great aftermarket cooler w/ copper heat pipes) water cooling is for bragging overclocks, and get a case with with holes to run your cabling through/behind a panel. I use a corsair carbide 400-R. I never really invest in sound cards because I do most of my gaming with headphones on anyway, but that's just me.

 

[Kinitawowi]

First up, do your research. The trickiest part about building your own PC isn't the physical construction, it's being aware of what parts you're actually going to need. I had a guy at work the other day who was all set to buy an Asus X79 Sabretooth motherboard (because he heard the X79 chipset was good) with an i7-3770K processor (which again, he'd heard good things about) - until I told him that they wouldn't fit, because one's LGA 2011 and one's LGA 1155.

Set your budget, shop around, and find a couple of possibilities for each component because one will be out of stock somewhere. Don't forget the little bits like cables (most HDDs don't come with them; if you're lucky you might get a couple with the motherboard), keyboards, mice, monitors and speakers; and remember that a legit copy of Windows 7 will set you back at least £100.

And for the love of god, don't cheap out on the PSU.

If you're sufficiently scared of the build process, I've just had a look at that Cougar Extreme site people have been mentioning and their builder looks pretty good. http://www.computerplanet.co.uk has a similar one which incorporates sanity checking, like what coolers will actually go in which cases (Cougar's just let me put a 750W PSU in a build which alleges it needs 850W for the GFX card). If nothing else, they're useful for checking compatabilities.

I'll also mention the same thing I mentioned last time this thread came out - there's a whole new series of Intel processors out in about two weeks, so it may be worth rechecking everything then.

I'm running around speculating for a new system build myself at the moment. I've jotted down something like this (and advise you to do similar):

CPU:
Motherboard:
Graphics card:
RAM:
SSD:
Hard Drive:
Case:
Cooler:
PSU:
Optical drive:
SATA cables (x3):
OS:

Those are the basic bits you're going to need (and you pretty much are going to need a separate cooler and an SSD if you're gaming). Shove it all in an Excel spreadsheet, find out your components and add it all up. (I've filled out one of these for my planned build; allowing £220 for an i5-4670K and £150 for a motherboard, as wild guesses - nobody is listing Haswell prices yet, the gits - I'm on about £1100; it includes significant overkill that I could scale back on if need be, though (16Gb RAM BECAUSE FUCK YOU THAT'S WHY), and I can trim down even further by buying a couple of bits from where I work and getting staff discount...

Also, sad as it is, most online guides are for Americans and priced in dollars. Parts in the UK cost a lot more than just a price translated counterpart. Logical Increments (a great site) cites $210 for a HD 7870 right now, or about £138 (says XE); I can't find one for under £175. The $311 (or £205) i7-3770K is nearer £250. $1000 may get you a great gaming PC in the States, but £661 won't get you that much here. That's just the way it is, I'm afraid. (Update: I've just noticed that LI actually has a UK option. XEing the price from dollars to pounds knocks you back about one and a half of their tiers.)


For the record, here's what I came up with:

CPU: i5-4670K £220 (wild guess; maybe £280 for the i7-4770K)
Motherboard: some Z87 thing £150 (wild guess)
Graphics card: Sapphire 7870HD GHz Edition 2Gb Tahiti £174.99 (not quite sure about this one)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 2x8Gb 1600MHz DDR3 £107.99
SSD: Samsung 840 250Gb £125.99 (could save a lot by going 128Gb, but...)
Hard Drive: Western Digital 2Tb Caviar £71.99 (but need to check RPM)
Case: Cooler Master CM Storm Enforcer £65.99 (really want a Silverstone RV03 £104.99, though)
Cooler: Gelid Tranquillo Rev 2 £22.13, although might need something better to cool Haswell (maybe BeQuiet! Shadow Rock Pro £35.99; liquid SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF ME)
PSU: Corsair HX750 Modular £107.50
Optical drive: Pioneer BDR-S07XLT £63.61 (or ditch the Blu-Ray and just go DVR-S20LBK for £16.50)
SATA cables (x3): some cheapos £1.79; Akasa do a decent one for £4.43, but need to check SATA-III compatability on everything
OS: already got so don't actually need ;-)

All told: £1107.36. That's the cheapest parts from four suppliers (Aria, Scan, eBuyer and Overclockers); factoring in work discounts on some parts can get me down to £1062.06.

If I go all one supplier for convenience, Aria comes out best at £1140.40.

 

[The Lugz]

So, if it's not too much trouble, can you tell me what the steps are to building a gaming PC? or is it much more simple than I think it is?

STEP 1

choose a budget

STEP 2

be prepared to spend more on accessories. cables, and a screwdriver.

STEP 3

tell us the budget.

then we can ( and will ) help.

 

[Rendahli]

This thread is a great idea after the rather lacklustre console reveals.

I'm also planning on building my own pc and I've got about £1000 to spend but haven't got a clue where to start. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread...

 

[The Lugz]

This thread is a great idea after the rather lacklustre console reveals.

I'm also planning on building my own pc and I've got about £1000 to spend but haven't got a clue where to start. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread...

well, for £1k on our fair little island you can get a fairly awesome pc.

i'll spec you up a few components if you like, do you have a screen?

 

[Yuuki]

So, if it's not too much trouble, can you tell me what the steps are to building a gaming PC? or is it much more simple than I think it is?

STEP 1

choose a budget

STEP 2

be prepared to spend more on accessories. cables, and a screwdriver.

STEP 3

tell us the budget.

then we can ( and will ) help.

Agreed with everything except Step 2. You don't need accessories/extra cables and with the majority of the new cases you don't even need a screwdriver (unless installing an aftermarket heatsink).

 

[direkiller]

http://www.cougar-extreme.co.uk/

The last time I went to a website named like that one it was....not pleasant.

OP: I'd be happy to offer you gaming PC advice if you want it. What's your budget, and how much work do you want to put into building it?

great cases
bad website name


OT:
This fourm is very helpful if you have a budget or parts picked out. Not as good as tom's hardware or a similar defecated tec site but we can muddle by.

 

[triggrhappy94]

It's as easy as putting together a Lego set. A very expensive Lego set that'll break if you touch it wrong.
But don't let that get you worried.

No, seriously it's not hard.
Choosing a budget is normally the hardest part. For some frame of reference, you can build a cheap but still very competent PC for roughly $500.

I also suggest you get very familiar with Tom's Hardware. It's a PC hardware site that does tests on new products and has forums.

 

[Altorin]

my advice is, if you haven't at least sit in on the building of at least 2-3 computers, never put one together yourself. As "easy" as computerphiles claim it to be, that statement is after years of working inside computers. Once you know what you're doing it's fairly simple, but there are any number of little things that can go wrong and unless you have an intimate understanding of what each component does and what it looks like when they fail, you probably won't manage to do it.

Luckily, with today's social networking, you probably have access to at least one person to help put together a list of required items and give you technical knowhow when determining what pieces to get. Then it's a simple matter of buying said person a pizza and maybe giving them some money, and having them swing by and help you set it up - a lot of times, these guys really like dealing with fresh components, and with some money and promise of a good meal, you can probably find someone to help you.

Pay a lot of attention when putting it together. Ask questions.. After you've gone through this process a few times, you'll be able to put the NEXT PC together.. as long as we don't blow ourselves up or get hit by a giant spacerock in the meantime.

 

[freakonaleash]

I would suggest you just buy a computer on newegg, its more expensive to buy all the parts individually and put it together.

 

[stringtheory]

For anyone building their own I'd recommend using this website: http://pcpartpicker.com/
It'll keep track of your build, and if the part's in their system it'll point out any incompatibilities, and keep track of the prices on the various parts

 

[The Lugz]

So, if it's not too much trouble, can you tell me what the steps are to building a gaming PC? or is it much more simple than I think it is?

STEP 1

choose a budget

STEP 2

be prepared to spend more on accessories. cables, and a screwdriver.

STEP 3

tell us the budget.

then we can ( and will ) help.

Agreed with everything except Step 2. You don't need accessories/extra cables and with the majority of the new cases you don't even need a screwdriver (unless installing an aftermarket heatsink).

that's exactly the first hurdle most people face there is the odd screw to do up and the exact cables may not match when I was building my niece's pc she was missing a sata to molex lead and it's just an annoying niggle, all i'm saying is don't spend ALL your cash on the main components or you may wind up with an expensive paperweight for a month till you get paid again. preparation is everything!

 

[cikame]

There are quite a few websites which have pre built gaming machines on sale, i'm too lazy to build them anymore so that's what i do, i even bought one on ebay one time.