I want to join the PC Elite...what next?

[NitoSpeak]

I've recently started saving up money with my new job and intend to become a PC gamer. As I look at the custom built PC's on www.cyberpowerpc.com I realize I don't know what exactly I need.

Money won't be an issue, and I have a monitor, I just need to know what the's most important part of making a gaming PC? What are the red herrings? What do I need to spend more money on, and what do I need to back off on. Basically, I just don't want to rip myself off by buying a bunch of upgrades I won't need. I'm new to all this fancy top of the line equipment, I need a pro to guide me and set me on the path of the righteous man.

At this point I want a rig that will play titles at max settings flawlessly, including the most graphically intensive games on the market...Help me out guys. Help me build a gaming behemoth.

 

[dagens24]

Garbage PCs are garbage. Grab all your parts off of newegg and build it yourself.

 

[Radeonx]

In terms of buying advice, don't buy something for $2000 just because it is $2000 and looks fancy.
You can get a top notch gaming PC for $1000 max. My $600 PC can run every game I've come across at max settings.

 

[New Troll]

Processors. They are the key to victory!

 

[fundayz]

If you want to become a "PC Elite" as you call it, you might as well build your own computer from scratch. Not only will you save money, but you can truly customize the machine exactly how you want.

It's not as hard as it sounds as it's mostly just fitting parts on a motherboard and then installing the OS. There are plenty of guides on the internet, and internet stores such as Newegg provide great prices.

 

[loc978]

What parts you should worry about the most rather depend on what kind of games you intend to play, but yeah... order the parts and assemble it yourself.

 

[WanderingFool]

I've recently started saving up money with my new job and intend to become a PC gamer. As I look at the custom built PC's on www.cyberpowerpc.com I realize I don't know what exactly I need.

Money won't be an issue, and I have a monitor, I just need to know what the's most important part of making a gaming PC? What are the red herrings? What do I need to spend more money on, and what do I need to back off on. Basically, I just don't want to rip myself off by buying a bunch of upgrades I won't need. I'm new to all this fancy top of the line equipment, I need a pro to guide me and set me on the path of the righteous man.

At this point I want a rig that will play titles at max settings flawlessly, including the most graphically intensive games on the market...Help me out guys. Help me build a gaming behemoth.

FOOL!!!

You cannot become a PC Elitist. That is the hole point of PC Elitism...

*necessary Evil laugh*

Bhru haha (or however the fuck it goes, also, the spelling of whole as hole is intentional, what it means though is another matter.)

Oh, forgot, you newegg, or tiger direct (I think that it.) thats where a friend of mine got the parts for his super computer.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

My $600 PC can run every game I've come across at max settings.

(Try to) play Crysis on max settings. Then go to your room and think about what you said.

As for the OP, DO NOT skimp out on the video card. Even if you have an extreme absolute zero cooled processor and enough RAM to choke a cow, if you don't have a half-way decent graphics card then it will drag the whole thing down to hell.

 

[Zer_]

Delving into building your own PC not only gives you a cheaper PC, but it also gives you the knowhow to do at least some basic troubleshooting whenever something goes wrong. Consider that too.

 

[Radeonx]

My $600 PC can run every game I've come across at max settings.

(Try to) play Crysis on max settings. Then go to your room and think about what you said.

I did.
Building your own PC is far cheaper and I've beaten the top PC taxing games on max settings.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

Power supply, OP. If you go cheap on that, your shiny gaming rig will fail on you and become a shiny pile of crap that doesn't run.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

You need to build it yourself. Newegg is a wonderful retailer with great sales and amazing customer service.

Things you probably don't need: soundcard. Unless you know a reason that you need one, you probably don't need one.

Things you need: CPU, motherboard, heat sink (stock heatsinks tend to be terrible, also it's not a bad idea to buy some cheap arctic silver to replace the ceramic thermal paste that will probably come with it), a big enough case (I cannot stress this enough, non-stock heat sinks tend to be large and can require a large case), a big enough power supply (there are calculators all over the internet), memory (at this point, DDR3 is probably worth it if you have a compatible CPU, 4GB is probably sufficient, 6 is nice and memory is cheap), a graphics card, a hard drive (you can RAID if you want, I've never found it to be worth the hassle, nor are the extra-fast hard drives usually worth the money, the deskstar 1TB drives were a great deal a while ago, probably still are), and a copy of whatever OS you plan to run (probably Windows 7 since you're intending to game, ideally x64 since you really should be building an x64 system).

Bear in mind that a LOT of standards are in transition right now. So if you buy a CPU and motherboard that can't use DDR3 memory, you're going to be unhappy if, later down the road, you want to upgrade to it and can't. Even if they don't seem to give the most power for your money, going with new standards will make you happy for upgrading.

As for what to buy, my general rule of thumb is to look at the cheapest of the latest generation. The difference between generations is usually fairly large, but the difference between the various bins of the same generation tends to be less pronounced. So if you're looking at NVidia cards, look at the latest generation, but tend toward the lower end of the generation (I'm currently running a GTX 470 for instance, which was the best deal I could find on the newest generation when I built this machine).

 

[TheDarklite]

You most certainly want to build it yourself or get a friend to build it for you. This is the only way to avoid being ripped off.

I will list some specs for you (as a starting point at least) and you can go from there. I'm not saying you have to get these or that these are the best parts to use, it is merely to help you. In other words, I don't want to start an argument with other forum users as that tends to happen with these threads lol.

Here goes:
CPU: Now you really should be going for a quad core or higher. I would recommend an AMD as they tend to give the most bang for your buck. A good starting point is an AMD Phenom II X4 965 @ 3.4GHz. It is a quad core, fairly cheap and has a high clock rate.
RAM: For your RAM you will want at least 4GB's of DDR3 RAM. The higher the clock rate of the RAM the better, but keep in mind you will need to get a motherboard that supports it.
Video Card: Now this is the most important part for any gaming computer, and you will get A LOT of people giving you their opinions on the best card. Now I personally would recommend a high end ATI card, as again they seem to get the best bang for your buck. I use an ATI HD5770 1GB card although that is getting a tiny bit dated so you would want to go for something from the 6 series - Perhaps a 6850 or 6870. Nvidia is a very good brand to use though if you are willing to spend a bit more. Just make sure any card you grab has at least 1GB of VRAM.
Motherboard: This is an important decision but I am a little behind on the current models. If you are going to loosely follow my build then you will need to get an AM3 socket board that supports DDR3 memory. Make sure it also has PCI-express 2.0 slots (for your video card) although almost any modern board should have these anyway.
Hard Drive: More important than capacity is the speed of the hard drive. If money becomes an issue, make sure you get a 7200RPM drive. If money is not much of an issue then try to get an SSD (Solid State Drive). If you go down the SSD route then the best option is to get a small one to install Windows and any games on, then purchase a larger hard drive to be used for storage (eg. music, movies, etc).
Power Supply: If you plan on running high end, power consuming parts then you will need a decent power supply. Probably get a minimum of 750W but it does depend on what you put in your PC. Corsair is a good brand to consider.
Case: It might not seem important but you will need to get a decent case to house all of your parts in. As a rule, the higher performance your computer is - the more heat it will let off. You will need a case with sufficient airflow to keep your CPU and Video Card (as well as everything else) cool. A CoolerMaster case is probably one of the better brands to use, but there are dozens of brands to choose from. Also, keep in mind if you are getting a larger Video Card, you will need a case that can fit it.

And finally some other things you don't want to forget to buy:
Optical Drive such as a DVD burner.
Windows. Windows 7 is your best bet (XP is quite old now).
Cables. By god everyone seems to forget about SATA cables I swear...

Now that is about the best I can do for you at the moment, and I apologize if I left anything important out.

Hope this helped

 

[octafish]

Power supply, OP. If you go cheap on that, your shiny gaming rig will fail on you and become a shiny pile of crap that doesn't run.

Amen. 80 Plus rating is a must, just don't buy one that is of uncertain manufacture or underpowered. Your machine won't use more power than it needs so if you over budget on watts it won't cost you any more that the extra you paid for the PSU.

My advice, building now you should jump on Sandy Bridge, for gaming the i5 2500k, you will need an aftermarket heatsink but that CPU is a beast of an overclocker. The motherboards have all been recalled however and replacements won't be available until April. So you should have some time to plan. I'm making to jump from the 775 socket and ddr2 in April myself.

Everything is reviewed online, just make sure you check a couple of sources and lurk at the PC construction message boards. You'll learn everything you need to know by searching the archives on those boards.

 

[Irridium]

In terms of buying advice, don't buy something for $2000 just because it is $2000 and looks fancy.
You can get a top notch gaming PC for $1000 max. My $600 PC can run every game I've come across at max settings.

To add to this, I built mine for about $400 USD. 3 years ago, and it can run games these days on med-high settings just fine.

So yeah, building your PC is the way to go. And contrary to popular belief, you don't need the best of the best to have fun.

 

[Watchmacallit]

Okay, most important parts.
Your processor.
Graphics card...I'm not 100% about this but nvidia is a better option as it supports nvidia phys x a hell of a lot better and a lot of games are using that technology now. (CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG!!!)
Cooling...You need cooling.
Power supplies. If they aren't right it can screw everything up.
RAM...I don't think you need more than 4gig since you will be running one game at a time.

OS, I'd go for windows 7.

 

[Bigsmith]

Spoiler: I wrote this before reading op but I didn't want to delete it

Right,

Nvidia graphics card (although ATI hasn't let me down)
Mother board - has to match the processor (do the research before buying basically)
SATA hard drive and disk drive, will increase data transfer rate. (again make sure the mother board has SATA connections although most if not all do)

Ram, make sure you get the right one, DD3 is standard now, but make sure the mother board can support it. Make sure your mother board can support more then 3gb as well. Although you will not need more then 4 to game unless you plan on either running like 3 games at once over 3/4 screens.

Processor - has to match the motherboard (Go for 64bit, probably.. quad core)

Cooling, depending on how much money depends on what you need.

Basic three fans:
-one on the motherboard
-one sucking air in
-one blowing it back (creates a flow)

A heat sink should come with the motherboard (never bought one so wouldn't know).

If your really willing to push the boat out then for cooling go for water, but don't get that unless your generating the heat in the first place other wise it's a waste of both power and money.


Power supply

Make sure it has the right connectors, possibly a few 6pins for the graphics card (if your splashing out)
All of them come with the power leads for the motherboard, hard drive and Disk drive. But it doesn't really which one you get, it takes what it needs from the power supply at the end of the day.

Over all? motherboard. Without a good motherboard you can't support good, fast Ram or processors.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I'm super lazy right now, but there are tons of threads on this where great advice is given, (great advice has been given in this thread too) so searchbar those if you really need more in detail depth, otherwise newegg is generally the website to go to, it has awesome deals all the time (get them on your email list, its pretty helpful)