PC Gaming has sat as the undisputed king of gaming for a number of years now. It offers a lot of gaming experiences that consoles simply cannot offer. Advanced modding communities. Fan-content and console commands. Use of custom programs to create gaming movies or take photos in-game beyond the boundaries of normal console screenshots. And PC has the biggest gaming library out of any system out there. And it is even larger if you count ROMS and emulators.
One of the biggest wonders of PC gaming is that you can change and upgrade the system as needed. As opposed to having to buy a new console when your old one dies out. And on that topic today we are going to be providing you with buyers guide to building a powerful gaming PC.
Know Your Games
Before we get into the specifics of building a PC, you need to know what you want the gaming PC for. For example, if you want to play games like Rise of Kingdoms PC then you won’t need to break the bank too much and could even settle for a gaming laptop. But if you plan to run COD at full graphics then you will want something far more powerful.
The big thing to keep in mind is most games can run on most PCs at lower graphics settings. So you need to figure out if you value functionality over graphics or if you want both. Bearing in mind that better graphics and smoother gameplay means a higher cost.
Motherboard
The first step is to find a powerful motherboard. The motherboard is the connector of the entire system. Skeleton of the machine. A powerful motherboard will allow all the components of your gaming PC to work together with greater speed and efficiency. A cheaper one will be fine but may introduce slightly longer load times.
The best motherboard currently on the market is the Asus ROG Maximus XII Extreme. What makes it so powerful is its wide range of video and expansion ports paired with some powerful hardware.
CPU
The brain of the operation. Without a CPU a PC cannot function. CPU, or central processing unit, basically tells all the other components what to do and when. If you click on an icon on your desktop, the CPU then tells the other systems to open the program and display the related images and visuals.
You will see a lot of stuff about cores. Duo-Core. Quad-Core. A core is essentially an extra processor. So the more cores a CPU has, the more efficient and powerful it is going to be. Intel I7 Quadcore is a great example of a powerful CPU. But it is important for the CPU, as with the rest of the PC, that it stays cool. Leading us into the next area.
Cooling System
Electricity produces heat. And a PC might as well be an oven while it is running. This is why any PC worth it’s damn will need a powerful cooling system to go along with it. There are a number of different cooling systems that work. You could go for a classic double fan system. Or some more modern rigs are making use of liquid cooling paired with fans to keep things running smoothly.
To help the cooling along it helps to have a well-ventilated room and try to position your rig somewhere open, rather than fitting it snuggly into a cramped space.
Graphics Card
This is the thing that gets discussed the most when looking at building a powerful gaming PC. The graphics card is the all-important factor in how good your games look. Without it, you won’t be able to render anything and might as well stick to Microsoft office. Any 3D rendering will need a graphics card to process it. And the more powerful the card, the higher you cans set your games graphics settings too.
The graphics card will be one of the most expensive parts of the PC, but you don’t want to skimp out on this part at all. If you really want a high-def gaming experience, we recommend you save up a bit longer and really fork out for a good one.