Its quite common to hear gamers - especially console gamers - complain that gaming PCs are too expensive and aren't worth the cost. But nothing could be further from the truth. You can get a gaming PC for just a little more cash than a console, and it would perform significantly better too! You just need to know some minor details, and you're good to go!
The first and most important point - NEVER go for pre-built gaming PCs (I've already mentioned this in a previous post). They often have imbalance regarding the components, and are almost always grossly overpriced. If gaming is your main focus, you could save a lot of money by handpicking the components and building the PC yourself (or getting it done by a professional at a nominal cost).
As a gamer, the main component you need to focus on, is the graphics card. Almost all games depend heavily on the graphics card for performance, compared to other components (except for some real time strategy games which depend more on the processor). So just allocate 40% of your budget towards the graphics card, and the remaining 60% towards your other components. Of course, this is just a guideline and not a rule-of-thumb, because too much of imbalance tends to bottleneck the graphics card.
The next component you need to focus on, is the processor. Don't just rush to buy the fastest processor or the one with most cores. They would just be an overkill. A mid-range processor would be more than sufficient for most gaming needs (except in the case of real time strategy games, as previously mentioned). Games almost always perform much better with a high end graphics card and mid-range processor, than a mid-range graphics card and high-end processor. Also, if you aren't conscious about brands, consider pairing an AMD processor with an AMD graphics card. This would save you a lot of money and give almost identical performance to the Intel processor/NVidia graphics card combo, and better performance than the AMD processor/NVidia graphics card or Intel processor/AMD graphics card combos.
Then comes the RAM. In most cases, a good strategy would be to select the highest operating frequency of the RAM (specified in MHz) and then buy the largest capacity of RAM you can afford for that particular operating frequency. Only the operating frequency of RAM affects game performance, and too not much. The amount of RAM usually affects only the time required for the game to launch, the time taken to load the game from the game menu etc. but not the actual performance of the game itself.
The final important component you need to consider, is of course the motherboard. An expensive motherboard usually just provides additional features (such as more PCI slots, faster USB ports, multi-GPU support, or more RAM slots) but doesn't directly contribute towards the PC's performance. So there isn't really any need to splurge on a motherboard. Just list out the features you absolutely need in a motherboard, and then go for the least expensive board with those features from a reasonably good brand.
The there are the other components. As a gamer, it makes sense to go for a 5.1 surround speakers (least expensive one from a good brand is sufficient) as well as a 5.1 channel sound card. The sound card can be omitted if the motherboard supports onboard 5.1 audio. Go for a full HD display which is at least 21 inches diagonally. As of now, a 1080p display ought to be enough. Resolutions higher than this would be an overkill unless your display is 50 inches or more. Make sure your cabinet is roomy and has good airflow, because gaming is a resource-intensive process which tends to heat up the components. Go for a regular keyboard/mouse (no need of expensive gaming keyboard/mouse) combo, the largest internal hard disk you can afford, and an optical disc drive. I also recommended getting a good controller, but its in no way a necessity.
This pretty much sums it up. I'm not going into details regarding the internet connection, because that depends on way too many factors. Hope this has been useful for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment