Geekscape’s Guide to Building a Low-Budget Gaming PC That Rocks!
Are you interested in the realm of PC gaming, but are too afraid to enter it because of the price tag? Do you think that your only solution is to purchase a pre-built PC directly from a manufacturer? Well fear no more because it is not as expensive as you may think! It IS possible to produce a competitive gaming system for around a $1,000.00 price tag that will play resource intensive games like Crysis, Battlefield or any of the Call of Duty games at smooth framerates. All it WILL require is a basic knowledge on how to assemble a PC and knowledge of your components. But don’t worry, we’ll help guide you as well.
But before we delve deeper into the assembly of your fancy new PC, ready to be built from the ground up, we are going to need to understand what the basic components are that you should be looking for.
Components
You may be wondering, “What are the base components of a computer?” Well, to enlighten the unaware, the base of a PC contains key components that will get the PC booted up. This consists of these following components:
1) Motherboard
2) Processor
3) RAM
4) Video Card
5) PSU (Power Supply Unit)
6) Hard Drive
7) Optical Drive
8) OS (Operating System)
The first thing that a person should always purchase when building a PC is the motherboard. That will serve as your base. Everything else can come in any other order. Now, it isn’t as easy as just browsing the internet and choosing random parts. Certain components require different inputs.
***NOTICE***
The following is presented to you as a source of information to help you better understand how a computer works. I will also teach you what to look for when looking at certain components. You can either read all of this information to educate yourself on the basics, or you can bypass all of this mumble jumble if you already know how things work. Pre-Built configurations will be located after everything has been explained. Now let’s get reading!
Motherboard
When a person is looking at the option to build a PC from the ground up, the first thing they are going to need to look out for is the motherboard, which will serve as the base. From there you begin to add the other components to this base. Think of the motherboard as being the canvas for the painting, and the other components being the different colors available for you to utilize. Now you can’t just go and say “I want that motherboard.” There are different types of motherboards for different types of sockets. For example, an X58 chipset motherboard is only compatible with a socket 1366 processor, which in this case, would be Intel’s I7 900 series. So keep in mind that when you choose a motherboard, you are basically choosing what series of processor is available to you. Now some of you are wondering “what companies manufacture motherboards?” Well luckily for you, you have a wide arrange of companies to look for. There are many other different types of manufacturers, but these are some of the more popular ones that come to mind.
Asus
eVGA
Gigabyte
MSI
Intel
Sapphire
ASRock
If you build your computer with the intention of overclocking, companies such as Asus or eVGA will serve you well. Now that you know your motherboard is going to be your base, you are going to need to figure out what you want to add to that base. As I said before, once you choose your motherboard, you are only limited to what socket that motherboards supports when it comes to processors. For example:
Motherboard (Chipset) | Supported Socket |
H55, H57, P55, and Q57 | LGA 1156 (Socket H)
(You would look for processors under their codename, which is Lynnfield or Clarkdale in this socket’s case.) |
x58 | LGA 1366 (Socket B)
(You would look for processors under their codename, which is Gulftown or Bloomfield in this socket’s case.) |
As you can see, if you choose an x58 motherboard, you are only able use LGA socket 1366 processors. You are probably wondering “How the heck am I going to differentiate between all of these numbers?!? Damn you, Geekscape!” Our answer is: simple, when you pick your motherboard, it’ll tell you what socket it is compatible with on the box. From there, you go on to choose your processor. So when choosing a motherboard, your processor route is predetermined. You can also look for the processors codename, which will present the series under that codename, and its supported socket. If you want the brand new Sandy Bridge processor’s released by Intel, you are going to need to choose a motherboard that supports its socket, which is LGA 1155 (Socket H2) in this case.
NOTE: When purchasing your motherboard, please verify its form factor so you can know that it supports whatever case you may have, or plan on purchasing. Example would be a EATX Motherboard would require a EATX case.
Processors
Now that you have chosen your motherboard, you obviously must now know what processor you are going to be purchasing. The processor is the PC’s brain. It will help you with multi-tasking, gaming, and media programs such as Handbrake, which is used for video encoding/decoding. The processor does many more tasks then just these three, but we’re going to focus on building your PC. The processor does a lot of things when you play a game. It is responsible for the artificial intelligence, the calculations for damages, audio ques, physics (such as you tipping over a can in COD or bringing a building down to rubble in Battlefield), generating/loading the maps, generating the in-game text, and your inputs from the keyboard or controller. The processor literally does just about everything you see happening on the screen. You may not see it, but it ranges from enemies spawning to the cars crashing. That’s all processor. Let’s say you play shooting games; the processor controls the enemies communication. All of their ques to speak, and whatever actions they choose to do is controlled by the processor. Amazing, ain’t it?
You may now be wondering, “Damn, I must need one hell of a processor then.” Believe it or not, you really don’t need the fanciest processor in the world to do all of that, unless you are a person who likes to play RTS (Real Time Strategy) type of games. But when playing games such as Battlefield or COD, you can really be fine with a $200 quadcore CPU. For example an Intel i5 will get you through Battlefield Bad Company 2 fine with a decent video card. Those literally cost around the $100-$200 price range.
RAM
RAM, this stands for random access memory. Since we are speaking about building a gaming PC, I’ll talk about its use in video games. Some people fail to recognize the importance of RAM in video games. I’ll tell you right now, RAM is essential to your gaming PC! You guys know that the processor does its fair share of calculations when running programs on the computer. These calculations can be defined as data. This data is what is stored on RAM. The more RAM you have, the more temporary data can be stored on it.
From there, the RAM offloads this data to the video cards RAM, which is known as VRAM (Virtual RAM). So if you have a lot of RAM, then that means the processor can get its data to the video card far more faster. In video games, there are these things called textures and geometry. This is all calculated by the processor, which then is stored as data onto the RAM. The CPU then transfers this data that was stored in RAM to the video cards RAM. The VRAM then generates what you see. For example, let’s say you play a game such as Counter Strike. The scenery you see, and character models is all calculated by the CPU as data, and is stored onto the RAM real briefly. This data is then transferred from the RAM onto the video cards memory. The video card then renders what you see. Pretty cool ehh? So the more RAM you have means the faster the CPU can get information to the video card.
Some of you are probably thinking, “Uhh is RAM expensive?” Well fortunately for everyone, RAM is not as expensive as it once was. You can find a pair of 1600Mhz 2x4GB worth of DDR3 RAM for around $70. Now some of you are thinking, “Wait! You didn’t mention this 1600Mhz numbers and stuff!!” Well don’t worry because that is the RAM’s clock speed. 1600Mhz is the standard of today. Anything above that will provide you minimal difference, to my knowledge of course. The difference between 1333Mhz, and 1600Mhz is substantial, and it will help in video games. Most motherboards/processors support DDR3 1600Mhz+, and I would recommend purchasing RAM clocked at that speed. In case those wonder about DDR3, the DDR means double data rate, with the number “3” it means double data rate type three. Is it faster than DDR2? Yes, DDR3 is definitely more faster, and power efficient than type 2.
VIDEO CARDS
Easily one of the most expensive components behind the processor when it comes to building a PC, or just the PC in general. When looking for a video card, you are looking at dedicated graphics cards. When building a PC, you will NEVER EVER want an integrated graphics (aka on-board graphics) card. To be frank, they suck. You want a dedicated graphics card, which is what we will be looking for. Now you are probably thinking, “What should I look for when looking at video cards?” Some people will say look at the on-board memory of the card, which can be known as the cards VRAM. Well I’m going to tell you right now, VRAM is the last thing you want to look at.
The video card is only as good as its chip. I really don’t want to get too technical with you guys/gals, since some of you people will have a hard time deciphering this mumble jumble. But if there are some of you that want to know what to look for yourself.. In brief, I suggest looking at the cards specifications. The specifications being the number of streamed processors, bandwidth, core and memory clock amongst other things.
I know that there is some of you that don’t really want to start looking for all of that technical mumble jumble.So my best solution(s) for you is to either PM me, comment, or email me about your budget price for the video card. Then I’ll respond with a recommendation for whatever price you have listed. To help you people in your search, I’ll say AMD is good for their money because they are cheap. Nvidia in the other hand is a bit more expensive, but their cards are also more powerful. This is in my opinion of course. I don’t only speak in terms of gaming either.
Let’s move onto the video cards memory, which is known as VRAM. I already elaborated its contributions to video games, and its importance with RAM. But for those that skimmed through this article. Here is its importance of RAM in short:
1. CPU calculates data, the data is known as textures and geometry (think buildings, character models, etc.)
2. Data is then stored on RAM
3. CPU then transfers data from RAM to VRAM.
4. VRAM then renders what has been calculated.
The more the VRAM, the more the video card can render. All of the nice little visuals you see in your video game is being loaded onto the video card for rendering. This could be the nice little enviroments you see, to the landscape that is being generated. Having a lot of VRAM does not mean you can run whatever games you want at max settings. That solely depends on the power of the GPU. Anyhow, what would I recommend for video card memory? When looking for a card, I suggest looking at the bare minimum of 1GB for video card memory. Also you need to keep in mind that if you want to game at a high resolution, your going to need more VRAM. If that is the case, your going to need to shell out some cash for a pretty nice GPU, but we are discussing about budget PC’s here. So I am I not going to delve any deeper into that.
NOTE: When looking at video cards, please check their PSU minimum wattage requirement. Some cards are more power hungry than others.
PSU’s
Ahh, the PSU! Without it, you won’t have a PC to boot. What does word “PSU” mean? PSU stands for Power Supply Unit, and all of your system power is offloaded onto it. I am going to be straight forward with you guys/gals right now. Don’t cheap out when buying a PSU! Don’t EVER cheap out! Why? Because you get what you pay for. Cheap PSU’s will either fail, or not even last under the system load. A 500 watt PSU might not even handle a system load under 500 watts. Also a cheap PSU can damage your system if it were to catch fire, or worse, explode! If you plan on being cheap. Do it underneath good brands, such as Corsair, OCZ, or CoolerMaster. There are more other good brands out there, but these are some that come to mind.
Now when looking at PSU’s, it would be preferred to look for ones underneath a 80 plus certification. Why? To be frank, energy efficiency, and it will waste 20% or less electric energy as heat at any specific load levels. What does this mean for you? It means your energy bill won’t be as expensive because your PSU is energy efficient. For example:
700 watt PSU with 50% efficiency at a full system load will draw 1400 watts from the main power. This means you would have wasted 700 watts of heat.
700 watt PSU divided by 50% = Remaining power converted into heat
Now if you have a 700 watt PSU with 80% efficiency at a full system load, it will draw 875 watts from the main power. This means you would have wasted 175 watts of heat.
700 watts PSU divided by 80% = 175 watts of heat wasted
Looks nice doesn’t it? Why does the PSU have to be at 80 plus? In brief, it is a certification. As stated before, it means your PSU will be 80% efficient under three specific loads. These specific loads being at 20%, 50% and 100%. Now if it 80 Plus Gold for example, that means it will be an extra X amount more efficient under the three load levels. Such as being 90% more efficient underneath 50% load.
If you are interested in reading up more on it, I suggest visiting this website for a better understanding, (look here).
Hard Drives
What do they contribute to video games? Loading the games data along with the map silly! In other words, loading time. The faster the RPM, the faster the hard drive will load the games data and the map. The standard is 5400 RPM, which is too slow. You want to look for a hard drive that goes at 7200 RPM. Is it more expensive? Barely, you can find some hard hard drives that hold more than 500GB worth of storage around the $100 or lower price tag. Are there hard drives faster than 7200? Yes, they are known as Velociraptors, and they are rated at 10,000 RPM. Would I recommend a 10,000 RPM hard drive? Hell no.Consider hard drives at those speeds to be over priced, and they really aren’t that much faster for the price you would be paying.
If someone would be shelling out money for those types of hard drives, I would recommend purchasing a solid state drive instead. Not only are they significantly faster, but your computer would boot up stupidly fast. Unfortunately we are looking at budget PC’s here, so there is no point in discussing about expensive equipment. If you are interested, comment down below or email me with your questions.
Optical Drives
You know these as CD/DVD drives. Faster they write, the faster the game will install. Are they expensive? No. Can they be expensive? Yes, but that is if you are looking into some that support Blu-Ray movies. They do come in different flavors. The flavors being CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, BD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, or BD-RE. Some of you are probably thinking, “What do the letters mean after the words CD, DVD and BD?” Well for those that don’t know, the letter “R” means recordable. The letters “RW” mean re-writeable. It is pretty self explanatory, but for those that seek more information, (look here).
What should you look for? Well, you want a drive that can read and write on CD’s/DVD’s since games come in those flavors for the computer. There are many manufacturers who produce these drives. Some of the manufactures are:
Sony
Lg
Samsung
Hitachi
Phillips
Pioneer
Asus
Hitachi is good, but others prefer Sony, Samsung, or Asus. Does it matter? Not really, unless you plan on getting some cheap brand, which could break down on you or have very low read/write speeds. It’s all about preference.
OS
OS stands for Operating of System. We are building a gaming PC here, so you are probably going to want Windows, particularly Windows 7. Now do you go and just grab a copy? Nope because there are two different versions of Windows 7. No I am not talking about the Ultimate, Office or whatever edition. I am talking about 32, and 64-bit (or x86-64) editions. Which one should you get? If your processor supports it, 64-bit, but everything almost supports 64-bit so don’t worry about that. Just check to be safe. Now why should you choose 64-Bit? Because 64-Bit in Windows means that you can use more RAM amongst other things. A 32-bit system is limited to 4GB of RAM. Wanna learn more? (Look here).
Keep in mind when you have a 64-bit operating system, it would be advised for you to have a minimal of 4GB worth of RAM. Now RAM is not the only thing that separate the two from each other. The are far more factors that should be considered when operating on a 64-bit operating system. This factor being gaming. Having a 64-bit operating system will future proof for video games that operate on 64-bit OS’s. We are here about building a budget gaming PC, which really is a gaming PC in general. So it would be best if you head in the 64-bit route. The other factors I will not discuss since we are here about building budget gaming PC. If you would like to know more, you can either ask down in the comment section or email me.
WARNING: This is assuming you already have the mouse, keyboard, monitor, and case.
NOTE: All configurations will be generated from TigerDirect, there are other sites available, but this is preferential. If you wish to use other sites such as Newegg, please go ahead and do so.
Configurations
Oh my goodness! If you manage to read all of this, then I bow down for your patience. If you didn’t, then pity. Time to show some pre-built configurations so you can get an idea on how inexpensive a PC can be.
Base (1) Price
Motherboard: MSI A75MA-G55 AMD A Series $100
CPU: AMD A6 Series Quad-Core A6-3650 APU (Clocked @ 2.6Ghz) $120
Video Card: Diamond Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 $200
RAM: PNY XLR8 8GB (2x 4GB) 1600Mhz $55
PSU: Thermaltake 750W 80+ Bronze $90
Hard Drive: WD Caviar Black 500GB, 7200 RPM $55
Optical Drive: ASUS 22x Internal CD/DVD Drive $20
OS: MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit $100
This system (Base 1) would amount to $740. This is not including S&H
***Note: This is an AMD build
Base (2) Price
Motherboard: EVGA Intel P67 FTW SLi Micro $160
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500 3.30Ghz Quad Core $210
Video Card: GeForce GTX 560 Superclocked $210
RAM: PNY XLR8 8GB (2x 4GB) 1600Mhz $55
PSU: Corsair TX750W 80+ Bronze $115
Hard Drive: WD Caviar Black 500GB, 7200 RPM $55
Optical Drive: ASUS 22x Internal CD/DVD Drive $20
OS: MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit $100
This system (Base 2) would amount to $925. This is not including S&H
***Note: This is an Intel build
Base (3) Price
Motherboard: Biostar A880G+ AMD A3 $70
CPU: Athlon II x4 645 Quad Core 3.10Ghz $100
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6790 $145
RAM: Crucial 8GB (2x 4GB) 1333Mhz $45
PSU: PC Power 650W 80+ Silver $100
Hard Drive: Seagate 1TB, 7200 RPM $55
Optical Drive: ASUS 22x Internal CD/DVD $20
OS: MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit $100
This system (Base 3) would amount to $635. This is not including S&H
***Note: This is an AMD build
So did you get all that? Are you ready to build? I hope you are. Building a nice gaming PC from scratch can be intimidating for someone who’s never put a PC together but with some patience and research it can be achieved, and for a price you can afford!
Written By:
Dom Diaz – ddiaz591@gmail.com
Edited by:
Jacob Lopez
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please leave a comment below or email Dom at the email address above. Thanks!
