The Gaming PC Building/Upgrade Thread

[Garcian Smith]

03/04/2010 UPDATE: Added the "Cooling" section.

03/03/2010 UPDATE: Lots of minor updates. Revamped the CPU section to recommend tri- and quad-cores over duals, added Radeon 5830 info, revamped the power supply section a bit, and made a few other minor tweaks here and there.

02/16/2010 UPDATE: Reformatted a few sections and added easier-to-read part-picking recommendations.

 

We seem to get a lot of posts in this subforum about either building or upgrading PCs, resulting in a lot of conflicting and confusing information coming from various posters and their varying opinions. Therefore, I figured that we needed a catch-all thread with information about building or upgrading your PC.

 

GENERAL INFORMATION

1) Why should I become a PC gamer?

A) The PC platform offers several advantages over home consoles. First and foremost is variety: Thanks to a vast enthusiast/indie dev community, the library of PC games out there is much more open and diverse than anything that any single console manufacturer can offer. Second is the price: PC games are most often cheaper than their console ounterparts (especially when you take into account Steam sales and the like), and many great PC games can be downloaded for free. Third, customizability: The PC platform is the most flexible, by far, allowing you to run games at any number of various resolutions, with any number of harware or software enhancement (or not), and at whatever budget you can afford. A $600 hobo box and a $1500 leet-gamer rig will run the same games, though the more expensive system will have somewhat higher quality graphics. Finally, if you're an a/v enthusiast, even a budget gaming PC will be able to output high-res video that a PS3 or 360 could never dream of.

2) Why might I not want to become a PC gamer?

A) Admittedly, the PC platform isn't for everyone. First - no matter what anyone might tell you - even a budget gaming PC will be significantly more expensive than an HD console. Second, building and maintaining a PC requires some upkeep, and you'll need to tweak some config files and such here and there; if you just like your games to run without issue, then that might be a problem for you. Third, the PC platform is light on certain game genres that you might like (specifically Japanese RPGs and action-adventure games). Finally, you'll be hard-pressed to find PC games that support local co-op that doesn't require a LAN setup; if your preferred gaming setting involves a bunch of friends and a couch, then invest your money in a Wii, three extra remotes, and a copy of New Super Mario Bros. instead.

3) Okay, you've convinced me. Why should I build a PC when I can just get a pre-manufactured one?

A) Customizability and reliability. You can select and install whatever parts you want into a self-built PC. Because of that, you don't need to worry about low-quality or proprietary parts, paying for extra stuff that you'll never use, or the tons of bloat-ware that some prebuilt PC manufacturers shove into their systems. That's not to say that prebuilts are bad, and they can even beat out custom-builts on the extreme low-end, but if you're at all interested in maintaining a gaming PC, you should definitely look into building one yourself.

Take this pre-built gaming PC from iBuyPower, for example. $800 is about what you'll pay for a standard mid-range gaming PC. However, take a closer look at the parts: The Phenom II X4 is easily outperformed by Intel's Core-i5 at the same price, the GEForce 9800 GT is horribly weak for a modern system, the case is ugly, the hard drive RPM speed isn't listed (so it's probably slow), and there's no information about the motherboard or power supply manufacturers. In other words, it's overpriced and largely junk, and you could easily build something faster and more reliable yourself for the same price.

4) But isn't building or upgrading a PC difficult?

A) Not at all. Building a PC these days is no more difficult than putting together furniture from Ikea. If you can follow directions and avoid building in a place teeming with static electricity, you'll be fine.

5) Sweet. In that case, how do I decide how powerful of a system I need?

A) As a general rule, pick the hardware around your needs/wants. The incorrect approach (and the mistake that many builders, even experienced ones, make) is to approach this problem from a hardware standpoint. A builder might say, "I want a system with a quad-core processor and at least a Radeon 4870; what parts should I pick?" Again, this is the wrong approach because it doesn't take into account what you're using your system for. Instead, before you even start to look at hardware, decide what you want to use your PC for. Do you want to use it for just normal web browsing/desktop work? Decoding HD video? Do you want to play Blu-Ray discs? If you're gaming (as I'd imagine most of you are), what resolution will you be running at? Do you do a lot of processor-intensive work (i.e. a/v editing, game development, scientific simulations, etc.) or run applications that might take advantage of hyperthreading? Once you sort out these questions and anything else that you might want, then and only then should you take a look at the hardware that you want.

6) I want a system that will play modern games for 5 years. What should I get?

A) I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT TRY TO FUTURE-PROOF YOUR PC. Future-proofing is an awful waste of money. Instead, buy a mid-range system now and upgrade when you need to. You'll save money and actually get better performance in the long run.

Here's an example as to why: Three years ago, if you wanted a top-of-the-line "future-proofed" gaming PC, you'd have dropped $500+ on a Core 2 Quad Q6600 and $800+ on an NVidia GEForce 8800 Ultra. Today, even a budget mid-range system will beat out that "future-proofed" system: the C2Q trades victories with a $75 Athlon II X3 435 and the 8800 Ultra is significantly outperformed by a $100 Radeon 4850. By contrast, someone who bought mid-range three years ago might have bought a Core 2 Duo E6750 ($180) and a GEForce 8800GTS ($300). This build is significantly weaker than the C2Q/8800 Ultra build, but the performance gap between the two builds has narrowed such that the difference isn't that much greater: both can still play modern games, and both will have to compromise to a certain extent on graphics settings. The difference is that the C2D/8800GTS buyer has $800+ saved up in the bank to upgrade to a Core-i5/Radeon 5770 setup that'll kick the C2Q/8800 Ultra system's butt, while the latter blew his load on top-of-the-line parts that became obsolete almost as quickly as the mid-range buyer's.

This trend has held true since the advent of the "video card wars" back in the mid-1990s, and it won't change any time soon.

7) I'm already a PC gamer, but I want to upgrade my system. When should I upgrade?

A) Only when you need to. PC parts depreciate very quickly over time, so that new graphics card that you need to play a game six months from now will likely come down in price between now and then.