When choosing a gaming computer, you need to ask yourself questions:
- For what purposes am I buying it? What games do I plan to play?
- What budget can I make to buy it?
- What screen resolution will I play in?
If you’re going to play undemanding games like Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, or Fortnite, you won’t need a powerful computer, even on the highest settings. But in the new games, such as Cyberpunk 2077, Metro Exodus or Call of Duty Modern Warfare need a powerful assembly. For games you need a good graphics card. Just below, you’ll see a table with FPS in different games and graphics cards and you’ll understand how powerful a graphics card you need. If you want a computer for streaming or work, a powerful processor and plenty of RAM will come in handy.
The graphics card is the most important component in a gaming computer. It makes most of the difference in how many frames per second (FPS) your PC produces.
How many frames do you need? The more the better, the smoother the gameplay and you will see more details. The minimum required for comfortable gaming is 60 FPS. But the FPS is limited by the refresh rate of the monitor. If the refresh rate is 60 Hz and your graphics card is producing 200 FPS, you will see only 60. So to get more than 60 FPS, you need to buy a monitor with a refresh rate of 120, 144, 165 Hz or more.
When choosing a gaming PC is worth paying attention to the resolution of the monitor. The higher it is, the more powerful your graphics card needs to be to get an acceptable FPS. For 1920×1080 (FHD) resolution you will need a graphics card from GTX 1650 to RTX 3060. For 2560×1440 (2K, QHD) you need an RTX 3060 / RTX 3060 Ti or higher, and for 3840×2160 (4K) you need an RTX 3070 / RTX 3080 / RTX 3090. At the moment, the best gaming graphics cards are the above, from NVIDIA.
Processor
The second most important component is the processor. This is the most important component for computing tasks, content creation. The performance of the processor depends on the number of cores, threads and architecture. The architecture improves with every generation, so you should buy a gaming PC with a processor of the latest generation.
Intel’s 10th generation Core processor line starts with the Core i3-10100F with 4 cores and 8 threads and ends with the Core i9-10900K with 10 cores and 20 threads. The i3 processor may not be enough and the i9 would be superfluous, consider the Core i5 and Core i7. The “K” suffix in the processor name means it has an unlocked multiplier and can be overclocked. A suffix “F” that it does not have a built-in video core, which you do not need, because a gaming computer always has a discrete graphics card, and you save money. Xeon processors for gaming can also perform well, so it makes sense to choose a PC with this processor.
The AMD Ryzen 5000-series processor line starts with the Ryzen 5 5600X with 6 cores and 12 threads and ends with the Ryzen 9 5950X with 16 cores and 32 threads. Ryzen 9 is redundant for gaming, choose Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7. Ryzen processors have high performance in multi-threaded tasks. The “X” suffix means that this version of the processor is slightly faster than the one without the “X”.
RAM
Modern motherboards from Intel (B560 / H570 / Z590) and from AMD (B550 / X570) have the ability to overclock RAM, so you can choose RAM with as much frequency as the motherboard allows. However, the higher the frequency, the more expensive the memory, in fact, for most users 3200 – 3600 MHz is enough.
The amount of RAM that is sufficient for the current year is 16 GB. 32 GB and above will come in handy for those who work with large files in special programs, for example. If the budget is tight, you can take and 8 GB (but in the future necessarily increase), but this will not be enough in many modern games, which will lead to freezes in games.
SSD and HDD
2021 any computer, not just gaming, is required to have an SSD drive. The price for them now is not great, but the benefits are very significant. Thanks to him, the operating system, programs, games, files on the SSD will be loaded instantly. The minimum size for a gaming computer – 240 – 256 GB, it is enough for the operating system, programs and a few major games. The optimal volume depends on how many games you plan to install and whether you will store files on the SSD.
SDDs come in two formats:
SATA, the most common format with a speed limit of 600 MB/s. It costs much less than the M.2 type SSD.
M.2 is a more modern format in which the SSD drive is inserted into a motherboard slot and takes up less space. It costs more than SATA-SSD. Speed is up to 7000 MB/s.
The best option is to install a bundle of SSD + HDD. The first will be the system, programs and games, and the HDD will hold the games, not demanding to the drive, documents, images, video and audio. However, if you do not plan to store files on the computer, you can do without one SSD.
Power Supply, Cooling and Chassis
One of the main parameters for a power supply is its energy efficiency. The higher the Efficiency Factor, the less heat it needs to dissipate, and therefore the less cooling it needs, and the quieter the power supply will be. There is an 80 PLUS certification program that specifies that power supplies meet the standard of being at least 80% efficient at 20%, 50% and 100% load. There are several levels of certification: 80 Plus, 80 Plus Bronze, 80 Plus Silver, 80 Plus Gold, 80 Plus Platinum, and 80 Plus Titanium. The higher the level, the more energy efficient the power supply is.
The power rating of the power supply also affects the noise level. The higher the power margin, the less load it gets and the less cooling it will need. The fan will then run quieter, at lower speeds.
Noise levels are also affected by cooling. The larger the fans are, the less revolutions they make and the less noise they make. Stock in the cooling system will allow you to overclock or upgrade your computer without replacing it. Cooling is selected depending on the processor, it should cool it effectively, even at full load.
The case is chosen by appearance, size and ventilation system. The better the airflow, the less stressed and noisy the fans are. If you want to keep the noise level down, choose enclosures with noise dampening, such as those from beQuiet! or Fractal Design.
You will be interested in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaming_computer
