Building a Gaming PC : What to Look for (2013)

[Henry]

Great tutorial, you covered a lot of information!

Thanks! Dont forget to click like!

[Henry]

Great guide!

You should add some information about the motherboards, for example the difference between the 970 chipset and the 990fx.

If I was making a complete beginners guide to building a computer, I would.

*HINT HINT* ;)

[david cassar]

If I was making a complete beginners guide to building a computer, I would.

*HINT HINT* ;)

Why isn't there the gtx 650 ti boost or the phenom?

[Henry]

Why isn't there the gtx 650 ti boost or the phenom?

At this point, I will just update with the newer generation in a new post.

 

Phenom is old..This is for 2013

[david cassar]

At this point, I will just update with the newer generation in a new post.

 

Phenom is old..This is for 2013

still some of us don't have enough money for the apus , and a phenom performs better than them while costing cheaper :l

[Henry]

still some of us don't have enough money for the apus , and a phenom performs better than them while costing cheaper :l

Again, this is for 2013....Does not include any old stuff.

 

U cant compare the phenoms with the APUs....

[Rhizo]

OP, I don't mean to be rude, but it seems you have a few problems in this post:

 

• an i3 is not a bad idea, spend more on graphics if you're on a tight budget and miss out the i5. A benefit of going for the i3 is that you can use it for a couple of years, then upgrade to an i5 or i7 as you see fit if the gpu's are starting to bottleneck the i3.

 

• 1333mhz ram is not good for the A10 or A8 amd. It was seen that there was aomething like a 20% boost in fps between 1333 and 1600, and another 15-20% from 1600-1866/2166. I think these are ballpark figures, but I would highly recommend going for 1866+mhz ram for the apu's.

 

• You don't refer to resolution. This can impact the choice of graphics card immensly. If you're at a 1600p resolution, the 680 would not be a good choice in that price range and i'd recommend a 7970 or 770/780, but if at 1080p, a 680 might be a really good choice.

 

Those are the main problems I can see, but if that was fixed, it would be a pretty good guide.

 

Thanks,

[Henry]

OP, I don't mean to be rude, but it seems you have a few problems in this post:

 

• an i3 is not a bad idea, spend more on graphics if you're on a tight budget and miss out the i5. A benefit of going for the i3 is that you can use it for a couple of years, then upgrade to an i5 or i7 as you see fit if the gpu's are starting to bottleneck the i3.

 

• 1333mhz ram is not good for the A10 or A8 amd. It was seen that there was aomething like a 20% boost in fps between 1333 and 1600, and another 15-20% from 1600-1866/2166. I think these are ballpark figures, but I would highly recommend going for 1866+mhz ram for the apu's.

 

• You don't refer to resolution. This can impact the choice of graphics card immensly. If you're at a 1600p resolution, the 680 would not be a good choice in that price range and i'd recommend a 7970 or 770/780, but if at 1080p, a 680 might be a really good choice.

 

Those are the main problems I can see, but if that was fixed, it would be a pretty good guide.

 

Thanks,

1. Well an i3 isnt exactly the best performer or great for budget gaming pcs. AMD APU's are the way to go at that point. Games are getting optimized for quad cores too.

 

2. Really? Isnt it better with more ram? 1333-1600mhz isnt that big of a difference.

 

3. Good idea. I should implement that...

[Sfobrien52]

1. Well an i3 isnt exactly the best performer or great for budget gaming pcs. AMD APU's are the way to go at that point. Games are getting optimized for quad cores too.

 

2. Really? Isnt it better with more ram? 1333-1600mhz isnt that big of a difference.

 

3. Good idea. I should implement that...

Just to confirm, the integrated GPU on AMD APU units get HUGE benefits from faster RAM. More RAM is good, but faster RAM give way more performance. 20% fps bump from 1333 to 1600 is pretty standard

[Henry]

Just to confirm, the integrated GPU on AMD APU units get HUGE benefits from faster RAM. More RAM is good, but faster RAM give way more performance. 20% fps bump from 1333 to 1600 is pretty standard

Thank you for the info. I thought it benefited more from more ram than more from faster ram.

[Duluxdoggy]

imo if ya building a gaming rig the extra cost of the 3570k over the 3220 is a better choice long term, even if ya 'only' getting a 660, as when the time comes to upgrade the gpu the cpu will not need changing, im still on a 2500k rig i built 18months ago, and if i wanted to replace my 7870 with a 780 it would be just fine, it is not all about the upfront cost. 

[Gorgatron]

You should mention the Core i3 3220 as a less expensive Intel option. It is a better CPU combined with a dedicated GPU than both the FX 4300 and A10 5800k at the same price point. So frankly, you're wrong about the i3 and Intel in general. It all depends on your budget and what you want in terms of performance and playability. Try being more objective, or at least appearing less favourable to one side over the other in a guide. 

Some people might assume the same thing if you just say "Hurr go with Intel" without properly comparing both options.

[JupiteL]

my friend bought core i7 3770k, he doesn't know what the heck are the differences of all thing, just want to have i7 in his rig. And 7850 and all for gaming purpose. That surely are bottleneck in order just to get fps right? I mean he could have going cheaper with the processor or getting a better gpu for that

[kirashi]

i was talking about gaming performance without a dedicated GPU the A10 would be better than an i3 the source you have is using a 7850. and as such means you dont need an apu in the first place and i would still then go for the 4 core 4300 over the 2core i3 purely games are now being made to use them. you might get a few extra frames with the i3 but not enough to say you wouldnt be better with 4 cores. if you really want an intel that badly get and i5. and stop moaning and being biased.

Agreed with @6kenyonm here; I personally run an AMD Athlon II X4 620 CPU @ 2.6GHz (stock, Overclocks to 3.12GHz with the stock heatsink) and when my 8800 GTX died last year, I had to game on the 785M Northbridge Chipset with integrated graphics. It wasn't great by any means, but I was still able to achieve pretty good (25-45fps) framerates in most "casual" games like Source Engine stuff from Steam, and the latest Call of Duty at the time. (think that was MW2)

 

My parents/family PC was running an i3-2130 @ 3.40GHz at the time, which I'll have to admit, was oodles faster at Office processing and photo importing/cataloging than my AMD system. (neither PC had SSD's at the time) Where the drawback occurred was about the time my brother started using the machine to play more intense games than Minecraft, Roblox, and Runescape. That i3-2130's integrated graphics were OK, but couldn't keepup with regularly playable framerates.

 

Graphics performance is entirely dependent upon the integrated graphics included with that particular generation of CPU, and as @Lemonsquare pointed out, a newer generation Intel chip will beat AMD, until AMD releases a newer generation APU platform, and the cycle repeats.

Lesson learned; if you game more then casual, get a dedicated graphics card, or go to a community sports centre.

 

Thank you for the info. I thought it benefited more from more ram than more from faster ram.

I believe it benefits from the faster RAM simply because with an integrated GPU it's going to draw from your system RAM for graphics memory. Another reason my AMD setup above saw me upgrade to 8GB of faster memory when my graphics card died because it couldn't keep my 30 Chrome tabs open whilst I gamed. Edited July 7, 2013 by kirashi

[mumbojumbogumbo]

So this is basically a really bias write-up filled with superficial claims about what the OP thinks you should buy? And on top of that he thinks he deserves donations just b/c this thread reached 2k views?

Edited July 7, 2013 by eBombzor

[Henry]

So this is basically a really bias write-up filled with superficial claims about what the OP thinks you should buy? And on top of that he thinks he deserves donations just b/c this thread reached 2k views?

 

 

Please explain to me how this is biased and filled with superficial clams. 

 

Uh no, I ask for money cuz money is nice. Wouldnt U like money?

[MzCatieB]

no mention of APU's in this :| they might perform terribly as a CPU but there graphics boost is outstanding and so worth it for gaming

[iswedishleafs]

nice

[Jimstah87]

What resolution are you planning of playing games at? 1080p or 1440p?

[Henry]

What resolution are you planning of playing games at? 1080p or 1440p?

1080p, all i have is a 1080p monitor

[Ahhlong]

I have a i5 760 with a GTX 650 and I will be changing into a GTX 760 pretty soon my main concerned now is that will my CPU and graphic card cause bottle necking ?

[LOST TALE]

Please leave feedback on how I can improve this and I will update this.

''Highly recommended to not use stock cooler''

 

I do 120% overclock on my i5 2-3210 and on 100% usage it goes 74c for many hours. so stock cooler is ok depending on cpu.

[s0nrise]

Its been years since i last used an optical drive to install windows.

I really disliked this "guide", I think its really biased, and has a lot of unaccurate information

[Whaler_99]

Bump

 

DO NOT bump threads!

[TheCanadianGamer16]

Please leave feedback on how I can improve this and I will update this.

i was running an FX6100 (pretty much the same as the 6300) paired with a 7970, and when switching over to my i5 3570K, i didn't notice any gaming performance change, i'm running at 1920x1200 maxed out on all games, so you can pair a 6300 with the 7970 or 7950 if you want, it will work fine.