If you haven’t noticed yet, this website focuses on building computers, but what it really focuses on is building gaming computers. If you’ve hit this page you’re probably looking for one of the following:
- Gaming Computer Build Ideas - Perfect for New Builders
- Gaming PC Building Guide, With Pictures
- Gaming PC Parts List
How to Build a Gaming Computer or a Regular PC, the Differences
The overall all difference between the two is that a gaming computer uses more expensive parts than a regular PC. Not only that, but sometimes non-gaming computers don’t use on off-board graphics card, this is because motherboards often have a built in, or on-board, graphics card. If you don’t plan on doing any gaming then you can often get away with only the on-board video card. If you plan on doing any gaming, then you need to buy a separate video card that will plug into an PCI-e slot on the motherboard. Sometimes people will buy more than one video card, as well, which would obviously increase the cost even more.
Other parts that people building a gaming computer might spend more on are the CPU, RAM, hard drive, power supply, case, case cooling and pretty much everything else inside the computer. In fact, lets’s go over the parts one by one.
- CPU – The fast and more powerful a CPU is, the better games will run. This is one of the main parts that gamers should spend extra on, as it will have an effect one every game played. Non-gamers can get away with a much cheaper CPU, because nothing is as demanding on a computer as playing the newest games available.
- Hard Drive – These come in different revolutions per minute (RPM) and the faster the revolutions, the faster things will load. This means faster load time in games and everything else that is done on a computer. 10,000 RPM is the popular speed for gaming hard drives, however, 7,200 works fine, too.
- Cases – Gaming cases usually come with some sort of LED lighting and extra ports on the top and front of the case, which makes them a little more expensive than a regular case.
- RAM – Gaming computers generally can make use of more RAM. So, over a normal PC this adds to the cost.
- Power Supply – These usually need to be beefier than in a non-gaming PC because of the demand that video cards has on them. This is especially true when running with two or more video cards.
A Few Tips on Building a Gaming Computer
- If you’re on a budget and thinking about running two or more video cards in SLI or Crossfire, the better thing to do is spend bigger on a single powerful video card. You will always get more video processing power like this. For example, spending $300 on a single card is better than spending $150 each, on two cards.
- If you are debating about cooling your system between fans and liquid cooling, just know that fan cooling is much easier to install and will work perfectly fine for 99% of builds. Most cases even come with enough fans right off the bat.
- Read this post to avoid compatibility issues when buying your hardware.